Today began as other days have begun … with a colorful sunrise across the lake. This morning’s sunrise was a “chilly” zero degrees (they say we made it to -2 overnight.) When I opened my atelier blinds this morning there was condensation on the inside of the windows which means it was really cold outside. Even by our Maine standards.

Yesterday there was another sunrise.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the US and a president was inaugurated in Washington, DC. I chose to focus on MLK Day because he was a positive, truthful man who cared about all people being equal. He was also a minister, a faithful servant, a God-fearing family man whose son and family continue his legacy. They want MLK day to be a day of service and are, in fact, “doubling down” on asking people to serve others. I believe in service to others. I believe in education and the arts and I believe in caring for our planet – leave the campground better than you found it. I will spend the next four years giving back – volunteering and teaching, setting an example.

Yesterday I chose to turn off the TV and stay off social media. I’m still thinking about the “Metav-erse” and whether or not I am going to leave it. I’m thinking I won’t … regardless of their ownership and philosophy … or lack thereof. Instead, I took care of some female health stuff and had a bone density scan in the morning, came home and cleaned up the house, did some laundry, cleaned a bathroom and straightened up my studio. I also watched a couple of podcasts that bring me joy and worked on my Jelly Roll Blanket. I’m making progress toward finishing the fifth strip!

I’ve decided to change my approach to this blanket as I’m not making a significant enough dent in my leftover sock yarn bin. SO from here on, I’ll be using two strands of bits and bobs (some of which I have nearly a whole skein) held double. It’ll change the look a little bit but I’m going to try to treat it as a fade … light colors first and darker colors later. This blanket will likely adorn our granddaughter’s new bedroom nook in my sewing studio … which I’m also creating in my mind. We will be making a trip to IKEA in Massachusetts to buy a “junior bed” and mattress and maybe some other goodies for her spot … she’s going to be too big for a pack and play crib this summer!

I worked for a bit on my New Year’s cast on project, Winter’s Finery by Rosemary Hill (Romi Designs). I had to frog back a few rows because I saw a mistake in the center spine that I almost certainly made on Friday when I was teaching and talking and knitting. Yes, I still make mistakes. Lots of them. Anyway, I frogged back and then knitting on … and I’ve now passed the point where I had been when I started frogging. Knitting takes patience and persistence, that’s for sure. This yarn is making me so happy and I’d like to do nothing but work on this project but …

I also worked on my Christmas socks and got the heel turned and the gusset is almost done … I think I have two more rounds of decreases before I can just knit knit knit to the toe. I love the way this WYS sock yarn is working up and it feels good in my hands, too. I did find a dropped stitch waaaaay down from where I was working. I’ve hiked it up a ways but will put it on a holder (here a pink lightbulb stitch marker) and will pull it back to the inside of the sock and weave it in at the end. It would make a ridge in the sock, I think, if I were to pull it all the way up. Those little stitches on US1.5 needles with fingering weight yarn make it difficult to pick up stitches. It’s ok, though, these are for me. I added a stitch on the instep needle to compensate for the dropped stitch so we’re all good.

I did not work on my fingerless mitts for my daughter yesterday. I will today. I have gotten into the charts and they’re starting to look like something. This pattern has five charts to follow. Two of them (the first and last) are just one stitch each. Not sure why they couldn’t be tacked onto their neighboring charts, but whatever … I’m getting it done and I think they’re going to be really subtle and really pretty. I have been wearing my Lumos “boob” lights to brighten up the black yarn and that really helps my “old” eyes. I wouldn’t knit with black yarn for just anybody, that’s for sure!

I did sew yesterday. I found a tutorial for a quilted journal cover for a composition notebook thingy and I know I have had some pre-cut strips that I won ages ago … so I pulled them out and had a look and decided to try to make one for my bullet journal that I use as a calendar/planner/record-of-all-things. And that’s what I spent my afternoon doing. I revved up the old Bernina and got sewing. Since my calendar isn’t the same size as the cover the tutorial made, I had to wing it and that was a learning experience but it’s all good, I did it and it fits my book. It does make my book fatter which I may decide I don’t like. But for now, I’ll try it. I added ties to keep it closed (I would have made these be a piece of elastic if I could have found some. I couldn’t … so, ties it is. My book this year is blue (I choose a particular color each year … last year was orange, the year before was pink …) and I chose blue fabric even if I don’t LOVE this fabric, it does the trick for now. I may be going to the office store to buy a composition notebook to see how that works in comparison to my hard-cover book. BUT today I’m going to rearrange furniture, clean out a few bins and knit.

Gone knitting!

(I can’t seem to find the source/artist who designed this wonderful image but I wanted to show you what I think of when I write this at the end of every post. AND since I live on a lake, “gone fishing” is the normal retort for most lakeside residents. Not this one, though. I like the giggle I get when I think of gone fishing and gone knitting being one and the same … or not.)