What a beautiful if cool sunrise this morning. I love these cool nights and later sunrises and am grateful to have had a good sleep last night. I’m heading to Rockland to visit with my friend Lori today, a bit later than we’d thought because the Vinylhaven ferry is experiencing a staff shortage and her 8:45am ferry was cancelled. It’s ok, we’ll meet at noon and see what we decide to do with our shortened day.

I have re-started a commissioned Christmas stocking and then put it off for a bit to get a couple of quick projects done (and vacation knitting that I didn’t have to think about). Yesterday I got through the first intarsia design, the Santas and even wove in some of the ends. Today I won’t have a lot of time to knit but I’ll pick it up again over the weekend.

This is the half-way point of the first section. Front side looks sane and organized. Back side … not so much. I had to giggle to myself while knitting this because this is the way I’ve been feeling lately – I look like I have it all together but I’m a hot mess underneath. There’s been a lot going on in life and in my volunteer life, too. I’m managing but I’m not going to lie, I’m losing some sleep over it all. Those middle-of-the-night wake-ups are brutal! My mind simply won’t turn off! The good news is that it should resolve itself over the next month or so. Fingers crossed.

The Christmas stocking pattern is one that I have duplicated from the original that was knitted for my friend when she was a child. I’ve posted about it before because I’ve made a few for her over the years as her family has grown. This year she’s added another grandchild and needs another stocking. Intarsia is not my favorite knitting technique. I’d rather do just about anything else. But it is getting easier with practice and I’ve learned how I like to work it – no bobbins for me, I just leave long lengths of yarn hanging in the back and pull them to untangle them now and again.

I’ve knitted a new sample for the store in Jamieson’s of Shetland wool with a strand of mohair held double on the main color. The pattern is a new design by Gudrun Johnston called Cloud Drift. I was given early access to the pattern by our Berroco rep, Andra, to make a sample but the pattern is available now on Ravelry. There is a main color and three contrasting colors and the pattern is accomplished with mosaic knitting or slipped stitches. I have yet to weigh the extra yarn that is left over but I have quite a bit … maybe a pair of mitts to match? I love the way the cowl turned out and I hope that others will choose to try this pattern. I thought the design was brilliant and the knitting was really fun. I may even make another one for myself… in gray with pinks, perhaps?

We have a store here called Marden’s that sells surplus and salvage and it’s often a fun place to wander for a few minutes. They’ve had a lot of yarn from a yarn shop fire in Washington state and it’s now 80% off which means that when I was in search of some white shirts the other day, a few balls of Jamieson’s may have fallen into my shopping cart. Oops! So, navy and blues or gray and pinks will be my choices for cowl #2. My Jamieson’s collection grows … I need to knit some fingerless mitts or something!

I finished another Musselburgh by Ysolda Teague for my son. He chose the colors of Juniper Moon Farm Moonshine (worsted weight). I love this pattern, too. It’s simply brilliant because you just cast on and start knitting and use your knitting as your swatch to calculate how many stitches you need to increase to and then how long you need to knit. There are so many ways to knit this hat and it’s not at all boring – but it is great knitting for vacation, car rides or TV knitting while watching debates or in the evening after a long day when your brain is on fire. This hat is going to be so warm and it looks great and feels better. I have one more for my son’s fiancee to knit up before Christmas – the yarn is caked up and ready to go for when the Christmas stocking is finished. I’m really trying to focus.

We’ve had a series of stunning sunrises since our return from vacation. The sunrise has moved again almost to its winter position and it’s coming up after 6:30 rather than before 6. The days are unquestionably shorter and it’s getting cooler, too. The last photo is a hat tip to Dame Maggie Smith who died last week. I loved her in Downton Abbey and was addicted to watching the show (twice each week). My mug has remained a favorite that I bought at Pier One when we lived in Florida during the height of the Downton Abbey fervor. How grateful I am to live here in this beautiful place.

Off I go to the coast! Wishing you peaceful stitches.