Where have I been?

It’s been a while, I know. After Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving, mid October) I got sick. It all started with a cough, that lasted. I ended up going to the Doctor twice and the ER (Emergency Room) twice, where I was checked for pneumonia the first time, it was negative. The second time I went to the ER the Dr said I most likely had pneumonia and as I was recovering from that, got another virus. It wasn’t until the end of December that I really started to feel better. But that didn’t stop me from knitting. I worked on some new designs, a collection based on the 4 seasons, and I worked on a huge cross stitch, a gift for a close friend. Let’s get into some of things I’ve been working on lately.

This is a scarf that will be the design for the Winter season of my 4 season collection. It’s been set aside while I work on other projects, but it’s back in the rotation of projects I’m currently working on, so I can get it finished and the pattern written.

The next thing I’ve been working on is a design I’ve had in mind since I saw the yarn and bought it in November 2022. Angela Lansbury had just died at the beginning of October and a yarn dyer had made a colour way inspired by her iconic character of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. When I saw the yarn I just knew it had to be turned into a shawl, something that I imagine the human form of Mrs. Potts would wear around the castle.

For this shawl I knew I wanted to play with a different shawl shape (traditionally I use some form of triangle or rectangle for my shawls). There was a shawl I had knit, whose shape I wanted to use in this design, but I couldn’t figure out how to get that shape with the stitch patterns I wanted to use for this design. Every so often I would think about the design and try to problem solve how to execute the image in my head. It was only recently that I came back to it and really researched shawl shapes, finding the right shape for the stitch patterns. It’s a work in progress, and I’m really enjoying knitting it.

The pastel colours of Mrs. Potts are gorgeous. I can’t wait to see the final result of this shawl. It’s a new shawl shape to me, and it's too big to see how it will all turn out.

Finally, I’ve had another design idea come through. It’s in the forefront of my mind, and I’m trying to keep it there until I finished the projects above. I did do some stash busting and found this lace weight, wool/silk blend that I think will be perfect. For a change I hand wound the skeins into balls, and put it in my favourite Anne of Green Gables project bag.

This pale pink, lace weight, wool/silk blend is patiently waiting to be knit up into a new design.

Well… that’s all for now. I’m going to knit, and I’ll be back next month with an update.