FO: Toni's cushion

This one is about the patience of friends.

This cushion was started over TWO years ago for my friend Toni. I started it when I had just started knitting and was naive to the ways of yarn - super chunky mohair-y yarn that's a pain to knit and is impossible to frog. But I kept with it and actually finished it a year ago.... and it still took another year to finish.

I say it again, this is definitely about the patience of friends.

And in this two year period, Toni may have mentioned this cushion to me just once; where she may have asked how it was progressing and I may have brushed it off and said, "Oh, it's fine." And then, being the super patient person that she is (in addtion to the very spiritual person that she is), she simply let go of the attachment to when she was actually going to receive it and let me finish it in my own good time..... which happened to be over two years.... but I digress.

What I didn't realize is that it's not as hard to knit something as it is to figure out: how are you going to put it together? what buttons will you use? should you use ribbon? how does seaming actually work?... and what is always, always underestimated, how much time is this actually going to take?????????????????

So, as I said before, for some things it takes about two years, but what I also realized through this is that if you're lucky to have a friend like Toni, two years is the perfect amount of time because it's appreciated no matter what.














Thank you, Toni. Your friendship warms my heart and keeps me strong in the calmest and most stressful of times. Namaste!

FO: Florida Mittens

After losing two days of school last week due to freezing rain and excessive snow fall, you can imagine how not really excited we were to cancel our March Break trip to Florida because of the 40 centimetres expected over the weekend. The snow days had given me some time to knit, but working on a baby blanket in pastel blues and greens was not going to get me through a consistent 16 hour snowfall - I needed colour! So as soon as I could, I headed over to the LYS and picked up two balls of Lang's Mille Colori (colorway 057) and set out to spend the snowstorm knitting myself some Florida mittens.

I loved knitting these mittens so much that I think I really did knit for almost 16 hours on Saturday - I didn't pay attention to the passage of time because I was in a serious zone! This pattern did not require knitting in the round and it allowed me to practise my seaming and weaving in ends - which really proved that I was pathetic at both because if you look closely you will see that the stripes don't match up. But what do I care? I've got a new pair of mittens and they match with both of my winter coats and many of my scarves. I am styling it up these days.

So, these are my Florida mittens because they are colourful like Florida and they just might melt some of the 40 cms of snow we did actually receive. Note where they are located in the picture..... but obviously there is really no melting going on. Just lots of shovelling, as you can see in the pictures below:

The picture on the left is the pathway in to our house. The snowbank to the right is actually about 12 feet high and if we get more snow this week, there will be no other place to put it. Even my secret space - up around the lantern stand you see in the back corner - is full of snow and, if you look at the picture on the right, is now a snow bank on its own.

So, Dad, when you said, "Don't put that lantern stand there, the wood will swell up with all of the snow," and I said, "We never get snow there, Dad, don't worry about it," this is where we can comfortably say that you were right and the lantern stand is probably going to be warped beyond belief by Spring. Oooooooooops.

Anyway, the snow also made it completely impossible for Titus to find a place to pee in the backyard. The poor little guy had to find a space UNDER the side burner of the BBQ, which prompted the creation of an actual play space for him. I guess you can say we really had no choice, especially if you look at how happy he is.... Yay for Titus!

At least someone is appreciating the snow!