Winter White Saturday

Glorious Saturday. Home Sweet Home.

Winter White Friday

pretty pretty bowls, by one of my oldest dearest friends Kristin, you must visit her studio and see her lovely wares. When she's not making treasured objects she's paddling the world, all the way around Labrador once, with close encounters with polar bears, fast swimmers, those bears.





I have been tagged or rather nominated by the ever creative Gudrun, of Shetland Trader. Gudrun, daughter of a knitting designer, is a talented inventive knitwear designer herself. Her work and blog never fail to inspire me. Thank You, Tak så Myket, Mérci!
The rules are as follows:
Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."
Petula
KriKri
Megan
Amber
Jenny
Alison
Santos
Shula
Julia
Jen

Too hard to choose, but here are ten of my first-reads, still favorites and happily friends and new friends! there are so many others, it'll be a miracle if I've gotten the links right as it is.

Winter White Thursday

The winter white of a yarn shop dear to my heart.
Unique One, Camden, Maine.
Been there 30 years, at least.
Sweet curvy building, once a plumbing or hardware store, the peg-board is still on the walls.
Nicest yarn ladies ever.
Ever.
No really.
Loads of Shetland wool too.
Visit, I'll join you.
Beth, the owner has a knitting cruise on a schooner in the summer, and offers knitting weekends in March. I'm teaching a tam-design class this winter.








Some little birdies told me the Interweave Knits Spring Preview is up. I am delighted with the picture of my Peasant Blouse. I'm always a little fearful of the first look...but no worries this time. My inspiration was the traditional peasant blouse which required little cutting and no waste of precious cloth. The excellent book Cut My Cote by Dorothy K. Burnham includes a great example, as well as other traditional garments in which a key element of design, is the width of the loom used to weave the cloth.

And "hello" to all the Winter White visitors, thanks for visiting!

PS:The Interweave link is broken now...if any one knows how to find it again, please tell!

Winter White Wednseday

Even thinking about my passport photo makes me long to go back to sleep. I procrastinated so long, that when I finally got the umph to do it, it was wham! bam! who cares about the horrid photo! Today I regret. A passport lasts for 10 years.

perhaps a glass of water is what I need.

Winter White Week

I'm joining the short and sweet Winter White Week hosted by Shari, at Glass Doorknob, who has an interesting and inspiring blog. I seemed to be gravitating in that direction anyway, so why not make it official. I heard about this week of white from one of my daily reads Knitting Iris, whom you all read too! The deadline is tonight, so hurry over and join.

PS: I don't think you actually have to live in a winter wonderland like some of us are lucky (yes lucky) enough to do, there are many flickr groups which specialize in these things, Shades of White and Non Colours in Color are two; and you can make beautiful mosaics just so long as you credit the original artist. Artwork is also acceptable, so don't be shy, join in the fun.

Snow Day

I was able to stay home and inside during the snowstorm on Monday; happy with a little knitting and a delicious read: Winter World, a collection of essays on the ways animals survive the winter, by Bernd Heinrich. Amazing stories and lovely illustrations by the author, a man passionate about his subject. I was able to tromp through the wintry woods, without leaving the woodstove! And today, when I did snowshoe around the woods and field, to take pictures, I was alert, spotting den entrances here and there, thinking about torpor vs. shivering to stay warm, and listening for chickadees.

Handknit Socks

All you flickr. junkies already know about these socks. Not much
to say about them really. Regia left with a wee bit of silver
glitz; in the middle I am wearing little rubber shoes...c'mon, it was
sunny, it seemed so cheery...I later switched to sensible boots;
and today, it warmed up enough (January thaw) to get mud
on the floor at work.

Swatching

I have been knitting bits and bobs. On the left is swatching with a fuzzy brain, woggly diamonds, stretching up. On the right, your basic "peaks" (in Shetlandese). I love the Shetland names for things, I'm dying to know which pattern is called "creepies". There is one I'm told. Just don't know which.

Crenelations

At times one seems to need the fortifications of a castle, to keep on keeping on. Maybe it's because I forgot to eat black-eyed-peas on New Year's Day....I did have grits....I don't suppose that counts.

Happy New Year

May yours be the best ever!
Thank you all, for your kind friendship and lovely comments this past year!

Love

MJ

Christmas Haiku

all of the cousins
sunny snowy Christmas morn
skating and ice boats

11th Hour Christmas

I finished knitting these stockings on Christmas Eve 2003. The winter was so cold, we all moved into our Avion Trailer, the big sister to the Airstream. We had a crazy silver glitter tree with flashing disco lights, a gift from dear friends.

Though our house had burned down in January, the fog in my head still hadn't cleared in regards to Christmas, especially the need for stockings. The kids each chose their favorite all-over patterns from "Knitting in the Nordic Tradition" by Vibeke Lind, one of my all-time favorite books. The yarn is Peace Fleece, which has the best red ever, and a green so dark it is almost black. My only mistake? Making the stockings so big, Santa has a hard time filling them. Lots of apples and oranges on Christmas morn.

We are all safe and happy in the house we built ourselves. Block by Durisol block, stacked like legos by the family, filled with cement. Not likely to burn anytime soon!

Out of adversity comes ingenuity and strength. Merry Christmas!