Wild Knitting

Anybody who pays attention to the news knows that many of us in the Midwest and Northeast have been blasted with snow and extremely cold temperatures. Today is the reprieve for us northern Hoosiers. Sunshine, blue skies, and high up around 30, though windy. However, we are bracing for another 7 inches or so of snow on top of the 5 already on the ground. Tonight into tomorrow will be quite different from today. We have already received an email alert from our church telling us to watch for a decision about having church tomorrow. Even if church service is held, I might not make it out. Deep snow doesn’t cooperate well with knee walker wheels. Monday and Tuesday we are forecasted to have highs below zero degrees. Usually, the Juncos are ground feeders, but until my husband made footprints out to the bird feeder, they perched on the feeder shelves.

 My husband and I react differently to extreme winter conditions. He gets cabin fever and looks for any excuse or reason to get out of the house. I like to cocoon. We have already put together 2 of the 3 jigsaw puzzles I received for Christmas. I do have 2 more library books to read. I also decided to try knitting again.

 When I saw the ball of yarn at the give-and-take table I took it thinking someday I might want to try knitting again. This was before I even injured my foot. I liked the colors and the softness of the yarn. I had no picture in my mind what this might look like when knitted up.

I have since learned it is eye-lash yarn. There is a thread/cord with all of these fluffy outcroppings. My scarf knitting book from Half-Price Books has a boa done in eye-lash yarn. It is marked as Easy. I had to get some size 17 needles which turned out to be an unusual size and not readily available. I ended up buying the needles thru ebay; they arrived yesterday. I didn’t want a boa but thought I could modify the directions to make an ascot or small scarf to pin together with a broach. Now that I have tried knitting with this yarn, I would say it is not for the novice knitter. I am finding it difficult to tell what is the stitch for inserting the needle from the bunched up fluff. I started out casting on 10 stitches, the directions for the boa. But it kept growing. Apparently I was treating the bunched up fluff yarn as a stitch? When I reached 14 stitches I worried I would not have enough yarn. I decided to pull the project apart and start over. Big mistake! The yarn started snarling up. I kind of sabotaged my effort to conserve yarn as I had to cut apart the snarls. I will now have to look at the directions for switching to a new ball of yarn mid-project. Something new to learn.

This kind of yarn is not something I would have picked out for myself. However, the colors go nicely with some tops. One in particular I thought would be livened up by the colors. Maybe instead it will just look like something live is draped around my neck. Any way, it will be something to work on while cocooning and while watching Downton Abbey tomorrow night.