Category: yarn

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Green…and the Garland pose

Hello!

I’m late with my letter today – did you think I forgot you?

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Spring is here in my area of the world. No doubt about it. The car is covered in pollen and I am stuffed up with hay fever. Today I knelt on the grass to take a couple of pictures (in bare legs) and now my legs are covered in an itchy rash. It will pass. It happens every spring.

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One of the differences that I am really appreciating between living in the Yukon and living in southern British Columbia is how green April is.

Today Sam & I walked around McGuire Lake, in downtown Salmon Arm. The fountain is running and turtles are sunning themselves on logs.
Today Sam & I walked around McGuire Lake, in downtown Salmon Arm. The fountain is running and turtles are sunning themselves on logs.

Don’t get me wrong, I miss a lot of things about living in the North. However, April in the sub-arctic isn’t one of them.

In the Yukon, March and early April bring some of the best cross-country skiing weather you could ask for.

Here on Shuswap Lake, people are already out in their boats.

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Today, everything is green, green, green. The new leaves are popping out. The daffodils, tulips, heather and forsythia are blooming. The cherry trees are blooming. The magnolia trees will be in full bloom any day. I have mowed the lawn twice.

Can you blame me for appreciating this particular difference?

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All this greenness has caused me to cast on a sweater in rich dark green wool. I’m thinking ahead here, folks…it’ll be my summer knitting project. I expect to have it finished in time for the next big colourful season: autumn.

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The yarn is actually fairly close to the colour of a rhubarb leaf, though it looks teal in these photos.

Green is my favourite colour this time of year! And what better pose for today than the Garland Pose. This is a pose I sit in a lot, though I’ve actually never done it in a yoga class!

 

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Garland Pose

I naturally sit in this pose quite comfortably when I’m pulling weeds in the garden, or contemplating the layout of quilt blocks on the floor. I’m lucky to have flexible ankles and stretchy calf muscles, I guess. ♥

http://www.gaia.com/pose/squat-pose-malasana
http://www.gaia.com/pose/squat-pose-malasana
http://www.gaia.com/pose/squat-pose-malasana
http://www.gaia.com/pose/squat-pose-malasana

Here is a really nice video tutorial with modifications.

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Happiness is Easy: visiting my yarn stash…and Sukhasana (Easy Pose)

Sometimes happiness comes to you in small unexpected ways. Like today.

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Somehow, without intending to, I played with my yarn stash today. It made me happy.

I was looking for something (isn’t that always the way?)…and before I knew it, I had pulled everything out. I found some beautiful yarn I had forgotten all about!

 

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Like this wonderful skein of Noro silk-wool blend:

 

 

 

 

 

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And this…which has lost it’s label. I have no idea what it is, but I’m sure it’s another silk-wool blend. It’s a wonderful colour…kind of a purple/denim. It’s very soft. I bet I had a scarf pattern in mind when I purchased it…

 

 

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Am I the only person who keeps all the little bits and pieces of yarn left over from this project or that? Because, you know…I might need them someday. Meanwhile, they’re all wound and sorted into bags according to type.

 

 

 

 

 

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See that basket with the green yarn at the bottom left? That’s my next project…a brioche-stitch sweater in grass green that I’ll be able to wear this fall. I’ll get a swatch made up and the gauge figured out, maybe this evening. Stay tuned!

It feels really good to have it all tidy and organized. 🙂

Isn’t it nice that happiness can be found so easily?

 

 

 

It made me very happy to sort and organize my yarn stash today, so it feels appropriate to introduce you to a yoga pose that promotes happiness!

EEasy Pose

It is said that The Easy Pose (Sukhasana) can reveal the joy that resides in your heart.

Think back to a time when you felt blissfully happy from head to toe. How would you describe the sensations that rippled through you? My bet is that during this period, you had a sense of being utterly grounded and at ease in the present moment. You probably also felt buoyant, uplifted, and awake to the vast possibilities of life around you
….Read the rest of the article here.

I invite you to sit in Sukhasana and let happiness rise through you.

Here is a really quick visual tutorial to help you out:

 

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K is for Knitting (really, what else could it be for?)

 Melissa Peda took this picture of a flower in her garden and posted it on her blog (100BillionStars) the other day. (She has a lovely blog, by the way. You should check it out! I am inspired every single time I visit it.)

  

I Love This Colour! I used to have a sweater in this same shade of periwinkle blue and I loved it to death. Literally wore it out. 

So when I saw this photo, a lightbulb went on and I said to myself, “Nita, you should find yarn in that colour and knit yourself something!”

Like maybe Waterlily by Meghan Fernande:

  

Or the February Fitted Pullover by Any Herzog:

  

You know, I haven’t actually set out to knit a just for me item in…decades. 

I knit gifts for other people … Scarves, slippers, socks, baby things. The last thing I knit for myself was a sweater way back about 1990. 

Well, okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. I think I’ve got a pair of slippers in a drawer somewhere. And I wore a me-made lace knit scarf all winter (…actually, I made it for my mom, but wasn’t happy with it. So I kept the substandard item for myself and knit a better one for her. Have you ever done that?) 

So I think it’s time I knit something luscious just for me. 

On purpose. 

Something in periwinkle blue. 

This yarn,maybe?

  

The search for the perfect colour is on!

 

  I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge.  One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday). 


 

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Off the Needles

This little set will be winging its way South tomorrow. It is a cute little car-seat size blanket and newborn hat & booties in pretty grass green that I started knitting awhile ago, before I knew Zachary was on the way.

Welcome to the family, Zachary!

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Works in Progress

Have you been wondering what I’ve been doing in the evenings?

Well, I’ve been working hard at my Creative Writing class that I’m taking.

But also…

I’ve been making my six blocks for the 3×6 bee. Since I don’t have a sewing machine nor electricity to run it at the moment, I decided to applique hexagrams for my bee mates. Here they are, finished and ready to be mailed:

hexagon squares

I’ve also been working away on this little crib- or “blankie”-sized blanket. I saw the green yarn in Wall-Mart and was drawn to the colour – such a pretty, springtime green 🙂 It doesn’t have a destination yet…maybe it will be a Because You Matter blanket.

on the needles

I am also still stitching away on my sister’s quilt. This is an old photo, but it’s coming along nicely and I think you’re going to like it when I finally finish it and do the big photo reveal. I’m going to start pushing myself with the goal of finishing before I leave Whitehorse. I’d like to do the photos on the S.S.Klondike if Parks Canada will let me in during off-season…but before I can do that, I have to finish it, lol!

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And last but not least…here is the sunset from my deck last night. Oh, how I love living at Fox Lake!

sunset October 14 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced