There's an awful lot of "white" around here. So far this winter we've received 177cm (about 70") in large sometimes biweekly dumps of snow. As I write this a storm is approaching that could be the biggest this year - one that may put our total accumulations into the record book at over 200 cm.
Now I love the winter months for many things, not the least of which is knitting away by the fire, watching movies and if its going to be cold I really do prefer the landscape to be snowy. The garden is a huge beneficiary of consistent snow cover so I am also grateful for that. We enjoy downhill skiing and this has been a great ski season for sure but three months of uninterrupted whiteness is really starting to get to me.
To be honest, one thing that's pushing me over the edge is my current knitting project - a pair of men's knee high socks, size large in what I am trying to think of as a "dark charcoal grey" but lets face it, they're effectively black.
Back in the riotous colour of autumn I figured out the pattern by copying from a pair of socks made many years ago for my beloved by a maiden Aunt . The Aunt has long since passed away but her beautiful hand knitting continues to live on in the sock drawers and on the feet of several of my in laws. At 76 stitches around, 18 " in length and repeating columns of single rib alternating with sections of moss stitch the knitting doesn't exactly skip along. The "charcoal grey" Regia errors are hard to recognize until they are a significant way back in the pattern and corrections are even more difficult to make out without the aid of full sunlight.
Nonetheless I started and finished one sock while watching the World Series.
As the orange red and yellow leaves fell from the trees and the bright orange pumpkins came and went from porches up and down the street sock number two got bumped off the priority list by urgent Christmas knitting. By mid December holiday lights dotted the landscape that had otherwise turned white and once the lights came down at New Year's the short, dark days made working on them fully depressing and almost impossible because the stitches were so hard to see in anything but the best light. So I set them aside until the light improved late in January - when we usually also enjoy a brief thaw and melt and get to see at least a glimpse of wintry grass.
In the meantime I made the rounds of several of the excellent yarn stores in the city here at home and even made a visit to Purl while in NYC. After that, a few fun and colourful projects jumped onto and off of my needles as the second black sock was pushed to the bottom of the knitting basket and right out of my knitting cue.
It was out of sight but never out of mind. As I entertained myself with colourful projects through weeks of white my beloved made comments about how much he was looking forward to someday wearing his hand knit socks...if they were ever finished. These accumulated comments are now similar in proportion to the piles of snow covering the city; blocking movement and generally stalling progress on other tasks until cleared away. I can't enjoy starting anything else until they are out of the way, off my mind and onto his feet!
So just as the city has added snow moving and melting crews in the 48 hour windows we are having between storms, I am throwing extra effort at wrestling these socks onto the FO pile.
As the white snow falls ever faster outside today, tonight, tomorrow and through the weekend I am going to force my way onward with this black beast. Once its out of the way my aim will be to post about some of the vibrant, colourful projects I've enjoyed while the neglected toes of my beloved have suffered so throughout this snowy white winter!
Gotta love that colour!...
Wish me luck!...
