Lunamoth

This is how it looks from the kitchen today, and we’re expecting up to 25 or 30 cm (about 10 or 12 inches) by late tonight.

I did my grocery shopping yesterday and don’t have to drive anywhere today, so I’m quite pleased with the weather.  It’s pretty to look at, and makes me feel cozy because I’m inside looking out at it.  There are plenty of people who complain about the snow, but I’m quite happy that I live in a place that has four distinct seasons.  Snow-coming-down-sideways is a delightful (yes, I mean that!) change from crisp fall days, warm and languid summer days, and muddy, dreary, why-isn’t-it-summer-yet spring days.  (Can you tell I’m not a big fan of spring?)

So today I’m spending the day inside, roasting a garlic- and herb-crusted pork tenderloin to have with mashed potatoes and peas, doing the laundry, dyeing yarn, thinking about a painting, contemplating my knitting….

This is the Monteverde Scarf, a free pattern from Kelly over at her Knit! blog (I think I came across it on Ravelry). Actually, it’s half of the scarf, which is worked in two pieces that are then grafted together at the centre. I am about a third of the way through the second half.  It’s made of 50/50 mohair/acrylic, so it has just the right amount of fuzz. I think it will look pretty sharp once it’s blocked (take a look at the scarf link above to see Kelly’s lovely, blocked version). I’ll be knitting some more on this project this evening, perhaps while listening to Vinyl Cafe Stories by Stuart McLean (if you’re not familiar with the Vinyl Cafe radio show, check this out).

This photo is of sock yarns from the dyepot.  I have more being dyed right now, too, in some blues and purples.  A snow day is perfect for doing some dyeing — there are periods of activity with the yarn and dyes, and then lots of down time while they simmer and soak (time enough to do something else, like write blog posts, lol).

I love playing with the colour combinations, and imagining how they’ll look once knit up.  I keep a few for myself, so I know how those particular ones look as socks, but most of these get sold on eBay (I’m wildflowerhoney on eBay, if you’d like to take a look at what’s currently on offer).  I kind of like the idea that some of my creations are out in the world, living lives of their own, now.

This is the first step of a new painting, the roughing in of the shapes and colours with a knife.  I did this last Friday in painting class (where, disappointingly, we did not do the promised portrait work, but we’ll do that this week).  It’s from a photo of the Mississippi River in Carleton Place (bet a lot of you didn’t know that we have a Mississippi in Canada, eh?), and it’s a couple of downed trees in the river, with bushes and trees all along the shore.  I have this painting sitting where I can see it from my desk, and I’m planning, planning what to do next to it.

There are two really fun parts of painting, as far as I’m concerned — this first part, where there’s all sorts of vitality and potential in the painting, and the bit near the end when it looks like the vision and the paint have coalesced into a meaningful result.  The in-between bits are often just slogging through vast tracts of indecision.  Very rarely does the whole thing just flow along from beginning to end.  So, a lot of contemplation of this particular canvas is currently going on in my head.  A snowy day is perfect for painting….

Thanks to whomever arranged for today’s snow!