And then there are the two red scarves

I was really getting ready for last winter when it was COLD. No snow to speak of and only an occasional cold day this winter, but I guess I am ready for the next one.... and then there is the red for Valentine's Day.... hmmmm I didn't think of that til I already had these up.

I used that 365 day calendar and just found patterns I liked and added a garter stitch border and edging.  The one thing I do that helps with the boring - ness of the garter stitch border is slip the first stitch of each row knitwise with the yarn in front and then move it to the back for the next knit stitch.  It makes a prettier edge and I am sure everyone knows about that but I include it just in case.

When I block them I will do a closeup of the edge so you can see...

this one is not blocked at ALL

and running through it is a fine silvery thread.  Hard to see but I NEED to block it dammit.

I've been knitting

but not blocking, so therefore not showing on the blog. However, I decided that blocked or not, I needed to put them up.

This is the Stripe Study Shawl (ravelry link) by Veera Välimäki. I just used some yarn I had, Madelyn Tosh sock, and love the shawl. At first I had the beige in the big spaces, but it looked too boring so I ripped and restarted with the pink/peach. Love it

blogging

Loretta has written about not keeping up, about having a different focus than many bloggers seem to have -- which seems to be to seek success and a book contract from their blog. Gill has commented similarly. Well, I am right there with them. But it is hard (said Thoreau) to march to a different drummer, and it started me thinking again. Do I want, need, or even care about a book contract or 70 or 100 comments on each of my pages? NO!! and NO!!!! again. 

However, is it easy to write and rarely know if anyone reads what you write? If you are writing only to view it later yourself it is easier. I often tell people that I blog so that when I start forgetting what I did last week I have a place to see what it was, provided, of course, that I can remember where the blog is! I often feel that I have maybe 5 readers, and I am fine with that though hearing from them now and then would be fun

I have knitted a lot of things (most still unblocked) that I haven't documented. I have shown the journal pages that I have done because they feel the most like art for me. Someone once told me that my art was "idiosyncratic". Whether that was a positive or a negative I am not sure. Would I like a group of similarly aged or similarly interested people to talk about it with? Yep, I would and I think that is what I was thinking when I started this blog a couple of years ago. I sort of hoped that it would develop into a small bit of society for people who were doing stuff without really wanting it to become daily work.

I am blogging for me, and now that is plenty but I have to remember to comment more myself on some of the ten million blogs I read!

Sometimes, my trash picking bears fruit or flowers

or in this case -- Orchids. I can't bear to see a plant just tossed out in the trash, so about 8 months ago I rescued what I knew was an orchid, and not an orchid I have had any experience with. I can usually grow phalanopsis, but this is something else, what I am not sure. ANYWAY! I put it in the West window and low and behold, I think it likes it!

A Train subway shoes

Street scene in Washington Heights