January:  new year,
new president, new knitting

I have bought yarn. 
And I will ‘fess up right away that some of it is for a lace shawl.  No sense in wearying anyone with my
rational.  Pretty much it was just the
sheer beauty of Knit Picks’ “Riverside Café” lace-weight yarn set:  cappuccino (baby alpaca), Oregon Coast
heather (merino), basalt (merino), sterling (merino/silk), cumulus (baby
alpaca/silk), bare/cream (merino/silk).  When
they arrived, I arranged them in a basket and left it on my dresser –for all
the world like sleeping kittens – and petted and plotted. 

An Elizabeth Zimmermann Pi Shawl!  Perfect! 
And then came the theme: 
gulls.  Gull stitch, feather stitch,
gullwings lace…Perfect! 

The fact that I can even contemplate gray yarn when the sky
looks as if it were knit of gray yarn and even the shaggy fir branches are
hardly green in the dim winter light (kind of like gray thinking about green)….But perhaps it is a blessing to be able to
see beauty in gray at this time of year.

I have not cast on yet – am holding off until I finish one
or two (okay, maybe one) other project(s). 
I have contented myself with planning the color arrangement, the
stitches.  And late one evening, when I
was too tired for even simple knitting, I wound one skein into a ball.

Other new knitting:  a
scarf (yes, another scarf!) for the son of my dear friend, Judy.  He is going back to college and they live in
the Midwest where it is bitterly cold!  And
I fell head-over-heels for the sun-golden cabled cropped turtleneck pullover in
the new winter Vogue Knitting (page 53) –because it looks so fun, bright, and
cozy (and it is rather dull, dim, and dank here – and will be for weeks).  Have ordered the yarn, but it has not come
yet. 

I also ordered my Valentines present (from my charming
husband):  Signature needles.  Mmmm.  
Like jewelry.

Speaking of occasions: 
Happy Birthday, Sarah!