I think Mariah and I were initiated to true-island-living the last couple days. We were scheduled to leaveBois Blanc Island yesterday afternoon, but nothing was moving – not the ferry, nor the airplanes, just wildlife to the bird feeder and corn pile. So, we hunkered down and enjoyed the majesty of winter . . . even if it was the middle of April!
One thing we did was take advantage of the light and the snow to get some photos for the patterns I have been working on. My lead-in photo is from the end of the shoot when Christa and I were playing. Notice that she has no shoes on! Neither did I, which will not surprise my mother, but most of the rest of the world thinks the two of us are a bit touched. If walks on green grass make your toes feel alive, just think how alive you feel from snow! Christa is wearing a knitted garment of her own design (I hesitate to give it a name!), the hat we teach as our beginning knitting project and a pair of felted mittens from Stonehedge Shepherd’s Wool. The latter two items will soon be available for purchase.
When I say we were socked in, check out this photo. Usually you can see all the way across the lake to Cheboygan. Yesterday you could barely see the lake at all!
Actually, it was a good thing we couldn’t leave yesterday because the night before I spent most of the night knitting and I needed to recover! I had started the baby blanket, but did something I tell my customers never to do: I didn’t familiarize myself with the stitch pattern well enough before beginning to knit. I’d made more than one mistake in the first eight rows, so I ripped and decided to swatch it more so I could understand exactly what was happening with the pattern. Boy, am I glad I did. Turns out, the diagonal crepe stitch skews because of all the right twists and YOs. I hadn’t knit enough the first time around to see it. Back to the drawing board: Barbara Walker’s first two books. I knew it before, but I really know it now – stitch photos in books only get you in the ballpark. There is no replacement for knitting them yourself and seeing what happens to the pattern and the selvedges. After many false starts, I decided upon a cross stitch knit pattern from Book 2. It is thick and fluffy, doesn’t skew (ssk and k2togs are balanced), eats up yarn and has a stitch count of 32 stitches in 4 inches on size 5 needles. Boy do I have some knitting ahead of me!
It’s cloudy but clear today. Now that it is light out, I can see Cheboygan. I only hope we aren’t too far down in Great Lakes Air’s flying queue!