focus on the sweetness

2012. What year of highs and lows; of complex problems and simple happiness, of triumphs, and of losses.

there's the Honey Cowl in action, dogsitting this am

What can we do but move ahead, trying to make the world a better place in whatever way we can ? That's all I got,  in the way of words. But in the way of visual: plenty on  the sweetest simple pattern, the Honey Cowl .

I am so late to the party!  I watched Kay Gardiner,  aka canary in the coal mine for good knitting patterns,  declare allegiance to the Honey over a year ago. I even photographed her in a gorgeous grey one. And it went through my LYS like the flu. I wondered why it had, like,  gazillion (seriously, over 9000) versions on Ravelry.

Looking good even after an accidental partial felting in the washer/dryer, And btw? Isn't Zoe looking old?

Giuliana saw it online when I offered to make her a scarf.  She chose a green Cascade 220, despite my steering her toward fancier yarns. Eh, nice color,  I thought, but it's not going to be anything special. Fool on me!  The stitch is somehow zenlike.  It transforms the piece.  After a soak and pat out to shape,  it was soft and elegant.  The cowl looks good from any angle.  It's been in constant use by her since, making me ridiculously happy.

quick phone shot, you'd think we'd use some real cameras more often, right?

There it is, above, before the partial felting incident.  With the Thanksgiving flan*
 

I immediately cast on for another, for me, with a skein of Enchanted Knoll woo/silk in a bulky weight. A quick gauge swatch , I changed up the numbers and  knit it with size 10.5 us needles. While in process, I fretted the handyed color shifts. I wished I was using a solid for me, too.  For a while it looked a  like a 2 day old bruise, hue-wise. (One of my beloved smartasses at knit night named the colorway Domestic Violence.  No disrespect to the social problem. We have a dark undertone to our humor).

crappy phone self-portrait. shoemaker's kids, and all that.

Anyway, I love how it turned out. It won't be my last from this pattern.

Wishing you all a year of sweetness and light and satisfying outcomes of all kinds. I'm making my usual resolutions: finish projects underway (knit and other), act on my ideas, do more yoga, be kinder to those poor people who work phone customer service jobs for annoying corporations....y'know the usual stuff. What about you?

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* One of my happy accomplishments in 2012 was perfecting my Peruvian flan. The one shown, the Thanksgiving one, was double sized and not as pretty as usual, I'll need to remember to get a shot of it done right. Next I want to try curing my own salmon.