OTN Update and Mid-January Musings

Last evening, as soon as I finished the earlier-posted-about socks, I swatched for an easy vest to go with my turtle necked tops & slacks [for work.] Requirements for the yarn:

1. Inexpensive

2. Easy Care

3. Chunky

4. Colorway to "go with" my collection of current & proposed turtle necked tops: black, red, white, pink, burgundy, green. dark lavender. [I currently only have the first four colors.]

I had in mind a yarn that was maybe "homespun" and in a white-black-and shades of gray colorway. Keep in mind, that Inexpensive was my first priority and Easy Care was my second, so I headed for H.L. with a Christmas gift card. There was absolutely Nothing that came close to what I wanted. However, what I settled on will work. I was thinking of something with more white and less gray. But, it's OK.

And now I have about 5 rows of the back OTN.

Pattern: Lion Brand free pattern - "Denim Vest"

Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun #312 Edwardian

Needles: Size 10 [6mm] circ

Knit For: Me :-)

Mid-January Musings

* I'm still working on my To-Do list that I wanted to finish during my 17 day Holiday Break. I thought it was a do-able list, but I needed two more weeks [at least] to finish it!!

* It's awfully tempting during Mid-January in the upper midwest to question WHY I live here. Oh, yeah. Grandsons, daughters, mother, and a much better job than the one I left five years ago [in the shadow of The Rock (see photo at top of blog).] But, Dang, winters are long here. The weather.com alert icon is flashing red in my computer's task bar. It's trying to tell me about the blizzard watch for this area. Last winter went into the record books for all-time-record snowfall. This winter, so far, we are more than 10" ahead of last winter. I'm typing "DANG," but you can be confident that I'm saying other things.

* Knit projects on the horizon include a pair of knucks for me, and a secret project that will use some of the same yarn as the knucks. More important to finish the secret project first. And I might have to improvish with my pair of knucks. Or buy more yarn. The yarn is Knit Picks DK. I'm thinking that I could probably use some leftover sock yarn from my stash in a coordinating color [and doubled] to do the ribbed wrists. I'm also smitten with a cardigan [to knit for myself] = Berroco's free Rosebud pattern. And then the day after I mused that I probably would never have to buy another knitting book, I bought: Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle. There are five or six patterns I'd like to do. Decisions, decisions.