A Good Night for Wool and Staying Indoors

Last night, the temperature headed emphatically downward around here, with bitter winds blowing. By the time I turned in for the night, we had made it below 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12.5 Celsius) and it still hadn't hit bottom.

This may be nothing remarkable for anyone who lives in more northerly climes. But here in the mid-Atlantic, where we only see single-digit temperatures a few times each winter, we watch in chilly amazement.

I went to work yesterday bundled in wool and silk long-johns under my wool slacks, and I was glad to have them. And in the evening when I got home, I tucked myself on the couch with a lapful of warm, fluffy, silky kid mohair to work on, never to budge for the rest of the night. Yes, it was a good night to be wearing wool, and a good night to be knitting with it. Of course, it's not so bad for me in my nice heated house; I wonder how the creatures out in the woods keep warm?

I was working on the Christmas I.O.U. sweater for my tall-elegant-mom, with the light gray hand-dyed brushed kid mohair from Kid Hollow Farm. I'm using the same Kid Hollow Mock Neck sweater pattern as in the sweater I just completed in a different colorway of the same yarn for me, just making some small changes. It's coming along nicely. By last night, I had the back and front done, and a start on the first sleeve. It's going a lot faster than the last sweater, the one for myself. One reason is that I've been concentrating on just one project, instead of going back and forth among several things. But it also helps to make sure I get close to gauge from the beginning, instead of knitting the whole sweater once for practice and then having to rip the whole thing out and redo it! So, this time, the sweater seems to be progressing much more smoothly.

And it's a good thing, too, because the yarn for my Dad's Christmas I.O.U. sweater has arrived.

I've got some serious swatching to do!