Like Magic

Knitting always seems a little bit like magic to me.  Yesterday morning there was just a ball of yarn and some needles.  This evening there is almost a whole sock.  (It helped that I couldn't sleep anymore after 3:30 this morning, so I got up and knitted!)

I was going to cast on the Double Heelix sock pattern, but decided to make this plainer pair for our dear son-in-law first.  Dear daughter #2 and family are coming for a visit during spring break, and I like to have something hand made for each of them when they arrive.

The D.D. #2 gets the "Skew Socks."  For the dear granddaughter I'm making a cute pink cotton jacket with white flowers.  So I thought the DSIL could use a pair of socks--same pattern and yarn that I made for the grandson in December (which he loves.)  I bought the yarn at Mary Maxim some years ago, at their tent sale one summer when we happened to stop there on just the right day.  And the dear grandson will probably get a jean vest.  I've had a pattern for decades and finally cut one out yesterday.  We'll see how it turns out, if it's good enough to give to him.

The red heart table topper was the first of many that I made from a quilting pattern.  The pattern has a wide outer border with scalloped edges, but when I made this first try with the pattern I was using scraps and didn't have enough eyelet for a larger version.  These were the table toppers that I took along as "hostess" gifts on our trip in 2009 when we visited so many of my cousins.

Here I'm modelling the completed shawl.  Jim took the picture for me.  The picture hanging on the wall is one I took in 1995 just north of Churchill, Manitoba when we went to see the polar bears.  There are interesting lichens on the rocks, and, fortunately, no bears in sight.

The snow forecasted for the weekend has already begun.  We're debating, should we drive to southern Alberta tomorrow or early Sunday morning?  We'll see what the weather's like tomorrow, and then decide.  One thing in favor of Sunday morning is that there's hardly any traffic on the roads at that time.