Still foggy and icy here, and I’m thinking we need to have a Wet Chill Factor parallel to the Wind Chill Factor that brings those prairie temperatures so far into the basement. -5 Celsius doesn’t sound terribly cold, but when it’s -5 and 90% humidity as we’ve had lately, with fog droplets coating everything and freezing, the heat gets sucked from the body much more quickly.
Yesterday, as I’ve done a few times this week, I hopped on my bike after scraping the frost off the seat, once again forgetting to give the brakes a test squeeze. Sure enough, as I headed down the hill between home and the ferry, my efforts to slow down and steer around the potholes were thwarted — no squeezing would melt the ice on those cables! I’ll concede, though, that the adrenaline might have had a warming effect. . .
But you know I’m trying to combat the cold by searching out the light and heat and happiness around here — and I found all three, last weekend, when I finished what I’m calling my Rumpelstiltskin scarf and took it out into our two hours of sunshine for a photo op. It’s made of laceweight silk, and I perhaps should have worked that silk into a more intricate lace pattern, but I knew if I did that I’d be waiting months and months before I could wear it. As well, I though I wanted something a bit more funky than fine, more artsy than traditional, so I opted for a quicker, looser pattern with alternating diamonds made of dropped garter. Because the resulting fabric is so light, I went quite long so that I can play with loops of different lengths — I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing growing — silk’s not big on the memory. Here it is on me, now that I’ve got it to stop lounging around on rocks and sticks. . . 
I’m really pleased with this — it’s obviously decorative rather than functional, but I think it will be a versatile accent.
Off now to see my eye doc (those drops today — ugh!), then ferry to Vanc’r where I’ll see Nola and maybe some of my kids as well AND where we’ll see Carmen tomorrow night — and you know that’s an opera to warm up a winter night!
What a scarf, so supple and generous! (It looks functional enough to me :))
Amazing what wrapping a scarf around you neck does to both the mood and outfit? Enjoy Carmen!
What a lovely scarf! I love the “nature poses!” That’s a great way to show off the subtle colors.
Your weather…yuck! It sounds relentless.
Love it! I enjoy more funk than fine in my lace as well 🙂 Perfect match to the yarn. And you can wear it as the weather warms too!
Sounds like a scary bike ride – eek!
Duchesse: Thank you! As for function, I just meant it won’t really provide much warmth.
Pseu: Thanks you as well, and yes, it has been relentless altho’ there was some very-welcome sunshine today — snow’s in the forecast though!
Jillian: I’m really pleased with the match as well, although someday I’d like to try something finer in the laceweight silk — Muir (from Knitty), for example)
The bike ride wasn’t too scary, by other’s standards, but I’m more than a bit wimpy about downhill speeds so . . .
What a lovely lovely scarf. The simple stitch is perfect and it allows you to enjoy the bit of scarf-induced sunshine all that much sooner. Hopefully the cheery scarf brings warmth from within as it lifts your spirits.
The bike ride sounds scary.. I don’t like going downhill too fast.
Thanks Mardel — I love the scarf for its sunny colour, even if it doesn’t offer much warmth.
And the bike ride would only be scary to those, like me, who don’t like speed on hills. You could keep me company!
I love this scarf. Would be perfect for a California winter.
Hope you are all staying healthy and warm up there, especially the baby!
Thanks, Karen — your winter, my summer, the weather’s probably fairly similar!
And yes, we’re all doing well — we had an evening with Nola last Friday and she’s growing beautifully.