Sweater Weather!

Gosh ... where did summer go?  Actually, here in my remote corner of the planet, we all agree that summer didn't really happen in 2018!

June 2018 

It truly was a cool and very wet summer ... but I remind myself that is to be expected!  In other words ... "it comes with the territory"! When you consider our longitude and latitude ... add to that our location on the north end of the Pacific Ocean ... yep, we can expect cool and wet summers! 😃

But ... here is the good news!  First ... we enjoy sweater weather year round!  Second ... we wear wool year round!  After the Fiber & Friends event in June (you can see my recap here) The Net Loft sponsored a local Hand Knit Show!

I feel so fortunate ... I am surrounded by many talented knitters!  I have known many for 30+ years and some for their entire life!

The truth is that we have evolved as a community of knitters because of our local yarn shop, The Net Loft!  Before the internet, youtube, instagram, etc ... she brought the knitting world to us!  Initially her shop was only open in the summer, as she lived in California.  She would take classes and attend knitting events during the winter and then share those resources with us in the summer months while her husband commercial fished in Prince William Sound.  Our community proves the importance of supporting your local shop!

Here are the items I had on display at this event.  This is a Nordic influenced sweater that I designed and knit for my daughter in 2011.  You will find the back story here and here ... I love looking back.

I patterned it after traditional designs found hand painted on historical household items in both Sweden and Norway.  She lives in southern California where there is little opportunity to wear it!  But she does wear it when visiting!

A few pairs of mitts ... I love designing and knitting all types of mitts.

This is the Viking Gansey that I designed for my son.  This journey began in 2015 (details here) ... Beth is an amazing designer/instructor ... I was so excited to begin!  At the time, I was dealing with extreme chronic pain ... it was so intense that I truly was living on Advil.  When a person is coping with that amount of pain ... it takes over your entire life.  I was unable to make much progress that winter ... chronic pain truly is debilitating!  We had all hoped to have our gansey's finished by the 2016 Fiber & Friends event ... but as you can see in this post, I had not gotten far.  At the 2016 event, I was in recovery from a total knee replacement six weeks prior.  The pain before surgery and the post surgery meds made it impossible to knit much!

I remember waking one morning ... six months after the surgery ... without pain!  It was life changing ... it had been years!  Gradually my original personality began to reemerge (as declared by Mr. DD) ... and this spring I felt truly like myself ... and can live and function like intended!  It had become a three year journey ... I was committed to finish this Viking Gansey!

With the body done and a start on the first sleeve, I had Brother try it on to determine sleeve length. This photo was taken at a family picnic in late May.

I took this sweater with me everywhere in my efforts to have it done by Fiber & Friends 2018!  First sleeve is nearly done in this photo!

Second sleeve started, and nearly out of yarn on this cone ... after three years I had to dig deep to find the remaining cone!

Two days before the event ... I decide to rip out the bottom edge.  I could tell that Brother wasn't really happy with it ... he preferred a rib stitch over the traditional gainsay edge!  I want him to wear it ... so he needed to like it ... so I reknit it.

I finished it at 3:00 am Friday morning ... with luck it would be dry by Saturday night for Brother to model it!  Whew!  It was a bit damp ... Brother was a great sport ... he looked so handsome in it!

Omgosh!  I still ... three months later ... have not come down from the personal high of finishing this viking themed gansey!  So much about my journey and my hopes for my son are knit into every stitch!  Next I need to finally get a few photos of him wearing it!  And because he lives here ... he will be able to wear it year round!

Do what you love! Embrace sweater weather!  Do dillydally!

Mrs. DillyDally