comin' around the bend

We spent the afternoon at a friend's house last week.  She and I talked homeschool shop and Nature Study Club plans while the children bounced in and out of the room.  It was just the February kick-in-the-pants that I needed.  Her well-ordered, tidy home inspired me to examine my own messy habits, especially the ones that involve starting projects, not finishing them, and leaving all the parts out.  I'm still figuring out storage in our house, and really storage has been ever-evolving.  There many hidey-holes in the house where we stuff things that we don't know what to do with (lookin' at you, old technology and computer cables).  As we close out our second school term, it's time to reassess our possessions and tackle as many of the storage spots as possible.  It's a little early for spring cleaning--there's still a layer of snow on the ground--but maybe 2021 is the year that spring cleaning is exhaustive.  Leave no corner undusted!

Two recently finished projects have used the same yarn: Malabrigo Sock in the colorways natural and ivy.  I haven't used it in years, and forgot how thin it is.  The mittens are a gift, this pattern.  It was a well-written pattern, but the shaping was a little odd to me.  I added a couple of rows to the thumb gore because it seemed too short, but that was the only modification.  The socks are this pattern, which was fantastic for a colorwork sock newbie.  The sock was charted, right down to the little heel gore, and my only change was to add to the length of the foot.  The socks fit really well, and because of the stranded floats, they don't stretch throughout the day.  There's still enough of the yarns to knit something more, too!