February is for color

Did you read Amanda Blake Soule's blog back in the day?  Soulemama no longer exists, but a few things she wrote stuck with me.  One of them was that February is for color knitting.  (Or did Stephanie Pearl McPhee write that?) For myself, I don't stray much past neutrals and neutral-adjacent shades, but I do love all kinds of colors for other people.  

For Christmas, I received a gift card to this shop, and I used it to purchase something I've had my eye on for years.  Years.  I'm using it to make The Incredible Blanket, a riot of color, and it's making me so happy right now.  I'll probably still be knitting this in February 2027 and February 2028, too.  I've got color covered!

I bound off my first FO of 2026 not too long after turning the calendar page to January.  It helped that just a part of one foot and a toe remained.  These are vanilla socks, a little too small for me, a little too large for Little M, but she can grow into them.  Yarn is Schoppel Zauberball Crazy in Dragon's Eye.

And finally, a Christmas sweater that would have been ready for the day of if I hadn't gotten paralyzed by the i-cord neckline and sleeve cuff dimension decisions.  It was a really pleasant, easy knit.  I made it with the yarn held double throughout, less positive ease than the pattern called for, and ribbed hem and cuffs.  It's much more tailored than the pattern, mostly because I can't do the baggy look without appearing sloppy.  I blocked it aggressively to give the fabric an airy quality, but it's still really warm.  I really, really like it and wore it to church on Sunday for Go Red Sunday (although no one saw it under the coat I wore the entire time because of the ridiculous cold!). I hardly ever wear red; bright red isn't my color, but this red works for me.  It's Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair in either claret or bordeaux (leaning hard toward claret), but I can't be bothered to dig out the last two balls to check.  Knitting for Olive is simply marvelous, and it's such a sumptuous sweater.  

 

In reading news, I just finished The Goldfinch, which was brutal and heartbreaking, and amazing.  The last two chapters made the whole book sing.  It's a book that will stick with me for years to come.  I just started I Capture the Castle, and like it so far, but am not far enough in to make a fair assessment.

We're still hibernating chez Pleximama, and as soon as I hit publish, I'm going to take a snooze.  The snow will melt someday, right?  Until it does I will be knit, knit, knitting away on colorful projects that evoke all the spring feelings. Stay warm, friends!