Happy New Year!!

 Hi all -

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!! I got to visit my family for Christmas, which is always a lot of fun! This was Grace's first trip and she did great! She and Ladybug, my sister's younger crazy dog, got along great and had a great time. Winnie, her older dog, let Grace know to leave her alone and Grace respected her. The other family dogs were over periodically and everything went well. Unfortunately, on one of our morning outings to the dog park Grace ended up getting injured so she had to go to the emergency vet and couldn't play for the second half of our trip. It wasn't a big deal (one of her dog friends must have caught its tooth in her side), but it was a bummer! The emergency vet opted to not put in staples because it was small enough that it could heal on its own and the sides of the wound had dried a bit so they would have needed to be cut back before stitching. It was healing well, but it wasn't closing so my regular vet decided to staple it. It looks really good now, but we're on limited activity for another week. It's frustrating for both of us, but it's for the best! Is it almost Saturday yet????

I didn't do any knitting during my family visit because the morning before we left Grace saw a squirrel just as I was letting her in the gate after our morning walk and she took off while still on leash. She dragged my hand against the fence post with the wire fence wrapped around it and I had scrapes and bruises all over my hand. But I did get the final installment for my Jimmy Beans Wool blanket club and finished that up before I left. The pattern is the Juni Throw designed by Katy Petersen:

Juni Throw

Juni Throw - December section close-up

This blanket turned out great! The yarn is really heavy and warm! And it's the perfect size for keeping me warm on the couch. I've signed up for the 2024 blanket club, which is a completely different style of blanket, so I look forward to starting on that this year!

Before I left I also started working on a new shawl. It's the Glittering Snowscape Shawl designed by Stephen West:

Glittering Snowscape Shawl

This is such a fun pattern to knit! I love all of the different stitches -- it keeps the interest level up. And Stephen West patterns are formatted so that they are really easy to follow along. They are easy to put into knitCompanion, the software I use while knitting, and they have clear instructions with supporting videos for anything that might be confusing. And they are always interesting and colorful. Unfortunately, I cut it too close with my yarn so I've run out of the lightest color and had to order more. So I've put this project aside until the new yarn arrives.

Finally, my hand is now healed so I'm looking at other projects. Laura Nelkin, one of my favorite designers, always has a knit-along from January through March. During this time we can share progress on any of her designs and be eligible for a weekly prize drawing. To start with, I've pulled out a very old project -- the Navigatrix scarf:

Navigatrix

This was a mystery project from 2017. Because this is a scarf so size isn't as important and because I'm lazy, I skipped the gauge swatch and used the needles suggested in the pattern. Since I'm a tighter knitter than Laura (I now always go up 1 or 2 needle sizes when making her patterns), my squares are smaller than hers and my scarf is longer and thinner. Not a big deal, but it means I'm using less yarn and have to decide how many squares I want to make for the scarf. The scarf is made by knitting mitered squares and then joining them. There are five different square patterns and four different join patterns:

Navigatrix close-up

So I guess I'll just keep knitting and adding squares until it feels right to me. I've also thought about joining the ends to make a cowl instead.

Well, that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

Nancy