Winter is Here

Never mind that Winter is Coming, it's here!  The temperatures have been well below normal here for the past week, dipping well down into the single digits.  It was only 2 degrees here yesterday morning and barely got into the double digits.  I had all the intentions of blogging yesterday afternoon only to discover that we had a frozen pipe.  I spent a large part of the afternoon thawing the pipe with a heating pad and a blow dryer.  This doesn't sound really awful and normally I don't think it would be, but the pipe happened to be in between a wall in our basement and the foundation in a spot that I could barely squeeze through.  While I was squeezing in and out of this tiny space I noticed that where the main power to the house comes in had a large hole and was letting cold air in. No wonder the pipe had frozen!  I plugged it up with insulation and then insulated the pipes with pipe insulation.  So far it seems to be working. 

This was the spot that I squeezed into and yes, I was terrified I would either get wedged in there or attacked by spiders the entire time!

Because there was exposed insulation and god knows what else, I dressed properly for the occasion:

Now, onto some fun and much happier stuff!  

Last month Verity from Truly Hooked contacted me to see if I would be interested in having my Wentletrap pattern included in her sock club!  The mail has been really slow here and I sometimes wonder if our mailman likes to keep the yarn packages for a bit before delivering them.  After all,  they are really soft and squishy and hard to resist!  I can't tell you how delighted I was when I opened the lovely lavender package that contained Verity's yarn!  The colors are bright and cheerful, just the thing for the middle of a dreary winters day.  The yarn base is an 80/10/10 Superwash Merino/Nylon/Cashmere with just the right amount of twist to work well for socks, and soft enough for me to just want to wrap the skein around my neck and dance around the house for a bit.

As well as being a fantastic indie dyer, Verity also just recently had one of her crochet designs published in Inside Crochet. Verity also has a group on Ravelry and there are quite a few Wentletraps knit up in this colorway.  It's called Quirky, which suits it's cheerful colors perfectly.  Here is a link to this months yarn club: TruelyHooked

Here are Verity's Wentletraps in Quirky.  Don't they look like happy socks?  The colorway is perfect for them!

I've been working on a second Arya's Needle that has three of the lace panels and omits the sword in the center.  It's going to be used as a sample at the booth I will have at The Powhatan's Festival of Fiber in April.  I dyed up the yarn myself and will have some kitted up with the pattern at the festival. It was snowing again this morning and I wanted to capture a bit of it in the pictures without actually going outside. Even though they are a touch dark, I really like the way they came out.

The Arya Collection

Needle is a small, slender sword that Jon Snow had made by Mikken for Arya Stark before he went away to the Night’s Watch. The sword is suitable to Arya’s slight build and the style of fencing known as “water dancing” used by the bravos of Braavos. Arya named it Needle as an ironic reference to her hatred of needlework. She sometimes refers to her use of the sword as needlework. Eventually, Needle also comes to represent her previous life at Winterfell and symbolizes the happy childhood with her family, which she still yearns for.

Earlier this year at Maryland Sheep & Wool I was able to spend a little bit of time chatting with Miss Babs.  We talked about our favorite characters from Game of Thrones and tossed around a few ideas for a new Game of Thrones inspired pattern.  Babs and I both really like Arya's character.  She's smart, spunky, and doesn't really back down from anything.  On the trip home I worked up a small chart and some sketches of Arya's Needle and then got to swatching.  After a Skype meeting with Babs and Jen, Babs created a limited edition colorway called Arya in Yummy 2-ply.  It will be available in limited quantities this weekend in her booth at Rhinebeck along with a hard copy version of both patterns.  The Arya yarn will also be available for pre-order at missbabs.com.  

Arya's Needle is a versatile shawl pattern and can easily be knit with three different looks. The edging and center sections have the same number of stitches and can be interchanged if you would like. You could have a shawl with three swords, two swords and lace in the center only, or lace in all three sections. The choice is yours!  

The long and slender point of needle will let you Subtly wield your sword with Arya’s Mitts. Instructions are included for a shorter version if you would prefer to wield a dagger rather than a sword! The pattern has two sizes: S/M and M/L and is very easily adjusted by going up or down a needle size.

The patterns can be purchased individually or in ebook format on Ravelry.

Beth, Helen and Kathy did a fabulous job test knitting.  If you have a chance, check out their projects on Ravelry.