Happy Friday the 13th!

Are you a person that believes in all the bad juju of  Friday the 13th? I'm not. Instead I like to see it as a day of freedom and indulgence.

When I celebrate Friday the 13th, I do things a little more on the wild side: like drink that extra glass of wine, read that steamy romance book, binge watch the whole series, eat all the chips, etc... Indulge in the shouldn'ts just a bit!

This Friday comes at the end of a few days of spectacular cold here in my part of Canada. We've had overnight temps of -30C with windchill values of over -46C. So cold! Crazy cold! Put on all the layers kind of cold. Thankfully we've also had a beautiful full moon the last few days too.

I keep trying to catch a picture of it with my iphone but it's so hard to get a good shot. It looked like a little white dot not the big luminous moon that I was actually seeing. Anyone have any tricks for taking moon pictures on an iphone? I have a good Canon camera sitting in it's case in the closet, I should really start to use that again.

So this full moon was a good for me. I was able to release a few things that aren't working for me and recommit to some that I've been slacking on and celebrate what I'm doing that is working.

For instance:

- I'm rocking my snowshoeing resolution. I've been out 4 of 12 times, a third down! I've gone solo, with Brent and with friends and it's been great. I'll be heading out hopefully a couple more times this weekend.

- I've been slacking on my yoga practice. This is sad. I love yoga. So I'll be getting on my mat tonight and hopefully everyday for the rest of this moon cycle.

- I'm letting go of the meditating every day for 365 days. That one was going to be a stretch and I knew I'd fail but I figured I'd go ahead and commit anyway because any bit of meditation is better than none right? I still plan on sitting on my cushion as often as possible but I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss a day or three...

It was too cold to be outside and create a ritual of letting go but as I drove to work in the morning I was bathed in moonlight the whole way (it was beautiful and distracting!) and I actually spoke my intentions out loud (I drive alone, haha). It was lovely and a great way to start my day.

Next New Moon: Friday January 27th
Next Full Moon: Friday February 10th

Thanks for stopping by :)

Pussy Hat Project

Have you heard about this? I'm so knitting a few of these!

They won't get there in time but I promise to wear mine on January 21st in solidarity and sisterhood with the many marching on Washington DC for Women's Rights.

Amazing!

Queue Review

Oh I haven't done a queue review in so long! I totally love the queue feature on Ravelry. I use it to bookmark the patterns I want to knit. But... I do curate it every so often to keep it current, otherwise I'd have pages and pages. If there's a pattern that's been on there for too long and I'm pretty sure I have no intention of knitting it I favourite it and delete it from the queue. Because honestly, sometimes when I queue things I'm just in a mood, or caught up in the excitement of a popular pattern or just covetous of the lifestyle the picture represents. And I change my mind. A lot. One of the perks of being a creative type I guess.

So I was checking out my Instagram feed this morning like I do and I saw this picture posted by Kate Davies...

I love this sweater! Like love it! Granted I love just about everything this woman designs, she's brilliant. The photos she posts are always beautiful too. Now this pattern is called The Oa and it's part of her Inspired by Islay Club which I just bought a subscription to because I want to be on Islay right now, or in Scotland, or anywhere where it's not -27C. Also I want to knit this sweater. And I want the book that comes at the end of the subscription period. Oooh I want a lot of things!

Another sweater I queued today but saw on Instagram a few days ago is this one by Bristol Ivy...

The pattern is called Winter Petrichor and it's the perfect winter ski chalet sweater... It's winter here... I could ski... therefore logically I should knit this pullover... It's cute and I could see myself wearing this with jeans. I even have a stove like the one in the picture... clearly it's meant to be.

The last pattern I'll post today I actually first saw on Pinterest. It's a hat pattern. I have a love/hate relationship with hats. I love the idea of wearing them but the reality never looks as good on me as I think it should. Also I always make them too small. Like every time. I've been knitting for awhile now, it's a bit frustrating that I can't get my sizing down...

Anyway this hat is beautiful and reversible! I think I have a grey fingering weight in my stash I could use for this too... The pattern is called Constellate by Hunter Hammersen. It's knit in Madeline Tosh, everything knit in Mad Tosh looks amazing, why is that?

So as always at the end of a queue review post... What's in your queue?

Blankets

Winter is the best time for blanket making. There's nothing like having a lap full of wool and warmth while I'm crafting. But... I think I have a problem. I`m pretty sure I have at least 5 blankets on the go and another one that I`m planning for.

Some are old WIPs and some are actually getting worked on but slowly. Of the old WIPs, 2 have been on the needles for more than 3 years. I`ve made a goal to get the crochet hexi blanket finished this year and I know that the big crochet granny square blanket will also be completed this year if I stick to my sock making plan. The other`s though...



hexi blanket

I have a quilt top for my niece that's sewn but not quilted. It's my first quilt and I'm totally intimidated by the idea of quilting it. I have another quilt on my vision board. I thought I'd quilt this one as I go and I have a small section done. I really think this will be a beautiful low volume quilt but I'm not inspired to finish it yet. I'm not as savvy with my sewing machine as I'd like to be and I'm honestly a little scared of it.

I'm excited to be starting a new blanket soon. I'm just gathering ideas and supplies right now. My son has been in the same daycare since he was a small baby and now that phase is almost over for our family. I'd like to make something for his caregiver. She's been amazing all these years and I'm so grateful for all the love she's given my littlest.

I'm thinking of a crochet ripple blanket in grey, white, rider green and black. It should be potato chip crafting and hopefully that will be all I need to finish it. I have most of the yarn already. I know once I start it though I won't be making anything else so I'll finish up a few other projects first.

Maybe this is why I live where winter is so long... So I have so much time to work on all these blankets!

granny square blanket

Prairie Snowshoe Adventures - Part One

Doesn't that sound like the name of shop?! Prairie Adventures...

This mountain girl still can't believe how easy it is to have adventures out here. I guess that means that it isn't the place that creates them, it's all about attitude. And my attitude for 2017 is all about adventure. I'm aiming to have as many as possible. This is my last year in my 30's and I want to make it good. So I'm working on a plan... stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'm making good on my resolution to get active and enjoy the winter more. I got out snowshoeing the other day. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to do it.



cheesy before hike selfie

I took Josie out too. She was dying for a run. I don`t normally take the dog with me when I go places, usually Brent does all the dog stuff (his dog you know) but there`s no reason for us not to adventure together when we can. She was funny to watch and listened well, I`ll take her with me next time too.

We went to the PFRA where we`ve had many long rambles over the years. It`s in a sad state of decline but you can`t tell with a blanket of white covering everything. I like that it`s just across from town and super easy to get to. We also wander the Experimental Farm (also just across from town) but more in the summer. I`ve been wanting to explore the White Butte Trails just outside of White City. They have 5k of hiking trails for dogs and snowshoers but I`ll have to check it out before I take Josie.

I personally love going the PFRA and would choose to go there over most other places. There`s never anyone else out there when I go! It`s like an oasis of privacy right next to the Number 1.

I also love the trees. I have a small thing for trees.

 

I`ll probably dedicate a few posts to trees (just to warn you). Some people have spirit animals, I hug trees.

So I`m 2 for 12 in my snowshoeing goal. Lots of winter left (I`m not sure why I live in a place where winter is so long when I hate being cold but there you go, it`s probably so I can make resolutions about learning to embrace it). I`m planning on going every Friday for sure and some other weekend day too. If I can do that then I`ll be good for reaching my goal no problem. I do need new winter boots though... my feet are killing me!