Yesterday marked exactly six months since the first snowfall of the season, which occurred on Oct. 10, 2012. April 10? Rain/snow mix.
It was just too much for me. It’s been an abnormally dreary winter to start with, so much so that I started taking vitamin D every day, and despite the impressive melt we were getting before this latest ugliness descended upon us, it’s still going to be another month or so before I can see the backyard. It was too much. Sunflowers weren’t cutting it. Socks in tropical colours weren’t cutting it. I needed something else.
Something green. So I packed my swift to the library with my brand new nostepinne (mahogany; I love it), and wound up a ball of gorgeousness to counteract winter’s heavy hand.
The yarn is Dragonfly Dyewerx (Whimsical and Wonderful Natural Fibres, Hand-Dyed in the Badlands of Alberta) Twisted Smooshy Sock 80% Merino/10% Cashmere/10% Nylon in a one-of-a-kind colour called Poison Ivy. It was one of the kits I picked out at the Loop when I went shopping with my mother-in-law for my Christmas present. The pattern is the Hanging Glacier Cowl by Calgary designer Clair Thorley, who drew inspiration from the shape of glaciers she saw after a trip to Lake Louise, AB.
Glaciers? Heck no. This is no glacier cowl. This is riotous undergrowth. This is Spring slapping back at Winter. This is rainforest, or that crazy meadow you pass through on a late spring hike that’s just begging deer or elk or moose to come and eat. This is greenhouses filled with bedding plants and produce plants. This is the antithesis of anything to do with cold, ice, and snow. My sister starts seeds? I knit green.
My 192-stitch long-tail cast-on only left me with a leftover tail of about a foot, which is pretty awesome, and I knit the first few rows flat before joining in the round. It’s just what I need right now when I look out at the snowy world that started for us half a year ago. And hopefully, as I think it was Catherine who said last night, by the time I finish it, it’ll be too warm to wear. That’s okay. This one isn’t about the finished product right now. It’s about a life preserver of green after a half-year of white.
