Mending

Happy New Year! It's 42 F / 6 C here today! 

 We've been having beautiful weather. The grass is still green and there has been hardly any snow. You know, I've always been a lover of winter but I think I could get used to this!.

Locals will have noticed that the squirrels are in fine fettle. They still have easy access to their hoards.

The white globes in the following photos are my neighbour's garden lights. They are powered by the sun and hang around a cute little patio that they made for themselves in the bottom of the garden. They have one of those metal fire pots on it (you can just see it in the second photo). In the summer they put chairs around it. You could almost use it now, it's so warm.

I would have written sooner, but I got bogged down with various things: getting ready for kitchen and basement renovations, holiday visit from my daughter, plus I messed up both my ankles back in October and the achilles tendons do not seem to be getting much better. 

Whenever I give someone a piece of knitting, I assure them that they can bring it back to me at any time for mending, blocking or even washing. The only person who ever takes me up on this offer is my daughter. This year, I had several items to mend. This dickey did battle with moths during the warm months which is sad because it's a favorite of the wearer. First, I darned the holes with pale green yarn to stabilize it... 

Then Nadia hid the darning by embroidering over top...

For those who care, the pattern is my own variation on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Dickey von Beethoven. I just added the front opening, the edging and fancied up the collar by using contrasting yarn. Here's another, more recent example:

Cheers and best wishes for 2012!