February

February has been unseasonably mild.  

It's President's Day.  Everyone has the day off except, well, my day is the same as usual.  

I spent the morning writing up a new hat pattern for Windy Valley Muskox.  At shows, we often have customers ask whether we have men's patterns.  Many of our patterns could be unisex, depending on the color it's knit in, but this was designed with the guys in mind.  Of course, it would look equally nice on a woman, in my opinion.  Anyway, this one's photographed on a man, so hopefully that will answer the question!  

Once I get the pattern posted on Ravelry, I will come back and add a link.  For now, a few details and a picture:

Yarn:  WVM's Australian Merino in 7014 Bering Sea, and WVM's Luxury Blend in 7015 Celestial Blue

Needles:  US 3/3.25mm and US 4/3.5mm, both 16", and US 4 dpns.  

It's lined - the qiviut blend is on the inside for extra warmth and luxury.  

Project page:  on Ravelry.

I know it's so dark, but manly color, you know.  You can see a bit of shine around the edge where the qiviut blend, which includes silk, peeks over.  

The other project I worked on was pruning my raspberries.  As I said, it's been so mild here; it seemed wasteful to spend the whole day inside.  I love having my own fruit, even if it's a few days here, a few weeks there, and I thought it was probably time I looked a little further into care for the canes.  I read this article and watched this video, which say the same thing essentially, and then set to work.  Now I hope for a healthy bounty, come September.  

 last September:

One more tidbit, my friend Susan was featured in the March 2017 issue of American Quilter.  Wow!  Congrats, Susan!!