Haven't we been here before?

Just when we thought we'd had the last of the snow, back it came. They went to school; I went to work - we were all back by lunchtime. I wouldn't have wanted to leave it any longer. This was the "main road" in my village yesterday:



The Church:



and the back field:



Nothing to do but sit and knit.

The sock yarn blanket is up to 410 squares - I would say it is about a third done. My pair snuggled up under it:



More pictures:



(I think that might be upside down - some of you may wish to stand on your head for a proper look.)

Close-up of one of the squares:



(Right way up - stand normally now.)

I've also been knitting a Cabled Waistcoat (or "Vest"). A friend of mine asked if I would knit something for her. She then produced a small, dark image of a waistcoat. I have done the best I can to reproduce it.

A front:



The cable is the Celtic Plait from the Harmony "Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches"

The Back:



I know it looks quite small but it's 2 x 1 rib, so very stretchy. It also looks short; that is because there is a deep (like six inches deep) band of rib around the bottom of the garment.

The yarn had to be: aran weight; natural colour; 100% natural fibre and machine washable. I settled on Rowan Pure Wool Aran because it ticks all the boxes. I'm using 4.5mm needles and I used Knitware Design to give me an outline of the pattern but I changed it quite a bit because it's shorter, double-breasted, has a much longer collar, is much lower in front and has that band of ribbing round the bottom - just about the only thing that remains from the original is the armhole shaping.

I'm slightly stalled now because it's time to start the button holes on the other front and I want to get the buttons first. I haven't made it to the button shop yet - see first picture, above - but I'm hoping to get there this afternoon.

I leave you with a sunny back field:

Lyra

A while ago Lacis reprinted Lyra (that's Jane's - beautiful), a Herbert Niebling pattern that had become very rare and hence very expensive. Naturally, I had to have it. I started it a few weeks ago on a 2mm circular Addi that is three metres long. I snapped that up at the KCG last March, egged on by that arch enabler Sue, who, as it turns out, is also knitting Lyra.

I used Emily Ocker's circular start and I'm using the magic loop technique - no wrestling with a few teeny, tiny stitches on skinny (tt) dpns for me. A three metre long cable does mean that I have rather a lot of cable flapping about but as she grows things should settle down. The bonus is that she won't be all scrunched up (tt) on the needle and I'll be able to take some pictures so you can all see how sad and crumpled and just plain horrible lace knitting looks before blocking and then you can all marvel (as I do, every single time) at the transformation blocking brings about.

A close-up of the central flower:




Overview of the whole thing so far:



Here's the cable coming out at the side:



For some reason, it doesn't seem to pull the stitches so much if the cable crosses when it emerges (as you can just about see here).

The weather forecast was, in part, correct. It did, indeed, snow, just not quite so much as we had been led to believe (at least not here).

This was the back field yesterday, looking very grey and wintery:



and here it is today, looking bright and sunny:



Of course, the whole country just about ground to a halt and school was closed today. We have been revising Religious Education with #1 son. Net result? #1 daughter and I have a firm grasp of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, #1 son, less so. Maybe I could put in to do the exam for him?