Snow, socks and Splendids

I like this arrangement.

I have been watching a lot of snooker while knitting these. The socks are, of course, again, for the new babies born this year, blue and white in celebration of our 100 years of independence. If you really want to know, yes, I have been counting and this lot makes my list 45 pairs long. The darker blue is the one from my sister, and I'm going to knit as least all of that yarn for this project.

A friend is going to have a grandchild any day now, so I knitted a tiny hat in the softest merino wool.

Suddenly we had some new snow. There was just plain ice everywhere before this, and pedestrian accidents happened. With the snow, it was the cars' turn.

Anyway, I like the clean look the snow brought, and now with the sun out again, there is so much light. - I bought this green ball at the Christmas market of the Malmgård estate over two months ago, and it is still looking fresh.

The birds have finally come back. Their food supply in the nature must have been fine with so little snow, but now they seem to need our help after all. Here is the first goldfinch in six years visiting us:

Even the bullfinches have been a rare sight, but now they are back, the Mr on the left and Mrs on the right.

Other projects have taken up my time, but I managed to finish three more blocks for the Splendid Sampler:

The pumpkin is one of the bonus blocks.

Fleur de Lei is number 98

and Four Corner Spinwheel is number 99. Now I have one block to pick from the ones I haven't done yet, and the number 100 which I have cut but not pieced yet.

Almost there

With these four new Splendid Sampler blocks I'm almost there. Five more to go and I have my one hundred blocks. This one is called Gran's button jar:

Here is Sunshine:

First Purse:

and The Early Bird:

I'm trying to pick the easiest of the remaining patterns, and I may need to check the bonus block possibilities too. Without the support of fellow bloggers I might have given up a long time ago.

This morning I tried to catch the almost full moon in the pale pink sky when the sun was just rising. It is there, between the trees, about one third from the right side:

In the opposite direction the colours were much stronger:

February fun and some garment sewing

Believe it or not, I don't just sit and knit socks. Before Christmas I did some creative work and designed a protective garment for a very young artist as a Christmas gift.

I used a little girl's dress pattern but  as this is supposed to be an apron with sleeves, the back covers just the shoulders. The material is PU coated so the little guy will remain dry even when he uses watercolours.

Then I have been working on the Splendids again:

As I was itching to see what the suggested sashings would look like, I tried them on a new block:

And I crabbed some more blocks to see how they work together. It seems that my shadow grey is very close to a solid light blue I have used for the blocks and therefore a darker colour would have looked better.

This is what I bought and cut so this it is going to be.

Naturally I have been knitting too, so ten new pairs of baby socks are ready to be delivered.

My very pale blue 100% wool is almost used up, but no end of the project is in sight:

My sister P who is not a knitter, wanted to participate in this national project and bought four big balls of sock wool in blue and white for me to knit on her behalf. This means about 20 or more pairs of new socks. Luckily the Eurosport channel offers so much snooker, tennis and cycling that I will have a cozy time with Mr. K by my side and a knitting in my hands.