Catching up

First scarf of the year

I finished Mike's scarf last night and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  We had a heavy frost last night but I wanted a photo of it taken outside so we started at the back of the house but it was in the shade and the colour didn't show up well enough.

After several attempts I was getting cold and so I nipped into the house to get a cap and we tried at the front in a sunny spot.  Much better.  The colour is just right.

Details:

The Jacki scarf by Nancy Marchant, designed as part of the Craftsy course Explorations in Brioche Knitting which is excellent so far (my next lesson explores 2 colour brioche which looks a bit more complicated!).

Yarn: Artesano Alpaca Aran in Deep Teal. 2.25 skeins used.

Needles: 4mm

Stitch: Brioche

Finished length: 6'6"

Difficulty: Moderate.  A good way to practice basic brioche stitch using simple increases and decreases.

Verdict: Mike's very happy with the finished scarf and will be wearing it tomorrow!  The yarn is beautiful to work with and the scarf is very warm.  Brioche is definitely a good stitch for scarves, hats, mittens and I'm fancying making some leg-warmers for myself.

My next project is some more overlay crochet.

Frosty morning

Brrrrr, it was nippy this morning, but beautiful too and so the camera came out with me when I fed the horses.

A sprinkling of snow on a pottery ball

Frosty panels on the barn

Frost crystals making leaves look all fuzzy

Pink buds of Rhododendrons

Beautiful veins on a prostrate Rubus (look at the lovely hairy red stem)

Tiny crystals on the fence

Even crystals edging my pottery dish and making the sempervivums look so pretty

Swirly patterns in the horses' hoofprints

Over-wintering guests

When I was dusting the bedroom the other day I spotted some more little ladybirds huddled in the corner of the window frame.  They look like Harlequin ladybirds who seem to like to stay in our bedroom for some reason!

 

Running, asthma woes, plus more fungi and moss

This week has been a bad one on the running front.  The spirit is willing but the body is weak and asthma is winning the battle at the moment.  It might be the cold weather that's doing it but I'm having great difficulty breathing on the uphill sections, which is unfortunate as all my routes are hilly!  I recover quickly but at the time it's just so hard to breathe which can be quite scary.

As a result, my 12 miler on Sunday was a real struggle, especially on the hilly bits, of which there were many.  Thankfully I'd taken my camera with me and so I consoled myself with photos of things that caught my eye.

Tree with mossy socks on his toes!

 My obsession with fungi continues and it's been a great season for all manner of beauties:

Frilly petticoats

I think this looks like  a stack of pancakes!

To make myself feel better when I got home, I baked a wholesome sourdough loaf using a mixture of white and spelt flour.  Very tasty and especially good with some homemade tomato and red lentil soup!

My asthma medication has now been re-assessed and I have to take more doses of my Symbicort inhaler.  Hey ho, let's see if that works.  I really hope so as it's getting me down and interfering with my marathon schedule.