A few days late

I meant to post the photo of the Valentine hearts on Monday. That was my plan for the past 2-3 weeks. Somehow my plan failed, so here's the photo now, early for next Valentine's Day.

My reason for posting the photo was to show you this. I'd already started knitting the little hearts and tossing them into my square glass vase (my very favorite vase, by the way), so I was a bit shocked to see that "A Friend to Knit With" had had the same idea. Not earth-shattering, just interesting.

And before I proceed, I must brag that the temperature here in southern Maine at this moment is 52°. That's right, 52°. And that's outdoors, not inside! Give Mainers a little hint of spring this time of year and we go nuts. Ken and I were out doing errands this afternoon when we drove by a couple sitting on their front steps, basking in the sun, with only short-sleeved t-shirts on. (Pants, too, of course, but no jackets. Not even sweaters! Just t-shirts.) I felt their joy.

I'm still knitting. I haven't shared any knitting in awhile, so I thought I'd start by sharing the knitting journal I kept last year. I consider it a little gold mine of information. I decided to keep a journal after realizing that I often never again see a knitting project that has taken me days, sometimes weeks, to produce, once I give it away to the intended recipient. This journal is my way of keeping at least a little token of my efforts as well as valuable information in case I knit the same pattern again...which I often do. I've taken photos of each 2010 knitting project and pasted them in the little journal with information about the pattern, the yarn used, needle size, etc.

Here's the bride's sachet I made for a dear friend's daughter-in-law last spring. This same friend will be acquiring a second daughter-in-law this coming summer, so I need to start a second bride's sachet before long.

Here is a Fair Isle hat, or a very simple version of a Fair Isle hat. I've never knit true Fair Isle and I probably never will. Carrying all of those various colors of yarn throughout the entire project sounds like a lot of work to me.

I love the woolen clogs. In fact, I'm wearing them at this very moment. They're my first choice for slippers during the winter months because they're so warm and cozy. I've made about 10 pairs of these clogs and the elf slippers.

My latest knitting project, finished just this morning when I sewed on the buttons, is this child's size 8 Aran cardigan. I love to knit Aran designs. This sweater gave me some problems although I've used this pattern for four previous Aran sweaters ranging in size from one year to adult medium: I made the sleeves too short, so I had to go back to them and add a few more rows; the buttonholes, which I can usually make at least half-decently, came out awful. I was devastated when I took a good, hard look at them and told myself I'd need to ravel the entire right front section and re-knit the thing in order to make tolerable buttonholes. I dreaded getting to this part of the project. I hate redoing something I've already done because I was too careless to do it well the first time.

But then, lo and behold, I decided to try doing a buttonhole stitch, by hand, with yarn and sewing needle, over the crappy buttonholes. Voila! It worked. Only the most discerning eye would ever guess the "handstitched" buttonholes are actually hiding little knitting disasters.

And now...now I'm ready for spring. We've had a good winter, and the snow is still about two feet deep on our lawns, but I'm ready to see the spring flowers and the summer birds. There's talk of cold temperatures returning this weekend, though.