Every January I get a crazy POTS flair. Every year I know it’s because I did too much in December, causing my body to retaliate by forcing me to stay in bed for weeks afterwards. And every year as soon as December rolls around, I do it all over again. The holidays are just hard tone down! Especially when you have to tone it down to chronic illness levels (aka: basically never doing anything). After 8 years of being sick, I am still learning.
When I’m super sick, I typically pick up a knitting project. Knitting seems to be on of the easiest crafts to do in bed (though I am currently perfecting a way to use my sewing machine in bed! Super excited for when that’s done!) and when I’m super sick I need a distraction from the pain. So every January there is a lot of knitting going on in my house!
This year I picked up the Oatmeal the Snowman knitting pattern by Yarnigans. I’ve been eyeing this guy for a while now- I love the idea of a snowman with cables! I had two big balls of beautiful white yarn that I got in Argentina years ago and have been waiting for the perfect project to knit it up. I don’t know why it took me so long to put the pattern and yarn together in my head, but as soon as I did I knew the results would be adorable!
Of course, since I’ve basically been in bed all month, I didn’t just do one snowman. I did 3. Each with several outfits. (see? Lots of knitting going on in January!) The pattern was great! It went up really pretty fast for a knitting pattern, and was clearly written. And it was simple enough that I was able to adjust it to make a couple baby snowmen using the same yarn. (The big snowman is 5 cables around and 8 high, for the little ones I just took out some cables, making them 4 around and 6 high). My sister started making her own snowman with the same pattern but with smaller yarn and needles and it was looking adorable as well. Over all I’d say this pattern is definitely worth the $4.50 she charges on Etsy.
The Oatmeal the Snowman pattern includes instructions only for the snowman, but since I was stuck in bed I thought I’d make these guys some hats and scarves. I started making some holiday themed gear, but eventually realized I could actually put these guys out if I made them some Valentine’s Day ensembles (I love that I made all their gear with the ends of yarn I’d used in other projects) I think I love the V-day gear the best. There’s something about bring out bright red and pink in the middle of a cold winter that makes me smile. And adding heart applique to the ear muffs pretty much made my day.
In the end, January turned out to be a pretty fun month despite being pretty stinking sick. I’d definitely have to keep my eye out for some more adorable knitting projects for next year!
