Spring Knitting Weather

She who must be obeyed (that would be my eight-year old), has absconded with my  long awaited Handmaiden silk ribbon yarn.  "Make me a mini-skirt" she commanded airily as she left the room.  Because I live to serve, as soon as I can do the math to recalculate Colinette’s Giotto Mini-Skirt pattern, I will be casting on.  It will look better on her, than it would have looked on me, in any event.  It is really pretty yarn that isn’t available on their website, but that I was lucky enough to get my hands on.  Pictures forthcoming.

Ellie only got her grubby little hands on the Handmaiden, because I had pulled out all of my spring yarn and was eyeing where to start.  I haven’t knitted with a ribbon yarn before, so I decided to warm up with a little tank made out of Colinette’s Giotto in the Paintbox colorway (an ebay purchase that I was ecstatic about).  It is essentially just row after row in moss stitch — very good meeting knitting.  Not particularly mind boggling although the needle is a bit prone to slice through the ribbon, so I think I’m going to have to beware.  Knitting with this yarn gives me a chance just to see how beautiful it is  It really could pass for silk and the colors are mah-velous. 

I’m also swatching for new socks, hopefully for myself this time.  I have misplaced the ball band, but I have emailed the store where I purchased it, in hopes they can identify it for us.

Isn’t that beautiful?  This is my last pair of self-patterned socks for a while, as I received the new Interweave sock book I posted about last week and can’t wait to start in on those patterns.  This yarn, however, has been on top of the stash box in my bedroom for months, calling my name.  It got too loud to ignore.

Here are some tidbits from my early morning.  On the other end of the leash is my neighbor George, being walked by his dog and my cat.

Harry & Hermione love Little Miss Ellie, and they come running to see her when it is time for their walks.  They also take great delight in stalking her….and attacking.  The kittens have now befriended all of the neighborhood dogs and go running to see their friends Pierre and AJ too.

Can you see how beautiful it is getting here?  Everything is coming out.  My roses are blooming.

The dogwoods are out and my lavender is in full bloom.

I grow an obscure tall garden iris called Eleanor’s Pride, that I planted when Ellie was born.  It was a Dykes award winner in the 1961 and is subtle and lovely.

And we even have early blooms on our Meyer Lemon tree.

It is truly spring, and if we can manage to survive the pollen, it’s going to be a wonderful one.  I’m off for one last day of work this week, and then a mad weekend of children’s birthday parties, visits from out of town friends, and yarn dyeing.  I’m going to rave at length about my Mama Bear skein winder, which arrived on Wednesday and proved incredibly easy to assemble and use.  I wound up a test skein of my British Blue Face Leicester and dyed it.  Two new loves in one week — this skein winder and this yarn are going to be making my weekend really enjoyable.  The pink yarn is the first bath of a yarn I’m working on — Meagan, take note.  And the undyed skein is some bulky merino I’m playing with.  I have been wanting to add a bulky sweater yarn to my line up and I think this one is going to be it.  It is incredibly soft, evenly spun, and the first few test skeins are looking great.

I just love spring and all it holds in store!