Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Spring?!

Guess what I woke up to this morning! That's right, snow.









Crazy, huh? By the time I took these pictures, it was already melting. An hour later most of it had dropped off the trees and flowers. I hope the poor lilacs will recover! The tomato looked a little shell-shocked.

In other picture news, I finally took a picture of my finished Forest Canopy Shawl that I made from a skein of Copper Penny from Earthly Hues. It reminds me so much of fall leaves.


I've been playing with the drop spindle recently. On the Lime and Violet Ravelry group, there has been a movement to spin up some of that fiber you have been intimidated by or that you think is just too pretty to use. This is some CJ Kopec 100% merino in Cowgirl Chic.

I started spinning it up at the Equine Affair (basically a really big teaching clinic for horses and riders) a couple of weekends ago. I've been getting better and better with it. Having spun on a spinning wheel made it much easier to use a drop spindle. It has been a challenge learning how to spin merino and use a drop spindle but it has definitely been fun.

Next is a pair of linen handtowels from the Mason-Dixon Knitting pattern. These were good mindless knitting projects. The first one took me a little more than a week to make. The second one, however, only took a weekend. It was the project I took to work on during my 2 day workshop. It made the time go much faster :)


I noticed something funny when I was packing for the overnight stay. Even though it was only a 2 day thing, I had 3 different projects with me. One project was the handtowel. Another is a shawl in the final stages of knitting on the border (after having to rip back a few rows because I ran out of yarn 6 inches before the border was finished. Not that I'm bitter or anything). The third was another shawl not even started yet, only yarn and a pattern.

I was rummaging around my stash trying to figure out what the third project could be in case I somehow miraculously got through the other 2 projects. I came across some sock yarn mom had bought when she was on vacation. It is Regia silk, a silk/merino blend. I love the yarn but I didn't really want to make socks out of it. Instead, I decided to make the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits (hurry, they have their 5 most popular patterns for free until May 14th!). The pattern calls for a laceweight so my shawl is definitely going to be bigger.



It has been a really fast knit. I started it on Sunday and am already close to being finished. There are just 2 charts to go. Unfortunately, somehow, my accident prone self hit the back of my hand on something yesterday evening. Within seconds there was a lump, bruising and lots of pain. It was kind of hard to drive home from work yesterday. I definitely didn't knit last night. Today, I have a lovely bruise, a bump and less pain than before. Fun times. Darn accident prone self.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne!
Can I steal that photo of your shawl and post it on Earthly Hues' blog? It's beautiful!
Tricia