Mid-April

Wednesday, Wednesday. This mid-morning I'm looking out at overcast skies on a humid 70 degree day. The temperature is going up to 83 degrees later this afternoon. As my grandfather would have said, "this is storm-brewing weather." Last night thunder rumbled and lightning flashed all around with but no rain fell. Most flowering trees are in bloom in Lincoln. Like most areas of the country, temperatures are fluctuating widely. Sunday was literally freezing. Ah Springtime. 

Today is Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and friends. As I wrote last week, I finished the purple birthday shawl, so named because I used a birthday gift card from my sister toward the yarn. The shawl blocked out beautifully. The fabric is delightful. I had this pattern in my queue for quite awhile. I wanted to knit all three repeats of the last lace section but wasn't sure I had enough yarn to knit the pattern as written. My solution was to omit the last wide garter stitch band. Instead I framed the "leaf/tree" lace with matching garter ridges. That worked well and the shawl is still a generous size. 

I've added five teeth to the Hitchhiker. It is pleasant knitting in the evening. I have a second skein so I can make it as long as I want. I'm going to measure it against the other hitchhiker in my drawer and decide. Have you ever noticed that when you knit stash yarn, it just changes storage areas? Part of my spring/summer clothing switch is going to include going through all the hand knits. 

I have worked some on the colorwork hat. Sarah left some helpful colorwork tips in her comment last week. I am spreading out the stitches on the right hand needle and that helps correct the pulling I often create in colorwork fabric. If the colorwork looks decent, I'll donate the hat to a charity. 

As for reading, I'm finishing up Fresh Water for Flowers and thoroughly enjoying the characters, the writing, and the story. The structure of short chapters suits the novel. I like the way the life story of the main character, Violette, unfolds. One night when I couldn't sleep, I pulled a favorite, The Heart of the Sound: An Alaskan Paradise Found and Nearly Lost from my shelf. Holleman's descriptions of Prince William Sound before and after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill are beautiful and heart-breaking. This nonfiction is part nature writing and part memoir. The author raises some good questions about resilience, restoration, and recovery. One hopes science, business, and government agencies have learned something from this catastrophe. 

I hope you have a good week. I'm off to take a walk. And just because life isn't confusing enough, I'll share this photo from my dining room. Flowers, I'll take them whenever they bloom. 

Ravelry Links

Birthday Shawl

Slouch Colorwork Hat