April's End

Hello Gentle Readers. Greetings on this cool day at the end of April. This morning I turned on the heat and put on a sweater. Over the weekend rain fell and, in our yard, the first lavender iris bloomed. The sky is overcast as the neighbors have their fence replaced. Last summer a fierce storm blew down the wooden fence. 

I tend a strip of perennial flowers along that fence. The fence has always buffered the west wind and provided shade late in the afternoon. The new fence will maintain that habitat. I hope the flower bed isn't damaged in the re-fencing. The lavender iris, sweet peas, and medium tall phlox in that bed came from a friend who died years ago. I also wonder how summer sun reflecting off white vinyl will affect the flowers. I prefer wood but it's not our fence and vinyl may last longer. Gardens do grow and change. 

This last week, I finished the Rambouillet spinning project in the photo. In hindsight, it might have been better to ply some of these shades together and tone down the bright pinks. However the yarn is soft with that handspun kind of bounce. I may combine some of these skeins with another handspun yarn into one project. 

I finished the scrappy shortie socks. When I returned to them, the second foot was almost finished so now they are in the drawer. I knit a bit of 1 x 1 ribbing on the bottom of the sock. I went down a needle size for the ribbing and like the modification. It keeps them from slouching down into my walking shoe.

The other two knitting projects are coming along. The very light colors do not photograph well on a cloudy day. It's nice to be on the decrease side of the baby blanket. The shawl is peaceful knitting and I look forward to knitting a little bit each evening.

I read Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland by Jen Hadfield. The book is a series of atmospheric essays without a recognizable structure. To me they felt very much "in the moment." Some of the writing is lyrical. She does not romanticize the rugged beauty or ignore the harsh realities of life on an island at "the seam of the Atlantic and the North Sea." Descriptions of the birds, ocean, the island, its inhabitants, and local customs are well done. Hadfield placed an essay about the history of "Shaetland" language in the middle of the work. The essay described variations among dialects, how the language is fading from use, and efforts to preserve it. She reflected on what the loss of language means for the inhabitants of the island. Given that she used Shetland words throughout the book, I would have preferred this essay closer to the beginning. 

She included a glossary of some vocabulary used in the book. Some Shetland words are italicized, other are not and not all of either variety are in the glossary. Sometimes word meaning was included or could be inferred from the context and sometimes not. If she had a pattern in mind for vocabulary usage, I failed to understand it. I don't have knowledge of the language or Scottish idiom so that was part of my confusion. All of this made for a choppy reading experience as I often flipped back to check the glossary. I did enjoy learning more about Shetland.

Happy end of April to you. I hope you have a good week.

Ravelry Links

Scrappy Helical Socks

Baby Blanket

Gemma Shawl