Wednesday, April 19, 2023

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



10 comments:

  1. Ha! I shared a blooming Christmas cactus on my blog today too. Your purple shawl is gorgeous Jane - I love the size, the pattern and the color. Looks great on you too. It's been some time since I did any colorwork, but seeing your hat reminds me that I enjoy that. I may need to search out a pattern.

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  2. Jane your shawl is stunning! I love all of the different sections...they just pop after blocking. My Christmas Cactus is blooming also. The first time in a couple of years. Have a good week.

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  3. Your purple birthday shawl is so rich and sumptuous, simply gorgeous! We've got rollercoaster, storm-brewing weather also, but I guess that is part of spring. I don't have any Christmas cactus blooming, but I do have two Easter cactuses that have been in tight buds for two weeks. I'm wondering how long they can hold out before opening.

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  4. What a stunning shawl: it looks fantastic on you!

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  5. That shawl is a beautiful color. I also like your Christmas Cactus. Mine was dying and I found out that water it with sugar water helps, and it did, but still no blooms. I hope you enjoy the end of the week.

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  6. Your birthday shawl is just gorgeous and I'm glad you found a way to work through your challenges with your hat. I love your description of your lightening and thunder-filled night. How eerie to not have rain with it! But it sounds just about right based on my understanding of prairie weather -- very eerie!!

    I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, Jane.

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  7. I have been admiring the shawl as you've been knitting it, but I didn't truly have a sense of how big it was until you modeled it -- and now I'm even more impressed! It's beautiful on you as well as off.

    I think your colorwork is looking excellent! I enlarged the photo and your gauge looks incredibly consistent, so what you are doing is working!

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  8. That shawl is stunning, Jane! Wow! But your Christmas Cactus... so fun! (Mine started blooming for Easter!)

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  9. I'm so glad you enjoyed Fresh Water for Flowers, Jane. I thought it was such a lovely book (and "unfolding" is the perfect way to describe it!). I recommend it to everyone, all the time. I love the Birthday Shawl -- the color and the pattern make such a great combination. XO

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  10. your birthday shawl is beautiful and what a shade of purple!! I like the size of it as well.

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