Easter Crepes ~

One of my many blessings is a man that can cook. For Easter morning, he fixed us these amazing strawberry crepes with real whipped cream topping. (look how happy she is!)

They were amazing.  They were so amazing that we thought about not having Easter dinner, and just having more strawberry crepes....(except our neighbor is allergic to strawberries, and since their family was invited for Easter Dinner, we thought that might be bad manners....)

Here is our chef and my plate of yummy crepes!  Major Yum!!!

Heel Turn, finally ~

It seemed to take forever to get from the gusset to the heel turn with these socks. Perhaps because I have 4 other socks "on my needles" so it seems that I am always knitting and not getting to the heel turns.  I am here to report that I have heels on the yellow graduation socks and NOW I have heels on these "top o' the morning" socks too.

Knitting outside in the sunshine, and the greens on this sock flat are so beautiful!  At the end of the sock flat is the wild lime green... and I hope I will be knitting the top of the cuffs with that super color!  Perhaps they will be knee socks by then!

Track Rocks!

We had super weather for this track meet, no rain or snow today - Hurrah! My youngest track star ran the 1600 (one mile) and 3200 (two mile) and did really well in both races. (sadly, my oldest track star is still hurt but mending well...there will be news of her races later in the season)

Here is my youngest running with her Pack and they all ran so well!  I love track season, almost as much as cross country season!

Pagewood Farm Spring Yarn ~

I am happily amazed at how spring-like this yarn has turned out! Hurrah for Spring Colors!  Here in our region, it snowed two days after the First Day of Spring, and I know that many areas of the country still have a lot of snow...so many of us knitters and spinners are going for spring colors and hoping that spring will be here soon!

Here are two pictures of the skein in the sunshine. I think the picture on top looks more like the "real" skein, as there is a lot of pink in the lower picture, and that is not the case - although I love the look of both pictures!

I think the colors blended well and just a few spots where there was a bit of thick and thin spinning.  I am improving each spin and ply that I do.

Hurrah for another 179 yards of spring yarn! Hurrah!! Now I will have to search Ravelry for something great that takes 170 yards! (I put in the plyed bobbin picture too, as I think it looks darker on the bobbin, isn't that interesting?!)

Track begins ~

I would show you pictures of the first track meet on Thursday, but it was snowing....yes, snow and also hail and sleet, plus some regular rain.  I can tell you that the kids had goosebumps in their tank tops and shorts, yet were still super fast. 

 

These are pictures from Saturday's meet. A big invitational with lots of schools and tons of kids. Very exciting!

Much warmer, and the kids were also super fast.  Plus no goosebumps in their tank tops and shorts. Very excited that track has officially started. Spring much be coming soon, right?

Pagewood Farm Ply ~

This yarn is turning out to be different than I thought it would, which is the wonderful mystery of spinning fiber. Each spinner makes different yarn in singles and plying than any other spinner, even with the same fiber!  I love that part of spinning, wondering what lovely yarn I will spin it into... what will be its destiny if I am the spinner?

Since I only have four ounces of this lovely Pagewood Farm BFL, it seemed to spin up faster than the "more than four ounces" that I have been spinning lately.  Fast spinning feels good, but I know that I'll wish for more yarn when I am done plying.

So far, the colors are going together in a nice "feels like spring" sort of palette.  I am loving it so far!

Forgotten gusset ~

As I look at the 17 projects (gasp!) that I have cast on in the "On my needles" side bar of my blog, I get to thinking about which project is the closest to being done....there are times when I just want to finish something...that magical cast off moment where one feels that surge of accomplishment and that bounce into, "What shall I cast on now?"   More often than not, I cast on something new before finishing something, which should not surprise anyone that has noticed the 17 projects that are "On my needles" but I am sure that this many-projects-on-the-needles phenomenon is not unusual... Also, in the "not unusual" category, is that when I reacquainted myself with all my projects before St Pat's day, it turns out that I really like all of them...(ahem, not including the one with the lost armpits....)

Another note to share is that I had forgotten that I had knit up to the gussets on these socks, too. This means that of the five pairs of socks "On my needles" there is one pair past the heels, and two pair in the midst of gusset knitting.

Ahhhhh, Cashmere ~

This cashmere yarn is really soft. Really. Plus it is feather light, and I have to be careful as I pull it out of the wound ball, as it is ever so fragile as a 2-ply. So soft, and the colors are so soothing for me, especially as we are getting such a teaser for spring...daffodils are out (and getting poured on by the rain right now) and are the happiest of yellow in our yard!

This scarf is the happiest of pastels, outside on our deck, right before the rain started! Gotta love this cashmere!

Knitting o' the green ~

We had a great yarn yoga today with our wonderful group of knitters. As I thought about this time together knitting, as I always do....as our time together is such fun and too short, and I immediately start looking forward to our next time together..... well, I thought since it would be St. Patrick's Day, I should knit on a green project... and I was surprised to see how many of my 17 projects "On the needles" are green!!!  There is the newly reacquainted Barfly sweater, the party scarf out of the lovely shibui, my oh-so-soft qiviut scarf, another shibui project called the Trillian shawl, the Deep-V Tee out of hempathy, and the scarf that I cast on for the July wedding last year (and then found a better yarn for that outfit) and the socks from the sock flat....Seven projects out of 17 are green......

Since the sock flat yarn is called, "Top 'o the Mornin'" it seemed an easy choice to knit on this project on this special Irish day!  I hope you all did some knitting to celebrate!!!

Ghost sweater ~

From the depths of hibernation, deep in a bag that has been snapped shut for over a year....yes, it is... yes, the Barfly Sweater.... (odd name, yes..) yes, it last showed itself at our 2011 Whidbey vacation when I asked for help in getting the sleeves in the correct spot....before that, I had not knit on this sweater since June, 2010... Yikes!

Now, I have added the 12 stitches under each arm, and am knitting the sleeves like I knit two socks at once.  Pretty slick!  I do hope I can figure out the neck knitting. Then, perhaps I will tackle my Lacy Pullover without armpits.....(or maybe not....)

Help at work ~

There are some days at work that I know will be tougher than other days. Some night meetings will be harder to get through than others. Some presentations will take more preparation than others.

One way I prepare for those tough days at work is by wearing my knitting. Perhaps our knitting surrounds us in a Knitting Karma to protect us and support us through all that might happen. Also, our knitting reminds us of how enjoyable it was to knit that garment, to feel the soft fiber with every clever stitch, and we carry that joy with us. I borrowed this cowl from my daughter, as I needed knitwear plus the yellow feeling of Spring! 

Pagewood Farm Spins ~

I found this lovely fiber on sale at my favorite yarn shop, 40% off, how could anyone resist? I have always loved Pagewood Farm yarn, and never realized they also sold fiber.  I love their colors so I hope I can spin and ply some worthy yarn with this 4 ounce bump of BFL!

 ...hard to tell from these pictures, but fiber is mostly yellow and pink, with a bit of green and cream...lovely! Especially with my sweet pocket wheel!

We need more spinning time....so much fiber and so little spinning time...