a sometimes backward progress

it continues to be unusually warm for early april here; 85 degrees yesterday and we’re breaking records all over the place. it won’t last, but i don’t care—it’s wonderful for now. i have spring fever really bad, too; i’m tempted constantly to ditch everything to spend all day outside watching the plants grow or riding my bike.

the lily of the valley have sprung up now, a whole grove of them outside the back door.

while it’s hard for me to capture through the lens how thick and full they fill in that area, i can share how far along they’ve gotten in just a day or two

covered with buds already. wow.
i think of these as an early may flower, but here they are.

and all the hostas are up above ground now, even the littler ones, where two days ago, we had just these.

it’s hard to be disciplined, i’m telling you. only the fact that i’m petrified of forgetting to do something keeps me on task.
(and even there, i managed to screw up; i rescheduled spinning classes from sundays to thursdays this month because of my trips, and totally forgot that most thursday nights are already devoted to another commitment. ah, me)

anyway, i’m working away on the baby blanket and have added a few more repeats; i won’t finish before i leave on friday as i dreamed i might, because i got in my own way and started swatching for other projects (more on that later).

i’m about two-thirds of the way done with the blanket and i’d have to finish it up tonight to be able to block it tomorrow. i mean, may-be it will happen (it would be nice!), but probably not.

(actually, even writing about it now makes me want to get it finished, just to see if i can do it.)

i did work on it a bit last night when i went to knit at susie’s house. i also cast on my second neon chiclets sock and got far enough to make it completely portable while we talked about gardening and everything else under the sun.

it’s all is a big balancing act; i enjoy having just three or four projects going, because i like seeing steady progress on each of them. but i like exploring new ideas too. and developing new ideas is the only way to get to the point where i can start new projects once those in progress are finished. plus, the mix is entertaining blog fodder and not one to be minimized . . .

oh, and not to mention the temptations that land on my doorstep prodding and whispering for me to start swatching.

case in point

craig at great northern yarns, whose luscious mink/cashmere blend we fell in love with this winter, has sent me some of his newest offering—100% mongolian cashmere. not just any cashmere, but a beautiful, soft, longer staple cashmere that has been spun into the most beautiful yarns.

in the photo above are several solid shades of his 2-ply laceweight; i took that photo yesterday while trying to decide which color to cast on right now for a traveling scarf project.

and below

the 6-ply sport/DK in a heathered plum colorway. this one is spun from dyed cashmere fiber in several colors to make a beautiful jewel of a blend. craig is expecting more colors in these heathered shades in both DK and laceweight in the next few weeks and we’ll be seeing the laceweight in a shawl project later this spring or summer.

how could i resist? i tossed and mulled the ideas i had in my mind about which color would be a good scarf for right now and finally decided that since it’s spring and flowers are the latest news

pink is the color to go with.
i like this little lace pattern a lot—sure, it’s easy to do and repetitive enough to memorize quickly. but the main reason i like it is that it looks like a mass of campanula flowers. it really captures for me the way they tangle and entwine with each other in a patch.

the lace yarn feels like it still has the spinning oil in it and i like that—it gives it a smooth surface and a bit of stiffness that makes such a fine yarn (400 yards per ounce) easier to handle. don’t let that yardage per ounce scare you—cashmere is extremely lightweight; the yarn is fine, but not cobweb. it blooms after washing to full out a little.

more to come on that project; i’ll cast on for a scarf tonight and tuck it in my traveling bag to work on when i’m switching off from my sock or my twinings stole. that’s three traveling projects—plenty for this weekend. i also have my cabled sock as backup (and two longjohn socks in progress for next week’s trip to camp).

now, swatching for just one future project is never enough trouble for me to get into at once—you know that. and with all i have to do before i leave home, you’d think i’d let myself get much more distracted than a little swatch for a simple scarf, right?

and you’d be absolutely correct—i haven’t changed my ways one whit. despite my very long to-do list, i’ve managed to get completely fired up on castles in the air when i outta be packing or organizing something concrete.

ever since i finished pine and ivy, i’ve been anxious to sit down and chart out my next idea, which came to me just as i was finishing that project. i put it off last week to take care of things i needed to do, but since my taxes were done saturday, i designated the remainder of the weekend to do design work.

i got a first draft of the charts done and monday night after class and supper, i started swatching. the work is very preliminary—more like sketches with yarn and needles, putting a few things together to see if they work in yarn.

ain’t it just awful?
ok, now i’m laughing at myself because so much here isn’t even part of the design, but just trying things. i’m not even using the actual project yarn yet (it’s on its way; i’m hoping the mail carrier will bring it tomorrow).

so far, a couple of things work and most don’t (don’t even look at the bottom part—that’s all wrong for sure). i think i’m mainly showing you this to prove that beginnings are humble indeed; there will be much more switching, swapping, and swatching, to get this piece to sing.

now that i’ve done something with it, i’ll have plenty of time to think about what it needs. i’ll swatch again whenever i have time for that and maybe somewhere in the next few weeks, a new shawl will be on the needles.

in the meantime, progress occurs elsewhere and i’m so glad.