eerily quiet in blogland

Posted on Posted in lace/shawls, projects, Uncategorized

isn’t it amazing how you you can just tell when a big sheep and wool event is going on? there is an actual stillness in blogland. it would have been the perfect weekend to blog like crazy, with everyone away, but did i?

Noo-o-o. to be fair, i was very busy knitting. and spinning.
i’ll tell you all about it in one sec, but first

look you guys, it’s nature’s nupps.
actually these are the flowers on the solomon’s seal inour backyard. it’s hosta and violet FESTIVAL here at the ranch. that is, everything of that particular plant family is leafing out and/or blooming.
check these out

are you jealous? they smell divine.
of course, we are too allergic to them to bring them in the house, but they look prettier in their natural environment anyway (hehe, yeah, we learned that the hard way during the first spring here, when i excitedly brought ARMfuls of lilac into the house and made us both deathly ill. ahem. yes, moderation in all things, anne).

and then, i noticed these are just beginning to appear (for you debbie e.)

i’m a tad worried that this might be all we see of the bleeding hearts this year. this plant is usually bigger, and loaded with flowers; i dunno if it’s going to go crazy as usual, though.

but my favorite thing that i spied new in the hosta bed is

i don’t like ferns much when they get bigger, because they are messy and hard to keep neat (i.e., they require some attention which i am too lazy or too careless to give).

but fiddleheads—i’m in love. there has to be a knitting equivalent for this incredibly delicate and primitive shape. not to mention the texture. something swirly and mohair-y, to catch the light in exactly the same way.

because i have yarn for it, i’m sure.

speaking of yarn . . . i’m sure you can watch grass grow in your own backyards, and you don’t come here for that. so let’s look at some yarn and knitting.

second teosinte sock is underway. have i mentioned i love the yarn?
kim is rockin’ the test knitting, too, and we should have her OK to release the pattern by monday or tuesday.

speaking of which, a HUGE thank you to the several people who emailed me this past week to offer to test knit. i am deeply impressed that someone would want to do that. test knitting is a bit of a challenge; working with a beta pattern and on a somewhat deadline isn’t easy. i take my hat off to those of you who actually volunteer to do it. it is extremely valuable work and i am grateful for those willing to collaborate that way.

what else i have here is more swatching, actually.
i know—you thought i ran off with the miracle yarn, right?

well, we’ve had a 2-day tryst here and i think i know what i want to do. now, don’t judge this swatch by the patttern alignment—it’s wrong, but i have it fixed in my head.

i’m going for more of a deco look with this scarf—i want something with a strong vertical line and the visual weight pulling downward. chevron at the hems and up the sides in lieu of any sort of frilly edge. in between, a field of stockinette with one large orchid lace panel up the center. i’ve had my eye on the orchid lace panel for some time now.

there will be a long-ish mitt to match—same motifs but in a smaller scale.
so far, so good. i might even cast on tonight . . .

and then i pulled out some sock yarn because i’ll be ready to start two new pair soon. one will be a golf sock, just in time for father’s day. i’m going to use this khaki lorna’s laces

intrigued? i’ll show you swatches tomorrow or tuesday—i plan to have fun with those.
the yarn on the bottom is fearless fibers superwash merino sock in deepest forest colorway.
i don’t think i have to tell you where i’ll be drawing my influence from for this color, but if in doubt, see above.

and i did some spinning this weekend too, but darn it, i forgot to photgraph the fascinating bobbin of singles i am filling. hehe, maybe next time.

32 thoughts on “eerily quiet in blogland

  1. I was thinking about that earlier today,as I sat at home regretting not going to the MD S&W (I’m only an hour away!) my Bloglines have been really quiet. I’m assuming that there will be a flood of them tomorrow.
    I love your springy plant pictures!

  2. The best way to duplicate a fiddlehead fern is in crochet. 🙂 You can match it just about perfectly if you have the right yarn. I’m not so sure in knitting as it wouldn’t have the right dimensionality (is that a word?) and enough texture to be a true match. But I’m sure you could come up with a spiraling lace pattern that would be a nice representation of it. 🙂

  3. “. . .And there, red, unholy strong,
    Comes the bleeding heart
    Pushing up through damp earth
    Curled and thick
    Turgid spring, uncoiling.”

    You are so sweet, Anne!
    Love the plants.

  4. I may have over-blogged this weekend. But your one quality post easily trumps all three of mine. I LOVE lily of the valley and lilacs, you’re very lucky to have them and I’m glad they didn’t do you both in! We just planted a baby lilac bush this spring and I’ve high hopes for it because it seems to be thriving.

    The scarf swatch looks awesome. Very strong lines.

  5. okay.. so white coral bells?? my grandmother used to wear that perfume, but I cannot for the life of me recall the exact name..Fiddlehead ferns! how fun. Do you know that they are a fabulous food (tastes like asparagus) but I do not know which types are poison or okay.. so don’t cook them. they would look wonderful knit up in some of Anne’s colorways that you have 🙂
    golf socks? how totally fun!
    can’t wait til teosinte is released.

  6. The plants are beautiful. I love the plants especially the swirls. I can see it in mohair, I also see it as an embroidery over a knit. It is really gorgeous. Love the swatch, I think you are absolutely on the right track it will look gorgeous.

  7. so THAT’S why it’s so quiet. I forgot about MSWF. I’ve been checking my Google Reader all weekend and wondering why it was so empty.

  8. This lull before the storm in blogland is just fine for right now, because my google reader has expanded so much in the past few weeks that I’m having trouble keeping up!

  9. Mmmm, “Miracle Scarf” – I think I can imagine how you’re going to shift the pattern alignment, and that will be stunning.
    Singles on the bobbin – would that be the Spunky Eclectic? Or could you not stand to wait on that raspberry lusciousness?

  10. Fiddleheads! (Sudden pang of homesickness.) Beautiful!

    By the way, your lilacs remind me of the story my MIL tells, of, when she and her husband moved East for the first time as young newlyweds, where they moved to, there were these gorgeous lilies in the yard. She cut a number of them and went all out in making a glorious flower arrangement for a dinner party that night. She was from a town of about 200 in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, and she’d married the son of a Washington DC bigwig, whose friends were coming to that dinner, so she really wanted to make a good impression on both the bigwigs and her new in-laws.

    Um. She’d never heard of daylilies before. Oops.

  11. You are so much farther ahead in your spring. My sseal is but spikes, and the bleeding heart is only thinking about it so far. They are indeed much smaller than last year here too. I wonder why.

  12. So much fun to see spring in so many incarnations. Mine is weeks behind.
    You can usually buy fiddleheads inthe market this time of year. Saute them.

  13. I think we’re willing to wait for more spinning, since you’ve posted some stellar in-progress knitting photos. Looks like a great spring weekend at your place.

  14. You said it – it sure was quiet around here!!!! heh. I always like it when I see knitspot pop up in Bloglines because I know you’ll certainly have the loveliest pictures!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. Oh! The flowers! My garden is starting to explode as well, but I have to go out to the woods to find any fiddleheads as cool as yours. They are edible, by the way. At least according to a botany prof I had awhile back. I’ve tried the wild ones, and they are quite tasty. Seeing fiddleheads always reminds me of an Irish song an old friend used to sing:

    She fiddled in the hall
    and she fiddled in the alleyway
    She really didn’t care
    ‘cuz she had to fiddle anyway

    Love the lace–can’t wait to see the finished product!

  16. I should run out and check on our Lillies of the valley, mybe they’re blooming already! I love the smell of them.

  17. Those flowers look lovely ! And so does the Orchid lace panel !
    That is something quite special to me, because we grow Orchids for a living. We have over 500.000 plants of them in our greenhouse ( don’t think something exotic now ) and I have a lot of them in the house too. So I’m very curious how this shawl is turning out….

  18. Look at all that knitting. The sock looks great!!! I can’t wait to see what you have cooked up with the shawl.

  19. Judging from your ferns and lily of the valleys, our garden is just a few steps ahead of yours (our lilys are fully open, but we don’t have as many flowers as you!). So, I think I can give you hope for the bleeding heart. We thought the frost had hit ours hard enough that it wouldn’t flower at all, as it was slow coming back, but it did come back almost 100%, so give it some more time!

    Also, if you have any woods near you you think might have trilliums, go take a peek in the next few days. It was a gangbuster year for them in central Ohio at least.

  20. Thanks for the pictures of the lily of the valley. I grew up with and they’re my favorite flower. Unfortunately they don’t grow here in the desert. That orchid though, it may just have to grow here 🙂

  21. Love the fiddlehead in lace idea! Your flowers are lovely – ours must be a few weeks behind, I have all same ones and they’re not quite there yet!

  22. Fiddleheads are quite expensive in the Farmer’s Markets here in NYC. Can’t wait to see the sock swatches!

  23. bleeding hearts are funny – one year they seem to be covered with flowers and not so many another year….i love hostas – I have a ton of them and the purple flowers they have are so pretty!

  24. Solomon’s seal, check! Fiddlehead ferns, check! Bleeding hearts, check! Hostas (damn hostas, I hate them) check! Your yard sounds a lot like mine, except yours doesn’t have killer wisteria in it, I hope.

    heh, I typed “yarn” instead of “yard” and had to go correct it. 😉

  25. If you figure out the fiddlehead stitch, please share!

    On a side note–I am a beginner lace knitter with a very keen interest in the wing o’ the moth shawl. How would you rate its difficulty? Thanks.

  26. Your garden photos are so beautiful! That first one – with the shadows mingled with sunlit portions – is particularly fabulous.

    And, of course, it goes without saying that your knitting is as superb as always. I love where you’re heading with the deco scarf and can’t wait to see the orchid panel!

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