Green Like Ireland

White fence, green fields, blue sky on a changeable spring day

This farm shocked me with its pleasant March green field, after a day of talking with family who were driving into the snows of Wisconsin or were dodging hail the size of golf balls. In March, when the scales between winter and spring can tip either way, I’ll drink in any vista with green that I can get, even if it’s on a cold, raw day with threat of torrential downpours. [This was shot on Sunday, north near Bel Air, MD. And all that came into my brain was snippets of Walt Whitman poetry. Pure joy.]

Song song Green

Well, a little bit blue, too, because I need to rip this back. At least I discovered it before I was beyond 24 inches of cabling.

The flash washed out the color of the yarn a bit. Stats: Green Mountain Spinnery cotton comfort. Color is almost a green equivalent of faded bluejeans — just lovely and muted. (It was a lovely present one year at Christmas, I think.)

Stats: Honeycomb sweater from Knitty. I think I have to rip back around 10 rows. Oddly enough, I’m beginning to wonder if I could turn this pattern into a little belero to wear with a sleeveless dress. Hm. Although a vest would be more useful.

Young Republicans

… Yes, set that line to a David Bowie song, and you’re right about where my brain is right now. Well, that and boggling at the spectacle of well-dressed, young Conservatives dipping and swaying to “Come to my Window” being sung by a live band.

Irony is not dead. It’s just stuck in the 80s, with Alex P Keaton. Perhaps people did not know the words (or the backstory) and just loved the guitar bridge. [I do suspect few of them remembered critically analyzing a poem in college. Do they even teach that these days?]

Beltway Hero

No funny long johns with a cape for this guy. Just one guy garbed in a white Oxford shirt, dark brown tie, and a sandy tan suit gamely moving his stalled Subaru out of the line of passing traffic on the Washington DC Outer Loop. His car stalled in the far left, passing lane, and he had it in neutral and was moving it with one foot, step after step back onto the shoulder and against the Jersey barrier. Meanwhile cars and trucks zoomed up behind him, stopping short with squealing brakes, and then speeding around him honking. I would have lost my little mind trying to do that.

Not quite Superman, but an extraordinary, ordinary man. Amazing how ordinary people have strengths you don’t expect.

I Did Read the Instructions

… but I did not start the decreases in the back of my honeycomb vest at row 2 of the honeycomb pattern. I did read the instructions. But, even after the row of multiple frogging [it was in row 8] I did not sense a strange wrongness in The Force.

I think I’ll give myself a little time out while I ponder what I should do next — rip it, or start the decreases at row 10. Thoughts? Maybe the designer Sarah Castor should weigh in. I’m more disappointed in my reading ahead skills than anything else. Guess I shouldn’t knit unchecked on a manic weekend filled with singing in a concert and shopping for dresses, eh?

DreamSwatch finished

DreamSwatch finished

Originally uploaded by rjknits

This was a very satisfying project. The yarn was a great gift from a friend, and it ended up working well with the pattern.

The person I gave it to (late holiday gift) just couldn’t figure out how I knit this, because it ends up looking woven, knit AND macrame’d all at the same time. Of course, I didn’t tell her that the way I knit it was by listening to Dr. Who Christmas specials on BBC Radio.

Definitely thinking about using the pattern from the swatch for a sweater, possibly on the sleeves or in the center of a v-neck.

Casting to the North

I finally decided which of my projects I was going to work on, now that PS4 North has begun. I have some Cotton Comfort yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery that’s been on my mind ever since I received it as a very welcome gift one year. It’s a green that isn’t quite green and isn’t quite the color of faded blue jeans. Very cool. The pattern I’ve chosen is Honeycomb from Knitty.com. (Knitty link here for people who aren’t on ravelry.) I think they’ll work well together.

Except, I didn’t get gauge, and because of the negative ease in the pattern, I’m knitting some insanely small size to make up for the too-large gauge (1/2 an inch off). And yes, if negative ease is a bad idea, I will probably knit a placket on the sides to make up for the difference…. Or do some other half-thought out fix. But at least I didn’t spend my weekend held hostage by Lawrence Welk duelling with the Celtic Women (my theory of what counts as “viewer favorites” in our once-monthly begathon). Instead, I cast on for North while I was visiting friends up north.

[If I have the Gardener create some sculpey bees for shoulder buttons for Honeycomb, that wouldn't be strange, would it? I mean, then I'd be "covered in bees" without any danger.]

Egg, plate and cup

The egg cup seen in this photo has been around my home (either at my parents’ house or here) since we brought it back from Germany when I was 2. When it was freshly painted, you could clearly see a winking girl with gold, plaited hair and a little ruffle around the neck. Now, you mostly see the wink.

The every day plate fits in with the PS4 North and green theme. It was nice having a day when photography was possible with less flash.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops

Originally uploaded by rjknits

English ivy and flourishes of white snowdrops in a neighbor’s yard, to the north of the sidewalk. A large tree shelters the area, and bulbs and ivy are the only things that grow there (bulbs bloom before the tree puts out its leaves).

I associate the almost black color of ivy with the bitterness of winter weather — the leaves seem to darken over the season, with hints of burgundy on the underside of the leaves. However, I associate snowdrops with the hope of Spring, so kind of a nice pull between the seasons shown in this picture.

Part of a photo series on “North” and “Green” for Project Spectrum 4.

Ravelry Is Taking a Nap

And I should do the same. Ravelry has an error message up now, and my brain sadly creates sonnets in my head.

Sounds like the weekend will contain no knitting, Philadelphia Garden Show, or downtime but fun family things. That is if EDX, the wounded car will allow me to get to them. Nothing like an entire 45 mile drive through the dark, listening to your car struggle to get up to 50 mph while cursing the place that “fixed” my car.

So, how ’bout you? Anything fun planned?