Signs of Spring

I went out in the yard and searched for spring. This is what I found so far:
Green growing out of last year's dead stalks.

The last little bit of snow left in our back yard.
Daffodils. I LOVE daffodils. ; ))
Spring is here, though I am sure that we will have at least one more cold snap. The Home and Garden show goes on the next two weekends here in Baltimore and that brings spring closer, too.

This is my much neglected Slinky Ribs sweater. The knitting is finally finished - I really procrastinated on picking up the stitches for the bands and it really went very well once I buckled down to work. All it needs now are 3 buttons. How long will it take me to get around to that, I wonder?

This is the hat that I knitted for the Warm Hats, not Hot Heads program. I am sending it to my Congressional Representative with a letter explaining the purpose of the program and asking him to either wear it or pass it on to someone in need. Woolese, a little less than one ball. 4 x 4 rib.

This is a sock I recently started to knit for a friend at work. She's been hinting for a while that she'd like someone (there are a few knitters in the same area) to knit something for her and I offered. I like her a lot and she helps me out even when she doesn't (really) have the time. She went to a yarn store and chose some sock yarn (after consulting the owner since she didn't know what to get). I showed her a few patterns and we narrowed it down to the Calendula Cabled socks, slightly altered because she wants the foot to be stockinette. See the Lantern Moon project bag in the photo on the right? That was my Christmas gift from her, also on the advice of the yarn store owner.













Silk spinning. I can't really say why this is taking so long to finish, except that when I am tired, I hesitate to play with this project. I have only 2 oz. and I want it to turn out right. The colors are gorgeous. The silk is relatively easy to spin other than joins - I seem to have problems getting smooth joins. I'll be ready to ply soon and then work on the next ounce of fiber.
















This is my other spindle spinning project. I have completed spinning and plying the almost black Wensleydale and have gone back to spinning the Perfect Storm colorway. This will be a shawl or scarf or shawlette. Some day.


I received my replacement Finn fiber. I had sent a message to the vendor that I was unhappy with the nepps in the fiber and the resulting yarn. She responded by offering to replace it with some white Finn (the original fiber was a deep brown), processed by another mill. I thought about it for a while - I had spun up a good amount and I liked the brown color. The final product, though, was not something I was happy about, so I sent it back to her, spun and unspun. The replacement looks yummy - not quite as soft (at least unspun) as the original fiber but no nepps. I believe that I will be much happier spinning this Finn.