We’re in that odd in-between time of year where one day it feels like Spring has arrived bringing sunshine, blue sky and warm breezes, and the next winter has reasserted dominance by sweeping back in with chilling frosts and squally sleet showers. There are however signs that Spring is really just around the corner:
- the treetops are a-twitter with small bird song, not yet at the full glory of a May dawn chorus, but certainly building towards it,
- the plum tree in our garden is in full blossom, drawing in the first bumble bees and a few butterflies emerging from their hibernation in the woodpile,
- the days are often warm enough to hang out washing on the line again, I do love gathering in line-dried washing, it smells so fresh and clean,
- blackthorn is just beginning to blossom out in the hedgerows, with the frothy white flowers so pretty against the bare branches
- trees are starting to bud, not yet turning green but poised and ready to begin
- and it looks as though Katsue the little fox is pregnant, she’s grown very rotund around the middle and I’m pretty sure it not just all of the cocktail sausages she’s been eliciting from me
Back inside I’m really excited to be working on a new 9 inch animal pattern again, but progress is unfortunately woefully slow. Having Toby here for most of the time means that I’ve had to adapt to a new way of working and basically snatch what time I can between taking care of him. It makes for very sporadic and haphazard progress, but I’m pleased if, at the end of each day, I’m able to say that I’ve moved forward a little. It’s too early in the process to show you anything just yet, but I’m really looking forward to reaching the point where I can share some progress pictures with you.
As an antidote to the brain taxing business of pattern writing I’ve been spending the bookends of each day knitting simple things, (that is to say the early mornings when I’m not fully awake, and the late evenings when I’m dozing off again). I’ve made a few of these small bandana type scarves now, it’s a lovely easily remembered pattern, perfect when when you’ve run out of concentration capacity. The pattern is called 'Sorgenfri Torkle' by Guri Pedersen and I'm knitting it in Cardiff Cashmere Classic yarn in shade 518 Piombo
Well that's all of my news for this time, I hope to have some more details of the new animal pattern soon, thanks as always for visiting with me, see you in April, J x
