Sunshine and Flowers!





We are enjoying a few days of very summer-like weather. I have been taking CeCe outside and she is enjoying the fresh air! I need her completed by the 30th of May, and have only a bit more knitting! I have enjoyed the pattern, but with lace that needs decreasing at four arms/fronts/back seams, it makes for a funny bit of the pattern at the seams! If, I were to knit this pattern again, I might do it in a different lace pattern just to avoid this 'funny' bit at the seams. I will get a photo for the next post!

This is our beautiful white tree peony and the later purchased magenta! You can see it takes a few years for it to become a "tree". I enjoy them so much and it is a good lesson to me for knitting. I would have more tree peonies, but they just seemed so pricey and I only have two of them! Sometimes I see a beautiful yarn and I think darn but that is pricey! Now I am going to remember that if I love it, I will buy it. Sometimes these 'pricey' things bring so much pleasure and who worries about what it cost further down the road!

I went to the Fleece Artist web yesterday and they have a yarn of silk and seaweed! Got to have me some! This little business is about 20 mins. drive from where I grew up in NS. I am not sure if they have mail order, but I emailed them to check on it. They have their yarn in a shop three hours drive from me, but with the cost of gasoline these days, the cost of mailing seems to be so much cheaper. Also, if I get it direct from the manufacturer, I have a chance of getting what I want. If after a 3 hr. drive, they just don't have what I want, I would be sad and frustrated! The different colourways that are available are so beautiful, and I just want some in my stash. I am embarking on the Summer of the Sock, so I do need some more sock yarn.

I got Yarn Harlot's second book yesterday and the first story was about knitting a HUMUNGOUS (?sp) afghan for her brother and his wife for their wedding! She finished the story about their happy faces when they opened her gift of a punch bowl! I love her blog, her sense of humour and her beautiful work. It really makes me feel that I am not the only person who works diligently with hope and assurance that the project will be perfect, only to find that it all needed to be frogged or sent off to some dear soul to finish the project or NOT!!

I knitted a dress - a shirtwaist style - in a crinkle rose colour; about 30 years ago, so I forget the yarn content. Anyway, the bottom of the dress, sleeves, button plackets and collar were all in seed stitch and the rest was stockinette! I did not knit stockinette for a few years after this fiasco! Anyway, the dress fit fine, but about an hour after wearing it, it was at least two inches longer!! After a few more hours, it was mid calf and then it was toast! You know, I was so sick of that yarn that I didn't even frog it. It sat in the cupboard for a few years and then was off to charity. I learned a lot from the project - do NOT, under any circumstance, knit another dress!!! I was so naive in those days and I did not knit a gauge! I don't think that would have helped at all with the 'growing' dress! So after reading Yarn Harlot's book, I felt that I was not alone in having high expectations of a HUMUNGOUS project, only to pass it on and chalk it all up to experience. After all, I am trying to learn that it is all about the process!

I guess my post today is about getting the things you love when you can, as they will bring such pleasure down the road. When I am having trouble deciding whether to get something, I think about how it will affect my life in five years time. If I know I will be happy with that beautiful silk/seaweed in five years, it comes home to live with me!! Oh dear, maybe I am starting to create a stash. However, Margene, I only have four balls of sock yarn in waiting!