This is my favourite time of year here. The sun is back and it is warm enough to go outside without three layers of clothing but there is still snow on the ground and the lakes are safe. It is the best time of year for winter sports and goingfor walks. I think we will have to go for a picnic at one of the lakes in the next few weeks. Hot dogs and s’more are especially good when there is still a bit of snow around.
 
It’s warm enough today that I’ve opened up some of our windows to get rid of all the stale air from the winter. Zeke has been sticking his nose out to see what’s going on outside. He moves from window to window depending on what he smells and which room I’m in.
 
With temperatures rising I’m certain we will be smelling barbecues soon. That’s the official beginning of summer in my mind and it starts as soon as it is warm enough to stand outside to cook a steak. Like the hot dogs and roasted marshmallows, barbecued steak is somehow even better when you can still see snow in the shady places.

I started a new project on my lace spindle last night. I have a largish piece of hand-dyed merino top left over from the felting class I took in December. It is the rest of a piece I used to make a scarf in the class. The scarf is very sheer and I decided it would be kind of neat to knit a lace scarf out of the same wool - a sort of a study in the different textures that can be achieved with the same wool. I wasn’t sure how finely I’d be able to spin so I just drafted out some skinny strips of wool and set to it.

It turns out that it is much easier to spin a very fine thread than the thicker grey yarn I was making last time. It’s absolute magic to see the spindle whirling around suspended by this tiny line of wool. The colour variations in the wool are very soft and look beautiful wound around the spindle body. I’m planing to make this another two -ply. I don’t think it would be strong enough for a lace style blocking as a singles.

I had Rob take some pictures of me spinning this afternoon so I could share this with all of you. Notice my wrist distaff - made out of the grey two-ply from last weekend. It’s very handy.

 

 

 

Today I created order from chaos. Today I turned an unruly mass of movies, cds, games, books, pens, change, paper, letters and dust into a clean and tidy bookshelf of easy to find media. There is a special kind of pride that comes with the completion of this sortof task and I feel a little glow every time I see the bookshelf.
 
This was made even better because I had not planned on doing a bunch of extra cleaning today but when I started to look for a bit of material for a project (check back later) I realized that this was the perfect day to tackle a large mess. I was home by myself and had nothing particular to do until lunch time so there weren’t any distractions. It also meant spending most of the morning in the sunny room which was nice.
 
The picture above is not our new bookshelf; it’s my first bit of stranded colour work. I felt it was a nice representation of order from something that seemed pretty chaotic when I started. This is actually my third attempt at the swatch for the Endpaper Mitts and I am finally getting into a rhythm knitting with yarn in both hands. My stitches are becoming more even and I am making them a little faster than before. It’s very satisfying to see the pattern emerge after a few rows.