Forensic Knitting

A crime has been committed.

 It was a clear case of negligent casting on. I had to plead guilty as charged.

When I cast on my lovely Undine, I didn't pay any attention to what part of the color sequence I was casting on from. In order to have striped socks that look similar, you need to know this.

The only evidence of where I started was this little strand leftover from the long tail cast on.

I tried every thing I could think of in order to figure out where to begin. I tried measuring a single cast on stitch and then multiplying that number by the number cast on. Nope.

 I tried matching up the color sequences. I tried just casting on from where I thought it may be right-over and over and over. Nothing was working.

Stranger still, whenever I got the cast on edge to match....

...the yarn tail didn't. I was about to plead insanity.

Finally I decided to back track. I used the backwards loop cast on from where the color matched on the sock's tail then knit a row back before joining.

I thought it was a very clever way to get the tails to match but it didn't actually work on the leg pattern. At this point, it is time to cease and desist and just knit on-now read me my rights and call me a lawyer.

March Daddio Update

 The Old Man has a lot of pretty stuff going on in the sewing room.

As usual, I can't keep up with him.

He is working on some flowery things for a spring table runner and I want one.

He also has some real flowers growing hoping to get a jump start on some blooms.

The nasturtiums are ready. Now if Mother Nature gives up the early spring that groundhog promised he'll be in business.

In Bud

The snowstorm-that-wasn't at least gave all the green things a good drink. Buds are popping up everywhere. The pink Camellias are ready to do their thing. A few early achievers have already come and gone.

The daffodils are getting close. I am happy to see that their number has multiplied nicely. It's good to have enough to stick in a vase and still have some out in the yard.

 These strange things showed up unexpectedly. I have no idea what they are. I remember planting them but had no idea they ever bloomed. Any ideas?

Undine the First

The major snowstorm bust was a disappointment but I have to say I would really rather have an early spring. I would rather be wearing my pretty Undine socks and not some scratchy Lopi mittens any day.

I finished this one while preparing for the snowstorm by watching of all things, Jack Frost, a not so great Christmas movie-in March. I was really trying to get in the spirit but like the storm, the movie fell a bit flat. Not the socks though. This pattern is gorgeous and so is the yarn. I love the way the colors appear different on different parts of the sock. It makes it look like I was clever enough to do that when it was the yarn that did all the work.

The lace pattern is much prettier on my leg than it is on the sock blockers but my legs are in no shape to be showing off spring socks. I need a date with a razor and a little sunshine first.

Weathering the Storm

I suspect The Weather Channel has been playing us for suckers. That big Atlantic snow storm we were eagerly expecting yesterday looked like this.

We did get some major accumulation but it wasn't the fluffy kind.

 The bay was pretty angry about the whole thing too. Expecting tons of snow, the entire region was shut down- schools, government, pretty much everything.

 The guys who are working on the new whatchamacallit out in the water were probably glad to have a day off. It would have been no fun facing those waves.

In anticipation of winter's late arrival, I had started another pair of Lopi's for a friend and....

  ...added a few more rows to my thrummed mitts.
One can dream.

Woolly Wednesday

There is a lot of woolly things happening around here but I've already posted about those projects many times. The only new thing I have going is actually an old thing. Two years ago, I made this little batt from some Merino I had in the stash. I started to spin it and then lost interest. For no good reason I picked it up again the other day and began to finish spinning it.

Some of my favorite spinning projects are those that I just spin for no good reason-just spinning for the sake of getting to play with a spindle.

Got Snow?

No, you are not crazy. You may have seen this post before. I wrote in on February 27 and meant it to be published on March 5th, then I went and clicked the button so it was published on February 5th by mistake. I tried to fix it but it published instead on February 28th still with the date of March 5th so I deleted the whole darn thing and started over.

Jeesh. All I wanted to do was to show off some crocus I found growing in the woods but the whole thing seems a little anti-climatic now after all that drama.
Oh, and guess what they are calling for here tomorrow? Snow. Lots of it. Of course, I'll believe it when I see it.