116/365 vestiges of spring

The tulip petals have flown in the wind, leaving vestiges of what has been. There are still many in bloom, but these were definitely past their prime, leaving behind the stark beauty that reminds me of solitude.

tulip

In complete contrast, I found these beauties on my walk yesterday. I haven’t seen this type of colouration before, and I love the combination of purple and white.

finished blanket

And for the obligate knitting content, here is a better view of the sock blanket. I was able to snatch a photo at the end of the day, before I folded the blankets up and set them on the couch to wait for morning.

dust bunnies

With Easter comes bunnies and I had a lovely time creating these little guys. The pattern is Tiny Baby Bunnies, by Anna over at MochoMochi Land. I don’t know how she manages to create so many different little things, but they are perfect for using odds and ends of yarn.

blue sky

Saturday was beautiful. I think that Seattle has some of the best blue skies when the clouds are away. I went for a long walk and enjoyed every minute of it!

Finally, sock blanket three is officially finished. For this blanket I used balls with greater yardage to create the rectangles. It definitely creates a different look, but I am not sure that I would do it again. Shann loves it and I think that it was quite appropriate that it was finished on her half birthday.

sock blanket three

Believe it or not, it was the only picture I managed to capture yesterday as I completely forgot to grab my camera for the egg hunt. That makes me sad, as some of the hiding places were truly remarkable.

10/365 pile of washcloths

Mostly this consisted of weaving in ends, but it also entailed finishing two of the washcloths that had been abandoned mid row. I can now call them finished. Which is a good thing, since I just had to toss several very old washcloths that were way past their prime.

Granted, operation declutter is coming along slowly. But it certainly isn’t due to lack of trying.

Motion

This week the challenge is to photograph motion. In my mind it was an easy concept. It wasn’t. I joined the 365 Project to help with motivation and inspiration. Who knows. I might even learn a thing or too.

Welted Fingerless Gloves

I finished Fiona’s mitts last night and wove in the ends this afternoon. I hope she likes them! The pattern is from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas and is called Welted Fingerless gloves. It calls for dk weight yarn, but I used mini mochi, a sock yarn doubled.

Yesterday the girls and I took off to visit friends that live on Bainbridge Island. Wendy and I went to college together, played soccer together and three of her girls are around the same ages my two girls are. We love going over there and spending time, usually just hanging out. Many years ago I taught Wendy to knit and I love seeing the projects that she has created over the years. Now she is learning to spin as well.

To make a long story short, their family will soon be relocated to the Midwest. We will miss having having them around, they are part of our extended family by choice. I am thankful that the technology available makes it so easy to stay in contact, but it doesn’t replace the physical proximity that we have enjoyed over the years. When I learned that they would be moving from the area, I knew that I wanted to do something extra special for Wendy, something that I knew that she would appreciate and treasure. At the time I was over half way done with this sock blanket, so I decided that this one would be for her.

Wendy's blanket

I know that this blanket is going to get lots of use!

Wendy's Blanket

And a big thank you to Charlotte who’s doll stuff inspired today’s 365 photo:

2/365

The above was right before I put the border on and I did not like the look of that final brownish square one bit. For starters it kind of ended up on the wrong side of things. I could have left it a design feature, but the more I thought about it, the less I was happy with the results.

So off it went to the frog pond and I like this result much better!

A few buttons from the button box:

An action shot:

And here you go! I loved wearing it with this sweater the other day when it was really cold in the office, but I really love wearing it with my old jean jacket. I had originally planned on making myself a scarf since I was always stealing borrowing the ones that I made my girls, but then I thought about how much I really dislike the bulkiness of the ends underneath my jacket and how much fussing it created.

The end result is that it works the way that I wanted it to. It was a great use for odds and ends of sock yarn, it’s something for me and although there are things about it that could be changed, it is whimsically beautiful.