March Days

Did March come 'in like a lion' or 'in like a lamb'? Currently its hailing here, 10 minutes ago the sun was shining & it looked like a cool but grand spring day. This seems to have been the story of the week since March 1st. On Friday I went to York with the sixth form Geographers to look at the flood defences and as we walked into the city along the River Ouse it was a beautiful day.

Mr J has just walked into the kitchen & told me that there is heavy snow in central Scotland! I have just checked the Courcheval 360 degree webcam & it appears they have moved beyond a three day long period of snow, although a look at the sky suggests that it is not settled. A look at the weather forecast definitely backs that up!

All this weather talk provides a kind of link into a possible knitting project. The yarn is 'Dream in Color baby' in colour 'Beach Fog'! The proposed pattern is 'Woodland Shawl'. I have knitted this before in slightly thicker yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock) which I love & several of the Harrogate 'Nutty Nitters' have this in their queue. I wore my Woodland Shawl to Knit Night on Wednesday & by Thursday morning there were posts about a proposed Woodland Shawl KAL. Inspection of the stash identified a number of possibilities but they would have meant buying 'a bit more'. The pattern calls for just over 400 yards but I used 600 in my shawl & I certainly would want it longer, even before blocking than the 40" suggested in the pattern. I used all of 3 skeins of the Shepherd Sock. In my stash I do have some Dream in Color Baby & it comes in skeins a million miles long (or did it just feel like that when I was winding it -I had to split it in two for my ball winder!) & it is a 'thicker lace weight', so what do you think?

I think Cleite would have to go on a back burner, although woodland is fairly easy 'TV' & 'Travel' knitting once the pattern is established & Cleite, although not difficult, does demand more concentration as the malibrigio lace weight can be a little slippy & dive off the needles if not closely supervised. Cleite is from the Autumn Twist Collective & is a beautiful pattern to knit. It is the first pattern I have knitted by Miriam L. Felton but I am sure that it will not be the last. This yarn & colourway suits the closer stitches of Cleite. It was going nowhere with 'Spring Things' as the lace stitches were getting lost in the colour, so frogged it was. The colour is called 'loro barranquero'. I can't help but love this yarn. The colours are fab, its as soft as butter & even with the grotty exchange rate you get a whole lot of knitting for your £££££'s. I have a skein of 'Azelea' & another pink one in my stash!