Knittinggarden

The late spring we're having means that I returned from my wild weekend in St. Louis in time to smell the roses (or ogle the tulips and cherry blossoms). Spring Fling 2008 is now a thing of the past, only living in photographs and memories. It was fabulous meeting Sheri, Janice, Wendy, Cookie, Claudia (the Woolmeise herself), the two indie dyers Allen and Stacey, Kellie from New Zealand, and all the rest of the knitters - some virtual friends from Ravelry and some brand new friends. Everyone I met was happy to be there, thrilled to visit The Loopy Ewe , and enjoying life as a knitter. Though we were from all parts of the country (and world) we had knitting in common and there was always something to learn, something to share, something to talk and laugh about. Here's the whole group: Some of us made squares for a blanket for Claudia. We chose squares from The Great American Afghan book so she could have pieces of America to take back to Germany. I made the blue one in t...

Today's blog post is weather-related. I'm having a hard time figuring things out. Tuesday we drove an hour north of Seattle to visit tulip fields, where the tulips are a little late to open, because (except for last Saturday, when it was almost 80 degrees F) we've had a cool, wet spring. The day was cloudy, cool, and we had a little rain, but we saw some pretty flowers. Here's what it looks like outside my door tonight: This is my gazing globe which I usually can't see from here because the clump of lavender (now lying down) hides it. These pink things are rhododendon buds which thought they should be opening, but instead got buried under a ton of wet snow. This is our pink dogwood tree, which appeared to be ready to blossom any day. Now I'm not so sure. At the end of this week, I'll be flying off to St. Louis to attend the first Spring Fling hosted by The Loopy Ewe . I'll be out of this weird snow and into conditions much more familiar to us west...

It's been awhile since I've posted any knitting, but I have finished a few things. Let's see, I got it into my head that I had to finish my Cozy wrap before our trip to Ireland, so I could take it on the plane as a blankie. Well, I knitted and knitted, so much so that my elbow began to hurt (ack!) but didn't finish. I decided to take it with me as airplane knitting, even though the larger, sharper Harmony needles I was using could perhaps be a problem, but they sailed through security screening each time. (I love these needles by the way, in all sizes. I haven't had any problems with them at all.) So Cozy came with me, sat on my lap, and I finally finished it halfway through the trip. Then I decided that it wasn't long enough, so I packed it into my suitcase and planned to block it out larger after returning home. Well, I blocked it and now it's really long, but I still like it and use it to throw over my shoulders as I sit and knit at home. Here...