Spring Things

Well, it's March now.  February flew by fast!  I now consider this spring.  The sun is shining bright, and every floor I've seen in the past week is covered in muddy footprints.  That has to mean spring is here!  And with all our developing plans for April, May, and the summer to follow, I can't wait till it gets in full swing!


To prepare myself for the warmer, but still slightly chilly days when I can wear a t-shirt and leave my jacket at home, I am crocheting a bright, bright, flowery scarf from some of my favorite drug, Noro.

 And lucky, lucky, oh so lucky me!  My favorite LYS (Local Yarn Store), Stix, just started carrying Noro's newest yarn, a beautiful tiny, thin, skinny, fine, VERY colorful, lace weight, made from 50% cotton, 17% wool, 17% nylon, and 16% silk.  The texture is awesome and the colors are awesome.  The colorway of the skein I chose just screams spring at me! 
Despite my excitement over my new yarn and project, Noro is notorious for a couple little things...  First of all, the yarn always seems to have a couple small pieces of grasses or twigs in it.  I can totally live with that.  Second, one ball of yarn has so many colors in it that it is almost impossible to see them all without completely unwinding the whole lot of string and laying it out for viewing.  There is always some surprise color in the middle that you just weren't expecting.  Most of the time, it's kind of ugly.  But I can live with that, as well.  
The third thing Noro is infamous for is having cuts and ties in their yarn.  Now, it's no secret that this happens quite often with many yarns.  It's a fact of life.  But, Noro has such unique color patterns that a 'cut and tie' can really throw a wrench in one's plans.  Imagine this... Knitting along with a beautiful mellow gray that is changing so gradually and gently into green that you barely even notice the change.  Now you are in the depths of an almost fluorescent bright lime green and you can already see the next color will be banana yellow.  You work through the flowing, natural color change so easily and mindlessly until, sure enough, there's that beautiful, rich, deep yellow.  Your mind takes you through the yellow to a vibrant orange or a snow white, or even back to the gray or the lime green, when all of a sudden, BAM!, purple.  Yellow, then purple!  Just like that.  No gentle transition, no flowing, gently mixing colors, just yellow...then purple.  Damn that cut & tie.  DAMN that cut tie!  Now your scarf gently transitions from orange slowly into gray, into green, into yellow... then without any transition... purple.  Yeah... That's my scarf.  And that I can't live with.

I have such a love/hate relationship with Noro for that very reason.  Now here I am unwinding parts of my ball of yarn to find another part of it to match the yellow where I was left off.  Then there's the possibility of that screwing up the rest of the color pattern... I'm going to be stopping and starting the rest of my project to get the colors to transition smoothly.   
But that's a risk I take when I buy Noro.  And I have to say, I love the yarn enough that I will gladly take that risk, despite the frustrations.  An untrained eye would probably never notice, anyway...
 Here it is... The Spring Scarf

In other news... The baking continues.  The house cleaning continues, although the laundry situation has reached a complete standstill.  Both parties are currently in negotiations.  The house projects continue. I made a whole list of 'To Do's today.  I highly doubt we'll be able to get it all done before we blow this popsicle joint, but at least we've got some organization now.  The climbing continues,  and soon to be outdoors (!!!!) due to the impending expiration of our gym passes.  Suka's allergies continue, although we are starting to get a better handle on them and his hair seems be holding it's ground for now.  Harvey's love of snow continues.  The snow has not continued.  It hasn't snowed for quite some time now, and the remaining seems to be losing it's hold quickly. 


The Olympics have finally come to an end, and oh man, I have been a busy little bee updating the Curling Blog and replying to curling related emails on a daily basis. 


Aaaaaaannnnndddd..... That's about it.