Spring has sprung

Spring has finally come to the Pacific Northwest.  Cherry trees are blooming, our daffodils are in flower, and yesterday it was a whopping 70 degrees.  Everyone's cheerful and the world seems a better and brighter place.

I'm making progress on my Moonbeam sweater, which is something I'm knitting in a linen blend for warmer weather.  It's an easy pattern, with the exception of the decreases on the front, where the directions annoyingly say to continue with the right side, reversing shaping.  Since I'm not one who excels at spatial relations, I had to think a bit on this part.  There was a lot to do at the neck, what with eyelets and decreases at the neck and armhole in a particular way in rib, but the rest is smooth sailing.  Garments in ribbing always look so small when you're making them.  You think, there's no way this is going to fit, and then it does. 

 (sorry for the unspiring photo)

I've also started a shawl.  I've found that a great use for handspun is to use it in a striped pattern along with a commercial yarn.  The commercial yarn makes up for the characteristics lacking in the handspun and gives the whole a more polished look.  For example, in my project, I'm using Romney handspun with a wool/alpaca blend, which softens the fabric and gives it the weight and drape that my springy handspun lacks.  I love working with natural colored handspun, but I don't like the variegation that you see on many handspun garments due to variations in color in the fleece.  Although I don't like variegation, I love stripes of any sort, so the whole thing works for me.  But let me show you the project!

It's the Dream Stripes shawl, a free pattern by L'ile aux Fils found here.  I'm using Isager Wool/Alpaca in cream as my commercial yarn, and the grey Romney.  Even though the Romney is a heavier yarn than the alpaca, I think it'll work.  I'm really liking knitting this, and these stripes are addictive.

Spring has also sprung on the Kim Hargreaves website with the arrival of her new book Indigo.  If you haven't had a peek yet, go on over and take a look.  She's done a beautiful collection of warm weather patterns in cottons and linens, with a bit of Kidsilk Haze thrown in for good measure. The garments and styling are in jewel tones, which isn't my color palette, but she's done a number of seasons in neutrals so I do like the variety.  The designs look quite fancy at first, but I think that's just the styling.  A closer look reveals that most of these would look just fine with jeans--and for me, if I can't pair it with jeans, it probably won't get worn.  Here are a few of my favorites that would look good casually styled.

Lose the sequined mini, and this would be totally wearable for everyday.

A cute cardi in All Seasons Cotton.

These two are named Hot and Spice.  Simple and wearable to me.  In cool neutrals, I could see them in her collection Misty.

This one is more fancy in Fine Lace/Kidsilk Haze, but so cute!  And it would be done in a jiffy.

So there are more than a few that I like from this book.  Some of the others have too-deep necklines for my body type, but there are lots of others that would suit me.  All in all, another fine collection by Kim Hargreaves.

March madness

I did manage to knit a couple of things in March, but I didn't get around to posting about them until April.  It hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to take a photo, but that's pretty much the norm for this time of year.  So here is Caramel, my grey cardigan to match the grey weather we've been having.  I am pretty happy with it, and it's going to be something I wear a lot.

(I'll even throw in a picture with head attached today.)

Here's the back.  I liked the thinner stripes on some of the ones I've seen online, so that's what I did.  The Berroco Alpaca Light worked just fine for this garment.

I also finally decided what to knit for the March Madness challenge hosted by Knitting Blooms on her podcast. I did start a scarf on size US 2 needles, but it wasn't grabbing me, so with a week to spare I chose this monster, a free pattern on Ravelry called Gotta Love Me Monster, for which I could use the yarn doubled.  One thing I noticed was that the yarn wasn't holding up to frogging.  It became furry, and I didn't think it was going to wear that well for a garment or accessory.  "Monsty" will last long enough to be loved and played with.  He gets taken to bed every night. . . so a happy ending for the yarn and the toy.

I've moved right along to a spring project--Moonbeam from Rowan 29.  There are so many treasures in the old Rowan magazines;  I don't think I'll ever run out of knitting my favorites.

Moonbeam is on the right.  Originally knitted in Linen Drape (dubbed by some Linen Droop), I'm using Classic Elite Soft Linen from my stash.  Although I did have to track down two more balls in my color on eBay to be sure I don't run out.  I'm nearly done with the front and it's going well.

What's on your needles for spring or summer?