Trish’s Spring Socks (Knitting Spring into Existence)
Monday, March 31st, 2008Maybe you have heard me “talk” of my friend Trish Bloom, the designer of the Bloom Shawl (free pattern on Knitty) and the Panes Bag. (I have several Bloom Shawls (most I knit myself, but also a solid purple one that Diana knit for me), and own one Panes Bag that my friend Teresa L. knit for me in a bag exchange at my guild a few years ago.) I adore the Bloom Shawl. The only thing that would make it better would be if *I* had designed it, sigh….
Trish’s Ravelry username is “BloominKnitiot” as is her blogspot blog. We stay in touch through the Internet, as she lives over an hour from me.
We connect at times in Lansing, usually at Threadbear Fiberarts, and I have yet to see the shop where she works, Labor of Love in Romeo, MI. We plan to schedule a polymer clay button class there sometime this year, and I look forward to that!

Trish sent me this photo as her contribution to the “Knit Spring into Existence” group project. I am flattered that she has chosen a yarn I hand-dyed (to the specifications of a knit-along group who got first dibs on that colorway, and made me promise not to repeat it again). It’s my TipToe Sockyarn, with more colors applied than usual. A sort of sherbet rainbow which is called “Midday Garden.” (No, that colorway is no longer available, though I have seven colorways currently available, from flammegarn/almost solid to multicolors.)
If you have a Ravelry account, you can go read details of the sock design on Trish’s project page. In any case, I think that this project in particular is inviting flowers (appropriate from a woman whose last name is Bloom). I’m ready.
Oh, I can not resist sharing this wonderful photo of my Multicolor brushed-mohair Bloom Shawl with optional crochet edge. I wore this shawl SO much… until I accidentally cut the edge with scissors. I still have it but have not found the courage to try and repair it. A repair will be hard because the fabric is so transparent (knit on size 15 needles). I have enough of this yarn in multicolored magenta/fuschia to make another. In my spare time? But this color is perfect for me and I’m sick over the loss. Beautiful, isn’t it?



‘Nette lives in Canada, north of me, and she probably needs spring to come forth even more than I do. She knit this spring-enticing hat and shared it for the “Knit Spring into Existence” project.



But when all is said and done, the only thing better than eating the dinner I made, is looking at the beautiful colors of my dishes coming out of the (half-sized) dishwasher. I’ve done 3 loads in 4 days… but this particular scene just made me happy. (Hmmm, look at those colors, am I cooking spring into existence here?)



I just got a promotional email from Ellen Doster of the
Last week we had some extra special knitting. This first photo is a 4th grade boy who wanted to make something on circular needles. He determined to make a hat for his younger brother (a toddler if I get it right). It was so stretchy that he was able to wear it himself for this photograph.
The reason he had competition for my time, was that three of my girls were learning how to follow a pattern. Actually, another of my boys (an older child than most of my kids) asked if he could learn to follow a pattern, last week.


Saturday we played at Rendezvous by the Grand in Old Town Lansing (MI) and that was more fun (of a totally different sort). The building was once an early-1900s bank with mezzanine and huge tall windows, rounded at the top. Gorgeous.
My voice is really doing great after all that illness for all that time. I have not felt this in control of my “instrument” in a while. And there we were, singing to friends and new fans… and the room was still, and my voice was resonating in a two-story turn of the century building, and we were playing our hearts out. Well, this is one reason I sing. It was magic.
And the people who came out… thank every one of you. Doug and Cynthia came first, then Libby and Chris and Darby, folks from the Dagwood’s Tuesday open mic clan, a crowd of employees from Elderly Instruments (where Brian works, just around the corner and down one block).
And with that I’ll sign off and make other things fit into a different post.
I can not tell you how glad I am that February is over and we are on the way to better days. The weather service says we will still have some cold days, but not as much cold and snow as we had in February anyway. This would be normal for March. In fact, we usually get a few flurries in April, too. In the meantime, the few melting days give me hope.



The
So here is a bottle bag which will work for bicycles, strollers, perhaps even backpack straps. For anyone toting some water along with them. Wool bags do a great job of insulating, too, so if your bottle sweats in the humid weather you will be glad for the fabric as well as the strap.

My friend Temesgen is a musician who specializes in one specific style of ancient Ethiopian music. He is the house musician for
I had a sound in the back wheel of my car. It sounded like something plastic dragging, then a clunk, then a drag and another clunk. I got on the ground several times after hearing it, and looked for something but there was nothing. It seemed louder when I would brake to a full stop. I was worried.
Vicki of 
knees.” The last week was not too bad, mostly wobbly knees, but then my printer gave up the ghost and we had to order another one on Monday (a small-office type, so we could not buy at the local Staples).
Mom has the most beautiful hair of anyone I know, it’s pure white-silver and perhaps more lovely now than it ever was (and she has always worn her hair long… it’s shorter than it was but still longer than 99% of her peers).