Spring in Tucson

It's amazing that almost every plant blooms when spring comes to Tucson. The amazing and colorful blossoms are just starting up so I had to snap a few pics. We'll start seeing more and more each day......as long as the critters don't eat too many.

On a knitterly note, I'm managing to finish up some old projects. I'm trying really hard to not start anything new, but I just get so darn excited about new projects.

More Kitchen Adventures

Still practicing with my Kool Aid dyeing. I finally found some liquid food dye so have been playing with that a bit too. All white yarn that I can find in my stash is slowly ending up in the pot. I've received all my ordered fiber, yarn and dyes, but figure it won't hurt to keep practicing on leftovers. This sure is fun!

Fun in the Kitchen

I have a new addiction, but a very fun one indeed. I took a dyeing class and had such a great time that I came home and immediately ordered dyes and yarn and fiber. While waiting for the acid dyes to arrive, I decided that I should practice with Kool Aid dyeing. Seems like you can hardly go wrong with fiber and color. My only problem so far was the critter that tried to steal my yarn while it was drying on a rock. The little bugger chewed thru the yarn in about 3 places. No more leaving yarn to dry while I go work out.

Morning Visitors

We had a whole herd of Javelina running around the house this morning. They were really enjoying all the grass that has been growing with our recent rains. There must have been 10 or so roaming around and 4 babies. Two were pre teenager size and two were really little guys....sooooo cute.

The Great Cowl KAL

This is the first of my 5 cowls in 50 days. I was happy to have a perfect yarn in my stash that had been sitting around for quite a while, just waiting to be knit up. It was a fun and fast knit and may even get some use on chilly days. It's called Flurries Cowl, but we sure don't ever see flurries down here in sunny Tucson.

I did keep to my finish or rip program last month. I ripped a sweater and rewound the yarn for another use. Took a while to rip it out, but it felt good to get it out of the closet. Just need to figure out what skill I'm going to learn this month.

I also need to dust off the spinning wheel and play with some fiber. It's been too long sitting in the corner untouched, and I have so much great fiber to spin up.

New Year and New Tricks

Well it's about time that I learned a few new knitting skills so I've compiled a list. I wrote out my list right after Jan. 1st but I've lost and refound it several times, so decided I better put it somewhere safe. This year I'd like to learn :

Provisional cast on

Entrelac

Intarsia

Beading a knitted item

Advance my meager crochet skills

Brioche

Nupps

Moebius

Continental knitting

Contiguous

Fair Isle

Make a toy (poor Sheldon)

Cable without a cable needle

Toe up socks

I'll probably come up with a few things to add to this list, but figure this is a healthy start.

My first "trick" was cables without a cable needle. I've got the hang of it, but have only done three items with cable to the front, so I can't quite check it off yet......but I'm still happy with all three projects. Next to find a pattern with cables to the front and back.

Winter in Tucson

It was quite a surprise to wake up to snow last week. I was very busy running around outside in my pajamas taking pictures as I knew the snow wouldn't last long. It was a rare but beautiful morning. Had to throw in another great sunset photo from the night before last.