Oh May May Go.....

Oh May may go where 'ere she will,


Through clouds and rain or sun-filled skies,




In flowery fields or wooded shade,

The cardinals twitter, the mockingbirds trill;




May yields Spring's glories
To Summer's searing parade.

Orkney Update

"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." Matthew 28:5-6

Although the wind was icy cold, Easter arrived this morning bringing bright sunshine and cheery spring blossoms. While I didn't see my wild rabbits this morning, I was greeted by the singing of the cardinals and the carolina chickadees and the rat-a-tat-tat of the red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. The sweetest pair of white-throated sparrows danced among the orange pansies and King Alfred daffodils outside my window. A big fat robin dominated the lawn as if was his job to announce the arrival of Easter. It was a feast for the eyes and a delight to my heart.

I took my camera out into the yard and snapped these photos on Friday. The pink flowers come courtesy of a wild black cherry tree that spontaneously popped up in my yard several years ago. Apparently there once was a mature cherry tree in my neighbor 's yard, but he had removed it because of an insect infestation. After listening to mother's graphic descriptions of the ugly mess, I figured I should cut mine down while it was still a sapling and easily removed. But I didn't. Instead I pruned the lower branches and tried to encourage an esthetically pleasing shape from the askew split trunk. The following year I found the first pink blossom on the tree and vowed to let the tree remain and grow. Any tree that makes pretty pink flowers in the spring can't be all that bad :-)

The white mass of flowers in the second photo are the Bradford Pear trees in the front yard. The pear trees are 6 or 7 years old now, and they are mothers most favorite plant in the entire yard. Looking up at the crystal blue sky through the branches filled with snowy white flowers is almost more fun than an grown-up should have playing in the yard ;-)


I started out strong working on my Orkney Pi at the beginning of the week, but things slowed down considerably as the week progressed. Sometimes you just need a break from working on a huge project. So I wasn't caught up when the next clue came out on Friday. I finished the 3rd clue today. I'm quite glad to be done with knitting swirling diamonds. I put in a couple of extra circular needles knitting the last purl round so I could stretch the shawl out some and take a few pictures. The shawl measured about 40" in diameter unstretched...but that's a very rough measurement. This baby is going to be huge!


In looking at the 4th clue, it looks like we're going back to the trees and cat's paw lace. Liz provided lots of options for sizing the shawl, giving 3 or 4 options for when to quit depending on what each knitter wants to do. Of course I had planned to knit the full version, but it's nice to know I can safely chicken out if things get too tedious. A smaller shawl is better than a UFO hanging out in a basket somewhere gathering dust.

I'm headed back to my needles to knit the doubling round-1280 stitches...yikes!!! The Lady Vols are just starting their 1st round NCAA tournament game, so it's a good time to knit. The men managed to escape with wins in their 1st 2 games...but it was way too close for comfort in the 1st game against American University and it got downright scary in the 2nd game against Butler. After leading the entire game, the Vols allowed Butler to tie it up and send the game into overtime before Bruce adn the guys pulled out the Victory. Whew!

Lessons in Horticulture

Today, my knitting friends, we have a lesson in horitculture. I call your attention to the pictures to your left, most of which I took this afternoon in my garden. The first picture is of one of my most favorite spring- blooming perennials, the bleeding heart (dicentra spectabilis). It's thing of beauty to be sure. I started out with one plant and she has expanded now to five(3 nice-sized, 2 little bitty babies). That's also the advantage of many perennials. if you are patient, a small initial investment pays off with big dividends down the road (sounds kinda like lace knitting, doesn't it?)


Okay, so that's the fancy flower. Next we have the humble Hosta, a gold standard hosta with pretty variegated leaves. My one plant that I bought on sale at the end of the season 6 or 7 years ago is now about 8 plants filling shady spots under towering tulip poplar trees. Hostas are great shade plants, but are hardly spectacular since they are mostly about the leaves. And my point in posting this picture is to call your attention to the leaves.


Next we have picture number three which is also a bleeding heart. This version is dicentra eximina more commonly known as the native bleeding heart. This plant grows wild in my beloved Great Smoky Mountains although I had to plant mine. I have one nice-sized and 2 baby plants thus far. One of the great features of this wildflower is that it has beautiful flowers *and* beautiful foilage. Hence, this picture has both bleeding hearts and leaves.


By now you may be wondering what this has to do with knitting. The next, very blurry picture offers a hint. This is my 1st pi shawl, which I finished off with a bleeding heart edging. The pattern was a modification of the bleeding heart stitch in the Barbara Walker Treasury of Charted patterns (whichever volume that was, don't ask me 'cuz I had to give the books back to the library). I sort of created a way to make this stitch form nice little points so its a great way to finish off any lace project (this is a key point-hint, hint)


And now we have the last picture, also a bit blurry (anyone want to gift me a *good* digital camera?). I am so proud of this red shawl--it's Kiri, my first ever lace knit shawl. Kiri may be the most famous lace shawl pattern out there right now because 1) it's a great design and a good 1st lace shawl knit, and 2) it's a freebie on the web. A leaf motif is the basis for Kiri, a very nice *leaf* design that is good for shawls and such.

So why this lesson on horticulture? Is there a point to the comparing of bleeding hearts and leaves? Well, yes. Call it a lesson learned in the adventures of designing my own lace shawl pattern. I was looking for another lace pattern to finish off my shoulder shawl design after I frogged my first attempt. That's when I remembered how much I liked the bleeding heart pattern in my pi shawl. So I pulled out my sketchbook and retrieved the graphs. Yup, they were a perfect match. I transcribed it to my current design and started knitting. After the first repeat was done I took a closer look at what I was doing (it's a challenge in the deeply hued variegated yarn) and thought, this looks different. This looks more like the leaves in Kiri. That's when it dawned on me. The pi shawl was knit in the round--every row of the bleeding heart pattern was lace. Kiri was knit back and forth with the return rows being all purl stitches. Guess what the difference is between leaves and bleeding hearts? You guessed it, a row of purl stitches. Horticulture for knitters: lesson learned!

Happy International Tatting Day

Some of you may have been led to believe that April 1st is a rather infamous "holiday" known as April Fool's Day, but it's actually International Tatting Day. Celebrations, small and not so small happen among tatters across the globe. To honor the occasion I am posting a picture of my favorite "beadntat original" tatting design-- a heart I created in the aftermath of the 9-11 bombing of the World Trade Center in NYC. I also pulled out my favorite shuttles and petted them a little, but I didn't add any stitches to the project as I didn't want to unpick them later if I made a mistake. Tinking or frogging knitting is a piece of cake compared to undoing mistakes in tatting! Since I didn't go anywhere today I couldn't "tat in public" but I did adhere to the other celebratory ritual of eating chocolate--a Harry & David raspberry truffle, Yum!

The first of April marks another important time in East Tennessee. In this part of the world there are only 2 "important" times of the year. The first, of course, happens in the fall when it's "It's Football Time in Tennessee!" This is to be yelled loudly and proudly in support of the University of TN Volunteer football team, our favorite local obsession (I use that term knowing it is an enormous understatement of the situation). But that is the fall and this is spring so the cheer changes to "It's Dogwood time in Tennessee!" This time one can speak in a more dignified tone as the focus is on flowers, flowering trees, and local arts and fine crafts. The festival officially starts next weekend and lasts about 2 weeks and it's lots of fun. But the dogwoods bloomed very early this year-- I can't ever remember them blooming in March before.

I'm continuing to work on my Shh! It's a Secret Shawl. I finished the first section of lace and was quite pleased with how it looks in the highly variegated yarn. Unfortunately the second section of lace didn't end up looking as nice knitted up as it did on paper. I knit about 10 rows into the 2nd section before calling it quits. This morning I frogged back to the lifeline and worked on designing something else. I'm a bit more optimistic about my current plan, but I need to knit a few more rows to know for sure. Designing for highly patterned yarn is a much greater challenge than knitting with a solid color yarn. Fortunately the Kaalund yarn is both durable and delicate so it's holding up nicely to all the tinking and frogging. There's nothing like a good yarn! I should be working on the rewrites on my big D, but I'm feeling pretty icky tonight so I may just do some knitting while I cheer on the Lady Vols who are playing in the NCAA Final Four semi-final basketball game tonight. Go Vols!!!