As The Yarn Turns

On The Trace

Some friends of ours were coming through Tupelo on their way to Arkansas yesterday, so we decided to meet them there for dinner. I'm not sure why, but we don't go to Tupelo very often. It's only about an hour and half from our house. Whenever we go to either Tupelo, Mississippi or Nashville, Tennessee, we often drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway. It's not always the fastest way to get there, but it's practically a straight line from our house to either destination. It's a two lane road but there usually isn't much traffic and no stops. The good part is that it's usually a beautiful drive and you're almost guaranteed to see deer in the evenings. Okay, that can be the bad part too. After the sun sets, you have to keep an eagle eye out for deer because they are everywhere, including in front of your car. Other than the stress of avoiding deer at night, it's a nice drive.

There are plenty of historical sites along the way if you're interested in that sort of thing. Here's an Indian mound along the trace.

This time of year the redbud trees are blooming everywhere. They are actually a little more purple than it looks here but they almost fit into March's Project Spectrum colors. This particular tree was full of bees when we stopped. You can see one near the center of the picture.

We had a nice drive down to Tupelo with a little knitting along the way. We had a fun dinner with friends and then a slightly more stressful drive home avoiding deer, opossums, and raccoons in the road. Overall it was a good evening. Now to get back to knitting.

by Sydney  |

Spring Is Back

We're back to spring weather this week with temperatures in the 60s and 70s F. Since it has warmed up, Rick and I have been taking our evening walks around the neighborhood again. We seem to be a neighborhood of walkers. We always see lots of people walking when we we're out. We were lazy during the winter and didn't get out as much as we should, so it feels good to get outside again at the end of the day.

I've been working on the cashmere silk scarf but not as much as I would like. One thing is for sure, it's been a while since I've knit lace. I think the last lace I knitted was back in September, so it's taking a bit longer to get into my groove. The nice thing is that the pattern is easy to memorize so I'm at the point where I don't have to look at my cheat sheet any longer. I like the way it looks so far.

My socks tend to be mostly stockinette stitch. It's not that I don't like the patterned socks. It's just that I don't have to do much thinking to make a plain stockinette sock. Lace on the other hand seems almost magical to me, well when I'm not making a lot of mistakes. It's definitely not mindless though and my mind seems to be on vacation the past couple of weeks.

by Sydney  |

Gentleman's Socks are Finished

The Gentleman's Socks in Railway Stitch are finished. I like the way they turned out but I'm glad to have them finished too. I'm ready to move on to other projects, other yarns. The stitch pattern isn't very elaborate, which works well for Rick, and it feels cushy to me. Best of all, Rick likes them and they fit. Here's a picture of Rick modeling them.

It's hard to see the stitch pattern in the photo. The multi-color yarn seems to obliterate the stitch pattern in the photos. Here's close up picture but I'm not sure it's much better.

Jane asked how wide and long the cashmere silk scarf is going to be. Right now the scarf is about 8 inches wide, unblocked. I haven't really decided how long it's going to be. Most likely I will quit when I either run out of yarn or just get tired of knitting it. Other than the stitch pattern, I'm pretty much winging it. I haven't knit any lace in a while and I'm enjoying it.

by Sydney  |