SPRING BUDS AND BLOSSOM.

Most of the blossom has gone now. Knocked off the trees by high winds and lashing rain. There I was, getting excited about sitting out in spring breezes ! Outdoor knitting is the best.

I finished the 'Spring Buds' cashmere mitts, made from Skein Queen's Opulent.

The link to the Sweetheart Glovelets pattern is here.
I have a few more of these planned. They're such fun to knit and really quick to make, which is good. The resulting mitts, after a quick wash, are so luscious it feels like a soft, warm kiss on your hands. There's definately a place for cashmere in most people's lives ! I plan my own mitts and a scarf for next winter's cold.
I'm also knitting La Novia with that in mind. it started with the incredibly soft, British grown, merino yarn from Fybrespates. The shades of purple are so beautiful, and almost as intense as my new purple flowered plant. Allan saw it, thought that it was really 'my' colour, bought it, then threw away the label ! He may garden, under duress, but he isn't a gardener ! Beautiful flowers though, that really glow at dusk, and beautiful yarn.

My camera struggles in low light to capture the true colours.
I took a photo with the flash, mainly to show the structure of the lace more clearly.

I am normally able to learn a lace pattern really quickly, but feel that I'll need the chart for this one. it is, in itself, an easy pattern, but you pattern every row. It doesn't feel very intuitive to knit. Maybe if I spend a longer session on the knitting of it the pattern will embed in my brain !
I haven't ditched it in disgust. The pattern looks lovely, and makes a lovely, squishy fabric. I've put things aside for some super secret knitting.
To distract you from that, here's the yarn I was spinning plied up into a fingering/ 4ply weight yarn. Nice and bouncy. I think it will be a shoulder shawl.

I don't aim for perfection in my spinning. More for a lofty, soft, knitters' yarn. I loosely count treadles when plying, but tend to just spin by eye. iIthink it's possible to get too caught up in the production of a 'perfect' looking yarn. Those don't always make the best knitted fabric.

The new fluff on the bobbin is a cashmere/ silk blend from Lime Green Jelly. She dyes such incredibly deep, intense colours. Really lovely. All the rovings are named after songs, which is fun.

This isn't possible to spin in my usual, somewhat laid back, longdraw'ish style. The very short and fine cashmere fibres mixed with much longer, smooth silk fibres mean that spinning short draw, from the fold, seems to work best. I'm still splitting the roving lengthwise, then taking off sections to spin from the fold, mainly to mix the colours up a bit. I can only hope that my yarn does the beautiful fibre justice.

Here's hoping the spring returns. Our hearts could do with a lift.