Hello Spring!?!

This is what I woke up to the other day, beautiful yes, but in April! I am finally ready for spring and this is what Mother Nature throws at us.

Well, I have been doing my part to encourage spring to come by knitting up some wonderfully bright spring colors!



This was my first attempt to bring on the warm weather. My son chose the yarn but after seeing it knit up decided it might be just a little too "girly" for him. I was not surprised, I had already started to size them for myself. (For some reason there is dark stripe of pink in the photo, don't know how that happened because it isn't really there.)

Pattern: Slip-stitch rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Duet in Spring Fling from A Swell Yarn Shop
Needles: US 1 dpns
Start/Finish: April 3-10

I just love this yarn, the colors are so vivid and the yarn is so soft and squishy, you can't help but squeeze it. I also like that she includes a matching solid color for the heel/toe/cuff. I love the way the solid portions bring out that color in the rest of the sock. I think it makes the socks calmer. They can be too busy sometimes with the colors changing so often and the stitch pattern on top of it, the solid parts give your eyes a place to rest. Plus, you end up with a tail at the top of the gusset so you don't even have to worry about that little hole you get there. The only problem with these socks is that they are a bit warm for spring (they are actually perfect with the spring we are having) but they don't really cry out for warm weather.

Realizing my error, (knitting warm socks to beckon spring) I knit these up in a real attempt to call for warmer weather. Just look at that yellow! If that doesn't bring the sun out, I don't know what will. If the color alone isn't enough, the yarn is - get ready - COTTON!! How's that for warm weather knitting.

Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Cascade Fixation in color #1430
Needles: US 3 dpns
Start/Finish: April 6-14

First off, I love this book, I have already picked out the yarn for the first six patterns that I want to knit. I put the yarns in their own little basket, to help keep me focused.

The pattern is great and works really well with this yarn. I used the suggested yarn simply because I had never tried it before (and it was sitting right next to the counter in the yarn shop - looked like fate to me and I'm not one to tempt fate). I don't really care for knitting with cotton because it has no give, so I didn't have very high expectations for this yarn. Once I started to knit with it I was pleasantly surprised. The elastic in it gives the yarn a lot of stretch, but not too much. I can see how people might want to knit too tight or too loose with this yarn, but when I just ignored the stretch and knit normally with it I ended up with a nice tight fabric with an amazing amount to stretch. The cuff of the first sock (on the left in photo) is a little stretched out because I kept making people feel how stretchy it was. When I finished the pair, I held them up to show them off and before I even said a word my son said, "I know, I know, they're stretchy!" I will definitely use this yarn again, I already bought more.

Well, back to my knitting.