"Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature -- if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you -- know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse."
-Henry David Thoreau
-Henry David Thoreau
Signs of incipient spring are everywhere, if you just know where to look.
The snow is melting away...
The sky is a brilliant blue...
The snowdrops are pushing their brave little blooms through the detritus of last season's denouement.
Everywhere you look, the earth is stirring, waking up from her long winter nap.
The thermometer may still linger in the 40s, but spring draws ever closer with each passing day.
Ah yes! Sylvan spring...
When every young man's fancy turns to love and every young woman's fancy turns to...
what do I have to
Sorry, but I call 'em like I see 'em.
With the snowdrops bursting into bloom, and the narcissus poking their shoots above ground, can the crocus be far behind?
Well, actually...
Guess not!
Meet Crocus Pocus, the newest edition to the Sunflower Designs family.She's a flippy, flirty little slip of a lace kerchief, done up in crocus-like shades of new leaf green, sunshine yellow, and bright-eyed blue. The perfect thing to drape around your neck to brighten up your trench coat or denim jacket this season.
Now I ask you, is this yarn not the essence of spring? (Handmaiden calls this shade, "Dandelion." To each, her own...)
And yes, there are beads. (When are there not?)
To bead or not to bead - is it even a question?
My first swatch was too undefined. And the bead placement surrounding each motif did nothing to enhance the pattern.
But adding rows to the motif elongates the pattern into a crocus type shape, and comes closer to what I had in mind.Moving the beads to the inner confines of the floral shape reinforces instead of fighting against the pattern.
This one only took a couple iterations before coalescing into a finished design. Of course, the border design lurks around the corner, hoping to pop out and ambush me, like a late winter snowstorm.(Boy, do I know how to stretch a metaphor or what? I can feel my editor cringing...)But I have some ideas on paper that I think will work well.
More repeats remain to be completed, before adding the leafy border I designed, but, even with the beading, she zips right along.
And then...
The best part of all:
These cunning little flower shaped yellow and blue glass beads I found at my LBS (local bead store.)Are they just not the best?
A little trail of crocus buds dangling along the bottom edge.
Ah, spring...
It's just around the corner and comin' on fast...
13 comments:
It's sunny and 30F and nary a sign of spring in sight. One small patch of snow was washed away by the rain over the weekend, but the melting stopped with the cold temperatures. But if the temps go up to the 40's in the next few days, as is forecast, at least the syruping can begin and that is a sign of spring on the way.
i am looking for the mcgregor sock pattern, please direct me to it :-)
Please send the spring here. I have not seen so much snow in all my life.
Knitting beautiful, as always.
lucette
That is a lovely kerchief. Mmmn spring.
Oh, that will beautiful as well. Spring is starting here, the trees are starting to bud.
Please send some spring action up here, Susan...
and also please send some Handmaiden dandelion!!! I'm in love with the shade but haven't seen it yet locally (and as I mentioned, will not buy un-local yarn except for of course your scarf kits from the lovely Kim!. So, should you have any scraps left...)
Eagerly awaiting signs of spring in Toronto,
Kristina
I enjoy seeing your design process - it seems so logical but requires such work and vision. I wish I had the creativity that you show!
Daffodils are blooming here but I'm in the upper south.
-a former CT Yankee.
Spring is still quite aways off here in the mountains, but I am enjoying seeing it spring up on different blogs :-)
Thoreau, beautiful yarn and amazingly talented knitting, honestly does it get any better than that? Oh and I love the name Crocus Pocus (it made me giggle) =)
I am a happy slow knitter. I am content having one project (OK maybe two) on my needles at a time. I only buy yarn for one project at a time (OK occasionally 2 or 3). I'm finishing my current project. So, what kind of fix am I in? I've got a 1/4 of a stole left. AD/MN is waiting for the needles. I've signed up for the Mystic Lights KAL. And, I keep repeating. MUST order flower beads. MUST start Crocus Pocus as soon as possible. MUST order flower beads. MUST start Crocus Pocus as soon as possible. ;-)
Love the beads! So cute! Too much already on my plate, must... resist... Crocus... Pocus...
What a fabulous find those beads are! Love the pattern and all the sparkle. It does look like spring in your neck of the woods.
The beads are adorable and the yarn's gorgeous too. I look forward to seeing the finished result.
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