women of a certain age are like sunflowers; they know how to turn their faces to the sun.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

In the Spring

In the Spring, a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;
In the Spring, the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the Spring, a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
- from Locksley Hall by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Well, I don't know about the young men, but MY fancy turns to sea silk.

Crocus Pocus is with the test knitters. Thank you to all who volunteered to help. Will be contacting knitters about Sherwood later this week.

I have "rendered unto Caesar" and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think designing is harder than taxes (at least with Turbo Tax helping out.)

I have also been working away on Drizzle, my next commission for Michelle at the Sweet Sheep, but she's not quite rady for her closeup - soon - patience, my sweets...

And in between times, I have made a small start on the next addition to the Garden Variety Collection.

This is Mermaid seasilk with (what else?) blue iris beads...

Had a minor setback when I realized I didn't have enough of the iridescent petal shaped beads on the end, but, with a little surf-time, was able to locate some on line. I figure that will come in handy when it's released in May and y'all are writing me for my bead source.

I decided to go with the mermaid instead of the amethyst, because iris can be bronze as well as blue or purple and I really like the way this color blends and shimmers.

I also have an olive green linen jacket that this is going to look fabulous with...

(Assuming I ever get ahead enough to finish the second half of some of these babies, rather than moving on to the next design in the pipeline. I think I am going to have a 2nd half holiday come vacation time...)

Where Crocus Pocus was all about the small "cupping" or triangular shapes, Iris is all about the long and lean. She is also taking on a decidedly arts nouveau feel.

Evelyn at Knitty Noddy will be offering kits for Garden Variety scarves on her website. She has ordered extra skeins from Handmaiden in anticipation of your orders.

Off to the salt mines garden to see what I can dig up...

11 comments:

margene said...

Another beautiful creation in the works! I'm very inept with Seasilk (any silk), but I'm very tempted by Crocus Pocus...it's gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Wow that's just gorgeous with those beads!

Ronni said...

Gorgeous so far! Iris is sort of my flower the way couples have a song. Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses. And I'm thrilled to hear that my "need" for a kit is being addressed. Thanks!

Lucia said...

You do keep dangling temptation in front of my face, despite the many (many, many) other things I should be working on.

Carie @ Space for the Butterflies said...

Definitely art nouveau but that seems only appropriate given how often irises and their colours come up in art nouveau - a bit like this http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tiff/ho_1981.159.htm

Anonymous said...

Ooh...I like those iridescent beads!

Jeannie said...

Another design? How are we supposed to keep up with you? ;-) This one looks lovely so far. I've never seen petal beads like that and they are beautiful!

livnletlrn said...

That is absolutely breathtaking! I'll be watching for more pics of this design.

Anonymous said...

This is a silly question but where does one buy the beads to put on these knits and how does one put the beads on? Is there a book or website about this new skill I must learn?

Donna Lee said...

The Iris colors are gorgeous. I have some heirloom (they were my gandmother's) irises in my yard. The smell is so strong (and makes me so sick) that I have them planted far away from the house. But I love them in spite of their smell and when they bloom, happy thoughts of my grandmother's garden come to mind.

Megan said...

I love seeing the shimmer in those beads. They compliment the yarn perfectly! I love watching these projects evolve! I can't wait to see more photos of Sherwood. =)