Monday 2 February 2015

First Signs of Spring. . .

When it comes to the preposterous headlines in the daily tabloids, it's always the ones about the weather that make me laugh the most.  If the temperature drops to -15 degrees on the top of a mountain in Scotland, you can bet that next morning there will be a screaming headline about deadly arctic blasts or frigid windchill.  It may well be freezing high on the hills, and we have had a dusting of snow in the last week, and yes, we have been scraping frost off the car most mornings, but let's face it, in most of the UK, this is what winter currently looks like (with apologies to the folks back in Canada).

I took these photos yesterday - it was a brisk 4 degrees but our backyard camellia bush is getting ready to explode in pink.


And the daffodils are bravely pushing out in Calderstones Park.


And Sponge is back, prowling the neighbourhood looking for the perfect sunshine soaked spot to have an afternoon nap.


I'm delighting in blue skies and the colour green right now, so when I saw this new shawl pattern by Karie Westermann, I immediately purchased it and dug out my skein of Rowan Fine Art 4ply.  It's full of peacock colours and will go really nicely with a skein of deep teal Titus in the colourway Eccup.  And the pattern?  It's called Byatt and is absolutely gorgeous, inspired not only by the author but this particular novel, which is quite simply my favourite novel of the 21st century so far.  How could I not immediately cast on?


I'm digging out some copper beads to maybe add to the lace section at the end.  In the meantime, the first part - which is all garter stitch - is nearly done!

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