Spring has gained momentum here in the Pacific Northwest — and is going at full tilt!  Each hour seems to bring more leaves to every branch and I can almost watch the blossoms unfold.  It is warm enough to sit out in the sun — as long as the breeze isn’t too fresh — and I have already clocked a respectable amount of hours knitting out on the deck.

While the Baby Knitting is still foremost in my thoughts and priorities, I have given into some Spring Knitting as well.  My “Butterfly” Shawl (Stephen West’s Painting Bricks Shawl) is progressing nicely.

Selecting the shade of blue for each horizontal section of “bricks” is like choosing a new crayon to color with! 

Spring and Summer always inspire me to do a little crocheting.  Not only does crochet make lovely lace, but it relatively quick to do — and works well with warm weather plant fibers such as cotton and linen.  So, when I happened upon a free crochet pattern for a rectangular lace shawl, I thought “Perfect!” And went digging around in my stash for linen yarn (which the pattern called for).  Sadly, I did not have enough of any suitable linen.  So, I broadened my search and found three hefty skeins of Prism hand-dyed Tencel yarn — one in bright blues, the second in moodier ocean blues, the third in forestry greens.  A whopping 1890 yds total!  Plenty for a generous shawl with a lovely flow of colors from blue to green.  Outstanding!

I pulled out hooks in a range of sizes and started playing around with the Tencel,  using the pattern’s crochet stitch.  Nothing looked right.  No matter what size hook I used the lace wasn’t lacy.  I realized that though the Tencel is a plant fiber — like linen — it is made up of many strands that separate easily— unlike the linen which is more like a string.  This makes the Tencel soft and silky (mmmmm!), but it also meant the separating fibers sorta filled in the lace spaces.  So, I pulled out a fat book of crochet lace patterns and leafed through it looking for something that would, basically, make bigger holes.  I found a promising shell pattern and — lo and behold! — it worked!  Lacy lace!

At this point, I realized that I was actually designing a whole new crochet project — different yarn, different stitch pattern!  So, I had to do some swatching and some arithmetic and make some decisions about final dimensions, etc.  Fortunately, my creative brain function has revved up again (I confess to feeling a little numb the past few weeks….) and I am actually pretty excited about the project.  

I also seem to have ordered some wool/cotton blend yarn to make a Summer sweater patterned after a darling large lace sweater the barista at the drive-thru window at Starbucks was wearing!  So, apparently my creative brain functions have gained momentum and are going full tilt too!  Happy Spring!  Wishing you blue skies and bright days!