handmade things and weather

Wow. What a doozy of a spring we've had. That snowy photo up there is from this past Saturday. As patient as I've grown to be concerning weather, I do admit that I've been daydreaming of picking up and moving south. I'm ready for a proper spring. And it seems as though that is what we have coming. To my complete delight, the next week (actually a bit more) is supposed to be in the 60's and 70's and mostly sunny. Honestly, it's not even the cooler temps that bother me here in Western PA. It's the lack of sun. We live in one of the least sunny areas in the whole United States. Lack of sun and maintaining good mental health is often a struggle, I will be honest. So the forecast for the next week looks absolutely amazing to me, and I am really looking forward to it. 

I am nearing completion of my Harvest Cardigan. I have one arm left and, of course, the blocking and weaving in of ends. I've tailored the pattern a bit to better fit my torso and long arms. I was, at first, worried that I would be short of yarn, but I think I'm going to be okay and maybe even have a bit left over. I have really enjoyed the process of knitting this cardigan. I am really loving this dusty purple color. I am using Cascade 220 superwash. I think I may have said this already, but I chose that yarn because it's a wool yarn (which I like), but it wasn't super expensive, which was important to me for making my first adult-sized sweater. (You know, in case I really messed it up.)

My next knitting project is going to be more socks and a shawl. I just purchased enough sock yarn to keep me busy knitting socks for months and months. Once it all arrives, I think I will have enough sock yarn to make ten pairs of socks. Good grief! Two skeins of that I had previously purchased. One of those skeins was hand-dyed local yarn that I had picked up while on vacation in Maine last year. The other skein I had purchased off of Etsy from this shop. I really am in love with the idea of having a whole drawer of handmade socks. I think that would be such a pretty and fulfilling sight ~ to open up my drawer and see all of my hard work and all of that colorful, wooly goodness! 

Another reason I am looking forward to some warm weather is so I can begin processing my alpaca fiber again. The drying process works best when I can spread the wet fiber out and let it air dry in the breeze and warm sun. I need more washed fiber so I can spin another bobbin of Inferno's fiber so I can ply it with the one I have already spun. I'm really anxious to see how it will look when it's all complete. It will truly be a treasure to have a skein of yarn that I processed and spun from start to finish and that is from one of our alpacas.