(2/17/16) The Trio agrees with Phil...spring is coming!

February 17th, 2016

Ah yes...the many signs of spring...birds in the yard, soaking up the sunshine while finding their wormy dinners...the sprinkle of green across the wheat fields, letting us know that there will be crops in the fall...and Sheep Lumps in the backyard looking like woolly boulders:

Now, this is not the first time we've seen Sheep Lumps...the Trio were often found lumping last summer and fall, when it was so hot. They spent a great deal of time in this position, under the trees, chewing their cuds. But I hadn't seen them do this at all over the winter, so when Mikey first pulled a lump this year, I panicked...having forgotten the commonality of lumps in 2015! After realizing that he wasn't sick, just relaxed, I calmed down and began taking pictures...now my daughter and I spend a great deal of time, looking out the window and saying, "SHEEP LUMPS!" We then grab the camera with the glass-through option and take scads of pictures from the dining room...you might ask, "Well, why not just go outside and take their pictures?" Because the lumping ceases as soon as they hear the door open...I'm not sure why they anticipate treats and food from us the minute they hear or see us...it's not that they're spoiled, right? (Work with me here, folks...say, "RIGHT, JEN!!!")

So I have to admit - Punxatawney Phil got it right again (how a groundhog from back east manages to predict weather for the Pacific Northwest so accurately is beyond me...but hey, whatever works!) and the Trio happily concurs. Most of our snow is gone and I think it's safe to say that we won't have to worry about drought conditions this year - the ground out here feels like a soggy sponge, and I am very much looking forward to the green grass we'll see in a couple of months!

Another sign of spring in this neck of the woods is the radical shift in my crafting colors...starting in about September I go into full-on autumn mode, knitting and spinning browns, golds, oranges, reds...autumn is my favorite time of year and I look forward to those colors as much as I anticipate the return of all-things pumpkin spice! After Thanksgiving here in the US (4th Thursday of November), my thoughts and color palette head straight to winter - reds and greens for Christmas and whites, silvers, and pale blues for frost and snow. But sometime in February that all changes - a tiny spark is lit inside me and I suddenly yearn for those PAAS Easter egg dye colors from my youth! Remember last blog post when I showed you my Clown College Collette fractal spinning?  It's finished!

Do these say Easter eggs or what?! A good friend asked me if I liked this technique - my initial response was meh, it's okay, but that's a lot of work to go through just to get more barberpoling - don't misunderstand - I ADORE barberpoling in my spinning. But my thought was why go to the trouble of fractal spinning just to end up with the same barberpoling I always get. But THEN I plied...and I saw the distinct difference between the various color sections...and I am HOOKED! I am so excited to do this again, but in the meantime, I've started work on Collette's Clown College Cowl, for which I'm using the Whimsycowl pattern by Nim Teasedale - I started with the wee leftovers skein in the bottom right corner above (because I have a really hard time wasting fiber or yarn - it all has a place somewhere, right??), and although I managed to twist the stitches when joining the 220 little boogers in the round, I am still quite happy with how it's knitting up! As far as the twisted stitches, I will just wait and see the finished cowl and then decide what to do - it will be long enough that I'll either be able to ignore it by doubling it around my neck when I'm wearing it, or I can seam the cowl a wee bit smaller and enclose the twisted part in the seam - either way will be far better to me than trying to start over (this is why I normally choose a pattern that doesn't require so many cast-on stitches - kind of sets my teeth on edge, to be honest - but this is such a lovely pattern, it was worth trying)!

I also finished my first Victorian Valentine Spinspiration skein, and I am REALLY pleased with it!

Good ol' Mikey, always willing to help out Mommy by sharing his wool! If you look closely at the skein, you'll see streaks of white - yup, that's Mr. Mike! I've started a second Victorian Valentine, this time using Panda Bear's tog:

My hope is to have this skein finished in time to submit it to the Fancy Kitty Victorian Valentine Spinspiration contest - one of the prizes is a Lap Blending Board from Fancy Kitty, and that would be SO SWEET to have!!! Honestly, though? Even if I don't win, I am so glad I participated in this challenge - it gave me the confidence to try different fibers and blends to try to replicate these beautiful Valentines, and I've also gotten to know the lovely ladies in the Fancy Kitty group on Ravelry better - it's been a a lot of fun!

Well, that's it for this week - I'm going to go see if the sheep are lumping, then I'll likely head in and do some spinning. If you are on Instagram, be sure to follow me there (blainefleeceandfiber), and if you're on Ravelry, don't forget to join the Blaine Fleece & Fiber group (on Rav I'm known as SheepyLumos)! I hope this blog post finds all of you healthy and happy - thanks for reading!