I'm not sure what kind of plant this is with these neat white flowers - I didn't even realize the main stalk was a highway for aphids or some other mite until I was editing the photos!
These are a pair of Julia butterflies perched happily on some sort of sunflower.
Blanket flower - I love how the petals have a flame-like gradation
And lastly some pink owl clover puffballs.
Penstemon - I've always loved these flowers for their orchid-like shapes. This group looks like it's somehow singing :)
Globe mallow come in a variety of colors - though I haven't seen this golden hue in the wild before. 
Nor have I ever seen golden hued lilies. The butterflies really liked these - but apparently their proboscis aren't long enough, since every time I caught a butterfly on one of these lovely flowers, it was busy trying to crawl deep inside, presumably to reach the nectar.
Also one of my favorites - Lupine
is here, and that means wildflowers! Here are some favorite shots I captured while playing with the macro lens. First up, a bloom from a hedgehog cactus - spring is short here in the desert southwest, and this photo actually reminds me of the blazing heat of summer that is on the way.
This is a fairy duster - in some ways it reminds me of the crazy crown of feathers on some birds :)
Claret cup Cactuses are also in bloom.
Pink Globe Mallow - with a bee :) I'm happy to see the bees out and about doing their thing. I worry over the bees what with not yet understood phenomena of Colony Collapse Disorder.
I chase butterflies...
I recently had an opportunity to trot out my relatively new macro lens - I had a good time ogling flowers and chasing butterflies...hope you don't mind as the next week or so shall be an ode to spring via photos :)
This lovely is called a Malachite - I don't recall ever seeing a green hued butterfly before. There were also some really stunning lunar moths, but they were not sleeping in convenient places for photographs (apparently moths are indeed nocturnal and once they find a perch for the day, that's where they stay!)
The orange one in this photo is a Julia, the blue/black one is a Swallowtail, but I forget the specific variety.
Not only are the wildflowers making an appearance, it seems the cactus blooms are well on their way also. These are Strawberry (or Engelmann's) Hedgehog cactus - they are are quite common in the desert area that I live, and are amongst the first cactus to begin blooming in the spring.
I love them for their bright splashes of color - I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the desert blooms come to life over the next month or so!
The flowers that I'm happiest to see out are the poppies....well, the poppies and the lupine - together they just make me smile. Happy Spring, everyone :D
Pre-blocking, lace always makes interesting topographies. As usual, I was amazed at how much this grew during the blocking/dressing process. For finished photos, pop over here.
with beads! Freshly bound off the needles is a brand new red lace shawl (because I apparently am still stuck quite firmly in my red knitting phase) - This was a relatively fast knit, and the edging is really quite lovely. Straight off the needles, the shawl is very ruffly, and looks more shawl-ette sized....it's got a date with the sink and some pins though, so we'll see how it all turns out once everything is all said and done :D
With the rather wet winter we've had here, the wildflowers are making a good showing this year :) these happen to be popping up in the neighbor's yard. I have to admit that while weeding, if it looks like a lovely wildflower, I leave it alone, figuring it'll die off soon enough and I'd like to enjoy the evidence of our short spring while I can!
"Hey" she says, "You're not going to be happy when you see what Troy is doing"
Indulging. In a dirt/dead leaf bath. And he couldn't possibly be more pleased with himself. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo - he wouldn't stop rolling about. Not even when I tried to clean him off before letting him back into the house. Apparently this cat is statically charged for maximum dirt attraction!
So happy spring is here - and even more excited because we (or rather my husband) had a photo make it onto the cover of the March/April issue of Sierra magazine! Sounds like spring is finally on it's grand tour around the country - so I hope everyone has fantastic weather this weekend to go out and welcome in the First day of Spring in good fashion :) As for me, I've been eyeballing the wildflowers, trying to gauge when the best blooms will be out for a hike further afield. 
That would be Malabrigo Silky Merino - a lovely, shiny dk wt yarn....of all the yarn that has recently arrived, I've just been entranced with this colorway. I swear, I must be getting more girly as I get older.
I adore these little cases and stitch markers. How convenient is it that this one matches that stunning yarn so nicely? 
...but I've been seriously behind and haven't had the time to write up the full details of my Olympic Knitting....
I am happy to say that I did finish - and before the closing ceremonies too! Though I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted (meaning I was hoping to finish off some other WIPs if there was time once the cardigan was done) :) Full details and photos (though it looks like I'm going to have to retake a whole bunch of them due to poor lighting) over here.
My cat likes to keep track of my knitting and ensuring that it doesn't go anywhere....I had to wrestle the sleeves from her to throw them in the sink:
Witness, the Olympic Sweater in the sink with a splash of Soak Aquae. Apparently I need a larger sink because I couldn't get the whole sweater submerged...but I was too lazy to give the kitchen sink a good scrubbing....and the bathtub seemed like overkill.
With notes and measuring tape in hand, I blocked the body out to size...
And then I tackled the sleeves. And if you're thinking "boy, those sleeves sure look long"! Well...now you know why I don't knit too many sweaters for my husband ;) 
Knit in about a day, I finished off the right front...
A day later, I had the left front done....and after several different trials, I had the shoulders seamed...and sure enough, if this doesn't bloom and stretch as I expect it to, it will make a great cardigan for me ;) 
In case you weren't paying attention, the 2010 Olympics started last week....as did the Knitting Olympics :) Last winter olympics, I finished off a sweater, then tore it back and finished it again... I'm hoping for somewhat less drama this time around :) (if you're curious about the whole thing, check out February 2006 in the archives)
Men's Knits: 20 New Classics
. Unfortunately, I haven't a photo of the sweater in question -but if all goes well, you'll see it soon enough as it comes off the needles :) I did some preparation for the event by winding the yarn and swatching. Including washing and drying the swatch in question - I've been surprised with several sweaters where they grew incredibly during the washing that I really should know better by now...
All the yarn was wound onto the same ball.....I sure hope it's enough! Stay tuned for updates :)
Lucky for me, this is not my olympic knitting project...though maybe they ought to be seeing as they've been stranded on the needles for so long. I've been working on these since March 2008 according to Ravelry. I recently picked them back up and was knitting along making fantastic progress...or so I thought. I was looking at them more closely, and had been wondering why the gusset was taking so long...and to my horror, I realized I picked up 2x the number of stitches I should have on the heel flap. No wonder the gusset took so long! Of course, I didn't realize my mistake until just after the gusset was completed and I was onto the arch shaping (wondering why it didn't correspond at all to my arch...now I know!) - so they've been frogged clear back to the heel flap - I've managed to finish the gusset again, though these are now going to sit on the end of the couch awaiting the completion of this year's Olympic Knitting project...stay tuned :)
And happy Sweetie Day too ;) 
