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 ;) 
...most things in the desert *do* have spines. But they still make for some pretty fascinating subject matter. I adore the colors of this agave - frosty green with the pinky purple spines. Maybe I should get out the dyepots again....because there is something simply soothing about that color pairing. 
Also: A sonoran desert favorite - the accordion pleats of a saguaro cactus. I'm guessing with the recent rains the pleats aren't quite so deep anymore :) 
...in the desert has spines. 
Surprisingly, to me anyhow (when I first arrived out here), there are a number of grasses in the desert as well. They tend to sprout up quickly, covering the landscape in green, but then quickly mature and dry - unfortunately providing lots of fuel for wildfire season. I still find them pretty though, even in their dried/dormant state.
Well, maybe not. Behold, the Teddy Bear Cholla - so named because from afar, it looks fuzzy...but in reality, it's densly packed with long sharp spines! Should you have the misfortune to ever get a segment stuck on you, take care in removal, so-as to not further get yourself stuck! I normally wear trail runners while hiking, though if I know I'll be a cholla-dense region, I'll usually opt for more rugged footwear, just in case I am not paying attention and wind up stepping on or kicking one of the fallen segments.
I finally finished a pair of slippers for the Mister - the delay was only due to my getting terribly distracted. Once I buckled down (thanks to an afternoon of football at a friend's place) I finished off the toes and cuffs, and fed them to their feltastic washing machine. 15 minutes later, I was wringing them out and blocking them to shape over my shoes :D Due to the cool weather here, they stayed damp for a bit, so we were able to perfect the fit before they fully dried.
