The daffodil leaves started pushing their way through the dirt almost as soon as the ground had thawed.   We had little bunches of leaves for ages.  Then the weather gave us a sneak preview of summer.  It was t-shirt weather, or at least I could run out to the barn without a jacket.  Then poof, we had beautiful yellow daffodil blooms.  The mild weather pushed the flowers out in literally hours.  In the morning they were buds and in the afternoon, there were blooms!

We also had lots of little blue flowers littering the lawn and flower beds, but a snow fall and some below freezing temps laid waste to their beauty.   The daffodils however, endure.  Despite the cooler temperatures and the cold nights, they still shine.

I've been trying to teach myself to follow a crochet pattern.   I've made a few blankets, and dabbled over the years, but following  a pattern has always been a bit of an issue.  While trying a pattern for a 1 hour hat, I realized that it's not the pattern I have issues with, but how not to add an extra stitch at the beginning of a row, or the end of a row.   I've watched a bunch of videos which were informative and now I'm pretty sure I understand the process.   The problem?  I can't seem to get the stitch count correct unless I count ever row.  This is irritating to me because I like to do other things while I fiddle with handwork, and having to count every row means I have to totally focus on the work at hand.

This is my 3 day hat, not my 1 hour hat.  It's some miscellaneous grey yarn I found skeined in my stash.  I've no idea what it was or when it was spun.   Cheap commercial fake fur pom pom on top because that seems to be the fashion.  I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that there were 2 in the box and I'd just misread the contents.

I let my girls out on those warm days.  They were so happy.   I kept them in yesterday because it was cold, rainy and miserable.   Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.  Even if it's cool, they'll enjoy being outside.  

In other news, Kevin has decided to start sleeping at my feet.   This is a bit disconcerting because he doesn't really do "people" very well.  It makes me wonder what he's planning.

I'm off on a new quest to learn about circular sock machines.   I've been sort of interested for years, but never really had the time to figure them out.   But there is a bit of arthritis happening in my hands, so maybe now is the time.  I don't want to give up my woolly winter socks!

A Hint of Summer

 It's not unheard of to have a snow storm in April around here.   It's not common, but it happens.   However this week the weather has been spectacular.  It's been a peek into summer, today especially.  Yesterday started off nicely, with sunshine and mild temperatures, but right about noon the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up.  It was still a cold breeze, which made the day feel cool.  Today though, the breeze is mild, and the sun is shining.  It's 24C out side which is summer weather.   This morning, I hung out the first laundry of the year.   I'll admit that I like hanging laundry outside.  It's one of those little chores which makes me feel very happy.

 

All those really early bulbs have suddenly bloomed.  The Scilla or Squill, whatever you call it, and the Glory of the Snow have started to bloom.   The mini daffodils have started to bloom and the full size ones should be starting to bloom in a day or two.   What is really amazing is the number of bees around these flowers.   So many of them and they are so busy, flitting around.  We get a lot of tiny bees, which are very good pollinators.   This spring though, in addition are a lot of these larger bees.   

 

I'm almost finished the rug!   I just have a couple more flowers to finish up and the binding.   I'm having a hard time finding yarn in the right colour to whip the edges with.   The blue background of the border is a teal based colour and was dyed with who knows what dyes, ages ago.  I picked it up at a guild silent auction.  It's a lovely dark, mottled blue, more cobalt than navy.   I was at a hook in with the guild, at the studio of a very talented hooker and totally forgot to ask her if she had a dye which would work.  I've dyed one skein of yarn, but it's not quite the right blue :(   The only thing I'm not 100% happy with are the mullions on the pink house.  I'm not sure I'm unhappy enough to change them though, and haven't thought about what colour I might change them out with, just in case I decided to pull them out and redo them. hmmm.....

I was at Westfield demonstrating Pysanky or Ukrainian Easter Eggs.   It was a fun time and while there

were a lot of visitors, there weren't so many it was crazy all the time.   The amazing thing was a friend from my childhood showed up and surprised me.  It totally made my day.  I don't have a photo of all the eggs I wrote because I gave a bunch away in the staff room.  I kept enough for a display I'll need them for in the future though, so I don't have to write more of them between now and then.   I forgot to take the wax off one of them, oops!