clinging on to a nice dream, i lingered in bed this morning, until something made me wonder why it feels so odd. the sun wasn't glaring into my eyes, that's what. i smiled: finally a cloudy day. and then some. snow was literally pouring down. it had just started to feel like spring was a possibility after all, and now winter is freshly painted back on. i made barefoot tracks on the snow just to make a point. hint, hint!
i put a blend of pine, lemon and vetiver in my essential oil burner, and turned into a mellow blob. vetiver, smelled straight from the bottle is almost off-putting, but makes for a soft, deep base for fresher scents. i like the combination with lemon especially, it's both uplifting and grounding at the same time. a perfect balance.
barely into the toe of a new sock, i fell in love love with this yarn. tuohi means 'birch bark' in finnish, and i've already decided that if i even need to mend these socks, i will do so with black yarn in honor of cinder conk. the colourway would come more unto its own in a wider garment, a hat or a sweater even, where the patterning would become more random. but the even striping that is beginning to form on the sock is all right, too.
(a short finnish lesson: nalle is a diminutive for 'bear', often used for teddy bears. luonto means 'nature' and polku is 'a path'.)
yesterday i started a cardigan as well. this morning i started anew with larger needles. i wanted to make a charcoal grey one, but i had a heap of cardi-bound wool bought years ago, so i'm getting a plum-coloured one instead. not very spring-y. unlike grey... it's a free pattern, just do a search for 'paulie cardigan' and it should be easily found. i'm too lazy to link to it right now (i'm eager to get back to my knitting!) so far it feels like an easy project, so i might well make it later in grey and quite possibly a white one with blue and red striping, you know, a seaside cottage jacket...
so, april is not about cycling, it's about starting and most importantly finishing garments, because i will be spending the month of may back in merry ol' ireland. unless the volcanos in iceland decide otherwise. i'm a bit worried with all the seismic activity there lately. we don't need no ash clouds, ya hear! i need my fix of luv-ly accents and salty air.
