Forcing Spring

The temperature is rising above 30 degrees around here, so that must mean Spring is upon us.  The kids love this “outdoor” sort of weather, and since our driveway has cleared of most of the slush and ice, they wasted no time bringing out the bikes.

David was lamenting the other day that he wishes we had sidewalks.  I try not to think of all the things from my childhood in the city that the kids will never experience.  Biking in a cal-de-sac with all the neighborhood kids, walking to the library after school, and popping over to a neighbor’s house quick before supper.  They will likely never go to prom or have a lemonade stand.

I try to focus on the childhood that they are having: raising chickens in the yard, and biking around the summer kitchen over and over.  Driving from homestead to homestead for trick-or-treating in the fall to visit all the old neighbors and sneaking out to the garden in the summer to snatch some sugar snap peas off the vine without mom noticing.  It is so different, but different is not always bad.

Missing out on something often means gaining something else.

They decided that above 30 degrees meant they didn’t need hats or mittens, but quickly changed their mind about that after one trip around the summer kitchen (shed).  The change of season often means things going into storage or coming out of storage.  It’s hard to know when that actually happens around here. Definitely not yet.

My “Post Cardigan” pattern is currently being tested by some amazing volunteers.  I’m finishing up the button band on my pink cardigan.  I’ve been playing around with a couple of names for it.  “Spring Clarity” or “Summer Clarity” as I intended this to be a lighter version with many of the same elements as the Clarity Cardigan.  However, I’m starting to like the name “Minnesota Summer.”  Once the button band is done I’ll start the writing process.  I actually have a good spreadsheet already laid out for this one thanks to my class.  It still needs a bunch of work though.  Ingrid has been terrible at letting me get to it.

It will take me a week or two to write up the pattern if I’m lucky.  It will take a week with my editor, and a month with some testers, so I’m thinking my goal of getting this one published in May is seeming a bit optimistic at this point.

I’m currently swatching out a few projects.  By far my favorite is this bird’s egg one.  I’m planning on using this blue swatch to reach one of my 2013 goals of writing out an entire knitting pattern (all sizes and everything) before casting on the project…just from a swatch.  The class I’ve been taking on Craftsy has helped me bunches with projects I’ve had in the works.  I want to attempt one using the method I’m learning from beginning to end.  I’m hoping to learn a lot by forcing myself to do it this way once.  It will force me to finish the class too.

Hopefully I can get at least the patterns both written up before the garden has to be planted.  One can hope.