Assorted Stuff

   At my Toastmaster's meeting on Thursday, the Table Topics master asked many good questions. My friend, Helen, was asked what her favourite flower is. Helen is an avid gardener. I was looking forward to her answer. She didn't really answer the question because she loves all flowers. Her Table Topic turned into a short talk about flowers and the wonders of spring in Wisconsin.
  I heartily agree with Helen. There is nothing like spring in the north. Spring in the north is enough to make you believe in miracles especially after a long, snowy, cold winter. When the snow is a foot deep and the temperature is down to waaayyyy below freezing, it's easy to think that it will stay cold forever. You start to wonder if anything can survive being that cold for that long. During the winter months when I'm at work, I will get calls from pharmacies in the south asking for transfers of prescriptions for my customers that run to warmer climates for the season. I like to taunt the pharmacists that ask me how the weather is. I'll say that it's a balmy five degrees above zero outside. There's no wind-chill and I might go for a walk after work since the weather is so nice. There's usually some kind of gasp on the other end as the pharmacist I'm talking to tries to grasp the concept of something being that cold. (Outside of a freezer that is...)
  Eventually the snow melts and the weather warms up. The grass slowly turns green. Trees begin to leaf out. Bulb plants peek out of the ground as if to test the temperatures first. Once it gets warm enough everything starts to grow basking in the warmth of the sun and shaking off  the dirt of hibernation. Flowers bloom and perfume the air. Crabapple and other flowering trees decorate the landscape. Dandelions pop up on lawns.
  Spring is the gift that God gives to us hearty souls that live here. It is our reward for making it through the winter. There is really nothing that can compare to the feeling of a northern spring. We spent the last week in South Carolina where spring is well underway. Everything is lush and green, The trees are full and the pines and palmettos are standing tall. It's beautiful, but it cannot compare to spring in the north. There's something about the way spring comes slowly in the north that makes it so special.
   I have almost finished the second scarf in the Scarf Project. The second scarf is for my daughter-in law. Her favourite colour is violet. Since I didn't know what shade of violet, I found a yarn that is self patterning . That means that the colours randomly change. Unlike the first scarf, I knitted this in one stitch so that the colour patterns in the yarn would be more visible. It turned out well. The scarf seemed a little plain to me. I saw in my crochet book that I can crochet edging onto knitted items. That was just the ticket. I found a simple edging that I thought would work. Yesterday I edged one side. It looked just as good as I'd hoped. The best part is that it only took about half an hour. I just need to finish the other side, wash it and lay it out to dry. Then it will be done and I can give it to her in time for her birthday.
   I started working on the third scarf a couple days ago. This scarf will go to my stepdaughter Elin. Since she lives in Texas she doesn't need a warm scarf. I found some very thin yarn, almost threadlike in her favourite colour, black. I wanted to jazz it up a bit so I bought some silver thread to weave into the scarf.
  Once I looked that the pattern I found a better way to incorporate the silver. I would simply knit the first six rows and the last six rows holding both threads together. I was ready to go.
  I started to knit a swatch to check the gauge when I realized that I had a challenge. Knitting with this yarn was like knitting with dental floss. The pattern I was planning to use was not really going to show up well. I decided to try just doing a knit stitch. It wasn't easy, but I liked what I was seeing. It was sort of net like. I think combining  it with the silver will make it really stand out. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I may need to buy another ball of silver thread. It's going to be an interesting project