weekend update

just a day trip, a wee excursion to Tom's Thumb


Mountain Man climbed


I did, too. but also got in a few stitches.


and here's what's shaping up ...


half-circle, lace edging. pictured with vibrant yellow brittlebush

too busy to blog these days. thanks for hanging in there!

city brights

Change of scenery ... flew back east for a work trip to Boston ...


And with all the travel -- planes, trains, buses -- I made good progress on that yellow shawl. It's a half-circle of stockinette with a wide lace edging, and I'm already on the lace section.


It's funny. I was never into yellow before. Never, never. I have tons of yellow yarn from natural dyeing, but there's a reason this sat in my stash for years! But now that me eye got attuned to it, I've kept looking for yellow everywhere. Street signs ....


Plastic chains along the sidewalk ...


Spray-paint on pavement ...


It has me feeling bright and sunshiny in the winter city.

refuge

We went to The Refuge last weekend.

We had beautiful weather. Blue skies. Sunshine. And the desert was beginning its spring bloom. Here's ragged rock flower (Crossosoma bigelovii), spiky and fragrant ...

and Mexican Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungens), seen with the dramatic "Torch" rock formation behind it ...

The Sonoran desert is shockingly lush and green at this time of year, as winter is turning into spring. Moss and small ferns sprout in the shade of boulders. Grasses and green weeds carpet the desert floor. It's probably hard to imagine if you've only ever seen the desert in the heat of the summer, when it's bone dry and brown.

And though the nights get down to the low 30s, the days warmed right up in the intense sunshine. Here I am, taking a knitting break with Isis in the late afternoon (working with my yellow yarn!) while Mountain Man and his friend got in their last climbs on the high outcrop in the distance.

No photo of the knitting -- anyways it's just a semi-circle of stockinette for now -- but I'll leave you with the amazing jaggedness of a decaying juniper stump. I love collecting textures.

sunshine

Sometimes a blast of SUNSHINE is just what you need.


Or yellow yarn. That matches the Arizona sunshine and the yellow grapefruits hanging ripe and lush on the tree.


Honestly, I don't even like yellow usually!! I just happen to have a ton of yellow yarn from all my natural dyeing (this is sock yarn that I dyed with goldenrod back when I was living in Vermont, four and a half years ago).

I was in a mood recently when I suddenly needed a blast of its energy. So I put it on the swift (which is also homemade, and which also dates back to those Vermont days).


And wound it into a sunny orb of a ball.


Knitting to come ...