a look at my flowers in the rain

stoplight knitting

i am knitting the holden shawlette with linen yarn.  it's SO easy, it qualifies as stoplight knitting in my book.  i'm sneaking in some extra rows while waiting for my daughter to finish her swim practice.

here's a gratuitous flower photo -- my roses finally have enough blossoms so i can have a bouquet.

hip to be square

i recently learned how to miter a square in tunisian crochet.  it is fun, easy, and goes really quickly, like most tunisian projects.  then, kay of mason-dixon knitting published a blanket pattern, knit from mitered squares, with a neutral corner on each square, and surrounded with the neutral in a log cabin fashion.  GORGEOUS!  and supports aid for japan!  go buy the pattern! (link goes to mdk blog, "buy now" button in upper righthand corner of page)

i mention all this because, from this confluence of knowledge and ideas, i was inspired to crochet a blanket using mitered squares, a relatively non-neutral neutral, and eliminating the log cabin surrounding portion.  a natural evolution of thought, no?  シ

i've never knit a blanket.  too much boring work.  but noro, dear noro, with its crazy ever-changing colors, keeps it interesting.  i'm using noro aya, primarily cotton and silk, as the exciting colorful part.  i selected three main colorways, because i want a lot of variety and fun in this blanket, and frankly, i just don't care about having perfectly color-matched squares.  i'm hoping to have it not look too random, so after crocheting the first 10 or 11 squares as they came out of the ball, i'm now doing a minimum of planning and selecting the colors as i place the squares. 

i believe i'll do 36 squares.  i've already completed 13-3/4.  i'd like to use that bluish green as a border all around.  that yarn is rowan wool cotton, soft and produces about the same gauge as the noro aya for me.  part of what has made this project fun is that, in order to produce a square containing four squares, i had to figure out an appropriate method for casting on after i picked up stitches along an edge.  woooooo!  shivers of problem-solving delight! シ if you are familiar with the modified crochet cast-on in knitting, you will know how i decided to proceed.

finally, if you've been reading here for a while, you may remember the tirelessly blooming orchid my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday 1-1/2 years ago.  apparently, it thrives on neglect (the only way to thrive at my house!), and is now blooming again!  here she is:

happy spring!  happy easter!  a blessed passover!

and of course, happy knitting.

it's still wintertime here...

... but that means it's time for the camellias to begin blooming, and it's time to take the opportunity to pop over to descanso gardens for a mid-winter stroll.  they have wonderful huge koi swimming around in the sky.ツ

no snowdrifts here!  just beautiful white camellias in full bloom.

pink ones, too, but my favorite are the white.  the red ones are pretty spectacular, but how many flower pictures can i post?!

a resident white goose hangs out with a mallard pair (right behind the tree).  there is a pair of wood ducks living there as well, but they were not at this pond when i was there.  the breeze came up as i took this picture, blurring the reflection.

i have never seen a rhododendron this color.  it practically glowed.

not trying to rub it in, really!

ETA: click on picture to really see it, as always.

i took an amazing picture today

this is a koi fish in a pond at descanso gardens in la cañada.  it's an incredible image, if i do say so myself.  sheer accident, may i add.

because thing one has the type 1 diabetes, i get to go on all the field trips.  since i didn't grow up here, it's an awesome way to be a tourist in my own town.  this is my favorite time of year to go to descanso, because the camellia trees are in full bloom, and the understory of the forest is amazing.

here are some close-ups:

this one, i believe, is a pink perfection camellia, planted by almost every pasadena homeowner for decades, starting in the 1920's.  they are ubiquitous, and quite lovely.

you know i can't resist a bud!

redecorating

i decided i wanted a smaller header, so i've changed the illustration completely.  remember my camera-happy days in colorado last august?   we also had a blue to purple and everything in between day i have not documented 'til now:

i'm not sure what these were, but they featured incredible sorts of mulberry purple.

nemesia

i know it's not foxglove, snapdragon or campanula.
do you know what it is?

amazing delphinium

perfect morning glories in cornflower blue, complete with honeybee

oh how i ♡ tulips

from trader joe's. (my tj's is the original store -- fun!)

the tulips as the newly appointed key feature of the kitchen window sill gang.  look at the blue vase with the orange flowers -- color contrasty!  picking up the vase color, the dish soap.  highlighting the clay pot of the orchid, the plastic basketball of the 5th/6th grade girls championship basketball trophy.  the yellow pitcher calling attention to the yellows/greens in the orchids.

so wonderful to look out my kitchen window.  ツ

oboe, play me an "A"

this is my biggest azalea bush.  at this time of year, when i look at it, i get the same feeling i do when i hear an orchestra tuning before a concert.  it is the feeling of anticipation.  in the sense of smell, it might be the scent of popcorn.  it's that you know something wonderful is coming, and your senses are sending "ooo!  ooo!  ooo!" signals to your brain.

this is what the buds look like when they're at this "tuning" stage -- the azalea almost looks pregnant.  for me, the anticipation is palpable.

 

the whole azalea is eventually covered with these perfect white blossoms.  actually, some of the flowers have a pink streak, since the hybrid variety came from pink stock.

 

the camellias want some attention, too.

aren't we lucky in socal in march?

ps -- as always, click on the picture to supersize it.  they're a bit blurry as i did not use a flash here at dusk...