After Sunday’s snowstorm, I’m more than ready for Spring. What better day to finish a pair of socks that had been languishing since the week before Christmas?

The Peony socks were invented at my Mom’s house, when I saw two beautifully pink skeins of Claudia’s Handpainted fingering weight yarn. I false started on Marigold socks in the past, but wanted to take another stab at them. I had tried a provisional cast on and was left with a row of baggy stitches large enough that when I attempted to re-distribute the excess yarn I had about 6 inches hanging out in space. Frog pond.

This time, I decided to reinvent them as Peony socks, since that’s the name of the colorway and well, I can’t very well call Marigold socks Marigold when they are pink. I worked a crochet provisional cast on, which went swimmingly. And by swimmingly, I mean it served its purpose. I really don’t think I’m a short row toe kind of gal. Same way I’m not really short row heel kind of gal. Or a toe-up sock kind of gal. Sensing a trend?

I was going to try a gusseted heel, but the instructions ended up sending me on a wild goose chase so I had to rip back to my (handy dandy even though I rarely use them) lifeline. And this was all before Christmas! In fact, my first heel was turned on Christmas Eve and the second sock started before I came back home. I didn’t finish the second heel until February 9th. And the socks weren’t completed until March 30th. Boy, now those were some socks that just didn’t want to get finished.

But they are! Finished, that is. And for all the annoyances of this project, I’m quite pleased with the result.

They fit well, never mind the fact that I accidentally knit them on 2.5mm needles when I always knit my own socks on 2.25mm needles, and also never mind the fact that I made them longer than usual (this being the only obvious benefit I see to toe up socks so far) without increasing the pattern or needle size. I can’t even tell you how happy I am to have these babies DONE.

Oh, and in case you’re not sick of cute shoes and pink socks, here are my Monkeys, completed last summer. (Shoes last week.)

I think I have a chartreuse problem.

I’m not sure when it started. It might have been a few years ago, when I dressed up as Absinthe for Halloween. I was La Fée Verte, or the Green Fairy. We often pick Halloween costumes that are a little avant garde, so to most people I just looked like a girl dressed up with wings and a big green sparkly ballgown.

Today, I’ve apparently turned my obsession with this color over to yarn. Surely not, you say. Oh yes, says I.

Around the outside is my Lace Ribbon Scarf done in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Pond Scum. On the left is The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Goldenrod Crab Spider. In the middle is Hedgehog Fibres Merino/Cashmere Sock in Ripe. On the right is Wollmeise 100% superwash sock in Frosch.

Since posting this photo on Ravelry, I’ve gotten eleventy million questions asking me about the skein in the middle, the Hedgehog Fibres yarn.

It is an unusual color, with lots of yellows mixed in as you can see. Really unique. I discovered people raving about the dyer on Ravelry, and when I saw she was from Cork, Ireland, I just had to check her out. I spent my study abroad during college in Cork, and I have extremely fond memories of it. We’re actually hoping to make a trip to Ireland within the next year or so, as it’s been calling my name and the nagging is getting on my nerves.

Will posting green yarn help bring on Spring?

It’s a rainy, dreary day in Chicago and I’m working on Maude.

I’m not sure if I’ve stated yet just how much of a garment knitter I am not, but I am trying to be. I have one cardigan under my belt, and I’m making a valiant effort with Maude. A delightfully summery looking top with a vintage feel. A little flirty, a little sexy, just the thing to take the edge off of March in the Midwest. It’s knit top down seamlessly, with the sleeves picked up after the body is knit. I’m knitting it in my new yarn lust, Wollmeise. Specifically, Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% superwash in the dark intensity of colorway Petit Poison Nr. 5.

Are you drooling yet? I am.

Getting the front chart for the pattern lined up correctly gave me fits at first, but I got that straightened out and was on my way. I discovered that I need to knit a whole lot more lace than the pattern calls for to get from my armpits down and over my chest. I’m knitting between two sizes for the body, and I can tell you that 6 or 12 rounds of the lace sure it’s going to cover the girls. So I’m at the point where it feels like the lace will never end, which is bad because once it does end, I’ll start feeling like the ribbing will never end. And that feeling will last a good long while, as there’s more ribbing than lace.

But I’m adoring how the lace looks, and loving how the yarn is working up. It feels cottony and light, so I may just be able to wear this successfully in the summer! (Don’t ask me what I was planning on doing with a lacy short-sleeved top if I couldn’t wear it in the summer, though.)

I might add that I’m having a bit of help with my knitting today. A little special someone was fighting with me and my knitting all morning and driving me absolutely batshit crazy. I walked away for a few minutes to get the camera and take a work-in-progress photo, and this is what I returned to.

Now how could I get mad at that?