Temperamental March

This month has been vexing in more ways than weather-wise. There's no doubt we are inching into spring. I won't add any spring flower images to the volumes already blogged across the net, mainly because I didn't have a chance to take any pictures before a fresh layer of snow fell (see below). Two days later finds us soggy with nonstop drizzle. Mud. And thunder storms in the forecast. (I do love a good night of thunder for reading though!)

Snowy twilight on the mountain.

Lucy and Samson

Lucy has the beautiful white mantle. Samson is almost all black. 

You can see the Japanese maple just under the eaves.
Hopefully there won't be any weather colder than this that might kill the delicate buds. 

And this was the next morning:

The snow was pretty, we'll need the rain, but I'd like to have something reliable to expect when I peek between the blinds each morning. (You can smack me this summer when high temperatures and 100% humidity become plenty reliable.)

What else has been vexing me? Knitting! It is supposed to be a relaxing hobby. Add a deadline, and forget about it. Even a long deadline. My brain circles the knitting project and suddenly I'm feeling guilt, low self-esteem, and depression. It doesn't help that I'm a slow knitter. Or that I'm what is known as a "process knitter" (the journey is as important as the destination). For goodness sake, I crawled in bed and took a depression nap (you know very well what I'm talking about...that was no post-Thanksgiving turkey snooze) because I thought too long and hard about set-in sleeves!  (I've yet to actually sew a set-in sleeve, so the anticipatory stress is ridiculous. Any mistakes will be right at eye-level of everyone in the world. And, of course, everyone in the world inspects sleeve seam stitches, right?)

The anxiety for the gift cardigan I was knitting was so bad that I have actually set it aside regardless of the deadline passing this weekend. I was making so any mistakes! I'll finish it later. It is lace cardigan from DROPS Design (Ravelry link here). 

*Whew*

Now I've picked up a new project for myself. It is a simple cropped cardigan called "Moshup" (Ravelry link here) and is by my favorite knit designer, Norah Gaughan. This is actually the first sweater I've knit by her! Here is Norah Gaughan's designer page on Ravelry. Here is the Berroco Design Studio blog list of Norah's posts (up until just recently she was their Design Director). I just begun the gauge swatch for the project. Here is a picture of my work area right now:

The obligatory knitting blogger's working image: yarn on needles, laptop, pattern, and the all-important cup of something (coffee, here). Browse any random selection of knitting blogs and you'll find these scattered about. I love them.