It's the pink house on the corner!

Ray Smock took this great picture of the Y2Knit shop and my home. I'm so lucky to have the florist and garden shop across the street as there are always flowers to look at. My yard has grown significantly since this picture a couple of weeks ago.
It's always interesting how many people notice the hat on the fire hydrant after walking by it many times. The hat has been there since the first sign of spring, replacing the winter hat and scarf. Also near the fire hydrant is my "BAY-WISE" sign, which indicates my yard and garden are certified as bay friendly. I garden 100% organically, have two rain barrels, and try to maintain only non-invasive species. I am learning which perennials are native to the area and fostering their growth in the garden.

In the back garden, I have little icons of interest. This one was given to my by a friend. The outstretched hands reminded me of someone holding yarn to be wound, so that's what I decided to depict. In the winter this garden god wears a colorful hat.

So what's all this have to do with knitting? Not much! But it is part of the scenery visitors to Y2Knit see when they arrive and walk to the shop entrance. Keep your eyes open!

Y2Knit Colors in Bloom!

I love purple and green--one reason they are the Y2Knit colors. I have Y2Knit colors in the garden now.

Nature is a great inspiration to me. I often see colors in nature that help me select yarn or what to wear or how to decorate. I find it interesting that with spring many of the houseplants are blooming too. I am knitting pink.

This weekend I did some needle felting with the new Artfelt. What a great opportunity to play with color...and create flowers! I love doing swirly designs. Pictures are on the Artfelt page. The kits come with 90" of the magic paper--enough to keep anyone busy for quite a while! I'm still working on the roving and paper from the first kit. The yarn is soft and colors are wonderful. I can hardly wait until Jill is here on Thursday to show it to her. I think I know which kit color she will choose--but sometimes I'm wrong. Always fun to see if I can guess it right.

We're off to the Poconos for the Knitting Getaway Weekend at Kirkridge. More fun with color and slip stitches!

Spring in January

We've had unseasonably warm temps this week - not exactly great weather for inspiring knitting, but the weather forecasters promise it will get cold yet. Abigail is chasing a fly in the house, I swatted at mosquitos last night and the stink bugs seem to be everywhere. Outside, bulbs are coming up and trees are budding. A customer told me she had been in Washington, DC and the cherry blossoms were out, along with daffodils. Someone else drove on Rt. 40 from Frederick and reports a bank of forsythia bushes in full bloom. The flowering quince (japonica) in my yard is budding.

My garden, one of my sources for inspiration (how I love to sit on the bench in the warm weather and knit!), is still alive. I walked through this morning and see I have broccoli to pick and lettuce is still growing. The spring weeds are doing well, as evidenced by the ground cover leafing out in my walkway. Perennials are sending up new shoots. I don't know how they will be affected if we do have cold weather and the ground freezes. The garden pests are probably flourishing too.

With spring in January, I was inspired to pick up some pastel pink yarn this morning.