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Taking advantage of sunshine

We’ve had more sunny days recently, which has been nice for several reason, one of which will benefit you, dear reader.

The cat is happy because sunshine + slightly warmer temperatures means we’re willing to leave the balcony door cracked open for her during significant chunks of the day. She appreciates being able to wander in and out at leisure. Also, there are more birds to watch with the warm weather (none are stupid enough to land on our balcony when she is around, to her great disappointment).

We’ve also taken the long route for our grocery trips and enjoyed the sunshine and warmth on our way to the store. You can see other folks out and about as well, but we seem to all be following the rules to stay away from each other and not get together with friends (the limit is two people together or members of your household so eg: parents can go out with all their kids).

Lastly, sunshine means I can get better photos of my projects. Now, a professional photographer is likely to say that an overcast day is best for outdoor photos. But I’m essentially getting “overcast” by taking my photos inside but where sunshine is filtering in from the back porch. They aren’t in direct sun, but I’m not relying on artificial light either, so I get much nicer color accuracy.

First up: I am nearly there on my Twisted Lines top. I’ve finished the garter collar and armhole edging and just have a little sewing up to do and weaving in the ends:

A knitted sleeveless top in blue yarn with purple and green tones with an XOXO cable pattern up the front and a small garter collar. It’s nearly complete with unwoven in ends.

I am particularly happy with this photo. It’s a little dark, but that’s exactly how it looked to my naked eye – a little shadowed inside the house with a bit of a twilight glow from the linen and silk content, and it’s captured both the purples and the green tones of the yarn, which I often find really hard to do with those “blue” yarns that bleed outwards in both directions along the color wheel into purple and green.

While my top is all subtle shades of blue, purple and green, there is nothing subtle about my Fireworks Festival Shawl, and I’m loving how it’s coming out:

I am really really happy with my decision last summer to pick up the pink/orange “Backdraft” colorway in addition to the orange “Sam”. I think it if had been just blue and orange, the fireworks wouldn’t look nearly so nice and it would get to be a bit much. But the softer glow of the pink/orange variegated yarn is working out really well. At the same time… I just love blue and orange together and enjoy the orange streaks of the “lights”. In short – I think that when using such bold colors, this pattern is really benefiting from a 3 color instead of 2 color palette, with one background and two contrast.

I was worried about having exactly the amount of yarn called for, but I’m more than half way through the first of two Fireworks charts, and haven’t even finished up the first ball of blue yarn. This makes me extra happy I chose to switch to the pink/orange when I’d only just used up about half the orange. I’d hate to get to the pink only at the very edge. I may throw in a bit more orange between the Fireworks sections.

For the spinners out there looking for some more fiber – you may have heard that PlyAway has been cancelled (no shock really), but they’ve posted a list of the vendors who would have been there. Since the vendors would have been stocking up for the event, they should have plenty of goods to buy right now.