We are coming off two days of rain and the sun has finally come out.  It's 61 degrees here (16C) which is (once again) not at all normal for March here in South Jersey.  One of our daffodils has bloomed and there are several more that will burst forth with just a bit of sunshiney encouragement. 

We are usually just getting our first crocuses and the daffodils are not usually seen until later in March.  My hyacinths have come up and I can see the flower heads down in the leaves.  Those normally come up in April.  It's all very weird.  Maybe they all believe the Mayans and want to bloom early before the end of the world.

Peter Kevin's birthday present came on Thursday.  It's a lathe.  Here it is with a block of ginko that will hopefully become a mallet.  We took Friday off so he could play with it and he's been outside all day yesterday and today (so the warmish temps have not been a bad thing) making shavings.  He's in love.

I spent Friday carding and spinning the alpaca that I washed a while ago.  It cards up into clouds of alpaca and I spun some to see how it will feel to see if it's worth all the effort it takes to prepare.  I have a  small skein of one hundred percent alpaca that definitely looks handspun.  It's soft and slubby and I think will knit up nicely.  It is worth my while to keep working with the rest.  I have one bag of cream and two bags of brown, one a deep chocolate brown.  I have to wash some of the brown so I can card it with the cream and have a lovely natural heathery color.

I also found a sock pattern that has me so enchanted that I have two iterations of it going at once.  It's Fox Faces by Nancy Bush.  I started a pair for myself in this green color. (It really is green, I swear).  She describes it as an estonian inspired pattern and says the pattern looks like fox faces when you look at it upside down. 

It's an easy to memorize pattern.  The back half of the sock is a k1p1 rib all the way down to the honeycomb heel flap and (new to me) Dutch heel.  There is also her take on the Vikel braid which makes me feel all kinds of clever when I can pull it off. 

These are for me but I am always mindful of the fact that I need to make a pair of socks for El for March so I cast on these this afternoon.  El's are knitpicks merino/silk sock yarn.  For the price, it makes pretty socks with just a bit of shine.  Mine are one of Roxanne's zen yarn garden yarns.  She calls it 'smooshy' and it is.  I love how these feel when I squish them.

I have half a plain sock started for El already but this pattern is enjoyable and seems to be one of those that move along fairly quickly.  And I've already given her two pairs of plain socks.  Time to switch it up.

Not much else is going on here.  We are enjoying a period of peace and quiet.  Is it bad to say that aloud?   Taking Friday off was just a spur of the moment thing.  I know if I got some new toy, I'd want to stay home and play with it.  We're just big kids at heart.

Tomorrow is predicted to be sunny and a bit cooler but still nice.  It's not quite nice enough to sit outside with the wheel.  Too damp and chilly. (I don't know how Peter Kevin stands it but he swears he's not cold out there).   It is warm enough to open the windows and let in some fresh air.  And did you know that next weekend is DST here in the US?  Already?  It makes me feel old to say this but where did the time go?