Spring Greens

When I went to see my friend Jean last week, she very generously gave me a goodie bag of leftover Kidsilk Haze from her Earth Wrap. I've been doodling with it ever since.

I started with a light, bright green which makes me think of snowdrops and crocuses and fresh shoots poking though the soil. It's shade 581, Meadow.

You can't quite see its fresh appleyness in these pictures.

I think this is going to be a sampler scarf, while I try out to see which needles I like with the yarn. I started with a pair of 5mm beech needles, but the combination of the yarn and the needles made my skin crawl. I ripped that after one row and cast on again with long 6.5mm metal needles, but after a few rows they were too heavy and, in this weather, too cold.

I did a short stretch with rosewood 5mm dpns, which were quite nice but a bit blunt. I know people sometimes sandpaper their wooden needles to a pointier point but I feel a bit apprehensive about that (I think it would be like cutting your own hair and would end in disaster) and anyway I haven't got any sandpaper. For the long stretches I am now using bamboo 6mm dpns, but they're very basic bamboo, unvarnished and unpolished, and they stick a bit. The points are a bit stubby.
I did another short stretch of stocking stitch with 4mm metal dpns, which was good because they were much lighter than the first metal needles but still a bit cold, and then returned to the 6mm bamboos. I used Kidsilk Haze once in the past, for a project which remains unfinished, ahem, and I did that with 5mm bamboo Addis which were polished and had nice long points. I think I liked them best. If anyone has thoughts on the best needles to use with this yarn, please leave a comment.

Since I took the photos, I've joined in another shade of green. I think it's a dark olive, although I chose it after dark so I may get a surprise tomorrow.

I've ordered a kit for the Habu Kusha Kusha scarf, which uses superfine merino and stainless steel yarn; my hope is that when I've completed that, returning to Kidsilk Haze will be like knitting with chunky tweed.

I ripped back a couple of rows of Mavis tonight, and did the row with the decreases. The only reason I did this was because I'd said here that I would; I was too embarrassed to face you all on Monday morning and tell you that I hadn't done my homework.