All around me things are budding.  Tulip leaves are pushing themselves up from the ground.  Flowers are beginning to show their colors.  Trees are ready-ing their flair for another season – it’s a time of growth! 

So how am I growing in the Spring time? Well, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my first "from scratch" sweater – I think it’s finally time for me to grow in that way as a knitter.  It’s been mulling over in my head since late January only really getting a chance to see needle time now.  How fortunate are we in these times with such an overflow of information!  There are tremendous resources about how to design your own knits – how to make those designs knittable for others, how to figure out that magical rate of decrease to make waists and sleeves fit in perfectly…  So I guess there was only one thing to do – cast on.

This knit is going to be for the spring/summer so I want it to be a breathable but wearable knit!  I keep seeing myself wearing this with a nice pair of jeans and a long beaded necklace with a class of crisp white wine in my hand.  Most of it will be knit in stockinette with a nice firm border… I’m still trying to decide whether I want to pick up stitches for the collar or have it just knit right in. Ahhh decisions decisions!  I guess this is where the knitting and ripping and rethinking commences!

The yarn I’m using is the Rowan Purelife cotton. So far I’m really loving how it’s knitting up.  There’s a slight variation to the color which gives it a certain charm.  It’s also very soft for a cotton.  I’m nervous about getting so involved and spending so much time on this and it not panning out.  But it’s for me! (for now..) So Really I just need to have fun with this – to hopefully have something wearable in the end with lots of lessons learned, I’m sure!

For now, it’s just a seedling, soon to be getting those April showers to make it hopefully bloom one day…