Thinking Green Thoughts

We're at that time of the year, again; the back and forth of the weather time. We warm up and all the snow melts, then we freeze over again. It rains. It thunders. Then it snow flurries. I remember a story I read to my children when they were little, Ollie's Ski Trip, by Elsa Beskow. King Winter rules (he's a good guy, remember this is about Ollie's first set of skis), but eventually loses out to drab, ragged-looking Mrs Thaw, who comes with her broom to sweep away winter and clean up for Spring. I feel like we've spent a disproportionate amount of time in Mrs. Thaw's company lately. Yes, the crocuses are up and the tulips are starting to show, but the radiators are still running and the nights still dip into the 30's.

Which perhaps explains why, in between swatching sundry blue tweed yarns into various cable patterns, most of my knitting time is spent on this.

I am liking knitting this, which is fairly astonishing to me. You have to realize, I peered down into that box of yarn, off and on, for weeks, debating what to do with it. Try to return it? Add it to the String Theory box for this summer's sidewalk sale? Bury it as if it were toxic waste?

I still look at the remaining skeins and flinch. Much as I like lettuce, I'm less than enthralled when it is interpreted in wool. In its blanket incarnation, though, I am entranced. Astonished. Held captive once more by the magic in knitting.

That, and I'm convinced that the more I knit on this, the sooner Mrs. Thaw will finish her housekeeping.