Monday, April 28, 2008

More Flowers

It's a gloomy rainy Monday, so here's yet more cherry blossoms from Branch Brook Park. These are the late bloomers in the park, double ruffled pinks, in full bloom this past weekend. The flower clusters are so full, they give the impression of weighing down the branches.

Double ruffled pinks

Not to be outdone, the triple ruffled socks of irony (Jeanie Townsend's Ruffles & Bubbles) made their successful début bicycling to a Tour de Montclair planning meeting and to MY SnB. Tree pollen may make me wheeze, but the falling maple blossoms proved no impediment to the intrepid socks.

Ruffles & Bubbles socks

I heart the socks of irony! JaWoll Cotton may have a stupid name, but it's excellent for athletic socks, with just the right amount of slip inside the shoe, cushyness, and wicking. I suspect it will prove durable as well. The ruffles did not catch in the bicycle gears; indeed, their only drawback was I started thinking how well their cuteness would look with [cough] new cycling shoes and new cycling capris.

The Ruffles & Bubbles foot seemed plain compared to the cuff, so I substituted a star toe of three points, modified from the directions in Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. It's okay, maybe not as glam as its name would suggest, and surprisingly camera-shy. I can't get it to photograph properly – the digicam is registering crazy diffraction patterns in the yarn (a challenge I've had before with regular JaWoll).

Apple blossoms

Ah well, here's more flowers, apple blossoms from Branch Brook Park. I can't get over how early the apple trees are blooming this spring. Mine popped two weeks ahead of normal. Most years my tree is so full of bees at blossom time that it hums. This year was a silent spring. Something to make me go Hmmm on a rainy gloomy Monday.

9 comments:

Bezzie said...

Those are cute socks! Not as fluffy as I thought when I asked if they would get caught in the gears. Hee hee.

Hm, we've had those really big fifty-cent piece sized bumble bees, but no little normal ones I can think of.

Anonymous said...

Very cute socks- the ruffles are great. And those cycling shoes are very nice. (un)Fortunately, they wouldn't fit with my clips...

Jessica said...

Thanks for the flower pics on such a gloomy day. Nice pick me up! The socks are just too cute! You are a very patient knitter for making all those ruffles!

Kim said...

The whole honey bee thing is scaring me. What is happening?! I love the ruffly socks of irony. On the feet, the ruffles don't seem so big. Just right ruffles.

CrazyFiberLady said...

I love the socks.

Everything is popping early this year. The massive oak in the backyard is at least 2 weeks early in its dropping of stuff onto the pool cover. It is all making allergy season very interesting this year. Heres to hoping it will be a short one!

bookwoman said...

I heart your socks.

The cherry blossoms around here are nearing the end of the bloom. My driveway looks like it's been hit with a pink snow storm. It's actually kinda pretty.

Iron Needles said...

Love the cherry and apple blossoms! All the flowering trees are gorgeous around here right now, and tomorrow? 30 degree drop in temps. I hope the lilac buds don't get bit.

Thanks for your comment on my iris, too.

Deborah said...

Silent spring, Rachel tried to warn us all...

Love the socks! So you decided on the Montclair cycle event afterall. I sort of knew that is where you'd end up. My weekend was spent checking on the college student in NC making sure he did not collapse before finals week. Too bad there was no one to pick me up after I collapsed when I returned home to 2 other teenaged critters who looked as if their xbox controllers never left their hands and their bodies never saw soap the entire weekend I was away, ugh.

Devorah said...

Doesn't everyone get new cycling shoes to go with their handknit cycling socks? I did. :-)

Great socks!