March Sighs

March has come in roaring like a lion roundabout Exit 151! There was a big storm in the Northeast on Friday, and with the turn of the calendar, the qualifying pattern for Sock Madness dropped. I spent the Friday storm snug in casa Jersey Knitter swatching, swatching, swatching the pattern, Fée Dragée [Sugar Plum Fairy] by Caoua Coffee, and finally decided to go with this blue and white combination.



The color play is not what I expected. The blue yarn by itself looks rather steely, so I expected when paired with white it would be wintry. Instead, it's nautical-bright. I like the way the white slip stitch dots pop – I was hoping for something reminiscent of the horizontal snow falling outside when I cast on, and that at least is true. So it's a keeper. Also, I must knit much faster if I hope to qualify for competition.

Speaking of which, as expected for me this Ravellenics was not exactly covered in fibery glory. Instead, I earned two richly deserved Agony of Defeat consolation medals for two DNF socks. Oh well. But I did frog an ancient UFO from Area 151 – astonishing to relate, one that predates Ravelry but was documented by blog. Here's the required before photo of the UFO. One observer fancifully observed the welts resemble bacon. Er, maybe it's spring fever?



Here's the required after photo of the reclaimed yarn. The yarn is a multi-stranded bouclé, which added a degree of difficulty to frogging. The effort was good enough for an Aerial Unwind medal.



I'd forgotten how much I like this discontinued yarn, Noro Blossom. And I was reminded how annoyed I was to find it had two put ups, 40 g and 50 g, and (of course) I had the 40-g put up and thus Not Enough Yarn for the project I had in mind. Old loves, old quarrels. Ah, Noro. Sigh.