Peoneme

I truly love spring in DC. Growing up in California made me immune to the changes of the seasons; the winters are so mild that nothing ever really dies. But now that I live in a place where there are true, distinct seasons (even though they are mild, relative to many other parts of the world), I await the bloom of every bud on the dogwoods in my yard. And the peonies and the azaleas and the bluebells and lilies of the valley and the irises. But the grand prize for me is in June, when my beloved hydrangeas bloom. I can't wait to see what they look like this year. I planted them last year and literally spent hours tending to the delicate balance of water and shade they required as new plantings. They are very high maintenance plants. But I expect a big payoff. Already my dwarf hydrangea is three feet tall, and I see lots of potential blooms on my mopheads.

I never, ever thought I would have even a passing interest in gardening. But I love it. I love witnessing the life cycle in its fierce and compact time schedule. I love the fun and challenge of planning a perennial garden (my current project for that little strip of land between the sidewalk and the street), predicting what will bloom when and what will look good next to each other. This year the kids and I are going to raise monarch caterpillars, once the milkweed shows up at the nursery. Pictures to follow, obviously.

But back to the meme. I got all woozy reading all of those. I'll just talk about what I like and what I want to knit next and things that annoy me. Probably a lot of that, now that I think about it.

I like knitting with wool, and wool and silk blends.
I would like to try bamboo.
I slightly prefer two circulars instead of DPNs, but not enough to always choose one over the other.
I am tired of following directions and want to branch out to designing my own stuff.
I can't steek to save my life, and you will all be relieved to know that when Stitches East comes to town in October, I will be attending the "Joy of Steeking" class.
I don't really like self-striping yarns.
Noro? The World of Nature? Whatever.
Love the Yarn Harlot blog, hate the books.
I like cabling. A lot.
I know people who hate intarsia. I don't understand why. I neither love it or hate it. If the pattern calls for it, I do it.
I do hate seaming, though, and take great pains to pick up stitches for sleeves so I can knit them in the round.
I am so over felting, but will be felting one more bag before hanging up the felting for awhile.
Knitters I admire: Elizabeth Zimmerman, Nicky Epstein, Jenna Adorno, Eunny Jang, and La Pez.
I do not love the washrag. I do not understand the washrag. I do not understand the appeal of the slow-witted style of Mason Dixon Knitting. I have met the authors at a book signing and love them. They are incredibly nice and funny, and their friendship is really lovely. But the book? Not so much.
I love the Geico cavemen. Just had to throw that in there.
I am currently trying to figure out how to incorporate Keanu Reeves as a design element in a project. I am not kidding about this. Y'all have not seen my Keanu Reeves tabletop fountain (which I MADE, by the way) so you have NO IDEA how deep the madness reaches.

That's it for now. Have to go practice my Spanish. La chica es loca.