First Crocus of Spring and Born -again Pincushions

I came home from work and my husband told me I had missed the First Crocus of Spring.  The next day I was out there getting a picture.  By the then, I had two in bloom.  They look a little ragged, but they are putting up with some wind and a little rain.

 

It is great to see spring is coming.  I also found green coming up all over the yard.

I look forward to seeing more crocus, but I am not looking forward to getting the leaves off the lawn.  Between the leaves and the pods from the locust trees, we have a couple of days of raking.  It would have been much better to get it done before the new growth had started coming up...oh well.

My "Born-Again" pin cushions came from a couple of belts that I had.  Several times I have redone some of my old weaving to get a new piece.  I always refer to these as "Born Again."  In the 90's I made two vests from a full length skirt that I wove in the 60's.  This time I had a couple of belts and I cut them up and using an old article from Handwoven, to make the pin cushions.  

I had been thinking of buying a few pin cushions so that I could have one on each loom.  I hate it when I need a pin, or when I need a place to put a pin when I am weaving.  It is not so nice have the castle space with pins floating around, a pin cushion makes it much easier to get one and to control the ones that are there.  So when I remembered the article that made the little shapes from Inkle bands, I knew I could get some pin cushions easily.

They are cute and they sit in the castle of the looms so that I have a good place to put pins.  They are so large that I am afraid if I just stick a needle in there it will disappear, so I will have to be careful how I put in needles, but the large head pins that I use on the looms now have a good home.

I have been working on a KAL (knit a long) shawl, and I am pleased how it looks.  I just finished  clue 1 and I hope to start clue 2 this weekend.  The shawl is a big circular shawl, and I have never made that kind so I am excited to see how it is to wear.  It is also based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawl.  Which means every so often in the pattern, you will double the number of stitches.  On my picture you can see several rounds where the stitches were doubled.  Those areas should smooth out in the blocking.  I really like the little trifoil motif that she has put in the pattern.