I just had to start out by showing how my beautiful garden is coming along. There is do doubt that Spring is in full bloom. [Sorry, those of you still having winter.] As you can see, I love lavender. My husband and I are going to take a ride down to the N. San Diego County area on April 28th to visit The Lavender Fields, a wonderful lavender farm owned by Ellen Sullivan (a weaver/spinner friend) and her husband, Paul Bernhardy. They will open for the season on April 25th and will have their annual lavender plant sale that weekend. Ellen has a little general store featuring all of her lavender products and also a little wool house with hand-dyed yarn from her home-grown sheep. This is a trip that is well worth the ride. For more information: http://thelavenderfields.com

NEW SOCK YARN!! My hand-dyed and handpainted superwash merino yarn is now in stock at La Petite Knitterie. We call it "La Petite Handpaints". I've crocheted a baby afghan out of this yarn, and knit up a sample sock. Patterns for both of these projects are in the store. Kat hopes to have this yarn available on her website some time in May. This is a fingering weight yarn with 150 yd. to the skein. So far, we've got 17 semi-solids and 9 variegateds. Last Saturday, we set this rainbow of skeins on the table, and before we could even label it, our knitters started buying.

Granny Square Madness! About a year ago, I learned how to crochet a granny square and went on a total crocheting binge using a colorful skein of my hand-dyed handspun yarn. Once I started, it was hard to stop, because each square was coming out different, yet it went together with all of the others. Of course, that's the beauty of handspun yarn. I have a pile of these granny squares sitting in my knitting basket begging to be put together, but here are a few. They are so pretty.

I hope this picture answers the questions we spinners always get: "Why do you do you that? Why don't you just go to the store and buy some yarn?" Duh!

So, then lately I have been goofing around with crocheted granny squares using the LPK Handpaints that I recently dyed. These little squares are so much fun and easy, too. I did some smaller squares this time, using a size "C" (2.75 mm) crochet hook. They are so cute. Oh, but do I have to put them together? Can't I just look at them?

Once I did these little solid squares, I had to see what the granny square would look like in the variegated yarn. Then I thought I needed to see what a solid colored edge would look like; and then maybe, I should try more of the variegated, etc. etc. and after a couple of days, I ended up with the baby afghan pictured below. It's about 22.5" x 22.5" but it can be made bigger if you just keep adding rounds of color.

And now -- my current granny square project -- another baby afghan. [Did I mention that these granny squares are addicting?] This time, I am using some odd balls of Blueface Leicester sportweight yarn that I have handpainted in variegated colors. This is turning out so colorful and is going a bit faster as it is on a size "E" crochet hook. This is all such fun. I hope that my projects will motivate my knitter and spinner friends to get out their crochet hooks and get granny square fever, too.