Alphabet Challenge #8 - "Hacho!" "Gesundheit!"

Sometime last fall, my LYS, The Black Sheep, got in this wonderful new line of yarn from Peru...Mirasol. All the yarns were yummy (and to make you feel good about buying them, a portion of the proceeds go to support education for the children of the shepherds) but I fell in love with the softness and colors of Hacho. This yarn is merino, with a gauge of 22 stitches to 4" on US 6's (4mms). And the colors....rich and saturated. I bought these four skeins to make the Chevron scarf...but, as I said earlier, the colors just don't have enough contrast with one another. Though they look as though they would when they're side-by-side.


I mean, don't they look all orangey-red in two skeins and all blue-y-purple in the others? Put 'em together though and they blend, bleahnd, bleah.

But I still love the yarn. I'll just have to come up with a different idea for these. 137 yards per skein so there are 548 yards for me to play with.

And while I'm at it....

I need to come up with an idea for these, too.


My aunt, bless her, got me a wonderful Christmas present...five more skeins of Hacho, these in gorgeous shades of blue, purple and fuchsia. 685 yards of these.

What to do with these?! Maybe it's time to do a little research on Ravelry. Any suggestions?

We played hide-and-seek with the most beautiful setting moon this morning on the way to work. It slipped in and out of sight behind tree, hills and the Beltway walls. A huge perfect peach hung against a slate blue sky. Gorgeous.

My cousin (Hi, ML!) suggested Hellebores for this post #8. (I really need suggestions for I, though.)

When my mom and brother and I moved into the house she'd live in for the next 40 years, the back yard was just a scrubby, treed area, surrounded by chain link fence. And it stayed that way until she married my step-father. And then they got to work. The yard was transformed into a lovely wooded spot, filled with rhododendrons, azaleas, primroses, a camellia bush, day lilies. My step-father created little paths and low stone walls. The chain link fences were overgrown with ivy. And it became a lovely spot, filled with birds and dappled shade. And in one of the shady spots, my mom planted some hellebores. I have to admit, I thought they were...well, pretty ugly flowers. They were either pale green or a fleshy, greenish grayed pink. Not really attractive. Occasionally they or (after my step-father died) my mom would urge me to take some...theirs were spreading rampantly. But my yard isn't very shady, except in one spot, and there was the whole "These are pretty ugly" thing going on. Then I found this place - Sunshine Farms - and look at the hellebores they have! Now, these are some gorgeous flowers. I always wanted to get some for Mom but it seemed as though there would be time...and then there wasn't.

ML, though, dug up a hellebore from Mom's garden before we sold the house, and she reports that it's doing well. And that makes me happy.

(She also told me she's been to that nursery and that the owner's a real character.)

Happy Friday to you all.