Did Anyone Else Notice This Weather??

OK.  I just have to mention it---the weather is insane!!  It is 80 degrees outside.  Eighty Degrees!!  The whole countryside is freaking out.   Everyone wants to be out in the air, While It Lasts.  Considering that we usually marshal in Spring with snow and freezing rain,  it is to be expected that most people are grabbing this while they can, fully aware that it could snow three feet next week.  My yard is in total late April mode.  Crocus, yes we can have crocus blooming in March.  That is fine.

A little early but not too

          And if we see the tops of daffodils, that also can happen in March.  Never daffodils with buds!

They just can't wait

        The pièce de résistance is one of my roses.  This really has me worried for when the cold descends upon us again.

Really jumping the gun

However, there is nothing to be done but to wait and see how it all pans out.  The sad news for the day is that my little Daisie Mae, the hen I raised from an egg last year, died quite suddenly on Saturday.  She did not exhibit any sign of illness, in fact, she laid an egg that very morning.  Inexplicably, in the afternoon, she was in great distress.  I could see nothing, nor feel anything amiss, so I just held her for a while.  Then she had a few convulsions and was gone.
Very sad for me.  All part of the chicken farming business.  Hopefully I will have another broody Mama this year and can try for another hen or two.
Meanwhile,  I will be enjoying this weather.

R. I. P. little hen

Working

A grey and rainy day outside,  warm and dry inside.  I am doing my work while wearing my newly finished Uzu socks.  They fit perfectly.  This was a great pattern, once I got the knack of it.  The Sherman method toe I tried instead of the one written, is very comfy.  I think it will be my toe for now on.  The heel was not one I had done before, and I don't think I will again.  It was described as an "upside down Half-handkerchief heel".  Next time I will try the Sherman method heel as well.

Fraternal, not Identical

The fleece from Warwick is all picked and washed.  He has a great fleece--fine and long.  I am going to use some of him to card with some blue that I have to spin for a shawl I want to weave.

Warwick, all picked and washed

Balls of mohair/wool to re-use

The main yarn for this shawl is coming from a sweater that I took apart.  The sweater was probably 20 years old at this point.  I had spun it out of wool and mohair, dying it in shades of blue.  It had been mended so many times in the cuff and elbow department that it was no longer looking very good.  Plus, it was in an Icelandic style that I no longer wear.  So I decided to re purpose the yarn.  It never would have occurred to me to do this had I not heard Brenda Dayne talk about doing this very thing.  It took me most of Saturday to take it apart.  I then re-skeined it, washed and hung it to get the knitting kinks out of it.  Then I wound it into balls, starting a new ball when I got to the end of a piece of yarn.  There are lots of pieces and I didn't ball them if they were not at least 3 yards long, as I can't have a knot in the warp.  The next step will be to figure out how many usable yards there are.  There were at least 500 that were salvageable,  but that includes short bits as well.  The rest of the warp will be the blue/white blended alpaca.  Debating whether to have white in the weft or not.  Decisions, decisions.  And I haven't even gotten to the pattern part!
Off to make Irish Soda bread.  Will be spinning while it bakes as I also have another project to start.  And I actually had someone ask if I was going to be bored when I stopped working at the Library!