It's beginning to look like spring

Flower pin

Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk (55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino wool; worsted weight) for the flower; Dark Horse Yarns-Fantasy (50% nylon, 50% acrylic; worsted weight) for the leaf
Color: Cranberry for the flower; either 5 or 23 (green) for the leaf
Needles: US 6s

Technically this flower pin isn't done yet since I went out and bought pin backs, darning needles, and thread this afternoon, but the knitting part is done. I wandered around JoAnn's with no clue where I needed to go to find the supplies, but eventually I found a worker who ran me to all corners of the store for what I needed. I brought my FO with me to help explain what I needed, and I felt pretty silly doing that. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to sew on the pin back, but I guess I'll find out.

Thanks to Karen for directing me to the free pattern. A couple commenters mentioned a flower pin as a possible knitted gift for my mother. I never would have thought of it. I don't know if she'll have any use for it. I'm happy with how it turned out, so that makes it a success.

In making the flower pin I taught myself how to knit into the front and back of the stitch. It took me awhile to figure out how to knit into the back, but by the time I was doing the increases on the leaf, I felt like I had the hang of it.

The colors are deeper than they appear in the picture. I didn't think to photograph it outside. The natural light would be much more effective and assist with showing detail. Maybe I'll take more pictures after attaching the pin back. Today would have been ideal as we got a teaser of spring. The sun shone brightly, and the temperature crept over 50. The time is right for a knitted flower blooming from my needles.

It wasn't quite the golden hour when I took this photo in downtown Columbus, but it should give you an idea of the kind of day it was.

There's no significance to the picture. The mood struck me when I was putting my messenger bag in the trunk of my car. I was downtown to attend tonight's Columbus Blue Jackets game. After purchasing my ticket I decided not to take the bag (or any knitting) into the arena. I didn't have a project on the needles and didn't want the hassle of finding a place for the bag under my seat. So the trip back to the parking garage led to a picture of the Hyatt.

And speaking of purposeless pictures, here's one that symbolizes the Blue Jackets' scoring for the evening. Yes, their side of the scoreboard was empty.