Still in the Garden

When the weeds are under control and the deadheading has been done, there's only one excuse left to linger in the garden, and that's to snap a few more pictures.

Photographs help me remember what works and what doesn't in the garden. P.D. (pre-digital) I used to take notes and make drawings of the garden, which worked to a point, but there's nothing like the real thing.

Over the years I've learned a few things. I'm a sucker for pink and blue flowers. Petunias are worth the sticky job of picking off the spent blossoms. Not everything has to have flowers. (For instance, hostas are beautiful; their flowers usually are not. I tend to cut a lot of them off before they bloom.) You should plant flowers where they want to grow. And vegetables and herbs are pretty, too.

Every year I learn something new about gardening. Mostly I've learned that it's a darn good thing I don't have to live off of what I grow. If I did, I'd have to plant a lot less flowers, and I'd be darn sick of rhubarb and lettuce by now.

Even though there are all these outside distractions, I'm still making progress on my Cable Band Cardigan. I've never knit a sweater like this before. The yoke band is knit first and then you work your way around knitting front, sleeve, back, and the other front. The yarn is great even though it has the tendency to split. It makes me look down at what I'm knitting once in awhile.

My biggest gripe about the pattern would be the lack of cable charts. I didn't want to draw them by hand, so I hit the Internet and found a program called Knit Chart Maker. It was just what I needed. A few minutes work saved me having to look back through all those written instructions. I'll have to try making my own cable designs with it some day.

Finally, last night we went and saw the latest installment in the Harry Potter series. I'd highly recommend the movie, and a bonus was all the knitted items, and Dumbledore's excitement at finding new knitting patterns!