Monday, May 30, 2011

Get Outside While You Can

Finally, gardening weather. Well, sort of. We are having a remarkably unremarkable spring this year. Okay, in all honesty, the weather blows. Cool and wet. A non-spring spring. In between the showers I have managed to get most of the garden in, but the poor seeds and sprouts aren't getting much enticement to grow. We just can't seem to string together two or three warm and sunny days in a row.

I'm hoping June will improve our lot--and my odds of eating some homegrown lettuce.

Despite the weather, the perennial beds are filling in nicely. Apparently, the heavy snow cover did a good job of protecting the plants underground. Never content, however, I have shuffled a few things around, and I can tell you, transplanting gives you a whole new appreciation for what's going on under the garden.

In an attempt to make some more room in the vegetable bed, I wanted to move an old rhubarb plant. Those roots were like tree branches! No wonder you can't kill that stuff. I thought that was a battle I might lose in the end. The phlox needed dividing and that was the same story. Those are the plants for me!

Another vigorous "weed" that I love is the Lily of the Valley. They're blooming like crazy right now and a handful of them in a vase perfume the whole house.

Trying to keep up with my regular chores along with the yard work doesn't leave much time for anything else, but I did manage to cast on a new sweater project. As tired as I've been, I couldn't resist that Webs box. I dug out the Berroco Blackstone Tweed and settled on Fylingdales from A Fine Fleece. It isn't a terribly complicated pattern, so I thought it would be a good one for an unpredictable summer.

The yarn is a soft blend of wool, mohair, and angora and is a beautiful dark blue. I'm not such a big fan of these 50 gram balls that roll around and pop out of my knitting basket though.

Before I got started, I read through the notes from other knitters over at Ravelry, and I have to agree, the directions for the set-up row of the cabled pattern are lacking clarity. The directions aren't wrong, but they sure could use some improvement. It helped to know that I had to be on my toes ahead of time.

See all that knitting? That's the result of a frustrated gardener who would rather be outside!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Webs Delivery

Add ImageMy box o' yarn from Webs was waiting for me when I got home yesterday afternoon. How great is that? Three sweaters-to-be. Hours and hours of fun in a little cardboard box.

Let the swatching begin!

I'm leaning toward starting with the blue Berroco Blackstone tweed and the "Fylingdales" pattern in A Fine Fleece. Since the yarn is a darker blue, I think a simple pattern is the best. No point in doing a bunch of complex cables on such a dark field. Mmmm, but the Lamb's Pride is such a pretty brown. I sound like an addict.

By the way, as much as I love this book---and I do love this book, the one major downside is the photography. It's not that the pictures aren't beautiful; they are. It's just that they don't give a knitter much information. Go ahead and do all the artsy shots you want, but throw me one picture where I can actually see most of the sweater. Ravelry pictures have been more useful than the book itself.

In the category of ta-da, I finally finished a little Cabled Baby Blanket that I started ages ago. I needed a break from Prayer Shawls as my movie watching project, so several months ago I grabbed a cone of acrylic sport weight yarn that I've had forever and cast on a blanket for Birthright.

It's true. No sheep were robbed to make this blanket, but it's just not practical to think that a young mother is going to hand wash spit-up off a blanket, so it's a good fit.

The pattern is simple to memorize. The sport weight gauge did mean slow progress--just right during our long winter. Now I think that there's enough yarn left on the cone to cast on a sweater to go with it. Maybe even booties. A baby ensemble.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Mitred Crosses Blanket

Sometimes fun projects land right in your lap. That was the case with the Knitted Quilt I finished up over the weekend.

In March I saw Kay Gardiner's post about the pattern she had developed to sell to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Like many of the other Mason-Dixon patterns, this is a simple and beautiful interpretation of a practical household item--and for a good cause to boot.Link
Before I knew it, I was hooked. The technique keeps you interested and the color changes in the yarn lure you in to see what's around the next corner of the block. I also like that it's a portable project. In fact, I'm going to start another one to keep in a basket as a take-along project for this summer.

There is one change I will make in the next one. Rather than join the squares by using a three-needle technique, I think I'll take the time to sew the squares together by hand. If I do it as I go along, I don't think it will be too overwhelming, and I think the end result will be worth it. I'm very happy with the first one.

My next project is coming out of a book of patterns that were suggested to me by a friend. (Thanks, Deb.) That book is A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd.

Usually, I won't buy a book unless there are at least a couple of patterns that I know I will use---although that rule has been broken on more than one occasion for a must-knit item. This book should keep me going for a couple of years of fun cable knitting. Honestly, I couldn't decide which pattern to knit first! So far, I've narrowed it down to three or four.

I've got a box of yarn on order and will be waiting for the UPS man to deliver the goods.

In the meantime, I'm hoping that spring weather will finally come to MN and that I'll be kept busy in the garden. Last week I went from sitting at a Twins game in a snowstorm to a warm beautiful day of cleaning out my flower bed and back to snowflakes again. I guess we shouldn't complain about a little chilly weather with the terrible storms down south. I'm anxious to get digging!