Warm and Cold Spring

 Typical of spring, some days this week were wonderfully warm and some were seriously cold. Like sleet in April cold. That was yesterday. We were talking to someone outside when suddenly, the sky opened up and freezing rain was falling on us!

I don't mind cold weather, but I had hoped to plant my garden and get the bulk of the annuals in during my spring break.

Well, no worries, because today was warm as ever and we got the vegetable garden planted.

Every year we add a few more vegetables it seems. Last year we had incredible yields from the poblano, but the plant began to die before the peppers were mature. This year, we put the poblano in his own pot like we have traditionally done. We hope this helps the fruit mature. ??  Gardening is fun for me because each year I never know which plants will do well and which won't, and I love problem solving and trying to fix mistakes from one year to the next.

The fava beans are all finally taking off (some people call these broad beans) since the weather warmed up. And the sugar snap peas are coming up alongside the kale (Nero di Toscana). The kale seeds were free!

I also put in a ton of flowers, but half of those are seeds so I didn't take any pictures. Someone gifted us some amaranth--which grows like 5 feet tall. I sewed a few of those seeds and we shall see what results!

On the cold days, I was able to read and knit. I knitted a pretty simple colorwork hat. It is called the Nordic Fair Isle Slouch Hat. I made it with Cloudborn Fibers fine highland wool I got on closeout last year.  The weight of the yarn was an exact match for that in the pattern which is why I bought it.

I loved making a cable cast on and knitting the corrugated ribbing! I made this in one day and never had to tink back even once. I guess I am getting better--finally--at knitting. Hooray!

I also started a sock using self striping yarn from Turtlepurl in the color Bob's Camping Trip. This yarn is so soft and delicious!! It is a bit more costy than some other yarns, but when I got it out to drape over my swift, I fell in love with it. I LOVE these saturated colors. I got the pack that has the alternate color for the cuff, heel, and toes.

I am using the sock pattern from Winwick Mum. I have 2 pairs of socks I made from her pattern, and they fit me better than other socks I have made, so I am using her pattern again. It is a straight forward top down sock. So nice to knit a sock and listen to an audio book on a rainy day!

Tomorrow is back to school. I am looking forward to seeing all my youngsters again and hearing how bored they were on break and yet how boring school is too except that now they get to be with their friends. Ah! Teens.

Have a great week!

A New Year and Knitting Overload

 And so begins a new year. It is a factious, discordant beginning. As if worries over Covid weren't enough, now many of us are sitting in awe and dismay at the unweaving of our social fabric. I want to acknowledge this here, but I don't really want to dwell on it. I just want this space to be a place to take a moment to breathe.

It has been a little cold here, and I haven't been outside much. We explored an outdoor park last weekend, having heard there was a lake in there somewhere, which there was.

As winter crept in (always slowly here in the south), the leaves on our Japanese maple turned rusty red, and then brilliant red and fell.

I finished knitting the Harebell Cardigan I have been wanting to make for a long time. The yarn (Berroco Tuscan Tweed) went on close out, so I knew I had to hop to it and get this out of my head and onto my needles. It is a just about the most perfect thing I think I've knitted. It fits just right! 

On election night, I started to knit this colorwork cowl so that I would have something to focus my mind on other than the television my husband had on in the next room.  In the end, even though this is soft and cozy, the colors are just too intense for me. But, who knows, maybe I'll grow to like it better.

It really has been a time of going quickly from one knitting project to the next. After the somewhat disappointing cowl, I cast on right away and made this hat from a free pattern I got this summer. Funny that it is the August Hat and I made it in December.  I gave it to my work colleague. It was my first Latvian braid, which was fun to do.

I got in one more knit when school was out for the holidays. This super quick sweater is made with bulky yarn so it was done really fast. Although I love this colorway, the yarn pilled up and shed a lot when I blocked it. I am thinking of making it again in 100% wool, although that may be too hot for my semi-tropical zone.

So--it sure looks like I did a ton of knitting doesn't it? Perhaps I did. Perhaps I needed to occupy my mind!

Just this last week, during our runoff elections, once again, I took to the next room with my needles and yarn. I had supported Ossoff and Warnock for months (Ossoff for years, really). I even went to do face-to-face canvassing, something totally new for me. When Warnock won, (of course, I had been popping in and out of the TV room all night) I was so happy I cried. My goodness!

What I made that night was this random little smiley monster.  The pattern calls him the Little Kindness Monster and I would like him to be a kind of avatar for the moment. 

One More Hat and Snowy Days

Well, finally snow after days at a stretch of freezing temps.  I love winter!  Really, I am here in the south sort of by accident.  Not quite a fish out of my element, but almost.

We've been out of school for two days this week because of snow.  It is a strange January.  We were also out for MLK holiday and had a "snow" day last week as well.  Many kids are out with flu, and some came back late from winter break.  It feels like such a false start.  A slow start.  I don't mind.

I made another hat.  This one called Banff.  It came out a little small in the Adult S/M so I am going to make it again.  I really love this pattern!

When I ventured out today to take this picture I found many little paw prints in the snow.  These are clearly rabbit. 

I've seen him around some evenings.  Let's hope he doesn't get tangled up in the netting around my vegetables like poor little Peter Rabbit.  On the good side, when I saw him, he wasn't wearing a jacket with buttons, just his regular fur coat!

Sometimes I think he and his friends might be like the Real rabbits in the Velveteen Rabbit and they talk up to my domestic sweeties in their hutch and wonder why they never come out to play in the moonlight.

I have also wondered if I should leave the hutch open now that my old girls are in the house. There's still clean hay in there.  If I do leave it open, who might move in?  Squirrels took over the wren house, gnawing the opening wider.  Even a flying squirrel for awhile. I'd bet they'd come.  And once in a while a little mole turns up drowned in the dog water bowl--though that hasn't happened for a long time, really and I don't know that a mole climbs like that. Once a mouse was regularly visiting the hutch and I saw him and closed up his entrance with steel wool. And once a friend had a baby chipmunk sleeping in an old flower pot on his porch.
Barred owls call frequently around here, though I bet he'd not go into the hutch unless he was looking for food--but even then he might not--too cramped for his wings.
Maybe a possum, or a raccoon? 

Well, back to school tomorrow I'm sure.  And then the weekend again!  I'm still dreaming of which sweater to make--or maybe I'll just make some socks.  Just.  Haha! Like that will be so easy.