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!

Striped Socks and Another Day Out

First up--I finished the socks! I really enjoyed making these. I also love the way that the stripes match. It is easy to do using two small skeins of Knit Picks yarn, one for each sock. Stripy socks and striped things in general are just happy.  The color way is called "Summer Camp" which is just about perfect, don't you think?

As activities go, I've been reading and knitting and puttering around pulling weeds in the garden and going off into dreamy/worried states staring out the window.

We tried another outdoor adventure last week even though it was hot (and uncomfortable when we had to wear masks at the entrance when there was a large group in front of us). We went to Gibbs Gardens, land that was once pastures, but was reinvented by a man with a dream and a vision for a formal garden. Unfortunately, we were not able to get there in the height of spring because of the virus, so we missed the peak of many of the flowers and blossoming trees. However, it is still a wonderful place to walk.

My favorite part is always the Japanese garden. 

Even though we stopped and sat in many shady spots, it was still over 90 degrees and tropically humid. 

On the way home we didn't stop for a picnic, but went through the McDonald's drive-through! I probably eat fast food like this two or three times a year--it always feels to me like a special splurge into bad comfort food. (I love that wicked filet-o-fish!)

Meanwhile, finally this morning our school district announced that we will all return only to online school. I cannot even explain how relieved I am about this! I know this is a lot more work for me and not easy for my students who are often living in crowded homes with limited internet devices and coverage. But, I learned a lot from the efforts we made in the spring, and hope to streamline the process for them and their families.  I just hope that maybe as a country we can get things healed enough to maybe get some half-day in person classes going by January. But maybe that is not even realistic. 

I've started to knit a cardigan and have ripped back twice to get the yoke going right. I'll post pictures soon when it actually starts to look like something. 

Small Projects

This week we had a lot of fish die in the pond. I was finding about one a day swept up in the basket near the filter.  We had to go at once to the pond store near us. There, we found out a lot about KH and adding carbonate to the water to keep it safe for the fish. Each day we run a test from a simple test kit to make sure the water in the tube turns blue. The goal is to add 8 or more drops and keep the sample blue. If it turns yellow, there isn't enough carbonate and the water is dangerous for fish.
Our water turned yellow right away!

The cure is easy enough. You have to add baking soda--like by the pound--to the water. So, we have been doing this amateur science all week.

It was also a week for more sock knitting. I am using Staci Perry's pattern for socks knitted on flexible double pointed needles. I really like the way these needles bend. It solves the problem of stretching all the stitches at the start when using a small circular, stitches falling off regular double points, and sliding all that extra cord with magic loop. I still like all the other methods, but I like this one too--maybe best so far.

This is also my first pair of toe-up socks. I love the cast on for this. However, I think my sock is a bit too long in the foot. Making this toe-up and on flexi-flips, I just wasn't able to find a comfortable way to try the sock on as I knit. I went by measurement rather than trying it on, so it is a little long.  I think. I will have to get them both made and blocked to be sure. If they are too long, it is only by a wee bit, so no big deal. 

I love the stripes. This is a self striping yarn I got from Knit Picks called Felici. I love that you can order two balls and get two matching socks. Super easy!

Water lilies in front of the pond supply place!

This was a difficult 4th of July for many reasons. I struggle each day to keep focused on the small sweetnesses in life and not let fear of sickness and the unknown overwhelm me. I guess a lot of us are like that.

j

Summer's Rhythm

Away from the disturbing headlines and ongoing turbulence and general unease, home life moves with a slow rhythm.

Like a lot of people, I am walking in my neighborhood and working in my yard. I'm watching parent birds feed baby birds, reading books, and knitting. Doing things not so differently than I would normally do in the summer.

I finished a pair of Rye Light socks using 40" circulars because the yarn kept falling off my double pointed needles. This is my 4th pair of socks! I have tried short circulars, long circulars, and dpn's. I think I prefer long circulars, but the other ways have been fun too. I have decided I really like making socks because you have this not too "thinky" part, and then a bit where you have to focus with the heal, then a not too "thinky" part again, and voila--you are finished.  Kind of perfect.

These turned out a little longer than I planned, and a little looser. Even though the yarn (an alpaca, wool, nylon blend) says to lay them flat to dry, I will send them through the dryer. I think/hope they'll be fine. ?!

This container of flour was nearly full and then, I guess I was holding it wrong as I wrestled it out of the pantry because it OPENED and--well, you can see how much splatted out. It was all over me and the floor and the stuff like emergency water and reusable shopping bags on the pantry floor. The dog came over and walked in it to see what was going on. WHAT A MESS!

But, I have time right? And so, I got it cleaned up and made a lovely dough (part wheat flour) for a kind of overly fancy focaccia.

I was so happy to find yeast finally at the store. I guess everyone is making bread. And no wonder! It was REALLY satisfying to knead the dough. I haven't done it for the longest time.

The flowers in the garden are really over the top this year--it must have been the super wet winter we had.  And the vegetables have taken off too. 

I got 4 cucumber plants this year instead of 2 because I ordered vegetables from a curbside service who only had them available in 4 packs. All my vegetables this year came like that. Sight unseen, ordered over the internet and picked up. So--now I have loads of cucumbers. My husband is delighted and went to work right away putting them up in pickling spice to make half sour pickles. He loves them!

I think the quarantine has made many of us a little bit more like poets, given us time to contemplate nature and the cycle of life. Don't you think?

Knitting, Grill, and Garden

Well, the throw is finished!  Actually, it grew pretty fast and I was happy about that. I think it looks great.

So now, I am on to socks.  Socks are nice because they are portable and finish fairly quickly. I like that you have the easy rib and leg and foot and also a few brief focus points like the heel and gusset.
This pair is the Rye Light pattern from TinCanKnits. I really enjoyed doing the regular beginners pattern on double points, but I just could not get my yarn to stay on the needles for the 'light' pattern. So, I am doing these by magic loop.

For now, these seem kind of largish and floppy compared to other socks I have made. Admittedly, I did not do a gauge swatch (for shame!), and the yarn has some alpaca in it, so it is--as usual--an adventure. I'm enjoying making socks at the moment and have plans for a cardigan sometime soon too.
My husband has been grilling a lot lately and got this idea from somewhere to grill romaine lettuce. It is fantastic! Who would have thought!

He saw a recipe for grilled watermelon as well. Of course, I dismissed that--until I tried the romaine!

Many days I find myself slow to start anything--slow to begin knitting or reading or weeding. I seem to spend a lot of time watching birds visit the pond or just wandering around in the garden.
It is a pretty amazing place.  I feel so lucky to be here in this little oasis.

The Top of July

Here at the top of July, I know that by the end of it, I will be back in school. These next few weeks will be precious. The natural rhythms that ease me through my day will be gone, and I will be back in that relentless maelstrom of school.

But for now, I live like the poet. Able to watch the progress of a bee or a lizard in the morning as I eat my toast and honey.  While watching one pileated woodpecker feed another, I think that like me, this mother's offspring looks grown, but although he is as tall as she is, and flies from tree to tree and sometimes pecks for food, she is still there beside him, much like the relationship now between me and my younger son.

The garden continues to delight us. One of the hydrangeas grew so heavy with blossoms I had to cut them and bring some in. And the lilies surprise us each day with new colors and variety.

I plant sunflower seeds often, but have never had any success until this year.  I am crazily thrilled about my one happy bloom!

Also, this year, I planted a much, much bigger bed of annuals than I have ever done in my life.  The window boxes and pots and edge planters near the house were no problem--but this mega-annual bed made me nervous.

I started with primarily vinca--although you wouldn't know it know because it mostly wilted out and must have been infected because I had my eye on beds of it all over town doing the same.  I had no idea the zinnias would be so exuberant and take over, nor that I'd have celosia (I call it "flame plant") that reseeded and came up of it's own accord.  So, it's all a bit more mish-mash than I had planned, but I am pleased and neighbors have complimented it (although I think they think it was the previous owner's doing--which in itself is a kind of compliment). Next year I won't be nearly as afraid and I have a plan in mind.

I also finished knitting my socks, and really want to start on another pair.  The Winwick Mum pattern uses a larger needle for the ribbing.  I like to use a smaller needle for ribbing usually, so I thought I'd give that a go here. But, as it goes sometimes with knitting, I didn't have the exact needles to do the ribbing in a smaller needle so, I just did the whole sock in one size needle to see what would happen.  I don't think the end result is half bad.  Meantime though, before I start up another pair, I am going to have to order some needles.  I did these and the previous socks on small circulars, which I really like once I get going, but which do seem to stretch the yarn in a way at the start.  So, I think when I get new needles I'll get some to make socks using magic loop.

However, before I start more socks, I have this sweater I need to make.  I mean really, I've had the yarn for years and started and then realized I needed to adjust the size.  It's another one of those things I'm a little afraid of, but I need to do.  I don't want to have this project sitting around again next summer. So, I've begun and will put up pictures that make sense as soon as I can (right now it would all look like twisted up mess because it's a lace panel thing).

Today is the 4th of July and we ate one of my favorite salads--caprese--tomato, mozzarella, and basil (with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper). 

4th of July. The country these days has me riding waves of despair, but I try to do my part by loving people and listening and helping young people feel empowered so that they do not succumb to the hatred of the noisy ignorant morass, nor become a part of it themselves. I have to frequently remind myself that big changes take time. 

July

July has been a difficult month.  Nothing bad happened; it is just hard to sell a house and think about moving somewhere else.  It is hard to have to constantly anticipate someone stopping in and judging what you love. It is hard when no comes by to see your house day after day.  It is hard to look at houses and find one that will be good enough to make you okay with leaving your old place.  It's hard to find a house like that and be rejected because your house is still for sale.  It is an odd limbo land and I will be glad when it's over.

One thing I do love though--my house is CLEAN.  I am naturally a tidy person, so I have LOVED having a decluttered, tidy house.

Tomorrow I go back to school. Yes! In JULY. Unbelievable. I will be glad to get away from this house business and focus on other things. --At least, I think I will.

Somehow this month, I managed to crochet a scarf.  It has been a long time since I made a simple crocheted scarf and this project was just the thing to ease my mind after that complicated forever-taking sweater.  I always love mohair too, so that was fun.  It is a silk mohair blend, very light.  I love all the fringe on this.

I am now wending my way through my first ever pair of knitted socks.  I am following the Winwick Mum pattern.  So far, so good.  But I know I'm just at the easy part.

The garden this year has been going like other years--some vegetables do better than others.  This year we lost all of our tomato plants to some kind of pest who gnawed through the stem at the base and killed the whole plant in one go over night. Awful! The beans, eggplants, and peppers have done well.

And the zinnas are really starting to bloom.  Flowers always lift my spirits. I can't imagine a garden without flowers!

It has been good to spend time with my boys and with my two dogs.  I've been on dog rotation all summer and worry a little how this will play out when I am working so much away from home.  When I was teaching summer school and taking out the dogs one at a time, it was nice to be up right before daybreak when the birds where chorusing in full.  I guess I'll be back to that.  Which it nice, though early.

I hope I will be back next weekend rather than at the end of next month!