Today, they are this tall:

I’m pleased that my trellis has held up, even though it is sagging with the weight of the plants. I’ve added some more twine in places to keep the craziness somewhat in check:

And the most exciting thing today? We have flower buds:

Heck, we even have one little blossom!

This pepper plant looks like it is up to something interesting:

Also this week, the purple irises are in bloom:

And the clematis reached the top of the right side of the trellis but has yet to open up:

Also in bloom, the weigela:

My friend Gina informs me that what I thought was a really pretty weed in the middle of the shady hosta corner is in fact columbine:

One more from last week, I think this is spirea:

So pretty and delicate! Thanks to my Aunt Kay for helping me identify all these plants last summer!

Purple irises ready to bloom:

White irises in bloom:

Hostas:

Azaleas:

I don’t remember what kind of bush this is but it was pretty in bloom:

Dogwoods:

Front yard bed:

Hydrangeas:

The kitchen garden with the new tomato/cucumber trellis in place:

Another view, notice the peas in the back! They’re a good foot taller than that one week later:

Lettuce and potatoes:

Lettuce:

Little Gem:

Dark Lolla Rossa:

Potato Plant:

Tomato Plant:

Orange Bell Pepper:

Spinach:

Sugar Snap Peas:

Onions:

Carrots:

Broccoli:

The freshest salad I’ve ever eaten!

Tasha loves the snow.

She is built for it. She is downright joyful in it - galloping about, wading it in with her nose down deep to lead the way, even performing impressive vertical leaps, as if to say, “isn’t this fantastic?!” I think she looks quite beautiful in the snow.

She loves any and all cold weather, in fact. Sometimes she’d be outside for hours in the frigid cold and I’d get worried and go looking for her and find her napping in her favorite corner under those little evergreen trees where I pictured her in the last post. She would spot me and leap out in a small explosion of snow, pine needles, and fur and gallop up to the porch to meet me.

What a sweetie. There was lots of knitting this winter and even spinning! On a wheel! My fantastic Christmas present from my parents:

It is a Kromski Minstrel and I love it so. That’s not the greatest picture of the whole wheel but it is beautiful and I love spinning on it. I’m afraid I haven’t touched my spindles since Christmas but I’m sure I’ll come back to them too.

I knit Eunny Jang’s Ivy League Vest during a particular fair-isle phase.

I love it. I think it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever created. It’s knit from Knit Picks Palette yarn.

I’m a little bit sad that spring is here and I won’t be able to wear it as much!

That fair isle phase I mentioned also led to a number of hats. Two in particular from Anna Zilboorg’s fantastic book, 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit. I knit Beret #4 which turned out a bit baggy but I still like it:

After all, aren’t berets supposed to be a bit slouchy? I knit this with odds and ends of KnitPicks Swish Worsted, KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, and Cascade 220.

Such a pretty pattern.

I also knit Toque #1 from the same book:

So bright and cheerful on icky winter days!

This was knit with black KnitPicks Swish Worsted that I had left over and some hand dyed hand spun superwash wool.

Lovely. And here is the hat that started my fair isle phase:

It’s my little masterpiece! I knit and ripped this countless times. I always have a hard time getting gauge with fair isle. Plus I was making this up as I went along.

All of the different motifs came from The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry Jones. I especially love the snowflakes.

I made up the top as I went along and it turned out pretty nice:

There was a bit near the bottom where I had three colors at once. The finished effect is lovely but I’m pretty sure I’ll NEVER be doing that again.

I started with some plain knit rows then a purl to create a folding edge and then later sewed under that initial flap. The slightly flared flapper-ish shape was totally unintentional but I love it and think it is rather flattering.

Knit with leftovers of handspun and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca.  Also notice the hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit Clapotis style scarf!

Oh, and I have to show you all this one since I blogged about it when it began. My Kauni Lady Eleanor Stole:

What a fantastic yarn!

Love it.

There also was plenty of holiday knitting. Mittens for my Canadian nephews:

A stocking cap for Stephen:

Ginormous socks for my step-son Jeffrey:

Gloves for Dad:

A stocking cap for my future brother in law, Jason:

And the popular Lace Ribbon Scarf for Mom:

I think the reason I had several successful and completed holiday knits this year was that I didn’t try to do hand knits for every single person on my list.  It’s just not reasonable, at least not for me, so we spent some cash and I wasn’t stressed out and all was well.

There were some more odds and ends along the way but I think if I’m going to be a regular blogger, I need to not worry about blogging every single project. I tend to think I have to document every single thing which becomes burdensome and doesn’t get done and then it builds up and soon the prospect is overwhelming so I don’t blog for months. So what I think I’ll do is give myself permission to not blog every project and to not document the details of every project. If you want details, they are on my Ravelry page.  I’m not saying I won’t post details at times but I’m going to try not to feel like I have to.  It’s my bit of OCD and I already do all of that on Ravelry (thank goodness for Ravelry!) so there is no reason to do it twice.

Tasha doesn’t mind all the knitting so long as she can snuggle up beside me and request belly rubs on occasion.

We have two in our front yard, right between the sidewalk and the street.

They burst into bloom yesterday and I think they are so lovely.

We’re supposed to have a big storm blow in tonight with lots of wind and possibly even hail. I’m a bit concerned about all the pretty pink petals in the wind!

I’ve thought about blogging a lot lately and I decided it is time to just do it instead of putting it off. Now that spring is just about here, I’m really enjoying our yard again! I started a bunch of seeds indoors a couple weeks back.

The sugar snap peas popped up almost immediately and have been in the garden for nearly a week now.

Apparently peas like to climb and their little tendrils will grab onto whatever they can reach to support themselves. If you look at that last picture really closely you might see where a tendril grabbed onto a bit of yarn from the trellis I built. That was in the afternoon of the day I planted them! It makes you think that if you sat there long enough and watched, you could see them growing. I hope my trellis is enough for the peas, I built it with just what I had handy.

You can also see the little edgings I installed in my kitchen garden so I now have three separate beds with aisles between so I can access them all easily enough. You may have also noticed the Tasha proof fence! Don’t worry, though, she has a favorite shady spot where she can observe all backyard events.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Bleh. This book was somewhat satisfying light chick lit until the end when it tried to be serious and meaningful. The knitting elements were somewhat interesting but overall I thought this book was a waste of time.

View all my reviews.

“They had driven over the crest of a hill. Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand-hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues—the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found. Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing groves of fir and maple and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows. Here and there a wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tip-toeing to her own reflection. From the marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully-sweet chorus of the frogs. There was a little gray house peering around a white apple orchard on a slope beyond and, although it was not yet quite dark, a light was shining from one of its windows.

“That’s Barry’s pond,” said Matthew.

“Oh, I don’t like that name, either. I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters. Yes, that is the right name for it. I know because of the thrill. When I hit on a name that suits exactly it gives me a thrill.

It just occurred to me as I was thinking of what to call it. Since then I’ve had fun coming up with more Anne inspired colorways!  This one is called Starry Violet Eyes:

“Now you see why I can’t be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair. I don’t mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I CANNOT imagine that red hair away.”

Here is Green Gables:

“…Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables. Very green and neat and precise was that yard…”

This is The Haunted Wood:

“Fiddlesticks! There is no such thing as a haunted wood anywhere. Who has been telling you such stuff?”

“Nobody,” confessed Anne. “Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so—so—COMMONPLACE. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it’s so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things.”

Those four items are all for sale in my Etsy shop right now. This last one has already sold but I want to show you anyway, it’s called simply Anne Shirley:

“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair,” said Anne reproachfully. “People who haven’t red hair don’t know what trouble is. Mrs. Thomas told me that God made my hair red ON PURPOSE, and I’ve never cared about Him since.”

And my fabulous fiber sources: Green Merino from Jaye’s Little Joys on Etsy; Cotton Candy superwash Merino from a seller on eBay called jenyalovesfiber; Spring color wool sampler from souptoknits on Etsy; Bright BFL from Poppy Flower Fibers on Etsy; Red/Black/White 60% Merino/40% Bamboo by Yarn Love and purchased from The Loopy Ewe; Calm Waters Merino in progress from Willow Acre Fibers on Etsy; Peachfire Merino from a seller on eBay that I don’t remember.

Most recently I’ve been working with this beauty:

I spun it up and have been knitting it into a modified Clapotis. I did only one set of increase rows to make it a narrow scarf.  I spun this thick and thin and left it as a singles because I loved the bold colors and wanted to preserve the varied thickness.  It averages out to about fingering weight with 432 yards from 4 oz of Merino.

The greatest thing about this beautiful roving is that I dyed it up myself!  I’ve been wanting to try dyeing fibers for awhile now so I took some birthday cash and invested in some basic supplies, dyes, and undyed roving.  I set up a shop for myself in Etsy, called Color Essence.  If you aren’t familiar with Etsy, it’s a great do it yourself style online marketplace for handmade items of pretty much all varieties.  There is just a ton of great jewelry, home made bath products, custom stationary, hand knit items, paintings, and I could go on and on.  I’ve bought quite a few rovings from sellers on Etsy myself for spinning so I know there is plenty of interest in hand dyed spinning fibers.  I’ve already sold four of my own hand dyed rovings and am just thrilled!  More fiber is on its way and I can see myself getting really into this.  So go check out my shop and let me know what you think!

I started the Wallis Cardigan way back on our honeymoon before getting sidelined with other projects but I plan to finish it up soon.  See how far I’ve come already?

What’s that? You can’t see it? Hmm, perhaps the photographer’s assistant is in the way. Here, let’s try this one:

Nope, still seems to be a bit obstructed. Tasha, could you get out of the way please?

Well, you can sorta see it there, maybe she’s moving out of the way …

Nope. She was rearranging it. What a hands on assistant! She really is sweet, she just wants to be involved in everything I’m doing. She sits with me on the couch and if I pull out a new knitting project, she’ll sniff it thoroughly before settling back into her lounging position. I did eventually get this picture of the back (slightly scrunched):

And the fronts in progress:

I just love the edging on this cardigan with it’s pretty double knit welts:

Meanwhile, Tasha, worn out from all that assisting, is lounging:

Anyhow, I’ve podcasted chapters 36 and 37 and 38 will be up tomorrow.  I thought about spacing them out a bit more but figured I’ve made folks wait long enough!  Cataloging at LibriVox is in the works and a complete Zip file of all chapters will be available soon.

So as for what is next with the podcast, I’d like to get a good chunk more recording done before I start releasing more chapters.  Once I’m confident I can release on a regular basis, the podcast will start up again.  I’ll continue with the next Anne book by L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea.  I’ve also begun recording a duet with Kara of Emma by Jane Austen.  We will trade off chapters and I will likely podcast that at some point as well.

Life in general has settled in which is really nice.  My health is the best it has been in years.  I found out that I had a bad Vitamin D deficiency which was likely causing a lot of my fatigue and weak immune system and once I had supplements for that I started to bounce back.  Our new house is beautiful and I’m really enjoying the yard and learning how to do some gardening.  One of my favorite things about the house is this beauty who came with it:

Her name is Tasha and she is a Keeshond - a lovely arctic breed that I hadn’t heard of before.  We bought the house from a nice gentleman named Bill and it turned out he can’t have dogs in his new apartment.  We had been planning on getting a dog as soon as we had a house and fell in love with Tasha when we first saw the house.  We wrote in the contract that if Bill couldn’t keep Tasha that we’d love to take care of her.  We were half joking but when it turned out that he couldn’t keep her, everything fell into place.  She is the sweetest, most loving dog I’ve ever known and I think we are good for each other.  We get out and walk every morning and she is constant company and entertainment.

I haven’t been knitting a whole lot lately with the wedding, move, and summer heat but I think I’ll have more time now to devote to knitting and knit-blogging both.  So stay tuned and thanks for your patience to my podcast listeners!

Before the wedding at my parents’ house; bride and groom:

Sister and maid of honor Julia, Mom, Me, Dad:

Julia with her then-boyfriend, now-fiance Jason:

Julia and me with our Grandma Melba, aka Mema:

At Orlando Gardens, before the ceremony; Julia’s bouquet:

Pretty chairs:

Pretty tables:

My hair:

Julia’s hair:

Jason was in charge of starting and stopping the iPod for the walk up the aisle:

Getting ready to sign the Ketubah:

Signed Ketubah:

Run through before guests arrived:

People (and their many cameras!) begin to arrive:

Stephen’s dad, David and Bev:

Is it time?

Stephen with his friends Bryan and Mike:

Last second, giving Julia my engagement ring to wear during the ceremony:

Dad reminding me to step with my right foot first so we’re in sync:

Now is it time?

It’s time!

After the ceremony:

Stephen’s mom, Dianne, and her husband Tim:

Stephen gets his beer!

Mom and Dad:

Stephen with his sister, Celia:

So happy:

The rings with my bouquet:

End of the night, worn out and hanging out with Mema:

Stephen took this one of Julia with her friend Maureen - our photographer!

And that’s it! Thanks for waiting patiently. We’ve been busy buying a house and getting a dog and doing other such domesticated things that married folk do. Life is good.