Odds and Ends

I have so many things I want to share with you.......this is my 100th post. I have contemplated this post all week long. I don't have any good knitting to show you, nothing exciting has happened around here, well there has, and I will tell later in this post.

Warning: Lots of pictures.

Let's start with Tuesday. For a brief time, we had nice weather on Tuesday. Almost short sleeve weather. John came asking if anyone else was interested in having a garden this year. We didn't have one last year. Robert wasn't willing to turn it over if we weren't going to keep it up. That's what happened the year before. My allergies just go haywire if I am out there too much. So, several of us went out and started working on it. We haven't done anything since last Spring, so our yard has kind of gone to the birds, or the weeds in this case. We haven't even picked up the branches that were in the yard from the wind storms this winter. They aren't big ones, but they do make it a mess. Kim and I started on that while John pulled out some of the dead stuff from the main flower garden.

The after effects. It is a bit cleaner, and we will be able to see the flowers as they start to emerge. The Holly is growing bigger and has little tiny Holly plants growing under it. There was a tree this side of the Holly, but we had it taken out last summer.

Like these Oriental Poppies. Most of them are red and orange with one, maybe two pink ones. They literally take over the flower bed.

I can't remember what these are. Maybe the grape hyacinths, or there's another blue flower back here that goes nuts. It kind of looks like little bells. I probably have another picture of them somewhere. It's the second picture below. I took that last Spring, right about the time that I started this blog.

In the other flower bed, these are starting to sprout up. Grape Hyacinth,

Tulips, and

Daffodils. Our daffodils are always later than anyone elses.

This is our vegetable garden, or could be if we kept it up.

We did some clearing out of it, but by then we'd already spent almost two hours outside doing yard work. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't too sore afterward. Except the fingers where I got poked with sharp pieces of grass. So the next option is to pull out the grass, some of it is long and dead, or to just turn it under with the soil. I don't know what we'll do. The other stuff I need to find are the seeds, soil and pots of some kind so we can have some starts for some of the vegies my kids want. Hmm, I wrote them down somewhere and now I can't remember where I put it. I know there was lettuce, green onions, zucchini, cucumber, corn, potatoes, and I am sure there is more. Of course I need the tomatoes.

Less than an hour after we went inside, it started raining, and has been raining since.

Yesterday I worked my rear off at BMFA. Actually getting stuff ready to send to Stitches West. It's hard work bundling yarn. My arms were sore, I'm surprised they aren't today. Ok, several weeks ago, I mentioned something in passing that I was working on. Well, I am part of the admin team for this. I am so excited. I'm not doing the hard work but just keeping an eye on things, deleting comments if necessary and answering questions as I can. To top it off, I get to go on this trip in April as a "Sockateer" and I get to see the Yarn Harlot twice this year. She has her tour schedule up and will be in Portland in June!!

Today, I did this. I have never taken photos of myself. I thought it was funny and couldn't keep from laughing at myself. I took many pictures, most that didn't turn out. Finally, I closed my computer (the blue glare was on my glasses) and took off my glasses. I'm sitting in my favorite chair with all of my knitting junk around me.

Then I went and had this done.......

I feel light and airy and........younger. It's been a couple of years now since I've had it like this. It was time.

Hmm, I thought I had two Project Spectrum items, but I can only remember one. Unwittingly I read "Shades of Earl Grey (A Tea Shop Mystery)" by Laura Childs. I like this series. Each book is short and interesting, with tea shop recipes in the back.

I think that was all I had to say this week. I should be knitting, or planning our anniversary get-away, or even our Spring Break trip. I doubt I will get to any of those, well maybe the knitting. Have a good weekend.

Signs of Spring

My gray yarn came on Saturday!! I can start my afghan as soon as I finish two little projects.


The first project is this little bag. Kim has been wanting a felted carrying bag for her CD/MP3 player. I did this on Saturday, there are two little button holes on the ends where we will thread through straps, which happens to be the purple below this picture. I am still working on it. We want the strap to be approximately 48 inches once it is felted, so I am making it about 1/3 longer.

The second project is resizing John's cable hat from Christmas. It was a tad too big and it was letting cold air in under it. I am to the decreases. Both of these projects could be done in an evening.









Signs of Spring at my house., regardless of what the hedgehogs said on Friday. I went out to get the mail yesterday and noticed the crocus are blooming. Usually we see them coming up, then just barely starting to bloom. It usually takes a week or so once we first notice them. This year it happened all at once.

The roses are starting to sprout before we have even trimmed them down. Supposedly we are not to trim them until President's weekend, but I am considering trimming them down this weekend.
And this guy, we saw in our backyard this afternoon. All of a sudden John said, hey, there's a woodpecker on our maple tree. So, I grabbed the camera in hopes he wouldn't leave before I was able to get a picture. He climbed all the way up into to y of the tree, then around to the other side.

February!!

A new month, a new beginning, right? Phil did not see his shadow, however, the hedgehogs here in Oregon did!! AND hedgehogs were the original animals used centuries ago in Europe when this superstition came about.

I missed the first day of February and Project Spectrum, but I have a really good excuse, I just can't tell you. I can tell you I was working at BMFA, and it has to do with the 2007 sock club, but not for the actual shipment. In a few weeks I'll be able to tell you more about it. I am thrilled to say the least!! Getting paid to......, okay enough. I've got some pictures to share and a little more information on my biopsy. I guess I can start with that and get it out of the way.

Yesterday the nurse called and said the final report said the same thing as the preliminary report. So today I needed to call them and follow up with what we are going to do about this lump. I figured we had a couple of options, do another biopsy to take the whole thing out, like aspiration; or we could leave it there and it would 1)show up on future mammograms and freak us all out again, 2)show up on future mammograms, but we know it's there and just watch that it doesn't get bigger, or 3)take it out and not have to worry about it at all. So, the 4th option that we are going to do at this point, come back in 6 months for another ultrasound to make sure it isn't growing or doing anything strange. I told them that if my doctor wanted to have a consultation with Robert and myself we were fine with that and could come in anytime. But nope, it looks like I have 6 months then a recheck. I think I'm ok with that, though I don't know now. A friend I talked to tonight told me that I could call and talk to the Dr. and ask my questions, then I realized that I also have the option to email him. It's on all of his business cards and I've actually done it before. So, now it's in the back of my mind to do this and I am trying to process the questions that I want to have answered. Robert also said I could call the nurse at the radiologist office and ask her.

Ok, I finished my socks last night, tried to take a picture and they turned out YUCKY, so I waited until today, so I would have the natural light from out south-facing sunroom. I have the buttons and you can see them on one of the socks, but I have had a time sewing them on, I don't like it and will be fiddling with them to get it right. They are the Rock and Weave pattern from BMFA Rockin' Sock Club 2006, in the colorway Fairgrounds. (Hey, does anyone know how to do the TM for a trademark sign) I know that the term Rockin'.......is trademarked. So is there a little keystroke that makes it?



Kim's violet opened it's third bloom, it is so pretty now. It opened sooner than I thought it would, about mid week, but I didn't take a picture until today.



Hmm, what else. I don't have my yarn yet for my grey project, though I do need to re-do John's cable hat. It really was too big, even though he said it wasn't. He wasn't warm enough in it, so I took out one of the cable repeats in the hopes that it won't be too small and it will keep his head warm.

I finished my quilt blocks for the Quilt Block Swap and sent them out yesterday. I won't post pictures of them until I know Jenny received them so I don't spoil the surprise. I did have a break through though on the swap. Now, why I didn't think about this before, I don't know. In fact, Robert thought of it for me as I was struggling Monday afternoon/evening to come up with a pattern to use for the swap. I do this every month. I get the name of my swappee and their colors/themes. Then I think about it for at least half the month, what do I want to do? I agonize over it, then as the last week approaches I plunge in and get it done. It's hard on me!! I have tried to make every single block different than the last block. I can't do that anymore. I don't know enough or have enough experience to keep going at that rate. So, my blocks will be the same ones each month, with different colors, or whatever theme they have going. I also decide to email Kristin a while back, we have an ongoing conversation. She is a young 20-something, finishing up college in IL. She was homeschooled!! I am swapping months with her, because, even though she started this swap, she hasn't been able to do a single month yet, due to an odd number of participants. So, I told her she should take the month of February and I will take a break, I need it anyways. I am also going to help her out with moderating the group as I can.
Project Spectrum: I was over at the Flickr site for it where Lolly and others have posted questions. I saw the one about the read-along. That would be kind of cool. They were posting some of their suggestions of books. I have one of the books for this month. Blue Latitudes, it is about Captain Cook's exploration of the South Pacific, I think. It was given to us as a gift several years ago and non of us have read it. Then I also picked up The Red Tent at the library this week. I am thinking I should save that for the red month.

I also saw on another blog that someone has presented the idea of a Harry Potter read-along for the 6 weeks before HP7 is released. Right, like I can read one of those in a week? Sure, if that's all I am doing, instead of knitting, or computering. But, I had considered listening to the audio versions while I am knitting, and starting on them now. That way I can actually get through them.

Project Spectrum

Starts February 1st.

February / March

Blue, White, Gray

April / May

Green, Yellow, Pink

June / July

Red, Black, Metallics

August / September

Brown, Orange, Purple

I had an idea for the blue/white/gray the other day, didn't write it down and now I have forgotten what it was. Oh well. For the green/yellow/pink, I have some of my own spun yarn that I want to transform into something else. I think I might knit a bag and felt it. I also have some pink yarn for some pink ribbon socks. I've wanted to make those for several years now. The red? Definitely grandma's feather and fan socks. I don't have any ideas for the brown/orange/purple, but I am sure I can come up with a purple project.