Long Overdue Sheepcote Photos

Okay, so I finished this sweater way back in March.

I just never got around to posting the pictures of it, which have been sitting on my camera since March. But here they are now. Late winter/early spring was a bit of a blah time for me, but hopefully spring and summer will renew my interest in both knitting and blogging and get me back on track with some other things as well.

Anyways, I am vey happy with the way the sweater turned out. It could have been a size smaller, but it is still very cute and wearable. There is something satisfying about finishing projects and about being able to say, "Thanks, I made it," to compliments.

I have two sweaters currently on the needles. The much anticipated February Lady Sweater is about halfway done. However, it is on pause as I race to finish another cardigan, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan (in yellow) for a wedding in the beginning of June. I also have the Citron shawl on the needles, but I'm waiting for another ball of yarn to arrive in order to finish it.

Hopefully, updates n those projects won't be so delayed.

 

How Does My Garden Grow?

I love growing plants. Or maybe, I just love the idea of growing plants. Either way, since about high school, I've spent time and money on attempting to get plants to grow, with varying degrees of success. Currently, the oldest plant in the house is a hibiscus plant Pippin and the cats gave me last year for Mother's Day (though in all fairness, before that, I had a shamrock plant I had kept alive through college until Bode decided to eat it, knock the pot off the counter, and scatter the roots beyond all repair).

Anyways, for many years, I've spent this time of year browsing around various garden centers, planning for the day when I had my own home and could grow all kinds of things in my own yard.

So, now I have my own home, and I started planning my garden. I picked out a patch of the yard, it was kind of low-lying, so I figured we should build a raised garden bed. I researched it, and started to plan it out...

And that was as far as I got. Husband and I just never got around to getting the materials, the thought of weeding wasn't impressing me (chalk that one up to hours of my childhood spent in a giant flower bed, pulling what I thought were weeds, but usually turned out to be the plants that were supposed,to be growing there).

After taking those factors into consideration, I decided that container gardening might be a better option. After all, we have a big, beautiful porch that gets very little use. I invested in some Earthboxes, plus wrangled up two more from a previous (failed) experiment with container gardening. Then, I went out and got soil, fertilizer and plant and got set up for planting.

Knowing that he'd spend the entire time barking if I didn't, I figured a way to allow Pippin to join me on the porch. I looped his leash around one of the rungs on the deck railing, and brought him out a bowl of water. Pippin then spent my planting time happily assisting and napping (mostly napping). Once the dog was situated, I set about planting.

It didn't take too long for me to realize just how heavy a cubic foot of dirt is (because , face it, you can call it potting soil or potting mix, or whatever you'd like, but really, it is dirt). Of course, it wasn't until I had two of the four boxes planted that I remembered that my mom gave me a pair of gardening gloves last year. At that point, my hands were so caked with dirt that it seemed pointless to up them on. Next time, I'll remember, really, I will. By the end of my project, I noticed the huge mess I had created on my porch. But the plants were planted.

My Earthboxes were filled with tomatoes, zucchini, bell and jalapeño peppers, and strawberries, there are two hanging planters on my porch railing with dahlia bulbs, and we put in a flower bed with some lily bulbs in front of the fence (though I'm starting to doubt that those will grow).

Now, if I just can remember to water everything.

 

 

Ambition or Insanity?

The other weekend, my mom and I went shopping. It was Mother’s Day and although it is one of the four days I have agreed to golf with minimal complaining and whining (the other three are my mom’s birthday, the Parent/Child Tournament, and a Breast Cancer Outing), we got through one hole when she decided she didn’t want to golf, so we went shopping instead (no complaints here). While shopping, I came across a really cute skirt, that I could justify purchasing for a couple of reasons: 1. I could wear it to work and 2. Jeff’s cousin was getting married in June and I could wear it to the wedding. In my head, the skirt would go great with a summer weight yellow cardigan. For the remainder of the day, I fruitlessly searched for that elusive cardigan, with no luck. Then I went home and searched online for the cardigan, with the same results.

Then it occurred to me.

I’m a knitter.

Why don’t I just find a pattern for the cardigan that I like and make it out of a summer fiber (as in cotton or linen)? That would be way easier than searching for a cardigan that may or may not even exist. After some digging on my Ravelry queue, I discovered that I had already purchased the perfect pattern, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan and purchased yarn to make the cardigan. And what kind of yarn did I buy? A cotton, model, silk blend in a light butter yellow. All the stars were in alignment.If I’m being perfectly honest, I must admit; the pattern isn’t exactly what I wanted and I envisioned a bright sun shine yellow, not a soft butter yellow, but those were concessions I was willing to make. So I dug out the yarn, set up the pattern in Knit Companion (which, by the way, I completely and totally love and must write an entry about it, but not today), cast on, and began knitting away.

And then it occurred to me.

I’m knitting a sweater for an event that is less than a month away.

That is a serious deadline. And I don’t always do well with deadlines.

I spent the next couple of days trying to convince myself that; while taking on the project was indeed ambitious, there were several factors that prevented it from crossing over into crazy. I kept reminding myself that the project was knit with a worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles, that would make it go quickly and the majority of the cardigan is knit in stockinette, which makes it a pretty mindless project, and I do have backups for what I can wear with the skirt, if needed.

So, I’m still plugging away at it, and with the wedding only 25 days away, I’ve gotten this much done.

Maybe I am crazy.