It's Spring at last!

    Still haven't cut the grass, though lots of our neighbours have done. Much progress has been made in the flower beds, including some splitting up and moving things.

Bush cherries: Back: Romeo, front left Juliet, right: Crimson Romance.

     I received the long-awaited package from Veseys last week, and put the cherry trees into pots in the greenhouse, but I foolishly decided to plant the hydrangeas into the shrub border right away. It's been quite cold at the nights, so I have had to cover them up. I should have hardened them off - but I was so excited, I didn't think of it. There were three - of the 'Hardy Hydrangea" variety. I planted the first, Hydrangea paniculata 'DVPpinky', on the east side of the central shrub bed, and the second, Hydrangea aborescens 'Abetwo' on the west side of the same bed. The third I put in front of the rugosa roses in the west bed. It is Hydrangea aborescens 'NCHAI', ppaf, cbraf. Common names in order, with sizes at maturity, are "Pinky Winky", 6 - 8 feet tall & wide; "Incrediball", 4-5 feet tall & wide, and "Invincibelle Spirit", 3-4 feet tall & wide. Hope they survive.

Blueberries, mulched with sawdust

      I took the truck up the Black Creek Road last week and dug up some lowbush blueberries - easy peasy, as the road machine had been and they were hanging out over the road, with almost no soil underneath them. I had started a bed for them, and when I got back with the plants I Googled and found what they need - basically, manure and sawdust to increase acidity, so that was easy to provide. I think it must be acidic there already, as I have put them near the ones that have been in our garden for years. After I got them planted, I mulched with more sawdust and watered well. I'm not expecting a lot of fruit this year, but I know they are a late and sweet variety because they performed well on the road last year. Apparently I am to let them fruit one year and cut them back the next - or maybe every three years. The pros do every two. The ones we have haven't ever been cut back, of course.

     In knitting news, I have started a spiral scarf using black Kroy and a long-repeat multicolour - Elann's Sock it to Me dankai. It's short-row wedges between black borders which really set off the colour changes well.  I had gotten a bit obsessed with the pattern after seeing it on Ravelry, and went to Owl's Hollow looking for a long-repeat colour. All they had was the Noro cotton-and nylon in a couple of truly ugly colours, so I bought the Kroy and came home, and ordered some Chroma from Knit Picks. And then I was looking for something else in my stash page on Ravelry, and saw the two skeins of dankai I'd bought some time ago, and I was off! TGFR!

       I have completed the linen closet (but for the doors), and today I dry-fitted the cradle for the bathtub. I have to wait for Fred to come home to help me lift the tub on to the cradle, and then probably take it all apart to nail it into place, and then together. The tub needs a bit of sawing to make the holes for the water attachments and I'll have to cut the cradle as well, just not sure where yet.This will have to come after the dry-fitting. And then it's the plumber again to fit the drains and attach the water supply, and we will have a bathtub again after - seven years?
     I painted the walls around the tub space, as I thought it would be easier without the tub in place. Of course I still haven't decided on a colour for the walls, but at least the gyproc is primed. 

       I have plans to tile the walls around the tub, just up 9 inches or so - as I am hoping the days of splashing in the tub are behind us. I am surprised how finished it looks, I think because I put a bit of pine along the front, rather than the rough 2 x 4s. I will probably put tile there as well - at least,  I do have the tile for it, and if it looks good I'll go for it.

     The end is in sight. Then I can spend ALL my time in the garden.

Nothing much to see here....

I finished my Sock Madness Sock, and posted about it, and so I'm in the competition! What they do is divide all 160 finishers into four teams, and then release the patterns one at a time, with only a certain number of finishers moving on to the next heat. There's a lot of rivalry and encouraging chat back and forth, and the first heats are relatively slow, so it begins easily enough.
It does make you knit, though! So last night I finished off a pair of socks I had started in mid-February - just to clear the decks, you know, as the next pattern should arrive anytime after midnight on Friday.


And then, since I didn't have anything (much) to knit, I started a new shawl in Fleece Artist Mo. The pattern is Zetor, and it seems to be a nice lacy thing. I've had the Mo for a long time, it's a lovely amber-golden colour, but I've been intimidated to actually knit with it, as mohair is quite a lot of trouble to work with. However, here I go, and so far I'm having no trouble. The Mo is over 500 m. so it could be quite a big shawl before it's all done, but it will be light and warm as well. It was actually one of those Fleece Artist Combos, with two different yarns dyed the same colour and put together as a package. I think I was supposed to knit with the two yarns together, but I didn't - I made a Travelling Woman shawl with the sockweight and put the Mo away - for now!
I did go to Veseys at lunchtime, and spent up my $50 gift certificate on seeds (and a few peat pots), with quite a few packets meant to be started quite soon in flats. I will get busy with that this weekend, as long as knitting doesn't get in the way. I have my flower seedlings in my little plastic rolling greenhouse in the living room (it keeps the cats from digging them up) and I was hoping I might get a bit of sun this weekend so I could put it out on the deck for a few hours. However it doesn't look great for sun this weekend.

In The Bleak Midwinter

We have had another snowfall - actually with plenty of warnings, so we were all hopeful that we would have a Snow Day today - however, the wind promised did not materialize, so we just bravely swept and shovelled and went in to work. Rats! I have knitting I could be busy with right now!
The snow was sticky (it was barely minus 1 degree at the worst) so it stuck to the tiniest of branches. It has changed to wet snow/rain now, so most of the beauty is dribbling away.
I am getting right to work on next winter's Christmas presents, so I have a beautiful bright red fingering-weight alpaca which I'm almost finished making into a cowl and matching fingerless gloves. They are lacy and fine, which looks super with the red. I really should have photographed it in the snow, to make it look properly festive. Perhaps I will when all 3 pieces are done. I'm at work on the final glove now.
The cowl is The Yarn Harlot's "Pretty Thing" which I bought and downloaded from Ravelry. I really appreciate the convenience of this online shopping lark! And I also liked that I got to keep this pattern in my downloads - I bought a pattern from Fibre Trends before Christmas and you only get to see it - and print it - once before it disappears. I must put it in a page protector before it gets destroyed (I tend to be pretty hard on my patterns, lugging them about and stuffing them into various bags, etc.) But "Pretty Thing" is mine forever! And it truly is pretty. I may even use my precious skein of Qviuk to make one - for me!
Now that I've decided to make cowl+gloves sets, I'm looking at my stash and realizing that I really don't have much in the gorgeous hand-dyed fingering weight - most of my sock yarn is boring plain colours. However, a trip to Halifax next week may remedy this.

All shawls, all the time

I wish work wouldn't steal so much of my knitting time. It's hard to complete all the shawls I want to make when I have to do work things! I would knit when I do my daily walk (all at the gym now because the outdoor walking is so treacherous) but it's hard to manage my music (actually I listen to podcasts, MUCH more interesting and amusing than music) and my lap counter. Don't think I could manage needles and yarn as well.

Today I was listening to Gardener's Question Time (GQT) and learned two valuable things: 1. honeysuckle is out NOW in Britain; and 2. Gertrude Jekyll's last name is pronounced GEE kl. Who bludy KNEW? Reminds me of the time I was talking with a friend about a Cotoneaster hedge (pronouncing it 'COT ton easter') and we had someone come over and say "actually it's 'cot O ne aster'. Gee, thanks. Well, really, thanks. It's a mistake I haven't made since.

Back to the shawls: I finished the Bitterroot (I love this name: it's ANOTHER word with three pairs of double letters, like bookkeeper) and posted it in the January thread of 10 Shawls in 2010. Now I'm working on "Little Arrowhead" with the Fleece Artist Italian Silk I got at the Northern Traditions yarn store in North Rustico last fall. I also got out my file of shawl patterns, and looked at my stash, and came up with a few pairings. I've zipped them into plastic bags, the pattern and the yarn, that is. I also changed my mind about a pattern: Multnomah. It's garter, plain, with a bit of a 'Faeroe' thing down the centre back - just a strip of five stitches, between paired increases. Then it finishes with a few rows of 'feather and fan'. Shooting fish in a barrel, I thought. Then, in my stash diving I came up with this stripey hand-dyed skein of "Perfect Day Yarns" sock yarn I'd won in a Sock Knitters Anonymous competition 'way back at the beginning of the sock obsession. It's orange, brown and purple...not exactly MY colours, but the Multnomahs people have been posting are made of wilder mixes than this, even, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I should keep it for Olympic knitting, but since I probably won't see any of the Olympics, there's not much point.

I do have an Olympics app on my iTouch, though, it's apparently to tell you what's going on where and how to get there, etc. I don't know if it will include results. I met Doug Gallant at a party Saturday night and he has an 8GB iTouch too; he's mad for apps so I tried some on his recommendation. The Penguin Catapult is fairly amusing, although I DO feel sorry for the poor penguins with ME at the helm of the catapult. And the sheep launcher has turned into a cupid for Valentine's, which is not nearly so much fun. I did download App Miner too, which is a great source for free and cheap apps to try out. Thanks Doug!