Optimism

Even though the weather is still awfully cold, I'm showing my confidence that spring will eventually arrive; I placed my seed order for my garden!

I've been perusing catalogs for months, deciding what to plant. Tomatoes, of course; red and orange bell peppers; the cherry peppers I grew last year were fabulous, so those are in; and jalapenos for the b/f. I recently read an article about growing potatoes, and learned the likely reason I had such bad luck in the past (planted much too late!); I'm giving them another try. Going to give corn a shot, if we don't have such a long, cold, wet spring again. And some red cabbage and carrots sound good.

Now, I just have to figure out how to shoehorn all this into the space I have!

At long last

At long last, my Carbon Twist socks are done. One of the reasons it took me so long was that I got a bit distracted along the way. I was about 80% done with the pair, when I started hankerin' for a good bit of plain ol' stockinette. So I made a hat:

A baby hat, made of Kroy sock yarn. Just a simple rolled brim hat, so there wasn't even a couple of inches of ribbing. Lost the label, so I don't remember the colorway. It took the better part of a skein. Lots of stockinette. But it wasn't enough; I started another hat:

This one is made with tapestry wool. I had a little bit of a gauge accident; I meant this to fit a child, but it fits me! I think I'll wash it in warm water to see if I can shrink it just a little, before I ship it off. Probably to the Cheyenne River Reservation.

After that, I was ready to tackle garter rib again. And now, finally, I'm done:

Knit Picks Essential sock yarn, in Carbon Twist; my own sock recipe. I'm so pleased, you'd think I'd invented socks, or at least that these were my first pair. I didn't, and they aren't, but they are so warm and soft and cooshy that I'm thrilled. I keep wiggling my toes in joy.

I now have no socks on the needles at all. Don't know when the last time that was; back before I learned to knit socks, probably. But the b/f is going to start picketing if I don't knit him a pillow, so that's up next. But I have picked out the yarn for the next pair:

Lang Jawoll 0061, Dark Red. I haven't decided on the stitch pattern yet, except it won't be garter rib.