This week has been hampered by the rotten weather and a zillion things to do. But, I did get some yard work in, and I hope to do more this week. However, Monday and Tuesday I’m going to be in a comprehensive spinning class with Judith Mackenzie! I’m so excited. I haven’t managed to get into one of her classes yet, this is my first time.

I totally need to clear my bobbins.

How was your week?

Guitar seems to be the thing that’s aggravating my arms the most right now, which breaks my heart. I think I might hand my lessons over to Abby for the summer so she can work on her Ukulele and I can rest my arms without losing my time slot with Roger.

I’m planning on spending time daily with the girls during the summer working on music. Liv on her guitar, Abby on her Uke, and Veronica on her, um, I can’t tell you yet. They all want to play so badly, I think if we work on it in earnest, they’ll be better for it. Maybe we’ll work towards recording a CD this summer. Maybe it’ll all crumble into the vast vat of good intentions.

I’ve been knitting quite a bit on the unnamed shawl. I’ve forgotten the name of the yarn, it’s Colinette something. And I’m knitting the big, hexagon shawl from Victorian Lace Today

I’m not sure I like it. When I saw the skein at Weaving Works, I fell seriously in love and bought all they had. I think I have 7 skeins. I’ve been wanting to knit this shawl since I first bought the book… and now that I’m a ways into it, I’m thinking this yarn might look better in a small project. I really don’t know. It was SUCH a pain to get started, and will be so difficult to rip out, I think I’m going to continue on. After all, I didn’t really like the most recently knit Flower Basket Shawl until it was blocked, but it’s dampening my fun, second guessing myself all the time.

I don’t know if it will be versatile enough to get much use out of. The colors are a bit strange.

Sigh.

It’s dark, wet, and depressing here in the grand Pacific Northwest this week, and I can tell it’s affecting my mood.

My frog died on Wednesday.

much bigger than I anticipated.

The specs- Flower Basket Shawl (Fiber Trends), Zen Garden sock yarn (1 skein plus part of a second). I used size 8 needles and did 10 chart repeats instead of the recommended 7.

I’m really liking the red in the edging. I think it frames it well. I like this shawl much more than I expected to. I thought the pattern would get lost in the color variegation, but it doesn’t. It’s cheerful and feminine and the yarn is really, really nice. I think she’ll like it, even if she’s swimming in it.

She’ll grow.

Last night, while Hayden was here, I resumed knitting on that other shawl I’d started. I have no idea what I was calling it. But, with all of these lovely shawls being turned out, and none of them belonging to me, I’m getting antsy.

This wretched, miserable beast….

left tiny, sharp little cacti spiney things all over my body. There are still some I can’t get out. On my right ring finger. On the back of my upper right arm. And I swear there’s still one or two on my stomach somewhere.

To my lovely green garden gloves…

May you rest in peace. You fought a good fight. I will miss you. You did me well, for the time that we shared.

So, I didn’t end up getting the best “before” shot, but I’ll try to show you what I’ve been doing.

Before

After

Before

After

The tree in that last shot, the one on the left with the starters shooting up from the bottom, is gone.

I also started in on the other side of the driveway last night.

The rhode that remains, tucked behind the front porch is coming out. Lots of things not in the photos are still coming out. I’m going to rip out most of the grass and reshape the lawn. The new beds will be raised in the back a little, sloping towards the lawn. It’s going to be awhile before it’s done, but I’m getting really excited.

I have calls out for house painting bids, though I’m having a devil of a time trying to decide on a new color. (I can’t believe I’ve spent this long in a white and purple house. Purple?!?!?!?!) We need some siding repaired before we can paint, and, though I don’t think we can afford it, I’m dying to rip out the front porch and build something respectable.

So, wanna see what plant, in a yard up the hill, gave me the last nudge I needed to start all of this?

It’s pretty.

Behold, the Euphorbia Wulfenii…

wait, there’s another one-

I am SO putting as many of these as will fit into my yard. I hope they’re not expensive. They’re evergreen, even! I didn’t expect that. And the blooms last a really long time. They’re so pretty! And I think they’ll look good in front of the chocolate New Zealand Flax that Nate wants in the yard.

I finished the shawl, finally.

(Unblocked)

As I said, I ran out of yarn. If you recall, when I bought the Zen Garden sock yarn in January, I bought two colors, the lavender and purple, and the exact same color with some red splashed in it. So, I finished off the edging with the red. I think it actually frames the shawl nicely, but we’ll see how it blocks out.

I swear, I didn’t set this up. Right now, Clark is cooking monkeys, and saying, “Hot monkeys. Hot monkeys.”

I’m glad the knobs are on the back of the stove, but I suppose it’s only a matter of time. He’s much more concerned with things being “real” than my girls were.

So, I ignored laundry last week, which means I have nothing to wear and tons to do. I’m going to get that started and then head out to the yard. Which reminds me, I had an enormous pile of plants on the walkway in the yard, and I put a sign out saying “Free Plants”, not really expecting anyone to take anything, but I figured it was worth a try. There’s only two left. We were out on our date on Saturday, and came home to almost everything being gone. I’m happy they’re gone, but I’d hoped to get a picture of the mountain of stuff I’d yanked out of the yard, and now I can’t.

I worked a lot on the shawl over the weekend.

I have 14 rows to go, plus the bind-off, and….

not enough yarn to do it. I have a plan, but I don’t know if it’s going to work.

Good morning!

Well I haven’t really recorded my food this week, but I didn’t have a “bad” week. Particularly the past few days, I haven’t been very hungry.

I’ve been working in the yard, a LOT. Wednesday, as I mentioned yesterday, I went on a long walk with Clark and then decided to start on my front yard. I haven’t been counting hours, but I probably put in 5 hours yesterday, and more than that on Wednesday. According to Calorie King, 5 hours of gardening burns 1808 calories. So I’m pretty sure I’m good for the week.

I have no idea, outside of the grace and kindness of God, how my body is holding up so well, but I feel great. And I’ve been working hard. And I’m loving it. I’ve pulled out 9 plants, (the rhode almost killed me, and I have another one to go), an unbelievable amount of weeds and weed grass, dug up, moved and stacked brick pavers (Veronica is counting. I think we’re around 60 so far)…

I was worried about my arms, but they’re pretty good. I have to be careful with the pulling. If it’s too hard to pull out, I have to stop and use the hand trowel to loosen the dirt because when it finally gives and my arm snaps back, I feel pain. The bricks have been a little touchy, but being careful with those two things, my elbow pain hasn’t worsened.

SO, as long as my body holds up, I’ve found my summer exercise! I can’t believe how much progress I’ve made. In two days, I’ve completed what I thought would take over a week. Now, I have to figure out how to remove sod. This stuff isn’t cutting and rolling up like the grass at my last house, where all I had to use was a flat edged shovel. It’s tough. We’re going to Lowe’s today for some yard waste bags and I’m going to ask about it. I don’t think I can use a roto-tiller because the ornamental cherry or whatever it is in my front yard has very shallow roots. And there’s a very shallow-buried phone cable that pops up in a spot along the side, and I don’t know where the rest of it is, but my neighbor said it’s been cut during yardwork by the previous owners.

Lame.

Clark is thrilled as can be to be spending so much time outside. Our front yard is small, so I hope his interest holds. Yesterday, when he got a little whiney and wanted me to hold him, I put him in the jogging stroller with lunch, pointed in my direction so he could watch, and he liked that.

How was your week?

So on Wednesday, after going on a nice long walk with Clark and looking at all the lovely yards along the way, I came home and decided I couldn’t live with my wretched front yard any longer. I spent some hours weeding, then went to the store to buy a shovel, a flat bottomed shovel, new hand pruners, and while I was at it, a sun hat and garden clogs (what’s wrong with garden clogs, Cass? They’re cool).

And I spent the rest of the day and evening ripping out all of my vinca (hooray!), a small rhode, lots of weed grass, and a, um, tree. (Clark and anyone happening to be looking out their windows at that time were witness to my victory dance when I finally yanked that thing out of it’s hole and drug it too the sidewalk. Nate, who was out with the girls, wants to know what we’re going to do with it. I dunno. Who cares? It’s out!)

Yesterday I had committed to accompany Liv’s class on an all day field trip and I was keenly aware of the yard work time I was missing. (I’m a bit obsessive at times. I couldn’t sleep for thinking of what I wanted to do in the yard).

It was fun, though. We went on a harbor cruise and learned fascinating things about the Port of Seattle.

I was taking this picture of a ferry crossing the bay when I noticed Liv in the bottom left corner with a boy.

She has referred to the boy in the red jacket as her “boyfriend” before. The funny thing is, she’s not giggly or silly about it. Strictly matter-of-fact. It’s cute. He’s so cute. He came up and leaned against the hull next to her and they chatted for awhile.

Then we went to the Maritime Museum. Check this out.

Pretty darn cool for a museum. I wished I could have sat in there and looked at the art, but I was a chaperone to three active girls that didn’t feel like staying together fer nuthin’, so I wasn’t able to.

We got back in time for me to run home to grab Liv’s track jersey and then back to school to spend a couple hours watching the track meet. It was fun. My best friend in high school was in track, and I enjoyed her meets. I teared up last night, a bit sentimental as I hadn’t been to a track meet since and felt time-warped, back over 15 years.

Liv did well. She took first in the 50 yard dash, (Christine’s event),

and in the relay.

We went home and I immediately fixed dinner. We ate. I took a bath and slept for 12 hours.

Today, the house is trashed, I’m watching a little boy while his mom works in the classroom this afternoon, and all I want to do is hit the yard.

It’s canning season, which means canning supplies are in stores. Which means I’m finally able to buy really big pots to dye in.

That’s a 21 quart and a 33 quart pot. I’m going to dye Clark’s yarn. Finally. The pots I found at thrift stores weren’t big enough to dye all of the yarn for his sweater at once, and it seemed ridiculous to go to all that work (washing, weighing, carding, blending, spinning) to make a sweater with two different dyelots.

I still have no idea how much dye to add for my fiber amount, but I’m content to experiment.

I’ve been working on the Zen Garden/Flower Basket Shawl as I’ve been able to. I’ve completed the amount of repeats called for in the pattern, but it isn’t big enough yet. I think I have at least two repeats to go, plus the edging before it’s done. I knit for about two hours last night while the girls and I watched the second Harry Potter movie and I think I completed the equivalent of one repeat.

I have just over one week to finish it, blocked and all. I’m not sure how this will go.

So, I’ve worn my braces to bed the past couple of nights, because I’m extra sore in the morning when I wake up. I think it’s because I tend to sleep with my arms all scrunched up, with my fists tightly pressed into my neck, under my jaw. The braces make it uncomfortable to bend my arm very tight, so I thought it would help to keep me from doing it.

(I never know what to do with my arms when I’m trying to sleep. They always just seem in the way. I start out hugging a pillow so that I won’t scrunch up, but in the morning, the pillow is always on the floor and my arms are scrunched. What do you do with your arms when you sleep?)

Anyway, when I woke up this morning, (an hour earlier than usual), I felt off, but didn’t think much of it. I stumbled out to the computer to answer some emails. I was having difficulty typing. All clumsy and stiff, but I still didn’t think much of it ’til noticed I was absentmindedly flexing and closing my fist and couldn’t quite close my hand all the way. So I looked down at it and kind of freaked out.

I’m swollen. My left forearm and hand don’t look like they belong to me. I took the brace off and was ballooned out over the top of it. I don’t know if it was too tight, if I ate too much chocolate yesterday (Sara gave me a bag of Lindt truffles for my birthday), or if I just slept wrong or what. It’s been three hours now, and the swelling has gone down some. My hand is almost normal, but my wrist and forearm are still puffy, full, and “stretched” feeling. My right arm was only mildly swollen. Not much.

This is so lame. I hate complaining on the blog.

So, the braces are off ’til I’m not swollen anymore. I’m drinking a ton of water to help the swelling go down. I’m taking it easy.

I just tried to record a song to post, but it isn’t working out right and I’m giving up. Sorry.