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.