The rain has arrived!

Last Saturday I finished doing all the yard preparation and put down fertilizer.  It was great to spend all that time in the sun and reminded me that despite all the work you have to do when you own your own home, it is well worth it because of all the extra time you spend outside!

Due to the marvels of modern technology and my user error, there are no pictures of the yard after I raked it.

Translation: I got in a hurry to keep the memory card in the camera "clean" and deleted them with out copying them over to the laptop, argh!

But here's a picture, of the front yard, since it rained. You will just have to take my word for it that the spots that are starting to green now, were more yellow a week ago.

I hope the greener circles will blend in soon.  Otherwise I'll be buying seed and trying to even out the front yard.

I predict that a lawn mower will be purchased in the next week or so.  Now that the grass has been fed and watered, it will likely go nuts and I'll start cutting it regularly.  I can already see bumps where different kinds of grass are growing faster than others and know I will NEED to cut it so that the yard has a smoother look soon.

The Dove Chocolate Discoveries gift basket is traveling to MN and has transformed itself into a gift box that leaves the state this afternoon.

I know Mom is going to enjoy trying a whole bunch of new products.  I labeled them with some hints on usage and to ensure she knew what she was trying in some cases.

Yesterday I went on a field trip to Smith's in Oberlin with Michelle and Pam.  Pam got nominated as honorary picture taker, she documented our journey to Oberline, OH well in her blog.

Smith's is a really cool Home Furnishing and Yarn store.  Who would have thought to sell both in one store?  It works really well and I will definitely be going back again.  I splurged and got some Mirasol Lachiwa yarn to knit myself a summer tank top.  Its a great Easter egg periwinkle color!

Thanks to Michelle for the use of her kitchen table photography studio.  Michelle was the sole purchaser at the Bead Store, check out the neatest little kitty beads shown in her blog .  I'm sure they are going to make some delightful stitch markers.

Visiting Smith's and the Bead Shop in Oberlin yesterday really got the creative juices flowing, much credit to the great women I was shopping with.  They helped me get a great yarn for what will be my *FIRST* adult garment, a hand knit tank top and provide continued knitting inspiration!

The juices were flowing so strongly that I was not able to go to bed last night with out finding a pattern and casting on the tank top.  I'm going to make the Broken Rib Tank by Kristen TenDyke.  I'm going knit in the round up to the arm holes, contrary to pattern and tailor the sizing, but other than that, I intend to follow the pattern exactly.  I'm sure I'll be well into the ribbed edging on the bottom (that I'm doing 8 repeats of based on others experience with this pattern) after knitting tonight.

 

A Jacy furball decided she wanted to help take pictures today, here she is in all her kitty glory.  Expertly hiding what I intended to photograph.

I appear to be in the mood to work on lots of things, but finish nothing lately.  I picked back up the Girasole Shawl recently, started a pair of Sinuosity Socks, Lady travels to the seaside shawl and now the Broken Rib tank top.

At least I can say I'm making progress on the socks.  I've started the heel flap on my first sock.  They are coming along quite nicely.

I intend to work on the Girasole again tonight, at least long enough to get a life line put into it. I'd hate to lose my place as I start chart C, which will be beautiful and full of challenge.

Not to mention that I keep intending to start baby knitting for the *4* babies that will be arriving this summer!  I left Philly just in time, there is obviously something in the water there!

Guess I ought to stop typing and start doing.  Have a Sweet Day!

Epic Projects

Last fall Jared Flood held classes at Loop in Philly.  A fellow SnB'er wanted to attend the Girasole class and I couldn't resist this ginormous lace concoction.  It truly is beautiful.  I knew when I started this it would be an on-again off-again project.  Making anything that is 5 feet in diameter out of lace weight yarn is going to take a while.  With that in mind I started my first multi-year knitting project.

Needless to say I started it during the class, finished the first chart and quickly but it aside to start my Christmas knitting.  Christmas knitting was extensive this past year, finally completed in February.  So I've picked up the Girasole again and gladly completed the second chart.

Trust me when I say, this is only the beginning.  There are 5 more charts, some of which are repeated.  I'm in love with this project, but enjoying the option of setting it aside to work on something else as well.

In fact, I've started my first real pair of socks.  They are done in a cool colorway called "Sis Boom Bah" from Scout's Swag.  No pictures of the actual sock project, but here's the yarn and needles waiting to begin transformation.

These socks will most likely be a gift, because I know someone who is going to love this colorway, even more than me, my Mom.  The pattern I'm using is Sinuosity, by KnittingNonStop.  Dawn is awesome, tons of fun, designs great patterns and just happens to be one of the local CKW (cleveland knits west) knitters.  So the fact that there is Sinuosity KAL (knit along) happening right now should come as no surprise.

This is the first time I've participated in a knit along.  They are cool since you have access to many other knitters who are working through the same pattern at the same time to ask questions.  Or in my case, learn how to cable with out cable needles from.  PKJewelry has been helping me with my cabling education.  I can now do knit twists, both left and right with out a cable needle!  Pam is also a lady of many talents.  I bought my awesome chocolate row counter shown in the Girasole photo from her etsy shop.

Ok, enough typing about knitting.  Its time to head to Eric's to make bacon crackers, praline bacon (sense a theme yet) and other tasty(not healthy) finger food to eat while watching OSU in the tourney tonight.