Spring seems to have arrived with the time change! It’s still frosty most mornings but the sun comes out and warms up to almost 60F. Is this spring or will another bout of winter arrive before true spring?
With the time change, the sun rises after 7 a.m. in my part of the world. This means that there is plenty of knitting time while it is still dark. I finished the second Setesdal hat that was meant for Randy; however, even though I used larger needles it’s still too tight. I’ve knit two hats for him before, one of which (bicycle motif) he wears all the time. At least this recent finished hat is in different colors from the first so I have two distinct knitted hats. My next attempt for him will be a hat in brioche, which is a very stretchy double stitch.
Currently I have three projects on the needles:
- Hermione socks in a green speckled hand-dyed fingering weight yarn I bought from Skein & Tipple. I’ve had trouble making socks that fit correctly using the standard 64 stitch cast-on. Part of the problem is that the needles I use are 2.5 mm and most patterns call for 2.25 mm. Hard to believe that 0.25 mm makes that much of a difference. The other part of the problem is that I have long skinny feet. Weird, I know. I started the pattern by casting on 60 stitches. Nope, still too big so now I’m trying 56 stitches. I’ll report my progress.
- Exploration Station shawl by Stephen West. This pattern is the first Stephen West pattern I’ve knit. I really like his instructions on fairly complex stitch patterns. I’ve struggled with brioche stitch on other patterns and chose this pattern simply because one section of the shawl is in brioche stitch. I’ve found that this stitch is straightforward but I have to pay attention to make sure the yarn is on the correct side of the needle. For the most part this section of shawl is lovely but I have found a few mistakes. The colors I chose are Knitpicks Gloss in bright magenta, mauve, gold, and grey. When the shawl is finished I’ll post on my Ravelry page.
- Crossvine cabled sweater by Berroco. I’m a sucker for free Berroco patterns. Some have been duds but for the most part their patterns are well written and easy to follow. The duds are just a matter of personal preference. For instance, one pattern was mostly in purl stitch and I don’t mind purl stitch as I find that knitting left-handed makes the purl stitch almost identical to knit stitch in practice. Still, I’d like the majority of the pattern to be in knit stitch. I’m knitting this pattern in chunky Ultra Alpaca in a dark emerald color.
The Junkyard Garden is showing some life, including the parts I planted outside in repurposed fruit containers. These make excellent mini-greenhouses, by the way. I’m almost ready to put some seeds in the ground: peas and radishes. First I need to set up a barrier to keep the bunnies away from the seedlings. The starts are on top of raised containers and bunnies can’t reach them. At ground level, however, bunnies dash out from their convenient hiding place/warren under the porch to snack on my seedlings then dash back.
One thing I have learned during the winter indoor growing experiment is that I’m not really a fan of microgreens, at least not those that I grew in soil. It’s fun to see green life during winter but the microgreens are too much bother for the amount of greens produced to top a salad, although I do like the little radish greens and garlic chives as they have lots of flavor.
What will I try next? Probably see if I can grow individual lettuces, even if they are miniature in compared to the outdoor variety.
Odin the Mustang has recovered from the scary trailer loading experience I wrote about in my last post. Yesterday he loaded in the trailer at liberty and stood quietly with the divider closed. Bragi practiced coming in, just two feet and almost 3. I’m not sure how to communicate to him that he needs to get in diagonally as my trailer is a 3-horse slant so I will wait for my trainer to arrive next week for more information.
And next time I write, I will have a surprise on the horse front! Stay tuned!