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Rather than try to catch up on several months of blogging that I just didn’t get to, I thought I’d post a few pictures.

Tasha loves the snow.

She is built for it. She is downright joyful in it - galloping about, wading it in with her nose down deep to lead the way, even performing impressive vertical leaps, as if to say, “isn’t this fantastic?!” I think she looks quite beautiful in the snow.

She loves any and all cold weather, in fact. Sometimes she’d be outside for hours in the frigid cold and I’d get worried and go looking for her and find her napping in her favorite corner under those little evergreen trees where I pictured her in the last post. She would spot me and leap out in a small explosion of snow, pine needles, and fur and gallop up to the porch to meet me.

What a sweetie. There was lots of knitting this winter and even spinning! On a wheel! My fantastic Christmas present from my parents:

It is a Kromski Minstrel and I love it so. That’s not the greatest picture of the whole wheel but it is beautiful and I love spinning on it. I’m afraid I haven’t touched my spindles since Christmas but I’m sure I’ll come back to them too.

I knit Eunny Jang’s Ivy League Vest during a particular fair-isle phase.

I love it. I think it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever created. It’s knit from Knit Picks Palette yarn.

I’m a little bit sad that spring is here and I won’t be able to wear it as much!

That fair isle phase I mentioned also led to a number of hats. Two in particular from Anna Zilboorg’s fantastic book, 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit. I knit Beret #4 which turned out a bit baggy but I still like it:

After all, aren’t berets supposed to be a bit slouchy? I knit this with odds and ends of KnitPicks Swish Worsted, KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, and Cascade 220.

Such a pretty pattern.

I also knit Toque #1 from the same book:

So bright and cheerful on icky winter days!

This was knit with black KnitPicks Swish Worsted that I had left over and some hand dyed hand spun superwash wool.

Lovely. And here is the hat that started my fair isle phase:

It’s my little masterpiece! I knit and ripped this countless times. I always have a hard time getting gauge with fair isle. Plus I was making this up as I went along.

All of the different motifs came from The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry Jones. I especially love the snowflakes.

I made up the top as I went along and it turned out pretty nice:

There was a bit near the bottom where I had three colors at once. The finished effect is lovely but I’m pretty sure I’ll NEVER be doing that again.

I started with some plain knit rows then a purl to create a folding edge and then later sewed under that initial flap. The slightly flared flapper-ish shape was totally unintentional but I love it and think it is rather flattering.

Knit with leftovers of handspun and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca.  Also notice the hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit Clapotis style scarf!

Oh, and I have to show you all this one since I blogged about it when it began. My Kauni Lady Eleanor Stole:

What a fantastic yarn!

Love it.

There also was plenty of holiday knitting. Mittens for my Canadian nephews:

A stocking cap for Stephen:

Ginormous socks for my step-son Jeffrey:

Gloves for Dad:

A stocking cap for my future brother in law, Jason:

And the popular Lace Ribbon Scarf for Mom:

I think the reason I had several successful and completed holiday knits this year was that I didn’t try to do hand knits for every single person on my list.  It’s just not reasonable, at least not for me, so we spent some cash and I wasn’t stressed out and all was well.

There were some more odds and ends along the way but I think if I’m going to be a regular blogger, I need to not worry about blogging every single project. I tend to think I have to document every single thing which becomes burdensome and doesn’t get done and then it builds up and soon the prospect is overwhelming so I don’t blog for months. So what I think I’ll do is give myself permission to not blog every project and to not document the details of every project. If you want details, they are on my Ravelry page.  I’m not saying I won’t post details at times but I’m going to try not to feel like I have to.  It’s my bit of OCD and I already do all of that on Ravelry (thank goodness for Ravelry!) so there is no reason to do it twice.

Tasha doesn’t mind all the knitting so long as she can snuggle up beside me and request belly rubs on occasion.

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I’m told by a couple of my aunts who know about such things that these are flowering cherry trees:

We have two in our front yard, right between the sidewalk and the street.

They burst into bloom yesterday and I think they are so lovely.

We’re supposed to have a big storm blow in tonight with lots of wind and possibly even hail. I’m a bit concerned about all the pretty pink petals in the wind!

I’ve thought about blogging a lot lately and I decided it is time to just do it instead of putting it off. Now that spring is just about here, I’m really enjoying our yard again! I started a bunch of seeds indoors a couple weeks back.

The sugar snap peas popped up almost immediately and have been in the garden for nearly a week now.

Apparently peas like to climb and their little tendrils will grab onto whatever they can reach to support themselves. If you look at that last picture really closely you might see where a tendril grabbed onto a bit of yarn from the trellis I built. That was in the afternoon of the day I planted them! It makes you think that if you sat there long enough and watched, you could see them growing. I hope my trellis is enough for the peas, I built it with just what I had handy.

You can also see the little edgings I installed in my kitchen garden so I now have three separate beds with aisles between so I can access them all easily enough. You may have also noticed the Tasha proof fence! Don’t worry, though, she has a favorite shady spot where she can observe all backyard events.

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So yesterday was a lovely sunny late afternoon and I noticed that my Ravelry page was lacking pictures for a bunch of projects so I gathered a bunch of stuff together and got my camera and went out to the front porch.  Tasha came with me since she comes with me everywhere and I put her on the lead we have out front.

I started the Wallis Cardigan way back on our honeymoon before getting sidelined with other projects but I plan to finish it up soon.  See how far I’ve come already?

What’s that? You can’t see it? Hmm, perhaps the photographer’s assistant is in the way. Here, let’s try this one:

Nope, still seems to be a bit obstructed. Tasha, could you get out of the way please?

Well, you can sorta see it there, maybe she’s moving out of the way …

Nope. She was rearranging it. What a hands on assistant! She really is sweet, she just wants to be involved in everything I’m doing. She sits with me on the couch and if I pull out a new knitting project, she’ll sniff it thoroughly before settling back into her lounging position. I did eventually get this picture of the back (slightly scrunched):

And the fronts in progress:

I just love the edging on this cardigan with it’s pretty double knit welts:

Meanwhile, Tasha, worn out from all that assisting, is lounging:

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Well, it only took me two years but I have finished recording Anne of Green Gables!  It’s a bit embarrassing that it took me so long but I’ve had a busy two years with meeting Stephen, finishing my master’s degree, battling Meniere’s Disease, getting engaged and married, and buying a house.  I feel somehow like I became an adult in the last two years if that makes sense.

Anyhow, I’ve podcasted chapters 36 and 37 and 38 will be up tomorrow.  I thought about spacing them out a bit more but figured I’ve made folks wait long enough!  Cataloging at LibriVox is in the works and a complete Zip file of all chapters will be available soon.

So as for what is next with the podcast, I’d like to get a good chunk more recording done before I start releasing more chapters.  Once I’m confident I can release on a regular basis, the podcast will start up again.  I’ll continue with the next Anne book by L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea.  I’ve also begun recording a duet with Kara of Emma by Jane Austen.  We will trade off chapters and I will likely podcast that at some point as well.

Life in general has settled in which is really nice.  My health is the best it has been in years.  I found out that I had a bad Vitamin D deficiency which was likely causing a lot of my fatigue and weak immune system and once I had supplements for that I started to bounce back.  Our new house is beautiful and I’m really enjoying the yard and learning how to do some gardening.  One of my favorite things about the house is this beauty who came with it:

Her name is Tasha and she is a Keeshond - a lovely arctic breed that I hadn’t heard of before.  We bought the house from a nice gentleman named Bill and it turned out he can’t have dogs in his new apartment.  We had been planning on getting a dog as soon as we had a house and fell in love with Tasha when we first saw the house.  We wrote in the contract that if Bill couldn’t keep Tasha that we’d love to take care of her.  We were half joking but when it turned out that he couldn’t keep her, everything fell into place.  She is the sweetest, most loving dog I’ve ever known and I think we are good for each other.  We get out and walk every morning and she is constant company and entertainment.

I haven’t been knitting a whole lot lately with the wedding, move, and summer heat but I think I’ll have more time now to devote to knitting and knit-blogging both.  So stay tuned and thanks for your patience to my podcast listeners!

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