Kelly's Green: gardens, books, yarn, laundry...

New Hampshire Sheep and Wool: I love you

You know why? No frenzy. No too-muchness. Just enough.

(That's Eight running right down the middle.)

There was gorgeous roving, lots of tools and books, inspirational F.O.'s (including Icarus and Forest Canopy shawls on display at Spirit Trail - irony of ironies, Spirit Trail is from just up the road from our old home in Virginia), impromptu spinning lessons and of course, fiber-y creatures:

There was beautiful yarn, although somehow I managed not to come home with any, let alone photograph it; too busy visiting the rabbits and persuading the children that adding one to a household with two cats and a dog already in residence was Not a Good Idea. The only knitting purchase was a copy of the Paton's Street Smart booklet - yeah! And I ran into Norma just as we were leaving.

Not pretending that it's paradise - there was a cashbox stolen, recovered with the money gone and checks and credit cards left behind. New Hampshire Sheep and Wool is a very ordinary place: kids were playing in the dust of the barn aisle while the 4H sheep quiz bowl was going on a few feet over. But it's ordinary in a way where daily life includes animals, and hard work, and making beautiful things. Not everywhere is like that - being part of it made for a very good day.

Right - knitting!

So:

Maine Morning Mitt, from Clara's Parks' Knitter's Book of Yarn

in process

and done (quick, quick, quick.)

It's just the one, in recycled Kureyon, to keep my dodgy wrist warm, although I'll make it a mate if the other half a skein turns up.

Moss stitch swatch/scarf

a practice run for this

which is the very start of a Minimalist Cardigan, Raveled (in true Underachiever style) here, photographed in its natural habitat, the passenger seat of my van, because today went something like this:

school, physical therapy (wrist), dentist (insurance paperwork), garden center (see photo #2), home (laundry), school, soccer practice (Eight's, 4:00 - 5:30), grocery store, barn (Thirteen's riding lesson), home (make dinner), soccer practice (swap Eight for Eleven, 5:30 - 7:00), barn, home.

Makes being back at work tomorrow sound like a vacation.

Where's the knitting?

Yipes - Kay invited the knitters over and I forgot to get out the handknits! Give me a minute to smarten things up around here....

Life in New Hampshire

So I'm standing in the little strip of woods between our lot and our next door neighbor's a few minutes ago, maybe 15 feet away from the house and 10 or so from the flowerbed with the daffodils in it - in other words, very much in our yard, walking the dog on a retractable lead, and what strolls by, 20 feet away at the most?

A bear.

Seriously. A black bear, on his way up the hill.

Makes a change from the deer, at least.....

What I did on spring break (sprint version)

The crew was off school last week, and just like last year, we made an expedition into Vermont.

The falls over the dam at Quechee are stunning right now, pure energy, loud and a bit frightening, really.

That's a long winter's worth of snow on its way out.

See: snow's gone.

What else? Gardening, or more precisely, the necessary prelude to it - the big clean-up. Grit swept off the drive, sticks off the lawn, the last of the leaves raked and bundled into the woods. Got a bit of a lecture from the therapist who's looking after my wrist, for overdoing it with the rake. (Fair to note that he was sporting blister-covering band-aids himself? Pot, kettle, black? On the other hand, he's not the one with the broken arm on the mend.)

Thirteen's birthday wrapped up the long run of cakes and candles (four family birthdays since February) with moment of drama: tall candles, long hair, and a too-close encounter while making a wish. (No damage done, thankfully. The fire went right out.)

Daffodils are opening while a few crocus still linger. It's spring all at once.

This is supposed to be "Itzim," a cyclamen-type with an orange center. The petals are starting to get swoopy as they should, but the trumpets haven't colored up noticeably yet. Have to wait and see. "Jack Snipe" is due next.

What's missing? A knitting project. I logged a few rounds at most on the blue stripy sock - but the search for a good spring project is on: paging through books and magazines, poking around in the (small) stash, pouring over Ravelry. (Suggestions welcome!)