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

retreat, advance

In retreat: the snow, a bit (thanks to the January thaw, which arrived late this year), but not for long. Me, too briefly, with a group of knitters, last weekend. Hockey season: two weeks to go (surprisingly bittersweet, that). Basketball season.

Advancing: soccer season (arriving in March). High School for 13 (next fall, but placement tests and parent orientation last week. Not. Possible.). Knitting: a handful of small, sports-sidelines projects, all inspired (in color, or pattern) by this:

A close-up of this ancient friend, up the hill:

Bookish

We have been painting. (Two years of white walls: two years too many.)  I'm pleased to report that the kitchen now has a color scheme inspired by The Enchantress of Florence.

Rhinebeck: just a sleeve-cap away

Okay, and a bit of grafting and some seaming.  But still - Minimalist Cardigan is nearly done, and ready for a return trip to Rhinebeck - kind of like a salmon swimming home. (The yarn came from Persimmon Tree Farm' s booth there last year.)

Work has been a siren the last few weeks, trying hard to lure my attention from anything else, with extraordinary story assignments involving emails datelined Kabul and phone calls to Dubai, and an interview with an author whose work amazes me -- but also a relentless march of deadlines demanding more of my time than had been bargained for.

And if you've ever moved between work out there - when the positions's a good one for you, and you like it - and domestic life, you know the appeal of professional life: the company of peers, work that stays done (unlike the laundry), recognition for a job well done.  It's never quite as tidy at home.

Working from home today, with the crew off school for a long weekend. Turned them out into the woods this morning, to go play.  Lunch, and then I think I ought to join them.

I would drive 500 miles

(Duck, North Carolina)

... and I would drive 500 more ... and throw in another 500 or so just to make sure we make it home.

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Outer Banks of North Carolina early in August this year, with stops in Washington DC and in Charlottesville (way too briefly) on the way.  It already seems like ages ago.

Today's pressing domestic duties:

Removing a of patch first-day-of-school slug slime from the back of Eight's shirt. Apparently a very large (and evidently very gooey) slug snuck up on him during the class trip to the pond they'll be studying all fall.  Word has it Eight's teacher peeled the slug off and tossed it into the tall grass once they'd all had a good look.  Needless to day, he's crazy about his teacher already. (Seriously, the goo is NOT washing out - it's still as sticky and shiny as it was 2 loads and a good soak later. Is there a biologist in the house? What is this stuff?)

Figuring out what to feed Eleven, 2 days into the Wonderland that's orthodontia.  This may or may not include small jars of exactly what I was feeding her roughly a decade ago.  Already tiring of pudding, yogurt, soup.  Thirteen is up next: 2 teeth on their way out next week.  Must find blender.

Planting (at least temporarily) the boxes of plants (mostly daylilies and iris) I dug up from the garden in Charlottesville, which have been languishing for 10 days now, poor things.  As if the ride up interstate 95 in the back of a U Haul truck wasn't stressful enough. (We've moved the backyard playset north.  Note to self: phone mulch guys. And, um, find out name of local mulch guys.)

Filling in the rest of the first stack of forms that came home from school yesterday.  The good news: have finally memorized the phone number of the doctor's office.  And even better: you know the lines where you have to fill in the names of friends or neighbors who will bail out your children when you're late for pick up? Got 'em, cell phone numbers and all.  One more sign that this place is feeling like home.

Home-making

Rearranging furniture, unpacking boxes (still, a year and a half later), pulling weeds, more planting, painting (a fresh coat of paint - yellow again, after toying with a change to green.)

(Eleven's dollhouse kitchen.)

Putting down roots

Before and after:

Plants from the Virginia garden -- dug, boxed up and taken for a long drive north -- settling into their new home.

We've been in New Hampshire a year and a half now; time to put down some more roots.  Today's the first day of a two-month sabbatical from my writing job - which ought to make room for a bit more writing here. 

Looking forward to a summer's worth of domestic life ... drop by anytime.

Best, Kelly

Eclectic

Turns out the knitting wasn't such a good idea after all. It's been back to the books instead - that's a sample of last week's reading. Anyone recognize one of your favorites? (Click for bigger.)

And thanks to a clue in Anna Pavord, it was quick work to put a name to this dramatic - and fragrant - tulip, the double early Monte Carlo.

Next post (we'll see how long it takes me to type it): lines about knitting, from a most unexpected source.

On the mend

Thanks for checking in - I'm out of a cast, and into a splint after surgery Friday, with just enough wiggle room for some garter stitch. The splint stays for about a week, and then it's up to the gadget the surgeons put in place to hold things steady for 5 weeks more, while the bones heal. Needless to say, I'm benched from winter sports (skiing, skating, snow shoveling) for the season.

Waiting in the wings: a short row garter stitch hat, which I learned from a hockey mom at practice a few weeks ago, who was working on one - her daughter was wearing another - both in Kureyon. The yarn's stripes suited the hat perfectly. It's worked side to side, with one seam at the end to finish. From memory:

Short row hockey-watching hat:

Cast on 40 stitches, do a set of short rows over the top 10 stitches to make one segment/wedge of the crown*; repeat the segments until the hat is large enough to go around its intended head (anywhere from 7 to 10 or more depending on your gauge and the recipient). Bind off and then seam the cast on and bound off edges together; invent something to close any gap at the top. It can be worn cuffed or not.

(*i.e. knit 30 + 1, turn (leaving the remaining stitches alone for the instant) and knit back to the bottom, turn, knit 30 + 2, turn, knit back to the bottom, etc, until you're back up to a 40-stitch row.)

Has anyone seen this before? It has a very Elizabeth Zimmerman feel to it.

I picked up this yarn just a few hours before the skating party, with the hat in mind:

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

So it's looking as if February is going to be extra long this year, and I don't just mean the leap day. Emerging from a week of snow storms and 3 kids down with the flu, we spent the afternoon skating at the town pond, at the party that's part of Dartmouth's Winter Carnival. Which was fantastic, until I fell on my last lap around. Result: broken wrist. Very broken wrist. (Good news: it's the left one, and I'm right handed.) Fair warning: No knitting for a while....

Silent Poetry Reading

February 2 means Brigid in Cyberspace (google it) - and the web is full of poetry. Here's a bit more:

The Kingdom of Things, by Stephen Cushman