600th Post!

That seems like a pretty big number, doesn't it? I'm quite proud that I've managed to find pictures to show you and stuff to say for 600 posts and I still haven't had another cigarette. Yay, me! Quitting smoking was the motivation for digging out my crochet hooks way back in June of 2007 and it didn't take long for me to stop into Patti's Yarn Shop for a knitting lesson, and I haven't looked back. I have waaaaay too much yarn and more needles and pattern books than you can shake a stick at, but I've acquired many good and adventurous friends in the fiber world that I can't imagine not having in my life.

I finished Bandwagon Block #4 last night and I'm quite pleased with the blending of main color and background. This is the final "new" color, for the next block I go back to the main color of Block #1 but use the Oatmeal background instead of the Natural.

We got the garden planted over the weekend. I need to get another bale of chopped hay to use for mulch and want to find some pine bark mulch to keep the blueberries happy. You'd be amazed at how difficult that mulch is to find. Everybody's got cedar mulch but that's not the right stuff according to the blueberry husbandry sites. I was thrilled to see that the lettuces seeds popped right open sending little green dots of leaves out into the sunshine. I have to go check on the green onion seeds after work, see if they're up yet, and see how the shallots like growing in the soil instead of a brown paper bag on the kitchen shelf. They were sprouting every which way in the bags but I'm guessing they've straightened right up.

I got brave and took the Lava Shawl to work with me yesterday. After I redrew the pattern pieces for a fanny pack bigger (did you know they've got pattern cloth/paper you can buy by the yard?) so it'll hold a bottle of water, keys, and a phone for trail walks (stuffing all that in my pockets tugs my pants or shorts down when I walk and I don't like that), I pulled out the shawl and got to work. I am finally smart enough to lay it down when the phone rings or a customer comes in and pick up where I left off. I'm foolishly amazed at the little "lace" boxes I'm making and, even better, the pattern suddenly made sense to me so now I can see if I'm going wrong right away without having to tink back most of a row. You non-knitters will just have to trust me, this is a goood thing.