Tulips In The Garden

A whole cluster of 'em!  Yay for tulips!  That must mean that actual warm weather, not this pseudo-Spring we've been having where the calendar says "Spring" but the weather says "late Autumn," is on the way.  We've had a day here or there that promised better times but I'd really like to string a few together, like a season's worth.  I am wearing capris and a short sleeved t-shirt so I must think that something positive's supposed to come out of today.  Maybe I'll even eat my lunch on the patio.  Durwood proposed that I grill our little Cornish hen out there.  Mmm.  I've got a pan of cornbread cooling because he also requested stuffing (even if it isn't stuffed into a bird we call it that because dressing's what you put on a salad--in our narrow little world anyway).

I've been meaning to remember to ask DS or DIL1 for a bib so that when I feed LC when she's visiting I can use one to sop up the drools, then it occurred to me yesterday that I can knit one, and out of things I already own.  *head, slap*  I have two milk crates full of skeins of cotton yarn.  I have needles in every size known to knitters.  I even had a pattern for a bib queued up on Ravelry for making "someday."  Well, someday was last night after supper.  It's a very clever pattern, you make a ribbed neck (just like making a mitten cuff), bind off some of the stitches and then continue on making the bib part, then when you want to put the bib on the baby you just slip it over their head, no ties or buttons to futz with, and baby can't pull it off.  Brilliant!

I'm chugging along on the Fiddlehead sock foot so now you can see the "new" Strong heel (not strong as in muscles, Strong as in the inventor's last name) framed by sock leg and foot.  I think it looks like a heel that'll work in a sock-like manner.

And the other night I caved in, wound up the skein of Baltimore Oriole sock yarn I bought in Goshen, IN in 2011, and cast on the Different Lines shawl I'm calling Oriole Wings Wrap.  I can't wait to get through the dark dark dark brown beginning (very hard to find those stitches at night) and get into the orange.  It's going to be gorgeous, I can just tell.

How fast does grass seed grow?  Would it sprout faster if it was warmer?  I'm watering for half an hour every morning but don't see any little green shoots yet.  Dagnabit.  D'you think I could get away with using a case of green spray paint to cover the bare spots?

May 18--Meissen Manufactory, Table Snuffbox.  There was too much to look at in the narrow shop.  The walls were lined with glass front cupboards and open shelves stuffed with little boxes and bottles, tea sets and glassware, vases, and figurines.  In short, every kind of shiny breakable known to mankind.  Margaret wasn't sure what she was looking for but she knew she would know it when she saw it.

I spent all afternoon in the basement going through all my yarn (didn't find as much to jettison as I'd hoped, better go through again) and doing laundry and I was tired.  Plus I fired up the stationary bike in the corner there only to discover that whatever controls the pedal resistance is set on "overkill" because I could barely pedal.  It was so hard I got thigh cramps for an hour afterward.  Methinks there's something wrong.  It's ancient, maybe its time has come.  I think I have the manual, maybe I'll look at the "Troubleshoot" section.  Wish me luck.  I need to do something, my knees are killing me. Maybe a walk around the block...
--Barbara