Mother's day and Lolo's stick

The weather has been splendid around these parts lately and we've spent lots of time planning and working on outdoor projects. We set up a cedar swingset and sandbox in a corner of our back yard for Julian last weekend, had a family friend over to discuss plans for a deck extension, had a fence installed, purchased outdoor fabric to replace our swing canopy and cushions which were completely destroyed or blown away by a severe windstorm last summer, purchased a garden in a box for our flower bed out front and a lilac hedge to disguise our fence... and yesterday, on the occasion of mother's day, we all headed for our front yard to plant a wee cherry tree seedling to commemorate Logan's birth. The tree was a gift from the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and honestly I'm not sure how well it will do considering it is just a twig really. But we will nurture it and care for it the best we can.

I really like the idea of planting a tree to celebrate the birth of a child. Stephen's parents have two great big trees in their backyard planted when he and his sister were born. When Julian was born, Stephen's father took a new shoot from Stephen's tree and planted it in another corner of the yard for Julian. It is such a wonderful tradition and I am very proud to have Julian's and Logan's trees in my front yard, even if Logan's tree is more of a stick for now ;0)

I had a great mother's day too. Julian and daddy made a beautiful card for me and I got orange gardening gloves (my favourite) with lots of seeds to plant a children's garden in the corner behind the swingset. It gets full sun so I thought we'd try growing some sunflowers. It'll be a fun project for Julian and I to tend to this summer and I can't wait to plant them.

Stephen and Julian have already dug up the grass and put in edging and topsoil so we'll be all set for planting next weekend. I can't wait. I am however a novice gardener and need some help. I've never planted anything from seed before and am not sure about the diagram on the back of the seed packages.

It says to sow 3" apart on the left side but the diagram on the right shows the plants spaced 18 inches apart? Huh? Which is it? 3" or 18"? This brown thumb (I'm a plant killer) would appreciate any advice she can get ;0)

And finally, a little mother's day knitting miracle: we were rushing to get the kids dressed up for church on Sunday and I couldn't find a pair of shoes for Logan. Lots of singles but no matching two. I searched high and low and deep into the dark recesses underneath our bed and not only did I find another giraffe shoe just in time, but I also found this:


It's just enough leftover brown cashmerino aran to finish my monkey! I can feel this bad knitting karma thing starting to turn around...

Phew!

Knitting mojo

It's bad people. Really bad! I've noticed that it's been a little slow around knit blog land lately so perhaps it's not just me. Between chasing around the little guy and the little little guy and the amazing weekend weather we've had lately, there's been little knitting happening around these parts. And it seems that everytime I actually get to sit down to knit something, disaster strikes. My knitting is so not happening. See what I mean?

Here's a little tour of my knitting hall of shame. First up, the really cute ball from Fiona McTeague's knitted toys book. You'll remember that I tried to 'improve' on the pattern by knitting it in intarsia. Well that was a disaster. First off it was a pain to knit and when it was all done the 'joins' were too loose and the stuffing showed through. So I tried to tighten'em up by seaming from the inside. That made a mess on the outside. I cursed. A lot. And threw the whole thing out. I don't want to spend my knitting time trying to fix a project I don't love. Right? (Though looking at the picture now it doesn't look all that bad...perhaps I was too quick to discard it...)

Next up. A knitted monkey (also from Fiona's book). The pattern is simple enough and it is looking cute...except that I ran out of yarn! I knit him up using leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in brown leftover from my Olympic cardigan and didn't have enough yarn for the legs and tail. Not good. I'm not sure I want to go through the trouble of hunting down an extra ball of the stuff (unless of course any of you have an extra part ball of it laying around?) so I think this one is gonna have to remain unstuffed for some time. Plus I sewed his face on crooked and it bugs me. I'll have to fix it but since I don't have the yarn to finish it anyway it's going back in the knitting closet for now.

Next up, lemondrop's cardi. I finished both hoods and joined them together with an applied i-cord (cool, eh?) but after I picked up around the hood and started knitting it as I had planned (again 'improving' on the pattern) things didn't work out and I just can't give it enough attention to figure out where I went wrong. I think I'll just have to follow the pattern afterall...and fast too so that Logan can get to wear it before he outgrows it ;0)

What else? Oh, well there's Stephen's anniversary sweater which still needs a sleeve and a half. And a felted puppet I tried to wing but which was uncomfortable to use so I started ripping it out already. I also cast on for a broadripple sock but it's too big so I'll have to rethink that one too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I seem to have lost my knitting mojo and need a fool proof project soon before I fall deeper into a knitting funk. Perhaps the bunny ear hat from 'Itty bitty hats' will do it for me...

Happy knitting ;0)