a postponed post

Well, I had a lovely springbreak. The weather wasn't anything to write home about, but the company was wonderful and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. We had a few drinks, saw a few sites, and did some shopping, but mostly we knit and ate. On Tuesday we met up with the stitchkommander in Charleston. We did not put on our best show for her due to our hangovers, but we had a nice day anyway. Sweatergirl flew out early Thursday and I went to work, I measured some sites and got to watch a prescribed fire. It was beautiful. Then I suffered a sinus infection for the rest of my break, but was feeling better by yesterday afternoon. So blue and I met up with stitchkommander and fam for a stroll through the botanical gardens and came across the most unusual dwarf conifer.

swift, baller, socks

I don't get to use my yarn baller and swift as much as I would like (mostly because I can't afford any yarn, especially hanked yarn). But I have had this hank of cherry tree hill yarn for a couple of months and decided it was time to make it into something. I had a few hang-ups, cutting the ties keeping the hank together. Apparently with this particular one, there is only 2 that you are supposed to cut and 2 you are supposed to untie. So I ended up with one large ball and 2 tiny ones - oops. Over the last few days I have been working on the jaywalkers by grumperina. It is a pretty cool pattern, simple, with nice results, and this yarn... ohhh, it is lovely. There are these little pools of color that collect (maybe you can see the river of blue running down the middle?) and they make it so fun to knit. It makes me not want to stop knitting, just so I can see where the pool is going next or if it might disappear. There are several different color pools going on with this sock and it is way more entertaining than you think it would be.
In other events, tomorrow I am off to Savannah. Sweatergirl is flying in and we are going to hang out and knit, and go to yarn stores. We were hoping for some beach activity, but it is looking like rain. Stitchkommander is also going to meet us in Charleston for a day/evening. We are going to go to knit, which is also where I purchased the yarn for the jaywalkers. Oh, I am sooo excited!

Sanguinaria canadensis, of course

It was bloodroot! I didn't even recognize it because I rarely see if flowering, but it is a really cool plant, with very distinct leaves, and if you pull it up, it looks like the roots are bleeding. This picture is pretty close to what the bloodroots looked like this weekend. How statisfying it is to figure out that plant! (yes, I am a plant dork, and I am ok with it)

A warm spring weekend!

I had a nice weekend and it consisted of: sleeping in (2 days), one cookout, one visit to a tavern with outside seating, one visit from a neighbor cat, and one visit to the local botanical garden. The garden was beautiful. The cherry trees are in bloom, the painter and box turtles were out on their usual log, and there was some cute white flowers blooming in the woods that I feel I should know not only the common name, but the latin name of, and do not. Oh well, one semester worth of memorization vanished. Yesterday it got into the low 80s here, it was humid and hot and felt wonderful! (we will just see if I am saying that in a few months)
I finished odd fellow #2 and he is looking stylish. I am still working on the mini-sweater, but finding other small projects to distract me from it. I am also realizing that I will need another ball in order to complete it - huff. I'm thinking I need to put my new Sensational Knitted Socks book to use and start on a pair for myself with my beautiful cherry tree hill yarn.

two socks, check

I finished these fine socks a few nights back at about 1am. I was tired, but also determined to finish them, I was just too close not to. I would have liked to have knit both socks at the same time, but since I used only one ball of yarn, I decided it was best to do them separately. This way the striping is the same on both and I didn't get into a tangled mess either. Yeah!

Last night I started odd fellow #2 in baby colors, for a friend's baby. I am making this one on smaller needles and not doubling the yarn so it is going to be very petite.

The minisweater is still in the works, but has made me realize that I just don't like purling, and only purling, for long rows. So it is going slowly and I have been starting other small projects on the side.

other important matters, trees

After celebrating at a rockin' 3 year old's birthday party, blu and I headed down to the coast. We didn't make it to the ocean or do anything other than work (and watch the oscars), but the weather was beautiful, as were the trees. We measured the burn severity on my plots that were recently burned and we installed some tiles with heat sensitive paint (see picture) on my plots that will (hopefully) be burned soon. The tiles we collected off of the plot that was recently burned did not work, I think it had a really fast residence time (aka it moved too quickly to register on the paint). I am not sure if this is typical, but I really want the paint to detect the fire on the remaining plots.
On the way there and back I worked on the minisweater, and blu's sock. I'm not too far from completing them, but I will have to find the time... I'll let you see them when they are complete. For now you will have to be satiated with pictures of the forests.