Hold Up and Holed Up

For the first time in a while, life completely used up my knitting time.  Work is the usual suspect, and I’ve been holed up in my office trying to finish overdue work so I can get back to a more manageable schedule.  Even though it seems as if we’re barely past Christmas and New Year’s, it finally came to my attention, even after receiving gardening catalog after garden catalog (and countless emails from those same vendors) that I did nothing to prepare for my vegetable garden.  Only after Ed went down to our basement on two consecutive mild days to begin preparing the soil for me did it sink in that I had done nothing that would enable me to start planting any time soon.  As of last week, I hadn’t ordered one packet of seeds, decided what to plant, or selected the seed-starting equipment I’d need.  Since all of my weekend time and regular workdays were devoted to actually working, this left only my evenings to peruse my seed catalogs.  This drastic turn of events made it necessary to focus solely on work and garden planning, and I stayed away from Ravelry and blogs to minimize diversions.

It took four full evenings to get through everything, but by time I was done by about midnight on Thursday, I began to fantasize about the luscious tomatoes I’d have, the succulent cucumbers, and the 15 varieties of lettuce and greens.   The gardening gods have a sense of humor that makes the knitting gods look like amateurs.  When I woke on Friday morning, my garden was covered with a dusting of snow.  So here is the official “before” picture, taken on the first day of spring.

I think I have a way to go before those I can taste those tomatoes.  Just look at those beautiful compost bins that Ed made for me last fall.  All our kitchen garbage and fall leaves are in there. 

On the knitting front, although there wasn’t much progress, I finally did achieve a swatch for the Morehouse basketweave sweater (aka Sweater #3) that will work for me.  

I added some rows of stockinette between the horizontal bands, getting a pattern that has the stitch definition of the smaller version of this motif.  My version of the basketweave is just a little smaller than the original in the Morehouse pattern.  It is not as wide, but nearly as tall.  Still, I think this will look better on me, and now I’m left with figuring out how to position it.  I’m also moving closer to a slightly shaped sweater than the boxy original.

I resumed work on Sweater #2, Arbor Rose, but there’s not much to show.  I’ll be up to the front neck edge tonight, and I need to devote some time to the neck and shoulder shaping and the sleeves.  So it’s time go swimming and get a few more work hours done, so I have some time to tackle that planning.

Comments

[tiennie]

The garden is so plain right now but I can see it bursting with color soon! I do not have a green thumb.

[Lorette]

I like the third version of the basketweave pattern. I think the vertical/horizontal proportions are much better.

And I'm coveting your compost bins. I've been badgering John to make me some.

[kelly]

Wow. It appears from the photo that you have a hugemongous garden! I'm a knitter & novice gardener myself, and I am especially interested in your compost bins. For several years I have had a small garden that has been Miracle Growed to within an inch of it's life. This year we are planning to expand it a LOT, and I thought it might be better if we start composting.

Is it difficult? I read a few articles online, and some of them mentioned buying worms, "brown matter" and also purchasing a pretty expensive composting system that consists of a big drum that must be watered & turned daily. Your system looks quite a bit simpler than that.

Oh, and 15 different kinds of lettuce & greens? That's so cool!

[Robin]

I've been feeling kind of out of balance myself lately between knitting, sewing and the rest of my life. Just kind of out of sorts. I like the final version of the basketweave swatch. It looks great in that yarn.