my knit landscape

All done!

2009-12-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

OK, I know super secret projects are no fun to read about, but...

Hey Mom! I finished your thing! Whoohoo! Now to just bind off the 345 stitches.

Sorry, Mom

2009-11-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry Mom. I had to do it. I know that 15 months ago I presented to you a partially finished scarf (I despise myself for doing that) for your birthday and promised (duh) that I would complete it asap and get it to you. Instead, last weekend, I completely frogged the scarf. I couldn't bear to knit another row. The scarf was looking good, but I hated every minute I worked on it. And do I really want to gift you something knit with so much hate? No. After 2 mistakes in as many rows, the scarf had won. It had beat me down. So, after cursing under my breath (kids were in the room), I took a farewell picture and started to unwind it.

The scarf had one last jab. I did not know (at the time) that the yarn I used, Malabrigo Lace, was so grippy. It took me at least a couple of hours to rip the scarf back, because every row I pulled was desperate to hold on to the row below. I did eventually finish the job and knew immediately what the yarn was to become. I've started it and love it. Love knit into a gift is so much better, right?

But, Mom, I'm not telling you this time. Know that it's not what it was. And it's a triangle. Any ideas?

Where Have I Been?

2009-11-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long lapse in posts. Life has been absolutely crazy at the Weberhaus. Even more than usual. And blogging just isn't a priority when so much of the day to day is in turmoil. Most importantly, Emmett, Leon, Ryan and myself (plus Georgia too) are all healthy and together. More than that I'm not ready to say, beyond that I want you all to go and hug your families, friends, pets, etc, and take a moment to appreciate your home, your job, groceries in the kitchen. It is so easy to lose any one of those things.

Life has been stressful as you might suspect. And my go to stress relief is knitting, knitting, knitting. I still don't have a ton of time to do it, but I seem to be moving through the projects, none the less. Of course I haven't taken photos of most of these things to show you, but I will. Let me show you the one I have photographed and then I'll list the rest:

FO #1: Emmett's spiral ribbed tube sock.

I know tube socks are not the best fitting choice, but when it comes to a 5 year old with feet that are growing a mile a minute, I felt a tube sock would be the best way to get some longevity out of the pair. As his feet grow the leg shortens, which is fine with him. Also, his heel is in a different place every time he wears them (I did a whirlpool increase on the toe to help with this as well), so maybe no holes in the heel. We'll see. They're worn almost as soon as they hit the sock drawer, so they are getting a ton of use. I let you know how long they last.

Some detail shots:

(As is typical, it is now Saturday and I'm still trying to finish this post!)

The rest of what I've finished:

-Jaywalker socks in BMFA lightweight called "Hurdy Gurdy." For me.
-Felted Witch Hat in Lamb's Pride "Onyx" (black of course). I knit this up in a crazy couple of days leading up to Halloween. And then everyone in the house besides myself came down with the flu. So the only exposure the hat got on the holiday was to Costco to pick up a couple of dvds for the sickos to watch while curled up on the couch. I plan on wearing it for most of next October because of this. :)
-Old Fashioned Potholders in Tahki Cotton. After seeing all of the gorgeous potholders that came out of the swap back in the spring, I've been wanting to work up a few sets of these for last minute holiday gifts. So far I've finished one pair and have started on a second. Easy, quick, and I really like how they are turning out. Not too fuddy-duddy, but hand made. I like that.

And the list of WIPs? Embarrassingly long. I don't feel good about having this many projects going at once, but it is holiday knitting season, right?

- Yarrow ribbed socks in Wool Candy Marzipan Merino "Caramel." For manly gift exchange.
- 14-27 Jacket from Drops Design using Baby Cashmirino. For Leon.
-Mom's never-ending Lace Ribbon Scarf. Only 15 months late.
-Fish Hats in Cascade 220 for Emmett and his cousin Wil, for xmas.

Finally, there is the list of knits for the nieces & nephews, which of course isn't finalized and I haven't started with anyway. Wish me luck!

I'm determined to post more frequently again and will get the projects photographed soon. In the meantime, I'll throw in some recent photos of the little men because they are so darn cute. No, I'm not biased! :)

Kindergarten

2009-09-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Emmett started school today. And it seems time moves too fast, because I swear that he was just a little spud not so long ago.

This is when I really noticed the movement of time, when he was just a baby. Because in what was, I swear, a blink of an eye, he's sitting up, eating solid food and smiling at his momma.

Then it seems, first he crawls, then walks, then runs and jumps, in just one day. But no, a year has passed. And now he's talking and loving and wondering at life.

And this boy has no end to the joy and wonder for life and adventure. Because next he's hiking and climbing trees and making smores and I look at the time... another year has somehow happened. Excuse me? How can this be?

So we camp and garden and watch birds and go to pre-school. And he soaks it up and always wants more. Always with a big smile and big questions. And then (seriously?) it's August again and Emmett turns four.

And BOOM! time makes a big leap forward again. Because Emmett becomes a big brother and he dives into it with all of the passion he has for everything. He loves his baby brother, cares for him, grieves when the baby hurts, and supports his parents more than we would ever think possible. And with that blinding flash, Emmett turns five.

At that we're looking at letters for school supplies and teacher assignments. We're getting backpacks and lunchboxes and new jeans in even bigger sizes. Because it's time, RIGHT NOW, for Emmett to start kindergarten. And we're all so excited. But I wonder where the time went. How did this gorgeous kid make time move so quickly?

I'm so proud of you Emmett.

Love you,

Mommy

What happened to July?

2009-08-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long. July turned out to be a crazy month. I filled in at the Hutch in my old group for vacationers. It took a couple of years to really understand how much employer paid benefits mean to a family budget. I still have every intention to pursue my landscape design work, but I'm hoping to get back at my old job at half-time so that I can get those beni-s again. Of course they are in a hiring freeze right now so I'm waiting; in the meantime I'm doing on call hours. Working basically full time and juggling the day-care stuff meant very little time devoted to blog/knitting/gardening, etc. Especially since every waking moment was spent getting our trailer ready for it's first trip.

We had made reservations last November to go to our favorite Washington coast spot, Grayland Beach State Park. That put a time crunch to get the Airstream ready to go! (If you don't know the backstory, please go to the trailer link...) We were up into the wee hours the week before the trip doing everything we could to get the place ship shape.

And then we got to do this:

Needless to say we had a great time!

And now? I've finished my Leyburn socks. So yummy. A little big, but totally wearable. I haven't taken photos of them because they're packed in my suitcase. I'm heading down to Portland tonight for Sock Summit! I'm taking a class from the Yarn Harlot, so maybe she'll take a picture of my socks when I show them to her on Saturday. I'll fill you in on all of it when I get back.

Ginseng Socks and Veggie Progress

2009-06-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

I'm eager to tell all 3 of you ;) about my latest project. I'm knitting a pair of Leyburns by Mintyfresh.

As you might assess, I'm flying through these. (Remember that I like knitting my socks 2 at a time, so there is a second one this far along as well!) The gauge is slightly bigger than the "mansocks," so that helps, but I think too the craziness of the yarn and the supercool pattern are keeping my interest super high.

This is my first toe-up sock pattern, as well as my first short-row toes and heels. Luckily, I've got some experience with short rows (remember Calorimetry?) or I would have been seriously frustrated as I had to knit multiple toes and heels to get these just right. It's a testament to my love that I'm still passionate for these guys! Maybe I'll finish these by the weekend.

Stats:

Pattern: Leyburn socks by Mintyfresh
Yarn: Madelinetosh sock in "Ginseng"
Needles: size 1, 40" addi turbo
Mods: Knit a 27 stitch short-row toe, increased the instep to 37 stitches for a total of 64 stitches to accommodate my size 9s. Did no further instep increases at the heel. Leg is 72 stitches as written.

Summer is in full swing around here. During Leon's nap this morning, Emmett and I headed into the back yard for some shenanigans with his tennis racket. While we were out there, we picked and ate more snap peas straight off the vine (love that!) and thinned more of the yellow onions growing amongst the corn. Then we had to check out all that was growing:

The broccoli is starting to flower. Hopefully we can harvest some decent sized florets before any heat makes them bolt.

Our Red Zebra tomato. Looking good. The Cherokee Purple also has a fruit growing, and the Princepe is recovering, though I'm not sure it will ever have any fruit.

All of the green cabbage is forming heads now. Good, because they need to get out of the way of the peppers.

And finally for today, an out-of-focus Emmett standing next to the brussel sprouts. (I forgot to turn off the macro setting on the camera.) I wanted to give some scale to these beasts. They're taller than the corn! Anyone out there with experience with brussel sprouts? Do I need to remove any leaves for the little babies to grow?

And what do you think of my dandelion bouquet? Emmett is too much.

FO: Ryan's Socks

2009-06-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

I am a lazy blogger. I must be getting into it, though, because I'm thinking more and more about what to blog. Hopefully, I'll put the knitting down or get out of the garden long enough to more frequently post about my thoughts.

The main reason why I've not blogged is that I have finished Ryan's socks (!) and have moved on to more exciting knits. Knits that I can't wait to work on. But back to the man socks. What a slog. They are done and finished. Thank you, thank you, thank you. They also fit and Ryan says he likes them, though has yet to wear them. He claims to be afraid to ruin them. How do I convince him that the greatest compliment is not to coddle them but to wear them out? He also makes for a very reluctant sock model, hence the odd photos to follow.

Trust me when I say these look good.

Pattern: Classic Socks by Melissa Morgan Oakes in Two-at-a-Time Socks
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Sock in some blue color (Can you tell I'm OVER these?)
Needles: size 0 40" addi turbo lace
Start and Finish: 12/20/08 - 6/11/09 ie, WAY TOO LONG!
Mods: The pattern called for 9.5 stitches/inch and I got 8.5, so I knit the men's size small to make a men's medium. Worked great.

Ryan doesn't know it, but I did think of these as a father's day/anniversary gift. Turns out that this year, father's day and our 12th (!) wedding anniversary fell on the same day. Love you lots, big guy.

I've got to send word out to my dad as well. Read an e.e. cummings poem on the Mason-Dixon knitblog this morning and couldn't not link to it. Go. Read it. And then hug and kiss your dad if you can.

I love you, Dad!

Dad and I on my wedding day, June 21, 1997.

Dad with both of his kids, May 2009. Happy Father's day to my brother as well!

I'll be back soon (I really will try, I swear.) with more veggie garden photos and in progress shots of more sock knitting!

Veggie Gardens and Sock Summit '09

2009-06-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

OK, it's been a long time since I posted; I apologize for that. The progress on Ryan's socks is SO SLOW, and I'm itching bad to get them done and off the needles. But when you can only knit a few rows a day, nothing is going to happen quickly. I haven't even taken a photo of them, because really, they are two socks half-way down the foot, in a simple rib. Boring socks, boring photos. Pbbbbht.

In brighter news, Mom and I managed by some miracle of WWW to register ourselves for what shaped up to be the most coveted class in the most coveted fiber conference in years, Sock Summit. Laugh now, but you will be amazed at the numbers. Yarn Harlot and Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts have organized an amazing group of teachers around the idea of the hand knit (or crochet, if you roll that way) sock. This group is so unbelievable that the registration server received 30,000 simultaneous connections last Tuesday to register for 4,000 spots. It sold out like a rock concert. Crazier still, Mom and I got 2 of the only 40 spots for the Harlot's Knitting for Speed and Efficiency class; in fact, we believe we were the first 2 to register. Mom had some wacked out (as in very fast) connection to this summit server and was able to register for both of us separately in the time it took for me to even see the registration page. Lots of knitters came away with no classes what so ever, so to get our first choice makes us feel pretty good; pretty lucky, too.

One snafu could have made for a disappointing day; luckily it turned out alright. Mom, in her eagerness to get me registered after successfully self-registering mistyped my email address. And since the site stated that in order for your registration to be complete, you must receive an email-confirmation, I was understandably worried. Mom showed sufficient remorse (I love you Mom!), and we both stayed positive. Luckily, late last night, Rachel H of the SS-2 team emailed me with all of the needed info and assured me that indeed I am in the class. So now I can officially celebrate. YIPPEE!

And because I can't seem to write a post without including a photo or two, I want to show what's happening in the garden.

The "stuff" is for the most part growing in nicely. The two tomatos I got from Patti looked wonderful when I first got them, and one (the Cherokee Purple) still does. However, the Princepe Bourgese (sp?) is yellow, emaciated and lacking all of it's lower leaves. How and why this happened I have no idea. It's not dead, but I need to replant it deeper. Patti also gave me a jalapeno and eggplant. The jalapeno is also quite sad, and I'm unsure what to do with it. The eggplant must be really yummy, because something is eating its leaves and leaving everything else alone. Snail? Squirrel? ??? No idea. At the West Seattle market this weekend my solution (?) involved buying another tomato (Red Zebra, I think) and 2 peppers (Chocolate and Tennessee Cheese). I'm not yet willing to sacrifice the strugglers, but I'm going to need to do something to get these new recruits into the ground.

My potatos (Russian banana) seem to enjoy their location.

I thought it might be fun and interesting to document here some of the front yard vegetable gardens I'm seeing all over West Seattle. My plan is to take photos of one or more veggie plots every week and showcase them here. I'll keep the specific locations to myself; but since these gardens are for all to see, I feel comfortable sharing my finds with you as well.

This house is dedicated completely to the edible landscape. The entire property is given to the vegetable (and strawberries if I remember right). Even cooler is the fact that this year, the neighbor next door is also using the parking strip for vegetables. Or maybe, they're letting the original farmer take over the zone for more space in trade for free food. Hmmmm.

I'm also curious as to why they've got the one little plot covered in netting. (Look in the first photo in the center.) What's it for? And should I do something similar to keep the wildlife out of my lettuce bed?! Some gardeners are so diligent. I'm lazy. If you can survive with my care, you deserve to live.

And it fits!

2009-05-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

The boys can't believe it, and neither can I.

My cardigan is not only complete, but it fits! I completed the knitting on Saturday and the little amount of finishing on Sunday (weave in ends, graft armholes). I did a 15 minute soak in wool wash (Kookaburra) and laid it out flat on the carpet in my room. By Monday morning it was almost dry, so I carefully laid it on the sweater rack in my dryer and gave it a little heat. Perfect. I waited to sew the buttons on until it was blocked and that seemed to work out great.

I recruited our fledgling photographer (Emmett) to take a couple of pictures, and this was the best shot:

Just kidding. The light was bad and I looked awful. I tried again with the self-timer and the result was only barely acceptable. I'll hopefully enlist Ryan and the weather (it's been SERIOUSLY nasty in Seattle this week) to get some more flattering shots this weekend. I cropped one so that I could share:

I also did a preemptive strike on the bottom hem to keep it from folding inward and upward. It involved a crochet hook and more yarn. I'll give details once I can take a detail shot.

Other than that the week has been spent entertaining boys with dribbling noses and ear infections (Emmett, but not Leon). Here's a good moment from Monday:

As for what I'm knitting now; I've picked Ryan's socks back up and will dedicate myself to them until completion. (I swear.) I'm knitting heel flaps now. Yippee!

Productive, not so much

2009-04-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

I started on a new post on Tuesday, got one sentence into it and had to stop because our keyboard broke.

Yesterday, while Emmett was at school, I sat down to finish one of my 3 designs; it looked good for a bit, I completed the plant layout and labeling. After getting the plant list generated and placed (my software does that for me) I saved it and printed it to pdf. Yippee! Then, I looked closer at the plant list: 14 Luzula? There are only 5 on the plan. 2 entries for Panicum? What's going on? Turns out I've got some phantom plants on the page that I can't seem to delete. Rest of the day was spent troubleshooting. Bah.

This morning I put a call into customer support (on the east coast). I've done this before; I leave a message and in an hour or so get an extremely helpful call back. Problems are solved, work resumes. So after my call and message, I thought "what harm can come from uninstalling and reinstalling the software?" Bad juju. Lots of badness. Now, after 2 more calls to support, no return calls, 3 attempts to uninstall/reinstall, and 2 tries with a windows update, I'm worse off then before. My drafting software is actually 2 programs working cooperatively, the drawing interface and a database. The database is not seeing any of my saved plant information; and in order for me to actually complete a design, I need that plant information. And I still have the phantom plants.

Hopefully I'll get a call from support in the morning. Otherwise, I might drop-kick my laptop off the deck.

Worse yet, with this work load looming and customers waiting, not much knitting is getting done, either. I feel guilty sitting down and working on the sweater. And I'm so so so tantalizingly close to finishing. Maybe tonight with absolutely no chance of work happening, I won't feel (too) guilty to knit as I watch some tv.

A Sweater for Myself

2009-04-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've got a lot to show you today. First is the sweater:

I'm just a couple of rows shy of the arm-hole and boy am I excited! This is only my second sweater knit for me and I'm thrilled with how quickly its come together. I'm loving everything about it: the color, yarn, pattern, speed, you name it, I probably like it.

I am also pleased with the cables. There are 2: one on each edge of the cardigan. I have some experience with cables, but this "double fantasy" cable is my most complicated one to date.

The whole sweater is going to need a good blocking when I'm done, and all the sloppiness will (hopefully!) disappear. I am especially concerned about the 2x2 ribbing at the bottom edge. It folds up pretty determinedly toward the inside. Blocking will fix, right?

Pattern: Asymmetrical Cabled Cardigan by Yahaira Ferreira
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Heather in Seabright 1010
Needles: 5.5mm Addi lace 80mm
Size: 39 (I hope for 0 ease with my nursing mommy cup size.)

Speaking of kids, here's a couple of pictures of both of my big guys hanging out on the couch last week:

Get outta the picture, Emmett, this is all about me.

Oh, and guess what we started this week?

Mmm mmm! Solid foods! We've tried two so far, rice cereal (which got a big thumbs down) and sweet potato. (Yummy!) Like with Emmett, we'll be introducing one new food every 5 days; so if Leon has any sensitivities, we'll know what it is right away. Next up: avocado, peas, bananas?

Sun is out and the baby is hungry, gotta go!

Seed-Stitch Jacket

2009-04-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for cute? I mean, are you READY? 'Cause I'm about to hit you with some serious cute.

See what I mean?

We had the reprieve from wetness on Sunday and that was the last Seattle has seen of the sun. As a result, Leon's seed-stitch jacket took two days and a trip on the dryer sweater rack before it was finally dry. Oh, but today I made him wear it all over, finally taking it off around 2 when I laid him down for a nap.

Stats:

Seed-Stitch Baby Jacket by Elinor Brown
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted by Brown Sheep in "blue heirloom"
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) circular needles
Mods: I knit the sleeves in the round, 2-at-a-time.
Additional photos on my Ravelry project page.

I need to research some optional cast off methods. When I cast off the sleeves, I thought I did it loosely, but compared to the stretch of the seed-stitch fabric, it was tight. It made setting in the sleeves a bit hairy, but the results are still good. I love the finished results.

And now that I've finished, I've cast on a sweater for me! Yippee! I've got no progress photo to show you, but I'll lay out a couple of dets: I'm using some lovely Jamieson's Shetland Heather in a gorgeous color called "Seabright." Yummy. And the pattern? Check out the designer's page. Looks fun, huh?

As a send off, check out this shot of what Emmett got to do this morning...

Yea Whirligig!

Growing

2009-03-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm back. I've been intending to blog for some time now, but have been waiting for one of two things to happen: plant some of my vegetable garden or finish Leon's jacket. Can you guess which one got done?

Here in Seattle we have had what seems to be a prolonged stretch of gray and wet. Ha ha, you say, isn't Seattle always like that? We'll yes, it can be both gray and wet quite often, but we do usually get a break of at least dry and sometimes dry and sunny in March. (We are grateful and awed when the holy trinity of weather happens in March: dry, sunny and WARM.) Well, on Friday the wet held off long enough to finally motivate me get to the garden soil and start some seeds for the flower and vegetable beds.

For vegetables I've started salad greens, cauliflower, and watermelons. Last year I had no luck with my watermelon starts; this year I plan on direct sowing as well and see which way works better. Emmett would LOVE some home-grown watermelons! I plan on purchasing 2 tomato plants and a pepper plant at the farmer's market sometime in May. Since I don't have space to grow several tomatoes in multiple varieties, its actually more cost effective to buy 1 each of two types already started; so that's how we'll go this year.

I stopped by West Seattle Nursery this week and was able to buy seed potatoes, onion sets, as well as starts for broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Friday I got the potatoes in the ground: 4 plants of a type called Russian banana. I've never grown potatoes before, so it should be a big learning curve to figure out how to do it. I think Emmett will love digging them up, though.

After that, the rain started back up and didn't let up all Friday through Saturday. Ugh. I think we saw 37 F midday on Saturday, which seemed so cold! But this morning, yippee, the sun was out. Ryan and I practically ran outside to get going. (Thanks to Grandma for being here and watching the boys.) Ryan and I first got a new raised bed installed and ready for drip irrigation. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough garden soil to fill the bed.

Later on in the day, Ryan brought home enough soil to fill it. Since it is in a pretty shady spot in our vegetable terrace, I plan on using this new bed as our lettuce bed. We were also able to get the onions, b.sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage planted. I'm going to try my best this season to really keep things moving in the garden so that as crops finish out (like all I planted today), I'll get new things in the ground. If the rain continues to hold off and all things work to my favor, Emmett and I will get out this week and plant lettuce, carrots, peas and beets.

It feels so good to have the garden started! Now if I can just get to the rest of the garden, because it is a mess.

And lastly, I'm proud to say that Leon's jacket is finished and blocking! I'll write more about it soon; in the interim, here are a couple of teaser photos before it got buttons and a wash.

yummy, yummy toes in sunshine, outside!

my sweet guy.

Progress

2009-03-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

I'm really trying to get this little sweater done. Leon has sweatshirts and jackets, even a couple of sweaters, just no hand knits. It's gotta change.

As of mid-day yesterday, I had completed the body up to the arm holes and had begun work on the right front. Since the photo, I've completed that front and moved on to the back. I'd like to see this section off of the needles and progress made on the sleeves in the next couple of days. We'll see about that.

The pattern is still enjoyable, with the exception of the buttonhole directions. They are fashioned after a style written by Elizabeth Zimmerman - and I just didn't get it. Maybe I've made them right, maybe I haven't, but they look like buttonholes, so I'm not going back.

Looking closely, you may see the buttonhole in the midst of all of that seed-stitch.

I've got 45 minutes before we pick up Emmett from school, and Leon is asleep in the swing. I better get knitting.

of baby things

2009-02-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Leon has grown out of his newborn sweaters. The "baby surprise jacket" that I made him last summer can still button, but the sleeves are ridiculously short. Here's a picture of the bsj:

So, on I go to knit a couple more for him. First up is the seed-stitch jacket by Elinor of Exercise Before Knitting. I'm finding the seed-stitch to be really slow, but I'm liking how the piece is knitting up. The progress so far:

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in "blue heirloom"
Needles: Addi size 5
Pattern: Seed Stitch Baby Jacket
by Elinor Brown

I'm still working on Ryan's socks, but have put those aside (briefly) to work another piece. A friend of my approached me at the NW Flower and Garden Show this last week and asked me to knit up a baby hat for him to gift to a friend's new wee one. Since my friend is also a garden designer, I immediately knew what pattern I wanted to knit.

This sweet thing is the Koru hat by Just Jussi. I knit this up quick on Saturday using Ultra Alpaca and tried it on Leon. It's WAY too small, even for a newborn, I think. The circumference would be fine for a new babe, but the crown seems really short. On Sunday, I started again; this time with larger needles, adding 6 more stitches, and doing twice as many rows before the fern pattern starts. The result is a hat that should be plenty big for the baby until maybe six months...

Here's the two hats together. I just need to finish the second one and off it will go.

What's blooming

2009-02-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

I took some photos last week of "what's happening" in my front yard. We've had some tantalizingly sunny and relatively warm days this month and I'm itching for some time to clean up in the garden and plant some seeds.

This is my witchhazel (Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'). I love the blooms as they come in early January and last for more than a couple weeks. They smell great too, though they need some sun for the scent to be released. The low angle of the winter sun keeps the flowers backlit for most of the day.

The branching is lovely, too.

This helebore is my only one in the garden. (I know I need more.)

I don't remember its name, but I got it from Heronswood when it was still in Kingston and still run by Dan Hinkley. I love it.

I may not be that into pink clothes, but I love me some hot pink flowers!

This red-flowering current (Ribes sanguineum) has gorgeous hanging pink flowers that open before the shrubs leaves emerge. I'm anticipating their arrival, but in the meantime, I can enjoy the pink buds.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on the classic socks for Ryan, and they don't look much different from last week. Hopefully I'll have some knitting to blog about next time!

Socks in progress

2009-02-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

My current project is a pair of socks for Ryan. At 8.5 stitches to the inch, it's verrrrry slow going, especially since I rarely have an extended period of knitting time. However, I'm knitting on them alot since the K3/P1 pattern is easy and quick to put down.

They worked great in the car on Saturday on our way to and from picking up our Airstream. Because they are for Ryan, I've chosen a dark color (Cascade Heritage) that makes it difficult (if not impossible) to knit in low light. So I find myself knitting next to our big front window, or with all of the lights on...

I'm hoping to get them done before the 14th? Can I do it?

Last time I found myself in Seattle Yarn working on these socks, a beautiful skein of Madelinetosh sock yarn found it's way into my purse. I swear I don't know how it got there. (Just like when Ryan says he has no idea how a case of Guinness found its way to our shopping cart...)

I think I might knit these into a pair of Leyburn socks.

Last thought: why is this colorway called "ginsing"? Whatever, because I still think it's beautiful.

quick note

2009-01-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

to say that Leon slept from 7:15pm to 6am last night. He's been taunting us with these nights of sleep randomly dispersed amongst nights when he wakes up once (usually around 3am). However, this week has been promising: 7-5 one night, 7 to 11 then 11-8 the next night, 7-5 again, and then last night. Let's hope its a trend!

crape myrtles

2009-01-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Met with a family today to start the process of a garden design. This first meeting is when I really have to sell myself as designer. I find it hard. They seemed impressed. They've got a mid 70s home just off of Lake Washington Blvd in a great space right next to a woodland. The aging mom lives alone most of the time until her son comes to visit from Barrow, AK. I asked how cold it is in Barrow these days... -20 degrees F they said. And dark? I replied. Yes, they said, but the sun just came up. Wow. That makes Seattle seem not only warm, but bright, especially on mostly sunny days like today.

I also stopped by CUH today. Right next to my car was a mass planting of Lagerstroemia indica Zuni, or crape myrtle. Even without leaves it was beautiful. The peeling bark, the multiple trunks, I loved it. And when it flowers? Wow.
But what may be my favorite thing about these trees is not how beautiful the flowers are, but when they flower, late summer. And after that, a spectacular fall color.

I've got to remember to include these into more of my designs.

Ryan's making margaritas, gotta go!

PS. Not my photo

1/22/09 - Welcome

2009-01-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not a writer, and I'm not very diligent about keeping a journal. So why am I starting a blog? I think the main reason is that I really want to share what I do with more than just my husband or my immediate family... not counting my 2 beautiful boys (who I'm sure to share with you as well), I have 2 passions in my life: landscape design and knitting. The landscape design I do as a business (or try to in these economic times), and the knitting I do as hobby/stress relief/creative outlet. I hope to include lots of photos of designs in progress, knitting in progress, and finished projects as well. I'd love to have comments on the stuff I do, and that's where you come in. I'm looking for support, so please do not hesitate to give it to me; but too do not hesitate to give criticisms either, for that is how I hope to improve.

So lets do it. These mittens I worked up a couple of weeks ago from some yarn that my oldest bought me for Christmas. He had admired my Fetching mittens and had asked for something similar for himself. I can't resist a knitting request from my son anymore than any other knitter can, so I cobbled a bunch of patterns together to come up with these flap top mitts. He loves them, so yippee for me. Soon I'll figure out how to link and such, but until then, if you're on Ravelry, check out my projects page for all the info (aka kmweber).

Thanks!