Growing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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