Short Rows Will Have to Wait

Warning: Picture-heavy post!


Short rows will have to wait for another time. I'm running out of time for Sockapalooza. I had finally figured out the first half of the heel and was starting to do the "decreases". The boys were being particularly disruptive, and I lost my place. I ended up getting pissy and ripped it all out. I picked out this pattern to make for my sock pal, plus I want to make a pair for myself as well. I did start them yesterday, but the pattern calls for five needles with the lace pattern using a 15st repeat. I only had four 2.25mm needles, so I only did the ribbing and stopped. I have to work tomorrow, so I am going to pick up another set. I did start these self-striping socks for myself, however. I am kind of making up the pattern as I go. I tried to do this pattern, but they were too big. I ripped it back to the ribbing and tried decreasing. Seems okay so far. I have a couple of inches to go til I start the heel. I am keeping track of what I am doing, and if it turns out I will post it on my sidebar as a link to my first free pattern!

Its been really nice out the last few days. Lots of playing outside for the boys while I did some yard work. Today was breezier, so when I was finished plunking around the yard I sat just inside the garage out of the wind and knit while the boys played. Logan kicked up a big stink when it was time to go inside, but I was getting cold, and it was almost suppertime. Here's some of the things I did:

This is the walkway beside where I park my Dodge. I took a shovel and evened the bank. I had these landscaping ties left from last year. I had planned to use them for something else, but I can get more. I was feeling energetic, so do it while the feeling lasts! When Travis gets home I have to get him to drill these and nail them together. I may do it myself before he gets home. I would like to maybe do it one more row higher and get some Moonrays for on the top. We'll see.

This is my front walkway. Today I took my shovel and dug out the outer edge of it. I plan on running that black edging stuff along it and plant flowers. I need the edging to keep Travis from decapitating anything I plant with the weedwacker! He's not very careful. I had Moonrays along there once upon a time, but there was no protection for them, and they met an untimely death. He knocked the tops off so many times that the little nobby things to hold them on were gone. Then he'd hit them when he weedwacked, thus knocking the tops off and mostly smashing the lights inside in the process!

I relocated some phlox, too. The spot it was in is too shady, and the leaves get moldy. It was starting to sprout, so I hope I didn't kill it! I really don't have much of a green thumb. I try mostly to get stuff that comes back year after year and is very easy to grow! These are rather close to the fence, but they can get tall and wonky, so this spot will be easy to string a piece of twine to tie them up if needed. The front yard gets sun all day long, so they should do extremely well here.

Daffodils coming up. There's also tulips, bleeding heart, orange lilies, and some other things sprouting as well. My lilac bushes have buds, too!

This is my biggest garden. Well, really my only garden so far. I have plans for other spots in the yard, too. It doesn't look like much now, but it is nice when everything is in bloom. There are a whole bunch of orange lilies that grow by the doorstep. There's also yellow primrose, four different astilbes, asiatic lilies, variagated zebra grass, and other things. (Some of these pics in the links are close to what I have.) I couldn't believe how much higher the orange lilies grew in the couple of days since I raked all the leaves off of them!

Think I need a new chimney, wouldn't you say? We have a fireplace, and pretty much every time it rains (depending on how hard and the wind direction) it leaks. I am going to start calling some bricklayers over the next couple of weeks and get some quotes. I had a quote a few years back, and it ain't cheap! I hope to get it done in May. There are flakes of bricks all over the ground around the chimney. I'm surprised the tulips pushed their way up through it all!

The boys had lots of fun in the sandbox and on their bikes this weekend! Yesterday I took them both skating. The fire department rented the rink for an hour for the kids to go skating. Afterwards we went back to the hall for hot dogs. Darren did better skating yesterday than he's ever done! He only fell twice, I think, trying to keep up with me when I was pushing Logan around on a chair. It was only Logan's third time skating. He did okay. We took a break halfway through for hot chocolate and some gummy worms. At the end when there was probably less than ten minutes left, Logan came off the ice. Darren stayed on. Then Logan decided he wanted to go out without me, and he only wanted Darren and another little girl to help him. I went out on the ice, too. There weren't many people there, but some of the teens were acting like teens, and I didn't want someone to run over him. He normally won't move unless I hold his hand. I try to get him to let go - he does much better. He tried skating by himself like Darren and Jamie. He fell down quite a bit but quickly learned how to get up by himself, which he thought was the greatest thing. He's going to catch on to skating much faster than Darren. I think any Saturdays that I am off I will take them to public skating, til they take the ice out of the rink for the season. I actually got to skate around a little bit on my own! Usually I have a kid attached to my hand or leg. I had to laugh at Darren giving Logan skating instructions - you'd think he was a pro! I think Darren and Jamie helping him out made a big difference. I wish he hadn't waited til it was almost over to really get into it! I am hoping the next time he'll be as interested and into it as he was yesterday.

So we had a busy, active weekend. Poor Travis was stuck at a truck stop in Ontario for two days. His load he's hauling is oversize, so he couldn't move it on the weekend. Tomorrow he will continue on to Quebec. The dispatcher was trying to get him to go from Montreal back to Windsor, Ontario, then take a load of steel to Alberta. I don't think he can. He is running out of one of his medications, and he doesn't have any tarps yet. He's quite sure steel has to be tarped. He's lucky he didn't get a broken jaw or nose today. He was tightening one of his straps using a steel bar. He should have been using two hands, but he was only using one. It flew out of his hand, he reared back, but it knocked his glasses and hat off and did catch his nose enough to give him a nosebleed. Betcha that was some kinda sailor talk coming out of him! Hope there was no one around!

I'm not quite sure what was going on yesterday. I was quite surprised to look out my window in the morning and see these guys going down my street. I saw them up near the arena, too. Must have been doing some kind of training. It's just weird because there are no bases around here.

Anyways, this post is too long. Can you tell I'm bored?

Happy knitting!