Onwards.

Thank you for the comments on my last post, I really treasure them.

I am plodding on - braved the scary post office of doom yesterday and rewarded myself with a pootle around Wilko - I know how to party. Since when did it become acceptable to have kids on scooters trailing after their stroppy mums in shops? Eh?

I love Wilko, fab shop - trated the garden a bit and have been out with good intentions of planting them all up this morning, but a) my hands hurt and b) it is chilly, so the rest can wait.

But despite the chill the sun is shining, always a good thing.

I had a fabric delivery this morning so it is washed and on the line ready to cut tomorrow - scuse the awful photo taken through my (dirty) window.

Ordered ages ago from an online shop in Germany, I think it's myfabrics.co.uk? Not sure I will use them much, but the only option for actually handling material before buying involves going into the city centre.
This was very stiff (!) but seems to have softened up nicely after a good wash, it wasn't mega cheap so hopefully there is a skirt / dress to come from it.

The garden is looking lovely (to me, anyway).

I seem to have the latest flowering bulbs around - the tete a tete have just flowered and the rest are not ready at all. I have these in hanging baskets too - my walls are seriously hard to drill so I have hanging baskets in the tree!

I love how the most delicate looking plants survive inches of snow and ice each year.

This is a pussy willow which I had just about given up on, I chopped it right down and left it alone and here it is again, brilliant! Needs a bigger pot as soon as it warms up again.

This big pot should be glorious once things start flowering - huge fat tulips, if I remember correctly these are the layered ones, more forget me nots and others layered in the compost. I am a big believer in just layering lots of bulbs and seeds, keeping them warm and damp then letting them do their thing.

The blossom tree is at its best at the moment, I love this tree so much. It's a delight to open the curtans on a morning - all I see from my bedroom is a mass of blossom (note to self : remember to take camera upstairs).

It is becoming pretty overgrown, I must ask my landlord to come and tidy it up when it stops flowering. I don't like very 'tidy' trees but this one is getting a bit mad.

I plan every year to paint the blossoms and never ever get round to it.

Just absolutely, perfectly beautiful.

Knitting wise things haven't been quite as perfect.

Oh no not at all - much MUCH swearing has been involved.

I cast on for the cardi in the last post, started with a sleeve just for the hell of it (large swatch) and what a bloody fart on.

The pattern says to use the travelling vine pattern in a decreasing 'v' for the sleeve - fine so far.

Chart.

OK, not my favourite thing but I do a hell of a lot of complex cables so charts are nothing new.

'Work the vine chart only on the marked stitches' - personally I would have worded this 'BETWEEN the marked stitches, but never mind.

At the same time decrease - yep, got that. Again not very well pointed out, also the decrease row is written twice so anyone new to knitting might get very confused.

I knit, I counted, I used the chart. I unpicked.

I repeated the above maybe three times. Swearing happened.

I drafted it out on paper - nothing added up. Got there eventually and knit one 12 row repeat. Looked fek all like the photo.

Tried again - whole 12 rows. Grrrrrr.

This happened:

Bloody buggering thing.

I considered turning to drink

I considered starting smoking.

Or doing drugs.

Or changing to an easier craft like open heart surgery.

Or street fighting.

BUT LO - and indeed behold - BRAINWAVE!

I looked online and found a written version of the chart - bore absolutely no resemblance to what I had been doing, Yes the stitches were the same but in a Morecamb and Wise stylie - same stitches but not necessarily in the same order. The start / finish of the chart was totally different in my head. Sigh.

So once again - I know the sodding 12 rows.

Moved the markers in, knit the next 12 rows.

HURRAH!

And then this happened:

Not only had the wool had a knot - but a knot that had come undone after I had knit the previous row.

Oh joy.

Yes, swearing happened.

I thought knitting was supposed to be relaxing????

Anyway, all is ok so far. I hardly dare knit anymore for fear it might self combust.

Other knitting - I knit this shawl last year from some wool I dyed a while ago. I wanted to look all elegant like the project photos on Raverly.

Nah. Not going to happen.

OK to knit, a bit boring maybe.

stripe-study-shawl - but a royal pain in the wotsit to wear with any aplomb. Looks all right on a bench I suppose ....

A few days to knit - a year to get round to sewing in the ends. Such is life.