Topic #s 4 and 5

I am going to answer topic #4 even though that week has past, because it is something i love to dream about.

Topic #4
Let's pretend for a minute we all live in the home of our dreams, have land, and don't have to work so time is unlimited! It's Spring planting season! What would you grow? A little veggie garden? A bed of bright spring blooms? Or is your thumb so far from green that the only thing you'd be planting is your tushy into a nice chair on the porch to get some knitting or crocheting done in the nice breeze?

I could answer this one forever, and end up writing a book on the garden of my dreams, but really I hsould get out and plant seeds today instead. I can't wait to have the land to grow a huge veggie garden. I learned all about no dig gardening two years ago, and have since met some inspirational friends that are amazing subsistence gardeners, so this garden-in-my-mind has been a long time in the making. right now it is kept comtained to as many pots as i can fit inside the house wihtout it taking over (or taking up precious stash space that is), and our fire escape, which incidentally holds a lot of pots!

if i had all the time and space in the world, i would grow a beautiful big garden, chock full of delicious herbsm vegetables and fruits...and maybe some grains too,planted in succession so that i could make the most use of my garden. all around the edges i plan to grow comfrey as a living compost.

i also need to grow feed for my imagined flock of fiber animals - a few mohair goats, some angora bunnies and some sheep - rigt nowi'm thinking jacob, but that could change.

i would also love to have a seperate tea garden, and another dyeng garden. a small cut flower garden would be perfect for hostess gifts, as i mostly like living plants inside rather than cut flowers. on either side of the gate and front door would be huge rosemary and lavender plants, growing up over the edges of the path a bit, so that when you passed by they released their yummy scents. a small orchard of apples for cider (the hard kind - yum), and plums for stewing, which is may favorite sauce oer ice cream.

a huge native plant garden would round of my fantasy (for now) garden. blackberries are one of my favorite treats, and they grow rampant around here. there are also a lot of great local medicinal plants, like Oregon Grape, a good substitute for the over-harvested goldenseal, and many others. i would love a few mature trees around here - a cedar, an arbutus (madrone in the States) and a willow.

i could go on and on...can you tell i've thought of this a lot? :)

Topic #5

You know with Spring the famous saying goes "April Showers, bring May flowers", please tell us what you like to do when those April Showers are pouring down on you. Do you like to curl up with your knitting, take in a movie or crawl back in bed?

I grew up on the wet west coast, so I actually love the rain (I think your options are either that, or live rather depressed as it rains a lot!). I do like curling up with knitting or a good book in front of a fire when it's raining, but I also love to go hiking in the forest, as we have beautiful rain forests here that can actually stay fairly dry underneath all of the lush canopy. i like riding my bike in the rain too - that's something i haven't done in a while. i love hot bubble baths on cold, wet days too. it's actually sunny today though, so i think i'll head out into this beautiful day...must do some birthday shopping for my little bro today!

i'm still here!

i've had the yuckiest spring cold, and just managing to go to work and a few shows, and not much else! i came back to find that i won a topic of the week for the spring fling coffee and yarn swap...what fun!

all of this sleepy down time has led to lots of knitting! i'm making an avril shrug from Pretty Knits: 30 Designs from Loop in London, a beautiful book if you haven't seen it. i am using a pretty kid Lincoln/Angora handspun lace from Laine Zin Zin http://www.lainezinzin.com/ called Esperance




i think this cardi/shrug will be sweet and warm, if a bit fluffy from the angora. it's knit in a pretty flower lace, and i haven't made a mistake yet! i'll have about two hours of ferry kntting time tonight too, because i'm going over to the cabin for my little bro's birthday (can we still call them little when they are 26?). can't wait to wear this one!

Spring Fling Topic #3

Tell us how you started drinking coffee. Were you in high school or college and making it through all nighters? Did you get it from a family member? What drives your love of the bean?

I started drinking coffee in highschool, when my best friend had a boyfriend that was 19. We figured going to Starbucks was cool, so we both started drinking coffee black (to be uber-cool). Since then, I have drank coffee on and off. When I am in University, like I am right now, I definately rely on coffee. I love it when I am backpacking too. I drank some wildly thick, syrupy coffees while backpacking in Europe the last time -that really inspired my love of dark, thick, rich coffees. I love the taste of coffee, but also love how it wakes me up. I think I love everything about coffee actually...

okay, i'm on a roll on these today

petunias are pretty...i don't grow them but maybe i should...

I am a Petunia What Flower Are You?

my caffiene level today

i found this on a fellow Spring Fling Coffee and Yarn Swapper's blog and thought it was cute (if a bit too telling)


Created by OnePlusYou

Spring Fling Coffee and Yarn Swap Topic Of The Week #2

The question: Have you put away the hats, scarfs and mittens, and brought out the cute tank top sweater projects and lacy wraps? Have you change yarn to something more lighter and cooler, not so heavy and bulky?

The sun was out all day today, it is warming up enough for a light jacket. I still wear a scarf, but more because I am stubborn and want to wear knits as long as possible on this warm west coast, than because I really need one.

I am knitting with lighter, spring yarns. I have pastel-colored monkey socks on the needles, a felted Noni purse in fresh spring greens and pinks, and a few other spring yarns on the needles too - like knitpicks shine, a cool cotton/tencel blend.

All that said, I pick yarns for their seasonal color more than their weight. In the spring, I knit spring colors, in the autum my favorites - plums, rich browns, olives.

And, I am still holding on to a few winter-weight projects. I have prairie boots on the needles in brown sheep lamb's pride because my wood floors are still very chilly and I live in an old drafty house.

All this talk makes me want to knit, but I am spinning up some pretty april showers bulky yarn for a ravelry spin-along. I really have to get my camera hooked up to my computer!

i hope my boyfriend likes purple angora

because it's all over his room. this stuff really flies around, like little bunnies with wings. i've spent my first two days of university break spinning an enormous angora/alpaca batt from crystal creek fibers and it is beautiful! it has inspired me to get my wheel working though, because as relaxing as spindle spinning is, it sure takes time. and i don't really have time, considering the size of my fiber stash...no room left for it, therefore, must spin more. i think i like this equation.

now i wonder what to make with 10 ounces of worsted weight purple-y angora?

must get the camera hooked up to the computer so i can post pictures of this beautiful stuff