M is definitely for MUM

I am really a poor planner. Or maybe an unfortunate optimist. I always think I'll have 3 or 4 times the amount of time to do things that I actually do. Or maybe I think I'm superwomen and can complete everything faster than everyone else!

Yeah, not so much. But some of my ridiculousness at least had a pretty payoff.
Remember these?:

They look like this now:

Lava

River City

Zinfandel

St Tropez

Some of them went from tight buds to HOLY COW in about a week. The big shaggy purple ones are as big as softballs.

October, and pretty much all of this month has been one big blur. We put the house up for sale, after spackling, painting, refinishing, scraping, sweeping, washing, and so many other -ings. I had no idea it'd be much work, and I didn't even do most of it, thank the contractors for that.

The house is old: 1925, so almost 90. They built it well, but there's so many things that deteriorate over time. Not to mention the weird/unfortunate/bizarre choices of later owners.  I stayed up most of the night before the indoor painters came, pulling screws out of the walls, taking down the old crappy mirror in the bedroom and the horrible old shades from the windows, and washing all the walls and woodwork. Again with the WHY DID I NEVER DO THIS BEFORE. I shouldn't be so surprised that the windows look a million times better without the old yellowing cheap venetian blinds.

And then the waiting. The angsting. Honestly I was so exhausted from all the work and stress that I didn't much care for the first week after. It was a relief to just go to regular work and have a desk job. Then we drove the cat down to California (oh was THAT a fun time. Don't worry, we all survived and she seems to be settling in nicely), and I couldn't do anything from 800 miles away for a week.

Road to California

(it doesn't look anything like the quilt block. Different road.)

But maybe there's an end in sight now. And I am right terrified of the home inspection, which is Tomorrow. Terrified for no good reason, of course. My anxious brain is trying to raise my blood pressure by about 40 points, never mind that logically, there is crap all that I can do about it.

I am back in Portland, which is doing its full-on soggy Fall impression, to get rid of the last of the Stuff. Oh so much stuff. And the new place is full of stuff, too. Argggh. I never thought about having to cope with things like getting rid of the hedge pruners and the brooms and about a billion pots full of potting soil. My friends have been wonderful, helping us out so much. But still with the stuff.

When was the last time you emptied out your fridge?

Anyway, I need to go do yoga to calm down that BP and get dressed and then ditch more stuff. Just wanted to check in. I'm still alive, we're almost done, and I am very, very lucky. Also, I have too much stuff.

This Wednesday Freakout not being brought to you by the letter M

The landscapers are here to fix all the problems I have not dealt with for years. And to hopefully work magic on my crappy looking backyard that I just covered with pots instead of coping with.

I have to keep remembering, it's not my house (or yard) any more. It's just a commodity to sell. Movers come Friday.  Electrician tomorrow, contractors all this week. Painters Saturday or Monday. Refinishers in a week and a half. Plumbers already came in and put in a brand new shiny water heater. Why did I wait so long do that?

I went and bought new light fixtures for the bedrooms to replace the lovely 80s fan-lights (with tassels!)

Wouldn't this look awesome in the bedroom? Sadly, I went with something more prosaic.

And realtor yesterday and the tentative put-on-market date is now the 22nd. Gak. I don't know if I can do this. The house (except the rooms that are completely empty because of the contractors) is like an episode of hoarders:  narrow walkways between piles of Stuff everywhere.

Here's the moral today: If there something you want to do to your place of living, and you can afford it, DO IT NOW. Don't wait. I will never get to enjoy the newly painted walls or the lack of shiny sparkly popcorn ceilings.

And a lesson for me: think before you buy. Will you use it? Is it worth the space it will take up in your home and your head?

They have a chainsaw. Hold me.

L is easy

Lobelia! And lithodora (the flowers are just as blue, but instead it's a perennial and it doesn't bloom for long. I keep getting the names mixed up)

More lobelia, some kind of double this time. Look, it's been a few years since I grew this.

It's time for my Monday freakout. Perhaps I should start self-medicating with alcohol now.  I have less than 2 weeks and some rooms look like a windstorm came through. A very selective one that threw away a bunch of non-working pens and cleaned out the desk.

This week will also be contractor hell as they come in and rip up the carpets, scrape off the ceilings, and recaulk and grout in the bathroom. Current plan is to sleep on the futon; not sure how or where we will fit the mattresses and box springs in the front room. Fortunately I have a wonderful friend with a strong teenage son who needs cash so I don't also have to be freaking out AND throw my back out. I just need to make his life easier by moving all the plants and books and junk out of/off of furniture.

I have a really strong urge to bake cookies right now. Hey, I had something nutritious for dinner last night: broccoli! OK, it was raw, and dipped in cheese dip, but it could be worse. And then there's the asiatic lilies. How can you resist this face?

You know what's sad? Finding a box of your old floppy disks. At least it's harder to be sentimental about hunks of plastic. I also found a box of old letters and I just closed that one back up and ignored it. I can deal with that later. Also why the hell didn't I sell ALL my textbooks back when I had the chance?

 There's also the callas:

I did have a partial day off Saturday, going off to commune with the alpacas and llamas and sheepies at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. It was, as it has been every damn year I've gone, gorgeous weather: sunny and like the air was just honey-colored. Although sadly my usual OFFF partner in crime was laid up (literally) after knee surgery and couldn't make it. :(

Back to work (whipcrack)

Keep Kalmia

I'm really not sure how it became mid-September.
I better hurry up, I'm running out of year.

This is my late, lamented Kalmia (Mountain Laurel) in spring bloom. It was another of the All Pink All The Time shrubs in the backyard: pink roses, pink rhododendrons, pink kalmia. Oh, and a lilac, but I think that got added later on.

The blossoms are pretty and unusual. Right before they open they look like little lanterns to me.

Cookie says I am not allowed to fall apart until after the move. I have a date for the movers now, which is coming up in just a few weeks, and I am not taking the stress well. Also there is much headdesk and facepalm with some of my coworkers today and ongoing. Others of them are so great I don't want to leave. I don't know when I'll be able to dye again, so I'm using it for my pretty much only creative outlet right now. Which would be going better but I'm trying to dye a special request and I'm not getting the colors right at all. Aggh. Back to the dye pots. But I am running out of time.

Look at me and my first world problems. We even have (hoorah!) full service movers coming, who will box up all my crap and lovingly carry it on their laps to my beautiful new empty apartment so it can get filled with my crap.  Current plan is to sequester Frances the cat and everything that is not going (clawed-up old couch, old Ikea chairs, silly old antique vanity I once bought on an ill-advised whim) in one of the bedrooms and tell them to have at all the rest of the house. Then when it all arrives up to 2 weeks later (WTF movers, what are you doing in all that time?), to drive Cancer Kitty Who Cannot Fly Because She Can't Have A Rabies Shot It Will Kill Her. Did I mention how much my cat detests the car? I can't really blame her, as it's associated with really horrible things in her past. 11 hours of sad cat wailing. I cannot wait.

I am going to be having a massive yarn sale on Rav. If you want, I'll keep you posted, it'll be Any Day Now (tm). I have a couple of huge boxes full to sell, and I'm not even done sifting yet. I try to be ruthless, but it's not a skill at which I excel. I just feel like such a loser, having acquired all this and never even used it. I keep trying to think that it doesn't matter, it's a mistake in the past, I don't have to continue this way, but I need more yoga or meditation or something because detachment is difficult.

I have one sad set of boring socks on the active needles (that don't see much action). I need something more distracting but not too distracting. The latest lace project was perfect, just enough of a mix of interesting but repetitious. I need to block it and pictures, ha, I'm only a couple years behind on those.

Time to end this pitious party and go to bed. I'll end with my little snail friend, who although he has munched through most of my hostas is still cute.

I have no pictures of jasmine

And I've never been fond of the name "Johnny Jump-ups"
So instead you get to see my own private preparation against the zombie apocalypse

The variety is called Sunspot and it's like a little baby sunflower (although strangely this guy is easily 3.5 feet tall, not 24") It's growing in a pot. Don't worry, flamingos don't like sunflowers.

But bees do. They like the echinacea too. I am appreciating their attentions because it means my cukes and peppers and tomatoes are getting the bee benefit too. (Grumble, the STILL GREEN tomatoes.)

Still trying to not freak out. Too many things to do. Too much to get rid of. Why did I ever get it all in the first place? Things are so comforting some times. Things are tangible artifacts of a time and place, and the memories associated with that.  But they are not people and they're not that time/place either.

Crazy Aunt Purl once had a post that I cannot find right now about things (actually, many posts about things, and they are all good); it was about how she bought things but never had time to actually enjoy them. It was like she was visiting her things on the weekends. This excellently sums up much of my behavior. When I buy things to make myself feel better, I usually end up visiting those things later. I'm tired of not having thing enjoyment, only acquisition.

Maybe this is to say I'm going to be having an enormous yarn sale Real Soon Now. Actually, it's probably going to be a big blowout crafty sale, because I don't just have a yarn stash, oh no. I think I can safely say my marbling days are over, though (fun, but messy).

And, I've been traveling a lot (sigh) and every time I fly on Alaska I laugh at this safety card picture.

Flying lady! Watch those heels!

Irisful

I couldn't think of a good pun today.
These are irises from the Japanese Garden.

Today was roof day, aka scrape all the moss off so we don't look completely negligent. I didn't do this myself, as I was so anxious last weekend my body decided to take over and put the brain in its place and I hurt my back again. Don't worry, it's wasn't that painful, and it's healing, especially with all the damn stretching and yoga I do. Also it worked, and I calmed down. But I still don't really recommend that kind of treatment.

I seem to have nothing to say unless it's about plants or yarn. SO FASCINATING, I KNOW. Now that Yarn Deadline has been met, there is now looming Get Rid Of Stuff Deadline and Call ALL the Contractors Deadline.

Work is driving me batty. And it is not anything that can be fixed by talking to anyone, so my tongue is aching because of the biting. But it's still the last bit of summer, and I'm relishing it, even the 102 degree weather. It  doesn't last long (2 days. Don't judge; I have no air conditioning) and it helps me remember summer when it's cold and miserable outside. Also I enjoy not having to wear sleeves all the time. San Francisco is going to be a bit trying on that front. We'll see. Time to go treat myself to something takeout, as I cannot face another veggie burger from the freezer tonight.

Don't worry be hydrangea

I may have a tiny bit of a "hydrangea problem", as my friends with cameras call it. Mine are almost all blue; we have very acidic soil here, as the constant rains wash out most of the whatever ups the pH and dissolve a lot of things like carbonates in the soil. Good for blueberries and blue hydrangeas. The only pink one is one in a pot I have, and it is slowly going purple.

This week. 

Let me try again. This week, this month, this summer, has been high up on the crazy-o-meter. I should stop being coy about this.

This picture is more iconic, but I'd argue that mine was more accurate, at least in the summer.

We are moving to San Francisco.

Yes, the city. We figured if we're going to all the bother to move to the Bay Area, we might as well try the urban thing out before we're too old & crochety to appreciate it.

So we've been traveling down trying to get an idea of where we might want to live, checking out the neighborhoods and what's scary and what's walkable, and so many other things. We did finally find a place to rent, and now my anxiety needle has almost hit the far right end of the dial worrying that everything will work out with the deposit and the rent and everything. I am trying hard not to worry about it. It isn't working. My, it's another hydrangea picture!

Also, I am Ms. September Dyer in the Twisted Shawlette Club, and I am running around in full beheaded chicken mode dyeing and skeining and labeling. I've been out of town frequently so I've had a less not-at-the-regular-job time to complete them. I am almost done. I hope that everyone likes the color; I think the design is beautiful. Of course I am afraid I will get publicly stoned because everyone will despise the colorway. Because that's how my brain works. Thanks, brain.

Why look, a Fall hydrangea (they fade gradually to pink & brown)

I will miss Portland a lot. I will miss my garden and my plants (I can't take any of them with me. California has very strict import rules because of all the agriculture). I will miss the fine beer and the biking without many hills unless I want them, the lovely calm neighborhood, the bursts of sweetness that are Portland like Sunday Parkways and Mill Ends Park. I will miss the warm-hot summer months and the fresh raspberries and blueberries and blackberries, the farmers market I can walk to, which is currently selling me fresh cherries and blueberries and peaches. Damn, I will miss all the great yarn stores and fabric stores.

That said, I'm anticipating all the new things I can find and experience. And I think that for me it's good to shake things up sometimes, try something new. (Frances does not agree but she doesn't know about it yet. urk. Not looking forward to transporting her.)

But meantime my head is trying to worry itself into fine little confetti pieces. Time to try more distractions. Come hell or hibiscus.

Genuine Geranium

These are geranium macrorrhizum, aka "big root" geranium (heh, go go gadget latin name).  They are a total workhorse: drought tolerant, take partial shade, and produce pretty flowers. These filled in from about 6 plants in 2 seasons.

Plus my late, lamented gardenia. The scent of the flowers use to perfume the whole room.

Hooray, it's finally decided to be summer here. A whole week and a half of sunny days (well, at least after noon). Tomorrow I don't know. Thunderstorms they say, maybe? Which means a couple of bolts, and some rumbling off in the distance. Perhaps.  Portland isn't really geographically conducive to thunderstorms.

I seem to have planted All The Things this year. Because of the new fence, we had to rip out some the perennials right next to the fence line. It's a big bare area now, and I decided to hell with it, this it the year I would plant sunflowers. I have never grown sunflowers before. I'm a little excited. I know, doesn't take much, does it?

Otherwise most of my free time right now is sucked up by dyeing. I am Ms. September in the Twisted Shawlette Club this year. I'm excited about it, and my (completely unbiased) opinion is that the pattern is lovely. I sure hope people like the yarn. I'm certainly fond of it (I better be, dyeing up this much).

I'd like to write something profound, or even interesting, but it's not happening tonight.

Foxglove for the Win

I was going to write this weeks ago but then Carole beat me to the punch. It's a foxglove conspiracy.
 
 I'm feeling irritated tonight because I'm trying to use my library's downloadable audiobook system for the first time. I have avoided it because... oh, because these things tend to be a huge pain in the ass to use. They spend so much time on DRM stuff and lending periods and allowed users that nobody pays much attention to, oh, usability or piddly things like that. And guess what? It IS a huge pain in the ass to use. So much so that now it's 1 1/2 hours later and I'm bailing on this. I want to get sleep tonight.   
 Big changes coming. I am sad, and anxious, and a little excited. No, I am NOT pregnant. YES, the Love Monkey is still around and kicking. Meanwhile I have to go fly to Illinois for a funeral. Heaven help the TSA if they decide that this is the one time I can't take my knitting needles.

Echinacea for the soul

I believe I've showed off the purple coneflowers before. When I lived in Seattle, people often grew these in their between-sidewalk-and-road plantings and I much admired them. I've got a couple clumps there myself now. They hang in there, year after year, despite the thick grungy clay soil and the fact I barely water them over the summer. When they bloom, I suddenly want a whole meadow of them.

Not I'm eyeballing some others or anything.

The to-do list is piling up again and staring hard at me, but hey, I got 4 (4! important!) things done on it today. I feel as if I'm running out of time. What is it I'm doing right now? What if I'm dying, what if I keel over tomorrow? Am I doing the now things I would really want to be doing? Why am I so stuck in regrets? Is this a midlife crisis? If I've got as long as my Dad, then I'm already past halfway. Sorry to be morbid. Then again, Mom is doing fine. She keeps saying she'll come visit and stain my fence. And I keep replying, you don't have to stain my fence to visit.

Maybe that's what the plants are for. It helps to stop and marvel at the small, amazing, incredibleness of them.

Too bad I can't bring myself to admire the small, amazing, incredibleness of mosquitos.

Dahliance

I didn't grow this one; just took the picture. I think dahlias are gorgeous, but they are too much work for me. Not really into digging up bulbs (says the person with a dozen mum babies that need to be pinched and fertilized and sung to softly)

 Also, does anyone need any daylilies? Because I divided this clump and now I've got extras and they're all growing and healthy. I've never divided daylilies before. You have to just cut right through the big clump of root; just saw it apart. I thought for sure I'd killed them, but no, all of them not only survived, but thrived (stayin' alive! purple beehive!)

I appear to be somewhat plant-obsessed this year. I'm feeling like I need to do at least just one thing right; carry through on at least one activity. I feel perpetually behind on my whole life, and I just keep getting older and behinder. Not to mention how impotent I feel about affecting all the things that seem to be wrong with the world.

I have a ridiculous amount of yarn that I'm not even knitting. I'm making a concerted attempt to cut the stash, but it seems almost insurmountable. I don't feel ruthless enough. Which makes it all just worse. Hmph. So I guess it comes down to that I just have to bull through and just try and change ME. And at this point in time, that seems to be following through on the plants.

My, does that sounds pointless. Well, at least I got the laundry done yesterday. Small victories.

Oh dogwood, my dogwood

Don't call me chrys

We are the mums, we are the mums, we are the we are the we are the mums

This is this year's chrysanthemum lineup. I maybe went a little overboard?

I haven't ever much grown mums before, except those full-of-flowers ones you see at the grocery store in Autumn. The good members of the National Chrysanthemum Society, Oregon Chapter, assured me that they were easy to grow and care for. And I now have a 6-page closely-spaced handout on just how easy.

A few years ago I saw this pretty thing on display at the Japanese garden, and it hasn't ever quite left my head. I'm not growing for exhibition or anything, I just want pretty flowers.

Frances would like you to know that she's prettier than any of those plants, so Pay Attention to HER.

Be my begonia

I'm beginning to sense a theme here. I didn't realize I was so predictable.

This is the pretty little begonia I got last weekend, because I couldn't find but one, not-so-good picture of begonias of years past. If you turn it over, it's got a surprise:

Strawberry-colored underleaves!

We've just ended a run of 2(!) weeks of sunny weather, which is a bit of an anomaly for May. It's been lovely. I missed the sun. The tayberries approve.

Last year they didn't fruit until the 4th of July. Hopefully the weather won't turn suddenly soggy and rain them out. They are a cross between raspberries & blackberries, and they really do taste like both at the same time.

I really have come to accept that I'm not much of a gardener; I seem to like having a garden more than I do tending it. But every year these guys have come up, and do pretty well, even with my semi-neglect. (This year I did manage to fertilize them and put some compost/mulch around them. Maybe they'll taste better?)

Work has finally calmed down some. Huzzah.

The house is painted. It is So. Very. Green. I am still getting used to it, and wondering if I ever will. I chose a darker, slightly brighter green for the foundation, and that was definitely a mistake. It pushes it into the crazy-green category over from merely a-lot-of-green. Give me a few weeks and I'll probably repaint it grey. I'll post pictures later, when I don't start at the sight of it.

Hello commuter socks!

Some old Opal that I got from Michelle. Despite the simplicity they were a fun knit because of the patterning, although I messed around with the sizing a lot. I think I ripped out the first toe about 4 times.

Double-0-DPN (1.75 mm), started with 88, ribbed at the top, then stockinette the rest of the way, gradually decreasing down to 72 at the ankle.

Regular old heel-stitch heel flap, although I always make it a little deeper than 2x the width stitch count, and pick up a few more stitches on the side. I also messed with feathering the gusset decreases near the end - started with every other row, then moved to every 3rd and later every 4th row. I'm not sure it made any difference.

Tiger (socks) in the (backyard) veldt.

With Anemones like these

Wow, do I have a lot of plant pictures. I like the frilly foliage on the new bud almost as much as I like the flowers.

There's also apple blossoms, 3 weeks past now.

First of the Strawberries

At this rate, I might make 12 whole posts this year.

I hit the farmer's market today. Although they actually ran it over the winter this year (semimonthly), which was nice because I could get my apple fix from local orchards.

But unless you are really into potatoes, onions, and hardy greens (mmm kale), there's not a lot of choice. May is usually slim pickings too, but it's been a warm late spring. And the strawberries are early! Not to mention the asparagus and the onions. I know, I love you California, but the first local strawberries are like a big red flag of summer waving in the not-raining-constantly breeze.

The coffee is not exactly local, but the Oregon coffee grower's association isn't having a lot of success yet.

Work just exploded in the last couple weeks. I'm very grateful that I have this weekend off. Everyone's exhausted. Let's just say that last Wednesday I was telling the Love Monkey that last week was taking too long.

It is also crazy land at home as: 1) we just got a new fence, about 3 weeks ago. The old one was falling down. Who's the mayor of ProcrastiNation?
and
2) we're getting the house painted. My back, knees, and lungs all voted for hiring someone professional to do this and I regret nothing. It's lovely weather, and amazingly it's been clement all week long. But right now all the windows are wrapped up in plastic, and the outside looks like it has lesions everywhere patched with primer. Then there was the whole what-colors-to-pick dance.

What was carefully edited out of that picture above is just how full of crap the backyard is. Anyway, it all adds up to me spending the day knitting on the couch. Hey, I did some laundry. I'm not entirely useless.

I'm so looking forward to the backyard not being a huge mess, and not worrying whether the color we picked will be good or not (once it's on, it's not like I can do anything about it). On a bad day about a month ago I ordered some chrysanthemums. $3.50 for a little bit of happiness doesn't seem so high? They will be arriving in the next couple weeks. We'll see how it goes. The anemone at least is still alive.

Divide & anemonize

Are we there yet?

And how're we doing?

So. I like lists (mostly). Not so much to-do lists. But ordering is nice.

1. It's April. Taxes are due soon. Did I mention I'm selling yarn now? And that means I get to spend several hours preparing self-employment taxes. MY FAVORITE THING EVER. Portland doesn't care, if it's <10K they just shrug and say whatever and make you send them a copy of the federal. Oregon doesn't care either. But who knows, maybe I'm some kind of yarn drug laundering business. I'll be overjoyed to show the IRS my $4 receipts for disposable gloves. Big spender, me.

2. It's April. It's finally getting lighter later. Thank all the holy cows, because I have had enough of dark, lowering skies. Hey, at least it hasn't snowed this week (yet).

3. We're getting the house painted. And a new fence, and the bathroom needs help, and I am really tired of calling people and talking about how I can give them lots of money.

4. All my reading, watching, and listening appears to be escapism. Hoorah!
a. I recommend books on tape by Lincoln Child for purely-plot-driven "thriller" (but light on the violence) popcorn listens. I just randomly checked out "Deep Storm" and "Death Match". Gets me through the train rides.

b. I read, among other things, The Passage by Justin Cronin, which was a total airplane read*, but with pretty good characterization. I didn't get much done the week I had that out from the library. Great plot, but also interesting ideas and three-dimensional characters.

* by airplane read, I mean: I usually save up books that are mesmerizing page turners for my (infrequent, thank you bob) plane flights. Because I get very very bored on planes, and it helps to have something engrossing.

c. Just watched The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, which is a sort-of-comedic Korean western. Yes, Korean. Western. It reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark, except with more horses, more explosions, more train robberies, more gunfights, and a plot that is really just an excuse for all of the above. Super entertaining, and I'm not usually into that kind of thing. I read a comment by someone who called it almost Firefly-esque humor, and that's not a far off description. Also, holy crap, they all did their own stunts.

The trailer's not all that great, but at least the UK trailer isn't totally awful.



5. And why am I bothering to write now? I don't know. Space filler?

I haven't been feeling much like talking for quite a while. Combined with privacy concerns, it doesn't make for much interesting to say. Also lots of anger at current events, which isn't real fascinating either. I am on my media blackout year (Nov to Nov of presidential elections) so I miss most of the useless, rage-inducing news, for which I'm grateful, but some things intrude despite everything. Maybe I should just post pretty pictures. That appears to be as useful as ranting about things I don't seem to be able to change at all.

Mostly I feel frenetic, bored, irritable, lethargic, dull, angry, and tired of being in pain. It doesn't make a good combination. So I'm sort of avoiding people right now, for both their sake and mine. It's a Good Thing to have the distance of written words between me and most people.

Wish me luck with the fence guys. I'm going to have to rip down legions of ivy and do battle with a big laurel branch from the neighbor's tree to prep for them. Don't worry, it'll ALL grow back.

Meowing to the Oldies

The cat is really grumpy this morning. She keeps coming in and complaining loudly, then walking out again. What do you want, cat? And then I start substituting meows for words in songs. Honk honk, meow meow! Talking 'bout the bad cats, sad cats!

And now I've got Gor-gon-zola stuck in my head, to the tune of Lola.

Been a rough February. Work's fine, although not very challenging, and I work with someone who hasn't yet discovered that ctrl-S means save, the same way that File > Save does. When I'm getting very nasty & vindictive inside my own head, I start counting the seconds it takes him to move up to the file menu and choose "save". I save about every 7 seconds, and that's not hyperbole. I guess I had it ingrained into me from a young age among more crash-prone computers. I finish a line of text, I hit ctrl-s.

Darkness, rain. The winter usual. I could really really use a week somewhere warm and sunny and away from ctrl-s's.

I have a whole pile of finished knits from months and months ago that I want to put into my Ravelry projects list, and they all need pictures. I don't know where to photograph them. I need to ask the Love Monkey to take pictures of me but me and my zits are feeling particularly un-photogenic right now. Couple weekends ago there was some sunlight & I tried the porch swing.

Ugh. Well, at least it shows the entire shawlette.

The pattern is Textural Healing (Ravelry link) and it was entertaining once I got a gauge I liked - loose, but not too loose. The picot binding caused me a lot of trouble, though: I kept miscounting. I had to safety pin up the entire thing to get it straight.

The close-ups turned out better.

The yarn is, well, the yarn is my own. Big Alice Dyes Foxtrot (50/50 fingering weight silk/superwash merino) in colorway Well Red. It's nearly a solid, but not quite, and that definitely worked the best with this pattern. I started off with something more variegated and wasn't happy with it at all. The silk is really nice at showing off the texture.

I took the shawlette on a field trip to the Chinese Garden. (I know, those Portlanders and all their gardens. This is a nice one, although tiny (1 city block). It's kind of amazing just what they crammed into 1 block.)
'I think red brings out the blush in my cheeks. Both sets of them.'

Hey, at least he doesn't have zits.