Mardi gras!

I’m making pancakes for dinner.  Unsurprisingly, the kids are enthusiastic.

So, where have I been?  Fighthing the endless winter, it seems.  I like winter, don’t get me wrong.  But this one’s been going on since mid-November.  Though I do have new cross-country skis that I’ve yet to try out, so I should be wishing for more snow, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

There is hope, however!

Those are forsythia boughs I brought in a couple of weeks ago, to bring in some colour.  There are a couple of cuttings from my saskatoon in there too, which will hopefully bloom later.  And this:

That’s the garden. I have plans.  Oh, yes!  Most notably, I’m going to attempt a Three Sisters thing (corn/beans/squash) and see what happens.  I don’t expect a crop from the corn, since there probably won’t be enough in there for it to self-pollinate.  Though I guess I could go in there with a q-tip and help things along.  But it should be an interesting experiment.  There are a few things I’ll start indoors in the next couple of weeks.  And I want to get some Seeds of Diversity seeds too, for tomatoes.

I was kept busy with this for the past couple of weeks.

Basically, it’s a giant granny square.  I loved the colours.  Nice to work on when everything is grey around you.  In the picture, it’s about 2/3 done – the final result was huge!  Turns out this is going to be a reissue of an old pattern.  And last time I was at Len’s Mill, I saw it on a tear-out pattern, in drab beiges and browns.  This one’s way better.

I also started one of the pairs of socks from the blanks the kids and I dyed, this one for Zebula.

I like the effect!  The dye didn’t soak all the way through the fiber in most parts, and the effect is nice and heathered.  Though, given Zebula’s fondness for all things pink, there won’t be much variation in colour until we get to the other end of the blank, where she stooped to using a little purple.  I’m doing them two-at-a-time, and I had to rip them out a little yesterday because I had grossly underestimated how enormous her feet are and had happily gone ahead and done the gusset increases about 5 cm too soon.  Of course, I discovered this during yesterday’s choir rehearsal (during the break!  I don’t knit when we’re singing, lest I face the wrath of our director) and started to rip it back.  I had a pile of curly ramenlike yarn at my feet, which I quickly stuffed into my purse because the rehearsal was starting again.  I then spent twenty minutes untangling the mess when I got home.  I’m back on track now.  I think these will be knee-highs, so I can use up most of that blank.

I started a baby item, about which I will say more later.  Its recipient was born last week, much to his mom’s relief, as he was more than a week overdue.  It’s the All-in-one (Ravelry link, sorry) from one of Debbie Bliss’s baby books.  I made this for a coworker’s baby about ten years ago, and it was fun, and ridiculously cute.  I want to hurry and finish it, because it really will start getting warm soon, and I want the baby to be able to wear it for at least a little while.