...and other signs. Ants crawling on my peony buds means that they'll be opening soon!
We have house finches nesting in one of our hanging ferns!
They've tried to nest here for years, but I've put balled-up pieces of aluminum foil in the ferns to keep them out. It's not an ideal place to nest. They're constantly disturbed as we go in and out of the front door, and the fern also has to be watered regularly. But I was lax this year about my deterrents, and eggs were laid. So now we're all going to have to just roll with it! The female has another week to sit on the eggs, and then the babies will be on the nest 11 - 19 days after hatching. BABIES!! And speaking of babies, we should have goslings running around in about 3 weeks. I can't wait!
I saw my first anole of the season last week.
Every day, the tentative leafing out of the surrounding trees becomes more pronounced, and all of the azalea bushes are ablaze right now. I never realize how tired I am of dull brown, dead branches until I see these tender green shoots!
We finished another home improvement project. Todd's dad came down from North Carolina to repair our deck...
...and I spent several days staining it (screen door webbing causes the photo distortion here).
The cats are incredibly interested in all of the exciting outdoor changes!
Meanwhile, I finished a project I've been slowly picking away at for a couple of months. My Adelaide sweater!
I learned a really valuable lesson here. I measured every few inches as I knitted up from the bottom, but I kept getting gauge so stopping measuring. My knitting got looser and looser, and by the waist I discovered that I had 3" of extra fabric. Here is where I should've frogged the sweater down to the bottom band and started over with smaller needles, but I didn't. "What's three extra inches?" I thought. Well, the looser knitting made the sweater a little longer than I prefer, but that's not the main issue. The arms are fine, and I always knit tightly in colorwork sections, so that area is fine too. But from bottom band to colorwork band, that extra three inches means that a sweater that's supposed to fit snugly against the skin now bags. It's just too big. The good news is that I recently took a "sweater surgery" class on Craftsy.com. I can literally cut this sweater in half, unravel the excess length fabric, and graft it back together. I can also cut excess fabric out of each side, although I'm a little unsure of that process. I'm putting the sweater aside until next winter, and then I will fearlessly chop into it! Meanwhile, I'm ready to start another one! I originally knitted Ysolda Teague's Pumpkin Ale for my sister-in-law a few years ago (modeled on a friend at the gym):
I've decided to knit one for myself in maybe a deep red or mustard color. I also want to re-embroider this German language shelf liner that I made a few years ago:
The work is sloppy and uneven. I loved the idea and the expression ("There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company, than a good marriage.") and was in a hurry to get started. I think I will use plain white cotton fabric and navy thread, but perhaps a different font. So lots of fun projects in the works!
Have a great week!
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