Outside

The mounds of sooty now at the bottoms of all the driveways are slowly melting away. At last. I was so tired of looking at them.

The ice dam on the eave over the back door is significantly smaller. And so is its corresponding ice ridge that formed a formidable obstacle to getting out of the house via the back door safely.

Today the Wii was not a recess tool during the break from studies. The kids got to don their jackets (not coats -- hooray!) and play outside on the new scooters they got for their birthdays.

They are off to the races!

Fan Club

I love the heat, and the weather is perfect for me this weekend. It was a great weekend for the kids too. Tae Kwon Do had a fundraiser car wash.

The car wash was a big success, but so early in the season I did not have sun block on the brain and the Artist suffered for it. She held signs and washed cars for nearly four hours yesterday, so today she is bright pink.
The Engineer might still be contagious, so I did not have him help his classmates at the car wash. He did get to enjoy some outdoor time while Daddy was home with him. The practiced with his pitching machine in the morning.

When I came home from errands, I got to see him take a few pitches. And I also saw this:The neighbor kids had pulled up some chairs to watch the action!

After lunch, the Engineer went out again, this time to play croquet. And when the neighbors came back out they were enjoying snacks and watching the sporting action. It was just too cute for me to pass up taking photos.

These kids have been exposed to the Engineer during his whole illness, so we saw no harm in inviting them to play along. The three of them had a grand time.

Mixed Bag

Yesterday we had spring rain. The winds howled, but the temperatures stayed warm, in the upper 50ºF (14ºC) range. I snapped one lone photo of my crocuses before the rains came. Afterward, our back-yard-turned-marsh-land had little islands of daffodil shoots reaching for the skies. With a quiet hour in the afternoon, one would think it would be a fairly simple matter to make a gauge swatch. Ha!

I gave up trying to follow the chart for Trellis, and I wrote out line-by-line pattern instructions in a table in Microsoft Word. That resulted in much easier knitting for me. It was great! After a few hours on the swatch (half on the computer) I learned the recommended needles are a bit too big for my tight knitting. I come out with slightly too few stitches and rows per inch. Now I'm so thankful I made the Word document! It will be much easier to complete a second swatch, with US 6 needles this time, with the table to follow. I do hope a third swatch will not be needed, but should I need to make one I'll be prepared.

Last night the Artist had a friend over. Today they are playing and knitting and talking. I'm sad her friend's family will be moving across the country after the school year.

Sure Sign of Spring

Today I saw my first robin of the new year. I was so excited. It was disappointing to waken to the Quipper's alarm and hear the weather girl say the temperature outside was 8ºF and the wind chill was 1ºF. Poor little robin. Yesterday I was so excited about being near the end of the pair of lace socks. I thought I completed one last night. That is, I thought it was done until I tried to put it on and found I'd really like the ribbing to be another inch longer and a little stretchier. Tonight I get to undo the end I so cleverly wove in and unravel a row or two and continue on a little bit longer. With any luck I'll be able to wear them on Saturday.

I'm looking forward to beginning two new projects. For a long time I've had in mind this sweater for the Quipper. I may be crazy considering the warnings "not for a beginner" and "cable set up and finishing techniques are challenging." This will be in Knitpick's superwash, jade green color.

And Dances With Wool has inspired me again with the most beautiful, delicate and feminine socks from knitty, the Pomatomus socks. I would not have considered them until I saw them on Lene's blog. The Knitty photo does not do them justice at all. In the solid color Lene chose, they are too pretty to resist. Another sign that I'm going nuts -- the pattern earned the "piquant" label.

When I searched my stash I did not find a white or cream color to use, but I do have a very nice navy blue sock wool blend that I can resurrect. Last April I tried to make a spiral sock with disastrous results. I think the yarn is ready to be useful again and it would make a nice lace. And I still associate knitting this yarn with baseball in my mind, so this April I'll have my work cut out for me.