TNT: Music Among the Trees

 

I think it's hilarious that after a morning of dragging heavy hoses and wheelbarrows full of mulch around the yard (which I should mention is not flat but very hilly), I come in to catch my breath by working on....a project about trees and gardens. Argh. I said I was going to get the sentiment done in March and I'm close even though I can barely manage a couple of words a day.

If there is a new Dateline podcast I work on the Patchwork quilt. I should be calling it the murder quilt because I did the hand piecing while bingeing Stephen King and now I'm doing the quilting to Dateline. I did finish another whole block last week so I'm not sure what that says about me. 

Dear Jane is getting assembled. It was a pretty easy block-so far. Now I have to figure out how to applique the little squares in the corners. As usual, Jane never makes anything simple. 

All Work and No Play

 

All the digging and mucking about in the mud has finally taken its toll. The Mister and I spent the morning sniping at each other so after the daily tree chores were done I retreated to my sewing room for a quiet putter. I didn't sew but I did punch since I was feeling rather stabby. 

It was rather funny that what I spent the morning punching was dirt. I can't escape it.

While The Mister took his tree angst out on some wood with an ax, I played with Betty in the kitchen. Brown Betty made some blueberry waffles and since Betty White passed the float test, I baked another loaf-this time remembering the salt. So much better.

Some Sewing on Sunday

 

We've still got six more trees to buy and then plant but we're taking a break today. We've run out of room. I have no idea where the city "Tree Board" thinks I'm putting six more trees but I'll have to fight that out with them later. Yesterday before all the digging took place I took a few minutes to work on my Colorwash Quilt blocks. I've figured out that I need 300 of them in order to make a crib sized quilt. It's not meant for a crib but I like the size of the crib sized batts. I've got 166 already so it seems doable. Hopefully today I can get back in there and make more.

Some good news is that Betty White is back. I worked on bringing a bit of refrigerated discard back to life all week. After getting it going again I had to transition it into a white flour starter which went a lot easier than the first time I tried it. Brown Betty can be pretty stubborn. She knows what she likes. 

On Friday night I got the bug to give the new Betty White a try even though the float test indicated she was not ready. I'm not kidding when I say I was up tending the dough at 4 am. It's what I get for starting something so late. 

In spite of my misgivings, Betty White came through. It would have been a terrific success if I had only remembered to add the salt. She's pretty but she's bland. I'll have to get creative with what we put on her. I'm thinking some salty tapenade might be the thing. I haven't made it in ages. 

Tree Hunting

 

Our taxes were a bit more complicated this year since we both cashed in our retirement funds so The Mister went across town to have his looked at by H&R Block the other day. On the way home he stopped at Walmart and noticed they had trees. We went back over yesterday and loaded up the car. I got two more dogwoods and another red Maple. They were all bigger and healthier than the ones I ordered online and were a third of the price. That makes 18 new trees so far. Six more to go. I thought this would be a terrible thing but I'm actually having fun with it. Ask me again when it's 90 degrees with 90% humidity though. 

Trees weren't the only things that caught my attention. I've been meaning to buy another rose to go with the pink one that I planted last year. 

It was a tough decision but I settled on this one.

What was really hard was walking away from all the annuals. I told myself that I've got enough to deal with this year what with keeping all these newly planted trees alive. The pretty stuff will have to wait until next year. 

Cornered

 

I couldn't wait until Tiny Needle Tuesday to show off that the scary ends did indeed meet. It was hair raising. I was actually nervous. I had to put on some calming music and take deep breaths. At about an inch away, I was convinced that there was no way that it was going to meet and even looked at the pattern to see where I went wrong. Nothing jumped out, so I went ahead and like magic it all fell into place. Whew....

Fit to be Tied

 

Remember this? It's the project that took me months to get to this place. Everything from warping to threading went wrong.

Now it looks like this. This is me trying real hard not to stomp all over it. Silly me thought I could adjust the heddle count after it had all been tied on in order to even out the tension and......it didn't go well. It all slipped off in a tangle of metal and yarn. I pulled it all out and cut it off.  Sometimes things are just not meant to be. I should have gotten the message sooner. 

I had a momentary fit of pique and then went and pulled out some scraps and started over. 

This time I'm going back to familiar territory using materials and techniques I like and have had success with. I never liked anything about that last project. It felt good to stuff it into the trash.

I do confess that it wasn't all that project's fault. I should have done a better job at counting off these things instead of just leaving the ones I had from the last project on the loom. I will next time.

Wednesday WIPs

 

Sitting and Knitting time was hard to find this week but I did get an inch or two on the socks.

I've been working on my first "innie" block of the Hue Shift Afghan and it's not going so well. I had to send my first try to the frog pond because the place where all three blocks meet looked terrible. I had managed to get a big bump there so I'm starting over and being more careful this time. 

I've got the March quota of the Doodle Cowl finished. Now I have to decide where to go next for April.

And I'm sad to report that my powdered buttermilk didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped with the soda bread. I usually get a big rise out of the real stuff but yesterday I ended up with two scones. Ah, well. Flat or not, they were good.