Friday, April 28, 2006

Spinning is a no-no.

I can`t spin at the moment. My hands are like sandpaper. I just counted up that I`ve spent over fifteen hours on the allotment since last Sunday. Doesn`t sound a lot if you say it quickly, but that`s the equivalent of two full working days. I wear gloves most of the time for gardening but there are some jobs that you can`t wear them for and as a result my hands are rough and dry. Spin? If I even touch roving it gets caught on my finger ends. I couldn`t possibly draft.

Oh well, on with the shea butter, the cocoa butter, the almond oil and the rough skin scrubs. None of them actually make much difference. But I can still knit...except of course, I haven`t got much time except for when I meet up with Gourdongirl when we take the kids to play after school. I am creeping slowly down the final section of my Opal Magic socks.

Hasn`t stopped me from buying yarn though. The cash from my big ebay destash has been burning a hole in my pocket and one of the LYS has recently started stocking Colinette. Bad combination. I resisted for two weeks after Gourdongirl told me about the newly arrived Colinette, then I could resist no more. I bought a sweaters worth of Giotto in the Banwy colourway. The picture does not do it justice because there is also a tinge of green in it...it reminds me of pistachio and chocolate ice cream. I see a very plain V-neck sweater being made from this.

I also bought some Noro Shinano off Ebay. I had five balls of this in Colourway 10 that I bought for an absolute pittance at the end of last year just after Shinano was discontinued. Five balls isn`t enough to make anything more than a shawl or big scarf, so I looked for more. And looked, and looked, but did not find except over the big water. I`m not keen on paying transatlantic postage prices so I had nearly resigned myself to Ebaying the pointless Shinano when I discovered someone selling the exact number of balls I needed, and in the UK to boot. Fortune smiles on the patient!

I am going to make Bettna from the Noro Revisited book by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. BUT...big BUT...I must finish these socks first, and at least the front of the Silk Tweed Sweater.

I`ll leave you with some pictures of the allotment, just to show you I`m not totally wasting my time here. It`s still only April so things are only just starting to grow. I`m sowing and planting tons of stuff, but very little to show by way of results.



It`s actually quite a big allotment for one person to run solo...most allotments of this size on our site are run by couples or families. (Hubby is of the concrete and paraquat school of gardening.) All of this is mine...about 80 x 60 feet in all.



As I said, it still looks a bit barren, but have a look at these two pictures. First one was taken in January...



...and this one was taken two days ago.



What do you mean, you can`t see the difference? I have been slaving on that allotment. There is a HUGE difference!

(But yes, I admit, must to weed and mulch these paths. And go to the dump with the rubbish piled along the hedge. But you just wait a couple of months until stuff is really growing...you`ll see then.)

4 comments:

Wye Sue said...

Gosh you have been busy :-)
I've got more seedlings than one person can ever need... decided I'm going to start a veg box scheme for keep fit people...
Veg plot is going to be hit the next few days, got to make it bird and cat proof ... might even take some photos ;-)

ra said...

Well I'm very impressed I have a "wildlife" garden. In other words every spring about this time I look at it and think "oh shit it's started growing again". My back lawn (ha ha) is full of feral raspberries and I have a berberis the size of a small oak tree under my window.

zippiknits...sometimes said...

that is a substantial size of plot. wow! very nice. You've done a lot. My daughter's have plots of about 30x18 but they work them together.

ra, i have a wildlife garden, and really have enjoyed it. Lots of birds come around. We want to plant butterfly bush this year along 20 feet of fencing..

TutleyMutley said...

I can see you've done a HUGE amount - must take a look at your other site to see it growing! My garden has an example of just about every weed known to (wo)man: bindweed, ground elder, nettles and brambles to name but a few. Not Japanese knot weed though.
My dh is hacking at the moment - he's a gardener out of the same mould as yours.