Knitting Notes

So after I finished the fish hat relatively early yesterday, I was then able to finish out chart three of the Evenstar Shawl.    What I didn’t realize until I then read ahead for the next chart’s instructions is that this was the last chart in the main body of the shawl, and I’ve actually made it to the border.    I absolutely can’t believe how fast that happened.   (And then I have to laugh at the idea of this being fast, as I was averaging two rows a night in this last chart.)

The border definitely looks complicated, so the first thing I’m doing before I start that chart is adding a lifeline at this point, because I do not need the angst that would come if I had rip back anything without one.

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Knitting Notes

Project: Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] by Thelma Egberts from the Winter 2008 Knitty
Needles: Size 8 DPNs
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in Red and Green, Malabrigo Rios in Indicieta, Malabrigo Worsted in Taureg and Blue Moon Fibers Gaea in Corby

The fish hat is done!   This is a really fun little pattern, and great for using up scraps.   I would totally make one again.    Perhaps when my niece is a little older…

The Summer Tree – Guy Gavriel Kay

Five friends go to a university talk by a noted Celtic studies authority, and quickly discover that he is in fact a wizard, and has come to bring them to Fionavar – the first of all Worlds, where they all have an important part to play in the war against the Unraveler.

This is a series that I know my BF really liked, so I went into this book preparing to enjoy it.    Then, when he saw I was reading it, he warned me that it was pretty derivative, so I shouldn’t let that color my thinking about the book too much.   At that point, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into.

There is some pretty heavy influence of the Arthurian kind very evident in the story, but I can’t say I thought it was leaning too heavily upon it (granted, I’m in book one – that could change).   It’s a good set up to a standard high fantasy novel with the added bonus of the initial real world setting, so you do have a good view into Fionavar through the character’s eyes as they discover it themselves.    I enjoyed it, and will read the rest of the series.

Garden Notes

So I came outside on Friday morning to a bit of a surprise.   One of the first summers we’d move here (so at least eight years ago), I planted a couple of lilies in the side garden, which then proceeded to get well and truly decimated by lily beetle, to the point where they barely even came out of the ground for the next number of years.     They’re now completely buried in the iris bed, so I didn’t notice that one had actually come up this year, until it bloomed on Friday.   It was just such a lovely way to start the day – I thought they’d never come back.   (I had a white one too, so I guess that one might be dead.)

 

In other news, the peas are going great now.    They’re not as tall as they were last year, but they’re certainly blooming as well as they did last year, so I should have some nice snacking from the vine coming up shortly.

Knitting Notes

I’m taking a little break from the Evenstar shawl (which is going really well – I’m toward the end of the third chart), for a birthday request.     This is the Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] from the Winter 2008 Knitty.    It’s great for using up scraps, so I did buy one yarn to tie what I have together (Malabrigo Rios in the Indiecita colorway), but I’m otherwise using yarn from the stash (which so far involves the red Cascade 220).

Further Adventures in Domesecity

So this year, our CSA is growing rhubarb.    I’ve done strawberry rhubarb crisp, and a killer rhubarb coffee cake, so where do you go next?    Jam!    The above is a Vanilla Balsamic Rhubarb Jam, and for once, it actually made more than the recipe said, so I had a small jar’s worth to sample, and I can say that it’s definitely good.   (I also have another large jar in the fridge – victim of seal failure.)    It’s on the more savory side, so should go really nicely with cheese and crackers.

Speaking of the CSA, it was peony week this week.   Aren’t they pretty?

Holbrook Island Sanctuary State Park, Brooksville, Maine

 

 

 

 

Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge VII 3/21/13 – 6/21/13

Well, I’d held off posting about the end of this challenge so I could see if I could fit one more book in, but that’s not going to happen, so I can now safely say I’m done.    I read:

• Paladin of Souls – Lois McMaster Bujold – finished 6/4/13
• Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede – finished 5/26/13
• The Queen of Attolia – Megan Whalen Turner – finished 5/24/13
• The Broken Kingdoms – N. K. Jemisin – finished 5/22/13
• The Iron Tree – Cecilia Dart-Thornton – finished 5/14/13
• Book of Enchantments – Patricia C. Wrede – finished 5/3/13
• The Dalemark Quartet – Diana Wynne Jones – finished 4/28/13
• Ombria in Shadow – Patricia A. McKillip – finished 4/2/13
• Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit – Mercedes Lackey – finished 3/28/13

I definitely leaned heavy into the fantasy this year, thought the Gwenhwyfar book was Arthurian (folklore) and Book of Enchantments was fairy tale themed.   All in all, it was a very satisfying Spring reading binge.

Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thuya Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine