Daylily Damsel

In the interests of being fewer places at once, interested persons can connect with me at cathemery.livejournal.com/ 

There's a lot more there, as in it's an older journal and as in about my dog and my ordinary life and some other interests.   I'm also on folia (myfolia.com, a garden site), Flickr, and Ravelry as TolCath.

Of course, it could have been the cat trampling things.  I daresay he feels as if they are his things, being a cat and all.

So I only blame the neighbor's dogs for the unrequested liquid additions.  Along with any tramping they have to do to reach the spots.

I have just about decided that I am going to stop having two LJs and just have one place to post.   Having added Ravelry and myfolia to my internet addictions makes cutting back somewhere else seem like a good idea; otherwise I shall feel as if I am either never finishing an anecdote anywhere or posting the same thing three times. 

I don't know: maybe I'll change my mind at the last minute.

We probably-maybe had a light freeze last night, which is sad for the jungle of clematis but probably not a disaster.

Roguchi is coming up, but of course I managed to install the obelisk with it completely off-center, which means I need to move a couple of small daylily fans on one side to shift the obelisk, which means the *obelisk* won't be centered in that area.  gah.

Some dog's been visiting my garden.  There are a few trampled spots and Jagger  wanted to go sniffing.  double gah.  Why can't people keep their dogs at home?

So Kate brought over a bunch of yarn for me to look through.

Wool-Ease, including 8 of the bonus bundles in the traditional aran color

Patons Astra
Patons Diana
Patons Look at Me! (I think the baby sport)

Plymouth Misti
Plymouth Encore & Encore Colorspun

Passport Yarn Company St. Tropez
Roly-Sport
lana noro Firenza Print
lana noro Firenza Brushed
lana noro Polo
QueLinda, Stanley Berocco, labeled an unusual Irish import
Falk Yarn Sissy, made in Spain
Brunette, from the Mill End Store in Portland, OR
Amore (need more name on this one), mohair wool & nylon, Super yarn mart in LA on back of label
Parley imprime special
leithen terra, from Holland
Sheepjes luzern color, made of wool and Orlon
CM Himalaya
CM Sierra
Phentex mohair

and one little partial skein of a lovely green with a round label that says "imported 100% Angora" at one side, "Rabbit Hair" on the other,  and "Made in France".

I have to start taking my clipboard out to the garden with me.  Gillian Blades finally has a decent amount of foliage and I'm sorry I moved Multi--Blue.  I sitll think they'd go well together.  Odoriba is visible, Little Falcon is already almost massive, and things like the caryopteris and the phygelius are greening up just a tiny bit.  The spiraeas have leaves and don't look dead any more.  The one by the house is quite sprawling.   Proteus is not growing, sadly, but Belle of Woking is.  I think even the clematis in the pot (which I think is Niobe but looked very very dead) is growing.  Creeping violets and violets are blooming; the Virginia bluebells in the front bed are blooming. 

The hyacinths on the mound are fully pink; the woodland hyacinths are prepping; the grapes are in full blue in the triangle but slow out in the yard; the hellebores are still going strong.   The corydalis is starting, as is the brunnera.

There are little half to inch sized nubs of green on the wisteria.  The red twig is preparing to leaf out.

There are plants buried by other plants - an autumn crocus under the spiraea under the tree, fritillaria under the lilac, a foxglove under the rosebush.  I'm contemplating tearing out a patch of veronica, which i like, simply because it is spreading so much.  I'm thinking of letting it take over part of the side yard.

 

Lots happening in the garden.  Everything -- nearly everything--- is coming up.  Spring things are blooming:  Veronica peduncularis, daffodils, chionodoxa, hyacinth, flowering quince, labrador violets, creeping violets, hellebores still, lungworth, brunnera, and of course, the popper weeds.  The hardy cyclamen managed two flowers in two places (as opposed to one area having two flowers). 

The spotted toad lily (turtle?  No, trout)  Make that the pink spotted trout lily is definitely not dead, but it needs to be separated from a hardy cyclamen for both their sakes.  It's too crowded in the shade bed -- there are so many fabulous plants that will take shade, especially if it is on the dampish side.  Things that like damp sun do well there, too.

The eucalyptus appears to be surviving the freeze, though it looks horrible and spotted.  And it needs staking even more than before. 

Proteus does not have new growth.  A couple of the clematis from the garage aren't growing, either, which doesn't bode well.  It's early yet, though.   I know where I want to put the arch, but I need help getting it drilled and assembled and then installed.  I can dig the plants up and put the new ones there myself.

Odoriba is growing - and Gillian Blades has loads of foliage -- and so does Mrs. N ---- Westerplatte is recovering from being moved last fall and will probably not be impressive this year.  It's amazing seeing all that new life on what look like dead stalks.

The back yard bed is a nightmare of weeds, again.  I am thinking it needs some clearing out and serious mulching around plants for a year or two to kill some of the stuff that keeps coming back.  The areas where the annuals grow are especially bad.  Wonder if I should do some in pots for a year or two while I'm mulching the main bed.  It's an idea, anyway.

On the hook:  Fancy Trifoil, a roundish doily with a strong triangular motif.  I did row 3 through 5 twice, separately, as I kept coming around and discovering I'd made a mistake at the end of the previous row or the beginning of the one I was just finishing.  I'm starting the fancy trifoil edging now in row 9.

Still have tulip pieces lying around waiting for the rest, and Ellipse ran out of pink thread so it's waiting for a decision or an attempt at matching.  Mom's tablecloth is lying out on the table, waiting for more hexagons.  I have a baby blanket request for May, another that I don't have yarn for, and one for later in the yarn.  I mean year.

I have unfinished things downstairs.  And a project I said I'd make for Kate, which I'm feeling nervous about.  I want to make wristwarmers for me out of my Pagewood Farms sock yarn.  I'd like to work back into knitting enough to make some of the things I bought yarn for last year!  My shrug-into-sweater attempt, for instance, and that cute purse that requires 4 or 5 sets of circular needles.

Plus it's time to start getting the gardens in order for this year's work, and I keep meaning to be more useful to my spouse out there, since we both benefit from the veggies.  Maybe I'll start doing more weeding out back.  Still have to get that side yard done, though, and this is the time of year to do it.  What a nightmare that section is.  I think it needs to be simplified on one side--- fewer varieties of plants.  Just the lilacs, the daffodils, and the groundcover.  Though I do like the lilies at the fenceline.  I didn't really want lilacs there, as gardening around them is a bother.  The house side is so weedy I could just cry.

So many things are growing.  Even the fuchsia are starting up, under their sheltering bark mulch.  This must mean it is time to get slug bait by the ligularia and check that one hosta that suffered so early last year.

The purple-flowered hellebore is noticeably smaller than the other two, and I can't help thinking it's because that area is crowded: it isn't above ground now, but the ligularia takes up just as much room underground now as later in the season.  The hellebore really needs to be moved, but it won't like it, they say.  I moved the one out back and it did just fine, though.

It's definitely weeding time now.  Yesterday I was able to weed without my fingers getting numb -- I hope to do a little nearly every day, thus being only somewhat behind all season. 

I did the setup row for the border on baby afghan in silt stich, pastel blue and green.  (A95 on the numbered list.)  Last night while I was wishing I were asleep I had an idea for the border that I look forward to implementing.

I'm fairly certain that, in spite of having discovered 5 and a half more motifs to try (the half is a bedspread pattern that has a bit more solid than I think I want), I will be using one of the two quick and easy round ones for Mom.  But our table is rectangular, so all these interesting squares could work for that.

I've been grumbling about the fiddly bits of Diamond Rings, which is silly because they go quite quickly.  The tulip bits, on the other hand, were entirely unnecessary, an impulse, and I have to make 14 more tulips with three pieces each because of that impulse.  Piecework, bah.  I still haven't finished the first piecework I started.

Rounds/Hexagons
Constellation - very quick and easy, very little border

Popcorns and Such - almost as quick and easy as Constellation, more interesting pattern - still lots of chains

Carpet of Flowers - originally in size 40, gaps too big in size 5, I think.

Company's Coming - possibly use for us?

Floral Hexagon - large even in size 10

Squares
Cozy at Home -
Heirloom bedspread - pineapple pattern
When I did these two, I think I liked Cozy at Home better, but Heirloom has a slightly more open, possibly more traditional look.  I thought Cozy might look better still in a larger thread.  I can't remember what my preference was, and now I can't decide.  Heirloom is simpler, Cozy is fancier.  Either way, it's not crucial when I'm doing Mom's first.

Petunia Patch - small square, not too exciting

Personal Viewpoint is a concentric round doily.  Also, the rounds are made up of small repeats, such as 5 double crochet, chain 5, repeated around.  These are two factors that make it easier to work.

Winter Elegance, on the other hand, is an oval doily.  Ovals are interesting because of the corners, which is usually where the increasing happens.  I find it helps me to think of them as two straight sections and two curved sections.  It's always important to know where the curved section is starting and to keep the same stitches in the straight sections as the doily grows.

Finishing that yellow baby blanket for J. just about did my hand in.  Yesterday I spent a good bit of time getting frustrated and depressed because I couldn't come up with an attractive, easy knitting pattern that I thought I could do quickly with the pale blue and pastel green (and getting cranky with myself for not realizing I was picking up two different brands, even though the shades looked good together).  Then all the crocheting options started to look undesirable, too.

I'm taking a little time to myself and slowly and gently finishing a round on the Personal Viewpoint doily.

I have spent so much time doing doilies from charts that I am losing the ability to work from written instructions.  ack.

I need more sleep, I need to do some project work and housecleaning (always).

I have been winding some of my size 5 pearl cotton skeins for use.  I don't have a swift, so I do various things like using my feet when I'm lounging on the couch, or the back of a chair if it's long enough, but these weren't long enough for a chair. 

I used my neck and just worked carefully round, holding it with one hand when the loop started to pull into a tangle.  It worked ok.

However, I don't think I will recommend the method, because the last two loops slid up and did a choker imitation.  I realized then that if that had turned into a knot, I would have had to apply the scissors or other sharp instrument to an area that I can't see---and don't expect me to do it with a mirror, because I'd be very likely to poke myself with a sharp object getting things backward.  Which amused me, but might not amuse someone who had to actually apply the scissors.

Don't mind me - I just like to think about things now and then.  Today it's Ravelry and patterns.

One thing I've thought about a few times is entering patterns that have no projects and no slurping permission from the publisher, which means no photos.

The thing is, if you want to be able to search for patterns on Ravelry, say in a magazine, you can only search for what's in the database.

There's no provision for knowing what *else* is in that issue if the unused patterns aren't added.

Some argue that they shouldn't be in because obviously no one is interested in them to make them; some argue that if you put it in, someone will link their project to it (hopefully accurately, as there's not much point linking a project to a completely wrong pattern).

Is Ravelry intended, or should it, substitute for actually looking through one's magazines?  People do get excited about library search features.  I think they want to use Ravelry that way.  But I've definitely gotten an impression that the supreme powers of Ravelry prefer not to have these no project, no photo patterns all put in.  (After all, there could be thousands of 'em, clogging up the database with no pictures and no project, unless there's a search term to leave them out - or they're archived and don't come up in searches until someone links them, but they'd have to be able to find it to link to it, so that probably won't work.)

Is there a way to make both sides of the question happy?  A TOC for magazines and books?  How much info is essential, if anything beyond the pattern name?

My WIPs are boring.

I need a wrestling event.


It's not that 25 or 30 doilies is so many.  There's at least one person on Ravelry who has 60.  It just seems a lot for me.  If I ever learn to keep a horizontal surface from filling up with papers and books and junk, perhaps I'll use a few more around the house.

I'm wondering if I misplaced some patterns, because all the ones in the stack seem to be advanced and challenging.  Where did all my intermediates go?

Since September 14 of this year, I have made 25 and three partial doilies.

This brings me to a total of 36 projects labeled doily in Ravelry, and doesn't count the second Winter one with no photo, or the Summer Bouquet I made before and don't have a photo of.

 

I have been sitting in the computer too much (this is the closest thing to a comfortable chair upstairs, and the dog has fits when I'm downstairs because he doesn't like the stairs).

This morning I picked up a doily and thought:  That was the end of the row, so I start this next row . .  .first I have arrow --- cursor --- arrow over to this stitch --- uh, slip stitch, right ---

I guess arrow over works just as well.