I love living in a place that has four distict seasons. There are many things to enjoy about each one and, just when you are starting to get tired of one, the next one comes along. In the past few days, the temps have dropped, especially at night. The windows in my bedroom are open even when it’s 43 degrees (Farenheight) and it gets CHILLY. I love to throw an extra blanket on the bed, snuggle under of thick covers and sleep better than I have in months.

The past couple weeks, I’ve been having fun playing in the kitchen. Lots of vegetables did very well in my garden this year so I’ve had to come up with new ways to process them for winter storage. My go-to method of storing both tomatoes and green beans is freezing. Sadly, my freezer is only so big. I cooked up a batch of diced tomatoes for canning, which I have done before. Canning whole plum tomatoes was a bit more of a challenge; I found it quite hard to get all of the air out and had to re-can some. Canning salsa was a fun new project and used up tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and onions. I’m looking forward to this in mid winter.

I also tried making saurkraut and pickled beets and saukraut. This was a funny experiment cause both need a bit of warmth, not heat really, just a normal room temperature. The week was chilly so the temperature inside my house was not higher than 64 degrees. It took a bit longer but I think they will turn out okay. In case you are wondering, the mass in the jar on the left is a weight in a plastic bag used to keep the cabbage under the liquid.

My dehydrator has been busy for months, first with herbs, then with apples, pears, mango and pineapple. Those last two are store bought but it’s hard to find dried mango and pinapple that is not coated in sugar. The last of the cayanne peppers are drying now and there may be time for a few more apples and pears.

The Mystery Writer

Theo runs away from law school in Australia and shows up on her brother’s doorstep in Kansas. She wants not to be a lawyer, but a writer. It’s when she starts writing at a local coffee shop by day, bar by night, that she meets the towns famous mystery writer. While living with her brother, writing her book and deepening her relationship with her new friend turned mentor, she becomes embroiled in a mystery.

This was a really well written book. I thought myself so smart to catch a small clue that turned out to be a red herring. I spent about a third of the book expecting the plot to go one way and completly amazed when it went far away from what I was expecting. With all the mystery books I read, that doesn’t happen very often.

Next time I’ll be talking about my fall trips. See you soon!

Harvest time is nearly over. After a series of freezing temperatures in May, everything was running very late this year. Almost nothing was ripe until August and then it all came at once. Things like eggplant, that I usually just eat as they ripen, needed to be processed and stored. I found a few articles online suggesting ways to freeze eggplant. It’s got too much water to just freeze it, it must be waisted first to remove some of the water. I don’t I roasted and mashed up for Baba Ganoj and some I cut into chunks for soups and casseroles. I was busy for a while preserving as much as possible for the coming winter, canning tomatoes and salsa, making jam, snapping and freezing beans and drying onions and garlic.

Speaking of winter, it’s time to start getting ready. Living in a northern climate, I feel like winter is always on my mind. Except for May and June, I’m either knee deep in winter or preparing for the next one. Our last load of firewood was delivered this week. It will take several days to get it all stacked. We heat almost exclusively through wood, so it takes a lot to get through winter.

Knit-wise

I’ve knit a skirt (two variations of the same skirt, actually). It’s been a long time since the start of this pattern. I started it in 2024, got sidetracked, started again in 2025, lost my notes, knit a second one to refine the pattern. Photos are taken and the pattern is back from the tech editor. I just have to put it all together now but it feels like the best time to publish has passed. It feels like a spring project to me. All that to say, I’ll get around to publishing this pattern but I’m not sure when.

Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

I must have been really excited about this one because, without realizing it, I purchased both the print book and the audiobook.

I love most books that show animals as intelligent, aware species and not just good for meat and working for us. Soul of an Octopus delivers in spades. I confess, I had not thought much about octopuses before reading this book. Montgomery recalls her own and others interactions with octopuses, both in aquariums and in the wild. She shows these animals are intelligent - and I mean wicked smart, curious, and spirited.

Speaking of books, did you know that http://Libro.fm now has ebooks? Now it’s even easier to drop the billionaire benefitting apps and support your (or my) local bookstore. I realize that I mention this so much you may think I am paid to hype this company. No such luck, I’m heard. I am just committed to defunding billionaires and way I can and this is a really easy option.

I’m also converting a flower bed from flowers into an herb bed, and creating some new beds in the garden by laying cardboard and mulch. Not to mention all of the weeding and maintain existing garden beds. Luckily, I’m not the type to get worked up if I don’t get these things done right away. I have got move plants out of the bed before I can get all of the herbs planted. Most things that will go into the herb bed are being started from seed and not all of those are even started yet. That’s okay. If it’s done by fall, that’s great. If it’s not done until next year, that’s fine too. I know I’ll get it, and all of the other things, done eventually.

On top of all that, we are on year two of re-siding our house. It was the cheapest vinyl siding possible, with holes and cracks. The wind (and I live on top of a hill, so there is a LOT of wind) would blow through the siding and it sounded like the house was screaming. Doing it ourselves is the difference between being able to afford it and not, so DIY it is. With a bit of luck, it will be done this year and we will never need to worry about it again.

As always, when there are too many things to do, a curve ball was thrown our way in the form of a porcupine. It climbed over our fence the other night and my poor old dog got a bit too close. Bad as it was I am grateful for a couple of things. We have a 24 hour emergency vet not too far away. It’s expensive but we were able to get her fixed up in just a couple hours. Also, she’s a big, gentle dog that probably just got too close sniffing at the porcupine. Our younger, smaller, more jumpy dog would likely have gotten much more damage. Apparently, those quills are so strong they can puncture a lung if injected in the chest of an animal. One sleepless night with a dog drunk on sedatives and pain medication is much better than days making sure your dog is still breathing. Maybe I should finally look into pet insurance.

I usually have three books in progress - a fiction audiobook, either a nonfiction or classic audiobook, and a physical book. The audiobooks go by pretty quickly but the physical book can take up to 6 months for finish. I think Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer to almost a year.

Recently, I’ve completed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The Call of the Wild was especially interesting. I knew it was a story about the gold rush but had no idea it was written from the point of view of a dog.

I’ve read several fine but not exciting fiction books. The one standout is Helle’s Hound by Oskar Jensen. Last year I read Jensen’s debut novel, Helle and Death and got completely caught up in the story and the characters. Both are locked room style mysteries with Torben Helle, a Danish art historian living in London, as the protagonist. In Helle’s Hound, Torben’s mentor is found dead shortly after confiding in him that her phone was being tapped. Though police think it was an accident, Torben suspects murder. When he inherits the contents of her desk, complete with her list of murder suspects, he enlists the help of his friend and lawyer, Leyla. Both have their own theories of which suspect is the murderer.

My area has been stuck in an unfortunate weather pattern. Clear skies with temps around freezing in the morning, before it can get warm clouds roll in, then those clouds clear just before dusk so it can get back to freezing overnight. By the time this pattern finally breaks, it will have lasted over two weeks. Now, I am used to wild temperature swings in May; scattered frosts mixed with days that would fit better into July than May. Even snow some years. But this length of freezing temps is testing my gardening skills and knowledge.

To add a bit more drama, I had to leave for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival at the beginning of this weather and my parents had come to dog sit. My greenhouse was full of seedlings and overwintered perennials. Sadly, it is unseated. Since I was not sure what would survive all that cold and I didn’t want to over exert my mother, I hauled everything into the basement where I have a few grow lights. Not ideal but better than the risk of dying plants and endless trips out into the cold to check on them.

Since I have been back home I have been moving things back out that I am pretty sure will do okay. Still, my seed planting is pause while I wait for a few more freezing nights to pass so I can get more things out into the greenhouse - better yet out into the ground.

This was the first winter with my green house and I conducted some experiments. Some successes and some failures. It was also the first time I conducted propagation experiments.

In one of my fist posts, I wrote about a branch of my red twigged dogwood that had bent over and rooted where it came in contact with the ground. Last spring, I cut it from the mother plant and moved it - much like you would the runners of strawberries. It made it through the winter though it is not much to look at just now. Still, I’m confident that in the next couple of years it will continue to sprout new branches and end up looking just fine.

Red twig dogwood is easy to propagate either the way I did or from cuttings. They are hearty and happy in my climate so I’ll definitely be propagating some more this spring.

Another plant I propagated was Salvia. I created several cutting from some two different types of saliva that will not overwinter in my climate. I stored some in the greenhouse and some in the basement under a grow light. I do this for my orange tree as well so it was no trouble to add a few more plants. Set up a timer for the light and a tiny humidifier and it’s good to go. The greenhouse plants did not survive but the basement ones did. Unfortunately, I got excited and moved them to the green house too early. In the end they all died. But now I know how to keep them alive so that’s a great lesson learned.

Another winter experiment was planting tulips in pots. I tried this several years ago, not realizing that tulips can easily rot is the soil is too damp. That easy to do win pots. Last fall I planted one pot and kept it in the greenhouse and one on the covered front porch. The tulips in the greenhouse are a great success. The ones on the front porch rotted and I’m not sure why. I don’t think the were too wet. It was a very cold winter and the pot on the porch was smaller than the one in the greenhouse so maybe they froze. I’m not sure. I guess there is still some experimenting to be doe with tulips in pots.

One bonus “experiment” was more of a happy accident. Last summer I grew some sage in a pot. I tried a couple times to propagate it from cuttings but I was not paying enough attention and they died. I left the pot in the greenhouse quite by accident. What a pleasant surprise it was to see the little plant growing again this year. Now I’m wondering what other things I can try to overwinter. I’ll keep you posted.

Part 1 - Before Show Weekend

Spring Fiber Show season starts this weekend. I’m heading to Chicago this (now last)weekend for YarnCon. If you are in the Chicago area, this show is worth checking out, especially if you have never been to a fiber show before. It’s big enough that there is a nice variety of fibers and other goodies but not so big as to be overwhelming. And it’s indoors so the weather is never an issue.

Part of me is excited about the trip. This was a very snowy and cold winter where I live and I have not had much contact with anyone outside my home since Christmas. I know that I always have a good time and will be surrounded by friends. Past experience and my brain tell me it will be good for me.

The hermit part of me is cringing at the thought of being surrounded by people and noise. That part is desperately trying to think of a way out. It’s tired of winter, cranky and wants nothing to do with the outside world. So much so, that I’m in denial about the day actually arriving. I have no to do list, packing list or any other thing I usually have started days before I leave for a show.

Part 2 - After the Show

In hindsight, maybe I should have spent a little more time with people before spending two days with hundreds of people packed into a single (though large) room. The event and the weekend were fun, inspiring and uplifting. I saw many friends and got to know some acquaintances a bit better, ate lots of good food and laughed a lot.

Though it was a lot of fun, it was also exhausting. My throat was raw from talking all day and my nerves were raw from interacting with people all day. It took most of the week to recover. Now I’m getting ready to do it all again in a couple weeks. Maryland Sheep and Wool, here I come.

Do you ever start a book that you just can’t finish? If so, do you give the author another try? I’ve given up on two books recently and they have a few similarities. Both are by very prolific and well reviewed authors. Both stories are written in two parts and both I was actually reading a physical copy of the book. This last one doesn’t seem like it would be important but it is to me. I tend to give audiobooks more leeway because I can be doing another thing while listening. When I am holding onto a physical book, it must have my complete attention. My time with a physical book is seldom and precious. I don;t want to waste time on a book I dislike.

The book I gave up on recently is Dream Girl by Laura Lippman. There is really only one character in Part 1 and, without giving anything away, I found him wholly unlikeable. I made it halfway through and was ready to give up when I noticed Part 2 was about to begin. The women in his life started to come into the story more. Still after a few chapters of Part 2 I was still unimpressed.

Now, I love Laura Lippman. I’ve read almost every book she has published. Though Dream Girl did not land with me, I still have her latest book in my Libro.fm queue. I am fully expecting to lenjoy the new book as much as I have all of the others.

The experience though, got me thinking of another book I gave up on at the end of Part 1. It is The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. There is really book is well written with an engaging plot but I Lund by the end of Part 1 the only character I remotely liked was the vampire. This book has a lot of great reviews. If you read it, I’d love to know what you thought of it.

Also, this was the first book by Grady Hendrix I tried to read. There are so many titles by her and some of the descriptions are appealing, but I find myself reluctant to try again. Have you read any of her other books? What did you think? Should I try another book?

Did you know Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur Flour are both Employee Owned? Try them for your baking needs. Stocked in most grocery stores, so they are easy to fine. They can be a bit more expensive but, if you are patient, you can stock up when they go on sale. Both brands are on sale in my local stores at least a couple of times every year.

Next issue I will share with you some of my successful winter garden experiments, and some failures.

Should I be posting more regularly? Almost certainly. I try for every two weeks but often I don’t feel I have anything worth saying or don’t feel like writing it down.

Should I make my articles more consistent? Maybe. I write mostly for myself. While I want to entertain my subscribers, I don’t want to make it yet another chore. Still, I’m interested in what you like to read:

Yarn reviews

Book reviews

My sometimes stream of consciousness writing

Garden projects, knitting projects, other random projects

Tips on how to starve the billionaire class

For the past several months I have been helping a friend start a wool mill. Not financially (I’m thinking more about retirement than starting a new business at my age), but logistically. I like the idea of helping someone else grow.

Stonehedge Fiber Mill has been in business for, well I don’t know how long but a long time. The owner decided to retire and sell her milling equipment. My friend, Kat, has purchased the equipment and rebranded her yarn business, Why Knot Fibers, into Acorn and Oak Fibers. We have created a Kickstarter campaign to help with all of the moving and business expenses. If you want to support a local wool mill and therefore sheep farmers, yarn companies as well as Acorn and Oak Fibers, please check it out. This is truly a small business that helps other small businesses in the world of wool and fiber thrive.

I made some half fingered mitts with scrap yarn and no pattern. It took a few tries to get the correct number of stitches. Normally I am pro swatching but with such a small project, I used the just-cast-on-and-go method. I like this style of mitt over the style with an open top. These cuties are going to be perfect for keeping my hands warm while allowing my fingers to be free.

The herbs and lettuce I started a few weeks ago are doing well. They are use hanging out in the house until it’s warm enough for them to go outside. I have put my pansy seedlings in a pot on the porch. They should be able to cope with all of the crazy weather April will bring.

I just finished The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay. History was never very interesting to me when I was in school. It felt like just a long list of names and dates and wars. I think you need a teacher that has a real talent for bringing a story alive and I didn’t have one. That is why I find historical fiction so interesting now. While engrossed in an entertaining story, you can also learn about a time period.

Louisa Voekler, raised by her grandparents in Washington DC, believes har parents were killed in an auto accident in East Berlin. That is, until she finds letters that her father had written to her grandfather throughout most of her life. Through those letters, she learns about his life in East Berlin under authoritarian rule from the time the wall went up until it fell in 1989.

I really enjoyed this book. Overall, it’s not too heavy even though the subject matter sometimes is. This book is a bit spy thriller, a bit family drama and a touch of romance mingled in.

That’s it for today, friends. See you soon.

Recently, someone told me that when she is trying to establish a new routine she sets up a white board to track how well she does each day. For me, this was a moment when the clouds parted and a ray of light shown directly on me like in the cartoons. It seems like a great way to establish a new routine. I have several that I have been trying to establish for months or years but most days completely slip my mind. I don’t have a white board but my daily planner should work just fine.

This isn’t about being more productive or organized. It’s about being a better version of me. All are things I do sporadically already but haven’t quite made them a habit. On my list of eight things, not all need to be done every day and most are not hard or very time consuming. I work well with examples, so I’ll share my list in hopes that it helps you create a list of your own if you want to give it a try.

1. Stretch shoulder - I’ve had pain in my shoulder for about a decade. Regular stretching helps but I tend to only do it when the pain is severe. Takes about 2 minutes.

2. Study French for at least 10 minutes - I was on a roll with this for a while and then I started doing just the bare minimum to make Babbel happy.

3. Strength training - older folks need to keep muscle tone.

4. Write

5. Drink nettle infusion - gives me nutrients and energy for the day. This one is already pretty easy cause it makes me feel so much better. Though so does stretching my shoulder.

6. Study Herbalism - this is a new hobby for me

7. Spend time with nature - I live in the woods so I spend time IN nature every day. I want to spend more time WITH nature.

8. Morning thanks - I wrote before about how I started talking to the sun on my morning walks. In the past few weeks I have been developing a little prayer of gratitude to different aspects of nature, including the sun.

In the first week I learned two important lessons. A daily planner does not work for me as well as I’d hoped. I need something more ‘in my face’ than that. I found a secondhand whiteboard that now I see every time I walk into the bedroom. Also, eight things is way too many. I have taken drink infusion off the list. I’ve been doing this for a while already and can consider it an established routine. For now, I have removed spending time with nature, strength training and writing as these are the three that I was doing the least. The first two will come more naturally as the weather warms and writing will make it onto the whiteboard soon.

How do you establish a new routine?

Olympic Sweater

I didn’t quite get my sweater finished by closing ceremonies but I got more done than I expected - only 11 stripes were left on the second sleeve. I’ve got it sewn and blocked. Now I just need to decide how to trim the neck opening. I’ll be wearing it everywhere soon.

Seedlings

It’s a bit early for me to start most plants but I did plant some lettuce, spinach and herb seeds a couple weeks ago. Everything is growing happily in the guest room under grow lights until it is warm enough to move to the greenhouse. The spinach, cilantro and rosemary seeds were a bit reluctant to germinate - only one each. I’ll be planting some more of those this week. One cilantro plant just won’t do.

Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess

Cath has never had a great relationship with her mother. When Cath is going through her belongings after her mother dies unexpectedly, she is surprised fo find tickets for the two of them to attend Murder Week in a small UK town.

After reluctantly traveling to the UK (no refunds), she meets her flatmates and fellow fake detectives. While they are busy trying to solve a fake murder, Cath learns she must also solve the mystery of her mother. This book has everything you want in a cozy mystery.

Talk soon,

The Knitting Hermit

The past few days I’ve been feeling really run down. This morning, I woke up and my first thought was ‘I feel great’. Cut to a couple hours later, I’m out walking the dogs and notice the sunrise. I can actually see the sun and blue sky. I wonder if my body could tell the clouds had lifted before my eyes could.

The Great Lakes region is known for its for cold, snowy winters. If you happen to live on the south or east sides of any one of those lakes, you know they are also incredibly cloudy and grey. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say we only saw blue skies here for about 5 minutes in all of January.

By February, the lakes are starting to freeze over. That stops the lake effect snow storms and allows the sun to peak out from time to time. Right now, it’s a welcome sight that makes me feel like Spring might come again. In a four or five weeks, it will feel like a taunt. While the sun will be shining more, it will still be unpleasantly cold. For now, I am appreciating every minute of sunshine.

A lot of knitting and reading has been going on here for the past couple weeks. Let me catch you up.

Melt The Ice Hat

After some deliberation, I decided to knit a Melt the Ice Hat. In case you don’t already know, Norwegians wore red hats as a sign of silent resistance to occupation during WWII. It signaled to friends and neighbors that they were still standing together. It became such a threat that red hats were banned.

With this story of quiet resistance in mind, a yarn shop in Minneapolis created the Melt The Ice hat pattern. Last month it seemed like everyone was talking about it. There were news stories from NPR down to my local news. Mostly positive but a few ‘this a doing the bare minimum to make yourself feel good’ articles.

I thought for quite a while and finally came down on the side of - any resistance is good resistance. My mother is in her late 70’s. She will not be going protesting in snow and cold, but she can wear her red hat to the grocery store. If that helps one person feel less alone in her deep red part of the country, I call that a win.

The bigger win here is the $650,000 (as of last week) raised by this pattern for aid to immigrant communities in the Twin Cities area. So I will knit my red hat and wear it as a symbol of resistance. I purchased the pattern even though I don’t need a pattern to make this hat. Cause it’s not just about the symbolism; it’s about the cash aid and helping our neighbors near and far.

I’m working on my Olympic Sweater, starting at opening ceremonies and hopefully finishing before closing ceremonies. I’ve done this every year for quite a while now. Usually, I make it but I’m not sure I will this year. I can’t seem to sit still that long these days and when I do my older dog is draped over my lap. She’s 56 pounds so that doesn’t give me much space. Will I finish? Time will tell.

This sweater is knit side to side. One sleeve is complete and the back and front are underway. I’ve taken a queue from Sandi Rosner’s post about creating a sweater with a yarn pack of many colors. Mine is a stash buster sweater but I’m using the same idea of grabbing one skein at random until the bag is empty and then starting over. This created a fabulously random changing of color. You can read Sandy’s article here.

I also finished two audiobooks this week, one fiction and one nonfiction.

The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

A young woman moves to Paris and becomes the student of a famous medium in hopes of discovering who murdered her sister. The medium is soon asked to solve another mystery so the two head back to London with hopes of discovering the truth by performing seances.

This mildly spooky but mainly cozy mystery is just my kind of story. Usually, it’s not too difficult to see the ending of a cozy mystery before getting to the end of the book. I was pleasantly surprised to find this one kept fooling my right up until the end.

The Mindful Body by Ellen J Langer

This one is kind of herd to explain and not quite what I was expecting. I read a book by a medical doctor several years ago that was kind of a mind over matter theme. If you have a sinus cogestion, meditate and visualize your sinuses opening up and mucous production slowing. I find it works surprisingly well.

Part of the description for The Mindful Body audiobook is ‘Learn how to adjusting your thoughts can change your health’. It is that, but it’s also more than that.

Ellen Langer is a psychology professor at Harvard. She has spent decades crafting an conducting studies designed to change the way subjects think and evaluate the physical changes. As an example ( this is not exact, just what I remember of the study), one study conucted on men in there 70’s were taken to a facility that was set up as if it were decades earlier. Only TV shows, music, food, magazines, etc from that time. They were told to act as if they were that age (40 or so, I don’t remember exactly). At the end of the study, subjects had less arthritis pain, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure. Basically, they had the health of much younger men.

Where the book I read years ago was about healing your body with your mind, The Mindful Body argues for the idea of the mind/body as a whole. It’s not mind first and then body or vice versa. It’s the mind and body as one.

See, I told you it was hard to explain. It was really interesting, though and I can imagine myself listening to it again at some point.

Speaking of audiobooks, have you tried Libro.fm? It’s a great way to break away from Audible and a bit of the cost of your audiobooks will go to your local bookstore. Break free from big tech, support your local economy and get some great deals on books.

Gotta get back to my sweater knitting. Have a great week.

I am a creature of habit. As an example, I’ve had the same breakfast almost every day for years; granola with fresh berries and yogurt in the summer and granola with dried berries and milk in the winter. My lunches vary a bit more though still basically the same thing every day for months before a change. I save me experimenting for dinners. In some ways, that great. It’s easy to know what to buy at the grocery store and I have one less decision to make throughout the day.

Recently, I have begun to wonder if that routine may lead to another hallmark of mine, stagnation. It’s not much of an issue in the spring, summer and early fall. Nature sets a to-do list for me. If I don’t start tomato seeds in March, I will have a shorter harvesting season. If I don’t pick beans when they are ripe, I won’t get any more beans. Nature gives me a short window of when things can be done. If I miss it, I’m out of luck until next year.

In winter, I am largely dependant on my own motivation. Sometimes that is not an issue. At other times I will get stuck in a rut. Every evening I will make a plan for the next day. Sometimes it’s completely unrealistic and so I get overwhelmed when morning comes and I should start doing the things I planned that i don’t do anything at all. Other days, my list is small and easily manageable but I just can’t get started. I’m not feeling creative or motivated and end up doing very little. Then I’m angry with myself, make a new list and resolve to be better tomorrow. Around and around it goes.

Something has changed this winter. I’ve been trying to address a few issues I would not have thought related to my creativity. Issue one is dry winter skin. I’ve known for years that a big reason I have dry skin in the winter is that I drink too little and what I do drink is loaded with caffeine. So, I’ve been experimenting with herbal teas. Normally I’m not a big fan of herb tea but I’ve been trying making my own blends with help from a botanical tea book. Happily, the winter teas are heavy with cinnamon, orange and clove. Someone could serve me a brick with cinnamon, clove and orange and I’d probably think it was tasty. Better yet, I’m getting confident enough to try creating my own blends.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about women ‘of a certain age’ needing more protein. Protein seems like everyone’s answer to every problem right now so I’ve been researching studies and advice from actually doctors (not just some random bloke on TicTok). Especially in winter, when I am not moving as much, it makes sense I could be losing muscle. So, I’ve been trying to get some more protein into my breakfast. That means I have to branch out a bit from my beloved yogurt and berries. I’m playing with new recipes for breakfast burritos, lentils and even tempeh.

Each new day I attempt to create a high protein breakfast I can make with the ingredients I have on hand. Not gong to lie, it’s still yogurt and berries a few times a week. After I walk the dogs, I really think about what flavors I would like in my morning tea. I’m paying more attention to what I want and what my body needs.

These small instances of creativity seem to be trickling out of the kitchen and into other areas. Now, getting up and doing something doesn’t feel like a chore. Will it last through the deepest part of winter? I hope so but only time will tell.

I’ve got a new hat, sweater and skirt design on my needles. I have my Olympic sweater challenge planned enough to swatch but I won’t cast on until Opening Ceremonies.

The garden plans are well underway. If I can get to the greenhouse where the soil is kept (I forgot to take some to the basement in the fall), I’ll start some lettuce and herbs next week.

It’s been ridiculously cold for at least two weeks so I’ve had to be creative in keeping the dogs entertained but not over fed. We are all getting a bit stir crazy but the extreme cold should break tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

But first, a story. My first foray into Double Knitting was not my choice. You probably don’t know that I am a knitting instructor who has taught all over the country (USA). Among other venues, I used to teach for Stitches/XRX. If you don’t know, XRX published knitting books and the magazine Knitter’s from the 1985 up until about 2016. They also hosted a series knitting events around the country called Stitches. Through the ‘90s and early 2000’s Stitches was THE knitting event.

I started teaching for them in 2004. A few weeks before one event another instructor had to cancel and I was asked to teach a one hour, getting to know you type class on Double Knitting. Sure, I said, I can do that. Only one problem, I had never done Double Knitting. Luckily, in a one hour class, with 20 -30 students, you can’t get through more than the basics and I had a few weeks to prepare. The class went fine and I went on to teach the same class many other times before getting interested in more advanced techniques of Double Knitting.

Back to the current cowl. I was inspired to create this after watching the last season of Shetland. You can see the cowl the sparked my creative juices in the photo above. I’m sure that one is not Double Knit. I’d say it’s either stranded colorwork knit in a tube or very cleverly staged so that the private side is never showing. To me it called out to be done in Double Knit.

I had recently found some yarn at a yarn show I thought would work well so I sent a photo to Leading Men Fiber Arts. A few days later, I had the yarn. Of course that was May so it sat on the shelf for months. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

The details

Smitten with Shetland is a long cowl that can be worn long as an accessory or wrapped twice around the neck for the ultimate warmth. One benefit of this simple stitch pattern is that, once you have done the first colorwork round, you don’t really need to look at the pattern again. Another nice benefit is that you can easily adjust the size to your preference by adding or subtracting pattern repeats.

I added a bit of color pop every time the diamonds met. This can be a bit tricky if you are not familiar with 3-color Double Knitting. You could get the same effect with duplicate stitch or leave it out entirely.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/smitten-with-shetland

The Yarn

I discovered Leading Men Fiber Arts yarn, Targhee Twist DK, at a yarn festival last spring. It’s a unique combination of superwash and non-super wash Targhee. As you may already know, I try hard to skip the big producers of anything and support smaller companies. Targhee Twist DK is 100% North American Targhee, spun at Red Hill Fiber Mill in Indiana and dyed in Illinois by Leading Men Fiber Arts. When I started designing this cowl, I knew Targhee Twist DK would be just the right yarn.

I don’t often see yarns that blend superwash and non-superwash. I don’t usually care for superwash yarn. I don’t like the way it feels as I knit, but the blend with natural wool made this yarn appealing. Also, I love targhee yarn and I have a hard time passing up a unique blend. Put those two things together and two skeins of this jumped in my bag immediately. The hardest part was choosing colors. I ended up with a dark teal and a bright lime-green, a color combination I adore.

This is a 3-ply yarn, which is also a little unusual for a small mill spun yarn for the simple reason that 3-ply is more expensive to make than 2-ply. Can you see in the photo that one strand is a bit lighter than the other two? That’s the non-superwash strand. It takes color differently then the superwash strands so there is a marled effect.

I decided to test the boundaries of this yarn with my stockinette swatch. For a DK yarn, I would normally start swatching with a US 5 or US 6. Here I used a US 7 (on the bottom) and a US 4 (top). My gauge on the larger needle is 16 stitches over 4 inches; on the smaller needle it is 19 stitches over 4 inches. As I had expected, the yarn expanded nicely on the larger needle. The fabric with the smaller needle was more of a surprise. I thought it to be stiff, and it is a little bit but not as much as I expected. If making mittens or a hat, I would be tempted to use a needle this size to help stop the wind getting through the piece.

Targhee Twist DK is a limited run yarn line. Leading Men Fiber Arts hope to make more in the future but it won’t be anytime soon. The are generously sharing a coupon code THEBEANKNITS for 10% OFF our Targhee Twist DK in their online shop. The coupon expires on February 14th, 2026. If you can’t find the colors you like in Targhee Twist DK, try their Dramaturg base.

Last week was rough; not for me, personally, but for the US as a whole. I can’t say I am used to waking up to a new horror each and every day, but I have come to expect it. But last week was extra horrible. Writing about my small, sheltered life seemed like a waste of time. Why would anyone want to read what WS happening with me hermit lifestyle with all of this heavy stuff happening every day? I, for one, spent far too much time doomscrolling.

To break the doomscrolling cycle, I escaped into the Substack creators I follow, reading about winter gardening, herbalism, knitting and cooking. It took longer than it should have to put two and two together and realize this is exactly why I should be sharing about my quiet, boring life. We need that escape to refresh and regroup. So, here I am, trying to find something distracting to share with you.

I have taken to talking to the sun each morning. Most days, it’s too cloudy to see much sunshine, but I know it’s there, rising every day just as it should. When it feels like the human race is trying desperately to destroy itself, the sun just keeps doing it’s thing. I’m not sure exactly why, but I find that comforting.

Current state of the world aside, I love January. The home improvement/landscaping chores are nonexistent. All I have to do is clean up snow (admittedly, that can be a lot in itself) and make sure the dogs are happy and healthy. Everything else feels like play. I’m planning next years garden, which is a lot of organizing but much easier on the back and shoulders than actually tending the garden.

I finished this Double Knit cowl fairly quickly. It felt like it took more time to bind off all of those stitches than it did to knit the whole cowl. It still needs a good blocking but that will have to wraith until I wear it out to walk the dogs in the morning. Luckily, the wood stove makes it pretty dry in my house because it can take double knitting a while to dry otherwise.

I made my second batch of Rosemary Gladstar’s Famous Face Cream. It’s a bit of cost up front for the ingredients you probably don’t have on hand but it’s cheaper than store bought cream in the long run. Plus, your not putting a bunch of on known substances on your skin. You can find videos on how to make it on YouTube, Pinterest and TicTok.

During the winter, I mostly drink hot liquids. I came across this book I bought a few years ago and promptly forgot about. In an effort for consume less caffeine from coffee or black tea and sugar from hot cocoa, I’ve been trying out some of these tea blends. It fun trying out different herbal combinations and playing with substitutions due to preference (anise and licorice root are hard no’s) or availability. If you have a local food co-op that is anything like mine, there will be a bulk herb section. You can get just a few spoonfuls of something to see if you like it. As a side note, this is how I buy most of my herbs and spices. When you but a jar of herb in the grocery store, especially the common ones, you are paying mostly for the jar. I learned that little money saving technique a couple years ago. You can also buy the amount you are likely to use in a few months so it stays fresh.

That seems like quite a lot for one post. I hope it helps you escape for a few minutes.

Over the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about the dumpster fire that was 2025 in the US. I have already decided to stop funding billionaires; I’ve cancelled my Prime membership and Meta accounts, among others.

I believe billionaires should be taxed out of existence. 50 or so people hoarding 99% of the worlds wealth is grotesque. More than that, I’m tired of all so-called elites. Corporate Executives making 500 times what the companies average worker makes. Celebrities, sports starts and those before mentioned CEO's buying 4th, 5th or 6th houses and pushing people who live in those places out of their neighborhoods - all to avoid paying some extra taxes. I’m tired of corporations telling me what I can have when they should be listening to what I want. Not everything needs a computer chip and/or AI.

Money is power. This year, I am going to be thoughtful about how I spend my money and who benefits from those hard earned dollars. This is not going to be easy and there are some companies I will be stuck with. I can make some changes, probably more than I imagine.

I don’t think it’s enough to just thoughtfully spend my money, though. I think I want to let companies know that I am choosing or not choosing to spend my money with them and why.

Do you want to come along on this journey? I’m not sure yet exactly how it’s going to work but I like a challenge so, let’s go.

Happy New Year

It started snowing the day before Thanksgiving, about 8 inches followed by another 6 a few days later. Since then, it’s been an inch or two every couple days. There is more snow in the forecast and not a day over freezing in slight.

Now, I like winter and I love snow, too. The continuous snow means constantly shoveling and clearing the driveway. Briefly, I fantasized about being wealthy and having ‘people’ for that. I quickly discarded that fantasy, though. Strangers all around would bring anxiety with them. I am now hoping for some house elves to come silently in the night and chisel the hard packed snow off of the deck and sidewalk before it turns to ice. I’ll happily knit socks and hats for any that want the job. If you know a house elf in search of a loving home, please send it my way.

Snow clearing aside, I’m thoroughly enjoying the slow down of winter. The never ending chores of summer are over and I don’t yet miss them. I’ve been able to put the bird feeders back up so I can watch the chickadees while drinking my morning coffee. We don’t keep feeders up year around cause bears. There is more time for cooking and baking, reading, and crafts of all kinds.

I did manage to cast on those 448 stitches I referenced in the last post. This cowl is coming along nicely now. The stitch pattern is so simple that, after the first round, I don’t need to look at the chart. The occasional round with three colors is a bit slow but the rest is a breeze. I can’t wait to have it done. It’s going to be so cute and warm.

I am just a handful of pages away from finishing The Shadow of The Wind. This is a book I have been reading rather than listening to an audio version. Quite frankly, it’s taken me most of the year to finish. Not through and faults in the story, there were simply many months that I did not have the time or energy to pick it up. This is a beautifully written book by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Set in 1940’s Barcelona, the story centers around a boy who finds a rare book and also the author of the found book.

Often I read cozy mysteries so I can escape from the horrors of the world for a while. Shadow of the Wind is no cozy mystery; it has plenty of horrors but also sweetness. Each twist and turn of the plot was a surprise. I was swept into Barcelona, walking right beside Daniel as he worked to uncover the mystery of what happened to the author and why someone is following him.

This book is a mystery for sure, but not the type you are used to if you, like I do, read primarily American and British authors. The story builds slowly and carefully. It’s probably not for everyone but I loved it.

So, what does a hermit do during the winter? I’ve finished up a few things in the past week or so. Let me show you.

I finished a few knitting project, which I will tell you about in a minute. First, a non knitting project that I completed; I made a small pantry cupboard in the basement stairwell. It’s not much to look at but I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I used only scraps of wood that I found in the basement and garage so I didn’t spend a single penny on it. The shelves are only a single can deep so I can see everything without moving anything. No more buying cans of tomatoes simply because the ones I already have are hidden in the back of deep shelves. My husband says he will make a frame to pretty it up a bit and that’s fine. If he doesn’t get around to it, I’m still perfectly content with the results.

Now, to knitting. I finished this shawl I’ve been working on a couple weeks ago. My plan was to keep knitting until I ran out of yarn and I did just that. I could have Mede one more purple eyebrow ridge in the final green section, but that would have messed up the symmetry of the orange and purple eyebrows.

I finished a plain, ribbed sock and these garter stitch gloves. I had some mini-skeins from Leading Men Fibers, so I just switched the color, as my grandmother would say, as the spirit moved me.

I have planned, charted and mathed out a Double Knit cowl design. Now, if I can just hype myself up enough to cast on 448 stitches with a tubular Cast On…

This review is of the yarn Studious (and a bit of Scholar) by Why Knot Fibers. Before I get started, I want to put all cards on the table here. Kat, the owner of Why Knot Fibers is one of my closest friends. We work together a lot selling my patterns and her yarns online and at fiber festivals all around the Midwest and East Coast of the USA.

One reason I chose Studious as my first official yarn review is that it’s the yarn I am working with at this moment. I designed Raising Eyebrows several years ago as a fundraising project. I, and several of my indie dyer friends, made the shawl our own way and auctioned off either the finished shawl or a kit it make it. Since I donated my original shawl, I decided to make another.

The other reason is that I can offer you a glimpse at yarn manufacturing that you may not have known before.

First, the yarn details

Studious is 85% Targhee and 15% Grey Mixed Wool (I’ll explain that later) and comes in 460 yard/100g skeins. The label calls this yarn Fingering weight and suggests a needle US sized 1-3.

My experiences

The shawl I am knitting with this yarn has a lot of garter stitch. I first started with a US 4 needle but quickly decided the fabric felt too firm for a shawl (in my opinion), and I started over with a US 5 needle. The resulting shawl, about 3/4 finished, is perfectly drapey but still robust enough to stay where you put it.

For a more specific test of the yarn, I knit a stockinette swatch on both a US 2 and a US 5. My gauge on the smaller needle is 24 stitches over 4 inches; on the larger needle it is 21 stitches over 4 inches. Both are pleasing to the touch. I feel I could have gone to an even smaller needle size if I’d found one.

This 2-ply is a pleasant knit. The yarn is smooth with very few slubs. In the three skeins I have for the shawl, I found no breaks. Most 2-ply yarns make slightly wobbly stitches. Personally, I’m fine with that; if I want a perfectly even knit, I’ll use a knitting machine. It shows stitch patterns well, as seen in the cabled sweater below. Note: This sweater is knit in the sister yarn of Studious, that is DK weight.

Where this yarn comes from

Fiber to create yarn can be sourced in many ways. With Studious, the yarn company, Why Knot Fibers, purchased the undyed yarn from a Coyote Run Fiberworks, a mini mill also located here in Michigan. It’s not practical for such a small mill to create partnerships with enough farms to source the fiber. Here, partnering with brokers and processors allows them to keep costs down for dyers while still using US-grown fiber. The scale at which these processors produce also allows Coyote Run to create the same product long-term instead of small, unrepeatable batches. This type of collaboration helps to sustain additional small farms and businesses.

In case you are wondering, mini mill just means the size of the equipment is smaller than a full size mill. A mini mill makes high quality yarn, but in smaller amounts. It could not create fiber for a company as large as, say, Woolrich. Mini mills often take on work in very small batches. For example, a fleece purchased a while at a county fair of fiber event, or a small farm that wants to sell yarn from their own flock during farm tours.

I knit almost exclusively with independent dyers because I like knowing where my yarn comes from. There are so many small companies out there making terrific and interesting yarns. Also, I like knowing that the money I spend is staying close to home.

Late summer/early fall is a really busy time in the north. Maybe it is everywhere, but I sure notice it more since we moved to Northern Michigan. I’m running around all day, splitting my time between extending the garden as long as possible and getting everything ready for winter. Just today, I moved and divided plants, harvested tomatoes and chard, roasted hot peppers for a paste to use deep into winter, and stacked firewood in the garage.

The difference between now and the summer; then I was overwhelmed and exhausted while not I am energized. Part of this is due to the temperature changes. It still pleasantly warm but not ‘can’t stand in the sun for five minutes’ hot. I don’t do heat well. The other part is that I have stopped trying to constantly shove down and ignore all my negative emotions. Turns out, facing them head on is a much more healthy way to live.

I’ve been working on a nice, simple shawl lately - called Raising Eyebrows. It’s one I designed years ago and I forgot how much fun it is. It’s more of a recipe than a formal pattern. There are three sections: garter stitch, followed by some short row shaping and ending with the ‘eyebrow’ section. You can work the short row and ‘eyebrow’ sections at any multiple of ten stitches and change colors as you desire. I’m planning to keep knitting this one until the yarn runs out.

The yarn I’m using is Studiuos from Why Knot Fibers. It’s a fingering weight that is 100% Targhee wool. Targhee is a middle of the road wool; not as soft and drapey as merino but also not as crunchy and stiff as an Icelandic wool. It’s got a lot of bounce. In other words, it’s the perfect wool for a shawl.

See you next week.

I feel I need to write this post before I get back into more regular posting again.

My fledgling writing routine went completely off the rails this summer, as did this summer. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to write about why but, every time I try, I just feel ungrateful and whiny. Yes, I had a challenging summer but not as challenging as it has been for a lot of others. I have not been grabbed off the street, or even harassed on the street. I have not lost my job, my house or my healthcare. I can still feed my family. What right do I have to complain?

What right do I have to complain? I’ve been thinking a lot the past few days about what I am ‘allowing’ myself to feel upset over and I’m starting to think that is a bit part of why I can’t seem to focus on writing or designing, even now that I have the time. For months now, I’ve been trying to dismiss my struggles as ‘first world problems’. They are, but that doesn't mean I should just bury them.

Finally, in the past few days I have come to realize that, while I have not lost my job or home, I can still fell devastated that my dog was very sick for most of July. Just because it was not life threatening doesn’t mean I have to be okay. I come from uncomplaining stock. My mom has been struggling with sciatica and every time she feels bad she reminds herself that she does not (like my MIL) need brain surgery.

As I said, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Finding balance is the key, I think. I have a right to be upset about something, though it is minor in the grand scheme of things. I can feel bad and grateful at the same time. I don’t need to feel guilty about feeling low. I don’t need to ‘buck up’. I’m finally letting myself feel whatever I feel and that is such a relief. Next up - trying not to feel guilty about all the things I don’t get done. But that is a problem for another day.

Speaking of finding balance, I recently stumbled upon Joyful with Chloe Markham here on Substack. If your not a fan of fluffy, woo woo mindfulness gurus, you should check this out. I call it no fuss, she calls it no BS tools to create a joyful life. The paywall is steep, too steep for me right now, but even the free articles are inspiring and thought provoking and, at the same time, simple and straightforward. Let me know what you think.

Hope you are well and I’ll be back next week with some real news.

Today is a perfect, late spring day. Sunny, but not too hot. A bit af a breeze and some big puffy clouds. Best of all, while I have a long list of things I can do, there are only a few things that I MUST do; walk the dogs - done, water the grass seed - almost done and finish up the last few details of a pattern before I send it off to the printer.

Instead of racing around, I’m free to putter about and linger over a cup of tea (Harley and Sons Malachi McCormick Decent tea for those interested) While I write this. Since I’m not rushing, I‘ve been able to watch a Pileated Woodpecker drilling for bugs in a nearby maple tree. Did you know woodpeckers have a tongue that wraps around their brain in order to prevent concussion while they are pecking into a tree? Amazing. I also spotted a hummingbird feeding on my blueberry blossoms. I noticed one a day or two ago and was wondering what they have to eat at this time of year. The blueberries and lilacs should sustain them until the wild honeysuckle start to bloom.

Thursday

I have a bit of a pest problem. There is a skunk living somewhere nearby, maybe under my shed. It’s not a strong odor. If I had neighbors, I might think someone was enjoying a bit of a recreational smoke. For that to be true, someone would be living in my woods. Given both options, I’d rather have the skunk.

Then there is the ground squirrel. In case you have never seen a ground squirrel, they are like chipmunks only worse. They dig tunnels all over the yarn and will eat anything - including each other. They are also experts at playing dead. My dog loves to chase them but doesn’t quite know what to do when she catches them. The first time she caught one, she shook it and dropped it. We were both sure it was dead; it was lying flat on its back, legs all splayed out and unmoving. As the dog started to wander off, I watched it open one eye and turn its head around, checking on where the dog was. When it saw she wasn’t looking, it ran off to the nearest hole. Last year, the new puppy caught one and brought it in the house - not as dead as we hoped. Lucky for me, I wasn’t home that night so hubby had to take care of it.

Most of the time we coexist without too much trouble But, this year, I have one the has taken a liking to my lettuce plants and seedlings. If they eat the occasional tulip bulb, that’s okay but I did not put all that work into growing plants from seed just for a pest to come along and nibble them right down to the ground. So far, I’ve been trying to encourage both pests to move elsewhere, with little success in both cases. Honestly, I can deal with the skunk. It will move on sooner or later. But I may have to go deadly on that blasted ground squirrel. Maybe one of the dogs will catch it.

Saturday

It’s June 1. We had a frost this morning and I had to wear jacket and gloves to walk dogs. Sheesh.

As promised last week, I’m going to start showing you some of the yarns I have collected this spring at various yarn events. There are two local yarn shops that I frequent but they see the same sales reps and therefore have a lot of the same stock. I love shopping at yarn and fiber shows, where I can always find something new.

At Nash Yarn Fest, in Nashville, Tennessee, I found this soft, fingering to sport weight yarn from Wooldreamers. Back when I had an Instagram account, I followed Wooldreamers and enjoted watching their videos about life at a Spanish mill.

Saona is a 50%cotton/50%wool yarn. While there is nothing exceptionally unique about the blend, it’s soft, has a beautiful color and was fairly inexpensive. I haven’t knit it up yet, so I can’t give you a full yarn review but I think it will work up into a lovely spring pullover. When I do get to knitting it, I’ll let you know how it goes.

The long a waited release date for Double Double has finally arrived. Double Double is a dolman sleeve, oversized cardigan in two sizes, to fit up to 44 or 60 inch chest. This sweater features a shawl collar with reversible cables, a back which combines cables and stockinette stitch worked from the collar down, and body and sleeves that are picked up and worked sideways. The result is a cozy sweater that you’ll want to wear

Tuesday

Today is a perfect, late spring day. Sunny, but not too hot. A bit af a breeze and some big puffy clouds. Best of all, while I have a long list of things I can do, there are only a few things that I MUST do; walk the dogs - done, water the grass seed - almost done and finish up the last few details of a pattern before I send it off to the printer.

Instead of racing around, I’m free to putter about and linger over a cup of tea (Harley and Sons Malachi McCormick Decent tea for those interested) While I write this. Since I’m not rushing, I‘ve been able to watch a Pileated Woodpecker drilling for bugs in a nearby maple tree. Did you know woodpeckers have a tongue that wraps around their brain in order to prevent concussion while they are pecking into a tree? Amazing. I also spotted a hummingbird feeding on my blueberry blossoms. I noticed one a day or two ago and was wondering what they have to eat at this time of year. The blueberries and lilacs should sustain them until the wild honeysuckle start to bloom.

Thursday

I have a bit of a pest problem. There is a skunk living somewhere nearby, maybe under my shed. It’s not a strong odor. If I had neighbors, I might think someone was enjoying a bit of a recreational smoke. For that to be true, someone would be living in my woods. Given both options, I’d rather have the skunk.

Then there is the ground squirrel. In case you have never seen a ground squirrel, they are like chipmunks only worse. They dig tunnels all over the yarn and will eat anything - including each other. They are also experts at playing dead. My dog loves to chase them but doesn’t quite know what to do when she catches them. The first time she caught one, she shook it and dropped it. We were both sure it was dead; it was lying flat on its back, legs all splayed out and unmoving. As the dog started to wander off, I watched it open one eye and turn its head around, checking on where the dog was. When it saw she wasn’t looking, it ran off to the nearest hole. Last year, the new puppy caught one and brought it in the house - not as dead as we hoped. Lucky for me, I wasn’t home that night so hubby had to take care of it.

Most of the time we coexist without too much trouble But, this year, I have one the has taken a liking to my lettuce plants and seedlings. If they eat the occasional tulip bulb, that’s okay but I did not put all that work into growing plants from seed just for a pest to come along and nibble them right down to the ground. So far, I’ve been trying to encourage both pests to move elsewhere, with little success in both cases. Honestly, I can deal with the skunk. It will move on sooner or later. But I may have to go deadly on that blasted ground squirrel. Maybe one of the dogs will catch it.

Saturday

It’s June 1. We had a frost this morning and I had to wear jacket and gloves to walk dogs. Sheesh.

As promised last week, I’m going to start showing you some of the yarns I have collected this spring at various yarn events. There are two local yarn shops that I frequent but they see the same sales reps and therefore have a lot of the same stock. I love shopping at yarn and fiber shows, where I can always find something new.

At Nash Yarn Fest, in Nashville, Tennessee, I found this soft, fingering to sport weight yarn from Wooldreamers. Back when I had an Instagram account, I followed Wooldreamers and enjoted watching their videos about life at a Spanish mill.

Saona is a 50%cotton/50%wool yarn. While there is nothing exceptionally unique about the blend, it’s soft, has a beautiful color and was fairly inexpensive. I haven’t knit it up yet, so I can’t give you a full yarn review but I think it will work up into a lovely spring pullover. When I do get to knitting it, I’ll let you know how it goes.

The long a waited release date for Double Double has finally arrived. Double Double is a dolman sleeve, oversized cardigan in two sizes, to fit up to 44 or 60 inch chest. This sweater features a shawl collar with reversible cables, a back which combines cables and stockinette stitch worked from the collar down, and body and sleeves that are picked up and worked sideways. There is a bit of everything in this one. The end result is a cozy sweater you will want to wear all autumn and winter long.

So, what have I been up to the last couple of weeks?

If you read my last newsletter, you may remember that I was planning to try replanting a portion of my Red Twig Dogwood that had taken root. It tuned out to be both simpler and more difficult to carry out this plan Than I expected. One reason is that the part of the plant I was digging up was between the main bush and the fence. Getting myself and a shovel in there was challenging. Also, it did had taken root a bit farther back on the branch than I thought it had; I nearly cut the wrong side of the roots. If I had planted it as I would any other plant with the roots just below the ground, it would be at a 90 degree angle to the ground. But dogwoods are so forgiving that I was able to plant some of the branch below ground so the main stem is straight. It’s getting some new leaves so I think it’s doing well. I’ll know for sure in a month or so.

Earlier in the month I attended Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This was my last show until fall. Even though I was already exhausted from traveling two times earlier in the spring (Have I told you yet I’m a bit of a hermit?) I was determined to enjoy it. Sometimes that can be hard. The time spent interacting with so many people builds up until I’m unhappy and grumpy, even though I am surrounded by people and things that I love.

This year was good, though. My friends and I factor in enough down time that I was able to stay in the moment and enjoy it the whole weekend. I saw a lot of friends, sold a ton of patterns and books and ate well. Other than our B&B flooding and scrambling to find a hotel room on Saturday night, it was great.

Now, I’m back home and turning my full focus to the garden. But not today. It’s one of those cool, wet days so I’m making bagels and pizza, two things that need a really hot oven, and knitting with dogs on my lap and my hubby, at the other end of the couch, saving the Kingdom of Hyrule.

In my next newsletter, I‘ll show you what new yarns I bought at the knitting festivals this spring. I’ll share my ideas for what to make and you can let me know if you have a better idea.