Oops I Bought More Plants

The chickens have their roost, and also I stopped by the nursery and accidentally bought some more plants. But the sun was shining! What else was I supposed to do?

After the weather we've had lately a day of sunshine felt like a cause to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by expanding my little garden? I picked up a blueberry plant - Sunshine Blue - that is absolutely beautiful and already covered with tiny little flower buds, as well as another greek oregano - my last one died in the Cursed Herb Pot - and some rue and lads love. Rue is meant to be a cat deterrent, so I'm hoping it will take off and I can put it around the yard because man am I sick of walking out to see another section of my garden bed dug up every other day. The lads love is apparently a mosquito repellent and since we've had plenty of mosquito problems I'm looking forward to that one taking off too. When the weather warms up I want to get a shade cloth spread over this little patio and some natural pest repellents will be a welcome addition.

My lemon tree, the rue (in the blue pot) and lads love (foreground). In the shade of the parsley mass to the left is the new oregano plant - hopefully it will spread out if I keep the parsley back!

While I was getting stuff done I figured it was time to get the lemon tree into its new pot. Unfortunately that meant shifting the new pot, which was not only big and heavy but situated around the corner from the sunny side of the yard. I managed to drag it around by wriggling it onto a piece of old shade cloth but I did leave some scrape marks on the concrete and ended up with a little bit of a sore shoulder. Be careful if you're moving things that are heavier than you can safely manage!

Now it's time to learn how to care for citrus - I've heard that, especially in pots, they take a little managing. I'm considering going back for that soil testing kit I keep forgetting to buy, so I can make sure the nutrients are good, and some citrus fertiliser as we come in to spring.

The monster scarf. The panels you can see here include a Star Trek comm badge symbol and two of the figures from the Beatles' Help album.

A few years ago now I knit up a My Favourite Things scarf that, well... I love (and plan to emulate) the over-the-top colours but my stranded colourwork skills were not up to par and the scale got completely out of hand: the scarf ended up more than six feet long and about 20cm wide. I wore it a few times but it was more like being swathed in something than accessorising. Still, despite its flaws, I really loved it and I think I'm ready to try again.

I know now that it's better not to line up the stitches where you catch your floats - on the edge there you can see a few of those peeking through, especially in the purple and green section - and how to actually plan for the length of the finished project based on row gauge. The original was knit in cheap acrylic from my local craft store but since my new plan was to remake it in a thinner yarn weight I was unable to get anything nearly as bright (they don't carry a lot in thinner plies, and most of what they do is baby yarn in pastel tones). I've opted, instead, to use Knit Picks Palette this time.

L to R: Bark, Navy, Urchin, Mulberry, Almond, Teal, Mauve, Sweet Potato, Currant, Spruce, Semolina, Tarragon.

The colours are a little more subdued than the original but I'm feeling good about how they're going to look together. I'm especially in love with a few of the colours - sweet potato, in particular, and tarragon - and it was a thrill to dig through the box and discover how they all looked in person. Palette is fingering weight and the original is (roughly - we call it 8 ply here) DK. It's also wool this time, rather than acrylic, which will be a nice upgrade. That said I'm not totally against acrylic - it can be perfectly soft, especially when washed, and it's so low-maintenance and hard-wearing.

I'm looking forward to sitting down and putting together the charts for this iteration of the scarf. I'll probably use many the same - Star Trek, the Beatles, a D20, Totoro, Firefly - but with a little adjustment. I haven't decided if I'll knit it stranded around again or flat with double knitting. Double knitting will mean the colours on either side are reversed but will save me the trouble of worrying about float lengths (something I'm still not comfortable with - catching floats always shows on the front, even when they're randomised, but keeping designs to manageable float lengths is pretty restrictive). Stranded knitting will mean I don't have to purl and that's a powerful argument!

Finally - the roost is in! So far I have had to go out each evening and toss the ladies up on to the roost for the night, but my hope is that they will get the idea before too long. Theoretically it shouldn't take too long for it to sink in that they'll have to hop up on their own if they don't want me coming in and picking them up, but part of me is starting to think they sort of enjoy the attention. They don't seem in a hurry to figure it out for themselves.

Still, I'll persevere. If they can get this habit figured out I'll be able to open up the nesting box again and get it ready for when they begin laying. At the moment it's blocked off so that they don't sleep in there but I know that they would like to. They seem to really enjoy snuggling up together in the cosiest corner they can find. And, really, it's hard to blame them for that!