A question regarding hanging out the wash

Being raised around clothes dryers, I have never hung clothes out to dry on a clothesline. I'm going to put one in the backyard this spring/summer and give it a go. I've noticed when people have shared pictures of their washing hanging out on the line that socks are pegged by the toe. I've hung my wool socks up in the past, but always by the cuff. This leads me to believe that there are handy dandy tips out there for how to hang what so it isn't stretched out or damaged. So, to anyone who has any hints, please fire away.

Look what the postman brought...

I joined Flibbertygibbet's fabric swap on something of a whim. My swap partner from London sent me these lovely things. Thank you Abi!



Fiona squealed with joy when she saw the fruit leather. She was even more ecstatic when I told her it was for her. It was promptly devoured. It is kind of hard to see, but there are some really cute buttons attached to the postcard. It was hard for me to stop at each step and take pictures, so I'm afraid the pictures aren't as good as they should be.

And for the grand finale...



I just don't know what I am going to do with it yet. For whatever reason I keep thinking of some sort of skirt for Fiona. There isn't enough of course for a whole skirt, but maybe I can incorporate some patchwork or something. Ponder, ponder, ponder.

Thank you for the fun Gail! Thank you Abi for being such a great swap partner!

Some lovely new life...

Here are some things from my garden (front yard). I don't know what this plant is, it was here when we bought the house. This is the only time of year I like it, because of its sweet little flowers. Really, its only offense is that it is in a bad location, and I could certainly remedy that.


This was one of my favorite surprises when it bloomed the second year we lived here. Again, I don't know what it is, but it makes these lovely purpley-blue flowers that last for a long time. There are blue bells coming up around it. It was hidden in a hedge. The hedge started to die off and then we saw them.


Here are some of the crocuses that I planted last fall. I love this picture.


Here is my clematis (macropetala) that I thought for sure would not survive our winter as it was in a pot the whole time. Just look at that litte flower bud.


Here is a little fern frond. I believe it is a wood fern.


The lovely orange crocus with the crimson stripes up the side. I haven't been able to get a good picture of it open yet. I will keep trying.


Here comes a tulip, again planted last fall. I didn't mark where I planted what, so it will be a nice surprise.


Here is a little hyacinth just peeking its little head out. Come on out, the weather is fine!

Death, again

The former co-worker I was knitting a scarf for died this past weekend. He was 36 or 37 and had cancer. The doctors had told him he had a year or two to live. I keep thinking "this sucks" and yet those words are so completely inadequate.

Reading leads to rambling

Lately, I have been on a classics kick when it comes to reading. First, I have to say that I have read most of these books before, but I have a memory like a sieve, so that often it is as if I am reading a new book, or a book that I keep having a strong sense of deja vu about. Anyway, it all started with the Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You quiz. I simply had to read Persuasion, then I moved on to Pride and Prejudice (which I really enjoyed), then Emma (I didn't like her a bit), then Northanger Abbey (it was ok). I felt as if I were getting into a rut with Jane. Now I am reading Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. It is interesting to me that the discussion of whether women should work outside the home, and what the benefits and the problems are, were being discussed back them. The problem of urbanization and industrialization and how that impacts society is still being played out today.

I have been working at being more environmentally conscious and remembering to donate food to those in need. Oh, that sounds so self-important, but that really isn't my intent. Fiona really likes to pick out things to put in the donation bin. It is pretty cute. She seems to pick out the things that are her favorites. This last time it was tomato and roasted red pepper soup, two kinds of macaroni and cheese and a jar of pickles.

One of the first times she noticed one of the people who stand at freeway on/off ramps asking for food/work/money she said that the construction people would come and help the person and build him a house with his own bedroom and they would build him a bed and they would build him a blanket and then he would have his own house and be warm.

Why doesn't it work that way?

A victory

I was sure that this post was going to be about failure, and yet it isn't. I started knitting something a few days ago, I can't really say what though. It has some YOs in it. I forgot one. I didn't realize until I had finished the row, and of course it was at the other end of a lot of stitches. One imperfection isn't too big of a problem, so I decided to pick up the bar where the YO was supposed to be. I thought that would add the stitch back and things would be ok. It looked terrible after I finished another row. It needed to be fixed. To write it out, that I needed to make a YO, K1, YO and then purl those three stitches for the row above, sound easy and straight forward. It wasn't. I've never done anything like this before. First, I confused the which yarn was for which row and it was a tight, awful, twisted mess. The second time it wasn't as bad as the first, but it was still not right, then I realized I had forgotten to take out the stitch I had added to make up the for missing YO. I tried again. Third time's the charm. I wanted to have a glass of champagne afterwards.

Thank you

Thank you all for the thoughtful, heartfelt comments you left regarding my cousin. He was very loved in his community. There were probably 400 people at his funeral. His parents are doing amazingly well, and I am sure it is because they are surrounded by so much love.

A slowdown

Sorry for not posting for the last two weeks.

My 17 year old cousin commited suicide last week. Things have just been kind of chaotic all week. I hope to be back to posting at least twice a week very soon.

Thank you to everyone who still visits my blog.