Thursday 11th April

 A largely uneventful day today.

GARDENING 

I'm finding that going into the garden for a bit every day is becoming more more and more important to me as the days grow longer and the weather improves.

As I have been threatening to my Kelvedon Wonderpeas for a week now, I have sown a dozen Dwarf Early peas, and put their pits in the mini plastic greenhouse, along with a dozen Musselburgh leeks and half a dozen hyssop seeds, all in paper pots. I have left the door to the greenhouse unzipped; I'm treating it more as an extra cold frame. I haven't been so mean as to tell the Kelvedon peas about their rivals!

I also managed to scatter the remainder of a packet of spring onion seeds, Lisbon, maybe, into one of the pots I have earmarked for salads. 

Finally I have nearly thrown caution to the winds and transplanted half a dozen Superaquadulce broad beans into a tub. I found the homemade copper collars that were fairly successful in previous years so put one round each seedling. Fingers crossed...

These arrived in the post today...

So that's tomorrow's fun sorted!

KNITTING 

I have embarked upon the cuff for the second pink baby sock. I think doing the ribbing is my least favourite bit... oh, have I mentioned this already?

CROSSTITCHING 

We are working out how to tackle the outer border... 

Now... supper to eat, Richard Osman to watch, and 850 steps to get in before a weekly church zoom group at 8pm.

Toodle-oo!

Wednesday 10th April

The sock factory is still in operation;

I don't have enough of the Lidl fancy pink sock yarn to make another pair of socks for me, but....

Isn't the baby sock cute? I wonder of there is enough for a little cardigan or jumper? After I have done the other sock, of course.

The paper plant pot factory was also in operation. Now I've got about fifty or sixty - I wasn't really counting. It's a shopping bag full, anyway. Now all I need is some decent weather to sow the seeds. 

I did go out for ten minutes or so just to see what is happening in the garden. I spoke kindly to the broad beans. The seedlings are coming on, some have several leaves and are poking roots out through the sides of their paper pots. Do I dare risk putting them in the big tubs? It's not the weather that makes me hesitate  but the slugs and snails!

I've also had a few direct words with the pea seeds I sowed at the same time. 'Either you grow, and appear soon, or I will replace you with peas from a different packet'. So now they know what I am expecting from them!

Tuesday 9th April

 First of all, before I forget, this is the link for these fat quarters 

that I bought on amazon. Barbara Anne was asking about them in the comments yesterday.

Now, today... not much to say, really. I've done another three 'needle-fulls' of green thread around the various pictures on the cross stitch collaboration. 

I find it is a good idea if I thread three needles before I start stitching; that way I'm more likely to keep going! I'm just about halfway through the inner borders, and then it will be time to think about the outside one.

The baby sock, with sock yarn and 2.5mm needles is still remarkably quick to knit. I've altered the pattern slightly; because I really dislike doing knit-purl rib, I changed to stocking stitch; just knit round and round and round after just an inch of rib for the cuff.

I'd done half the cuff yesterday evening; today I did the heel flap, starting at the blue marker

and then the heel turn, (above) and the gusset. Now I'm on the homeward run, heading towards the toe.

After lunch I was feeling very restless; too much sitting indoors. The weather today was nothing like as inviting as yesterday but I braved the grey skies and gusty wind and went out into the garden for a bit. Fifteen minutes pottering around (another Crimson Flower broad bean is up!) made me feel much better. 

I want to sow some more seeds, so I made up another 40 paper pots using scrap paper. Tomorrow I shall decide what to sow...

Now it's evening TV time, and catching up with my step count time. I'm aiming for 2000 per day, and yesterday I managed to get to 3000 - hooray!

Monday 8th April

 Today, for the first time this year, I sat outside in the sunshine after lunch for nearly an hour, with some knitting (the sadly neglected poncho) and my afternoon coffee. It was glorious. Spring has properly arrived. No need for coat, scarf, hat and gloves.

I strolled over to the cold frame; all six Express and Aguadulce broad beans are through,  and four of the Crimson fFower seeds. No peas. I shall sow some more. That'll show'em!

You know how it us; 'free delivery with orders over £25', so you, are at least I,  hunt through to find something to make up the missing £8.71 to get the free delivery. And then find something for £12... so, has the delivery charge been saved or not?

I added this pack of fat quarters of cotton fabric on spec

I love them. The weave is just a little coarser than the usual dress cotton,  making it perfect for slow stitching on. Nice and easy to push the needle through. The yellowy overprinting is actually gold and sparkly.

Buying fabric online is always a bit of a leap of faith, not always as successful as this time.

I finished the third double knitting baby sock, but in a weak moment I cast on another baby sock, this time in sock yarn. I have to stop this random starting new bits of knitting! But not until I have finished the pair!

Sunday 7th April

 The experts are right; being in the garden for a short time is a wonderful way to recharge, reset, refresh.

I checked the cold frame; another couple of broad beans have joined the party, and possibly another lettuce. I'm not the only one who was waiting for warmer weather to flourish. I can't wait until they are transferred to tubs 6, 8 and 9, and I can take my morning coffee out and sit and watch them grow.

I sat on my little trolley stool by tubs 1, 2 and 3 and planted my potatoes.  These are Jersey Royals from the supermarket so I'm not sure how they will get on. Sometimes supermarket potatoes work, and sometimes they don't. There was a blackbird singing the whole time from a nearby tree.

I've updated the veg plan1

It's very rough; I've never been able to stick to a garden plan properly so there didn't seem any point in getting out the compass and rulers. I appear to have 5 vegetables left to grow, and only 1 destination tub... not counting tomatoes...

The other thing the experts suggest is trying to reach a state of 'flow', where you are completely engrossed in an activity.

I suspected that backstitching around the pictures in our cross stitch collaboration might be such an activity, and so it was.

I cut a length of the green thread we agreed on, and used it to thread three needles with two strands each in readiness. This is today's stitching. I've been backstitching apart from the top of the tartan where the thread was running out. I'll start at the left hand edge tomorrow, fill in the gaps and then carry on above the 'Hearts and Home' sampler.

Saturday 6th April

 And then there were two and a bit;

I've already forgotten which iscthe prototype and which is the 'real' first sock, but luckily I have another photograph of them in the right order;

 

Prototype on the left, real sock on the right.

Although there have been interruptions to mini sock knitting. 

This morning we achieved a meetup with my father and our children at the cafe halfway between them and us.

We all had second breakfasts and tea or coffee or fruit juice, and exchanged Easter presents. Although it was cloudy it wasn't too cold, and we had a lovely hour together, getting my father back must in time for lunch.

In the afternoon Himself mowed the lawn grass moss, a heavy job as it was the first cut. I came out and sowed peas 'Ambassador) into one of the tubs, radish into another, and a dozen Tom Thumb lettuces into individual little pots. These is some activity going on in the cold frame at last; two (out of twelve) lettuces are just showing, and ten (out of eighteen) broad beans have appeared. Of the Kelvedon Wonder peas there is no sign - yet. I'll be hopeful for a little while longer. 

This is Ang's cross stitch, isn't it clever! But I'm very glad she filled in the clues herself and didn't leave that to me!

Here is the whole piece;

I shall start going round all the pictures in a sort of middlish dark/medium green backstitch. It will make a good change from too much knitting.