A little spot of green

When J and I moved into our tiny half duplex - our first house - there was one special feature that we really liked. I always go for quirky and unusual things, so this was really cool.

Our house has an atrium inside. It's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. The front is all glass and both sides have large windows that face our dining area on one side and the master bathroom shower on the other (the huge window in the shower is interesting - you can sit at our dining table and look through the atrium and watch someone showering - this doesn't happen often and we make sure no guests are there for sure).

When we moved in the atrium was all rocks, a really ugly fountain and some dead potted plants. It was just sad. I could definitely see the potential for an indoor oasis.

This is the sad before picture:

When I wasn't working I spent the largest part of a week turning the soil (this was a huge pain since it was all clay) and mulching and planting in the atrium. We put an ad on Craigslist for free landscaping rocks, so someone came and dug all of those out earlier, so at least I didn't have to do that part.

It was really hard work and at one point I did think it was going to kill me before I got it done.

I have given the plants a little while to fill in and these are the photos I took earlier today. It's a huge improvement on rocks and dead plants!

The bushes on the trellis are evergreen wisteria (not real wisteria, but they are a lot less invasive and have blooms similar to wisteria but they are dark red violet and smell kinda like grape soda). We wanted evergreens so it would be pretty all year. There are also hydrangeas, foxtail ferns and sedum in there.

The wisterias have really taken off and when all of the plants fill in and mature they will be really great. I still want a tiny bench of some sort to put out there.

This is a closer view of the wisterias:

The atrium is by far my favorite part of the house now. It provides so much light and it's so nice to look out and see healthy green plants in a little protected area just for us, kind of like a secret garden.

Irritating

You know what irritates the hell out of me?

When you are part of a knitalong and you make a post about a certain issue such as: chart row heights not the same or not lining up, and someone makes a snarky comment when they obviously haven't read earlier posts where the Host/Designer has already fixed the problem, reposted the chart and sent a special notice regarding the fix.

I read every post, so this is totally annoying to me. Also, when people don't read the directions that everyone was told to read and then continue to ask inane questions that would already have been answered if they had followed the directions everyone was given.

Come on, how hard is it really? Once again, argh...

Ravelympics

I am working on 3 projects for the Ravelympics. This is definitely the most time consuming. It's the Mitered Square Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting (I love this book, if you don't have it you should pick up a copy).

I have worked on it periodically and I have entered WIPs Wrestling with it. I have 7 half squares for the edges left, then just putting it all together.

I love the colors and it is from various soft acrylics so I can wash it a lot (essential with as many long haired dogs as we have).

Here is a recent photo of 2 of the 3 long haired dogs. Wow, these dogs have a really hard life, huh?

Lotsa FOs

This has been a good knitting year for me. The year just half over and I have already finished more projects than all year last year. Not to mention while working on the house at the same time.

This is my finished February Ladysweater (pattern from Ravelry based on EZ's February Baby Sweater).

The yarn is awesome and I love the color.

Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus Worsted - 75% Wool 25% Alpaca - Cornflower

Needles: KnitPicks Options Size 8

I didn't do the YO increases, I used KF&B instead. The only change I will make when I make another one is to not do any increases over the arms. They are a little too wide.

This is a close up of the buttons. They are super cool. I got them at Benno's Buttons in Dallas. They are glass and iridescent and look kind of like carnival glass.

Next up is a basic garter stitch scarf with fringe. I am normally very anti-fringe, but this scarf really needed it. I spun it out in the washer after soaking so the fringe felted a bit. I like it. It's made from Araucania Nature Wool (I recycled the yarn from the Cherie Amour sweater I made - it looked awful on me).

This is the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I used Lorna's Laces and Rockin Sock Club yarns - not sure of the colors. This scarf took forever, but I love it. One of my all time favorites!

This is a little cabled bag I made for JD for her birthday. I used Nora Iroha (3 skeins) and knitted all 3 at once for super thick squishy fabric. I got the ribbon at Benno's Buttons (I love that place). I found the pattern online and it was pretty easy.

Last, but not least, 2 finished lace scarves.

I have no idea what the pattern was for the turquoise one, but the yarn was Vivaldi. I most likely won't wear it much because it is super scratchy. It has Swarovski crystals on the cast on and off edges.

The burgandy one is a fantastic scarf that was gifted to JD (she saw it as a WIP and it's more her color than mine).

Pattern: Easy Flame Lace Scarf pattern from Knit & Tonic

Malabrigo yarn in Velvet Grapes

Size 3 Addi Turbo Lace needles.

Malabrigo is by far my favorite lace knitting yarn. It is super soft. This scarf took forever, but it turned out really beautifully.

This photo was taken in our back yard. It's so nice back there in the spring before it gets super hot.

KIP Day Saturday

I missed Knit in Public Day this year, so I decided to do my own last Saturday. I bet some people were thinking I had abandoned the blog or forgotten how to knit, but it is not so.

J and I had a bunch of stuff to do on Sat and the knitting came along for the ride. Oh yeah, I am working on "Hey Teach" from Knitty.

This is at breakfast.

In the Car (we were in the car a lot, but just wanted to put in one pic).

Outside in the flower section at Home Depot. Apparently our sprinkler system is shot and the entire thing needs to be replaced, so we bought sprinklers and hoses and set a makeshift one up for ourselves. It works really well, actually.

This is at Tree Top Bird Center. We have bought a lovebird, but she's still too little to come home yet, so we visit her here several times a week. She's super cute, but we didn't get any photos with her this time.

Finally, this is at dinner. Chuck's isn't far from Tree Top, so we just stopped in and had a quick dinner.

I have been knitting a lot and will have a few FO's to post soon. I just finished up the February Ladysweater from Ravelry and it turned out really well.

Also, J finally got an iphone and all of these pictures were taken with it. It has a really decent camera for a cell phone!