I'm Growing!

Despite the forecast of snow for tomorrow, Spring is almost here! That means it is time to build my mini green house again. Yay! So this weekend I dragged the boyfriend to Lowes (it wasn't very difficult)to buy dirt and new containers to plant all the lovely seeds and bulbs he gifted me for Christmas and Valentine's day. My herb garden will be quite plentiful this year. I sowed my seeds in one of those seed starters, with the plastic cover. It's important to keep seeds covered before they sprout so the dirt stays moist, then you just spray them with water about every other day, to keep moisture in and pop open the lid when they sprout. I planted basil, rosemary, chives, oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme. I am using My Folia to track my plants and to keep my gardeners "journal" I decided to take it digital this year, after the relative success of last year's hand written one. I also labeled the plants carefully this year, after I spent hours sorting seedlings last year when all my labels got mixed up. The herb labels are safe, for now, protected by the plastic cover, the flowers on the other hand...

I bought to giant planters to plant the lily and dahlia bulbs. They are sitting in the living room until they can go outside, and the cat loves to climb in them and take out the labels, then when you shoo him away, he slinks back over when he thinks your not looking. It would be adorable if it wasn't so annoying. It's only 2 planters, so it should be relatively easy to keep them straight. I moved the labels to outside the planters today, so Jeeves doesn't dig in the dirt (hopefully). I also planted Ranunculus, but those are safe because they are in 2 hanging baskets. I am very excited for my garden and can't wait until it begins to sprout.

I also finished knitting a lovely and warm hat for the boyfriend. I used chunky red alpaca wool and mohair, both from Loop. I started with a pattern from Martha Stewart but it wasn't really big enough, so I just kind of made stuff up/modified. My pattern was:
C.O 44 sts
K 6 Rows
K 1 Row P 1 Row for 7ish Inches, end on P.
K 3 K2tog K to end
P
K 2 K2tog K to end
P
K K2tog K to end
P
BO and leave a long tail. Pass the yarn through the BO stitches and pull tight, this makes the stitches come together and closes the top of the hat. If you have a little hole you can just sew it up as you sew up the seem. I used only the red yarn to sew up the seem and to pass through the BO stitches. Voilà and enjoy!



Happy growing and knitting