After a sheepish weekend

After a sheepish weekend of drying fleecy bits and trying to figure out where I am going to store these fleecy bits, I sat down and did some knitting. It was almost a relief.

I finished one sock of the Stained Skeins sock blanks. I am really really pleased with these socks. In homage to the yarn dyer, I put in gusseted heels, (using the basics from Maia Spins Toe Up Gusseted Heels) . Ms. Stained Skeins is a big fan of gusseted heels and it seemed right. Strangely enough, I am sitting here wondering why I don't do these heels more often. It wasn't painful at all. Of course I haven't finished the pair or tried to match the heels yet. There is still time to screw up...

When that one was done, I did a little more sock knitting. (Again with the gussetted heel!)I am working on a single lacy sock for a store sample. Its a free pattern using Cascade Fixation a stretchy cotton and elastic yarn. (If you got this pattern from a store pattern pad, check the web for errata)

In case you didn't hear that, I'm knitting a sock. From a pattern. I have never done this before, and it isn't nearly so intimidating as I feared. But I was right, no way this sock would work on my foot and calf, no matter how stretchy the yarn is and no matter how much the lace of the pattern stretches. Just plain old not enough stitches to fit well, and last well. But knitting with this yarn is nice. I had forgotten just how nice. I will be using more of it for the wool avoiding members of my household. It makes nice squooshable socks that are very much up my alley.

In other weekend news, though the Needles Residence still sports snow in a few select locations, we are largely snow free. We did our first walkabout of the year on Sunday, an evening walk about rather than our usual morning walk about, but we discovered all sorts of things. Mr. Needles showed me a developing problem in one of out big not-a-flower-in-it beds along the house.

Several years ago, we began to mulch over weed infested flower beds. There were just too many to keep clean. We opted for a washed rock mulch so that small rodents cannot make beds so close to the house. Generally it was a good idea. It makes a huge difference in how much yard work there is around here, but even the best of mulches is not 100% trouble free.

In a forest with spruce trees, the very best bedding for new tree growth is a heavy cool mulch covering indifferent soils. We have that, and voila. Washed rock mulches are a veritable factory of teeny tiny trees. Dozens of them. Hundreds even. They are like this, all along the side of the house, all the way up the 30 or 40 feet of the bed. Wee tiny little proto spruce trees.

Does any one need some native spruce? I can send you some, for free. To a prairie girl, spruce trees are almost sacred, and it is going to kill me to have to weed these out.