I have three knitting projects packed for the nine days I’ll be away. Think that’s enough?

One is a work in progress, about which I’m unexcited (mostly because I think I need to rip the foot back and reknit it on different needles because the sole of the foot is too thin). I also don’t particularly like the yarn, but I’d like to finish it so I can have it off the mental checklist. Plus, the Summer of Socks begins while I’m out in Utah, so I want to be prepared.

The second project, and the one I’ll probably work on on the plane, is a small Cascade Fixation sock knitting project for me that I’m excited about and that really will not take long if I sit with it for a couple hours. I love the colors — purples and greens.

And the last project is a felted mitered square bag. I won the pattern and Noro yarn from Jean Brashares at Romancing the Yarn over the winter, but I lacked the US11 dpns necessary to get started at the time. I bought a set at Sheep and Wool last month and now feel ready to embark on the project. Plus, Jenny has a washing machine I can use for free. And she lives in the desert, so the bag might even dry quickly!

Think that’s enough to keep me away from the yarn shop down the road from my MIL’s house? I mean, they’re having a sale!

Now I just need to figure out what books to pack! (And, yes, Mum, aside a sports bra, which is in the bedroom with a sleeping Rudi, all my clothes are in my suitcase — a full 13 hours before my plane departs!)

Why, I do.

Emily was my Bloomin Feet pal, and I have to say that she totally rocks, sending me a wonderful box full of goodness.

I mean, seriously. Look what she made me:

I love the way blue and brown look together. They remind me of my early spring garden — all earth and sky. And check out the picot edging. I don’t know how to do fancy edgings, so I’m particularly impressed by those people who do. And, folks, they’re made from Socks that Rock. I’ve never even seen STR in person in a skein, let alone in a finished sock. Very comfy!

I can’t believe Emily made these. For me. I mean, she doesn’t even know me and she sent me these beautiful handmade socks that took her many, many hours and even more false starts than I had with my pair. What a great knitter!

Check out how well they fit!

And while the socks in and of themselves would have been enough, Emily did not stop there.

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I wanted to share photos of the socks I sent off to my Bloomin Feet pal earlier today. They may now be the knitted object I am most proud of having made.

The socks are made from Woolarina yarn, a local vendor I adore. The yarn is a 50-50 merino-tencel blend in the Kelp colorway, and the photos really don’t convey how lovely the shine is or how much the yarn reminds me of the sea. The pattern is the Zokni Sock from Minty. I had a hard time getting gauge, so the sock was knit on three different needle sizes — 3mm for the leg, 2.75mm for the foot, and 2.25mm for the heel flap, heel turn, and toe.

Other than messing with needle size, the only change I made to the pattern was altering the short-row heel to be an eye-of-partridge heel flap. The pattern is a detailed one, as you can see below, but I think the variegated yarn really suited it.

Someone who has yet to receive her Bloomin Feet package will be the new owner of these socks — and I hope she will like them as much as I do. I will definitely be making myself a pair of these in the future.

I have to say that this was a lot of fun to do, even if I was quite nervous at each stage of the game — picking out a yarn I thought my pal would like, finding a pattern to suit the yarn, and trying to make a sock fit a far-off foot I’ve never met. Thanks, Amanda, for hosting another fun exchange and for inviting me to take part.

I would love to tell you that I’m done with the Bloomin Feet socks that are due to my secret pal on Tuesday. But I’m not. And I have no good excuse as I spent the afternoon watching a movie.

Back to the needles…

Please send knitting vibes. It’s going to be a late night…

I am too tired to take a photo tonight, but I am making good progress on my Bloomin’ Socks. The first sock is down to the toe, and the second is halfway through the leg repeats.

All in all, the socks are going well. The pattern really does suit the yarn and I think I finally did find the right combination of gauge by using three (!) different needle sizes — 2.25, 2.75, and 3 mm — over the course of the sock depending on what part I was working on. The only thing I wish were different would be that the yarn be less splitty. Usually this brand of handspun does me very well, so I’m not sure if it’s that my needles aren’t pointy enough for the lacework or if the tencel somehow contributes to the yarn plies not binding to themselves as well as normal. Probably a combination of the two…

I’m really excited about finishing them and shipping them off this weekend, although I do still have fears that they might not fit my pal. They just fit around my foot when stretched all the way, and her foot measurements are slightly smaller than mine. My fingers are crossed. I suppose the worst thing that happens is that I have to knit her a replacement pair, right?

Well, I knew when I proposed my weekend activities that it was a long-shot that I’d fit them all in. It was, and I didn’t.

But it was a full weekend.

Saturday, I got up with Rudi (who was leading an early morning bike ride out in Maryland) and headed out to the garden to put in some serious labor. I’m glad I did.

The neighbor had already tilled his section of the garden, so I was the lone slacker with a 15 foot by 15 foot plot that just plain looked neglected.

This is what four hours of playing in the garden looks like:

With the exception of the corner of the plot (where I could see urban detritus I didn’t want to touch without gloves), I cleared out all the dead scruff and the ground cover weeds. I didn’t turn the soil, because a) I figured that I would just wait for the rain to make it much easier for me and b) I might as well wait and clear out that back corner first and hit it all at once. Plus if I were going to go to all the trouble of adding in manure, I didn’t want it to wash away down into the creek.

I left in plants that I recognized (like the herbs), that looked like they might have been part of last year’s garden, or that I think are lovely regardless (like the violets). I’ve put photos onto Flickr and sorted them into a collection of garden shots. (As a free user, apparently I’ve maxed out my set allotment.) If you recognize any of the plants, please let me know if I should keep them or pull them.

That pretty much did me in and after a shower and a bowl of granola, I conked out on the couch for a long nap. Later in the evening, I watched Brit coms while as the rain came down and did a little test swatch for the sock heel to determine needle size.

(Right, I had a question for you knitters. If you knew the knitter you were making socks for preferred a certain heel when she knit, would that make you more inclined to use it in your pair?)

Today, dawned far too early. I got up to use the bathroom and stopped by the living room for some reason. As I did, I noticed what every basement-dweller hates to see aftering being socked by a nor’easter: water infiltration.

Yup, we were leaking — again.

We sighed heavily, shifted some things, put down newspaper, and decided we’d done as much as we could for the moment.

So we headed to the farmers’ market pretty much right as they started. And what a bounty we bought home with us! In addition to tasty breakfast pastries (the first blueberry scones of the spring!), we also picked up ramps, green garlic, spring onions, watercress, two types of lettuce, two types of greenhouse-grown tomatoes, leeks, broccoli, carrots, chives, and a cucumber (for Rudi). We also bought mascarpone, whole milk ricotta, eggs and a bouquet of daffodils and tulips.

Laden down, we returned home, unloaded the market basket, ate breakfast, and started to read the paper, before we realized the flooding had, indeed, gotten worse. The water was just seeping in through the baseboards. More things were shifted — furniture, storage bins and baskets, the rug — but all proactively to prevent later sorrow. Last year’s catastrophe turned out to be in our favor this year because the tile that they put down doesn’t soak up water the way the wood parquet did.

After a few hours of laying down newspapers and towels, the rain let up and so did the flooding. I did my taxes. Rudi cooked a yummy Spanish torta with potatoes and ramps. I baked oatmeal scotchies and started an overdue letter. We watched Because of Winn-Dixie, which was as cute as the book and did not, as the trailer had suggested, include a computer generation of the dog winking. We put clean sheets on the bed and played with the cats.

Monday’s plans? Why it’s a lovely day for a voting rights march, don’t you think?