Monday evening

Nice bird, eh? We actually took this picture last July 4 at the Bolsa Chica wetlands preserve. I'm fairly certain it's a blue heron although I'm no ornithologist.

Didn't get much knitting done today. I managed exactly ONE round on the new sock. Still, it's only a bit after 6:00 so I may get a few more stitches done. Perhaps I'll work on the lobster claws.

Big Sister had good news today; the place where she is temping wants to keep her on a little longer. She's really hoping it becomes a permanent job as she very much enjoys working there.

Not much else going on. Just want to start off right & post at least a little something every day.

Just so She doesn't think that She won

I cast on a new pair of socks today. I really like the yarn; the colors remind me of coffee & chocolate. Actually I cast on 32, and frogged, and recast, and knit three rows, decided it should be on smaller needles, frogged, cast on again 34 since the needles were smaller, knit a couple rows, decided I'd cast on too many stitches, frogged, cast on 32 again, knit two rows, thought it looked funny, tinked a row, realized it had been fine in the first place, finally settled down and knit for about an hour before deciding that casting on 34 was probably a better choice. Fortunately it's easy to add stitches every other row until it gets to be the right size.

The First!

Well, here we are, my first post on my new blog. Hope it's not too boring :-)

Yesterday Ralph and I completely re-worked the fish pond in the backyard. Again. Previously there was a small pool at the end furthest from the house, made of cinder blocks and surrounded by some rather pathetic potted plants. Actually, the picture below is prior to that, when we had the plastic "waterfall" rather than the cinderblocks but it will give you an idea of what it looked like.

We dismantled that completely and rebuilt it along the back (side closest to the fence) using small retaining wall blocks, then surrounded the entire pond with more of the blocks. A trip to OSH resulted in some nicer plants, and we used a small square planter, river stones, and a pump to make a small spillway. We're waiting for the caulking to cure before we turn that on so currently just have the pump fountaining at one side. Couldn't turn it off as there is algaecide in the pond & you have to keep it aerated or it will harm the "fishles." They're only goldfish, but we've had some of them for years (and at least three were born in the pond) & we'd hate to lose them.

Big difference, don't you think? We're pretty sure we're going to keep the current pump as it is now, like a little fountain, and buy another pump for the spillway. Future improvements include more water plants and nicer pots for the potted ones. We're also thinking of raising the wall a bit on the sides; we bought 80 bricks & that was exactly enough for 3-high around the spillway and 2-high around the rest of the pond.

In "knitting news" I've got two WIPs right now, a toy lobster and a pair of socks. The lobster is almost done; I just need to knit the claws, sew them on, then do the finishing up such as adding eyes & antennae and weaving in the ends. I made one claw yesterday but don't like how it came out; it's too short and out of proportion to the rest of the lobster, so it will have to be redone with a longer leg section. It used up hardly any yarn; I'm knitting it with a 350-yard ball of sock yarn, using both ends of a center-pull ball to make it thicker (the pattern calls for worsted weight) and I've not even used half the yarn so far.

The socks, well . . . they are being done toe-up, and I'm not sure they are going to fit anyone. They fit me perfectly width-wise but are too long (they're about a size 9 & I'm only a 6). They fit Ralph length-wise but the gusset is too narrow and he can't get it up over his heel. Big Sister thinks they will fit my Future Niece-in-Law, so I'm going to wait until she has a chance to try them on before I do anything else with them. If they fit, I'll finish them up as-is. If they don't, they'll have to be frogged down past the heel & reknit shorter to fit me, or with a deeper gusset to fit Ralph.

Obviously, with one WIP almost done and one on hold, I'll have to cast on something new today. Or maybe I'll concentrate on spinning more of that lovely merino/tencel bluish-green fiber that I started the other day. . .