Spring knitting

The side effects from the chemo have not left me yet. I have spent a lot of time sitting and knitting and watching TV, more than I had planned on. However, things are getting better. I actually worked 6 hours on Friday! I hope to have about 5 weeks of working normally, at the office, before surgery.

The not feeling well has allowed me to complete the center band for the Marian Tunic, pick up that zillion stitches (actually 292) along one edge and start the open work pattern. I have knitted almost 3 pattern repeats and love the way it looks so far. The pattern is easily memorized, which makes things much easier on a 292 stitch row. ;-)

I am in love with the color and I think the stitch pattern is very pretty and perfect for summer.

I joined the Juego mystery KAL on Ravelry. I had appropriate yarn and beads in my stash and that seemed to be an omen, so I purchased the pattern. I was thrilled with the result of the first clue! Deep purple yarn with light purple beads. The second clue, however, is a slipped stitch, mosaic type of stitch pattern using the contrasting semi-solid light purple yarn I chose and I am just not sure I like it. I never have really liked that type of stitch pattern. In addition, while I assumed this was a shawl KAL, it seems that we do not know what kind of garment we are knitting. It is a true mystery. I have decided to wait to see what the next clue looks like and decided if I want to keep going or rip it. I love the yarns and the beads too much to use them in a garment I don't care for.
This is the close up view of clue 1.  I love it.

Over view of the piece, showing the contrasting color shown here. I love the yarns together - they show up a bit bleached out here - and the knitting is actually being done on in 3/4 of the stitches. At the right side of the photo the stitches in the dark yarn are on a holder and not being worked.

Here is a close up view of the clue 2 stitch pattern. The colors are pretty accurate here. It's pretty but not my taste. Right now, anyway.

I mentioned my brother's upcoming child last time, and the yarn I ordered has arrived. I am knitting the Pine Forest blanket for them in a Knit Picks superwash yarn. The color is a blue with lavender tones to it. I cast on last night after washing and drying the swatches. I don't have much time for this knit (the baby is due on May 10), so it will be my main focus for a while, though I always do some changing out of projects being knitted. This photo show the color a bit lighter than in real life. The swatch showing the stitch pattern is on top and the garter edging is beneath it.

I started knitting the Tulips Sweater a while ago for a friend of mine. This is the body of the sweater. I have knitted the bottom edging in seed stitch and need to start working on the front bands. It's for a little girl named Parmida. She is adorable and her Mommy will love the sweater even if she has no idea. : )

I planted seeds last week in peat pots and saw some seedlings poking their heads up! We brought the seedlings and baby tomato plants in the house last night since the temps dropped into the 30's, but will get them back outside today so they can soak up the sunshine. In a week or two, if we can get a few dry days, DH will till the garden area and I can get seeds in the ground. We are hoping for an early start on the gardening this year. We can always plant more seeds if things freeze or don't germinate.

We plan on tomatoes (obviously, since the plants are pretty unmistakable), cucumbers, corn, watermelon, green and hot peppers.

I hope to be able to post photos one of these days. We bought a new (used) computer and the old photo software doesn't work with it. I have to figure out how to get the photos off my camera onto the computer so I can post them. Ugh.

ETA I added the photos but I am very resentful that I have to learn a new system. Hopefully Picasa will allow me to do things that Picture Project didn't to make up for the new learning "opportunity". 

Have a happy day.