The ides of March, French knitting and diy

The Ides of March today -- it's all go, Friday the Thirteenth, then Pi Day, now it's the Ides.

Anyway I finished that narrow spiral sock,  

and, while I was polishing it off I was thinking about French, or spool, knitting. I'd been reading Noreen Crone-Findlay' blog, Tottie Talks Crafts.

She's doing 100 days of creating knitting spools and little looms, along with her son in law. I suddenly thought why not make one with exactly what I have. I'd just replaced the tissue box in the bedroom and thought I'd make a spool.

This worked pretty well. Then I thought I might as well make the classic wooden cotton reel with nails tapped in, as  in our youth. 

I searched everywhere, and couldn't find any nails, anywhere. However in the course of searching I came across my little trusty folding Japanese saw, and remembered I planned to prune the overgrown butterfly bush. 

So I pulled it out of the cabinet, causing a landslide of plastic bags and small tools. And a little box of nails fell with them.

Anyway, all the neighbors were out and it was a windy cold day, perfect for cutting down the butterfly bush, from about twelve feet to what you see between the garden chairs.

So no helpful neighbor was going to run out and insist on doing it and ruining my fun. I love a bit of outdoor strenuous work. Then I swept all the debris off the deck, and we're good.

Finally, home again,  I found wooden spools and chose one, put on rubber bands to secure the thread, nobody said you had to use up the thread before you can knit on it. Then I tapped in the nails and set up the new, less Rube Goldberg, spool, and cast on.

This will probably be a whistle lanyard. Yellow for resistance.

This has been a productive day, one way and another. I think I'm in pretty good shape, considering the task of dragging several enormous, twice my size, craggy branches out about a hundred yards to the trees.  My hands are tired and a bit crampy, but otherwise all's well, as handsome Son often texts in the morning.

Happy day everyone, haul stuff around. Or just point and let someone else do the heavy lifting.

Lost and found tools and pruning

 I've been thinking about pruning the Japanese maple of a lot of tiny dead branches and some interior ones growing across each other. It's good to keep a tree open so it doesn't get top heavy, to be felled by storms. Spaces for wind to get through are good. And it's better not to have branches crisscrossing and wearing off the bark where they rub together.

So yesterday I went to get the long handled secateurs, the only garden cutting tool I can use now because my hands no longer have the strength to open and close the blades of one handed clippers. These use two hands. Also I can reach with them.

My tools are all in the outdoor storage which I leave unlocked so anyone can borrow and return anything. They usually let me know, and return promptly.

Anyway I went to get them yesterday and there they weren't. Ah. Somebody probably using them. I tried again today. Not back yet. 

So I called Gary and it all came as clear as anything does with him. He'd lent his own clippers to his daughter, then when a neighbor asked him, he lent her mine, nobody realizing I didn't know. He retrieved them from the neighbor, and I was back in business.

Here's the tree, looking much less burdened 

As you see, I left some small branches so it wouldn't look too stark. But, also as you see, it's still casting a nice uncluttered shade. 

I picked a few flowers from my flower corner 

Still some to enjoy outside though.

This afternoon's skies were fast moving and changing, rain coming later

And the little weaving is now on its own page in the fabric book. More to come.

The running stitches make a frame and there's going to be more parts to it. As soon as I think them up.

I've had to reluctantly order a new tablet. The brightness function has been fluctuating wildly for weeks, and the max volume is suddenly very low, alternating with cutting out completely. 

Considering it's been running almost continuously for three plus years, this isn't bad.

It's my chief form, with my low end phone, of internet communication, so it's important especially now,  with a lot of political meetings online that I'm taking part in. Not exactly a fun purchase, but let's hope the replacement is audible anyway. 

I've been running both devices at once in meetings, the phone to hear and speak on, the tablet to read from. I'm hoping to reduce this to one device at a time.

First world requirements. 

Happy day everyone! Whatever it takes.

unseasonably icy winds call for putting the oven on.

Bread rolls resulted from today's icy wind. Working outside on the Pachysandra Project,  I thought I'd never get warm again. Baking bread rolls seemed like a good idea.

From this batch two went next door for Gs breakfast tomorrow, one became afternoon snack here, one became a chicken supreme sandwich with prosecco for supper. Dates and almonds to follow.

 Afternoon tea, the fresh roll, wheat and white, split and spread with labneh and lovely roasted garlic butter. Nice change from sweet stuff.

Then next door neighbor G obligingly cut off a long branch from the old cherry tree which has been attacking the roof on windy nights, and hauled it away, while another neighbor was busy with her latest recital of woes.

Which are very real and I'm glad to lend an ear but it was a bit hectic with neighbor G up the tree on my ladder in a high wind with a saw, and neighbor H little dog growling and shouting with anxiety about the situation. I had intended to get him to wait for better weather, but with G to think it is to do it. I am hardly in a position to criticize that approach. So he instantly came over with his Sawzall, great toy, I mean tool, and was done in no time.

The succulents came from his house to their winter quarters over here, and my posh folding chair I use for outdoor artwork in season went into his car for the soccer season. Evidently he is a fixture at the grandchildrens' games. One of them is three, wonder about the level of play on her team.

Now folding my tired hands around my glass of prosecco, and setting up for Season Two of Delicious. It's all go around here. Things move back and forth at a dizzying speed.