Our first day of spring.

In March I’m all about the green.  There is no green outside at the moment, with the exception of the evergreens that have steadfastly held on to their hue throughout the winter.  But even they are leaning more towards brown and grey, with their dull and bleak weather worn needles.  But on my needles and at my sewing machine there surely is a lot of green, in many different shades.  It seems to happen this way every year, though I never consciously plan it so.

I started accidentally designing some baby over-alls, which doesn’t sound like something that could happen so easily as to be accidental, but somehow for me it is.  I started off with someone else’s pattern.  From the beginning I planned on changing the yarn weight, needle size, gauge (obviously) and stitch pattern.  I got just a tiny bit into the project, decided I didn’t like the pattern at all, started doing something entirely different and never looked at it again.  Next time, starting from scratch on my own, I’ll do some things differently.  When I look at these I can see exactly where I switched from theirs to mine.

I’ve been questioning my button choice a little, maybe?  I can’t decide.

Fresh yarns…

Clearly I was in a very neutral place the day I ordered these!  Perhaps dreaming of working the earth in my garden?  This was a very important part of my postpartum planning as well.  Yes, ordering yarn.  And no, I’m not being sarcastic.  Included in the above is yarn for Elijah’s birthday sweater.  I still love each and every one of these for the project that they were chosen for, but it’s back to being so grey and dreary again that I’m rather sorry I don’t have something a little more cheerful to look forward to.  I had had my heart set on treating myself to some rainbow yarn, with a sweet baby sweater in mind, but they sold out of that particular colorway before I got around to ordering.  In retrospect I probably should have tried to track it down elsewhere.  Having just ordered a box of yarn, I’d feel too guilty doing so now.

Books!!!  Thank you so much for all of your suggestions!!  I’m making a great big list out of them for future reference.  Immediately after writing that post, before the suggestions began pouring in, I started looking and thinking and ordering a great many books through inter-library loan.  Many, many books.  Books for the kids to read, books for me to read, books for me to read to the kids.  Books for school work (primarily a selection of books on the Tudor Period).  A collection of J. R. R. Tolkien books for Iain.  Yet more Black Stallion books for Elijah.  They switch off with each other after they finish each book.  The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew to read aloud.  Because somehow, despite the fact that this one has come highly recommended to me by several sources who’s opinions I hold in great esteem, we still haven’t read this one yet.  I think that maybe it wasn’t available the last time I looked and then I forgot to look again?  Another of the All-of-a-Kind Family books.  My Father’s Dragon as a first chapter book for Galen to read aloud to me. A little Tasha Tudor for Miss Màiri Rose (A Tale for Easter), as well as Poppy’s Babies and Spring Story, both from the Brambly Hedge collection.   A book on large family logistics.  I presume, based on the looks and comments I get when people learn this is our fifth baby, that at this point we qualify.  A Piet Oudolf gardening book.  Three books by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot.  I’ve already finished this one.  I very happily still have this one and this one waiting for me.  I decided to get a couple of Chris Bohjalian books, even though they don’t tend to be lighthearted at all.  But I’ve enjoyed reading his books in the past and even met the man once (he made me laugh, in quite a good way) and it’s been a while, so I thought, why not?  I ordered The Sandcastle Girls, which I haven’t looked at yet and The Light in the Ruins, which I picked up for the first time yesterday.  It turns out that I may somehow in reading the on-line descriptions have missed the bit about the serial killer. hmm.  Not exactly what I was looking for just now.