still no sign...

... of spring:( but the sun is shining, which makes winter more bearable, I guess. there wasn't much snow last night, just a sprinkle, but icy roads are never far away - which means that I am chickening out of cycling to town:) the whole week is supposed to be fairly dry, just a few snow showers here and there and sunny intervals - but the Nephin (806 m high!) is covered with a white blanket. it looks very close in clear weather, but as a matter of fact it's more than 60 km away! I've been there once, but never climbed up - but when snowfall is threatened we always look out the back to see if the Nephin is covered. if it's white - we might get some snow as well:)

 

and in the sunshine I could finally take a few pix that weren't too far off the real colours.

 

 

the sweet pea jacket has reached its new owner - and apparently it fits, so phew:)

 

the "knubbelchen" is a small knitted "doll", and because there are no parts that could be swallowed, it's perfect for the chewing stage, where anything and everything gets covered in dribble:) easily washable - like the cardie, which is spun and knitted from superwash wool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in the details you can see the sweet pea seeds (bobbles) and a little attached tendril on top of each pod. I just couldn't resist the pattern, it's by Mary Scott Huff, one of my favourite knitting designers (famous for a lot of colourwork...). should I ever knit it again, I'd change the design though - it was difficult to find suitable ribbons and I don't really like the ones much, that I finally attached. or maybe I'll hunt for the perfect ribbon first - and paint and spin the yarn afterwards?  

this is a work in progress, but I'll be finished soon. the shawl has a very interesting cable pattern in the middle and a bit of lace at the edges, but other than that the part in between is worked in stockinette = very tv suitable:) the yarn is gorgeous, soft and silky at the same time - I am looking forward to seeing the pattern blocked out! 

 this is one of my cones of kilkarra tweed again - without flash the colours are much more accurate! I think this will be the yarn for my next project - I am just not sure whether to knit cables or ribs or plain or....  I think a few book browsing sessions are in order:) it knits up pretty quickly and the tweed colours make knitting more interesting than with just plain yarn.

those two might be around for a long time! the plan is that double knitted cardigan/jacket for myself... but I haven't decided yet about a pattern. ornamental? flowers? more browsing sessions coming up....but I already know that it will take me ages, because I usually have to interrupt stuff for myself to make gifts etc.  

 

gardening ist still on the back burner with the snow and ice, but of course we have to feed the birds, esp. in this weather! unfortunately magpies, crows and probably also rats try to escape with the fat balls I hung up in the branches! all I found was the ripped netting... when I saw this idea, I thought I might make my own. no recycled wire cage in stash here, but we had enough strong wire to wind our own. I push the netting over the bottom end of the wire spiral and fix the one on top with a little plant peg. has worked fine so far, though the shop ran out of fat balls last week:( to give them a bit more than just seeds I made my own mix of fat and seeds etc... - and filled coconut shells with it. the first one went down a treat - the second one vanished over night - again (just like the fat balls)! I think it must be a rat, because I doubt that birds could snap through plastic covered wire to free the shell! to avoid any more rat parties under the trees I found a different spot - with only vertical, overhanging branches... unless rats can fly or climb up trees hanging off branches - it should be safe! I did find the emptied shell - so I can try again with another batch. luckily (in that case, though I love watching them!) we don't have any squirrels - no doubt they'd laugh at my attempts to keep the birdfeeders safe:)