Happy May!

For some reason my blog got all screwed up and I couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. I spent days on checking code, permissions, etc., but finally my web host figured it all out (not enough permissions on one directory) and now I'm back in business.

Woo hoo!

Here in the northeast we've had days and days of cold, gray, drizzly rain, the kind of cold, gray, drizzly rain that makes you want to curl up on the couch with an afghan, a cup of tea, and a good book. Or, in my case, knitting:



Socks, finished before the rain started. (Raveled here.)



I frogged the pullover I was knitting up with my Drumlin Farm yarn and cast on Topiary, a large shawl designed by Michele Wang for Brooklyn Tweed.

A top-down cardigan that's turning out beautifully (I've got about 5" to go on the body). I'm going to use some pewter buttons from an old moth-eaten cardigan.

And last, a pair of socks I need to finish by the 15th for a German World Cup fan. :-) (The quarters are just to hold the heel down, which was curling up.)

I've also been thrift shopping since I've decided my wardrobe needs a bit of refreshing.

This, a blue and green floral Bill Blass duster I picked up for a song at Savers. It's not really my style, which is why I bought it. I need some style!

When it hasn't been raining, my son and I have been on our bikes, checking out the many trails running through our town. We are soooo lucky to have the Reformatory Branch Rail Trail running right alongside our property. We can hop on our bikes and be on an adventure in less than 60 seconds. We love looking for wildlife (snakes especially!) and identifying wildflowers. Thanks to a new knitting podcast I've become addicted to (the Knitting Pipeline, "the knitting podcast with a Celtic flair"), I've figured out what all those white flowers are crowding the banks of the trail:

It's garlic mustard, a noxious weed that will actually poison the soil in woods so that no other plants will grow there. Now that I know what it is, I see it everywhere ... even in my own garden! On Earth Day, people actually go out in the woods and pull this stuff up, it's that bad. Of course, the first thing I thought was, "Can I eat it?" You can, but the plant contains a measurable amount of cyanide, so I think I'll pass and content myself with pulling it up and discarding it for now. Anyway, thank you Knitting Pipeline for the ecology lesson ... even my 10-year-old knows what it looks like and eagerly helps me pull it up.

I hope wherever you are, you're enjoying spring ... rain and all!