Spring Love

The weather has gotten much warmer which has started everything popping up spring. The forsythia is in bloom, the birdies are chirping and the frog chorus has started again. It's so soothing to drift off to sleep to the sound of their music, wave upon wave of amphibian love song.

Yesterday morning a pair of ducks landed again in our neighbour's pool. Mama duck was giving short sharp quacks. Five quacks, pause, more quacks, pause... And when she'd start in on it, papa duck would bob his head, as if to say "yes dear". I think she was telling him off about the crummy accommodation he'd brought her to. Her quacking worked, because the pair of them were gone today. No doubt to find a better honeymoon suite.

Things are looking up. Jim won a bid on a job, which is very encouraging. Plus, we'll be getting a little bit of money back from filing our income taxes, and that has been designated as mad money which makes me very happy. I miss having disposable income, ya know? :-)

I've been working my lace, but it's not photogenic. It's going slower too as it takes me over half an hour to complete one row. But I've been working on socks. Of course! Here's a completed pair.

Paton's Kroy, Moss colorway, on 2.25mm needles, 64 stitches round. It's amazing how much faster the socks knit up with 8 less stitches in the round. This pair took me a week. They're just a titch small on my feet.

When you wear hand knit socks, do you prefer them to be a bit tight (have negative ease) or to fit just perfect? I usually make mine to fit just perfect, but find that at the end of the day they're all baggy on my feet. So I've been experimenting with socks that are a bit tighter, but some people (ok, it was Luke) complain on the initial try on that the sock is too small. I've yet to try wearing one of my snugger socks all day to see what I think.

Even though it was a pretty warm weekend I did manage to bake a bit. Luke's only fourteen, so spring love for him is a double batch of Chewy Cherry Coconut Tarts.