Confidence, Common Sense, and the Sound of Spring

1) In my quest to encourage** you to trust your common sense and not worry about following patterns exactly, I made a long video. Sorry . . . and not sorry. Some things take time. I work through the “Daphne Jumper” sweater pattern with pencil and paper and adapt it to an “imperfect” gauge.

Because there aren’t enough years left in this body for me to work through patterns for all of you, the best I can do is demonstrate my process and hope it helps. The video and pattern download links ARE HERE.

[**Encourage derives from the Old French encoragier: en- “make, put in” + corage “courage, heart” so to “make strong or hearten.” I love that. :D]

2) I forgot to tell you last time . . . I now have the entire contents of The BOND Bombshell available as downloadable zip files, by individual programs or all at once. The whole enchilada download is 1.7 GB so get yourself to a fast connection before you try to pull it out of the clouds. I go to my local library when I have to do these kinds of things.
BBombshell flat

3) I have a small, seasonal pond on my land and last night, while I was recording the close ups for this video, the frogs were riotous. I’m not kidding. They’re loud enough to wake me up at night sometimes (and they are so tiny.) I’m not sure if you can hear them on the video, but they made me laugh.
tiny-frog We’re getting whiffs of spring here in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. and it’s even reflected on my needles. Both main projects I’m working on are green. Here’s one of them, and boy is it a fun knit! Especially because the other is the never-ending garter stitch aghan. I’m really into garter stitch these days. It’s restful.

Szia, Cheryl

p.s. the above shawl pattern is free. And Heidi Alander, who gifted it to us, is Finnish. I’m very fond of Finnish design these days. And my first boyfriend was Finnish and his design was cuter than anything I could imagine at the time. Even now, when I look back 60+ years, I think he was well designed.

So if you get a chance . . . thank her. Here’s her Nurmilintu Pattern.

p.p.s. Szia is not Finnish. It’s Hungarian. My grandparents were from a small village in Hungary and I still have family there. It’s a bit like “aloha” or “ciao,” but with a different accent. One of those all-purpose hi-bye words. Very handy 😀

p.p.p.s. What’s even handier for those of us who speak English is that it’s pronounced just like “Seeya,” the truncated form of “I will see you later, alligator.”

2 Replies to “Confidence, Common Sense, and the Sound of Spring”

Barbara Rickman says:

2016-04-05 at 2016-04-05

4/5/2016
Garden was supposed to begin receiving guests yesterday but we got snow for a visitor instead. Guest list included, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes). The tubers from this plant are edible..very much like potatoes but more of a water chestnut consistency. Other invites will be along after 21 degrees has checked out.
I guess spring will come to CT for a brief visit and then summer will come and stay for a bit. I do hope so. Summer is always welcome here in the snow belt. It’s room is always open and we will never charge it rent.

1. Cheryl says:
  
  2016-04-05 at 2016-04-05
  
  I used to grow jerusalem artichokes and I think they are a very sensible and valuable food perennial. I love them.

2 Replies to “Confidence, Common Sense, and the Sound of Spring”

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