spring, etc.

A beautiful spring evening. I so wish I could have taken the Ts out to play. *heavy sigh* I left them out on their tie-outs while I cut back the roses and lavender in the corner bed of the front yard, where I could keep an eye on them. Auguste Renoir is, I'm pretty sure, going to make it. Othello might make it. Fair Bianca, boy, I think she's gone, but I'll wait and see what develops.

Tomorrow I want to go after St. Swithin. That should be fun, since he's about 10 feet high and if he had any more thorns they'd have to be smaller. Same with Winchester Cathedral. I'll get after the neon-magenta one in the raised bed, too--I bet it's gone--and I'm almost 100% sure my beloved Sterling Silver hybrid tea, which my brother gave me when I moved in here, didn't make it through the winter; it looks about as dead as a rose can look. But then I guess I'm fortunate it lasted 20 years.

So maybe next year I'll be buying roses. I don't know if I'll replace the David Austen roses with other David Austen roses--they've been something of a disappointment--not nearly as hardy as I expected, nor as fragrant, and those thorns! So I may go with hybrid teas or perhaps try a few of the old-fashioned, spring-blooming shrub roses. I've got all year to think about it.

I was going to post a picture of my finished alpaca lace sock, but it's ugly, so I won't. I'll probably make the 2nd one because they'll be nice warm socks for next winter, but they're not exactly a triumph of the needle arts.

I finally managed to knit 10 rows of the Ocean Moods scarf without dropping stitches or making mistakes last night. Yay for me. I'm going to see if I can complete the 16-row repeat tonight.

I've got this little mini skein of sport-weight superwash merino from Cherry Tree Hill in the Cabin Fever colorway. I've been thinking it might look nice as the variegated part of Knitty's "Cut Your Teeth" sock pattern (http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTcutyourteeth.html ), and trying to decide between red, black, or gold as the main color.

It's only about 70 or 80 yards, but I'm pretty sure I can get at least the domino cuffs for a pair of socks from it.

Speaking of small pleasures:

Joann's had a sale. That's enough size 0 dpns for about 5 pairs of socks.