Fiber Dreams

In a continuing effort to clear out the WIPs so that I can start something new, and at the same time to bring a smile of joy to my husband’s face, I’ve been working a lot on the socks for him. The knitting’s going pretty quickly so far. We’re both pleased with the results. The pattern is easy to execute, and lends a little bit of texture and interest, while not battling too much with the colorful yarn.

One thing. As you’ve probably heard me complain about before, I have short feet for my height. At 5′7″ I wear a 6-1/2. Dave, on the other hand, is 6′2″ and takes probably an average size shoe for his height, a size 11. Men’s. I know his shoes are huge. I joke that I can barely lift them—so not true, but there is a huge difference between the weight of his tennies and the weight of mine. Plus, because of my short feet I have some balance issues that Dave, with his appropriately long feet doesn’t have. There are actually quite a few detriments to having these stumps for feet. One benefit that I hadn’t really thought of? My socks are shorter. A lot shorter. More than two inches shorter. If these were for me I’d so be knitting the second sock by now.

A whole new light has been shed on the possible benefits to having short feet. The socks also take less yarn, and less time to knit. See? I knew there had to be something good about having short feet.

I don’t know if you remember, but I started some marigolds from seed in little peat pots on my deck in late March. By early May they were ready to be planted out front in the small bed we have by the street. This is what they looked like on Sunday, after a full summer of growing time.

Here’s a shot with Dave holding them up, so you can see how tall they’ve gotten. Yes. That marigold really is nearly seven feet tall.

While Dave worked on taming the bougainvillea, I hacked the marigolds back a bit. I cut off all the stalks that were lying on the ground, did a little dead-heading, cut back a few dying branches. Hey, the miniature marigolds are still there, alive and blooming. Who knew?

Most people would probably think that corner of the yard to be horrible, and worthy of tearing out. I’m weird. I actually liked it better the other way, totally out of control and wild. It is nice to see the little marigolds in front again, though. And it’ll be a lot easier to see when backing out of the driveway.

Yes, we harvested some of the seeds, so we can do this again next year.

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