Spring Has Finally Sprung!

Spring has finally arrived in northern Iowa. The flowers are beginning to bloom ..... from the top - columbine, clematis, lupine, and blanket flower. Our vegetable garden is growing well .... tomorrow we'll eat our first leaf lettuce.....tomatoes are beginning to bloom, as are the peppers, onions, zucchini, cabbage ...... and even though the rabbits tried to stop them ...... the broccoli and cauliflower were helped when we placed red clay tiles around them. I've made at least three batches of rhubarb sauce with either frozen strawberries or blackberries added after it cooled a little plus a strawberry/rhubarb pie when dd was home for Mother's Day.

I joined the Operation Knitted Gater on Ravelry to provided a 9-inch knitted gater for troops during deployment. They are knit from colorway 275 (actually chosen by the commander of the unit to match one of the uniform colors) in Cascade 220 superwash. The details are available on the group's forum, so check it out if you would like to help provide these. The group was actually started by the wife of a deployed soldier, wanted 155 gaters by Oct. I knitted one that I gave to a df's sil who leaves next week-end for his deployment. My df said that he had mentioned that "neckware" was needed. I gave it to her today since they were going to "the lake" for one last extended family outing before the sil leaves. Now, I'm ordered a bag of 10 from the yarn shop in Washington that suggested on the forum since she will sell a bag of 10 for the price of 9 if used to knit the gaters ... the first two skeins I ordered from a yarn shop here in the midwestjust to get them quickly. Dd and I will probably knit some while at the Estes Park Wool Market in June and they will be good knitting on the flight out to SS2009 in August.

I'm closing in on the end of the gussets on the Sailor Delight Socks that I started earlier this month. They will be my June socks for the SAM KAL. They are an easy knit since the st pattern is easily memorized,

I had decided not to join RSC 2009 because I didn't care for much of the last year's offerings. Well,....dd is still in and I have loved every one so far this year. I went to BMFA and you can still join ....... so pretty soon I will have three of the kits in my mail. I'm also expected the ETL club offering .... I have looked at spoilers, so know I'm going to like both the pattern and yarn...... it's cashmere with beads!

On the school front ..... three more days ...... actually just the semester final tests days. Then I have to pack up the contents of my room for a move to the other end of the building. Luckily, a lot can be packed in a base cupboard that will be moved to the other room by maintenance staff. I'm so ready for summer ...... this has been a very trying year with students that don't want to even try to learn Spanish words ...... but they do want to learn Spanish. Don't understand.

Happy knitting. TLGB