butterfly day

this morning when i got up it was 33 degrees out. fahrenheit. (celsius would have been fine if oddly hot.) so today was a winter chore day. chuck did cut up some trees saturday, so i went and tried my hand at splitting for an hour. it wasn't much to be proud of. i did 2 logs without much problem (not much aim either - but it did get a little better), and then the third killed me. it just don't want to split. being new to the sport, i endured but finally gave up. it seemed awful wet too, so i don't know if it was newer wood. chuck tried to split it at lunch too without any luck, so i felt a bit better. i've got gouges in it, and it just refuses to split. oh well. i'll be back out there tomorrow for my new favorite way to exercise.

we still have a pile of leftover dirt so i've been filling in dwayne holes in the yard. he drove machinery everywhere so there's ruts in weird places. not to mention the crappy job he did scraping the topsoil anyway.

the silly cherry tomatoes still have tons of blooms on them. can't they tell by the chill in the air they'll be dead soon? i can, but i'll take the tomatoes while they last. my lilacs seem very happy in their new dirt. despite being chewed on by the moose, they've got some new shoots going. i just hope they last the winter.

i'm getting ready to bring some of my herbs in, and noting what did well where. and i'm an awful archaeology dork, i actually made a map. it was a struggle to not do it to scale. good habits die hard i guess. chuck laughed at me for that too. i did bring in my minirose plant already, but it had some illegal aliens hiding out on it. it's got aphid (? i think? maybe?) larvae making little cobwebby cocoons. yuck. i didn't see any on it when it was outside, and i was checking for them. they're the same bugs that got all over our english cucumber plant and killed it, so i'll wait to spray them to death till after chuck gets home (he didn't get to see them). they're bad, they suck all the juice out of leaves and they turn yellow and die. luckily most buggies can be gotten rid of with a simple dishsoap and water spray. i don't get much fancier than that. i just hope they don't affect the other 2 rosebuds.

and i was so proud of myself this morning - i finished the silk cami! well, the main part, it still needs the ends woven in and an edging put on it. the pattern said to try it on and make sure the straps were ok etc. so i did. and was immediately horribly disappointed in myself. it's way too big. i told chuck at lunch but didn't show him yet. most patterns don't include how tight or loose fitting they are (called ease, so if i say that instead you better know what it is), but this one didn't look tight. so i went for my actual bust measurement. maybe i was too worried baout it being tight. it sure ain't. i'll have to rip out a bit (i don't know how much yet) and do some decreases so it doesn't look like a sack. the bottom bit fit good but i guess the no-shaping was a bad idea. after i figured out how off it was, and roughly what i need to do to fix it, i put it down. i'd be happy to not see it again for a month. and there's no way i'm waiting till i tweak it to start another project. i've been such a good girl working on that boring stockinette, barely working on chuck's sweater, and i'm so buying yarn for other projects.

in fact, i already have my stash built up at knitpicks. there's some cotten/linen yarn for some handtowels for chuck's mom (christmas present), and some sock yarn for somebody else (i'm starting to think i knit too many surprises for people). i'm itching to make myself a pair of knee socks. the pattern's all picked out, clessidra, but i haven't found the color i'm looking for yet and haven't decided if i want to compromise. i'm wanting a dark grey, charcoaly color, and knitpicks doesn't have it. the knee socks are for church, so they should be able to match lots of stuff, but i'm wanting to make 3-4 pair of them. so the color shouldn't be that critical. but...i want the grey.

i was looking at this pattern i want to do, with this yarn i have stashed, but the yarn i have is way smaller. augh. that means math. once i contemplated changing the pattern for the yarn, i took a good look at it and realized i didn't know if i liked the lace pattern on it anyway. what i'm really after is the general garment design, so i may just chart that out and then find a pattern i like to plug in there. i'll have to keep thinking about it. (the idea was that i could start that right now without having to wait for yarn to come in - guess that won't work)

oh, and i finished the last 2 circle opens books sometime over the weekend i think. i forget. but that brings me to the book i wanted to read in the first place. yay! except i have a sneaking suspicion that there aren't any published after that. since there's 4 main characters, each with their own book, i'd think tamora pierce would keep on that way. which means i'll have to wait for books. *sigh*

sometimes i think i could start every paragraph with oh, and.... but speaking of chuck's family we just got tickets to go visit them at thanksgiving. that should be interesting to meet them all. but the very very best part is we're not telling them about it. hehehe. i love stuff like that. and they don't go online, otherwise i wouldn't say a word. chuck and me were talking about how to spring it on them. we fly into little rock 3 hours away, so we figure we can call about 10 min from the house and as we pull in say well, i'm tired of talking on the phone, want to let me in? wouldn't that be funny?

i'm off to take a shower and figure out exactly what plants are coming in and what size pot they need. and maybe knit. a little. but not on that silk camisole. it's not my friend anymore.