Sock Blanks

What is this you say? It is a "sock blank"! Still confusing, right? Well, this piece of knitting comes all knit up as you see it, except that it is pure white when it arrives. Patsy gave a group of her knitting buddies each a sock blank for Christmas along with different color dyes. Then one day in the last month or so, we gathered at her house for this experiment. We mixed the dyes in Mason jars and then we each dyed our "blank" based on our color preferences. Here is mine with of course, lots of bright blues. What happens next is that the knitting is made up of two pieces of yarn knit together so that when you unravel this into two balls, you have two balls of yarn that are relatively the same so that you can knit two similar socks - thus the name sock blanks!

Garden Chores!

A few days ago, I sprinkled Hollytone, an organic fertilizer for acid-loving plants around my blueberry plants that were still surrounded by snow. When I bought some plants a few years ago, the man at the nursery said if you do it this way, as the snow melts the fertilizer gradually sinks into the ground with the water. So, I made some big bulls-eye circles in the front yard around the plants. Today it was beautiful outside - in the 60's. Up near the front of the house, the snow has disappeared on the southern exposure side and I was able to rake out one of my flower beds. I also pruned the apple trees a little bit and pulled out old blackberry canes to make room for the new ones. It felt so great to be able to do some garden chores. I know come mid-summer, there will be more chores out there than what I can possibly get done, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying my time outside!