Blossoms

Father is planning to fell an apple tree, so he is giving flowering branches to people to enjoy. these are mine, by my bedside.

Going green

Hey presto, i have a balcony in my new-ish flat! Shall i let the balcony in peace, or... shall i grow so much stuff i'll have to give some away? Decisions, decisions...

This is what my bedroom window looked in March:

There's white geranium:

a shrub-like garden variety of daisy ( no idea what it's in English):

i think this plant is called coleus:

not to forget the most important stuff:

grass for my cat, which lives in the kitchen window

(the grass, not the cat, at least, not all the time)

the idea being she'll leave the seedlings in peace and eat this.

So far it has worked.

I have to admit, i'm rather surprised.

There's also tzinnias, lime marigolds and some yellow-flowered species the name of which i've forgotten. I'm also planning to grow salads, herbs and some tomatoes. And maybe white sweet peas and lavender just outside my bedroom window. I'm already dreaming of their scent wafting to my bedroom during dusk.

The seedlings do not fit in to my bedroom window sill anymore, but have taken over the living room too. They are rather bigger, too. The Cat is not pleased.

Yes, i'll have to borrow a balcony or two from my neighbours.

impressions

Last night I cyckled home later than usual, around 9.30-10 pm. The evening was still warm and people were about. It was nice to cyckle, to be both part of and separate, seeing happy faces, hearing happy voices, not quite catching the words.

Every three wore bright lime green, tulips and wood anemones were still in flower and I saw large group of Solomon's-seals with their fat white buds in line. When the road dips, you suddenly dip into colder air; then you find yourself next to a sun-warmed boulder and it feels like Geece.

The flowering birdcherries were everywhere. Their scent filled the air, like a woman wearing enough scent to smell it herself.

In the pink & a tiny change in timing

I made socks for my mother for Mother's Day:

She liked them! The yarn is from Handu,  sock yarn in two diffrent colours. It might not be evident, but i knit 2-row stripes.

I'm changing my knitting schedule a bit. I blogged about knitting a blue scarf, but I bought some tan silk yarn from Kissanviiksi, and will probably knit a shawl out of it next as a commute-knit. But, I still have my cowl in progress as a commute knit. It might take some time to finish, as I cyckled to work this morning. No knitting during. If the weather keeps warm  & sunny I'll continue cyckling. However, Finnish spring is fickle, if anything, and it just might snow next week. Or hail, at the very least.

At home, I unearthed an UFO (unfinished object) from last summer and turned it into a WIP (work in progress). It's a basic striped cardi made from Sublime's Soya Cotton DK, in colours 

cinnamon

flax

and  it might get a bit of ginseng in details, I'm not sure.

The pattern is Basic black by Glenna C. from Knitting to stay sane. I'm adding pockets to the front.

I'm making one-row stripes.

I saw a bird cherry in flower on my way to work, and the lilies-of the valley are almost in flower! Spring, I love you!

Knitting content

I finally finished my baktus-scarf; i got to use it for two weeks and now it is too warm for a 100% merino wool scarf. But, trusting Finnish weather, it just might become cold again. The yarn i used is really sock yarn (should stand some wear, then!) from ShibuiKnits. The colour's called Honey. 

The scarf is long enough to go twice around my throat. It is rather nice with my black spring (and that's not an oxymoron) coat. I just love garter stitch, it's so dense, bouncy and there is no wrong side to the scraf; that's a pet peeve with me in regard to many otherwise beautiful scarf patterns. Which brings me to the next knitting problem. What scarf / shawl to make of these:

There's one skein of Handmaiden Fine Yarn Casbah Sock in Nova Scotia and two skeins of ShibuiKnits Sock in Midnight. That's about 675 metres of yarn. The Casbah is so soft, perhaps because it has cashmere in it. Anyway, i can't decide what kind of shawl to knit with these. I've leaning towards Westknits's Daybreak, but i'm not sure. Ideally, i would like to use all of the yarn in the scarf and the Daybreak would not. An ordinary striped triangle scarf is always a possibility; or i could make it crecent-shaped. The other problem is, that i would like the shawl to look airy, but not lacy... Luckily i have some time to think, my current commuting knit is still a WIP.

Introducing Pikku-Hukka

This is my cat, Pikku-Hukka (Little Wolfie in English). She'll be five in June. Her mother was my sister's cat Amalia. Amalia ran around free outside, as my sister lives in the country. One day she came home rather satisfied - she had found a beau. The result: six female kittens, which my sister mainly managed to plant on her family. I have Pikku-Hukka, my father has Annastiina, my step sister has Kuitunen ja my sister's in-laws have Siiri. Two she gave to good friends.

One of her favourite things to do is sleeping.

A cat sleeping is an adorable sight, i think.

not my kind of spring