Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter Sunday, beginning with the 8:00 service. It was a joy to hear the "alleluia" ring out in the church again (in the Episcopal Church, we put that word away for Lent) and to sing it in several of the hymns. I think that the Easter music is even more dear to me than Christmas music -- possibly because I don't hear my favorite hymns turned into musack in every store or elevator for months leading up to the holiday. They are still very closely connected to the particular experience of being at church for the holiday itself.

I grew up RC, and attending Good Friday service was always important. Since changing churches, I find the Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday in the RC, which has also had a renewal of the importance of this service) mass to be the most moving of the Triduum. The service invariably ends in the dark, with a silent stripping of the altar area of everything except the furniture and rug. It is so sad to watch. But makes the joy of coming to a re-assembled and decorated altar on Sunday morning all the more meaningful.

After the 8:00 we had breakfast (our parish puts on a breakfast for anyone who wants to attend) and then back to work for the 10:15 (I'm in the choir, so had to be at church at 7:20 and sing at both services. Then, off to my sister's house, about a 1 1/2 hour drive, and a fun afternoon with a good portion of my family (though we missed those who couldn't be there and there was enough food for more than were there).

It was a good knitting day. I worked on Sprössling, finding when I picked it up as we left home, that I had made a goof on one side. That is the possible problem with knitting the fronts at the same time (on the same needles) -- it is possible to get turned around and make a mistake on one side. Luckily I caught it, but it took most of the ride down to get it sorted out to my satisfaction. Knitting a bit at my sister's house and on the ride home, I have about 4 inches done above the start of the armholes. Not too much farther to go before I start the sleeves and am on the home stretch.

This photo doesn't do it justice, of course, because it is lace knitting. It looks like it will never fit me, but needs to be blocked and stretched to show it's lacy loveliness.

I've also finished one of my skew socks. I need to add about 14 more rows to the second one, do the short rows and then the top cuff and I'll be done with another pair of socks! Organizing my yarn (or, as Brenda Dayne on the Cast On podcast puts it, the "airing of the stash") has shown me that I have way too much sock yarn and need to do something with it. I like Harlot's idea about pairing sock yarn with patterns in self-made "kits." She was very good about doing a pair a month last year, but that is not likely to be possible for me. Maybe six in one year?

At the moment, though, my thoughts need to be turned toward our vegetable garden project. We are following the Square Foot Gardening guide this spring. We've settled on the size and location of our raised bed and then spent Saturday scouring local garden centers for the ingredients of the soil mix (even though it was snowing at one point on Saturday!). Chickadees are checking out the birdhouse in the apple tree in front of our house -- it is really spring!