One (or Two or Three ) Projects Off the List

The past two days have seen progress on a number of fronts. The wedding stole is finished! The Debbie Bliss sweater pieces are done and the fronts & back are ready to take off the blocking board (I hope it fits -- I was well underway before taking the Fit to Flatter class and probably should have made the next size down). Nate's sweater was undone near the bottom and nearly 2" added -- I'm about half-way around grafting it back together (it turned out just a bit too short for my 6' son when I gave it to him at Christmas).

And, drumroll, please....
This is my stash (OK, most of it -- there is more, I'll admit), reorganized with the able help of my father! Yesterday, he and I created the divider panels for these cube shelves -- mostly we made X's, but also had a few singles (bottom right two boxes). I had my yarn on these shelves already, but jumbled and tumbled. When I put the dividers in and put the yarn back on, I actually had room for more yarn than had been on these shelves before! Here's the longer view:
These "cube" shelves have been very handy throughout the years. The two that are painted white were in our kitchen for years, before renovations, when we had very little cupboard space. I remember the cereal living in them so that the boys could get their own breakfast when they were little. Then the tall one lived in our mudroom, turned horizontally for our shoes and boots. And the most recent use, before yarn, was in one son's room where he used them in a variety of ways, but mostly as a substitute for a chest of drawers. At one point, he even used them under the ends of his bed to "loft" it. Now, they've found their true calling :)

We've also started working on a vegetable garden. Barely, but started. I bought raised bed corners from Gardener's Supply in their end-of-summer sale last year. When picking up the hard-board for the dividers, I also bought some lumber for the garden. Yesterday we dealt with the all-important task of siting the garden. Here's DH in the yard, contemplating where to assemble the garden:
We're using the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book as a guide and the next step is to obtain the ingredients for the mixture he recommends for the box. We'll use one of our big tarps and work the various ingredients together and then, voila! put the mixture in on top of a weed barrier and we'll be off to the races. Well, as soon as we decide what we want to grow. Luckily, we live near one of the best seed providers, Johnny's Selected Seeds, and can just go to the warehouse shop and pick up our seeds, instead of having to order them and wait.

On the knitting front, I'm trying very hard to finish up loose ends. In other words, instead of casting on for something new (Dianna keeps calling), I'm trying to finish up projects that have been stalled. I'm working on my Skew socks -- doing the short rows at the top of one and almost ready to do the ribbing. I'll try to finish Sprössling next. I'll start seaming the Debbie Bliss sweater and block the sleeves today. In general, I'm trying to clean up the piles of things around my knitting chair, which is the next big area to organize with the help of my Dad. He's building an "entertainment center" to replace the table where our stereo system is stacked and where all of my "must have close by" odds and ends of knitting stuff is out where everyone can see them. I'll be able to put all of that behind doors and in drawers sometime this summer.

Add in 10 hours of sleep last night and I'm feeling good!