Fiber Fool

1. Amanda treated me to yummy sushi as a belated birthday lunch.
2. I knit and read, often at the same time.
3. I mowed the lawn and watered the garden.



4. I went to a BBQ to celebrate an adorable little boy’s first birthday.
5. I went to the farmer’s market.
6. I did massive bedroom cleaning, including flipping and sanitizing the queen size mattress. I think I could have sold tickets to that one!
7. And I ended up having to take apart the vacuum to accomplish it too! The bare floor setting now works, which it hasn’t since we got bare floors and it is heaven to have them vacuumed!
8. I watched some of Longmire season 1.



9. I harvested a ton of arugula and made pesto which I used to dress a salad of millet and canellini beans with grape tomatoes and caramelized onions.
10. I went to see Star Trek:Into Darkness with my friend, Dee.

Not too bad. Would have liked to have done some sewing in there, but the fresh bed and dust-free floors were not a bad alternative! How about you? What did you do this weekend?

This photo has nothing to do with 10 on Tuesday. Nor is even recent. I’m just reminding myself what is around the corner and why be tolerant of cold, gray days besides fire suppression.

Well, I’ve never been terribly big on the whole April Fool’s thing and before 8am yesterday I was pretty much done with looking at the Internet given all the false things appearing all over social media. I stand pretty much zero chance at listing ten things.

There were a lot of surprises in our household growing up. Most, if not all, the brain children of my mother. Many of then centered around birthdays, thus very positive and fun experiences and not really pranks.

The title of biggest prank in our household is shared by my sister and my mom. Hands down! It wasn’t an April Fool’s prank though. The sad part was that it shouldn’t have been as epic as it was.

It was my first term at UND in Grand Forks, ND, 4 hours away from home. I was always very attached to my family and having a rough time being away. I came home every other weekend for my sanity (and free laundry, I won’t lie). On one of those trips my mom and my sister kept ribbing me about my North Dakota accent. I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. I didn’t find that most of the people at UND spoke any different than we did in west central Minnesota. A few of the people from really small towns on either side of the Canadian border may have had slight accents in comparison to the norm, but they didn’t strike me as particularly different than any of the really small towns in Minnesota either. It also seemed to me like I had been there an awful short amount of time to have picked up an accent.

Over the course of the weekend both mom and Amber would occasionally snicker and make a comment about my accent. I remember getting really flustered and frustrated a few times when I’d ask for examples and they would just release peels of laughter in response. In retrospect I suppose that should have tipped me off. Eventually the weekend came to an end and I headed back to school. They never bugged me about it again really, but it still popped to mind every once in a while.

Fast forward another 5 years or so and I was getting ready to move out to Colorado and made a stop at home. I finally asked them about this elusive North Dakota accent. I’m not certain if I was hoping to identify the offending parts of speech so I would avoid them when I arrived in Fort Collins or what. Regardless, when I asked them about it I was once again met with laughter. This time, the kind of laughter that causes tears to stream down your face. I was lost and couldn’t figure out what was so darn funny that they couldn’t talk. Eventually between gasps for air one of the two finally got out that they thought they had told me it was a joke before I headed back to school that very first weekend. They were dying of laughter because here I had been under the impression for more than 5 years that I had picked up a North Dakota accent! The joke ended up being 100 times funnier than they ever would have guessed!

If you are stopping by just for Ten on Tuesday, I do want to mention the announcement I made yesterday - to help me celebrate my birthday month you can save 15% on all my my knitting patterns sold on Ravelry in my store using the code HAPPY37. Plus, all purchases through midnight Mountain time on April 30th will be entered into a random drawing for a refund of the winning purchase.

This is not going to be a fun one. I’m in a mood and randomly diving into my thoughts will not be pretty. But it is real. Sorry, turn back now!

1. I’m tired of wind. I’ve only managed about 3 hours sleep each of the past 5 nights. I’m tired!
2. I’m really frustrated with people who do not respect the power of fire and the dryness of their surroundings. Playing with fire puts many people’s lives at risk, especially those who fight the fires. It puts family’s homes in danger. It puts the respiratory health of an entire city at risk.
3. I’m thankful for the wildland fire crews and all of our firefighters as well as all of the emergency crews who respond to such situations as wildfires. Especially for the crew on the Galena fire who have gotten it nearly contained very quickly despite lack of usual resources and uncooperative weather.
4. I’ve gotten bored with food. Sounds crazy I know. I just don’t want to deal with it anymore. I don’t want to think about what to make, make it, or clean up after making it. That might mean there is no food post tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see.



5. I’d like favorable weather for working out outside. No smoke inhalation warnings. No 30 mph winds. No snow and ice in the bike lanes (my preferred location to run when in the neighborhood). Coldish is okay, I can deal with that.
6. I love my coffee press (see #1) and am so glad a friend many years ago taught me the right way to brew a satisfying pot. I almost gave the press away. I shudder to think about that now.
7. I finished my DIP Ver 1.0. It prompted quite the discussion at knitting last night, but a few other spin-off ideas are now a bit more solidified and I’m reinvigorated in terms of knitting. I’m looking forward to getting it soaked and blocked today.
8. I updated a few older patterns to my current layout which removes the watermark that causes problems viewing in non-Adobe viewers. I also re-released a few patterns that had become no longer available from their original sources. I’ll continue to plug away at both. See the Woodland Trails cowl, the Spring Frills cuffs, the Fit to Be Tied neckerchief, and the Cirrus shrug. I’m totally thinking about whipping up a Cirrus in my new size, but can’t quite decide on a color to go with my spring/summer wardrobe.



9. Have you heard about Dreaming of Shetland yet? I’m very excited to be a part of it and to help support Deb’s very valuable research!
10. I’m looking forward to some quality time with my sketchbook to capture some of the ideas running through my head.
11. Because I can - I’m excited to dive into the results of last week’s kombucha brewing. If you don’t follow me on social media you probably haven’t heard, but I started an experiment and have 4 different types of tea brewing as well as coffee. I’ve made kombucha with all four types of tea before but was never able to do a side-by-side comparison before. I think I’ll be bottling tomorrow or Thursday. If you are local and are interested in a scoby to brew your own kombucha, just let me know.

Okay, somehow, it seems getting some of that stuff out of my head allowed me to get a bit more positive toward the end. Guess there is a take away lesson in that, huh? Who would have guessed that writing a 10 on Tuesday post would teach me something?!?

Thanks once again to Carole for her continued organization of 10 on Tuesdays.

Wow, what a topic! Of course it is in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, but some of my very favorite things are green and green is one of my favorite colors. I have no shortage of green handknits or yarns. And I’ve never been one to shy away from veggies and some of my absolute favorites are green - broccoli, spinach, kale, asparagus, edamame and on and on. Not to mention one of the most trying things for me about living in Colorado is the lack of green and prevalence of brown. Since I grew up in moist and humid Minnesota I’m accustomed to lush green woods and fields of various crops to surround me all summer long. So I present to you a pictorial look at just a small sampling of 10 favorite green things.

1. Trees in Background, 2. Project Spectrum May Wallpaper, 3. Eggplant - Black Beauty Seedlings, 4. Suzie Pro Spinning Wheel, 5. DSC_0792wtmk.jpg, 6. Edamame with Salt, 7. Balance Ball, 8. Peacock Feathers, 9. Ferns At The Historical Terrace Mill

1. SNOW! I know most of you are ready to be done with winter. In some ways I’m right there with you. But we’ve had very little precipitation this winter and March is typically our snowiest month so I am embracing snow with enthusiasm in hopes it will delay fire season this year.
2. More light! It is light when I leave the house and for a while after I get home now so there is no arguing that spring is coming.
3. It’ll be time to mess in the garden and yard again soon. I’m getting itchy to plant some of the cool season crops like kale, chard, spinach, radishes and peas!
4. There is still enough chill in the air to continue savoring my hot coffee, lattes and teas.
5. Again, it is still cool enough I don’t think twice about firing up the oven and doing some baking.



6. I can still enjoy relatively hearty meals like an curry-inspired stew.
7. The erratic weather allows for reading in the coziness of the house and blankets as well as in the sun on the patio — both in the same week!
8. There are times it is warm enough that the grill can be fired up and the food still hot when it gets in the house.
9. If the wind would take a break there is the likelihood of better outdoor fitness opportunities like runs and bike rides.
10. Buds on the trees are swelling and giving just the tiniest hint of color to their branches and leaves won’t be too far behind!