Growing Gardens

WARNING: This blog post may contain actual knitting content!

Yes, I know, it's been a bit of a while since this knitting blog mentioned actual knitting. Part of the problem is that some projects are just not that photogenic. Lace is notoriously unphotogenic, and when you're making lace with Basil green 2ply, it does look like I let a kitten loose with the garden twine.



This particular amorphous blob is half of the Hidcote Shawl by Miriam Felton. It is, or rather it will be, absolutely beautiful when it's finished, and the parts of the pattern that I can see starting to form have the promise of things to come.



I'm now part way through the second section, representing the formal flower beds of Hidcote, and I've got about another half chart before I start the lavender patterning. I'm actually desperately hoping that this is half the shawl because I've just started the second ball of yarn. According to the shawl progress calculator (here) I'm 49.9% complete - I'm hoping for a miracle or for a smidge more yardage in the second ball - we'll have to wait and see which (if either) I get.

My chief photography assistant (reassigned that crucial position now that his finger is getting better) decided that my shawl in progress looks like a fishing keep net:


So he found me some shrimp



Of the very pinkest, entirely artificial type - well we are a long way from the sea!

And while one garden grows, the other one hasn't been doing too badly either. We had a little garden centre splurge the other week and bought a new hebe (now covered in flowers) and a blue hydrangea (my favourites) that is just starting to turn lilac at the edges.



The rest of the flowers have survived our slightly haphazard approach to gardening and are thriving despite rather than because of our green thumbs - I love them equally but I think I'm better at shawls than plants!