Nice long blog post coming your way today! Because long term work is finally coming to fruition.

I finally finished the 8 oz. of dyeabolical singles from my fate, phd braid and steampumpkin braid. I began plying last evening. I am doing a 6 ply! An ambitious project where I hold those two singles together and chain ply them. It’s…well it goes well when I take it really slow. But, I’ve had to break the yarn a few times and reconnect because a little overspun single creates quite a large disaster. The resulting yarn will be quite interesting though, and I am eager to show it off once I am done and the yarn is washed.

I also finished my fatcatknits batt singles.

This is going to make some crazy colorful yarn, with loads of texture here and there, and mostly smooth two ply everywhere else. I am eager to see what it looks like once done.

That’s all I’ve got for my own crafting today. However, I received in the mail some handmade items from my cousin I am just eager to show off! He’s a carpenter (and a knitter) and appreciates the process of making by hand. He’s also an all around amazing person who raises chickens, gardens, etc. Our hobbies regularly overlap, and even when they don’t, there’s a distinct appreciation for them. I knit a christmas stocking for his new arrival (Now close to 2 years ago) and recently he sent me these:

This is his current obsession. He makes wooden spoons. At least one wooden spoon per day. And he makes them all out of just these three tools:

And quite frankly, I think that’s amazing! I told him I planned to display them and he told me absolutely not, they were to be used. And he showed me two wooden coffee spoons he uses, one older than the other with a lovely coffee stain patina on it. So, I caved, and this morning I used the smallest spoon in my coffee. You know what? There was something quite awesome about using that spoon. I don’t know if it’s just the tie to family and to making things by hand, or just the fact that it felt softer on my morning brain, not clanging against the side of my mug. In any case, it was pretty awesome. If you have any interest in following along with the daily spoons, you can follow him on instagram, at jhuntcarpentry.

And in garden news, I went to take a look at my veggie garden. That garden that I was to make sure had no more leftover bulbs in it? Failure. Complete failure.

This is only half! I think it likely that I’ll let the spring bulbs bloom again this year. However, I see more ditch lilies coming up, and those are going to go before they propagate themselves further. It’s just about time to break out that shovel again! This garden bed will get a major overhaul in general in April. Mr. Ink will remove the massive burning bush stump, remove the retaining wall holding it all in, and majorly revamp that entire section of the house. There’s a little grass hill there as well, and he plans to landscape it with natural stone. Where the burning bush once was, sitting around annoying the heck out of me every day, will be a smoke bush. and in front of that some type of thin evergreen tree. All the dirt in this garden, too, will be dug up and out, amended very well, and put back in so I can get my veggie/herb garden started.

It really is amazing to me, even this spring, how far we’ve come in less than 2 years in the house. It’ll be 2 years of living there on April 18, and looking at this photo today, I really do see how far we’ve come. It’s a nice hopeful feeling, rather than feeling overwhelmed. I can’t wait for spring, and another season of planting, tending, and landscaping.

Tonight I doubt any crafting will be had. Mr. Ink says bike ride then grocery shopping, which is a pretty tight, full schedule for one evening! Not that I am particularly upset about the plan. The weekend is looking to be glorious once again, so getting chores like grocery shopping done will go a long way to allowing us to enjoy that weekend.

Happy Thursday friends!