As expected, I was able to finish my clue 2 yesterday. Partway through the day, I wasn’t positive it would get done. I mean, Mr. Ink dragged me out to a movie, Blade Runner 2049, which was wonderful. Then upon my return, he wanted to go on a motorcycle ride. I was like “Hey, you already dragged me out, and I’ve got 6 loads of laundry to complete, and I wanted a little time IN this weekend. So you’ll have to ride alone.” Which he did, and that was awesome because I switched out a load of laundry and then took a nap. Miss Butterfly got home from her sleepover, and was in a surprisingly good mood! I always hate the day after a sleepover because of grumpy kid, but she wasn’t. We had some good talks, and fun time together, and she helped me with the laundry. We had JUST planned to take the dog on another walk together when Mr. Ink got home saying “I forgot I planned to mow today!” I groaned, because this again meant changing my plans. But, mowing is the one thing I do help with outside, and it REALLY needed doing. So, I got myself together and mowed.
Later on in the evening Mr. Ink said “You really should have made me do all the mowing, that wasn’t very nice of me to spring that on you.” I was like “I considered it.” But, then I would have sat inside or paced inside feeling guilty that he was mowing and I wasn’t helping. It was easier just to get the job done. And because I helped, HE was able to go grocery shopping before cooking dinner.
I think I promised a close up shot of the new garden area, the mound behind the fire pit. The new tree is pretty awesome, I really like it. And now you can see my weeping hemlock too! It’s pretty mature, but I am hoping it grows up a bit now that it is in the ground. This garden area is certainly evergreen heavy, it remains to be seen if Mr. Ink decides to add to it a bit.
When I was getting sick of all the knitting of clue 1 of the mystery shawl, I cast on a cowl just for easy knitting. It IS easy knitting, but it is worked in pattern on both sides, so even the purl rows have a pattern to follow. This means I really do need to keep my eye on the pattern as I knit. So, it’s not as easy as I had hoped. The pattern is called Thorny, and I suspect it’ll knit up quickly in the handspun 3 ply of mine that I chose for it.
Here’s the yarn:
And the project in progress:
I definitely think it’ll block out particularly nicely. I admit that while pattern knitting on both sides is a bit of a pain, I always really enjoy the results. The lines are more dramatic and it’s really fun to look at. I guess I’ll have plenty of time this week to work on this, with the waiting until Friday for clue 3 and all!
I’ve also been considering pulling out an old WIP. It’s now 2 years on the needles, and I am not even sure where I am with the pattern. Pulling out the pattern and the WIP, checking it out, and seeing if I can figure out where I am is step one, right? 
This is what it looked like last time I took a photo. Bright, right? It’s that wollmeise I was using. The pattern is Pas de Valse. I seem to remember being at the point where I needed to divide for the front and back. I also remember the instructions being a bit complicated.
Here’s the thing. Either I knit it or I frog it. I seem to be having a desire to knit garments again. And wear them again. My success with the vest was pretty inspiring. And I had the success of finishing a long ago started sweater this spring as well. There’s one garment in particular I would like to knit. It would require purchasing yarn for it. And I just feel like I cannot do that until I finish or frog everything currently on the needles. This is the last partially begun sweater still outstanding. Bonus, regaining the needles! Finish or frog, either way I’ll get that benefit.
That’s all from here! It’s another busy busy week, work wise and personal life wise. I had to tell Mr. Ink that if he wanted to go on a bike ride tonight, he’d have to do it alone. With the current work hours and some other stuff I’ve committed to in order to help out friends, I just cannot get home in time! But, I am looking at next week and thinking “Gosh, those evenings look nice and quiet. YAY!”
Happy Monday folks!
Suzy Sells Sea Shells 
That’s great you’re getting through all your WIPs. I make rules like that for myself too, lol
Your handspun and you hemlock ROCK. I LOVE them both. You guys ALWAYS accomplish a ton. Im so impressed
You are so good, clearing up WIPs before buying more yarn. I don’t need to buy more yarn for a while, I got so much good stuff in September. Now I am just a knitting machine , churning out little goodies that I hope will sell well enough to earn me money for more yarn, lol. Because I want to knit sweaters for me, but no one will buy those. 🙂
As fro your pretty blue “thing” – I guess I would look at the pattern again, see if it is as complex as you recall, and if you like the finished garment still. If not, rip with abandon! That yarn is gorgeous and will make something else someday. But if you can figure it out and still like it, go ahead and finish it, you have a good head start. 🙂
PS the trees look wonderful, and the mulch – not a weed in sight. Very nice job. Hope the rain stops so the lawn stops growing. And thanks for arranging the fronts in such a way that we got loads of rain from Nate – we really needed that deluge. Now if you could send that kind of rain about once a week for a while, that would be good.