Bee Happy

Sorry, couldn't resist saying something so corny. It's all about the bees around here right now. The girls are guzzling down the sugar water and working, working, working all the time. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the orange-ish looking pollen on their back legs when they come in from foraging(click to biggify). It looks as though they will need some expansion room and will be ready for the second hive box to go on in just a day or two. I have spent time just sitting and watching them fly in and out every morning. They have been too busy to pay much attention to me, though I did get buzzed a bit yesterday. I actually got a bigger reaction from the lambs when they saw me walk into the field in my bee outfit! (The jumpsuit is gigantic and makes me feel as though I am moving under water, but everyone said to buy it extra big because it shrinks a lot when you wash it.Add the helmet and the veil and it's a pretty scary look.) The lambs took one look at me and ran for their lives!

Last week I made the trip to Frankfort to one of my favorite places at this time of year. Wilson Nurseries (sadly, no website) is brimming over with beautiful plants and I wanted to bring home a load of them. I restrained myself and only got vegetable plants, geraniums and assorted annuals for the pots that go on the terrace. I have tried to become more realistic about the number of pots and plantings I will do a good job of caring for once the weather gets really hot and that has caused me to scale back considerably. I'm willing to admit that when it gets really hot, I'd much rather be sitting inside knitting---of which there has been very little of lately.

I am working on the "Kate Cardigan" designed by Elizabeth Morrison. It was in issue #5 of Knitcircus, the wonderful little knitting magazine that Susan Anderson mentioned on her blog a few months back. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to subscribe to it immediately. Several of us from the Wednesday Knitting group did and we all love the size and format of it. I ordered the back issues also and have found several patterns in each issue that I would like to knit. Anyway, I'm slowly making progress on the "Kate". I have finished the back, which was boring stockinette, but made for great mindless knitting and am now working on the fronts. I am knitting both fronts at the same time because then I don't have to remember the shaping (lazy, I guess). I'm anxious to get to the sleeves because they are picked up from the armhole edge and knit down, using short rows to shape the sleeve cap. I don't believe I have ever knit sleeves that way and it seems to me, if it works well, it will make fitting sleeves into the armhole opening much easier. (The yarn is Queensland Kathmandu DK in color #434)

Time to get outside and work, work, work (you know, making hay while the sun shines and all that.....).