And the Garden Goes to Sleep

In November we had our first proper frosts, finally ending gardening season. I already miss the flowers, but I won't deny that this period of rest is very much needed. Our season is so long: I start seeds in February, start planting in March, harvest tulips in April and then go straight through October. I am not a fan of winter, with the sicknesses and cold and dark. However, it does go quite quickly when I think about how I only really have two months "off."

Revisiting these pictures already makes November seem so long ago, today, with our first snow on the ground. After the frost killed off the remaining plants, I cut down all the dead foliage, planted the tulips, and commenced dahlia digging. A lot of gardeners have been overwintering their dahlias in our zone 7a area, but I wanted to dig mine up to divide and cull the ones that were not performing. I also bought a dozen clumps from another nearby farmer, which meant I spent many hours digging, washing, dividing, and wrapping tubers for storage. I probably have several hundred tubers now, and room for 100 plants. I'm happy for the extra insurance! If I end up with extra in the spring, I'll be able to pot them up and hopefully sell the plants.

My pace of knitting has slowed down over the years. After producing some twenty-plus years of knits, I and everyone I know is fairly well stocked. I have a drawer full of socks and certainly don't need any more; they are just one of my favorite things to knit. Lately I have been focusing on making short socks that are wearable in warmer months. This pattern is Brambleberries by This Handmade Life. I love how they turned out... but, I committed my most-common knitting error. They are slightly too small. I blocked them out as much as I could and hope to get some use out of them.

You may ask, why not just unpick them and add some more length? After knitting at least 50 pairs of socks in my lifetime, I don't care enough to do this. I'll just move on to the next ones! Yes, I do have two daughters to potentially give them to but one of them already has feet bigger than mine. 

The yarn is Knitpicks Stroll, not my favorite, but I have a lot of it from many, many years ago. I don't have a massive yarn stash yet I could probably knit from it for many years to come!

Last month I mentioned I had signed up for a pottery class. I have two more classes to go of the five-week series. This is a communal studio, not glamorous or even that tidy, but oh, I love being there! It takes me right back to my college days. Although I was an art history major, I was required to take two art classes. I remember showing up at the art building at all hours to work on projects, along with my fellow students who were keeping similarly odd schedules, unencumbered by adult responsibilities.

After my first class, I quickly realized that I don't yet have the skills to envision what I want to make and then create it. This has resulted in an assortment of random pots with no specific function. As long as they are round and don't fall apart, that is good enough for me! I still have several steps to go before they are complete, so I'll share the finished products in my next post. 

Is there something you have always wanted to do but haven't found the time for? I highly suggest going for it - because we only live once, right?