Spring has sprung

Spring has definitely arrived in central Virginia.  Everything, and I do mean everything, is blooming.  If the sneezing and itchy eyes weren't clue enough, seeing this  was a dead give-away.  Yes, that's a puddle covered in pollen.  You can even see where cars have driven through it and left tracks on the pavement.  As with many things, it's the pollen you can't see that really gets you.

Other than the start of yellow car season (the pollen is also nature's fingerprint powder, there are finger and hand prints all over my car where the pollen has stuck to the oils from our hands), there has been very little new happening the last year two weeks.  I have stitched and there has been knitting (which I always forget to take a picture of) despite really just wanting to curl up in a comfy chair and read.  

Looking at my crafting calendar, I'm only a day late for  which has got to be a new record for me and ties in perfectly with the two pieces I have worked on.  Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching (the link will take you to the Gifted Gorgeousness 2021 Sign-up Page, you can click on over to Jo's blog from there).  Jo started the SAL as a way for us to say "thank you" to everyone that gave us stitching goodness, or to show things that we're stitching for others or for anything you can shoehorn into the theme.  As I mentioned, I have two focus pieces in my rotation that are gifts.  The first is Goldie.  It is charted by Heaven and Earth Designs from a photograph my nephew took of my in-laws' dog and will be a Christmas gift for them.  Last time I showed it, it was here:

and when I put her away after her rotation time, she was here:

I am very happy with progress I made. I didn't follow through with my plan to stitch a length of blue for every dog color I stitched.  As Goldie became more and more recognizable, I wanted to see how she was really going to look.  She's stitched 1-over-1 on 28-count Antique White Monaco with DMC.

As soon as I put Goldie away, I put Japanese Zen Moss Garden on the frame.  This one is a gift for my son.  When it was put away after its last rotation, it was here:

and today it's here:

I am almost done with the lower left pond.  Once I finish the cross stitching there, I'll move out to the waterfall/bushes. This comes off the frame on the 20th, so a fair amount of time to get that done.  As I'm looking at the picture, I also need to square off one of the spaces in the lower right.  The pattern is from Chatelaine.  I'm stitching it on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan from Wichelt using Martina's DMC conversion.  The bead kit is from European Crosstitch Company.    

Stitching and knitting tonight.  Tomorrow I am going to mow the lawn (although I think the battery will need to be charged before I can get the lawnmower started) and then stitch or knit the rest of the weekend.  Monday is the start of the Knights Who Say Knit KAL.  It's a 5-part mystery shawl knit along designed by Mary Annarella of Lyrical Knits.  The pattern is available on Ravelry and Payhip.  I used my birthday money (thanks again Mom) and splurged on the "Hamsters and Elderberries" yarn set  from Miss Babs (photo from the Miss Babs website).  I haven't done a KAL but don't expect that I'll keep up with it any better than I do a SAL, but I will enjoy the journey.

Hope you are all well.