"SEE the ball ... BE the ball!"

One of my favorite movies from the 80s is "Caddyshack." I mention this because there is a scene in "Caddyshack" where Ty has blindfolded Danny, and is coaching him on how to golf: "Be the ball Danny ... be the ball, be the ball ... you're not being the ball, Danny!"

That's kind of how I feel about this lace pattern.

It is hard. I have only ripped back twice, but I keep going back to the user group and reading all the postings. Knitters keep posting things like "get into the pattern," and "once you figure out how to read it," and "It took me sixty bazillion times but I finally understood it." I keep hearing See the ball ... be the ball!

I have immersed myself in this pattern, read it back and forth, counted stitches endlessly. What it comes down to is it's hard and I'm a beginner. The graph doesn't reflect the actual pattern once you get past the first iteration. You have to just magically know how to read lace repeats. I am determined, though, and I put it aside once in disgust, only to pick it right back up again and try again. And I think I have finally figured it out. We'll see after about a dozen more rows, if the magical leaf patterns keep appearing. You do see them, right? You see the leaves, right? It's not just me imagining things, right? There are leaves, right? I think my yarn-overs are wrong. Do you knit through the front loop or back loop when you're on the wrong side, knitting a yarn over from the right side?

I shall persevere. I am determined!

I finished the Saturday Socks and was so pleased with them I started the Thursday socks.

I'd have posted sooner, but I twisted my left ankle (which made it really hard to drive my manual transmission car) and I wanted to wait for most the swelling to go down. Cute, aren't they?(The socks, not my big fat feet!) They aren't really warm, but they're really cozy. I messed up the heel, but I fixed that by just not photographing it.

The Thursday socks. It suddenly became 95 degrees in Baltimore, so I haven't been knitting much!

First skein of the denim merino. Pretty!

 *****Gardening******

I love my garden! It's doing great now that it's warmed up. 

Dozens of itty bitty cucumbers...

A really big bloom on the heirloom tomato ...

Ripening strawberries ... I've eaten several from my older plants already, but they're usually misshapen. These look perfect!

And dozens of budding raspberries. 

And doggy Georgie Girl modeling her new haircut. You'd think it was 40 degrees in here, the way she curls up so tightly. She's just like that -- cute, huh? She loves to do the sad-doggy-no-friends routine when I take her picture. 

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!