Things are looking up

Things are looking up in the weather, sweet potato vine, and knitting departments at Chez Davis.

While today isn't exactly warm (only in the 50's), it is sunny, so that's a major step. According to our local meteorologists, the temperatures will rise this week and even hit 70. That will be wonderful.

My sweet potato vine is showing a major growth spurt. In addition, there's another little "spurt" visible just beneath the top growth.

With luck, I just might have a sweet potato vine or two going wild on the back deck this summer. (Note to self: Start growing your sweet potato vine in late February next year. Late April is ridiculously late to start one.)

By the way, isn't this cactus plant weird? It's a Euphorbia trigona. My sister-in-law Laurie gave it to me last fall after I commented on her Euphorbia trigona. Hers is at least a foot tall, probably more like 18 inches tall. I'd never seen anything like it. Laurie gave me the little baby Euphorbia that had poked out of the soil by its mother plant. When I brought it home to plant in soil, it was about 2 inches tall. Now it's 5 1/2" tall and has sprouted new little leaves at its top. These leaves will turn brown and fall off soon, then it will start the process all over again. I've read that the Euphorbia has never been known to blossom, so I won't bother get my hopes up. It's enjoying life on my kitchen windowsill.

My progress on the Potter's Shawl came to a screeching halt about two weeks ago when I came to the end of that one skein of yarn. My sister Roberta had also bought a skein of it, though, and she offered to sell hers to me. Saturday night I saw Roberta, with the promised skein, so I'm off and running again with the shawl. I'm about to start the leaf edging, however, and that could be my undoing. It sounds complicated, although other knitters on Ravelry who've made this shawl say the edging pattern is "easy to memorize." We shall see.

Meanwhile, since I need to have something on my needles at all times, I've been working on yet another pair of socks. I'll set them aside and get back to the shawl this evening.

And look at this colorful skein of sock yarn! I had to make an emergency trip to Mother of Purl yesterday for some 24" size 5 circular Knitter's Pride needles. Lo and behold, M of P was having a wonderful sale, making room for more summer yarns. I couldn't resist this skein of Viking of Norway Aurora sock yarn, regularly $19.95/skein, at 40% off. I left the yarn shop happy. I would have been even happier if Ken hadn't been waiting for me in the car, because I'd like to have done more browsing at the yarns on sale.