Spring greens and New Year

 A note on why we call it Lunar New Year, not attaching it to one Asian nation

 Yesterday was cloudy and mild, so I walked. And found hairy bittercress in full swing. I took a taste sample, yes, spicy like watercress, its relative. I have to pick my share before the rabbits see it off. It's their spring tonic, too.

And beautiful lichen on fallen branches. There's a lot down

 with recent storms.

Back home, while I watched the cow-flinging episode of Northern Exposure, largely about recovering from disaster and making art, I continued with the sampler of Tunisian crochet, to see if I could remember the knit stitch. That's the top few rows there, nice texture. The first few are in simple stitch.

The cow flinging was really great, about how it's not the product, it's the creating. As Chris explains, it's not what's flung, it's the fling! Words to live by!

Happy day everyone, remember the fling, however your fling looks!

About whitlow grass and other gripping matters

 I did more study on my whitlow grass, thinking it was maybe named for the discoverer, as plants often are. 

But I found it was once thought to be a remedy for whitlows, painful swellings on the sides of my fingers as a kid. Really miserable, painful even to try to handle anything. 

Turns out they're caused by one of the herpes viruses, the kind that cause blisters in your mouth. So I doubt whitlow grass could help, unless maybe reducing the pain.

Anyway, edible food is also appearing, hairy bittercress, lovely tangy addition to salads. Rabbits like this too, so I can't take too long before I pick my share.

And nonedible daffodil leaves are up, too. I'm told that the juice of daffodil stems is a good glue, though I haven't tested this assertion.

The weekend entertainment was meh. The Game of Kings came highly recommended by a friend, however the library yielded only print, which I requested anyway. Then found the font size is too small for me to read for more than a para or two. Oh well.

Then, another recommended book; all kinds of writers whose work I like thought Annabelle Gurwitch hilariously funny and on point. And I found her frantic rather than funny, self critical rather than rueful. I like a terser style. 

Not suggesting you don't read them, but just not my jam right now. You may love either or both, just sayin.

My DVD is a detective series set in Australia, wonderful scenery and sets and acting, witty dialog, the detective a former police detective who inherited enough money to enable her to leave the Force. The computer whiz sidekick is a young woman of color who can do indepth research while gaming at the same time, easy!

I do recommend this one. I watched the first episode, and was a bit exhausted by the pace. Nonetheless it's definitely worth watching if you haven't already.

Then here I am, smugly grinning in my lovely incredibly comfortable vest. It's become my go to. I was even glad it was colder today so I could wear it to the library.

There my friend the librarian from the knitting group admired it, having seen it when it was still being spun.

And presented me with a pack of linen samples she wasn't using. Since the vest was basically made from roving ends, same idea, using scraps of beautiful material to make something.

The pieces are about 3"x3", 60 in all, and have labels identifying colors on the backs. 

So I had a playtime setting them out, then sorting into color families, like kindergarten. 

And here's where I'm open to suggestions: what to make? I have some ideas, but blogistas may have better ones. Linen takes up dye so well, very evenly. And I'm familiar with the ins and outs of handling linen.

Let me know if you can suggest a project. This will be hand stitching as all my stitching is. It will probably need a quarter inch seam allowance all round, creating a 2 1/2" square. Times 60.

There! Ideas welcome.