Knitting Redo

I found this really cute sweater on Pinterest and thought it would be easy enough for me to tackle. I'm still not very confidant in my knitting skills and as it turned out, rightly so. The pattern took 4 rows and wasn't too hard once I got the hang of it. I started in with this pretty yarn called Mushroom Wool-Ease by Lion Brand. I got up to the color change and continued with the blue. Then came binding off for the armholes. Well, guess what? I could not figure out what stitch to do once the decreasing started. I messed with it for a few days and then put it away for another few. What to do?
And then I said, "s**** it!" And I took it all out and started over!

I'm using the super easy moss stitch which works out very similar to the other one. (Not sure what it was called. It had a "knit 1 below"  in it.) And I know that I can continue it when the decreasing starts. Yeah! I'm really enjoying the knitting and I'm already planning the next sweater. Of course I won't be wearing this one until next fall - it will take me awhile to finish. And I've got quilting and gardening coming up. Now if I could just quit my job.....

Drying Rose Petals

I really enjoyed those roses Rick got me for Valentine's Day. But right before they were completely done, I decided to dry the petals. I will add them to the flowers I'll dry this summer for some pretty, fragrant potpourri.

When I have a lot of flowers or herbs to dry I get out the dehydrator. But since I had just a small amount of petals, I put them on a cookie sheet and popped them into a slightly warm oven. It doesn't take long for them to get crispy dry and ready to put into a jar.

Here are a couple of half gallon jars with dried larkspur and lemon verbena from last summer. I also like to dry gomphrena, yarrow, tansy, calendula, nigella, and lavender.

 
This is just a small amount of the lavender I have. I seem to have many jars of it all over the house. It has so many uses and I can never harvest enough. Though I just remembered that I had to put in all new lavender plants last spring after losing so many the previous winter. I hope I get a good harvest this year.

This is what I got from JoAnn's the other day. Isn't it pretty? I thought about putting the rose petals in it, but then decided it would be great filled with small Easter eggs. I'll be getting that stuff out soon. What about you? Ready for spring and Easter decorating? I sure am! (Especially since we just got 4 more inches of snow:(