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The Layton-ish project is joined at the underarms and starting to grow shoulders!

And I have mapped out how the sleeve and body decreases should be placed in order to most closely approximate the shaping of the Layton pattern.

Once I got that sorted out, I revisited the EZ seamless saddle shoulder instructions, and realized that I’d forgotten about the final step – the short rows at the back of the neck.

The EZ saddle shoulder has you knit short rows a the back of the neck after completing the saddles- eating up half of the saddle stitches. I can’t do that because the stitch detail on the sleeve is supposed to run up the mock-turtleneck collar. So I’ve opted to incorporate short rows earlier in the shoulder shaping to create extra height in the back, effectively tipping the whole upper chest forward and raising the back by about 1.25 inches before I get to working the saddles.

Feeling good about the plan at this point. The math checks out, so here we go!

Yesterday’s storm had us all hunkered down. But today the pasture gang was back in action.

the deep watering was appreciated by this old “came with the place” rose that I transplanted earlier this spring. I’m so pleased that she has survived the move- she’s a rosbust climber and I thought it might be cool to let her ramble up over the sheep/chicken shed

lots of other pretty things budding out as well- Reine de Violettes

And peonies are starting to pop!

Yesterday’s stormy weather also provided me with a fair bit of knitting time.

so now I’m almost at the point where I start working the sleeves together with the body and shaping the shoulders.

I think I have enough yardage to finish, but If not, I’ve got a couple bobbins of singles in reserve waiting to be plied up.

The tricky bit will be finding the best blend of Layton shaping and EZ seamless saddle shoulder construction.

Everything is fabulously green and growing like it’s a time lapse video. I’ve been engaged in an epic battle to free our garden beds and borders from the bondage of buttercups, with some (albeit temporary) success. So in this moment that the lawn is mowed, the beds are (mostly) weeded and the evening sun is casting a beautiful glow on everything, I thought I would share some some shots of the things that are keeping my spirits up in the midst of this pandemic.

The bumblebees are thick on the rhodies right now. They just can’t get enough. I understand the feeling. The spring garden is intoxicating.

I probably shouldn’t wait to post until Sunday night.

After a busy weekend I’m almost always nearly out of gas.

But here we are. 🙂

So just a couple little things to share as I close out the week

Making progress on my Layton-ish project. I’ve joined the front and back of the body (started separately because of the split hem) and I am safely in the land of circular stockinette stitch.

(It’s a little longer than it looks in that photo, because the hem rolls up a bit.)

I would have been farther along, but I had to re-knit the back 2.5″ of the split hem due to messing up the double slip stitch edges. Not even sure what I was thinking- it seems like such a simple thing. But it kind of threw me for some reason.

In any case, things are rolling along well now, and I really like the feel of the fabric.

Also wanted to post an update on that little rose I started from seed a few months ago

She’s really picking up steam! But what’s that little thing there at the edge of the pot?

It’s another seedling! Where did he come from?

It makes me think that perhaps I gave up too soon on the rest of those rose seeds. I guess I’ll separate him out when I re-pot his sibling.

Have a good week- and stay safe!