Living in hope

At last: a finished item. A cardigan knit to Sirdar 9074 for myself.
In fact, the light does the colour no favours, as the yarn, bought fronm the Trefiw Woollen Mills in Snowdonia, is a lovely dark heathered purple, very rich at close quarters.

I bought 14 balls and tried a couple of patterns without feeling convinced. This one is very simple but the front borders are picked up and knit from tiny side fronts. Then it's just feather and fan, four inches deep. I could see a number of ways in which this might fail dismally.

What's more, a week or two ago I popped into Oxfam and spotted a turquoise rendering of this pattern, freshly knit and obviously sent in depair to the charity shop. Something about the setting in of the sleeves, it might have been. So I wasn't totally convinced that this would fit, especially as I seem to have at least five balls left over - how can that be?
In fact it fits neatly and looks great, the scalloped edge of the feather and fan forming a pleasant edge to edge effect.
Today, the first mowing of the lawn as Spring moves ahead. In the garden, pear blossom just bursting through, and grape hyacinths in full bloom.

On the allotment, we have put in parsnip, beet, carrots, leek and lettuces, and planted the first row of early potatoes. Onions and garlic are already established. It is only a week since we ate the last of the parsnips, the flesh sweetened by the frosts. Parsnips seem much more resistant to pests than carrots which everything else eats before we get them.