Turns out MCY yarn can be frogged, which is handy, given that some of this yarn has now been knit and ripped five times. It's patently clear from the picture that I'm knitting a Frankenstein mash of the cloud bolero and the one skein wonder, right? which means I'm putting a feather and fan pattern into the one skein wonder, having thieved the idea from the cloud bolero.

It looks like something, right? Something that's not just a mess, I mean. I'm a little worried that uneven single ply yarn + lace = something 'bohemian' that a middle aged 'artistic' lady who also enjoys felt art and macrame might make. I'm also a bit worried about my ability to increase in lace. My skills so far have been responsible for all the ripping. I tried reading eunny jang's articles on increasing/ decreasing in lace patterns, but I think they're something I need to come back to another time. for now they're doing my head in.

See my pretty stitch markers? The ones that aren't loops of wool? Easter gift from someone in my stitch'n'bitch. Aren't they lovely? First time i've ever used 'proper' stitch markers, let alone pretty ones. I'm quite sold on them, I think.

I had this terrible gardening emergency yesterday (yes, more on my garden. I've got self sprouting sweet potato and garlic too now). The mulch has been growing this weird white fungus, but in the past 48 hours, due to pretty much constant rain I guess, the fungus went WILD. It was EVERYWHERE! Including on my plants! Growing on my living plants, but actually killing them off! There was nothing I could do to stop it! Maybe it was even poisonous to me, and I shouldn't even be outside breathing in the spores! I rang my mum, who said that a little fungus was normal, a lot was not. She'd never seen it kill plants. She recommended that i ring bunnings. I rang my local bunnings, who told me fungus was normal and good. Unconvinced, I rang a different bunnings, who doubtfully told me that maybe copper oxychloride would kill it. A quick google revealed copper oxychloride is for killing black spot fungus on rosebushes. Not deadly white grows-on-mulch-and-my-plants fungus. No good. I ring the people that made the mulch! The lady that answers gives me her husband' mobile number. This is an emergency! The guy has no idea what it is, has never heard of it. He's quite hopeful it's the delightfully named dog's vomit slime mould, but descriptions don't match. He tells me to pop down to my local indie garden centre. It's raining and I have no car. But this is an emergency! Heirloom beets are at stake! I throw some dead, fungus laden leaves in a plastic bag and set off in the sleet.
I find the guy at the local garden store. I explain my predicament.
"That fungus is normal. It's good for the plants."
"But it's KILLING them! Look"
He inspects my bag of leaves.
"Uh, nope. You're killing them. They've got collar rot. The fungus has grown on them because you put the mulch too close to the stems, and that also caused collar rot. The fungus by itself doesn't do anything."
"oh. you sure?"
"Yup."
"oh."
I went home a moved the mulch away from my plants. Periodically I also go outside and bash away at the larger patches of fungus with my trowel. More to make myself feel better than anything else. One beetroot fell victim to collar rot, everything else seems to be doing okay.