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I swear I'm not dead yet, I just haven't been making much progress on any single project.

A small pea plant with one pale green flower bud on the topmost branch, coiled around a rough stick of balsa wood next to a white-painted window frame. It's dark outside, and the glass reflects blurred shapes from the inside of the room.
One pea survived all winter to flower.
I put more seeds in the pot that held my ill-fated peas, which had a rough life. Grow lights in winter aren't optional for peas.

View from above of a bobbin on a castle-style spinning wheel, all in light, natural wood. Six neat bumps of tightly-spun black yarn are wound on the core of the bobbin, and the yarn is hooked around the furthest hook of the flyer from the photographer, running along all the other hooks and out of frame.
No, it didn't occur to me to spin a little more on that last hook before taking a photo.
I've been very slowly working at the alpaca fiber I bought last year. Originally I'd wanted to make six-ply yarn, but after discovering that drop-spindling alpaca to make soft singles is very difficult, I switched to the wheel, and am planning three-ply yarn instead. Eventually, I'll have a whole gradient of natural alpaca fibers, and then I'll knit them into a big cushy scarf.

A photo from above of the photographer's lap, showing a gathered denim skirt and the edge of a color-blocked olive-and-apple-green sweater. A wooden bottom-whorl spindle rests in the center of the photographer's lap, with the whorl toward their body, and a loose rope of wool coiled around it, teal-blue at the hook of the spindle through gold and into cinnamon and russet at the trailing end.
Featuring yet another friend's living room table.
Since the alpaca removed itself from consideration as a travelling project, I started spinning up some Nest Fiber Club fiber I've had stashed away for a year or two. I'm leaning toward chain-ply for this, which should land it around fingering weight...but what's in the photo is the very first chunk of fiber, which I still haven't worked through, so I won't need to decide how I want to ply it for at least a few more months.

A close-up of the top of a white page in a brass spiral-bound notebook, with fine black penlines marking a bookshelf with hand-drawn book spines on it. The books are a variety of heights and widths, mostly standing upright, but some leaning on each other. The top shelf has a drawing of a label that reads "Spanish" and one book titled "La pequeña casa del bosque." The second shelf is half-full of English books.
Why do I read so many books with long titles?
I'm doing okay with my reading goals, and working through the (old) unread books on my shelf pretty quickly. Of course, I keep acquiring new books to read, but that's alright. I just want the three- (and four- and five- and....more-) year-old books read, so I can decide whether I need to keep possessing them or not. I'm looking at moving into a much smaller living space when my current lease is up, so the more I can condense my belongings to what I really love and use, the better.

A shot from above of a white ceramic bowl with thick blue marks angled around the rim like a rope. Curly ramen noodles, thin sliced carrots, mushrooms, and a soft-boiled egg split in half fill the bowl.
Packet ramen never looked so good.
I've been working toward better meals even when they start in a packet...and getting pretty good at lovely soft-boiled eggs.

A close-up of the cut end of a pineapple stalk, showing the dry, slightly curled leaves and the pale tan circles indicating rootlets, arranged in a ragged circle around the yellow, fleshy center.
The brown spots are potential roots!
When I finally chopped up the pineapple on my counter, I decided on a whim to try to root it...so it's hanging out in a glass of water, hopefully gathering the strength to grow.

A crumpled piece of soft lilac lace knitting with a just-discernible chevron design, on dark wooden circular needles, next to a cake of the same yarn.
On and on and on...
I think I was going to write about how no matter how much time I spend on this shawl, it's just not getting bigger. But. In the intervening time between uploading these photos and typing these words, I've finished the knitting, and now just need to block and weave in the ends to have a new very large and very squishy shawl. So that's exciting.

A white hand over a clear plastic container full of potting soil, holding a pile of bluish-green, very fuzzy oval seeds, each about the size of a pinky nail.
Turns out cotton seeds don't like letting go of their fiber.
About two weeks ago, I planted Arkansas Green Lint cotton seeds...

A number of small, bright-green seedlings in a clear plastic tray of potting soil; one seedling has a fully unfolded pair of leaves, another is starting to unfurl, and the rest are still wearing seed coats or just emerging from the soil.
We watered them right after this photo.
...and one week ago half of them had sprung up! Now it's just a matter of keeping them happy and uncrowded until it's warm enough outside for them.

A number of salvage windows stacked on edge on a cement floor, under a metal shelf. Some small, wood-framed windows are pulled out and leaning against the side of a white shelving unit, and a double-sashed, white-framed window rests on its side at the front of the stack.
If I had $500 I could build an entire greenhouse right now.
And I bought six sash windows (all the same size, for ease of construction) to turn into a combination chicken fence/greenhouse for the cotton seedlings, when it's finally time to release them outside. Just need to finish tearing apart some pallets for the wood to support the structure.

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