Thanks Merri... I just signed up :)

I'm going to assume that you are knitting on 2 straight needles, and that you are knitting stockinette.....this is done by knitting on one side, and purling on the other, which together create stockinette. For stockinette stitch, you ALWAYS knit on the right side, and purl on the wrong. Thus, when you pick up your knitting and get ready for the next row, if the right side is facing you, you knit....if the wrong side is facing you, you pearl. There should be a piece of yarn left, when you finish your cast on.....when you finish your project, you can either weave it in with a croched hook, or thread it on a blunt tipped plastic needle with a very large eye (made for yarn), and use this to weave it in place. It's okay to cut some of it off, in the beginning, if it's extremely long, but don't cut it off short....you need plenty to work through, to keep it in place. If you're making a scarf you might want to add fringe to the ends and if so, you can incorporate that left over piece into the fringe. Are you using some sort of a different edge to your scarf...by that I mean on the first few stitches on each row? or are you just knitting across and then pearling back? If the latter, I'd suggest that you knit the first and last 4 stitches on EACH row...that means , on the pearl rows, you knit the first 4 stitches, then pearl across till you get are left with 4 stitches on your needle....and then knit the last 4 stitches. Plain stockinette edges will roll up, but if you put a garter stitch edge on the sides (garter stitch is done by simply knitting both sides) it'll makes a pretty way to keep the sides from curling. You can also knit a scarf in all garter stitch...that is, knitting both sides....pretty and no need to do anything different to keep it from curling - garter stitch will take care of the problem. Have fun....that's what it's all about!!!

'While my state will give food aid and medical to those fitting the income guideline without much push and shove, when it comes to actual cash assistance there is an endless stream of requirements and programs and timelines that comes with it." You would think but I can tell you that BM has been collecting CASH BENEFITS (in our state it is called TANF, temporary assitance to needy families) for probably 4 years, if not longer. Honestly--I have NO idea how she gets away with it! I know she lies and uses her parents' address and says she lives at home and she is supporting her DD2 on her own. She used to get beneifts for SS, and said the same thing about him, that she had full custody and didn't know where dad (my DH)was! Which is a bunch of hooey b/c they had an unofficial 50-50 custody arrangement from the start! The benefits on SS came to a screeching halt when DH took her to court and everything came out in the open....what sucks is that my DH now has to pay a portion of her benefits back...BUT it comes out of her child support money. So in reality, she is paying it back....if that makes sense? I don't know how she's gotten around the rules for so long; all I can think is she must have one stupid caseworker or one VERY overloaded caseworker. Plus, it helps that she has been pregnant or had an infant for the last 3 years straight. That opens up the doors to WIC and a whole bunch of other programs. OP--I wouldn't bother, but that's JMO. Someone who is on state assistance like your SK's mom is KNOWS the programs and resources avaialble to her. Don't bother. That dreaded night when BM was drunk at our house, I let her sit in my kitchen and cry about how awful her life was. I encouraged her to go back to school, and she said there was an LPN program she was interested in, and that her caseworker had said she could qualify for daycare for her daughter, and that the state would even pay for her to do the nursing program. I said that sounded GREAT and that DH & I would be so willing to take extra nights with SS, pick him up from school if need be, whatever she needed help with to complete the program... Well, we all know how that night turned out....and here she is, 10 months later, preggo w/her 3rd kid, and she's still doing the same old, same old. Again---people don't change!!!

OakIris, I have plants coming out the kazoo this year and was planning to pot some of them up to bring to the swap after I got home from my trip, but since I'll be out of town until after the swap this time, that won't be happening. But, I did just look and in 2012 I actually took the time to collect some seed, and I'll do my best to remember to send a little packet of them along with Barb for you. When you get them I need to warn you that most of what you see in the baggie will be chaff! The actual seeds are the hard little black things!!! When I collected them there were a whole lot of them that had gone to seed, so I just cut the whole plants off at the bottom and stuck them in a bag and left them sit to dry completely for a month or two. When I got around to it I just SHOOK the bag really well, and since everything was SO dry, a lot of "plant debris" came off along with the seeds! What I recommend you do with them is to wait till late summer or early fall, then "rough up" the soil in a couple small places, take a BIG pinch of "seeds" (the stuff in the baggie!) and scatter it in each of the places you've "roughed up." Then rub your hand over the soil where you scattered the seeds to "mix them in" just a little bit, and then clearly mark where you planted them 'cause they kind of look like weeds when they first come up and otherwise you might decide to pull them out when you see them and then think the seed I gave you was no good!!! ;-) Depending on the weather, some of them will probably come up before winter gets really cold, and then more will come up in spring. Any that come up will bloom next summer! And once you get a couple that bloom--you'll never get rid of them again! In this case, I don't consider that to be a bad thing! When they start to drop seeds you can either scatter some of it in other places where you want them--or you can just let them do their own thing and they'll wind up coming up all over the place anyway in a couple years! After any individual plant blooms it's gonna look REALLY ratty, and there's no way to make it look "good" again, so once you know for sure they've dropped some seed, I recommend just pulling the "old" plants out (I cut them off at the top of the soil, leaving the roots in the soil to decompose!). Since, once they drop seed, you'll ALWAYS have more, there's no need to try to "save" the old ones. If you have any other questions, I might not be back to answer them till after I get home after my trip. I'm crazy busy trying to get ready to go, and now something "legal" came up that's gonna take a bunch of the time I already don't have! Have fun at the swap, and enjoy your forget-me-nots next spring, Skybird Edited to add: After you sow the seed it would be a really good idea to mulch that area with some sort of "wood mulch" to help keep the surface of the soil moist. If you already mulch, just do whatever you normally do! Edited a second time to add: Mine are just starting to bloom! And my Brunnera 'Looking Glass' is in full bloom too! Love that BLUE!