So many hobbies!

I've got beans!

 

Sadly, I think my tomatoes are dying and I don't know why.  The zucchini is growing like gang busters and has 3 zukes on it.  I've got beans coming out my ears, and that's with only three plants.  I love gardens!

 

Finished the second bobbin tonight.  I'm not speaking to the quilt at the moment since it had the audacity to cause problems that required me to get out Jack, my ripper.  I hate ripping out stitches!  Since the quilt is currently in time-out, I thought I'd give all my love and attention to Owen and the Merino/Seacell roving.  We had a lovely time together.  I should have yarn by the end of the weekend... unless I decide to forgive the quilt in which case, I'll have quilt squares instead.  Oh, and I'm picking blueberries again.  Don't say it.  I already know.  Hey, you guys can all come over for cobbler in January.

Shawl that Jazz

 

It's done!  Yay!  I loved knitting this shawl.  The only change I'd make is I wouldn't decrease as much on the border so it was more ruffley.  Other than that, it was a breeze to knit and I love how the border/edging looks like it's knit at an angle to the body of the shawl:

  

I even like how the yarn pooled in the body:

 

This is a very easy knit.  I recommend it for anyone's first shawl.  For me, it was a nice mindless knit; a project I can just chug along on while watching TV or at Wednesday Knitting.

In other news, I have a zucchini!

 

Actually, there are two that you can see in this picture.  The big one is about 1.5 inches long.  Isn't it cute!  I've also got buds on my tomatoes and my green beans.  Soon, my pretties, I'll have fresh veggies three steps from my front door!  What could be better?!

Nature rocks!

 

Starting seeds will never become commonplace for me.  It's the coolest damn thing to put these innocuous-looking morsels in the soil and a week later, seedlings push up from the dirt.  I was actually bouncing up and down I was so excited.  I'd say my neighbor thinks I'm nuts but she's known that for years now... mostly after the time she heard me sitting on my front porch giggling like a maniac at the thunderstorm going overhead. 

I caught this picture of Seli this morning.  She's a cave child and prefers to sleep under a blanket.

Time enough for another one?

 

Val inspired me to pull out my hand cards and start carding up the Cormo hogget fleece.  I'm hoping I'll have time to spin up a 3-ply in time to submit it at MSWF.  I started Sunday and I've spun all the rolags I made.  Tomorrow at Knit Night I'll card up more.  The fleece is so soft and silky.  It's pure pleasure to work with it.  I'm scouring more so I don't run out of clean locks.

(Bloody hell!  I've got a stinking migraine!  On the plus side, I don't get the pain side of migraines but on the annoying-when-I'm-trying-to-type side, I get visual disturbances that are damned annoying and make it really difficult to see what I'm typing.  Please forgive any typos.)

 

These are the tomato seeds I planted Friday night.  I noticed Monday night that they'd germinated.  Three days to germinate.  Those are ome mighty viable seeds.  I highly reocmmend the Seed Savers Exchange.  Can't see the sprouts?  Try this one:

 

Aren't they cute?

I'm going to bed now.  I can't stand keeping my eyes open any longer.  Stupid migraine!

My to-do list for Friday turned into this.  After work, I went to Lowe's to pick up pots, potting soil, some flowers for my window box and some basil.  As they were loading the many bags of soil in my car I watched the back end sink lower and lower.  I wasn't planning on planting Friday night but there was no way I was going to drive around over the weekend with that much weight in the trunk.  I spent nearly 2 1/2 hours working out of the trunk of my car to fill pots and plant plants - the bags of dirt were much too heavy for me to lift out so I just ripped holes and scooped.  I am definitely feeling my back today.  But, everything got planted.  Then, Friday night we had a huge rain storm that flattened the two small tomatoes and one of my peppers.  Figures.  I've still got one more pepper left and one of the big tomatoes so I guess it's back to Lowe's for another large pot. 

After the veggies, I planted the window box.  I'm not terribly fond of petunias but I just love the little baby petunias.  These will spill over the side of the box as they grow.  The yellow one one on the right I bought today along with another basil.  You can't have too much basil, right?  I'm going to make some pesto this summer.  Mmmm, pesto!

I washed the last of the llama today and did a bit of dyeing - some yarn and a length of roving.  I'll have pictures of the dyeing later in the week.   Until then, I just can't resist sharing another picture of Seli when she looks like this:

Weekend projects

The babies are ready for transplanting into larger pots.  Some of the peppers were flopped over so they've already gotten new "pots."  I couldn't find any 6" plastic pots so I had to improvise.  So far I've used a sour cream container, 2 containers that once held cored pineapple, a clay pot and over the weekend, I'll use styrofoam cups that were destined for the recycler.  Here in Michigan, our last night of frost is supposed to be between May 15th and 30th.  I need to get these guys repotted so I can start to harden them off outside during the day.

I've been knitting slowly but steadily on the second fingerless mitt.  I've only got a couple of rounds of increases to go on the thumb gussett which means the majority of the mitt is done.  I'd like to have it finished by the end of the weekend but I've got three spindle boxes to sew for a couple of orders and knitting time may be at a minimum.  I've had several people request either a handle or a shoulder strap on one end of the box.  Since this seems to be a popular request, part of the weekend will be spent trying to figure out how to do it.  I'm already sewing four layers of fabric together on the ends and by adding a strap, I'll be adding another layer or two and that's where it gets tricky.  Sewing the ends in is already a tight stitch and adding more will only make it harder to get a neat seam.  I have a couple of ideas I'll be exploring.

Besides sewing and repotting, Spinner's Flock meets this Saturday, I have plans to see Speed Racer Saturday afternoon and I'm meeting a friend for dinner Friday night.  Oh, and I have to go shopping for new work pants.  The darn things were plenty long enough when I bought them but since I only wear cotton pants, with repeated washings the legs have gotten shorter.  I'm now wearing floods and I look ridiculous.  All in all, it's looking like another busy weekend.  What do you have planned for the weekend?

Ready to transplant

My babies are growing up.  The six on the left are peppers and in front and to the right are the tomatoes.  I think the peppers are ready to move to larger pots but my container gardening book says the tomatoes should have three sets of leaves before transplanting.  Those little peat pots look awfully small for the size of the seedlings.  I doubt I'm going to have time to do any transplanting before I leave to Maryland so I hope they'll be okay until I get back Sunday afternoon.

I finished spinning 3 ounces of Cormo tonight... and then running the singles back through the wheel to add more twist.  I was using too small a ratio and they needed more twist.  Tomorrow is knit night so all I'll have time to do is to wind the singles into a centerpull ball for plying Thursday after work.  That's cutting it close since I leave at 7:00am Friday for the airport.  I can't remember:  did I mention the Cormo skein is going into the skein contest, too.  The Merino/mohair wasn't plying even enough so that one stays home.  Now that I'm thinking of all the work I still have to do, I don't think I'll be spending more than an hour or so knitting tomorrow.

I ordered a duffle bag online to bring home the fleece, or two, that I'll be buying this weekend.  I didn't realize just how BIG 20"x20"x40" inches was until I opened the darn thing up.  It's HUGE!  I could move a body in that thing!  I could send home 4 entire fleeces in it!  Needless to say, I'm sending it back and going to Target or KMart to find one in a more managable size.  I'm telling you, guys, it's absolutely enormous!  I had to call my sister and tell her what I'd done so she could laugh at me.  Hey, who couldn't use a good laugh?

It's really here!

The first of the year!  Isn't it gorgeous!

More yarn from class

This one I think I'll call Grape Harvest.  It's more sport-weight Superwash Merino sock yarn.  I tried colors outside of my comfort zone again and I wasn't too sure if I liked the results.  The more I look at them though, the more I like them.

These skeins I think are my second favorites.  I haven't come up with a name yet.  The yarn is 80% baby alpaca/20% silk lace-weight.  Each skein is 400 yards.  My thinking was the bottom two skeins would make up the body of a shawl and the variegated blue at the top would be the border.  I've got a total of 1200 yards so I should have plenty.  This yarn is soft and lovely and just may induce me to try my hand at a lace shawl.

My Sweet Chocolate peppers have sprouted!  I'm so excited!  I ended up buying a germination mat and it worked perfectly.  I was going to put the seeds on top of the fridge but apparently my fridge is too efficient and it's not warm on top.  The sprouts already have tiny little green leaves showing.  I wish I could show you but my camera doesn't have a macro lens.  Tomorrow I'm planting the tomatoes.  I'm already planning what I'll grow at my little farm when I get there:  which fruit and nut trees I'll plant, which of the small fruits (blueberries, raspberries, currants...), veggies.  At least I know to only plant one zuchini.  If you're not careful with zuchini plants, before you know it, you'll be up to your ears in zuchini and you'll be desparately trying to foist them off on all your friends and coworkers.  Soon people will start to avoid you and you'll lose all your friends until a good frost finally kills the plants.  Trust me, you don't want to be that person.  Unless you have a big family, believe me when I tell you you will only need one zuchini plant.  Think long and carefully before you decide to plant two of them.  If you're interested, I have a great recipe for zuchini bread.