So many hobbies!

A lovely long weekend

But sadly, it's come to an end.  I got precious little done on my condo this weekend but the potatoes are in the ground and the tomato beds are ready for planting.  I would have planted the tomatoes Saturday but there was a chance of thunderstorms and I didn't want them to get flattened.  Of course, the storms didn't happen.  I'll plant them sometime this week.

Progress (but no picture) had been made on the shawl.  I've finished the border and now I need to pick up stitches to start the lace part.  I didn't make nearly as much progress as I had planned to.  I spent way too much time reading.  But it was nice and relaxing so that's okay.

 

Blue-faced Leceister and silk, 8 ounces.  It's not quite done, yet, though.  It still needs a good hot soak but the what with the basement flooding and all, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

My girlfriend Amy and I played with applique and the zig-zag feature on my sewing machine.  This little onesie is for another girlfriend whose having a baby boy.  Since babies are kind of magical, the wizard on the onesie seemed appropriate.  I bought a package of onesies and I've been going through all my fabric trying to find fun things to applique.  So far, my Dr. Seuss fabric is winning.  The fabric the wizard came from has several other different wizards so those will probably make it onto more onesies.  This one is a newborn onesie and it's so darn cute I can hardly stand it.  I'm going to have fun making these.

The tomatoes are here!

 

Now to hide them from the cats.  The only way the little darlings will survive is to lock them in my bedroom 24/7.  Well, 24/7 until Saturday when everyone, tomato and potato alike, will get their own beds in the garden.  I can almost taste the summer tomatoes, food of the gods!

Now, if the monsoon would kindly end, I'll get outside and pull up the thousand weeds that have grown since last Friday when I weeded.  Yes, the monsoon can end any time now.  My basement has already had it's spring flood.  Since the litter boxes are in the basement, I now have little dirty cat prints all over my house.  I'm going to have to scrub the place from top to bottom once the rain ends and the basement dries up.  I wonder if I can teach the cats to wipe their paws when they come up from the basement.

I finally "discovered" the BBC show "Sherlock" this week.  My cousins in Houston told me how good it was when I saw them last November but I never got around to watching it until now.  I loved it!  Hey, Lynne and Lucia, you didn't tell me there were only three episodes!  I devoured episodes 1, 2 and 3 and went looking for more only to find that there weren't any.  Rats!  I have to wait until Fall for the next episodes.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock (could his name BE more British?!) and he's wonderful.  He's a great intense, always-in-control Sherlock.  And he has this amazing pair of blue eyes.  Gorgeous!  If you're looking for something to watch this weekend, "Sherlock" is a good choice.  (I watched it on my computer via Netflix.)  Even if you're not into blue eyes like I am.

Anyone have any fun plans for the holiday weekend? 

My blasted cats!!

They've eaten all my tomato seedlings! A tomatoless summer is unthinkable so I just ordered transplants from the Seed Savers Exchange.  I ordered 12 plants...  holy crap!  I ordered 12 tomato plants!  What the hell was I thinking!?  I better call them and amend my order.  Summer tomatoes are a little piece of heaven but not even I can eat that many of them.  Gotta go...

Just one more day?

 

We had a spin-in Saturday and I worked on this.  Our host was Barb and we spun in her back yard which is beautifully landscaped complete with stream and tiny waterfall.  It's one of those recirculating deals with a pump and the sound of running water was very nice.

 

I'm up to 55 repeats for the border.  Only 66 more to go.  I have to say I'm really enjoying knitting this shawl.  I don't have a lot of experience following a pattern and this one is just difficult enough to be interesting but not so much that it ceases to be fun.  It's a good mix for me.

I took a half day on Friday to do some gardening.  It seems like it's been raining forever and finally getting a nice day was a gift too good to waste.  So I came home a pulled weeds and cut down last year's clematis and cleaned up last year's dead flowers.  Then I went to Lowe's and got a few bags of compost for my veggie beds.  I added bag of compost to each potato box and got them ready to be planted.  Now if only I can find some fertilizer and phospate.  Potatoes, apparently, love phosphorous and potassium.  Last year I had lots of plant and not a lot of tater so definitely more phosphate this year.

Now, I'm hot, I'm tired and I really need a shower before I go to bed.  G'night all.

Bethuen: frogged

Yup, I wasn't feeling the love for Bethuen.  I wanted something more interesting than garter stitch so she got frogged.  I've moved on to Andrea's Shawl (Ravelry link).  This one is knit bottom up starting with the edging:

 

This is about 20 repeats so far.  Only 91 more to go.  Yeah, this one's going to take me a while.  The two shawls I've made previously have been knit top down and I wanted to mix it up a bit.  Since Andrea's Shawl is knit bottom up, each row will get shorter.  Yay!  Lacy bits at the bottom and stockinette at the top will give me the interest I need without the need to tear my hair out.  Plus,there are also color changes; I'm using the Fleece Artist "Aegean" from Bethuen and Knitpicks Gloss (70% Merino/30% silk) in white.   

They're saying no rain for the weekend which makes me happy, happy.  I've got a spin-in to go to on Saturday but first thing in the morning I'll be getting my potato boxes ready and the taters planted.  Apparently the world is supposed to end Saturday (anyone know what time?) so I suppose there's no point in planting said potatoes but I'm going to throw caution to the wind and plant them anyway.  Who knows, we may still be here for the Fall harvest.

Have a nice weekend!

Bethuen

 

This is the start of Bethuen.  My previous attempts at a new shawl design were swiftly derailed when I realized the handspun I'd picked wasn't right for what I'd had in mind.  Since I'm on a yarn diet this year, going out and buying yarn that would work isn't an option.  So, I pulled out a couple skeins of sock yarn and looked for a pattern.  This, I think, is Fleece Artist in the Aegean colorway.  I've already completed the first eyelet row.

If the rain would only stop (I think I might be developing webbed toes), I could get my potatoes planted.  According to the forecast, I might be able to get them in the ground on Friday.  Or Saturday morning.  I'm late, late, late with the planting.

The end of a long, dreary weekend

It rained all day today.  I've accomplished nothing except a load of whites; I'm currently wearing my emergency socks.  You know, the ones you only wear when the good ones are all dirty.  Yeah, those.  Since I didn't do anything besides watch movies and take a nap, I have nothing to show for the day.  So, you get the leftover purchases from my trip to Maryland.

On the way, we stopped at Leener's which is basically a food preservation store.  They sell everything to preserve food from jam making equipment to beer making supplies to pickling.  I've wanted to make sweet pickles for a couple of years now so I splurged and bought myself a 3 gal. pickle crock:

 

I'm still trying to find someplace to put it.  And, according to the declutterers, I need to find something to get rid of.  The rule of thumb is if you bring something new in, you have to get rid of something already in the house.  I'm still looking.

I also bought a kit to make mozarella at home:

 

Yup, Leener's sells cheesemaking supplies, too.  Now I just need to find the time to make the cheese.  I think, though, I should wait until my tomatoes are producing so I can make myself a Caprese salad (fresh mozarella, fresh tomatoes, basil drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil).  Yummy!

Strange how doing nothing all day can be so tiring but it is and I'm going to bed.  Hopefully, there'll be sun tomorrow.

On to the good stuff

 

This was my favorite purchase.  A hand carved drop spindle.  Naturally, I've lost the tag so I can't tell you who made it.  It weighs .9 oz. which is the perfect weight for me.  As you can see, I've already made use of it.

 

This would have to be favorite #2:  Merino/silk roving from Kimber at Fiber Optic.  I can't wait to spin this up.  It's going to be gorgeous.  And if my plan works out, it'll end up as a shawl.  I also bought a yummy bar of ginger/lemon soap that smells wonderful and, Barbara Walkers first treasury of knitting patterns.  There wasn't really much I was looking for.  I wasn't planning on buying any fiber but Kimber's roving was too beautiful to pass up.  I bought two 4 oz. braids.

I have an idea for a shawl that I tried out tonight.  Do you know it had been so long since I'd cast on for anything other than socks that I'd forgotten how to do the long-tail cast-on.  I had to go find my knitting answer book and then it took me 15 minutes to figure it out from the pictures.  Clearly I need to knit more than socks every once in a while.  Anyway, my idea didn't work out the first time so it's back to the drawing board.

 

I'm not really as proud of this as I was the first time I won it, for reasons I pointed out last post.  I really hope more people enter spindle-spun yarn next year.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

 

Because people have asked in the past, here's a shot of our camp.  The camping was great!  The weather for camping and the festival was perfect, and I don't say that lightly.  The temps were in the 50's at night, perfect for sleeping, and the festival during the day was in the mid-70's, perfect for walking around. 

 

My campmates, Rhonda and Sheri.  We had a good time together. 

 

This is Darby.  He initially was going to be a friend for Rhonda's grandkid but Rhonda fell in love with him.  He was a welcome addition to our camp.

 

This is a shot of the festival on Sunday.  Saturday it was twice as busy. 

 

This was the sheep shearing contest where the shearers use hand clippers instead of electric clippers.  The sheep weren't happy but they get pretty used to their yearly haircut.

 

One of the groups in the Sheep to Shawl contest. 

Rhonda, Sheri and I had a great time.  It was Rhonda's first time at the festival and she was downright giddy.  Saturday morning she was up at 4:30 and chomping at the bit.  My yarn, for the third year in a row, won the special prize as the best spindle-spun yarn.  I'm going to start a group on Ravelry to encourage people to enter spindle-spun yarn at Maryland because I can't help wondering if I keep winning because no one else enters spindle-spun yarn.  Don't get me wrong, I love winning, but if I keep doing it because I'm not competeing with anyone... it kind of takes the fun out of it.

I did a little shopping, which I'll show you tomorrow.  I wasn't planning on buying any fiber but on Friday, after dropping off our stuff for the competition, we ran into the dyer/owner of Fiber Optic yarn/fiber.  She has beautiful colorways, some of which are gradient dyed so they run from one color to the next in smooth color changes.  The braids I bought run from raspberry purple to dark green and my plan is to spin each up, ply them together and knit a shawl.  I'll show pictures of everything tomorrow.

I had such a good time.  I mean, this trip had everything I love:  camping, hanging out with friends and fiber festivals.  I'm trying really hard not to be bummed out that I don't  have anything planned until August.  The Michigan Fiber Festival is the 3rd weekend in August and the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Fest. is the end of September.  I need to come up with something between now and then to look forward to.  I may have to whip out the camp stove and cook out on the back porch just so I can have a bit of the camping feeling. 

 

Gratuitous sheep photo.

Quilting and stuff

 

Friday night I finished the quilting on this bad boy.  Whew! 

 

I'm pretty pleased with how it looks.  Now I need to work on the binding.  But that's going to have to wait for a couple of weeks.  I've got a bit too much to do to get ready for the Maryland S&W.  I finally (2-3 weeks late) planted my tomato seeds and the little buggers have germinated already.  I only planted them on Friday and as of this morning, they'd sprouted.  Now I need prepare the beds my potatoes are going to go in and get them in the ground.  That means a trip to Lowe's for some compost and an hour or two to work the compost into the beds and then plant my spuds.

Speaking of Maryland, every time I check the long-range forecast, it looks better.  They're saying no rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the highest temperature at 70F.  Perfect Festival weather.  Of course it's supposed to rain on Sunday but you can't have everything.  For the most part, though, it's going to be gorgeous.  So far, anyway.  NOTE:  I just checked and now they're saying sunny Friday, Saturday AND Sunday.  Woot!

I had a great time at our Spin-in on Saturday.  Spun for the first time in a couple of months - some lovely BFL and silk roving.  It felt good.  Sorry, I didn't take a pic.

 

How was your weekend?