Sweet Temptation

 

I received a lovely package in the mail today, from KnitPicks. Sock yarn, sock blockers, a yardage counter, and a darning egg. 

This yardage counter is great. It is mechanical, not even battery operated, so it didn't cost too much.

Isn't that neat? I have always wanted a yardage counter, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I got the KnitPicks catalogue in the mail a few days ago, and the counter jumped right out at me. So did the darning egg. And I'd been wanting sock blockers. And as I was paging through the catalogue, the sock yarn in the middle, the greeny-purply skein, literally leaped off the page at me! Literally! It wrapped its tentacles around me--okay, now I'm exaggerating. But it did catch my eye. 

I filled my shopping cart with the darning egg, sock blockers, 1 skein of yarn, and the yardage counter ... and that was where the trouble began. Because I saw, written above the shopping cart icon, these fateful words: 

$8.77 more and you qualify for free shipping!

Really? Free shipping? FREE shipping? So, guess what I did. I spent another hour browsing the webpage, trying to spend $9. Thus the extra two skeins of yarn. They get me with that every time. I suspect even if it said another $435 and you qualify for free shipping! I would still convince myself that it would be a bargain to get free shipping. 

I am sorely tempted to start in on that skein of yarn, the lovely purply-green one. Even though it's Tour de Fleece, even though I have three WIPS, even though I have one sore thumb and a slice on the other (Yes, Melissa, next time I'll believe you when you tell me the mandoline is sharp and I ought to use the safety holder), I still want to cast SOMETHING on with that lovely yarn! It's practically shouting to be a lovely Autumn wrap of some sort. I'm trying to resist, but it isn't easy.

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Side Note: Yesterday, my friends' 2 month old baby was formally baptized into the Orthodox Church of America, in a lovely fourteen hour ceremony. 

Just kidding. It was only an hour. It was a Greek Orthodox Church, so it was an ancient ceremony ... casting out the devil, spitting at the devil, full body immersion (not the face), and the priest, godmother, and candle-bearer (Melissa, what is the formal name for M.'s role in the ceremony?) dancing triumphantly around the silver Baptismal font afterward. William Henry, after baptism, was put into a lovely white suit and we all went to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Baltimore City. I don't think that's necessarily part of the ancient tradition, but the restaurant was nearby and we like to eat with our fingers every now and then ;-)

Other news: High yield in the garden!

This was a hard picture to take, because Edgar Allen Poe Cat decided that the green fringe around the sunflower was meant to be eaten. I had to take the sunflower head away from him three times. He's a funny kitty, he will eat any plant (except African Violets, phew). If I put lavender in a vase, he pulls it out and eats it. I sprout grass for him all the time ... he likes his weed, he really does.

Happy spinning/knitting/gardening! 

That Darn Cat

Since Edgar Allen Poe Cat's massive dental surgery, he's been very kittenish. He never used to bother me while I spindled.

But while we're looking at spindles ...

The lovely orange Corriedale from MD S&W, purchased from Misty Mountain. It spins wonderfully. I bought 8 ounces, I think. I have some on the Turkish spindle, but -- as much as I like center pull balls -- it is so tedious to line up the yarn while winding it. So I switched to my workhorse spindle, and it goes much faster. Since it's almost summer, I feel no urge to hurry my spinning along. Just a little, every night.

My Knit Picks Anklet obsession continues. Thursday's socks, nearly done! I added a bit more to the pattern, just to make them snugger. I would model them, but I've been in the garden for the last three hours. In flip-flops.

And, the shawl. I *did* mess up the pattern, but I think I will just live with it, rather than pull back twenty rows. See on the top, in the middle? Two of the leaves are side by side with no yarn-over divider between them. I missed something somewhere, obviously. I will try to fix it for the upcoming rows, but I dunno ... I'm barely comprehending what I'm doing as it is! This will be a very clumsy shawl, but I will just keep it for myself, so as not to embarrass anyone by giving them a badly knitted shawl ;-)

 Just a little garden blogging ...

Tomatoes Gone Wild! Juliets and Sweet 100s. There are a lot of green Sweet 100s already. These plants seem to have doubled in size every day.

A bell pepper ...  basil plants, three cucumbers. Two eggplants. Two or three squash ...  I crowded way too much into this little plot!

My front porch. I'm trying to screen myself in completely so I can sit around in my nightie. Almost there!

It's a happy porch. Coraline and Georgie Girl are BFFs!

Happy FAF!

The Fruits of the Festival

Nightsongs Shawl

Had to start knitting with some of my new yarn! This is the Nightsongs shawl (link is to Ravelry), started off with the Manos del Uruguay yarn I bought at S&W.

The pattern isn't that difficult, but I have a problem with lace and I am determined to overcome this. I had to do one row four times, because of simple errors. I know that if I focus on the chart and don't watch TV while I knit, I can do it. I am determined to do it. Tawaaaaaanda!



 About the yarn ... I had heard of Manos del Uruguay and vaguely understood it to be some sort of free-trade yarn. The tag tells me that the "Hands of Uruguay" is a "non-profit ... which assembles over 400 artisans in cooperatives scattered throughout the countryside of Uruguay ... to bring economic and social opportunities to rural women." The yarn I purchased was made in the Cauva Cooperative by Lilian. Thanks, Lilian!

According to the CIA World Factbook, Uruguay is slightly smaller than the state of Washington and only has one major city, so I guess there is a lot of countryside. 

                               Footies

The Saturday footies continue ... but I made the first one way too big (I was knitting and not paying attention). So after finishing #2 here, I have to find all the knots in #1, untie them, and frog about half of it. A pain, but otherwise, it is way too big and won't stay on my feet!


                   



A Bowl of Orange Fiber

I am pondering something to do with all this orange. It's three different fibers, two wools and the silk I got a while back. In one of my pattern books is a knitted shawl that, once completed, was woven through with a different yarn. It was done by simply taking a different shade of yarn on a tapestry needle, and weaving that yarn through the stitches. I'm wondering how that would look if I made something with the silk, then wove the orange yarn in the foreground through it.  Well ... it would certainly be bright and cheery!

Garden Stuff

I am loving my garden, now that it's all in the ground. I have two issues, though; the sun hasn't been out in days, and the *&$(% maple tree dropped about a hundred maple helicopter seeds in my yard, and I am pulling up about a dozen maple sprouts a day. 

I have Cucino cucumbers .... 

Tomatoes ... Supersweet 100s, one of my favorites. 

Strawberries ... I've eaten three, and am longing for more. I have to keep them far off the ground, because the slugs and roly poly bugs like strawberries as much as I do.

This is the sky from my backyard. It's raining now. Again. AGAIN. I haven't had to water the garden in days, which is great, but the sun hasn't shone on my vegetables in that long, which is not great! 

Oh, that's where I planted the catnip ...

 

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! 

After the Festival

Let the spinning begin!

The lovely green Meriboo by Frog Tree Yarns  on my spindle from zebisisdesigns. Even though I have about 8 spindles and a wheel, I seem to always grab the zebisis first.

(I know my garden would be prettier if I mulched it, but I'm so tired of hauling large gardening supplies in my little car!)

Stony Mountain Fiber merino, on a Kromski bobbin. Happily modeled by a snapdragon. I hope to combine this fiber with these two I spun a while back, and make a nice big wrap:

I think it would make a nice mosaic or mitered project.

An anklet from Knit Pick's anklet kit. This is the Friday anklet.

I will spare everyone more pictures of my garden, but I do want some assistance -- what the heck is this? It looks like the top of a carrot, but I swear I've never planted carrots, and it's not like they grow from dropped pieces of carrot. What is it? I don't want to pull it up if it's a vegetable!







Happy Fiber Arts Friday, everyone!