Wednesday, June 17, 2009

It's summer in the south

Well, the heat is on here. It's supposed to be about 95 today with a heat index of up to 105. No rain in sight. I'm watering the garden with a soaker hose almost daily and the tomato plants are taller than I am. Of course, I'm only 5'5" so it's not like it took a whole lot to get there. I have some huge Brandywine tomatoes on the vine and I can't wait for them to turn.
It's to the point that I'm giving serious consideration to fried green tomatoes. That wouldn't be a big thing except for the fact that we don't eat many fried foods anymore.
On a crafty note, I'm still working on my Everlasting Blanket. It hasn't moved along much lately because I've been trying to design a twinset for myself out of some lovely deep plum cotton. I actually think that I'm going to go plain on the top and might add a lace hem to the cardi. I'm also working on a child size afghan for my grandson. It's from the Afghans for All Seasons book that has been on my bookshelf for years. Copyright is 1993 and I'm pretty sure I bought it new when it first came out. It has red, green, yellow, blue and white in it right now but he keeps trying to add colors to it as we go along. Every round or two he has to stop me so he can "try it on" for size. It's going to be another week or so before it's done and that's only if he can let me work on it. It's going quickly since it's double crochet. I don't have pictures yet. I should get one while he's not here, but I think I'll wait for one of his "trying on" sessions.
I haven't done anything with the yarn I got from IWannaKnit yet. I need to let my youngest granddaughter check out the shade of pink that I bought for her. She informed me she only likes "Princess Pink" and I'm noat sure that I bought what she considers to be Princess Pink. You really have to love a 3 year old who has definite opinions on her clothes. My little fashionista. The gold I got for myself is waiting to be swatched for "Krista" by WhiteLiesDesigns to see if I can get gauge for it.
Could be that I have too many projects that are in my head and on my list to get anything done. Nah, I can start several things and work on them as the mood strikes. I dont' have to be monogamous to each project. That's good, because I need the variety and have more ideas than hands to work on them. I did give in and start a list in my Ipod so I could keep track of ideas and projects that are on the needles. I'm not sure how that's going yet. I don't think it's been long enough to tell. How do other people keep track of ideas and projects?
Off to stalk the tomatoes in the garden...

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I'm home from the IWannaKnit Retreat hosted by KnittingToday in Shipshewana, Indiana. I had such a good time. There was a secret project, a class (several actually, but I only got to take one) taught by Susan Guagliumi (I finally learned to pronounce her name. Not Susan, I already had that part.), and a class with Joan McGowan-Michael. It was great. I learned a lot. Now if I can apply what I learned to my actual knitting I will be in good shape.



There was yarn purchasing going on. I only bought 26 skeins and one cone of yarn. There were 4 skeins in my goody bag, but I didn't buy those so they don't count. I bought some tools for my LK150 and a pattern (Krista by Whiteliesdesigns.com aka Joan McGowan-Michael) I should have gotten more yarn. I decided on the way home that I want to make the Einstein Coat and I don't have the right yarn for it. I suppose I should finish up some other projects first. I really blew my Stashdown commitment unless I buckle down and knit up a lot of stuff between now and the end of the year. I told my youngest granddaughter that I bought yarn to make her a sweater and she looked at me with her big puppy dog eyes, batted her lashes and said "gloves too...my hands will get cold." I don't know that I have the yarn for gloves for her, but I will certainly check on that. We can't have cold hands.
I was exhausted when I got home and I had babysitting duty with my not-quite-4-years-old grandson and he made the exhaustion much more intense.
I added some squares to my Everlasting Blanket while Elmer was driving and someone gave me some little balls of yarn for the project while I was at retreat. I'll still need more, but I need to see where I am before I go to the store or order any more. I wish the yarn fairy would just drop some off. I'll just order some more from Yarn Expressions or Robyn's Nest in the next month or two and maybe join a swap on Ravelry for it.
I need to get some pictures of the garden. Some of the tomato plants are as tall as I am. I picked squash and jalapeno today and grandson got to pick and eat some cherry tomatoes yesterday. I see homemade salsa in the near future.