Wednesday, November 16, 2011

What day is it?

So today is, I think, the 16th of November. Holy cow, where did the first half of the month go. I guess it went where the rest of my months have lately. It flew by while I was trying to get things done after the move and while my husband has been out of work on disability.
The garden is growing well. There will be broccoli to eat soon and cabbage too.

The onions and the garlic are showing off nicely. The two whole lemons that my poor transplanted tree produced are almost ready to come off the tree and become lemonade or a lemon meringue pie. There are also peas and carrots growing and in a little pop up greenhouse there are bell peppers and tomatoes. We will see how those fare through the winter.
I've also been knitting. I finished the hat and booties to go with the sweater that I had finished at the beginning of the month. (Why yes, the sweater does have buttons.)

I've also completed my first Baldwin monster,

started a second one for my daughter's school raffle basket, made a February Baby sweater,

added a few hexagons to the collection,

and finished the gloves to go with my granddaughter's tam that I think was finished at the beginning of the month.
Those were my very first gloves ever. I am impressed with myself. It won't last long, but I'm going to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment for now. I expected them to be harder. They were fiddly, but not really hard.
Currently, I have a scarf on the Cricket loom. (Okay, it's half on. I haven't finished sleying the reed yet and tying on, but it's all wound on the back beam.) Did I mention that I made a spa cloth on that loom. That was fun. It was also fiddly. Apparently, I enjoy the fiddly aspect of things.
The office/ craft room needs to be cleared out and organized. I think that will wait til husband goes back to work. There are things in here that don't belong in here and I have to figure out where they should go. I'm also trying to use up some stash so that there is more room in here. Oddly, I had room for it all before I turned the room back into a bedroom for my youngest daughter. I've used and given away a lot of yarn and craft items since then and yet there seems to be less room. Of course, when I look around, I see an old computer taking up space in the closet and there are two new looms since those days and I noticed a minute ago that there are some of said daughter's things still in the closet. Hmm. Need to see what is there and if she wants it. If not, it needs to go away.
Time for some lunch. Then it's time to work on a monster, some fingerless mitts, a scarf, a hat, or one of the two afghan projects that are in the works.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Wow, where did October go? It was a busy month around here and I did accomplish some things. My garden is growing. We've added cauliflower to the mix as well as garlic. I transplanted three pepper plants and three small volunteer tomatoes into a garden bed with a pop-up greenhouse over it. I hope that they make it through the winter and we get some more peppers from the plants.
We are making steady progress at getting the huge pile of deadwood taken care of so that I can put a couple of pecan trees in the yard in January or February.
I've also been knitting. I've finished the Mairi Tam

and Bobble Gloves

from Wendy D. Johnson's book Wendy Knits Lace. They were both enjoyable and I am planning to make at least two more of the tams for two more granddaughters.
I also finished the sweater for the new great grandbaby who is due at the beginning of January.

I have booties and a bonnet to finish before the shower, but they are to the seaming and blocking point so they are moving right along. The pattern for the set is called Perfectly Pink and comes from the Leisure Arts Sweet Layettes to Knit booklet which has four layettes in it.
There is also a finished woven scarf that came off the Cricket Loom finally.

I have also almost finished a monster from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger. They are so cute and the one I've been working on is easy. I see more monsters in my future.
In case anyone is wondering the photos were taken out at the garden. There are peas and carrots growing with the scarf, broccoli growing with the tam and gloves and cabbage under the baby sweater.
I did finish my secret knitting. The recipient hasn't gotten it yet so I still can't post a picture. If they post one, I will direct you to it then.
Let's get the needles going for Christmas everyone.