Growing, Shrinking, Growing.

How does my garden grow? Well that is a topic for another post but I can tell you how it started. This year we decided to try a couple of new things. First added some topsoil to our existing plot and made it more square than round. We planted five or six tomatoes of various kind to keep it interesting.  A few marigolds to help with bug control. You now I may need to stop saying I dislike orange and yellow. I really like marigolds and orange socks now.

We've got a couple of pepper plants, rosemary (vermin prevention) and basil, because who can resist the smell of basil?


Second tryout this year is container tomatoes. We bought the near one already growing and planted the far two. You should see them now, they're all stretching their heads over the lattice work, craning to see who has the better view.

And speaking of growing and shrinking. I started knitting the Honey Cowl in some Madelinetosh DK yarn. While I liked how it was coming out I though maybe the bigger loop would look better. So I ripped it back.

I knit a few inches on the longer one and did not like the way the yarn was pooling, so I ripped back. And knit the same thing twice now. Good think I still think it is beautiful.

Amazing how the lighting affects the color isn't it? I bet this will feel nice this winter. Now I just need to know if it is to my sister's liking. Although Kisknit said she would take if off my hands if it was not to my sister's liking. That woman is a saint I tell you. The sacrifices we make for our knitting friends. (Hee Hee)

Lovely Lintilla and Gus

I finished my Malachite Lintilla. Luckily Gus was available for the modeling portion of the project. It just goes to show you that all models should not be stick thin. My boy makes my knitting look fabulous! 

Otherwise you would have thought that my shawl just looked like this.

All washed out and blah. I think it may have something to do with the sidewalk. Look it happened to my socks too. All washed out and rather lifeless. I'm looking to take another round of pictures for my socks to see if I can bring them back to life.

No really they are much more beautiful than that.

In other knitting news I am loving knitting on my Color Affection shawl. Soon Gus will be modeling that one for you too. Shh, don't tell him I am going to use it myself. I already gave him my Wingspan shawl, how many shawls does a cat need in 70+ degree weather?

Gus's answer; "One for every place I sleep. Get knitting Mom!"... "I love you Mommy."

He is a smart cat he knows to save his demands for food only.

Found them

Remember how disappointed I was that I could not find yarn for my Color Affection (CA) shawl at WEBS? I had such high hopes that I would find the perfect yarn. Remember me coming here and whining to you all that I just could not make a decision, so I bought only sock yarns? 

Yeah, I don't remember that now either since I found my yarn at my local yarn shop. Along with a I-must-have-it skein and a new knitting bag. 

What can I say I am a sucker for a well made knitting bag with knit print and a carabiner.

I received an email from my local yarn shop that they had finally received an order of  madelinetosh, tosh merino light. I had been leaning toward using it for my CA shawl so I popped on into the shop and wow, it was moving fast.

I picked out quite a few skeins and tried playing around with the color combos. I had a blue, green and pink combo each. But as with many things in life that do not work out the way you think they will, I found myself drawn to the combination that occurred in my hands while I was swapping out colors to see which I liked the best. Since I was going for a tonal change of one color, my hands gathered the combo without thinking. I had over thought this project and landed on something I never would have consciously put together.

Whiskers - Grove - Dried Rose

I also tried it with the skein I could not leave behind but I think that one is destined to be its own shawlette. It is pretty but it just does not sing like my accidental pairing above.

Whiskers - Grove - Wilted Rose. 

Don't mind me I am just off to wind up some yarn and find a pattern. Oh needles I need needles too.

On the way

Did I ever tell you how great my Hubby is? We took a road trip recently and he let me detour...

I have been to WEBS now. He even sat patiently while I roamed and roamed. He reports that they have comfortable chairs and interesting magazines. You know for the non-yarn inclined.

You will notice that I carefully took the picture so no one's license plate is revealed. I would not want to be the reason a fellow knitter was revealed on an unauthorized WEBS trip. Because you know there are so many husbands that read my blog trying to find just that data. D questions if I really tried to avoid taking a picture of the license plates. It is true I don't like pictures with plates in them for some reason.

I came to the conclusion that sheep and wool festivals have ruined me. In an ever so pleasant way but I am ruined nonetheless. I was under the mistaken belief that everything that was on their website I would be able to find at the physical store.  Don't worry I managed to find some lovely items to bring home.

I now have no excuses not to knit my hand spun since I found a wraps per inch measuring device. I found a lovely "pretty cheep" bag that will contain projects bigger than socks but smaller than sweaters, i.e. shawls. I will be trying out two Valley Yarns; Huntington for D in navy blue and Franklin for me in Kangaroo dyed color. I managed to wrestle a skein of madelinetosh sock into my ownership too. It was my first time seeing the sock yarn in person. I resisted the madelinetosh light section as I could not choose the colors for my Color Affection shawl.  Choosing the color combo is going to be more difficult than I thought. I may just need to call in Kisknit to help me.

My new button says "Life's too short for plain white socks." Which is totally true in my case. Occasionally D has to wear his plain socks but I'm still building his hand knit sock stash. The plain white ones can be worn when he is mowing the yard or something dangerous like that.

D was a tad disappointed in me since I bought carbon fiber knitting needles. You all know my love of wooden needles and I had stated in the past that carbon was not anything that I needed. Which would still be the case if the market held the $45 price tag that they started with. Knitter's Pride just came out with Karbonz at a much lower price. I know how to justify the worth of a tool but somethings are still good enough. I drive a Ford not a Ferrari. And so does my knitting.

I am itching to get some new things on the needles but first I am so close to finishing a shawlette. It would totally give me the stink eye if I did not work on it. So very close.

So while I may not be planning any trips to WEBS for my knitting group, I will be stalking their website for things I might like. Their Valley Yarns seem to be quite a bargain and many of the yarns may be discounted when you buy enough. Let's face it we all know I will buy enough.