Phone Check!!!!

All of you with cell phones:

Check your phone!

Is it turned on?

Is the battery charged?

Do you have any messages?

Do you want to talk to people?

Not Knitting News:

The Divine Miss M didn't have school today (and again not tomorrow). She and her dad went to the beach, but they came back last night. So, she and I picked a good but distant friend up from the airport and went on an adventure. We spent the afternoon wandering through the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and had a lovely time. The weather was terrific - not too hot and not the least bit cold. The plants looked a lot greener there than they do in my yard.
We've been in the Fuqua Conservatory many, many times and have heard the frogs but have never managed to find any of them (except the ones confined to tanks in the entrance). Today, Miss M and the friend found a lot of little jumpers. And they were really, really little - between 1/2" and 3/4" long and very easy to miss. The two of them followed the sounds and found the little buggers. I looked and looked and couldn't find any until got lucky and saw one moving out of the corner of my eye.

This is the biggest Mickey Mouse Taro I've ever seen. That leaf had to be well over 2' and closer to 3' long. It was a really nice looking plant. That's Miss M's hand at the end of it, to give perspective.

Knitting News:

Been a while since I managed a post and for that, I apologize. I've been really busy lately. I guess October is the new September, at least her in my world.

So, first, a friend took me to a knitting/quilting store that is quitting the knitting business and taking their quilting business online. So, as they close their bricks and mortar store, all knitting supplies are 60% off and all other goods (including some spinning fibers) are 25% off. I snagged this lovely artyarns yarn. They had more in a colorway that include greens, and I almost went that way but I didn't. I was thinking I could talk someone into liking this blue colorway better than the Needlenook Nosh from Numma Numma that I won. But she's no longer getting either, so it's moot.


These lovely Elann Esprit socks are finally finished after being knit only one and a half times. The first time, a girl said they were too tight to get on her feet - and they pretty much seemed to be. So I ripped them and reknit with bigger needles which had the added benefit of making the pattern more noticeable. They are now finished the second time (and tho the picture doesn't show it the toes are grafted and ends worked in.) She still says they are too small, but since they fit my big feet, I think there's something else that she doesn't like about them. She won't tell me what, so she doesn't get them or any more socks - thus the Needlenook Nosh reverts to me.


I have also cast on for the Grazing Sheep Bag by Kathleen Taylor from I heart Felt. I decided that I wanted to make it bigger, so I recharted it with 60 stitch wide front & back and 30 stitch wide sides - it will be a rectangle instead of a flat bag. Given my current dislike for knitting intarsia, I've also decided to do it in the round and strand the overlaps of the greens. When the bag is knit, I will use duplicate stitch to add the sheep and their feet and faces. I have ordered 5 extra skeins of wool in the various greens (so I'll end up with 3 of each green) so I'll have enough yarn to make it a little more than double the bag's original design.

I actually had knit a little more than what is shown in the picture (about 3 times as much) but had to rip it all out because I had miscounted and was 30 stitches short on the round. It's now reknit back to about where it was before I discovered my error. The needle that this is on is an Addi Natura Bamboo needle that I picked up at the unfortunate yarn shop for 60% off - and I must say that I love them. I'll have to keep an eye out for more addi natura.

Happy Anniversary to me!

This flower, a moonflower, bloomed because it's his favorite flower that I grow - bloomed just for him to say Happy Anniversary. We've been married 19 years today.

This is the schematic for the new Grazing Sheep bag I'm going to start knitting as soon as I dig out needles and stuff. I wanted to make it much bigger than the pattern called for, so I decided to make it a square (well, rectangular) bag instead of flat. I'll have to give it a bottom too, but that doesn't need to be charted. Each of the front and back will have the sheep scene and the sides will be just grassy hills. (The picture only shows the front, a side and the back - the other side is assumed - well it's drawn out too, but behind the back.) I ordered several extra balls of the various greens today, so hopefully they will be here before I run out of the first green. I'm debating how I want to do the sheep. I've already decided that the feet and faces will be duplicate stitch and I'm thinking that the sheep might should be too - because I absolutely hate intarsia. Haven't decided that yet . . . . I'll let you know what I decide.

Progress

Back from the dead are the turquoise socks in the Flame Wave pattern. This time knit on a much larger needle and tho you cannot see much difference between these and the originals, these are much looser. Just about ready to start the heel because she doesn't want them to be too long. I need to back up about 4 rows because there are some loose stitches that look funny to me.

And progress has been made on the Norwegian sweater as well. I'm done with the second pattern repeat. I need to chart out the sleeves and get started on them.

I'm also going to start the Grazing sheep bag today. I put the chart into Stitch & Motif maker last night and extended it so I can make a larger sized bag. I need to print it out and order a bit more yarn so that it can be bigger. I'll cast on for it today because the knit a long technically started yesterday.

And I thought for a minute that I wanted to make Hey Teach from Knitty, but now I'm thinking I might make something from Viking Patterns for Knitting. Either way, it'll be something knit with a fine yarn because I think that looks better.

For the 3 of you who don't come from Ravelry:

Please consider going to this website and voting for the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm so they can win this terrific Tech Makeover. I've been debating buying a share in their Consumer Supported Agriculture for a while. What basically happens is that people buy shares of the crop (which is yarn or goat and sheep fiber) before it's harvested and those shares help pay for bringing the crop to harvest (the shearing). One day I will buy a share and have that yarn. Meanwhile, they'd really love to have this and I'd really like to help. I know there aren't that many viewers of this blog and even fewer of them haven't already seen this on Ravelry, but for those of you who haven't voted yet, please do.

And, if you leave a comment, you help advance their chances of winning the 'most popular', so don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Here's a quote from the owner:
Hey everybody! Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm is a contestant in the intel Tech Makeover Giveaway and we need your vote. We entered because we’d like to install webcams in our lambing and kidding barns in the spring so everyone who wants to can see the new babies being born. Could you take a minute to vote for us? It’s so easy- just follow the link and click the “like it” button. You don’t have to register or anything. You can also leave a comment if you like. Thanks so much for considering voting.

Here's the owner's blog:

http://mvfiberfarm.blogspot.com/

Isn't this backwards?

Sometimes the pictures can tell the story all by themselves. It's not supposed to go like this. Oh well, at least I am a process knitter, not a product knitter.

Strange, very strange . . .

This is a picture of my passiflora pura vida purple blooming from July. It bloomed a lot this summer and that's part of what makes it one of my favorite. The other part is the color - I just love the deep purple of this one and the camera just cannot seem to catch how really deep the purple is on these petals.











This flower is on the same plant, in the same pot, in the same place, under pretty much exactly the same conditions. The petals are still the same lovely, deep purple that the camera doesn't catch right. But look at the filaments in this picture and the other picture. These are black and the others are white. Very strange, indeed. I've checked and checked to make sure that another vine didn't infiltrate the pot and there is only one plant in there and this is not the end of another vine. And, in fact, I don't have a passion flower that's supposed to be this color. I'm not sure which flower I like better, I really like them both.




And this is my staghorn fern. The fern that lives in the pot it's sharing almost died last winter, not because of the cold but because it didn't get enough water. It was so rootbound and had so little dirt (dh planted it and the pot was way more than half empty) that even watering it every day wouldn't have helped. I repotted the dead fern and it's coming back nicely thank you. But when I repotted it, I put the staghorn down in the dirt with it, instead of in the small seperate pot on top of the dirt. It seems to be VERY happy this way and has more than trippled in size this summer.

Flitting, not knitting.

The life and times of passion flower pests. . .

First we have the eggs.
Lots and lots and lots of eggs. Eggs on every tendril and every leaf of every plant I own.

Then the eggs hatch and we have teensy-tinsy, itty-bitty, almost not seeable little caterpillars. Don't you worry about them tho, they'll eat and eat till there are no more leaves and not very many flowers and then they'll be big.










This is the caterpillar from the Zebra Longwing butterfly after it's eaten a plantsworth of leaves.



















Once they've had their fill of leaves, buds, tendrils and flowers, they start to hang upside down. They become a chrysalis and then they hang there for another 10 days to two weeks.
See the pretty gold on the chrysalis? After they eat all my plants, the least they could do is make REAL gold so I can get something out of it!
This is what I get out of it. Lots and lots of lovely zebra longwing butterflies flitting around the yard. Mostly flitting around the vines laying more eggs to eat more of the leaves.









I also get gulf fritillaries - lovely orange butterflies. There are so many of them in the backyard that they land on you when you walk out there.

I love a good sale!

I had been admiring this bag at Michaels since it first appeared there. There is a canvas version and then there is this version that is plastic coated canvas. It's just about the perfect size - not so big I can fill it full of so much stuff I cannot pick it up and not so small that I cannot get a sweater or other decent sized project in it. And it has outside pockets that I can put a cell phone or wallet or whatever in instead of lots of inside pockets for needles and stuff I don't carry with me.


Best of all was the price. Like I said, I've been admiring it for about a year and it's been the same price all that time. Today, everything was 1/2 price. They had these two types of bags and a clear plastic yarn tube with holes at each end, an open top tote, and several types of needle cases. All were half price. So the three little bags were $3.99 each and the big bag was $11.99. Even the Divine Miss M couldn't say no to that price and she is usually very strict about my not buying knitting bags.

The one little one has a pair of socks on two circular needles just to show how big they are - there is plenty of room in there for that and even bigger balls of yarn. The big one has cardboard in it - knitting will go in later. I figure I can put the little one in the car and just leave it there. That way I will always have something to knit when I end up having to wait somewhere.

Cool, hunh?











Here's a link to the Michael's page where they describe the line of bags & accessories:
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/search?searchWords=knitpickers&type=0&search=yes&visibleSearchWords=knitpickers&searchScope=new