Flowers and New Stuff

First, some flowers because I like flowers. Right now I have hundreds of butterflies flitting around the gardens. I end up with so many almost every fall now. All it costs is my passion flowers - well, not the plants themselves, but all the leaves on many of them. There are some of them that the critters won't/don't touch until everything else is all gone. I have several plants with absolutely no leaves left (that'll teach coral glow to bloom - if it'd bloomed, I would have saved it!).

Anyway, here is passiflora coriacea which is very small and nondescript but has lovely leaves (batwing passion flower). The closeup makes it look much better than it does in person.
And here is passiflora kewensis. This is one of the first three passion flowers that I owned, and I always loved it. I had it for a few years before I killed it - tho I lost several the first year trying to overwinter them. I hadn't been able to find it since then, but a friend sent me a new one this spring.
And this is a saddleback caterpillar Miss M found on a passion vine. It will turn into a nondescript brown moth. Fortunately none of us touched this guy because it has the second worst sting of all the stinging caterpillars. It most likely wasn't eating the passion flower (tho someone else had been) but fell off the cherry tree nearby.
Miss S has been sick as a dog this weekend. We went to the book store after we got done at the doctors on Friday to look for a college guide magazine. We found the guide, but we also found this (Amigurumi World Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli). She's promised to make me some of these cute little guys. I found another book that I think she needs called Kooky Crochet or something like that. I'll post pictures if she ever finishes anything . . . or if she ever gets out of bed (been there since Friday noon.)
And I found this Little Box of Socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrot sitting right next to the college guide. (Yes, really - it jumped off the shelf and bopped me on the head and then it ran after me down the aisle insisting I buy it. I tried to tell it that I have enough sock books, but it didn't have ears.) It has some really great patterns in it and more new things I've never done. There's a new heel I wanna try . . .
Miss S likes the green socks so I'm using the pink that Mom sent to make her either these or the basket weave socks. And I'm gonna use the Numma Numma Toasty that I won in the contest to make the Small Wings Socks for myself. I think I'm gonna use the Needlenook Nosh but I'll have to fight Miss M for it cuz she wants that color for herself.

Both girls love the Bed socks so I might have to buy some Noro and make them each a pair - maybe for their Christmas presents? And the slip Stitch Cable socks are just another pattern that I really liked.

I love the way the patterns are individual cards - so I can carry them with me. I don't have a copy machine here in the house that will copy a page from a book, so I usually end up carrying the books with me and they get scratched up and banged around in my knitting bag. Hmm, maybe I need a new knitting bag - nah, have too many already . . . . .

Wow! This ain't tomorrow, is it?

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything. And it's not like I have nothing at all to post, cuz I've got tons of stuff. But I've been busy - school is always busy especially with the different schedules the girls keep, but the first few weeks of school are always busier than I expect even when I expect the worst!

So, first, here are the finished Austermann Step socks, knit in the Small Capitals pattern by Charlene Schurch (Sensational Knitted Socks book). I love this pattern (the stitch pattern) because it's really elastic and really hugs your foot and feels really good. I'm not so thrilled with the heel and tho it was easy enough to do, the fit isn't as good as a traditional top down flap heel. So, if I do toe up, I'll stick with short row heels in the future.

Yum! Chocolate!!!

And second, this is a gift for a friend. I found it and some other high cacao content chocolate and got it for him because he mentioned he liked some kind and he thought it might have been discontinued. I know he pops in here and checks the blog every now and then, so maybe he'll see the pic.

More posts soon - very soon. And where are the pics of the new house? And the yarn bowls? and the rest of the birthday goodness? I think it might be your turn to post something!

A little late, but . . . . .

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Hope that number 81 was the very best ever! I'm sorry I'm late posting this, but I was out of town! I love you best, better than all the rest~!

More tomorrow . . . with pics, just for you.

Finally Finished

I finally finished knitting these socks too. The yarn is Flat Feet from Conjoined Creations. They machine knit it into a flat piece of fabric and then dye it in fun and funky ways. Knitting it was no problem and I think I kinda liked having the flats to carry around instead of balls. Balls tend to roll all over the car and you have to keep the two balls from twisting and tangling. Rolling was absolutely no problem with these and twisting and tangling while I knit was a lot less of a problem.

There are two things that I discovered after I'd knit the socks. The first ws that the yarn bled dye pretty badly when I was blocking the socks. If I'd known it was going to do that, I would have reset the dye before I started knitting because that would have been the easiest time to do it. I could have done it after knitting and before blocking, but by then the sock blank had been cut off and was halfway unravelled.

The second thing I discovered was that the kink in the yarn messes up guage. I finally got the correct guage when I was knitting and thought everything was hunky dory. Then when I went to block the socks, they grew significantly as the yarn relaxed and let go the kink. I was a bit worried when I had wet socks that seemed to be growing faster than the kids. But I kinda squished them back into shape and then laid them flat on the drying blocks and hoped for the best. They dried and seem to fit just fine. Miss S is modeling them here and she said they were incredibly comfortable. They fit her tho they'd probably fall down and they fit me too. So all in all, it was fun and a good project. And I'll probably knit from a flat blank again sometime, but I'll remember what I learned.

One other thing that I learned . . . when you do the turned heel from the top down it does need some stockinette before you start turning.

More critters

I had lots of the Galway wool leftover from the first hedgehog. Miss M decided she really needed another, so I said we'd get some fun fur and I'd make her another. Well, then Miss S thought she should have one too. But Miss S didn't want one that was dull beige or brown, she wanted green. I tried to get her to let me put pink paws on it, but she didn't want to go there.

So, here are the two new hedgehogs - the green and the beige.

The Huggable Hedgehog pattern is pretty easy to follow - the back is all short rows, so you kinda have to pay a little attention. But other than that, it's simple and really quick. You can almost make one of these in an evening. One thing that I really like about the pattern is that there is absolutely no sewing. You knit the front of the body and then pick up stitches around it for the back. That's as hard as it gets - picking up stitches and then the short rows. There isn't even any purling in this little guy.

And here is the finished green hedgehog.

And the fun fur I got for Miss S has multiple colors in it - a nice beige with some copper and a touch of green. That way he won't clash with the Green Hedgehog.
A comparison of the finished hedgehog with the two unfelted bodies of the new hedgehogs.
And the finished beige hedgehog.

And of course, a group shot!

They are all very Huggable Hedgehogs.

Ahem . . .

Look Mom! Do you wanna play?
This is a really great toy I have here! I promise it's fun.
No? I think I'm gonna go sit in a corner and eat worms . . . .

I have turned a heel . . . .

And it was not that difficult. I've been experimenting with new ways to do heels and toes on socks. I have several books on socks and right now, I'm working my way thru Charlene Schurch's Sensational Socks. This heel was quick and easy - and I think I will use it again if it fits when I'm done with the socks.

Knitting with the sock flats is a little wierd - the kink in the yarn made it a bit difficult to figure out if I had guage or not. We'll have to see what happens when the socks are blocked. And I was shocked at how different the knitted socks looked from the knitted blank. Somehow I expected to see greater puddles of yellow than I actually see in the socks, and the orange has practically disappeared altogether. But I still like the socks and I like the pattern I knit into them. Not sure if I'll write it up as a pattern or not tho - may be more trouble than it's worth.

Someone planted a tomato plant this year and it has finally started to produce one tiny little fruit. Of course he wouldn't listen to me or let me touch it all summer. Funny, but that one little fruit started to grow just a couple of days after I pollinated one of the flowers with a paintbrush. And that flower appeared just about two weeks after I cut all the excess leaves off the plant. Of course I did all that when someone was at work because he would have killed me if I'd done it when he could see it.

Pretty Pretty . . . .

First come the buds - and sometimes they are as lovely as the flowers. The pink bud is passiflora violacea form #3 and the purple is passiflora pura vida purple.

Then come the lovely flowers . . . .

passiflora citrina
passiflora Jeanette
and passiflora Temptation (which smells just lovely)

and then you get the little passion flower eaters . . . . but they turn into pretty butterflies, so I share.

Not Knitting with Lemons . . . .

First, start with a pile of lovely lemons

then peel them all, but save the peels


takes a lot of wrist strength

peels go in a jar with a tight seal

then you add vodka (or grain alcohol)

cover peels completely and store in a safe place.

Then squeeze the lemons and make lemonade!

The actual recipe is 16 (or more - I use lots more) lemons two two half gallon jugs of vodka. What you don't see in these shots is that the jar with the peels gets completely filled with vodka. You also don't see that there are two more jars like that and when they are done, they are about half full of lemon peels. The vodka will quickly start to turn yellow. The vodka with lemon peels needs to sit for at least a week and as long as several weeks. When it's been sitting that long, I add a simple syrup made from 3 cups of water and 2 1/2 cups of sugar to the strained vodka. Then bottle up your limoncella and chill it in the freezer before drinking.

It's very yummny!! Careful tho - A little goes a looonnnnggggg way!

Seemed like a good idea at the time . . . . .

Hmmm . . . . . . seems to be just a little more difficult getting out than it was getting in . . . . .