ONSPOCK

Pictures from Sunday

2008-05-12T21:50:00.005-05:00

Special K won this orchid for me at a silent auction at the bridge center charity game. It will be in the dining room, not in the garden:)

Creeping phlox

Plants from the Friends Plant Sale

This is the former Japanese Bayberry bush (see previous post). Removing the stump is tough - I'll have to finish next weekend.

Socks in the garden

Flowers are starting to bloom...

2008-05-10T23:08:00.000-05:00

Bleeding Hearts

This unidentified bush is starting to grow leaves.

I'm not sure why the former owner planted lillies here, but these were beautiful last summer.

I took out one of the three Japanese Bayberry bushes last fall. This is the next one to go. I think I'll put a rose in it's place.

Garden Update - Early May

2008-05-05T22:15:00.005-05:00

We've had a cold spring - things are behind schedule, but here is an update:

This is my garden before everything starts to grow:

Magnolia bush

Grape hyacinths

My first tulips

Does anyone know what kind of bush this is? It will be covered with dark green leaves later on.

The peonies are starting to sprout

I thought it was spring?!?!?

2008-04-26T22:10:00.002-05:00

Early morning before we left for the Ft Dodge sectional, I took a few spring time photos of my garden.

Snow on the lilac bushes...
Snow on the tulips...

Rainy day garden update

2008-04-25T21:00:00.002-05:00

More budding action on the Magnolia bush.

The garlic is getting bigger!

The daylillies are filling out and the tulips are about to bud.

I still don't know what this unidentified plant is. If anyone knows what it is, please post a comment to tell me!

Greening up is starting!

2008-04-24T00:03:00.002-05:00

Magnolia bush starting to bud.
Lilac bushes starting to bud.
Oregano - survived the below zero weather!

Crocus Time

2008-04-21T21:06:00.003-05:00

Garden Update

2008-04-17T23:22:00.016-05:00

Not much has happened since the last post. It got colder for awhile, then we had a few warm days, and now it is overcast and colder again, threatening to rain. I wish it would rain, I think the plants would like it. So far, I have a few more crocus blooming.

I think this is sedum. It is by the back door. It was one of the first things to start sprouting, but it won't bloom until late summer. It is a nice looking plant. I think it needs to be divided, but I probably won't get around to it this year.

This is the side yard. On the left, I think are the day lilies starting to come up - these are orange and yellow, I call them Tiger Lillies, but not sure if that is what they really are. On the right, you can see a few tulips. I think they are red. These were all planted before I bought the house.

This is garlic, I think it is "Hardy German Garlic". I got this from Seed Savers Exchange. It is supposed to do well in the north. I planted it in the fall and mulched with pine needles. There are about 4 or more garlic shoots coming up. I don't remember how many I planted.

I think these are irises. My mom brought me some iris roots from my grandfather. I love irises. I hope these bloom nice.
I don't know how to rotate this photo and I don't know what this is. I believe it is some sort of flower. It was one of the first things to grow in the garden last year, too. It is in the middle of the day lillies.

And, finally... More crocus! These are in the front by the peonies. These came with the house and they are beautiful!

First Flowers of Spring!!!

2008-04-05T14:41:00.004-05:00

I spent two hours doing clean up work in the garden, and then I noticed that the crocus had started blooming in my little crocus patch that I planted by the driveway. These are Snow Bunting crocus that I bought from Old House Gardens. This is in a sunny south facing spot under the dining room bay window. I thought it would be a good place for crocuses. We got about 6 inches of snow on Monday (Mar 31), but it was sunny and warm on April 1 and all the snow had melted on this patch by the time I got home from work. I noticed that these were the first flowers coming up. Now, there are even more crocus coming up.

I've also been working on my Kureyon sock.

April Fools!!!

2008-04-02T21:58:00.004-05:00

It is supposed to be spring, but we had several inches of snow the night of March 31. I awoke to see my house blanketed in snow.

The next day, it looked like this.

And the crocuses are coming up!!!

2007-02-05T13:54:00.000-06:00

Socks that Rock!

One of the ladies in my group did a big STR order last summer. Mine are the Pop Rocks and Tiger Eye in the lower left corner.

Neon Fair Isle

2006-05-14T23:13:00.000-05:00

Here is my first attempt at a sock with my self dyed yarn. Size 2 needles and I got 7 stitches per inch. I was just winging this and I don't like the toe and the sock is way too big for me, so I'm going to frog it, but I wanted to see what it would look like knitted up.

This is the yarn before I wound it. By the way, I learned 10 things to keep in mind when doing-it-yourself dyeing self striping yarn:
1. Be careful not to tangle the yarn before you dye it.
2. Make sure you tie the yarn in enough places so that you don't tangle it.
3. Be careful not to tangle the yarn while dyeing it.
4. Be careful not to tangle the yarn while rinsing it.
5. Be careful not to tangle the yarn while washing it.
6. Make sure you don't tagle the yarn while it is drying and you have to take it off the shower rod so someone can take a shower.
7. Don't
8. Tangle
9. The Frikkin'
10. Yarn!!!

Believe it or not, it isn't easy to untangle 25 forty-two foot loops of yarn.

This is a photo of the pink/red yarn that I decided to overdye with Kool-aid. I like it better than before, but it still isn't quite right. I'll need to stock up on some more Kool-aid, but I think this project will be on hold for awhile. I have some other more pressing things on my plate.

WIP Report

2006-05-13T17:23:00.000-05:00

Clapotis - Joslyn's Fiber Farm 50% silk/50% wool bought at the Yarnover Fiber Market. Size 5 needles - not all the repeats. I think it will be about 12 - 14 inches wide instead of the 21 in the pattern. This yarn is very soft. This is good TV watching knitting.

Gloves - not sure if they will be fingerless or not - size 1 needles - Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn.

Wobbly Circles Tote - Elann.com 50% wool/50% llama yarn - I'm adding a bottom and sides - approx 1/6 done.

Rogue - sleeves done, just body and hood to go! Cranberry Cestari Worsted. Started Feb 2005, estimated finish date: Dec 2011.

Sheperd's Harvest Festival - Sock Yarn Dyeing Class

2006-05-13T17:05:00.000-05:00

This skein is Fair-Isle - green fair-isle patterned stripes on either side of large fucshia and smaller orange stripes.

This is a pink/red skein. It didn't come out quite as I planned, so I'm in the process of over-dyeing it with cherry and black cherry Kool-aid.

This green/blue skein will make a variegated sock. It looks better in real life than this picture.

French Quarter Festival

2006-05-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

Here are a few photos from the French Quarter Festival, New Orleans, LA, April 22 - 23.

Wobbly Circles Tote yarn has arrived!

2006-03-30T22:46:00.000-06:00

My yarn has arrived! Originally, I had planned to use some Lopi from my stash, but I didn't have enough of any color for the background, so I was forced to buy some more yarn. I decided to go with Peruvian Highland Uros Aran. http://tinyurl.com/znqtk
The background color is Arizona Clay and the accent colors are Palm, Burnt Orange, Mayan Gold and Congac. I took about 5 pictures, but the one that showed the colors the best is the one where the yarn was still in the plastic - go figure. I can't wait to start. I have to go on a long trip this weekend and it would be perfect airport knitting, but I think I'll wait and start on the 15th. I really do need to finish that Rogue sweater that I've been sort of working on for about 14 months. I guess I'll take that instead.

Second Try...

2006-03-22T22:45:00.000-06:00

I've decided to sign up for the Wobbly Circles Tote KAL, so I thought I try the blogging thing again. I think I'll use some of the Lopi I have in my stash. I'll have to dig it out and see what colors I have - I hope I have something fun for the tote. I think there is at least some pink. Now I'll have to figure out how to post the photos again;)

Paris - March 2004

2005-01-23T17:51:00.000-06:00

Paris - March 2004

Techno Power

2005-01-23T17:36:00.000-06:00

Here is my first try at adding a photo to a blog.
Techno Power

Weekend Update #2

2005-01-23T16:59:00.000-06:00

Lot's of snow. Pot of split pea soup cooking on the stove. Almost done with second felted mohair ballet slipper. I reknit the Porcupine's felted slipper - started with 36, but it looked too small, so ended up with 40 stitches. It now looks almost as gigantic as the first try. Let's just hope it felts down to size because I can't bear to reknit it a third time.

Johnny Carson died today. I'm finally old enough that I know practically everyone who dies.

Last Sunday we went to see the movie "Kinsey". It ended with home movies of animals procreating. They even had a little porcupine love fest. How cute.

Weekend Update

2005-01-16T11:11:00.000-06:00

We went to the symphony last night. It was pretty good. Otherwise, all we did was clean up the place all day. It was really messy here. We probably need to spend a few more days cleaning, but it's a start. I also made an incredibly high-fiber healthy dinner: Acorn squash, sweet potatoes, pilaf with wild rice, brown rice and bulgar wheat (very tasty) and some round steak.

I'm trying to get motivated to take the 1 pm spin class today. Maybe I'll also restart my weights program.

The pre-felted slipper I made for the porcupine turned out to be more gigantic than expected. Even though I suspect it might felt to the right side, I'm going to reknit it with 36 stitches instead of 44. He does have very skinny feet. He helped unravel and roll up the yarn last night after we got home from the symphony. I think he secretly wants to knit, but he won't admit it.

Stomach Flu

2005-01-13T20:11:00.000-06:00

Came home early with stomach flu. I've been on the verge of it since after spin class on Monday. I hope I feel better tomorrow, although I may not go to work anyway. It is supposed to be awful weather tomorrow and maybe I should just stay home. Anyway, I had to skip spin class, which sucks. I don't think we'll be able to start our Friday night yoga class tomorrow because Jojo's school has a skating party and we told him we'd go to it. They have it every month and it is kind of fun. The little porcupine took Jojo to wrestling practice tonight. It started this week and he sounded really excited to do wrestling, so even though it conflicts with swimming lessons, we're going to let him do wrestling instead. It is only for about 6 weeks and I think it will be very good for him. He seems like a natural athlete and he has a good build for a wrestler.

Felted Swatching

2005-01-13T20:08:00.000-06:00

I decided to make a felted gauge swatch for the red/black slippers. Three times through the washer and it never did felt all the way, you can still see the stitch definition. Oh well. Anyway, the gauge seems to work okay. I hope the finished slippers will fit my little porcupine and his skinny feet.

Felted Slippers

2005-01-13T19:54:00.000-06:00

I finished the felted slippers for Kiki. They look very Dr. Seuss-ish. I definitely need to figure out how to post pictures. Now I'm going to make a pair for my little porcupine. I found a different pattern to use. The first pattern was good, but the slippers didn't felt as much as I wanted before I had to stop - otherwise, if I let them felt longer, they would be too small.

I'm going to make the porcupine's out of Cascade 220. I was going to do a cuff with 1 strand red and 1 strand black, then the body in two strands red, but he seems to like the red/black thing, so I'm going to do the whole slipper with both colors. This pattern looks WAY to big - I'm up to the heel turn. I might have to stop at the LYS and ask some questions. Also, I stopped at THREE LYS's to get size 13 DPN's and they were all sold out!!!

I'm a little sore in the back muscles from yoga, which is surprising, because the class seemed so gentle. But that is good.

Stitch N Bitch

2005-01-11T20:03:00.000-06:00

Went to the LYS SnB and stitched a little and bitched a little. Topics included funny potluck experiences. One woman went to a cub scout potluck where a parent had brought a plate of bologne sandwiches. I think the cub scout was asked what he wanted to bring and he shouted out "Bologne Sandwiches!!!"

I looked at the felted slipper lady's slipper and it is huge, too, so maybe the gigantic slipper that I am knitting for my little porcupine will turn out okay. I finally worked some more on my gauge swatches for the Rogue and decided that I think I need an 8 addi turbo for circular gauge and a 7 addi for flat gauge. So I got the 8 and bought the yarn. 6 skeins of Cestari in blackberry. They have the cranberry on order, but who knows if it'll ever come in. They are both good colors.

Size 13 DPN

2005-01-10T19:59:00.000-06:00

One of the LYS's said they were getting in the size 13 DPN's today and they did, so now I have them. In the meantime, I taught myself how to knit a sock on two circulars, using my Denise needles with the 13 needle point on the RHS of each circular and the 11 on the LHS.

I called the Saturday morning yoga teacher to see if we could bring Jojo to her class. She was very elitest. I totally wouldn't have minded if she said that she doesn't accept kids in the class, but she didn't. Instead, she said it wouldn't be fair to her other students to have a beginner like him in the class because she'd have to spend too much time with him and many of her current students have been with her a long time. I find this incredibly odd, since the class is a beginner class. What a snob. Anyway, we really liked the Friday night teacher, so we'll just sign up for her class instead. She was really nice and encouraged us to bring little Jojo to class.

Went to Spin class again. It is getting easier already.

Spin Class 2

2005-01-06T20:33:00.000-06:00

Spin class number 2. Wanted to quit half-way through, but I stuck it out.

Spin Class

2005-01-03T21:53:00.000-06:00

Attended first spin class 6:30 - 7:30. It wasn't too hard, even though I'm so out of shape. There is another one on Thursday night. I think I'll give that one a try. I hope I'm not too sore tomorrow.

First Slipper Done

2005-01-02T21:50:00.000-06:00

I finished the first slipper for Kiki's birthday. Can't wait to felt it and see how it turns out, but I'll have to wait until I finish the mate. If I can figure out how to upload a picture, I'll try to add it later this week.

New Year's Ice Skating

2005-01-01T21:48:00.000-06:00

Today we bought some used hockey skates for me and Jojo, then we went to the Depot ice rink and skated. I think I got in a good 40 minutes of aerobic ice skating. I also bought a new Sonicare toothbrush.

Happy New Year

2004-12-31T23:39:00.000-06:00

New Years Resolutions:
Excercise twice a week
Eat better
Knit Rogue for Kiki