Too Sleepy To Think Up A Good Title

I'm really dragging this morning for some reason but wanted to share a couple photos.


First up is the latest finished lap-robe. I used the same "brain-dead" stitch as the last one, but in this case I worked four rows of each color following the rainbow progressing and using a dark & light of each color. As you can see, my favorite model decided that if there was an afghan on the floor, it must have been put there for him..


DH says this photo should be titled "Pastures of Plenty". The tomatoes are ripening. Even though I only have 20 plants compared to 36 last year in the larger garden, the deer haven't discovered them yet and we're getting lots. The varieties are grape (I think Juliet from the size), Early Girl, Big Boy & Beefsteak. I'm making dinner salads with lots of tomatoes & eating the grape ones out of hand like candy.

Nothing Special Going On

... but I've been getting quite a bit of knitting & crocheting done while watching the Olympics in the evening..


I think this is a scarf that a Red-Hatter would love. It's worked on size 17 needles with one strand of a dark purple worsted throughout combined with different "fancy" yarns that all contain red or purple. It's draped over my antique swift because the scarf is about 7' long and I couldn't get it all into a photo if I laid it out on the carpet.


The afghan done in "brain-dead", "crazy" or "box" stitch (I've found it listed under all those names)is complete. I started another one while at K4 today but this one will be striped vertically instead of horizontally for the simple fact that it turned out wider than I thought it would - or I may decide to frog and restart as it wouldn't be that much of a problem to get to where I am now. This new one is going to have wider stripes of color as I found that I spent almost as much time deciding what the next color would be on the one above as I did crocheting the row.. {g}


Two more "Dopey" baby caps with fun fur trim at the front. These went into the case at the Sr. Center today in hopes of selling them to earn money for more yarn.


And this is where my third pair of Summer of Socks 08 are at the moment. I turned the heel last night, finished the gussets and am starting the leg. The shades in this #551 Vinca colorway are so soothing.

In other activities, I've been hanging around on Plurk quite a bit which is fun. I'm still teaching knitting & crocheting on Mondays at the Sr. Center and joining in for the fun on Thursday afternoons & our K4 group. As I mentioned earlier, I've been watching the Olympics in the evening, knitting away and reading during the commercials and transition times between events. It's been a quiet week. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen. We had BLTs over the weekend thanks to the Early Girls, but now the Beefsteak & Better Boys are ripening and we have lots of grape tomatoes for munching - so much better than last year when the deer ate the plants down to nubs..

Lazy Sunday

It's been a fairly lazy day here, but I did get the sweeper run so I could take a couple new photos. Given the amount of cat hair on the carpets, all three of our feline masters should be downright BALD!!


This is the current progress on the multi-colored lap robe in the "brain dead" (aka "crazy" & "box") stitch. I have more rows to work to get it up to the 36" length for the hospital.


I worked a bit on the sock last night while watching a bit of the Olympics. Once the toe increases were done, I started working two repeats of Wendy's Seaweed lace pattern. I added an extra purl stitch between repeats so at 10 stitches it would work evenly into my 60 stitch sock. I love the way this #551 Vinca colorway is working up - it reminds me of tidal pools, beach sand & is just morphing into a touch of green like the grass above the beach. Once I'm past the heel shaping I'll work the lace pattern all the way around the leg. This pair will be #3 for the Summer of Socks 08.

08-08-08 - A FO & A New Start

I finished the second pair of socks for SOS08 a few minutes ago. These are made from Vinca color #8. I started them back on July 18th, but let them languish for over a week when I discovered a mistake a few rows back in the blueberry waffle stitch. Yesterday, I sat down, tinked back & got going again. I was disappointed that once again the two skeins of yarn didn't come close to matching - the solid grey around the heel of the left sock was nowhere to be found in the first skein and I was unable to find a spot in the second skein that would let me start with a solid blue that would then meld into a blue grey mix. Still, I like the yarn and love the way that it demands just a few more rows to see what the next color change will be.


A photo of the heel. The gusset isn't very big, but the heel fits nicely.


And here is the next pair - again Vinca yarn in color #551, size 2 Harmony double points and my usual toe up pattern. I haven't even started to think about what design I'll add either to the instep or the leg, but I love the shades in these skeins.

A Week's Worth of Photos

The week started out with a semi-disaster. The foot on our antique Mission Oak table split leaving us with just three feet and a decided tilt.


After gluing and using screws to fasten a few of the pieces of wood together, the foot rested overnight in clamps and a vice.


Meanwhile without a base to hold it, the table top had to rest on the floor and the inevitable happened.


Mom, if you didn't want me using it for a bed, why did you put it down here?

In other news, I started another lap robe using the "brain dead" stitch pattern:


This one will use a different color for each row - a good way of using up scraps. I need enough of each color to make it all the way across the row so, unlike the rag-tag afghans that uses every bit of one color before starting the next, there will be scraps left over. I like the way that the angled shells make an interesting pattern without a lot of work.


Here's another of the Dopey hats that I finished on Tuesday.

We had some good luck at garage sales this week. Boomer likes the kitty tower we picked up for 50¢.


With the table put back together, it's a good thing you found me another place to lounge!

And another 50¢ purchase - a 100% wool sweater in bulky yarn that I plan on frogging.


Out in the back yard, the tomatoes are trying to take over their corner. I picked about a dozen grape tomatoes this afternoon and there are bigger BLT sized ones hiding under the foliage, but they're still green.


Over by the gate, the acorn squash (I thought I had zucchini) planted by the compost pile is heading for the fence and about four times the size of the other three plants put together.


The pink flocks that friends of Mom's gave her a few years back are flourishing. Thanks, Joanne & Harvey!!


And the trumpet vine is starting to take off. It flowered for the first time this year. It's a little past it's peak here, but it's starting to cling to the wire mesh we fastened to the fence to help support it. I'm looking forward to this end of the fence being covered in flowers in the future.