photo laden post. you’ve been warned

First, the knitting:

Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 (I think, that or Basic Merino Sock) in Mahogany, which no matter what setting I used on my camera, would not display exactly right.  This is close enough though.  Needles:  Addi Lace 2.25, 40″ circulars.  Pattern:  I’m knitting my first pair of socks from Wendy Johnson’s new book, Socks from the Toe Up.  They are the Lace and Cable Socks on page 78.  I am making the larger pair.

I had to rip and do some mods:  I don’t know how to start a row with a purl stitch and not have ladders.  I pulled and tugged as tightly as I could without breaking the yarn.  Still I got the ladders.  So I put a knit stitch at the beginning and end of the instep row and removed one from the K5 that appears on the sides of the lace motif.

I’ve messed up my row counting a few times and so while the middle lace is correct, sometimes the cables on the sides come a row early or late.  Whoops!  You can’t really tell and I’m trying to not let it get to me.  A perfect person I am not.

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Then, a plea for help:

My dying Provence Lavender plant. Why? Considering only five feet away...

this exists happily.

Yet hope springs eternal.

Could 2 of my cauliflower plants live and produce? Hope!!

Seedlings to be planted. Spinach and Romaine.

Tomato plants producing fruit.

And these lovely Hydrangeas

will be planted here, in the bed Husband built for me.

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And finally:

My display at Spirit Wind West. I'm real girl!!

It feels so different displaying my jewelry in a store.  It makes it feel real.  I’m still selling on Etsy too.  My Consignors don’t have a problem with me keeping my Etsy store up which is nice, though I don’t get much traffic and have only sold one pair of earrings.  The Etsy store will probably come down if and when the jewelry starts selling out of Spirit Wind West.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Everyone have a great weekend!  Especially Husband who is celebrating a birthday!

awesome

I really appreciate things that make me laugh.  Unfortunately because of my irreverance for basically all things, what I find funny some people find offensive.  I hope that’s not the case here, because this tickled me pink.

I especially love the encouragment to “keep being awesome.”

Awesome.

summer joys

This is what’s been making me happy lately:

These are my two tomato plants. Beefsteak on the right, Romas on the left.

This is going to be a tomato!! Can you believe it?

Peppermint (below) and Lavender (above)

My herbs - Rosemary, two different Sage, two different Thyme, Basil

Fresh strawberries straight from the garden. Who wants shortcake?

Broccoli - Five stalks.

The stalks are so big for how much vegetable you get!

Jasmine - it's taken off.

Close up of the blossoms.

The wildflowers growing all over our mini hillsides.

Close up

And finally…a dog enjoying a summer’s day indoors.  He moves inch by inch as the sun passes over our skylights.

it’s about time!

I finally finished these socks

Took me long enough. Pictures of completion to come.  But I have the itch to knit again and am casting on another pair of socks tonight from the book, Socks from the Toe Up, by Wendy Johnson.  I think either Tic Tac Toe Up Socks or Serpentine Socks or Labyrinth Socks or Lace and Cable Socks. Okay so the word ‘either’ doesn’t fit into that sentence now.  Big decisions.

And I’m going to pick up my sweater, Cassidy, well, the sleeves that I started and hopefully have that finished by the time the weather turns cold again.

in my thirties

It must start happening in a person’s thirties.  And in the same way no one can explain what to expect in marriage, no one can really explain that “thing” that happens in the third decade of one’s life.  It’s the reminders that come out of nowhere reminding me how old I am.  Or more aptly, enlightening just how old thirty-some-odd-years really are. I don’t feel old and I am really enjoying my thirties.  I’m not afraid of aging.  Bring on the wisdom I say!  But nothing reminds me that I’m not a newly-married, recently graduated, first time home buying, twenty-something-who-feels-seventeen-still person like these things:

your friend from junior high has her third baby

your sibling’s child hits his/her teens

your favorite television show has been in reruns for tens years

your favorite band, which formed while you were in high school, has been together for eighteen years

the CBS Sunday morning show celebrates 30 years

you can no longer relate to most characters on primetime TV

and just tonight…

Tetris celebrates its 25th anniversary.  Twenty-fifth.  Anniversary. Tetris is younger than me.

Crap.