Lazy Holiday!

Happy whatchamacallit to anyone with a holiday today! Here in Ottawa we are enjoying Colonel By Day.

My laundry is drying in my bathroom. I have a stew in the slow cooker, and bread kneading itself in the kitchen (have I mentioned I love my bread machine?). Now I get to sit and knit to my hearts content.

I finished the tweedy stripes:...

...and cast on another pair right away:

These are the pattern and yarn from the January Sock Club Kit from Robyn's Nest (pssst...it's Robyn's 1 year anniversary today and she's having a sale! Head over now!)

The yarn is from Perfect Day Yarns (Free Verse Sock yarn) and the Pattern is Vintage Rose Socks by Mona Schmidt. I'm adapting the pattern from dpn-top-down to magic loop-toe up, so we will see how it goes.

I bit the bullet and frogged the Garter Stitch Jacket. I have now figured out how to knit the pattern so it actually does garter stitch and I am much happier.

Remember my garden? Well it's grown:

Tomatoes and Squash then:

and now:

Cucumber then:

and now:

The plants are a little scrawny. I think it is because the pots I have them in aren't deep enough. However I do have some veggies. I have about 4 cucumbers, 8 grape tomatoes, 6 early girl tomatoes, and 4 beefy boy tomatoes. The squash just began flowering with male flowers so the females should bloom sometime this week so we will see if I get any acorn squash. Next year I'll plan a little better. It's definitely a learning process.

Now I'm going to take advantage of some quiet knitting time and work on my socks!

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!

...and we're off!

The Summer of Socks 2008 officially began last night at midnight (or is it this morning at midnight?) anyway I stayed up and cast on at about 12:01am. My first pair of socks is shaping up quite nicely:

The pattern is one that Wendy of Wendy Knits designed especially for the SOS. This pair I'm trying two-at-a-time on two circular needles. My next pair I'll try two-at-a-time using Magic Loop and we'll see which way I prefer.

Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

I am once again trying to garden on my balcony. This year I got a greenhouse in which I am housing my strawberry plant (so the squirrels and birds don't eat them) and some herbs:

Eversweet Strawberries.

Chives, French Lavender, and Cilantro.

Some Tomatoes:

Grape Tomatoes on the left, Early Girl Tomatoes on the right, and Acorn Squash on the far right.

Two different kinds of mint:

Spearmint and Apple Mint.

and finally some Cucumbers and Sedum:

Cukes on the right, Sedum on the left, oh and my birdfeeder (which doubles as a squirrel feeder, but the birds don't mind).

I hope....

Anyhoo, I'm off to knit some socks...

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!

Garden Oasis in the sky...

Ryan and I have been busy setting up our "oasis". We now have several herbs:

Oregano, Pineapple Mint, Curly Parsley, Winter Savory, and Lemon Thyme in the pot on the bistro set. Italian Parsley, Spanish Lavender, Purple Sage, and Cilantro in a container on the ground.

We also bought a Hibiscus plant:

And an Oleander plant:

You should have seen the two of us on the bus this morning with two trees, two pots, and a 30L bag of potting soil. People thought we were crazy (especially the driver)!

To finish off the balcony we bought a wind thing. It's not really a chime since it doesn't make a sound, it just catches the wind and spins. Kinda neat to watch:

That's all for now. I'll post some knitty-type pics tomorrow, I promise!

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!