Feral Knitting

Okay, so I’ve been negligent. I have a good reason, though. It is small, but is amazing mobile and tends to get into everything and cause a lot of trouble, thus giving me very little time for myself. (It also has some severe sleep issues, which result in much misery all around…!) Anyway, enough on that. Photo time!

Here’s the tomato haul. Not bad, seeing as we didn’t use the shelter this time. We lost a few to blight, but for the most part, as you can see, we had quite the harvest. We have eaten most of the ripened ones, so the rest will have to ripen like they did last year– in the dark. Not a big deal, as it just means we get to enjoy our tomatoes well into the fall, and maybe even the winter.  Last year none of ours ripened, so I’m glad we learned that trick. Home grown tomatoes are delicious! Meaty and not so full of seeds.  Yum!

Our acorn squash continues to grow. We planted it from a seed I found inside an acorn squash I bought to feed the baby, and we planted them kind of on a whim. They have completely taken over the garden, which doesn’t bother me as I’d rather have a possibly non productive squash plant growing there than stupid clover. Clover! gah! the bane of my existence.  I found a few more strawberries ripening just yesterday, but it looks like they’re done for the season. From our four little strawberry plants we had a continual harvest, and they too took over a large part of the garden. Hey, again, if you aren’t clover, you’re welcome in my garden.

Hmmm… what else? Oh yes, it is officially the end of the Curse of the Second Sock! I am very happy to report that I have not only one, but two socks to show off. That’s right, BOTH socks! What changed? Well, it’s simple. Toe up socks with a short row heel pretty much require no pattern. No pattern means no little body clambering over and no little hands to inspect, and then eat, what I am looking at. Also, socks are small– I can knit in the car (ha, when I actually leave the house, like that happens any more), while little mr. is standing up against the baby gate howling with glee over his accomplishment (you’d be surprised how happy he is to just stand there, triumphant) and in the evenings when I allegedly get a bit of time for myself (yes, I do spend most of that time cooking and cleaning…). Anyway, as long as I don’t commit to making knee highs, which are my favourite kind of sock, so it’s a bit of a compromise) I can get both socks done in less than a week. Ah! what glorious feeling, that sense of accomplishment. I revel in it.

But wait, people, it doesn’t stop there. Check out what I made for said Ankle Biter:

It’s the Carlos sweater! I made the Carlos sock as a sample last year some time, and cursed the intarsia the entire time. And here I am, making it again. But never mind, shouldn’t every little boy have a growling dog sweater? It says Grrrr underneath, (well, with my mad skillz it says yrrrrr, but I figure with an eyepatch we can just pretend he’s a pirate, should it come to that) and there are definitely some issues with it. For example, when I had not yet done the final sleeve, I had sewed half of the sweater up and had tried to put it on him (yes, I was impatient) and discovered that I couldn’t get it over his head! so I had to modify the shoulder, which is why it looks wonky. Also, I ran out of blue, as I used Cashmerino instead of Comfort, so the neck band is brown instead of blue, and one of the arms has a touch more brown on it than it should. I figure that he’ll never walk around with both of his arms extended (unless he somehow turns into a zombie, but I hope that doesn’t happen, not at least until he’s five or six) nobody will be the wiser. Of course, me reporting this really not helping the cause.

But wait, there’s more! With my sock success I wanted to make a pair for a birthday gift, only the needles I used happen to hold a shawl that I was attempting to get done for my mother’s birthday. This of course didn’t happen, and the shawl languished on a desktop while I gave myself permission to “get some space from it” which just means “cast on more enjoyable projects”.  So I had to finish the shawl. The problem with shawls it that they tend to get wider and wider, and with each row the shine is further off the project and the rows just seem longer and longer and longer, only you don’t want to stop as you’ve come so far and what are you going to do, honestly, with a triangle that is 25 inches long? Nothing! So keep going!  I find them knitterly torment. Anyway, I forced myself to finish it up to free up the needles for the socks. So, without further ado:

Yes, it’s a Lavalette. Just like everyone else I know is making. Yep, more fad knitting. Well, I had good reason to pick it. It seemed like the kind of pattern that looked good without my having to print up a pattern and deal with Mr. Paper Ripper and Eater. The result of which is that it doesn’t quite look like it’s supposed to. But no matter, it’s done. And  it will be delivered for Christmas, so that’s something off that list.

And of course, how could I not show off my new camera? I got a new toy and I’m loving it very much.  Here are a few pictures I took this week:

My flowers (a whole other story. Who knew flowers from seed would grow over six feet tall!)

Daisy, who loves to be photographed…

Mr. Pattern Eater himself….

and kitty herself. I like the new camera!