Saturday, June 17, 2006

Yarn-love

What's this? A post? Actually related to crocheting and yarn? Who took over this blog????

I thought I would let you all see how the skirt is progressing. It's not fantastic, but this is the first time I have made something like this. Moving out of the baby blankets and scarves routine. I'm actually thinking of entering it into the county fair. I don't think I have a chance in hell of actually winning, but I will get free tickets to the fair.


I have maybe 10 more rows of the shell pattern to finish, then the draw string. My biggest fear is that it's going to look like utter crap on me. But, it was an experience.

And looky here:


This is the yarn I got from my One Skein Secret Pal. It's a thick, chunky, green alpaca and it is so very soft. I have no idea what I'm going to make with it. I keep thinking of making a hat for my dad for this coming winter. I doubt his hair will grow back for quite a while. He's starting to lose his facial hair as well. This is warm and would make a wonderfully cozy hat for a bald head.

I had a picture of the yarn I bought for my assigned pal, but it got deleted and I'm not really great with the blogger format, so I'm not going to try to repost. I will tell you about it. It's a very soft, light-weight cotton/merino blend (by Sierra) in white. My pal said she was looking for a soft cotton for summer-weight items, and she likes to dye yarns. The ladies at the LYS say this yarn dyes very well.

OK, I have to go finish laundry, and then watch TV and work on my skirt. Later everyone!

Friday, June 02, 2006

I know, I know... I'm a bad blogger. And a bad hooker. We've actually had some nice weather recently, between thunderstorms, so I've been outside. We have so much work to do on our house, oth in and out, and I've been trying to chip away at it little by little in between my dad's doctor's appointments and my work schedule. Here is what I've been doing:

This is the firepit I bought for my backyard:



I love how it looks like a cauldron and has stars and moons cut-outs. It's perfect! I can't wait to get my Pagan friends over for a bit of drumming and conversation.

Here is my veggie garden. It doesn't look like much in the picture, but I have 6 tomato plants (three varieties), 3 summer squash, 3 green beans, 3 brussel sprouts, 3 broccoli, 1 zucchini (because you can't have a garden without zucchini), 1 regular eggplant, 1 Japanese eggplant, some bell peppers, some watermelon, and either strawberry or rasberry or both. I got the berries from a friend and couldn't remember which was which and they both look the same to me, and of the three plants, one died before I could plant it.

Ignore the weeds surrounding the garden. :-)

I also have a massive blackberry bramble that I covered in netting. The berries were great last year, but I ended up with about 1/2 cup after the birds got to them all. I lest some of it uncovered for the birds this year, but I covered up a huge area of it to keep the buggers out.

Wish me luck. I have never had a garden before, and I really don't know what the heck I'm doing. I'm not using any chemicals on it, because I don't feel comfortable eating stuff I can't pronounce. I have a landscaping mat down over the garden to keep the weeds down. I cut out holes for the plants, hopefully giving them room to grow. I can always make the holes bigger.

On the crochet front, I need to find a skein of yarn for my one skein pal. She likes natural yarns, in neutral colors. No novelty or itchy yarns, and nothing bright or gaudy. She hasn't found a cotton yarn that she really likes, and I was thinking of sending her a skein of Tahki cotton. It's soft and lightweight. Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

Later!