About Lovage, Spearmint, and Surprises!

I picked up my mail late last night. It was on our way back from walking the dogs. I just said to my son, that I didn't expect anything in the mail, everything I ordered or knew was on the way to me, was already here. To my surprise there was a key to the bigger mail boxes in our slot.


What could it be?


Well, a few days ago, Sabine and I were talking about something, and she promised to send me some material to read. She mailed it off on the 16th, and it was in my hands on the 19th! That was fast.


To my total surprise, when I opened the flat cardboard envelope, the scent of lavender escaped, and filled my greedy inhaling nostrils. I love lavender! As you can see, there was not just some written material, but out came some wonderful grassy green Uru lace weight yarn! How did Sabine know that green is one of my favorite colores? I might not knit a lot of green things, but I have hoarded lots of different green yarns so far. I pet it, I like looking at it, and keep thinking soon, soon I'll find the right pattern for all of my lovely greens!





See the lavender? It's from her very own garden. I planted Lavender once, it didn't make it. So sad. There was also some delicious tea. I might have had a cup already. It's "Shipibo Treasure Tea", sooo good! Thank you, Sabine, for this unexpected, but very welcome gift! :o)


After the Queen Anne's Lace shawl was done, I kind of couldn't find a project which would satisfy me. I didn't know what I wanted myself. Well I made one other thing, I have yet to show you, but it's so precious, it needs a post all by itself. Soon.


I've been casting on, and ripping out for days now. I finally decided on this 8-point crochet star blanket, as my outside project. I was about 30 rounds into it, when I noticed a mistake where the rounds are joined. So I had to rip all of it, asked Mariella for advice. She made my all time favorite star blanket, in the best colors possible (my opinion). Anyway, mine is not going to be very big, since I only have 5 balls of Butterfly Super 10 mercerized cotton to play with, but whatever the size will be, it will be enough.


In the meantime, since I've received so much lovely yarn, I've cast on for a pair of socks with yarn from Hannah's package, and the pattern comes from my new sock book. It's the "Hypnosis" pattern. I'm also test knitting socks for Bea, or I should say, I'm going to cast on today. Now, that I have something on my needles again, I have no problem to decide what to do next. I see Uru lace yarn, and mohair/silk blend yarn in my near future.

Spearmint

Anyway, there's something else, I need advice from the "green thumbs" among my readers. I've got three plants of each Lovage, and Spearmint. I've planted Lovage in previous years, but it didn't make it. This time I've got three plants in the hope that one will survive. Now my question is: Is it possible to keep them in pots inside until next spring, so they will grow, and will be bigger for planting outside, and have a better chance of surviving? Or can I still plant them outside now, and hope for the best?
My dad has Lovage in his garden for decades now. It grows big as a bush, and I would love to have at least ONE in my garden. What would you do?

Lovage

I don't have a real veggie garden, what you see below is it: 2 tomato plants!


Tomatoes

It's been cool the last few days, sock wearing cool. I'm NOT complaining!

Have a wonderful weekend, y'all!

A successful privat swap!

This turns out to be a good week for receiving mail! I've got my much anticipated swap package from Hannah. I just feel sorry for you, because you can't have any of it! ;o) We read each others blogs, and some time ago, Hannah blogged about her son, who was working in the garden. He's had some Klompen on his feet, and I told her, that since I was a child, and had first seen those Dutch wooden shoes, I wondered what it felt like wearing them. So, she offered so send me a pair, and this swap was born. It was great fun putting together a package for Hannah. I can only hope she liked hers as much as I liked mine!

It was pretty overwhelming, when I opened the package, and saw all this stuff emerge under a layer of bubble wrap. I confess, when it comes to wrapped gifts, I'll never grow up, and open it with care. This is not the place to show how patient I can be.

There were the Klompen, of course. Each one of them held a skein of Dutch sock yarn. As it's pretty cool today, I could need a finished pair of socks already. I'm looking forward to knit with it. There was this wonderful bag, Hannah especially sew for me! I call myself "Bag Lady", because I love bags in all shapes, and sizes. She used some traditional Dutch fabric. Wow! Another thing I love are tins, and there was this precious little tin with waffles in it. We actually had waffles like that before, but they are so delicious, you can never have enough. The whole package smelled of roses, which came from a soap, Hannah included also. There were magnets, and a kerchief, and a lovely letter,card, AND a drawing from her daughter Vera!

It was overwhelming, and lovely, and it made my day!Love the tin, and look at those tiny wooden Klompen - so cute!

The Klompen fit perfectly, but should be worn with socks, or maybe, once they are worn in, they loose their edges a little? I overlooked a tea bag in one shoe, I drink tea, so yet another lovely surprise. I LOVE my very own Klompen! Biko seemed pretty interested in them as well...

The only thing left to say, is THANK YOU, HANNAH!

Thank you!

I have to thank all of you, who took the time to stop by and leave a comment for my Queen Anne's lace shawl. I'm so very happy with it! :o)
I've got a "Thank you!" from Frieda aka Elfie, because I donated in her name for a good cause.
She had two very personal reasons for supporting the Cancer Society. I don't really think I deserve this wonderful gift, but I'm going to enjoy it nevertheless. The Baby Mohair/Silk blend yarn is enough for a shawl (don't' know yet which one). It was accompanied with a lovely card, and some much needed stitch markers. Thank you very much, Elfie!

Queen Anne's Lace Shawl - finished!

Oh, what the heck, I thought I'll wait till Monday, but I'm so excited, I want to show the shawl now. :o) (in this picture the colores are the most true to the yarn)

(mid day sun is not the best to take pictures)

(the spiralling is what I especially like about this shawl)

(blocking on the floor on the backside of an old Quilt I made)

pattern: Queen Anne's Lace shawl by MMario Leo a Pola de Finale Emelia

yarn: Evilla Artyarn 8/2 color # A8 from Maud's Garn, used 327g = 1430yds

needle: 4mm, I started with 5 DP, than 16", 24", 32" and 40" circulars. At the end it was very crowded on the needle.

size after blocking: 61inches in diameter

start-finish: May 18 - June 12: In the beginning I wished this project would never end. About 20 rows to the finish I feared my wish would come true.

I used blocking wires, and I wanted it to be round, with no points sticking out. As MMario on the yahoo group said, he's seen it blocked four different ways:

1. round

2. pointy diamond

3. pointy fan

4. pointy diamond and fan

You know how it is, you see something, and it speaks to you, or it doesn't. I saw this shawl of Chawne, and all her other pictures of the shawl, and knew I wanted to make one myself.

I like the yarn I used, but I think this shawl would benefit from a solid colored yarn. Everytime I picked up the shawl to knit on it, I got a nose full of sheep smell, and I liked that too. The yarn is made in Estonia, there was a lot of vegetable matter, but I did not care about that. The color made up for it. I LOVE it.

The pattern is written out, and in chart form. There are no errors in it. I loved knitting it from the very first moment. Oh, BTW, the beginning was tricky, fiddling with the DP needles, when you have only 2 sts on each. I made the crochet beginning instead, which was a little easier.

Quelle joie!

The announcement of the fact that I finished knitting the Queen Anne's Lace shawl needed something special. Hence - the French title.

As of 8:47PM tonight I've bound off all 737 stitches. Now I have to find a place to block it. People - this shawl is huge!

Pictures coming soon!

Pictureless post ? Never! What about my wonderful blooming chive? There's an ant on the plant. ;o)

yours,

(found a new online toy, make your own signature)

A new sock book - The Eclectic Sole!

Monica made me aware of this new sock book coming out. I think it was back in March. I pre-ordered it and got it in the mail today! Monica, did you get yours today as well?

I've bought this book unseen, but I liked the title page, and everybody knows "Rivendell" knit by the Yarn Harlot. I wanted to support Janel Laidman as well, since she self published this book.

I think this is a wonderful book, with 14 gorgeous patterns in it. I don't know yet how well it is written, or if there is errata, but which book hasn't errata? In any case, from looking at the charts, and the wonderful layout, and design of all pages, I must say I haven't had many knitting books, which were so well outlined. It reminds me of Cat Bordhi's "New Pathway" book.

Here are a few of the socks from the book, but you can't see the best parts. Well done, Janel, and thanks for signing the book. It's my first signed book! The hard part now is to decide which one I'll knit first. And I didn't even want to knit socks right now!

It was Mariella's idea!

Mariella left a comment with the idea to re-do the top of the bag. I thought it's a good one too, and got the bag, and went right to it. Why didn't I think of it myself? I'm a person for which there is YES or NO, HOT or COLD, RIGHT-WRONG etc. you get the idea. If there's a grey area, I have a real problem. So it was either hate the bag, and the strap, and put it away in the closet, or rip it all out and start again. It never crossed my mind, to just rip out the strap and make a button hole handle for this bag. It took me one and a half hour to fix it, and now I'm pleased, still not loving it, but I can use it. Thanks, Mariella!

Tapestry Crochet Bag

You know, a while ago I made this little kitty bag. After that I wanted to make a real bag, large, maybe something to use for every day. I made this one. It's my own design, except for the shape. The shape comes from Carol Ventura's book "Tapestry Crochet" by Carol Norton (same woman, different name, it happens). Anyway. I'm not very happy with it though. It was A LOT of work finishing this bag, and I almost didn't, but no way was I going to rip out even one row of this. I was disappointed with the colors, and how they played out together. I would make it different, would I have to make it again, which I'll never will. The strap is too small, but making it wider, I would have to add height at the same time to the bag, which I didn't want to. As you can see the strap is curling, it's no good! I put my sewing basket in the bag, and it fits tightly but it shows the round base so nicely. The bag would never be filled like that, it looks weird on top. I think I'll take a break from tapestry crochet for a while. I still would like to make a nice bag, which I can use for every day, someday.

pattern: Carol Ventura for the shape of the bag;

yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, 50% cotton, 50% acrylic, 3 colors: charcoal - 152, lime - 194, grey (lost the ball band) 1 ball each. 100g/207yds

hook: 4.5mm

size: 14" tall - 15" wide

start-finish: May 1-14
Yesterday evening, my DH called from the balcony to bring the camera. It was 9PM when I took this picture. I like the clouds, they remind me of mountains.

A little while later, at about 9:45PM I was watching the night sky for lightening. It's what we called "Wetter leuchten", only lightening without thunder or rain. It was beautiful to watch. It was almost dark, but you could still see things moving against the sky, that's when I saw it! A bat was circling above the pool. It was there when I started to watch the sky, and continued to circle when I left my watch post about 20 minutes later. I hope she's got a belly full of mosquitoes! I'm telling you, there are more, and bigger ones, this year! They never bugged my husband before, but even he complained about them being a pest this year. Anyway, I saw bats before, but I did not know that they know a good spot to feed, when they see one.

We had a thunderstorm during the night, and again this morning, but it finally cooled down a little bit. On the bright side, everything is growing like in the jungle.

One orange poppy plant ...

Last night was not a good one for sleep. I've read until midnight, and forced myself to try to sleep. It was too uncomfortable. There was a thunderstorm, and lightening, and Sam freaked out, as usual. I opened the door, so he could go downstairs. He went, but came back soon, and of course as soon as he entered the bedroom, there was another lightening, followed by thunder, so off he went again. I got up a little later to let him outside, since he was ringing the bell (thunderstorm was over by then). I got up at 6 AM, not rested at all.

Now it's mid morning. Just got back in from the garden. I have one poppy plant and it opened three of its more than 40 buds today!!! It never had so many in previous years. Look how this pedal is bursting out of it's bud! I love this picture.
I counted the little green buds; I stopped at 43, I know I missed a few.

I like sun, I really do, but after the rain during the night, it's humid, that my sunglasses got fogged immediately after stepping outside. Everything is sticky, including me. The dogs ran outside, made their usual round, went to drink some water, and looked at me, tongue lolling. I just pointed at the door, and happily they went.

I try to not complain too much about the heat, but it's really very uncomfortable for me. It makes me stuck in the house with the A/C more than I would like to too. Anyway, only three to four month of that to go. :o)

And a big medal goes to ....

Willis Carrier - I'd like to hug him, and thank him profoundly! I would perish, without him inventing central air conditioning!

Wet pictures of Biko after swimming are coming soon. But for now, here's Sam, all wet, hosed down. It was fun, he tried to get away from the cold water, he was annoyed and barked at me, at first - but soon he realized how being wet was great in this heat. He came and bit the water coming out of the hose, and got soaking wet in the process. Now we are inside again. Unfortunately the water in the pool is still too cold for us, but I'm tempted to suck it up, and jump in anyways. I'm cheap, I don't want to waste energy to heat the pool - it's large!
Sam loves to be rubbed down with a towel. In fact he likes it so much, that he wants a rub down even if he's not wet at all. I just have to grab a towel and there he is.

After our wet watery fun, I hold up the towel and he comes up to me, shakes off excess water right in front of me, the fun never ends, and I rub him down, while Biko is standing in line, she too likes that. Once inside there is a run for the air shafts. This time Sam won (with me close behind him). Now he's hogging it.

Wet paws! Is this the same camera as before? Really?

Whatever!
I'm trying my best to work against the heat. With cool fresh fruit, and imagines of winter....

... as well as spinning merino/bamboo blend, called "Mist"! I'm off to find a fan to point at me, while spinning.

QAL shawl: finished round 138/160. There's about 700 stitches now, can't do more than 3 or 4 rounds before I have to do something else. Nothing else on the needles. I'm fighting the urge to cast on new things. Can't decide what anyway.

May Day socks!

Alright, it's June, and I still have to show you my second pair of socks I made in May. This is another Anni Design sock, called "May Day". It was from the Sockamania Sock Club May 2007. This sock design was the reason I joined the club (I saw it on other blogs), and Anni offered this pattern again this May, as a one year celebration. Of course after finishing the other May socks, I had to cast on for these! I was surprised how the yarn behaved, but really shouldn't have been. The color is called "crazy color", enough said. I thought it would make nice stripes. I still like it though.

Look at that beautiful heel!I changed the toe part. Just went with the flow, and I really like it.

The only thing I'm not crazy about here is the fact, that the leg part slouches. :o(

pattern: May Day by Anni Design, May 2007

yarn: Regia 4-fach, 2 x 50g, color # 5443, crazy color

needles: 2.5mm, 5 DP

size: to fit my feet (L)

start-finish: May 8 - 10

June will not be as productive, knitwise, as May was. The going on QAL shawl is very slow now. Yesterday I didn't even pick it up, so no progress there. (by the way Monica, it's not flowing off my needles as easily as you'd think, no fairy blood in my veins, no magic either) ;o)

I'm on row 128 of 160 now, way over 500 stitches, and one round takes forever. It's still fun though.

Today we'll get 31C which will feel like 43C because of the humidity. Alone the thought of it, makes me want to cry. I hate that kind of weather. The A/C will be turned on today.

Have a great weekend!

Gifted sock yarn socks # 4

These are the Sockamania Club socks "Celebration" for May 2008. I made them with sock yarn I've got as a B-day gift back in November. I like the colorway, which is called "Honeypot", but the yarn was faulty.Throughout the skein, every few yards, there was a frayed spot like that, sometimes even worse than that. But being a merino sock yarn, it was nice to knit with, and surprised me quite a bit, because looking at the skein before knitting, I was underwhelmed by the color. I don't buy merino sock yarn for knitting socks myself, they just don't last long for the effort. But I like it to knit lace with it. This time I thought, what the heck, it's only 310yds, and I can't get any more of it, so socks it will be.
I first tried to knit the "Firestarter" sock with this yarn, but gave up. It sat on the coffee table for a while, and even thought this is a cable pattern, I think it's O.K.

pattern: Celebration by Anni Design, May 2008

yarn: Lucy Neatby's Celestial merino sock yarn, colorway "honeypot", 100g/310yds, 100% merino (don't know if superwash), got it from my DD Hannah, bought in Halifax

needles: 2.5mm DP

size: 10 1/4 for myself

start-finish: May 1 - 5

Privileged!

First, thank you all for Sam's B-day wishes! It was hard to spoil an already spoiled dog, so no further spoilage was necessary on his special day. (Oh well, he did get some bacon on the side, while Biko wasn't looking.) Privileged, the dog, and some of the apples I'd say. I've made "fruit socks", three of them.
It was a fun thing to do.


All the sock less apples feel naked, but I think they are still beautiful, and yummy! ;o) O.K. turns out they are not so good to eat. I made "Apfel Schlankerl", it tastes like apple pie, but has a different form. Also the dough has creamy cottage cheese in it (not the kind in the container). I could not take pictures of it, because it was gone before I thought of getting the camera.

pattern: "Fruit socks" by Tracy

yarn: SWTC Tofutsies, color # 728, about 80yds for each sock. I've had this yarn in my stash for a long time. I've started knitting socks three times, and ripped it all out again. I didn't like it. For these fruit socks the yarn was held doubled, and I loved the knitted fabric.

needles: 5 DP, 2.75mm

start-finish: May 29, I made three in one day


They are easy, and fun to do. Last minute gifts for sure.

Progress report on the QAL shawl: I'm up to round 112 of 160 rounds. That means I have 480 stitches on my circular needle right now, and increasing. I'm loving the colors!

I feel kind of deflated today. I can't get myself to pick up the needles. I've been plying yarn, but that was so boring, and now I'm rather blogging, than doing anything else. Thing is, I've seen so many cute sewn bags, and other things, I would like to sew a little, but I really have an aversion to the sewing machine, which makes me mad at myself, because I have patterns, and fabric, just have to go and do it. Also, even though I know I'm most happy with only one project going on, and I love the current one too, but I can't decide what to do next. I NEED a cardigan, but I'd rather knit ten blankets, before I knit that one piece for myself. I don't understand that either. Even though I have, as everyone else, a mile long list of things I'd like to do, nothing is jumping out at me. I think I'll give it a rest for a few days, grab a book, and just read for a change.

And what else makes me cranky is, that as soon as I go outside, there's a swarm of mosquitoes around me. I hate those suckers! I've got two - pulverized, only three billion more to go. It's no fun being outside, if you have to trash around like an idiot, and I don't want to spray some stuff on me either. Even the dogs are very happy when I give the signal to retreat. Sam's got a bloody fleck on his face. He must have squooshed a mosquito. He was snapping the air, which looked funny from afar, but I'm sure he didn't enjoy it one bit. I could see a swarm around Biko too, but she never stood still long enough for one to board her.

Ah, sorry folks. I might need some chocolate, and a book, and a comfy sofa. I forgot, I have to walk to dogs a little later. I don't like weekends.