remember

not much to see

At least, not much in the yarny department.

I've worked on my crochet bag and finally started the 2nd color. With the amount of stash I have... how is it I didn't have the cotton I needed to finish off this bag?! The main yarn is super busy, so I didn't think any of my brown cotton (all variegated) would work. Being in a small town and an hr from any real craft stores, I headed off to Walmart in hopes that I could find a solid brown.



One choice... but it works. This is also probably the first time in years I've paid FULL PRICE for yarn! Thank goodness it was cheap cotton. I like the stitch I'm using, but boy does it eat yarn. Thankfully, I started with a mondo skein of cotton so I don't have tons of ends. Getting excited to finish this though. It's been going far too long - cotton's a little tough on the hands.

The garden is getting it's share of visitors these days:



The peas are way bigger than that now. They got beaten down by the storms that passed through last night, but are bouncing back nicely. =) The flowers look a little worse for wear, but I did make a few photos before the storms had a chance to do their harm.

have a little extra time on your hands?

Try this:

why so sensitive?

I added to my little container garden this weekend - a japanese eggplant and some bush cucumber plants. Unfortunately, it got into the low 40s last night and the cukes took it personally. They seem a little depressed, no?

Thankfully, they're bouncing back pretty well. The flowers are faring better. =)

give peas a chance

We decided to do a bit of container gardening this year and keep it simple (esp since there are still veggies in the freezer from last year!). The only place in the yard for an actual garden plot (even a small one) doesn't get great light. Plants did okay there last year, but not as well as we'd have liked. So this year, I bought some pots and good soil and moved the "garden" to a sunnier locale. We planted a few varieties of tomatoes (yay, grape!), a couple pepper plants and lots and lots of peas. =)

Are you planting anything this year?

maybe I should play the lottery

Wow! I guess I can't say I never win anything anymore. First a book, now a wonderful crochet pattern!

I won a copy of the Dudley Do Wright shawl pattern from a blog I recently started reading, Peacefully Knitting. I've been working on my crochet skills since last year and am trying new things with it this year and just happened to be thinking a shawl would be a great next step before committing to an entire sweater. lol I have the perfect yarn in my stash for this shawl... might be up next after I finish the bag I just started this weekend. =)

The bag? I started hooking a new bag on Saturday and want to have it finished before the Hoosier Hills Fiber Fest next month so I can use it for shopping. =) I had a basic idea for a bag, went in search of patterns but not finding just what I had in mind, I decided to wing it. I got inspiration from a couple designs, sketched out what I had in mind and searched out an appropriate stitch pattern. The full bag will be a surprise once it's finished, but here's the start:

(Ravelry project link)

Any guesses where I'm going with this? lol

Hope all the moms out there are having a wonderful Mother's Day and are being adequately spoiled! =)

for your listening pleasure

Still on a bit of a crochet kick. Maybe that's my issue - I just need to switch back and forth  between knit and crochet to keep myself going. Dish/wash cloths a couple days ago, now a hat. I worked up this little hat last night with some mystery yarn purchased from a (now-closed) charity yarn shop in Seattle much too long ago.

(Ravelry link)

Best guess is it's a mercerized cotton. I used the newborn sizing and it turned out more like a preemie size. I need to work on my tension apparently. I've been crocheting mostly amigurumi and those need to be done tightly to keep stuffing from showing through so I'm working on loosening up my tension for other projects. Baby stuff is great to practice on. Small, quick and cute. =) I think this one might need a flower...

As a side note, I'm using the GoodReader app to access my Ravelry library of pattern downloads on my ipad. AWESOME! I searched for a pattern, saved it to my pattern library and was then able to download it to GoodReader to crochet from - no printing, no turning on my computer. Happy, happy!

Now that I have a way to easily listen without having my computer on, I've finally jumped into listening to podcasts too! I've been trying out a smattering of crafty podcasts, looking for some really good ones. I've found a few that are okay, a couple I'll skip listening to again, and a few I really like. So far, these are my faves:

Just One More Row

The Knit Wits

The Knit Girllls (video podcast)

I've even gone back and listened to the back episodes of JOMR and am now catching up on TKW. Nice little distraction while working... esp when work can't keep up with me and I have to drag things out to even get close to getting my hrs in. lol The video podcasts are a little too distracting sometimes to watch while working though.

Any other great ones I need to check out?

disgruntled

Today is just not my day.