This 'N That

On the knitting front:
The new felted bag pattern I am working on has been knit and felted, and has told me what revisions need to be made. Starting it over tomorrow when I get more yarn. It's pretty cute!

It is knit with the new Karaoke yarn from South West Trading Company. It's 50% wool and 50% soy silk. It's great to knit with, and felts up nicely. Gives off a fair amount of fuzz in the process, but produces a nice felted fabric. It's a bit on the soft side, like Noro Kureyon, so I wouldn't use it for something that is going to get a lot of wear and tear, but for a small bag I think it will work out just fine.

Of course the pattern can be knit with 100% wool also. I need to knit up a sample in wool so I can see what the difference in size/shape might be. Look for the pattern soon on my sidebar.


I thought my favorite yarn was Noro Blossom, but now I'm thinking alpaca is neck and neck with the Blossom....I knit with alpaca for the first time when I did a moebious scarf from Cat Bordhi's A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. I picked up the book at Threadbear when I was there and finally decided it was time to do more than drool over the awesome projects in this book. I taught myself the moebious cast on (first time, thanks to great instructions and photos...thanks Cat!) and found that yes, it is truly magical. The first hour or so I just kept commenting to myself "This is SOOO cool!" If you haven't yet experienced the magical moebious knitting, you really should do so. It's mind bending!

Anyway, the alpaca moebious is lovely...needs blocking before a photo, and will be the store sample. I will be teaching the moebious cast on in a class in the fall.
I think Mike will be getting a lovely moebious scarf for ice fishing this winter. I love how it can cover your neck and head with no ends flapping around.



Nature News:
The fountain that Mike gave me for Mother's Day is now home to a bunch of tadpoles. I am surprised that a frog could get in my fountain to lay eggs, but I guess she did. I won't be turning it on any time soon....don't want to send the little swimmers for a ride through the pump!

My garden is going positively bonkers. The zucchini is growing on average of 6" overnight. We are on a twice-daily picking schedule so as to not grow any baseball bat (or bigger) zucchinis. I have been making pickles every single day. Between Sunday morning and Monday afternoon I made 12 qts. 38 pickles were picked in that time. Sunday we picked our first cucumber. Yesterday? 10 more. I am giving produce away by the bagful. I gave 2 bags to the lady who delivered my flowers yesterday, another bag to my SIL when she picked up her kids an hour later, and another bag to Jake's friend's mom this morning. It's craziness! From 4 plants each! Heaven help me when the hundreds of tomatoes that are weighing down the vines start ripening ALL AT ONCE! (I did overplant the tomatoes....but how can you turn down 30 heirloom tomato plants in lots of different varieties, for free? You can't. You put them in the ground and are happy for whatever delicious, delightful tasty treats are bestowed upon you.) The extra hot/humid weather this summer is really doing wonders for these plants, I tell you. The corn that is growing in the farmer's field behind our house is bigger than I've EVER seen it grow.

Off to watch Big Brother.....I really like Kaysar...can't wait to see how his nominations affect the house. And I really liked Eric, for the first show. After that, more and more I thought he was a jerk with WAY too much testosterone shooting through his veins. WHOA! Take it easy, guy!

TTFN!