So lazy,

Here I go again tryin to re-vamp this thing. really it's not that I'm lazy so much as I have other things I need to do and of course sharing my life on the webbernets just weirds me out a bit. I mean I'm not that interesting. BUT I am off gardening again, I just can't give up on it. Fortunately every year I seem to get better at it. Four butternut squash, A dozen large tomatoes so far, three banana peppers and four watermelons, An enormous amount of basil And the rest of tomatoes, bell peppers, and squashes haven't come out yet. It all seems to be going or GROWING slowly, I gave up on the organic thing, mainly because I'd actually LIKE to eat something and not watch the bugs slowly devour the pathetic little wannabes.
Still nothing new on PG's back injury. edit for anonymity
I finished my Solas Caohm(IC-SPRING09) for the bookstore baby. It's not quite up to the pattern but I ran out of yarn and this thing is plenty big as is. I used chunky yarn. I want to make another one soon, in cotton and up to pattern standards, but first I have to adjust the pockets on PG's sweater since they're not big enough. Durn giant hands. Then I have to add to the bottom and sleeves of Cait's sweater from last year so it'll fit this year. I wonder if I'll have a chance to make me a sweater this year, or maybe if I'm really lucky I'll get to start on a shawl.

Falling off the face of the Earth

Nope, I haven't done it. Summer is just A crazy hectic time, and really there's not much to blog of then. I'm attempting to get back in the habit now. Especially since PG has made his own blog. I don't really know what all or how much he'll have to say, but I feel i should write too just because... yes I know not too terribly mature, but I've had to be mature far too often so :P. Over the summer I have made pathetic attempts at gardening, made a clothes line to try and cut down the ever growing electric costs, Helped to control the pet population x2, and succeeded in pissing of my mother yet again. Yea me. I have currently 8 tomato plants a light sprinkle of greens( pitiful really) and seedlings for spinach, lettuce and basil. this is usually the final stage of growth for me. All the turnips -may they rest in peace- burnt to a crisp so I think later in the month I will try, try again. no raspberries, they failed on all fronts. my non edibles are getting on fabulously though. The caladiums are springing up new shoots almost every day, and my daisies haven't died yet. maybe by winter I will have a successful compost growing, and then I can mix it for spring planting and turn out a better crop.
On the knitting front I have gotten much done, busting about 5 lbs roughly of yarn into functioning wearables or cat snuggles(think security blankets. I have a lot of things in my queue on RAV that I may or may not finish this year, but I also have a lot of things in my head that I want to get done before Christmas/sol. I am learning to make soap, not from scratch but the glycerin and additives. I have three lovely bars on my counter cooling right now. If they go over well, I may start making them for the farmers market to sell along side some washcloths and such. Other than that my life has been just typical stuff really, and Off I go agian to live some more of it.

Finally

I have something to blog about at last. My summers are usually dull so I Don't really care to bore any lurking readers with mundane nonsense. But today I finished PG's ribbed man socks, and I'm STILL working on the stole that I started Before the socks. Sometimes I don't think it wants to get finished, really, I have stitches hiding under stitches, And erratia I (fortunatly) found on ravelry that isn't posted on the site. I would like to buy some yarnage from a few new online sources like Knitivity's store, but I am on a yarn diet until I reduce some of my stash and at least get a couple of wraps done.
I also Finally have a lawnmower * joy of Joys* and I don't have to spend near as long mowing the grass and therefore have more time to plant and prune. I bought some various daisies from Lowe's to put in place of the bell peppers that never grew. and I have three tomatoes , not really red OR big yet but still tomatoes. organic gardening is SOO incredibly hard. Those damn beetles are eating the leaves off my Toms and greens. The squirrels and doggo have eaten half of my raspberry vinlings And a caladium bulb.I'm hoping Squirrel on that last one at least.
In 'electronic news: My camera has NO batteries And is being rather wonky about the rechargeable ones, hence no pictures of said destruction and projects. Kiddo smashed her DVD player the DAY before I went and bought 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' so I've had to endure it at least 3 times a day in here in the living room.Physics Guy doesn't seem to mind all that much As I have gotten him hooked on Populous(Cd Rom) again, SO He's trying to figure it out. When he's on the computer the force is impenetrable. Which is a triumph for me, at last a game that I am good at that he is not besides backgammon!
And the funny: The best most hilarious thing to do is buy a bag of chicken feet from the meat store( who eats this shit really, I want to know) and place three on kitchen floor around kittens. Pouncing and hilarity will ensue.
Especially when one doggo decides he wants to try and TAKE the kittens chicken feet. Not a good idea. Kittens do have very sharp claws despite their fuzzy cute exterior.

Work sucks

I have not been on here to blog in a couple of weeks, I am a bad bad blogger:( But When the hubby is home I can get NOTHING done. I mainly sit on ravelry or clean. that is it. I am still working on the cobweb lace stole, which is taking quite a long time for me. I expect as much from a lace project, but man I am usually on top of these things. I am also working on a pair of socks for Physics guy, since I haven't made him anything substantial ( the boobie pillow doesn't count). and He really needs a pair of quality socks. I quit the aran lobster sock for now, I am not in the mood for cotton. I think my garden hates me, All I am growing are tomatoes and paltry raspberry leaves. everyone else has withered to crap. I am going to add some more cow poo in the fall and go for some more torture then. Southeast Georgia is not the place for gardening in the summer heat. Not for me anyway. Well that is all the excitement for now. Maybe I'll have something good tomorrow. I'll try harder.

Not a weekend blog (Or) GET OFF MY LAWN

I usually don't blog on the weekends, but I have nothing else to do so why not. Actually I do but still. I did finish Para-pro's scarf in it's ribboned glory, with great efforts made to have minimal twisting in the ribbon. I planted the raspberry twigs Sally so graciously gave me Friday. Three near my garden on the back fence and one near Girly's window with some plastic lattice I've had for centuries quite a while. The other two are still in the pot since I have enormous amounts of de-rooting to do where I am going to kill plant them. In the meantime I have been whacking away at my negligent neighbour's trees. Yes, a neighbour more negligent than me, please hold the applause. This guy bought the land for some unknown reason, COMPLETELY fenced it off and lets it run wild and hairy into and over MY yard. It was atop my house as well until I threatened lawsuits if his shit fell on my house and killed my child during an (inevitable )hurricane. He promptly called the tree service people. But to the now: there's a row along the fenceline of gangly shit trees( gum) and oak( terribly allergic, complete with nosebleeds) draping themselves over the fence and into my garden, life and the general vicinity of my vehicles. SOOO I am clipping and sometimes jig sawing the little buggers down. Mostly just the offending branches...mostly. Being as I am short and all, my tree trimming accessories are: an old pool ladder, hand saw, pruner's shears, and a dog leash. Basically I tie the leash to the offending branch, pin it to the fence with the other end and hack away until the non trespassing limb goes bouncing back to it's own side. I need a hatchet... or maybe a high powered long armed chainsaw.MMMmmm Oh and I'm usually standing on the pool ladder at the time of this process.
I have gone a bit crazy in the heat and planted ALOT of greens near my back porch, in the side yard and More in the garden. I spent much time over the weekend yelling a the dog/kids/hubby to "get out of the seedlings!" Hubby STEPPED IN MY BED. WTF!?
his reasoning" What, there's nothing there? I stepped inbetween the tomatoes. " Yeah right on top of thier roots. With your size 12 clods. Bonehead. The tomatoes despite thier rootsmashing, are looking better since I dashed a bit of lime in the soil. Evidently COMPLETE veg. potting soil is'nt as complete as they say. , I have cantalope sprigs coming up in the garden and in the pear tree dirt, along with the caladiums that I gave up on. I figured the dirt is so good and wormy under there I had to grow SOMETHING and since the caladiums werent growing I'd plant the cantalopes there. as soon as I plannted them I noticed little dog claws poing up out of the dirt. Having had bulbs before I knew(and the location helped) these were the forgotten Calads. We shall see who lives and who dies once they get going. Now I just have to WAIT. ugh

New layout, New post

So I changed my template. I FINally agonizingly got the colours Just so, and then I noticed My damn side bar is at the bottom. What the hell kinda SIDE bar is at the BOTTOM!?! I hate that, but I also do not want to go throughthe painstaking process of colou/font/size and other bs again tonight. crap I'm gunna haveto do it in the morning. It's almost 11pm. If any of my readers have a good place to find templates pretty please send it my way. I Needs one to match my pretty yarn header pic. I am in a pink and black mood. Also I totally busted up my hand hoeing the pepper beds today. Grass is the closest to evil there is. I swear I was hoeing concrete. If I'd had a bit of forethought I would have knitted myself some garden gloves. It's not like I don't have umpteen zillion yards of cotton on a cone in the yarn room. i've just been super busy with ACtual gardening and making stuff for other people that I havn't taken the time to figure out how to make those durn fingers on gloves to start I can totally make a bunch of in the round fingercovers (they look much like knitted condoms) I just don't get the hand to finger changeover thingy. Now It looks like I have hemmeroids on my hand. Only they don't hurt near as much under the calouses.( hands not bum) Gosh bum callouses, ouch that just sounds painfull... Come to think of it, I think I'll start calling irritating people THAT instead of my not-so-nice words I typically use for them.

AS promised

Pictures of my garden.




It's looking a bit bare as I am between cycles right now and the greens I planted in march are almost all eaten, and the new seedlings aren't quite big enough to capture on film. I am today working on the OTHER planter by my porch opposite the one with tomatoes in it. It'll look almost Identical but instead of tomatoes it will(hopefully ) have bell peppers in it.
And a yarn bag of kitten to seal the deal:

Oopses

Have you ever done something that you know you probably shouldn't have, but done it anyway? I'm sure you have. I planted an avacodo seed. I hav a baby avocado tree. It was near my front porch because it looked really pretty in my small flower patch. I hypothetically asked hubby just how big the get? He said "big enough probably I wouldn't want one in the yard. I got paraniod that these massive avacodoes would come pounding down on the house to elimitate anyone else buying the place after I get sick of it. I transplanted it near the big garden (closer to my neighbours yard:D) In a small planter. I think though that I should get a big planter for it instead so I can move it at lesuire when it gets really big.
Also in the realm of things I shouldn't have but did any ways I moved my 30 inch tv( not flatscreen), have been doing squats to combat cornish hens on bamboo skewer bathing suit issues and the final clencher carrying a 70 pound young'n through the house all in three days and pulled something in my ass. Then to make matters worse I had to go grocery shopping unles I sent PG who would end up buying nothing but doritoes and chicken noodle soup. Ah yes the pain. And with the new meds he's on he was like sleeping in the same bed with a giant sweaty legion of octopi.At one point I was sorely tempted to sleep out on the porch with the salamanders.
Why did I move the Tv to set of this chain of pain? I went shopping:



You can't see it well under all the stuff, but I got a new tv centre, Which is FAR better then the crap we had up since 6 years ago when we moved in AKA: two plastic shelves and a tv caddy. eww. those shelves were bowing BADLY. And yes, In case you're wondering, that big red row under the TV is the intire Friday The 13th seires.

UFO's

For some reason I cannot seem to get finished with my bikini bottom. Mainly because I cannot wrap my mind around how the pattern is supposed to make this tiny scrap fit over my rather round ass. Am about halfway through it, and that is: to the part where I am supposed to connect(i think) the legs/bum together and round them I want to add a few rows to be sure it fits. Then again I don't want it to be too large and make my ass look bigger and lumpier. Also the poncho I am making to go over said bikini is giving me trouble. Since I am making it from scratch I kinda forgot where I was going with it and fubar'd the half I already made, BUT I can't just unseam it because once i figured out that was all I'd have to do I also realized it is too short. It would be OK for a regular poncho @ 60 sts on 8mm, but I want it knee length so I can just wear IT over the suit and be appropriate if I see a Starbucks near-by. I just cannot do the teen girl walking in in flops and a teensy biki thing I see around here during the summer months. I mean REALLY who goes grocery shopping in a bikini top and daisy dukes?! IMO that's kinda skanktified. 'specially when one has a kiddo with them. I digress

I re-started the poncho on 9mm with (x4)80 st x 80R squares which hopefully will be enough. By gauge it should anyway. and then I'm BO about 10 sts at the top left (x2) and right(x2). Once I run out of skein yarn I'll frogg the failed one. because I really don;t want to deal with ripping and winding while amidst the projects and house stuff if at all possible.
I also got some more potting mix for topsoil to bribe some lettuce and tomato seeds with. I potted the tomato seeds, and the romaine I just put in the garden along the border of the collards I have already planted for the Guinea pigs. No one(human) in my house likes collards but me , and I only like them in my salad. We do however like lettuce. The caladium are sprouting root buds, so I haven't killed them yet. Basil, Oh my gosh, the basil on my porch. I have PLENTY of basil And something else in another pot, but I can't remember if it's the lavendar or chamomile, as I planted them both in it. I did the lavendar in early march, but when It didn't sprout I added some cham, because it ALLWAYS grows good for me. I usually can get at the minimum enough for a few pots of tea before the summer dries it all up.
other than that, the only news is Me trying to talk PG and Girly out of keeping a kitten. They want the cali, I want them ALL gone. Frankly I've had cats all my life, I am pretty much catted out. The thrill of the litter box has gone, along with the hope of ever taking a shower without the cat also wanting to take a stinky Poo at the same time. Oh and the small fact that I am allergic... But yes I suck it up, and take antihistamines...And hack...and do eye drops. PG on the other hand seems to (while I appreciate his thinking I am super mom)believe I can muster the energy to keep up with him, Girly, AND umpteen pets. Because we all know I will inevitably be the keeper of the litter and designated vet driver. No freakin way.

Working on the Yard

I don't know what happened to my unfortunate bag of sugar as is traveled it's way to my kitchen. somewhere between here and the factory it must have gotten doused whith ( I can only hope) alot of water. I just about need a sifter cement pounder to break it up. Normally I would have noticed these things and avoided the bag 'o funk, but really in a 9am no-coffee-in my-system sugar run, shit happens. After a smell test, precautionary lick test complete with flashes from "Steve don't eat it" and a dog check (hey if he licks it its OK to eat) I am fairly sure it's just had a run in with water.
I have researched my caladiums and found that I don't get to plant them until May, which sucks because of course by may I won't know where the bag went to and I will more than likely have calads running wild in my heating closet. I do have alot more of Girly's pansy seeds I may plant in the meantime in the area for them so It doesn't look so terribly bare. I'm sure my neighbours will appreiciate that my yard doesn't so much look like a hippy armpit any more. Every one else here keeps their yards impeccable in the winter months. I however like to let it rest. My laziness has resulted in the sweetest black dirt in the back yard, but not somuch in the front. but hey It's got growth now at least. when I moved here 4 1/2 yrs ago there was nothing but mud and sand. 4 years of not rakeing the leaves, and chucking pears for the dog finally paid off.
after a bout of raking some branches up that fell out of the paer tree and some I whacked off the bushes of mystery I figured I'd take a nice break and listen to some music. It would have been nice. If PG hadn't misplaced my flipper switch. Over the winter I complained that I kept getting shocked every time I got out of the car.I guess I thought he'd FIX it. Instead He found that the amp wire was arching off the door and that was what kept zapping me. His answer was to ripp the durn flipper out, thereby keeping it from arcing off the door, but also keeping ME from cranking the tunes to deafiningly loud levels. Now I have my wired up sub, and no flipper to turn it on with. poop.
SO now instead I am killing time until the crafters get-together @ 2pm at the library. I should be going to a baby shower that I made booties for. But PG is barfy and I don't want to be too far from him incase he needs something. And unless there is yarn, coffee, or some other shiny important thing I don't drive farther than 20 minutes away alone. I get REALLY bored, and start to nod off. I have tried K-while driving twice on these sort of trips out of desparation to keep moving. tip: loop your hands through the steering wheel and put the yarn around the back so as not to get tangled up and so you can still steer. Naturally you can't CABLE or make anything fancy or you defeat the purpose of NOT killing anyone. If you can do it with out looking, it'l work. Wait why am I telling this? really don't knit and drive. it's not safe. which Is why I don't do it anymore. But I Have tried it, for the learning experince. One should always try new things. It inhances the mind right?

Tales of Yarn

It's been a week of yarny goodness. My birthday on monday with my friends and cake and a kick butt stash bag from Sally. Then making booties for another friend's baby on Tuesday, Wednesday Girly and I went to a great antiques(and not so antique) shop and I got some tapestry yarn to make a rug with for girly's room, it's great for felting because it's 100% virgin wool. Then thursday Sal Girly and I went to the island to scope an LYS when was wonderfull. First we fortunatly lucked up and went the wrong direction and stumbled onto thier NEW location which was NOT on the map I googled. they weren't open yet so we had a blast at the ACE garden centre looking at the flowers and getting some agnes bushes for Sally's yard and I got some low lying plants to go around the bottom of my pear tree. Where the soil is like heaven. probably the only spot in my yard I can say that about. We also got some Ivy and pansies for Girly to plant. Didn't want to leave, but the prospect of a juicy yarn store was too much to pass up.Girly took some pictures of her favorites:
They had CHEERY TREE HILL for pete's sake, and gobs of Noro Today I got my reciept from WEBS and a handy litle tracker from UPS so I can see where my yarn is. I should be getting it Either tomorrow or monday. Monday would be good for me, PG won't be home, and the Kntting posse will be here for monday morning Knit in, since Sally's house will be sleep central and we don't want to disturb anyone. oh yes, there will be much cleaning and raking here over the weekend. I was out back doing the weeding and prep for the caladium bulbs...Those in the Picture BTW are NOT mine, they are off the holland bulbs site. (the brand I got) I can only hope mine turn out that well.
ANd I pissed off some little blackish creature I think It was a salamander, but when large shiny things run at me I kinda glaze over and run screaming. I poked around back there but I coudn't find it again so I ran the weed eater for a bit around the general area to make SURE I scared him off. I don't think he'll be back for a while. Now I am off to check that I am palnting the bulbs correctly, I will take some pictures ...If they don't die.

in da hood

Im half way through my stash of lambs pride, and I 'm thinking that I definitly DON"T have enough to do the intire Cape in it. I may only do the back in fuschia, and the sides in Black Wool Ease. Since that's what the Diamonds are. And it's considerably less expensive than the 7.50(cheapest) a 150YD skein for the lambs pride if I don't have enough of it. OR go halvsies on the sides in black and fuschia and NOT do the lenght I want. Call it a draw and make a nice acrylic long cape in a different colourway later. I know I want to do another one anyhow in of course blue and purple, or green and brown... but they are my typical "safe" colours. No lie, the majority of my closet is some form of black, brown and/or green. What am I wearing right now? Green socks, black pants, and a green top. In my BROWN chair. I could be a tree. really. I really wouldn't bat an eye if I was wearin brown/black underpants, I just (a) can't remember what I put on this morning. and (b) don't care to look and tell.
Also in the design bag is a caplet/tank for Girly with of course a hood. I haven't cast on yet with it,It isn't even in my Ravelry yet. I have a sock and the cape to do so I really don't want to overload. Yet agian for the 5 th time I think, I have frogged the entrelac sock, I just can't get it right in the round, there is some secret I'm not getting. Probably because I won't break down and order the durn mag, I just play with the thing, get pissed and rip it out. I'm quite sure there are other FREE patters for entrelac in the round, I just haven't google'd them yet. Im too preoccupied with what I've got in my head, on my needles, and scurrying around my house after the dishes and laundry.
I did a bit of yard work today and found four more baby privacy shrubs. I replanted one behind my pear tree, so maybe I can get a bit more privacy...And my nieghbours can too. Give it about 4 years and I can be wild and free in my back yard and no one will know...Except of course You all. I can't decide if I want to re plant the others out of thier pot in a row or give them away. I hate to trim them, the two I have that are fully grown look like they came out of a hippie's armpit right now. I will give it to them, they are Quite resileint. The left one has been struck by lightning at least three times that I know of. My basil and mint are still alive, and I have some weird stuff growing in there with it that looks like asparagus?! I am wondering if it is the avacado plant I forgot about. I don't want to touch it because if I do everything in the pot WILL die. I know, this has happened to me before. I will just ride it out and see when it gets a bit bigger. if it's an Avacado tree I will do a happy dance and get it a boyfriend. If it's asparagus... I will still wonder WTH? I did not plant asparagus. We shall see. I will take thier picture tomorrow and maybe some one will know what it is.

Irish weeds

Okay, You will not belive what I just saw. They are SELLING clover IN THE STORE! WHY would you SELL a weed? EVERYONE HAS THEM. that's like selling freakin dandilions. I have these lovely green tributes to Ireland ALL over my back yard. SEE: I guess with St. patty's around the corner, it may be a nice table topper for parties, but really, have you BEEN to an irish St. patty's party? You don't want a table toppper, it takes up too much pint space, you could put AT least two more beer on that thing.If you buy these things for a St. patty's party, you're not Irish, you may THINK you are, but no. You know what REALLY makes a good Irish table topper? A keg of Guinness. Or maybe a nice layout of meats, grilled, sliced, roasted meats garnished with carrots and potatoes. Or if it's a guys only type of thing...chips and nuts, that's it, maybe a nice bottle of whiskeyin the middle to centre things up. So before you go pay 10 bucks for a handfull of irish dandilions come over to my house , I''ll give 'em to ya for free, and mine are just the right size to use for a coaster for your pint.More on St. Patty nearer to the day. Fun and interesting facts about the guy, the history, and the culture of Ireland.

Please Ma'am don't roll in our yarn!

Oh if only I could find a LYS who would let me sample their yarns, play with it, Knit a few rows, see how it pads up to my tastes before purchase. Instead I go to the place, am overwhelmed with colour and texture and go on a squeezing face rubbing frenzy making the other shoppers stare in puzzlement "what is this crazy doing?" You see I have a VERY picky kid, who will only wear certain textures of clothing, and If it's just the least itchy in store I won't buy it, and move on to the not itchy stuff, only to find that once I get it home on my needles its firm and coarse, beh.

I am A beginning knitter, and as such I am only JUST learning merino, alpaca, baby alpaca, goat and bunny, 1st cut, 2nd cut, 3rd cut quality and the weight to yards to how long once I actually knit it type stuff. SO I go and but a pound of alpaca( 3rd) and it looks all yummy and light only to find once I knit it up and get it on I have hairs flying off up my nose, and it's hotter than A night at the playboy mansion. the differing qualities of synthetic is also a puzzle, I can buy a solid colour and a multi of the same brand only to find the solid is feather soft and the multi(which of course I bought for kiddo) is as coarse as a metal soap pad. SO now i have a nice plum pudding hat shaped pot-scrubber:) Oh yes the perils involved with newbie knitting. Though I have found I am extremely fast at my new hobby I can knit up a good sized scarf in two days:) and crochet one in one day or two nights of TV watching with the Physics Guy(hubbs). I think things are going good, I dream about knitting things, which is a bit odd and a letdown to wake up and realize I did not in fact knit my DREAM Sweater. I also have set up a local fiber group we are a meager pack, but a fun one. naturally we're set up in a local coffee house because coffee and knitters go together like well, worsted and a set of 5.5's. we've had a few beginners who come and try only to never return , our regulars and even once a real MAN-Who-knits! which I love and authenticity's us as a real fiber group.

Other than my knitting I am also a SAHM, I have a five yr old girly, and one Chilean Rose tarantula, One German shepherd Dog, two cats and 6<4> Guinea pigs. oh yes, so please save the SAHM is not a job for someone who doesn't have to feed 12 people on a daily basis plus 1 monthly week of feeding for Lachesis(tar) Not to mention the cleaning up after said creatures. I may also let you in on the joys of my attempted gardening once spring rolls around in a few weeks(gotta love Georgia). I have a meager plot, but at the very least I well have enough greens and pears to make you never want to see them again, much less eat them once the season is gone. Since this is my first actual blog I will leave it at this. I don't want it to be too long and bore you. Here's a little bit of my work So far