Coasting in to Paris

Just in time, I finished the cotton sweater. It's not perfect, but it's meant to be a knock-about sweater, so it's perfect enough. The Middle Teen, who's modeling this shot, wants me to make another, same body size but smaller sleeves, for her, which really means it must be close enough to perfect.


Whew. Now I'll take a rest day and then go back to MS3 (moving into the slow bee lane, because I need to add length to both the black and the white versions) and Vog On.


Dad's here, the last gasp of gardening before shmita is being done, one kid is starting summer vacation and the other is ending it--never a dull moment.

Tour de France: Elimination rounds

Before this post, two members of the team which started TdF had been eliminated: the Clapotis Cap and the Mock Croc socks, neither of which had the staying power to remain on the needles throughout the Tour.

Today another member of the team was eliminated: the stained glass toddler sweater.


I'm not entirely thrilled with this sweater. The pattern writer was trying so hard to make the pattern simple to read, but with a little more details, things like the arm holes would have been much easier. Oh, well, it's for the gift stash, so I'll just let it stew in its own juices for a while.

Still in the ride is the cotton sweater which needs sleeves and 'Vog On, whose yarn I'm almost through plying (which will mean the rainbow batt will be eliminated from the Tour de Fleece team, making room for the brown Romney to take the lead.)

MS3 Black is still riding in the team car. Clue 3 done, but since the final clue won't be out when TdF is over, there's no way it's crossing the finish line.


MS3 white is in the car, too, but in the back seat, with Clue 1 a few lines away from being finished.

Something else is getting done around here. Though the Yarn Harlot may complain about teens who want to veg all day, my teens are an industrious lot.

My garden, she is a mess. Shmitta is coming up. Dad is coming for 3 months. Teens to the rescue.

They moved a tree-let that had been languishing in the shade cast by our big willow and built it a terrace

and they hauled scavenged stones and paving bricks to create this nice little herb garden and path under my office window.


Of course there is still tons of work to do, but they're making a good start. And the TV hasn't been turned on in months!

Setting the baseline

Two big, active -alongs coming up this weekend: Tour de Fleece and the Tour de France KAL.

For the KAL, I've entered in the polka dot jersey section. I'm going to try and finish up all my WIPs aside from Mystery Stole 3, which I obviously can't until the last clue is issued.



Clockwise, from top left: Grafton Fibers rainbow bat to be spun for Tour de Fleece and then knitted into 'Vog Ons for The Youngest Teen, a Clapotis Cap for the Middle Teen to match her revamped Clapotis, mock-croc socks for The Spouse, a cotton sweater that was supposed to be for me but now will probably be shared by the female Teens, and a Toddler Stained Glass sweater for the gift stash.

Knitting into the Mystery--clue 1 complete. (Bear in mind that, as innernetz wisdom has it, unblocked lace looks like boiled Avraham Shmuel Schnidman. And yes, that's a real person's name, though I may have misspelled the surname. My nephew went to TA in Baltimore with the boy, and yes, they did make fun of the initial.) Mystery Stole, mystery yarn pulled out of a dumpster when a neighbor decided he had a whole stock of yarn unsuitable for commercial hat making, sz 4 needles from a collection given to me in Florida by a woman who collected all the needles people in her senior community had stopped using due to eyesight deterioration or due to death. Recycling at its finest:


And in the garden, my birthday gift. Yes, this year of mourning I'm not supposed to get gifts, but given what it is, I guess this is OK. (In any case, I bought it and paid for it myself, from my own salary, so it's not really a gift.)


No, it's not a Dalek in the making, though Blue Peter does have instruction for making it into one. (But really, Uncle Rusty, could that finale have been any more lame? Doctor Tweedy Bird? Doctor Jeebus?) My very own composter! Ever since I read about composting during shmitta, I've been lusting after my own solution to next year's let 'em rot problem. And it's right outside my neighbor's teen-age boys hang-out, where the delinquents of the yishuv start gathering about 11 pm every blessed night, so it may kill two birds with one plastic box.

Project Spectrum--Green

In honor of the last green day for Project Spectrum, a photo essay.

How does my fiber garden grow?

Very well, thank you.


Sprouting flax


Sprouting hemp


Green cotton (hydroponics works!)


Brown cotton


White cotton


Milkweed

Cotton Eyed Jew

Spring hasn't sprung, but it's mid-May. The government's been sworn in and the budget narrowly passed, but I don't see how Olmert will be able to kick me out of my home by October, so I decided I'd better get my cotton started now or forget about it for the season.

Left to right: Brown, white, and green

Yes, I start my cotton on cotton. Got any problems with that?

Can you cotton to this?

The brown cotton when from lint to this

The color is even darker than last year's, so I guess no crossbreeding between the brown and white took place. [whew]

One boll of the white was ready to be picked


The green is still opening. This was the color I was most interested in, since I still have some of last year's white and brown to spin. At last count I should be getting 18 bolls of the green, which means lots and lots of seeds for next year. The picture just isn't getting the true color of this--a beautiful light sage. My tahkli is itching to get this wrapped around it.


While I was busy knitting and gardening, The Spouse was busy writing. This is a megillat Esther he recently finished, along with a case he helped customize. Wish his grocery list handwriting were this beautiful!


We squabbled yesterday--too high expectations and too little planning to fulfill them.

To make up for it, The Spouse designed this--my name in the shape of a carnation. (We grow carnations in a planter outside our front door, and every few mornings he brings one in for my desk).


To make up for it, I finished his Amble socks.


One project down, next started: yarn for the Middle Teen's next sweater. Not that she's gotten far in knitting sweater #1...

Ostrich in the cotton patch

Too much local politics makes a girl's heart beat way too fast, and since I don't want to up my heart meds. I spent my lunch hour in the cotton patch.
The white's not quite ready

but the brown was ready to meet my cotton pickin' fingers


Cleaned off my tahkli, and tomorrow it's morning brown, right off the seed. Yum!