Finally, PROGRESS!

After almost, ahem, three years of effort, we have a actual sweater instead of four blocked pieces sitting forlornly in the knitting basket. Of course, this is just two shoulder seams kitchenered and one sleeve set in, but geez, that's something! I only have a couple weeks to go before I'll be handing this over to my sis which may be enough time for me to actually finish seaming it up and possibly dye it. Then again, she may want to do that herself.

This colorful art was sooo much fun to work on I'm almost sorry it's finished. I know I wasn't supposed to start any new projects before I finished all of the ones in progress, but this was for a really good cause and besides, what Mama doesn't know won't hurt her.

And just to prove I could, this project was finished in 19 days. Now I think I know why some knitters work on only one project at a time. It's pretty darn exciting to actually finish projects while you're still jacked up on the newness of them!

Here's the gleeful birthday recipient of my handiwork! She had picked out the colors from my stash and I had a good lesson in asymmetrical design. You'll notice I was even able to overcome my need for even stripes in a predictable color sequence. I'm breaking all the rules now!

And yes, even though I have projects that have been waiting their turn patiently for years, I had the gall to continue to ignore them in favor of finishing my silk lace socks in time for . . .

THE YARN HARLOT!! Of course, I won't mention that I was too skattlebrained to remember to actually bring my knitting to keep me calm OR any of her books for her to sign. I did remember to bring the socks I worked so hard to finish in time, but I didn't remember to actually show them to her.

I did, however, give her this photo of my son and his knitting. He wanted to come himself to show off his handiwork, but I vetoed that.

I do have a couple more projects started (shhh! Don't tell!), but I'm trying really hard to finish them on a first come, first served basis.

Garden Update

The mammoth russian sunflowers are living up to their name and are growing wonderfully along the fence. They seem to really like the sun there.

The star jasmine is doing a great job in covering up the chainlink fence. This is only its second year, so I'm very impressed with its progress. Just look at all those blossoms!

The broccoli grew like crazy and produced beautiful heads, but, alas, they were infested with aphids and inedible (for humans, at least. The chickens loved them.)

The watermelon plants (with french breakfast radishes on the side) were coming along grandly until I made the mistake of transplanting some to space them out better. I've managed to save about two-thirds of them, but the shock was quite disastrous, as you can see. Of course, when I mentioned to my mother the plants' droopy appearance hours after transplanting, her immediate response was "well, yeah, watermelons don't transplant." Oh, really, mom? Now you tell me. Where were you this morning?!

Here the tomato plants have taken over the marigolds and dill that was planted with them. You can't see any of the snap peas and only the climbing vines of the beans. The spinach, cilantro, and basil are coming along nicely in the front.

I haven't been able to sprout any lettuce plants this year (seven varieties and not one lousy sprout). Remember that lovely volunteer lettuce plant we had earlier? My otherwise-lovely husband took it upon himself to harvest the entire plant (!), a.k.a. premeditated first-degree murder, after we already had dinner, so, get this, the entire plant ended up in the compost bin. Now, I normally love my husband, but I couldn't even look at him for a week!

All in all, a perfectly fine garden. Some things are great, some things not so much. But, as a whole, a very nice place to spend some time.

My only wish? Come back, bees! We miss you!

Cycles and Socks

This is one of the craziest things I've seen. When thumbing through a knitting magazine at the bookstore recently, I saw this and just had to snap a picture of it. Some genius knitted a pink motorcycle cozy. She (I can only assume it was a she) covered every inch of the bike, including the tires, with knitted wonderment!

Things like this always make me think I'm doing absolutely nothing with my life. I should be out there pushing the envelope, marking new territory like this gal!

Instead, I'm at the park knitting socks for the the Yarn Harlot's visit and the Sock Summit trip of a lifetime.

This is a silk/linen yarn I recycled from a sweater that I'm going to use for the leg and instep. My mom is sending me a wool/nylon yarn to use for the heel and foot for better wear. At first, I used the yarn as it came from the sweater (two-ply) to make the first (rather larger) sock. It still fit fine, but was very heavy and thick - a great boot sock, if we ever had boot-wearing weather here in Texas. So then I balled up the plies separately and knit up the other sock. This turned out much softer, much lacier, and much smaller, as you can see. It still fits perfectly because of the built-in stretch in the lacework.

I'm loving this!

After three years here, I think I've finally reversed the thirty-year habit of playing inside in winter and outside in summer. Here in Texas, you play outside in winter (all three weeks of it) and then hibernate inside the house the other 49 weeks of the year. And since I gave myself the gift of air conditioning this Mother's Day (sorry, Mother Gaia), I'm thinking this is a pretty cool arrangement!

Plumbing Woes

This is a hole. Do you see the hole? Good. I was afraid I was hallucinating because last week when the plumber I was referred to by a friend came to fix this leak just off our water main, he didn't seem to notice it.

Well, I take that back. He noticed it enough to wrap teflon tape around the hole, but, evidently, didn't think the damaged pipe warranted replacement.

He was more concerned that it might rain later in the day and if he were to rip up my yard fixing the pipe I would be left with a big, undesireable mud hole . . . as opposed to a big, undesireable lack of running water in the house!

So it seems he didn't want to take the effort (beyond the five minutes it took to 1. unscrew the fitted cap thing from the threads, 2. wrap the hole with tape and 3. rescrew the fitted cap thing onto the threads) to actually fix the pipe. Though, since I paid $100 for his one-hour minimum service call, he was gracious enough to give me an unexpected 20-minute history lesson entitled "The Unknown Truth About Texicans, Davey Crockett and Andrew Jackson."

After a day or two, the pipe started to leak again (surprise, surprise). This time, however, I decided to go with the same franchised company I had to use when our water heater was spraying water everywhere early one Sunday morning and there wasn't time to ask around for a good referral.

And, much like they did with our water heater problem, this company's guys arrived quickly, gave a written estimate before the work was done, gave a six-month guarantee after the work was completed, stayed focused on plumbing and didn't get sidetracked with other educational subjects.

So much for trying to help support local Mom and Pop businesses. Here's to globalization!

P.S. In my defense, before you ask why I didn't make the first plumber fix it properly, I was busy cooking in the house when he was working (since it took a couple hours between my call and his arrival), so when I checked the hole (after the history lesson) and didn't see any leaks, all seemed well. Only when we went to Home Depot to try to get some stuff to fix it ourselves (don't ask), did my son see the teflon tape and tell us "that's the stuff the guy used on the pipe!" He has since been instructed that if he ever sees a repairman wrap tape around a hole again, he's to come inside and tell mommy!