Heavy Cloud No Rain

Actually, there's been a hell of a lot of rain. I'm convinced it's because I had the audacity to put in the balcony garden. Without much sun, I'm not sure I'll get any tomatoes, unless things change soon.   I do however, have one baby pepper which I've circled to the right.  (If you click on the picture it will enlarge if you're viewing this on the blog).   I also have a 3 foot high dill plant in window box.  Kinda hard to see with the trees as a background so I put a nice red line so you could see.  It looks fairly ridiculous.

I have a nice bit of spearmint and cilantro, and I'm wondering if the peppers in the topsy-turvy will do anything, but without some sun this is going to be a moot point.  It looks like I have quite a few flowers that are going to bloom on the zucchini plant, but the cukes really haven't gone anywhere yet. 




In knitting news, I finished both Secret Baby Projects for my friend Kat.  Of course, I can't post them until the unveiling, but if you are on Ravelry, go check them out.  I was fairly obsessive last weekend until I finished the last project.  I pretty much didn't do much else, except Shawn and I met up with Chris and Kristie for dinner on Sunday.  It was really good to see them, but we missed getting to see the kiddos.  Anyway, back to knitting.  I've gone back to the Kyoto Jacket.  Which I might add, has been a huge source of frustration.  Seriously, I can't believe how aggravated it makes me that I paid $8.00 for a pattern this badly written.  I think on Thursday, I spent two to two and half hours redesigning the last row of entrelac on the sleeves because the last row on the pattern was so completely and utterly wrong, and the "normal" last row of entrelac from the reference books didn't match how the cast on at the end of the other sleeve looked.  So I ended up knitting and reknitting it until I got a method that worked to mimic the other armhole better.  I was having an apoplectic fit.  Because of the fitting issues, I had to add the shawl collar first so I could get the correct fit, and now I'm knitting the two bottom pieces.  Still trying to figure out what I'm going to need for additional yarn.  I used the Knitting Math Wizard to calculate the remaining yardage needed, but it's still only an approximate guess since the pieces are a combination between a rectangle and uneven trapezoid.  I'm probably going to get to the bitter end before I really know what else I need for yarn.  (Donna D - thinking at this point 1 more skein, unless calcs are really wrong).

I recently updated my super crazy type A knitting yardage spreadsheet, and I've knit 7.26 miles of yarn since I started keeping track at the end of August of 2009.   I've only knit 1.73 miles this year.  I think the Vintage Socks really slowed me down.

I signed up for my classes for Stitches East. I'm taking Aspiring Designer Bootcamp, The Sweater Map and Stashology 201. I think they will be interesting, and they will keep me busy so hopefully I won't shop as much.  (Hey, you can all stop laughing and falling off your chairs now, thank you very much.) I'm really looking forward to the trip, and I'm going to go down after work on Thursday this year. 

Writing news...yeah, well, um....not so much.  I need somebody to give me a good kick in the ass, so somebody do that, will you? 

Mom came down this past weekend, but honestly it rained so much and the arthritis in my spine and ankle went nuts and the rain didn't do so much for Mom either.  So we pretty much just hung out and watched netflix.  We were going to go to the American Stonehenge in Salem, but I wasn't walking around a mile on a trail in the rain.

Anyway, stay tuned for breaking news as it occurs or as I get around to posting it, in a semi-timely manner.