On the Entrelac Bus

I've been having a pretty dull time at work so I used some spare brain cells to try out entrelac on my lunch break. I know Eunny Jang has a tutorial in this season's Interweave, but I also found a great, free tutorial with pictures here. The yarn is some self-striping hand dye I made before Christmas that has been sitting bright and lonely in my stash.

I like how the colors worked out.

But now I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't have enough to make a scarf and a co-worker told me it looked like a pot holder (which didn't sound like a compliment). So it might be back to socks for this stuff!

Knitcore!

I love this tattoo!

The Shabby Sheep

While KIPing at lunch last week, and very nice woman came up and told me she knit too and we chatted for a few moments about knitting. We were in a cafe near the store the Yarn Bully owns, and she mentioned that she had had similar experiences. She said her favorite place to go was The Shabby Sheep.

So S and I went on Saturday to check it out. I completely understand why it is her favorite place as it is now mine too. The staff are amazingly friendly. Not pushy at all they are happy to order anything for you, get anything off the top shelf, or take a moment to gush over the Eunny Jang enterlac knee socks with you.

I splurged and bought all of the supplies for the Blue Sky skirt. I've never made anything using the yarn the pattern recommends because I'm usually too cheap, but the alpaca is so wonderful to touch. If I'm going to ever wear a wooly skirt in Texas, it seems best that it's made out of the softest thing evah.

Popcorn Trees

I love these things.

FO ! Spring socks !

*just in time for the time change*

Spring Socks
Colinette Cadenza sock yarn
Size 2 needles
Pattern: my own version of Knitty's Universal Toe-up Sock pattern

Firsts: First pair of socks made with sock weight yarn, smallest needles I've ever used, first toe-up sock.

Likes: I liked working with the small yarn and needles more than expected. I like the lace pattern, even though it doesn't really work with the variegated colors.
These babies are warm, too. I wish I had been able to get them done back when we had sub-freezing temperatures. I like that the are seamless. I have a really big thing with seams in my socks. Short rows aren't nearly as scary as I once thought.


Dislikes: They are a little too big and I don't know how to do a stretchy bind off so they are hard to put on. It also bothers me that one is speckled with color and the other is only splashed. I know that is the risk you run with hand painted yarn, but still.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm sure they're see some wear next winter.

Garden - Week 3

*shade garden, week 3*

It doesn't look that much different than week one, though I swear things are growing. It's hard to see in the picture, but I think the caladiums are poking up a couple of shoots. The hostas and inpatients are not much changed and the lily-of the-valley has yet to be heard from.

I had to add the mulch last week because the temperatures dropped unexpectedly. I hope everything is ok. I mulched it at night during a lunar eclipse. I don't know if that really means anything, but when I was a child, I was fascinated with The Old Farmer's Almanac. I'm not really sure why, but I suppose it was because it was full of interesting tidbits, like why or why not to mulch our shade garden during a lunar eclipse or that jazz enthusiasts have 30% more sex than normal people. (Oh, the things that stay with us!)

The almanac was such an authority on so many things. I often wondered how it could be so certain. All of those orderly planting schedules and tide charts. Life was, and is, a tumultuous place, and farming is hardly a sure thing, but the almanac was all knowing and always reassuring.