Bangle House

Can't be!

A tulip growing in Southern California?  No way!

Oh yeah, I finished a couple of socks too.

March Companions

As I slog through my sock yarn, these fellas will be seeing me through March.  Well, I hope to make it to all of them.

First I'll be finishing up the Time-Out-from-Koigu socks.  I've got one and a half done.

Yes, they are ridiculously bright, but sometimes you just have to shake things up a bit.  Socks can't always be serious.  These will never see the light of day outside of my house, so I'm not too worried about looking like the crazy sock lady or anything like that. 

And here's an amaryllis from January that I forgot to show y'all.  It's called "Pink Impression," and I'm going to try to take care of it well enough to bring it back next year.

I didn't do a very good job of documenting my amaryllis flowers from this past year, but this one was so pretty that I had to share it, even if a little late.

Purple

Purple daisies, medium-toned

and pale.

Purple stattice.

Purple alyssum.

Purple violas, with a splotch of a white face.

And purple socks, completed.

3 x 1 rib, eye-of-the-peacock heel, round toe -- a real mongrel of a sock.  Good thing the yarn carries the project.

Now I get to cast on something new to see me through TV knitting for the rest of the month, and it's not going to be a sock.

Winter resumes

We've been experiencing temperatures in the mid- to upper-80's over the past several weeks.  While that may sound heavenly to those you dealing with extreme cold and snowstorms, I've been missing my Southern California excuse for winter.  As much as I love flowers, I just don't think my tiny narcissus needs to make a mid-January appearance.

Fortunately, it looks like our "Santa Ana Event" is over as today it is gray, cool, and rainy; and I couldn't be happier.  I'm wrapped in a shawl, baking a lemon bundt cake, reading, listening to medieval Spanish music, and knitting -- although  not necessarily all at the same time.

I've been reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and if you're looking for a beautifully written, philosophical, contemplative read, then look no further.   The book takes the form of a letter from a dying old man to his young son, a sort of review of his life and all the wisdom gained from it.  It's not a quick and easy read.  Instead you find yourself being absorbed into the text, and you feel like you're reading the words at the pace an old man might tell his story.  It's just wonderful.  If you scroll down on the Amazon page linked above, you can click through to read the first six or seven pages through Amazon's reader.  That will enable you to get a feel for the book if you're not quite sure it's for you.

I'm also steadily plugging away at socks.  I finished up the Clover socks last weekend.

Nice pattern -- very well written.  The cables were not a big deal at all, and the Smooshy is a joy, as always.  I still wish I'd made them in a slightly lighter shade, but overall I'm happy with these.

Oh, and if you've got a moment, Curtis would like a kiss.

First new project of the new year

Well, it's been cast-on, but it's nothing to look at now; so I'll spare you the pictures until I've turned the heel on the first sock.  I'm making the Clover sock from The Inside Loop, and  I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy "In Vino Veritas."  Right now it just looks like a blur of winey knit stitches. 

In the meantime, I did finish up my pink socks before ringing in the new year.  Here's how they turned out:

Perfect for wearing with my pink pajamas, and probably not anywhere else.

Also, I neglected to show y'all my first amaryllis bloom, which showed up a couple of days after Christmas.

This is a "Ferrari" bloom, and the color is gorgeous.  It's looking to me like it's a semidouble bloom, but I don't really know much about such things.   The other four bulbs should be blooming soon, so it won't be long before I have more to show you.

'shroomin'

Wonder what's been going on with the mushrooms?  Well, it's time for my first harvest.

12 ounces of mushrooms right here.  I'm keeping track of the quantity just so I can assess how cost effective (or ineffective) this whole project has been, being sure to factor in the fun and food safety elements, of course.

Looks like I'll have several harvests ahead of me. 

Anyone wanna guess what's for dinner?

Upside Down

I think I was meant to live in the southern hemisphere.  Sometime around the beginning of November, when we northern mammals are supposed to be slowing down for the long winter, I find myself charged and ready to take on more than I've handled over the previous five or six months..  Shorter days and a slight crispness in the air (as opposed to true cold, which I tackled in the Midwest) invigorate me and motivate me to pack more into my days.  Cooler temperatures at night along with more hours of darkness provide me with a deeper, more restful sleep; and that extra rest gives me an extra boost during the day when I'd otherwise start to lose steam.

Why else would I decide that November's a great time to garden?  Let me tell you what I've got going.

After last year's fun with amaryllis, I've decided to pot up five bulbs this year.  I ordered them a little earlier and planted them up right away, so here's hoping that I have flowers sooner than I did last year.  I can't see any signs of life yet, but they've only been in the dirt for a week.  I'm sure something will make its presence known soon.

Christmas is probably too soon to hope for, but early January would be nice.  I also still have two of my bulbs held over from last year that I'm going to try to force later on.  I'm not sure how it will work since I didn't feed them the way I was supposed to, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyhow.  One of them is chilling right now, and the other is drying out in anticipation of its trip to the cooler (sounds like it's going into rehab, doesn't it?). 

Along with the amaryllis bulb, I've got about a dozen tulip bulbs hibernating in the fridge.  While chatting with the sales clerk at Burkard's (awesome nursery in Pasadena, if you're in the area and looking), I admired the tulip bulb display and speculated that it is probably too warm to grow them where I live, which is a shame since I adore tulips and they, along with lilies of the valley and cardinals, are the things which I miss the most since leaving the Midwest. 

She corrected me, telling me that I could easily grow them here, but that I shouldn't expect to get more than one year of blooms out of them.  If I were willing to view them as annuals, then there should be no reason not to proceed.  At 75 cents a pop, I had to agree with  her; so I dumped a dozen in a bag; crossed my fingers; stuck them in the fridge, hoping that the bagged apples in the crisper wouldn't sterilize them; and made plans to plant them on New Year's Day.  We'll see how that goes.

And I don't know what possessed me to order this.

 
Yes, a mushroom kit.  As I type this, there is a plastic-lined box of sanitized horse manure and moldy spore-seeded growing matter (don't ask -- it looks a little scary) sitting in my closet. 

The process is easy.  I just mixed it all together in the box, put it aside somewhere dark and warm while the mold grows, and then I"ll form a mini-tent with an extra plastic baggy while I wait for the mushrooms to grow.  I plan to pick the mushrooms early as cremini since I'm not a big fan of portabellas.  I already have a number of recipes set aside to prepare as soon as my first crop comes in.  Let's just hope this works.

And, finally, I threw some dirt in one of my self-watering containers, dropped in a few miscellaneous salad greens seeds, and am now, once again, hoping for the best.  I planted them thinking that it would stay warm and the seeds would germinate quickly before the cooler weather finally decided to pay us a visit. 

No dice.  We're supposed to have sporadic rain over the next few days, along with cooler temperatures.  Oh well, I think I'm looking at about all of a dime invested along with very little time, so I've got little to lose here.  And if it works, then I should have some nice salad greens to enjoy with all my mushroom dishes. 

I wish I had all this energy in late spring, when days are getting longer and vegetables are supposed to be growing.

On the animal front, Kiki and Cyril kept an eye on me the whole time while I worked outside.  They were not impressed. 

But then, I suppose it's hard to muster up much of a reaction when one has a wire running through one's head (shouldn't be a problem, though, since I doubt there's much of a brain to obstruct it) or when one is being skewered by a palm tree.

Ruby gets it, though.

And that's just one reason why dogs are so much better than cats.

Procrastinatrix

Ugh, what is it with my mental block about seaming?  Why do I have such a bad attitude towards it? 

Here's where I am:

I've joined the shoulders and attached the sleeves.  All I need to do is sew the sleeves together and then do the sides.  The plan is to complete the sleeves on Saturday and the sides on Sunday.  There really is no excuse not to have this done.  I've already bought the buttons and everything.

It's not even that seaming is that hard.  Once I've plotted my course, easily done thanks to Nancie Wiseman in The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, I just cruise along, keeping on eye on tension more than anything else.  I need to start working on a major attitude adjustment.

In the meantime, I always have a good attitude towards actual knitting and have done quite a bit on the baby blanket.

I've only 16 rows left; so I'll definitely be done knitting this weekend.  After that, it's blocking, packing, and shipping.

Overall, I'm really happy with the way this has turned out.  The Dream in Color is nicely variegated and the yarn looks good with this pattern although I have to hope that the parents are on the same page as I am colorwise.  It's their second child; so I'm hoping they're over the whole "baby = pastels" thing.  The mom has never struck me as being afraid of color; and she's a knitter, as is her mother, so I'm sure they're making plenty of pastel items, if that's what they want.

The only thing that concerns me a little is the weight of the yarn and the effect this might have on the lace points on each end.  The first time I made this blanket I used Dale of Norway Baby Ull, which is a bit lighter weight than the Smooshy.  Here's what the points look like now:

I'm thinking I'm going to have to block this thing pretty hard in order to get the points to stick.  Even if they don't stick as well as they did with the Baby Ull, I just hope that they don't end up curling instead.  Grrr, I guess that's what swatching is for.

On the container gardening front, I'm finally getting to pick my ananas noire (black pineapple) and noire charbonneuse tomatoes.  Wow -- talk about worth the wait!  They are delicious, especially the black pineapple.  Here's the first one I picked:

I'd always thought that the regular pineapple tomatoes I'd buy at the farmers' market were good, but these are even better.  I was expecting something so large to be a little flavorless, like the Pruden's Purple were.  Not at all -- slightly winey, wonderfully fruity, and delicious overall.  I will definitely be growing these again.  Fortunately, I haven't had problems with their being too heavy for the vine because I never got around to staking them (Procrastinatrix, remember?).  I've let them crawl along the container and trail over some other empty pots I've put around it, and that seems to be working just fine. 

They're so good that I don't even bother with the olive oil, herbs, and feta.  I just slice them up and grab a fork -- you know, I think I'll go do that right now.

Today's Harvest

All that's missing are the oregano, the olives, the lemon, and the feta.

Growing tomatoes is fun!

Plums

It's taken many long months, but these have finally turned into these:

They're just starting to ripen to my liking, and I like them VERY ripe. 

As you can see, these are a little smaller and not nearly as pretty on the outside as the ones you find in the store.

Their real beauty becomes apparent when you cut them open.  These colors are fairly accurate.

And the taste. . .oh, the taste is just heavenly -- deep plum flavor.  Actually, while these were delicious, I like them a little better after they've been on the tree a few more days, when their color is even deeper and their flesh juicier and nearly fermenting.

They look a little more like this, my Trystero sock.

I love how these socks are turning out, but I'm still not feeling the fingering-weight cabling joy.  Ugh.  I'll start the second, but I doubt I have time to finish it before all the baby blanket supplies are here, at which time I'll have to run with that.  While the sock looks a little busy in the photograph, in person the cables are quite easily seen.  There's just enough texture to them so that they can hang in there with these strong colors.

And since it's been a while since I've featured a dog, here's Ruby giving me her best Keane-like pose, looking all waifish on the steps to nowhere.

We don't want Curtis to feel left out, do we?

Here he is, giving me his best Burt Reynolds, circa 1972.