Busy busy busy!!

First, I have to say, holy smokes! Two months since my last blog post! Well, I've been pretty busy, both with my knitting and with other stuff.

First, the knitting. I finished a sleeveless vest made out of a cotton/linen blend. I have yet to put it up on Ravelry, but it's a nice olive color and is comfortable. It has a hood but I knit it too narrow and haven't picked up to add on yet, so I wear the vest without the hood. Maybe one day I'll do the hood but, frankly, the top isn't super-flattering (it's kind of boxy) so I'll wear it for the summer and then...we'll see. It's my first attempt at converting a pattern to being knit in the round and I'm fairly happy with the results of that particular experiment.

I have three projects on the needles: a scarf from Ocean Wonders called Fish Net in a pretty lavender/mind/white colorway and in mercerized cotton. It's not a rectangle but, rather, is a parallelogram. It's an attempt to use up some of my stash and, so far, I'm happy with the results.

The second project is Wisp from Knitty (I don't remember which issue). I got the yarn, Watercolours DK, from a swap (which I posted about earlier) and I luuuuurve it. I'm looking forward to wearing it.

I'm also working on a shrug and am unsure as to what it's going to end up like. Here's why: I cast on with CottonLicious and quickly realized that I didn't have enough. So I went out and picked up Lion Cotton in an identical color; I'm not kidding, they match perfectly! The texture, though, is different, and I joined the cotton at a spot where I change from a 2x2 rib to a slip-stitch false rib so the color looks different. It's an easy knit, however, and I think it will be wearable once it's done. I'll put a picture here and in Ravelry soon.

By the way, I also managed to get my entire stash into Ravelry...gulp! I know it's not as much as some people have but still! I really don't want to think of how much money is tied up in those boxes. The good news is that, now that I know what I have, I can start planning how to use it. The fun fur will be a bit of a problem, but in all the stash isn't too terribly unmanageable.

I've been doing loads of gardening lately and that's what's really gotten me away from the blog. I've planted two gardens this year: the Family Garden and Emma's Garden. Emma's Garden has a bamboo teepee with sugar snap peas and sweet peas growing up it, and also has 13 corn plants; I originally had 21 but moved 8 of them to the Family Garden. Emma's Garden also has a pink dianthus and some beans that she planted while playing for which I'm going to have to add another teepee or something soon.

The Family Garden has dill, oregano, cilantro, and three kinds of basil. It has carrots, beets, garlic, three kinds of tomatoes (including two volunteers from last year), pole beans, scarlet runner beans, black beans, peas, zucchini, watermelon, and Jack Be Little pumpkins. I also planted a birdhouse gourd in another bed where we have trellised blackberries, and I figure the gourd can share space on the trellis. I'm planning on doing some canning this year as well as preserving foods by freezing and drying. I've never had this big of a garden and I'm absolutely loving it! I plan on putting in some cucumbers and tomatillos and planting more beets and carrots later in the season. Oh, and I'll put in lettuce, too; I had one crop already that I had to harvest when it got hot and am loving the lettuce I grew, though I've found that it's hard to get clean; I keep biting into grit...blech!

Food costs being what they are, I'm really hoping that my gardening efforts will make a difference in the grocery bill. I wish I could do more and, one day, I'm sure I will. Right now, space is limited, but every vegetable I grow is one we don't have to buy and, with home-grown veggies being so much better than what's in the store, the work is totally worth it, not to mention being fun!

I'd put in some pictures of the garden but I tried a minute ago and Firefox crashed. I'll try again later, because I'm really proud of it!