cosmicpluto knits!

the reddening

Things are happening in the garden! Things with colours!

These Romas and San Marzanos are slightly under-ripe, but they’ll ripen up soon – some of them were on the ground, or fell off when the plant was brushed slightly.

A “Black Beauty” eggplant. I stuffed it and ate it up tonight!

Basket o’ purples – burgundy bush beans (which have been producing lots!) and the first eggplants.

The tomatoes and things are really starting to ripen – we’ve taken nearly three dozen tomatoes from the garden already! Exciting. I’m planning on canning as well as doing some drying. All in addition to eating as much as possibly, of course! I had a yellow pear tomato today and it was totally awesome.

wishful thinking.

I re-started the Sienna Cardigan from Interweave a few weeks ago, thinking “hey! this’ll be fast and easy! I can use up that yarn!”. I’m using Knitpicks Main Line, that has been in the stash for awhile – it’s actually working up quite nicely, and the bigger gauge (4 sts/in) works well for it, since it’s quite thick.

I knit up one ball – the ribbing and a few rows of stockinette, and then it just sat. And sat. Taking up space on my desk. I really want to knit it, but there are other things to knit first! I wanted it for an early-fall sweater, since it is cotton, but I just don’t know if I’ll get to it anytime soon. Maybe when I finish that skirt? But then it’s time for a Rhinebeck sweater!

I’ve been musing on Rhinebeck and a Rhinebeck sweater – I definitely want to go, and I’m sure I’ll swing some way of it. So then there’s the sweater. I’d do Road to Golden (from Knitscene) but I’m sure there’ll be other people there wearing it. So I’m thinking my own design, a lace cardigan out of Socks that Rock mediumweight.

And I’m not stopping at the sweater – I really want to make a Rhinebeck skirt, too! More on that later.

Hey, check out my baby watermelon!

back on track

The pain and any surface marks from the burn went away pretty quickly, and I’ve set my sights on finishing the crocheted herringbone skirt.

I’m farther along now, with just a few inches to go on one of the pieces. The other piece is about halfway done as well. The pattern, just as a reminder, is from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitscene.

I had four skeins of the yarn (silky wool) in my stash to start with – the pattern calls for eight. I crocheted two balls each of the front and back while waiting for more yarn to come. I knew it’d be a different dyelot, of course.

It does show (the new yarn is brighter) but luckily, it’s at a point where it looks perhaps intentional – pretty much right where the increasing for the flare begins. So I’m okay with it. I ordered five extra skeins (so nine total), and I think I’ll only need seven. Maybe I’ll make it a little longer, since I’m not planning on doing the mini ruffle at the bottom.

And now, a different type of (almost) FO:

I grew that! A HUGE tomato, heartland variety. Those aren’t kid-hands, either! It’s not quiiiiite ripe, but I picked it anyway under the strong urging of a garden-neighbour, because it is almost ripe, was at the front of the garden (easily accessible), and because it is big – don’t want to risk someone coming along and yoinking it! I’ll give it a day or two in the kitchen to ripen up before the ritual devouring.

here and there

A little progress, a little progress…

The crochet silky wool skirt is coming along. I crocheted two skeins worth of the front/back (they’re both the same), and now I’m starting on the back, just for some variety. It’s going much quicker the second time around. I still have to wait for the rest of my yarn to get here, so it’s not a great hurry or anything. I have to figure out how to put together a little underskirt for it, too.

And my first tomatoes of the season are not the ones in the allotment garden! These are tiny tims, which I picked up on a whim at the garden centre, in pots on my back deck. They’re teeny little plants but are producing a fair amount of tomatoes for their size – I’ve got four plants, so I should be able to harvest some for eatin’ here and there.

Yikes, it’s getting late. Better go water that garden.

cool summer days

I’m trying to be very good and stick to my deadline knitting, although there are SO MANY THINGS that I want to cast on for RIGHT NOW. Sample: Asymmetrical Sweater from Knitting Nature, a sweater out of some new Dream in Color, a lacey cardi out of STR medium, baby pressies, Provincial Waistcoat from IK….

Whew. I guess this is what my queue list on Ravelry is for, huh? In the meanwhile, more recent photos of how the garden’s doing – photos taken on July 15. I haven’t been over to the garden yet today, but I’m thinking it’s going to have grown even more the last little while because of precious, precious rain!

Sweet cherry peppers, again – this is the same one from that last photo. I’m thinking I should probably pick this one now to encourage the plant to grow more fruit!

Royal Burgundy bush beans – working quite well. I wish there were more plants – the case with lots of my plants this year, actually. Well, maybe not the tomatoes, there are plenty of those.

Lincoln (shelling) peas. The vines are really quite productive! We could’ve planted WAY MORE though. The peas are soooo sweet and yummy, I just eat them raw.

Zucchini plants. Yes, I’m hoping for a harvest of CrazyAuntPurl proportions. Hey, we’ve got two families to feed and lots of zucchini-eating friends! (There are five green zucchini plants and two crookneck squash plants. As an aside, a garden-neighbour gave me a fabulous pattypan squash the other day and it was AWESOME.)

And finally, the tomatoes. We’ve been pruning them down a bit because they’re just taking over, and there’s lots and lots of green fruit! I can’t wait until that first fabulous tomato. I actually had a dream last night that our tomato plants had so many tomatoes on them, they barely had any leaves…and every tomato was red and perfect. Yup.

In case anyone’s interested, these are the varieties we’ve got in there:
- Roma (LOTS)
- San Marzano
- Heartland (there are a few really big ones on these plants)
- Early Girl
- Glamour
- Black Cherry
- Yellow Pear

Unfortunately, my Black Krim plant walked off from in front of my house, and so there are no Black Krims. But hey, that’s a darn big list anyway!

And someone asked about the weeds in the last garden update – oh, they are there. They sure are. We’ve been keeping fairly on top of the weeding, though, doing a thorough weeding about once a week, two people for at least two hours each week. That keeps them small, at least, so they’re not growing huge!

I love the veggie garden.

P.S. The pattern for that O-wool Balance cardigan that some might remember – it’ll be released this weekend, just as soon as I can get some good photos in!

a garden update

In lieu of knitting content, a garden (somewhat) update. These photos are from wayyyy back on Canada Day.

This pepper is way bigger now – I think the variety of this one is “Sweet Cherry”.

Rouge d’Hiver romaine that we had way too much of and consequently just chopped off and composted. It’s okay, it was just lettuce. I’d never throw away a tomato!

Lincoln (shelling) peas – they’re doing very well, I wish I’d planted a lot more. The pods are getting really fat now and I even harvested a few yesterday!

I’ll get some more photos today to show you all how far it’s all come in just two weeks!

In the meantime, I’m knitting away on a deadline piece, crocheting that skirt when I can, and working on patterns – I’ve got loads of faboo yarn on hold for myself at the store, and have told myself that I can buy it once I’m done the two patterns for sale I’m currently working on. So you can bet I’m working hard!