Tomato Tracking

Always living in apartments mean there's not a ton of room for a veggie garden, which I would love to have. This spring, I'm starting out with a single tomato plant.



I'm not yet convinced my deck will get enough sunlight to keep this growing, but I figured I'd snap some pics of it so I can compare later on. Maybe it will be huge and this will be a sweet baby pic we can oo and ah over later, or perhaps it will fail and we can all sigh woefully over what it once was.



When I lived in Madison, my work had a farm on site, and had 10x10 garden plots for the employees. I had a fairly successful garden that summer, thanks to my dad's help, and had more cucumbers and tomatoes I could use.



If my tomato plant does succeed, I may take a note from Sunset magazine, and work on a one pot garden, which would be totally workable in my small space.



How does your garden grow?

Meow

This week I whipped up this knitty kitty to accompany the stroller blanket I made.



She had to have a great accessory to bring in the colors of the blanket of course, so I made a collar with a crocheted flower.



Just in time to mail it off to Darchelle's baby shower!

Stroller Blanket

I crocheted like crazy over the Easter weekend, and finished this stroller blanket in time to mail to Wisconsin for my friend Darchelle’s baby shower. Crocheting does not come as easily to me as knitting (I just need more practice!), and I ended up having to start this blanket over SIX TIMES. I was near ready to give up and choose a different pattern, when I realized that when the pattern says “Single crochet in next 3 chains,” it really means to do it THREE TIMES, not just once! Whoops. :) Once I figured out I was reading the pattern wrong, I was on my way. It took a lot of concentration for me, but I really love how it turned out.


(it needs a little blocking still)

This pattern was from Crochet Today, and I used the recommended RedHeart Eco-Ways yarn, in Oyster, Mushroom and Dusty Rose (it’s a girl!).

(I was also having fun playing with different camera apps on my iPhone)



I have some leftover yarn, and a little bit of time left before this has to get into the mail, so I think I’ll whip up something extra…stay tuned!

New Favorite

I could not WAIT to finish this, because I knew it was bound to be my most favorite sweater I've made.



This is the Berry and Bramble Cardigan from the Fall 2009 Interweave. This went fairly fast, and was actually a fun and interesting knit. I used about eight skeins of Filatura di Crosa Zara, Extra fine Merino, which I bought on sale.



The yarn was a perfect fit for this pattern, and the sweater is light and airy and can definitely be worn into the summer, even in LA.



It's lovely when everything fits together perfectly.

Volunteering

This year I’ve started a new job at a local medical center. Soon after starting, I quickly learned about a volunteer opportunity that was right up my alley. The hospital’s volunteer department has a group of knitters that meet once a week and knits blankets for the Palliative Care patients.

While my busy schedule during the work day has prevented me from meeting with them every week, I’ve still been able to help out. I’m slowly working on knitting my own blanket, but I keep getting blankets thrown at me that need the finishing touches – a crocheted border, and the red hearts. This is a nice project for me to work on when I just need some mindless knitting, but I still like to keep my own projects going! I’m happy to share my skill and help out for a good
cause.

Knitting 101, Part Deux

Saturday was a cool, rainy day in LA, so a perfect day to curl up with some knitting (not that I don't find that excuse for every other day!). My friends Sherry, Anne and I set out to a tea shop on Melrose, and cozied up to start stitchin'.



Anne is becoming a master of garter stitch, and Sherry took off with purling, YOs, and SSKs, to start a lacy scarf.



How's it coming girls? Keep up the good work!

Something Pink

It's about time I showed you what I worked on throughout the month of January. I've been waiting to capture the perfect picture, but it just wasn't happening. These will just have to do.



This is the Something Red cardigan by Wendy Bernard. There are things I liked about this and things I didn't. Anybody who was with me while I was knitting this knew that I was not having that much fun knitting row after row of stockinette. B-o-r-i-n-g. Despite the uneventful pattern, I like the classic style of the simple cardigan. I made it out of a cotton, which is soft and light enough for LA. I don't love the way my ribbed edge keeps flaring out (see that in the pic above??), and I think it's a little wide so adds some extra bulk on me. Overall though, I think this can easily be worked into my wardrobe, and I'm REALLY glad it's done.



I've moved on to a much more interesting knit.