Summer of Weeds

Okay, I lied. I'm sick of weeding! After two hours of work, Helena and I had the corn patch under control, but unless we want to spend all our spare time out there, we're going to have to be more pro-active. We're thinking of mulching with grass clippings. According to Organic Gardening for Dummies, after cutting the lawn, you can let the clippings dry out in the sun for a bit before raking them up and they won't get slimy.

While we were out there, we spotted an indigo bunting. Srsly. Helena made the call in response to my "hey, look at that blue bird!" What a sight! Unfortunately, the bird took off just as I was heading for my camera. Maybe he'll make another appearance.

Birds Ate My Breakfast

Gino and Rocky are nothing if not persistent. And they love cereal. Here they are perched on my bowl looking for a handout.

Katie, meanwhile, has been giving our new mudroom rug a test drive.




This is a super tough, indoor/outdoor rug--guaranteed to stand up to muddy feet and paws. A couple passes with the vacuum and it looks like new again.


This is my first post in a while. The past couple months of this term have been unbelieveably busy. Not much time for blogging or knitting. Classes end this week and, hopefully, things will settle down a bit.

Room With a View

Here's a photo taken from the inside of our construction project--this is what it looks like if you're standing in the kitchen looking out toward the back yard.

Before, you had to walk through that doorway on the right to get to the back, and so we had two rooms that weren't very functional. Now we have a nice entrance to the back and, to the right, a little pantry.

Below are two new projects I started over the weekend. On the left, "Yarrow Ribbed Socks" from Vintage Socks, and on the right, 20 rows of what will eventually be a bird cage cover to keep Gino and Rocky warm once the temps start to drop.

Socks are on size 1 DPNs and I'm using Apple Laine's Apple Pie sock yarn (50% wool, 20% mohair, 20% silk, 10% Nylon) which I purchased at The Loopy Ewe . This yarn is really really soft and a pleasure to knit with. These will be really warm socks! The cage cover is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes because, well, it's cheap, and this project requires a lot of yarn! I've been thinking about this project for a while and trying out different designs, including crocheting a giant circle, which, after 15 or so rounds, turned out to be really really boring work--probably because I'm not experienced enough with crochet to come up with an interesting design. In the end, I decided to knit separate panels to form a box. That way I can break it down into parts and maybe do something interesting with the individual panels and/or in piecing them together--I'm thinking maybe buttons or ties. Other than those plans, I'm mostly making the design up as I go--which, I realize, could be a terrible mistake. The panel in the above pic will go on the top. It's just a rectange of st st framed by garter st. Here's what I've done so far:

• CO 95 (I used a cable cast on).
• K 16 rows.
• Beginning with row 17 and then for all odd rows: K 10, P 75, K 10.
• Beginning with row 18 and then for all even rows, K.

I think I'll keep going this way until I cover just a little less than half the area of the cage top and then do another 16 rows of garter stitch. Depending on how things look, I may actually construct the top piece of two panels rather than one big one.

"Quick, before someone sees us. I'll keep an eye out while you break into the oats!"

Punked

Recently, our two parakeets Rocky and Gino went through a molt--always an extravagant process. It's hard to believe that two tiny birds have that many feathers to lose. When the new feathers come in, they're like tiny spikes, and it looks like the birds have little punk hair dos. Here's a picture of Gino punking out. You can kind of see the spikes in the white feathers on his head.

Bird Bath

Hi--Rocky here. B. snapped this picture of me right after I'd taken a bath. You can't tell from this picture, but in the process I managed to soak most of the books and papers that were out on her desk. I'm small, but I can make a big mess when I try.