Purlewe Knits

The sun is going down on my weekend and I am sad to see it end. It has been an awesome weekend. The weather has been absolutely perfect! In Omaha we only get a handful of perfect days a year so I took the time this weekend to enjoy the heck out of them.

Hubby and I built a new fence around our garden and I got all of our vegetables in. There isn’t much to look at now, but just give it a couple of weeks. In the back we have a couple of rows of lettuce, in the far left of the picture you can see the couple of lettuce plugs I got at the local nursery, the rest is in seed. Then I have a row of carrots and radishes, all in seed. These got taken over by our monster cucumbers last year, so they got special treatment this year. I can’t remember, what for sure is in the fourth row, but I think it is celery and a couple of the broccoli plants I got at the local hardware store. Next is eggplant, again in seed, so it isn’t much to look at, and then TWO rows of basil (seed). I am super excited about the basil. I discovered basil and pesto last year and I can’t wait until I have enough leaves to make some for this year. The biggest green spot you can see in the garden is the one basil plant I bought; to get a head start on the seed. Then I put in a row of tomatoes, eight little plants from the local nursery. We only had two tomato plants last year, so we are going to have quite a few tomatoes this year. I am hoping to come up with a nice red sauce recipe to compliment my AWESOME pesto recipe. One of the cultivars is roma and I think the other is big boy. I really don’t know the difference, I was just guessing. Then we have 3 rows of peppers. Hubby LOVES his peppers. We have red bell, green bell, the yellow wax kind, hungarian, and jalapeño. In one of those rows is my other two broccoli plants. Last, but not least, is the cucumbers. Last year our cucumbers went crazy! I think we had 3 or 4 plants and we were picking 15 to 20 cucumbers off of them at a time. It was insane! This year we planted 4 plants. Little bitty plants and I gave them more room to grow. I hope I’m not asking for punishment. I am going to try to do a weekly garden picture, so stay tuned for the veggies!

I also got some cherry tomato plants and put them in pots on our deck. Aren’t they cute? They are little bitty guys.
This is only the garden we are planting at home. I’ve signed for for another 2 garden plots at work. I’m planning on putting those in next weekend …

I also did some spinning, some knitting, and some paper writing for school.

This is some of the yarn from Abby. It is amazing to spin! This is orchid, a sock batt, but I think it should be called Egyptian princess or mystical sunrise. It has an amazing variety of color and neat sparkle. I’ll have to rant more about it later, I’m getting extremely tired.

The blues socks – not sure if I’ll make my Mother’s Day deadline now.

And sorry, no picture of the homework – it is boring anyway.

And now I need a shower and some sleep!

Remember the girl from class that I had two strikes against back in January? She got strike 3 Thursday night. She doesn’t think knitting is a skill! (it is okay to pause here and take a deep breath) I was really to flabbergasted when she said this to form a coherent argument. This always happens to me and it is SO frustrating! Why do I always think of the good comebacks after the fact. BUT I am also one of those people that think, sometimes, it is better to let things go. This was probably was one of those cases, because the other girl is NOT one to let things go, she just kept bring knitting back up and demeaning it … grr – so it is probably better that I didn’t come up with a great comeback – but it would have made me feel better. AND THEN at the end of class she has the gumption to ask me for my work email so I can print her large size final project map thing off on our plotter. Seriously? I had offered, earlier in class when I had forgotten how FREAKING annoying she is and when I was trying to be nice and get along. “Play nice,” is what my mom always used to say. Okay – I’m done playing nice with Mz Photojournalism. She can take a hike.

What else is new? Not much as far as knitting and spinning goes. It is the last two weeks of the semester and I’m spending too much time trying to figure out how I’m going to get everything done. I still need to post progress pictures of the Blues socks for my mom. I tried them on earlier this week and ummm … they don’t really fit me!! Mom’s feet are bigger than mine! Doh! I fretted, pulled some yarn from stash, looked through patterns, bought a pair of needles (which I swore I had and of course found almost as soon as I returned from the LYS), and called Mom to discuss. She said to go ahead with the Blues and if they don’t fit we’ll find something else to do with them. My mom is the best! I’m assuming she could hear the panic in my voice over the line and knew the LAST thing I need right now is something else to worry about. Thanks Mom!

Something I’ve never really talked about is my food allergies. I have them and they are terrible. I’m one of those allergic to everything people, literally. The last time I went in for allergy tests the nurse appeared to be quite surprised by how strong I was reacting to so many of the allergens. A word to nurses – please try and act not so surprised, it really doesn’t do anything for the patient NERVES! This time of the year, spring, is particularly bad because there is so much pollen in the air and, of course, I have terrible hay fever allergies too. Because I’ve been feeling like crap for the last couple of weeks I decided last week to put myself back on an allergy free diet (rice and basic fruit – no citrus. Typically I can feel alright by eating a wide variety of foods I’m allergic to – as long as I don’t concentrate them and do something like eat the same thing 5 days a week I’m usually okay – and can avoid the inhaler and ER.) Going allergy free is so hard. It really tries my will power, but worth it in the end – I DO know this. The last couple of days I’ve been feeling much better. Today (yesterday now) was a rough day at work and I crumbled and we went out to dinner. There is nothing I can eat out that I’m not allergic to. So here I am at 2 in the morning blogging because I can’t sleep. I hate allergies.

A picture or two? I have a couple saved back. Hubby took me to an orchid show, after much begging, a few weeks ago. The whitish/yellow one I got at the show and the pink one I’ve had for a couple of years.

I’m feeling a little tired now – hopefully I can get some sleep.

And so I got some of those pictures I promised of the yarn from Abby.

Orchid sock batts.
What a difference it makes when the sun is behind a cloud! And neither of these pictures is really color accurate – on my screen. When I compare the ball to my picture on screen the pictures are very washed out – this is some vibrant fiber! The light pictures shows some of the sparkle that winds though the fiber and the darker picture shows the color variation better. I don’t think I could be more excited about this orchid fiber. It has all of my fav-or-ite colors AND sparkle!
Begonia and Grassy Knoll – both wool and mohair blends. I don’t have a plan for these, but then again how often do I have a plan for fiber when I buy it? It was a crappy week at work and therefore I bought fiber. As Hubby says, there are things worse that a fiber addiction (like meth and crack). Fiber is minor! I couldn’t resist the Begonia description (if she had more I would have gotten it) and I am thrilled with the depth of the pinks, reds, and oranges of this fiber. These aren’t typically colors I go for, but like I said I couldn’t resist these. Grassy Knoll – that’s more the color I usually pick – rich greens! Yum! Talk about color depth, this green is amazing. I’m going to HAVE to find a super project for these fibers.

My box from Crown Mountain Farms arrived this morning too, see! Part of what I ordered though is a birthday present for my friend Dyan and so I haven’t decided if I want to show pictures (and torture her un-relentlessly with her present) or not show pictures (and keep the colors a complete surprise). Here’s a sneak peak for you Dyan …

The Blue’s socks for my mom are going pretty well. I’ve finished the gusset and I’m racing down the foot. It isn’t all purl from here, I miss spoke. I’m using the Cat Bordhi basic pattern and it has ribbing down the top of the foot. This takes me a little longer, cause I’m slow at ribbing, but it makes the fit superb, so it is worth it. I’m making progress though and I think I’m make my Mother’s Day deadline. Mom is going to love these!

And finally here’s Minnie eyeing my new box of fiber. She’s about 2 1/2 now and she is FINALLY starting to calm down. Thank goodness! And due to the new diet she is loosing some weight – also good news!
Happy Spring everyone! I think the cold has finally abandoned Omaha and I couldn’t be happier!

Is there a number for fiber people to call – a number for additions. Like one eight hundred yarn off? (I’m trying to avoid spam by spelling the numbers out – urk, I know)

I bought more fiber – I think I might have a problem – a fiber buying problem.

Tonight I received my package from Abby’s Yarns (Franquemont Fibers – Ebay)! You didn’t even know that I had ordered anything! I thought I would have several days before the fiber arrived … nope! Note to self – if on Saturday morning you anticipate having a crappy Monday, order from Abby – the package will be waiting for you when you get home Monday night!

I was so stressed out when I got home tonight I almost didn’t even see the box! I worked today, had a crappy CSO meeting (HA – lucky you if you get that pun) met Paula for coffee (high point of the day), went to class, and had to buy prescriptions on my way home – $238 later – I was feeling like I just needed to lie down.

I’m curled up in bed with my lap top, fiber, and Hubby and just now got to open the bag of fiber from Abby. Absolutely beautiful stuff! I’ll try and take some pictures the next time I see the sun (it is supposed to rain ALL week – better than snow, I guess, but I degress). I got two sock batts in Orchid, some Begonia, and some Grassy Knoll. Having this fiber in hand and browsing the store to see there were pictures I could link to, is not going to be good for my pocket book! I just want to buy MORE! I can’t wait to spin this (if my caffeine for the day doesn’t’ wear off soon – this might be tonight). Folks – this fiber even smells good!