Swatchless

I planted some vegetables earlier this spring, but I am limited to a balcony with planters and dishpans full of soil. Luckily there is LOTS of sun.

I now have 6 little tomatoes growing

these will be BIG tomatoes one day!

I harvested some carrots (they are cool spherical carrots designed to grow in shallow soil–like window boxes).  I have some very odd radishes–not quite sure what happened to them, they are long and not really radish shape.  My snow peas have been really productive too!  I can gather about 5 or 6 peas a day–perfect for a snack right off the vine.

Harvest for Today

For my tour de fleece spinning today I plied the singles from yesterday.  I made it 2 ply, but it was still thin and appeared fragile (my singles didn’t have quite enough twist).  I then treated the 2 ply like roving, and spun the whole works then chain plied it, so what I have is an accidental 6 ply yarn.  We’ll see how that works up.

I am tempted to take a break from spinning so I can try knitting with it!

There’s something nice about finishing a bunch of projects: the feeling of weaving in ends, sewing on buttons and putting packages in the mail, or giving them away.  These days I have finished so many projects, but I haven’t started anything new in a while.  My needles are bare, and I am waiting for inspiration.

In the mean time…pigeons are getting wispy little feathers…

…and I have bits of green popping up out of my little indoor garden.

What inspires you?

This past weekend the Cantabile Men and Women’s choirs went on tour to Burlington Vermont and Eastman Quebec, which meant a LOT of time spent singing, and a LOT of time on a bus.  Its funny, when packing for this trip the first thing I thought of was what knitting to bring.

I decided that a new knitting project would be needed to keep my fingers and brain busy during the long bus ride.

Some Assembly Required

This is a fiddly project.  I made it more fiddly by attempting it with sock yarn (Sisu) and size 2.5mm needles.  I was not sure how this would work as bus knitting–it could have been a disaster.  I recommend bringing a baggie to put the finished parts in, and using 5 needles rather than 4.  I remembered at the last minute to bring a darning needle, and stuffing.

It was great fun watching the parts take shape.  The pattern is very well written, and the pictures are extremely helpful to the construction of the many tiny pieces.

Once completed, this little guy started having fun on the trip….he specially liked breakfast time…  (this next picture is dedicated to the W.A.F.F.L.E.S. First Lego League Team.  I was thinking of you this weekend as you were watching the World Festival!)

LEGO WAFFLES

The original pattern results in a guy that is 10 inches tall.  My lego guy, knit in finer yarn, is about 5 inches tall.  And, with a significant amount of balancing, he’ll stand up!

with a 1 litre juice box

I arrived back home to notice that some other things had grown in my absence.

My radishes: growing tall, reaching for the sunshine

Before

After

My pigeons: now they are getting grey feathers and their eyes are open.

Before

After