Garden Report - the Surprise Potato

I tried a Thing this spring, whereby I attempted to grow another rose bush. I had a cutting from my lovely yellow rose bush, and I planted it in a potato and hoped for the best.
The cutting did not survive. I was a little bummed, but to be honest I didn't expect it to take. I didn't see a compelling reason to pull the dead stick, so I just left it there.

Fast-forward a few months, and I noticed that the spot where I'd planted the rose cutting had green coming up.

Folks, this is a potato plant.
Rather by accident, I've got potatoes growing in a xeriscaped Las Vegas yard.

I doubt it will yield much, but hey! It's still fun! (And it does keep growing, so who knows what we'll get?)

Seasonal Change Cowl

It's here! My newest design, the Seasonal Change Cowl:

The weather is getting cooler. The days are getting shorter. And the leaves will soon begin to turn.

This cowl takes less than a skein of Malabrigo Rios. And it works up quick - one of my testers finished in an afternoon. It's perfect for a last-minute fall accessory, and even better for those last-minute handmade holiday gifts.

The pattern is available for sale in both my Ravelry and Craftsy stores.

Weekend Wind-Up

I've set a new personal record in sock-knitting. These took one week, from start to finish.

And I love them. 

Since I'm apparently on a sock-knitting kick right now, I started another pair. Once again, I'm just knitting a plain sock and letting the yarn show itself off. 

Felici is sooooo soft! I love this yarn. 

Pattern Tease

This Seasonal Change Cowl is coming, just in time for fall.

Weekend Wind-Up

The socks are finally finished!

Through some amazing feat of the universe, the friend for whom these were made was actually in Las Vegas this weekend, on vacation with their partner. So I was able to give these in person, and he immediately tried them on, started raving about how awesome they feel, and said "once you wear handknit socks, you don't want to wear anything else."
Talk about being knit-worthy!
(That's someone who will almost certainly get another pair.)

I've started a pair of socks for myself!

I actually got really far on these, considering I started them Friday evening at dinner. My hands started hurting after I made it through the heel, so I put them down for a while.
The yarn is Wisdom Yarns Pix in the colorway "Succulent." I like the purple, and I like self-patterning yarns for socks. Although, if I'm being perfectly honest, I chose this yarn based on not having to wind it (like most of the sock yarns I have in my stash) or match dye lots on two 50g balls (I have a bunch of Felici in the stash, too).

Oh, that patriotic tape I started weaving last week? I finished it. I'm getting a bit better, but still there is a lot of variation on my tension (and subsequently, the width).

It's a long weekend, which should be nice - but both the boys are sick, which is not so fun. Luckily, it seems to be a minor cold, but sniffling kids don't sleep very well. Which means Mom doesn't sleep so well.

Garden Report

My spring/summer attempts at vegetable gardening failed. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong, but the bean plants died, then the cucumbers did. Most of the carrots never germinated at all, and the ones that did never plumped out.
In fact, this is the entire harvest:

The basil plant held on, but the leaves are really narrow and the stems are woody, not at all like the basil plants I see in other gardens.
But that's ok. I'm going to try again. Thus, I present to you, my fall garden!

I used CMU blocks to create a raised bed, and I'm also using the openings in the blocks to plant. I'm using seeds instead of transplants this time, too.

So far, we're off to a good start. I've got several cucumber plants that have started (remember, I live in Las Vegas, it doesn't get cool until nearly Halloween), and I've got both radishes and carrots planted - and the radishes have already sprouted.

The plan is to plant snap peas, turnips, parsnips, and carrots as we move into autumn. If I can serve home-grown vegetables at Thanksgiving, I will be very excited!

Weekend Wind-Up

Sad news: my favorite local yarn shop, Mirage Fiber Arts, closed down earlier this month. Now I'm stuck with online shopping for most of my favorite yarns.

On the upside, I purchased an inkle loom on clearance. And I've already started weaving. And I'm learning that I have plenty of room for improvement.

First weaving project

I took a weaving class in high school, so it's not as though this is completely new to me. But sophomore year was twenty-two years ago. And although all three use yarn, weaving is a lot different than knitting or crochet.

Still, I'm enjoying this. 

Yes, it's patriotic.

In crochet news, I'm making progress on my Doors of Durin filet project. It's the project bag attached to the stroller, so it goes with me to drop-off/pick-up C from preschool. 

And I finished this gorgeous shawl! The pattern is Over the Willamette by Jenn Wolfe Kaiser, the yarn is from Forbidden Woolery - the "Veiled Scandal" colorway I picked up at Vogue Knitting Live. It uses almost two skeins (I really should just weigh this and figure out exactly how much). Oh, wait. The scale is right next to my computer...173g, so 1.73 skeins.

 The details on this are just so pretty!

There's also this pair of socks that I promised for one of my friends. I finished one sock, I've turned the heel on this one, and now I'm panicking a bit because the color stripes aren't going to match on the leg. I really hope my friend loves these being hand-knit just for them enough to overlook the imperfection.

So, pretty good weekend. How was yours?