Still knitting and will be blogging again...

So I got a little side tracked and haven't posted anything in awhile, sorry about that, but I'll try to make it up to you.

A while ago I knitted up these lovely socks, I just love this colorway. I got the yarn from knit picks, but I don't think they have this color anymore.


Tuesday, the cat, likes them too, a little too much maybe...

Here is the lace vest I finished in September.

I have more on the needles, and on the wheel, and once I get a little organized I'll share some more projects.

In the meantime, I hope everyone out there had a nice holiday. Mine was busy, I did get some baking done, all my gifts finished on time, and had a couple relaxing days off work. News for the new year is that I'm expecting a baby in early July. Will I be blogging about it? Sure I will, but I'm not the gushy baby this, baby that, mommy type, so hopefully my post won't be too annoying. If they are you're welcome to advise me to cool it.

Up dates!

Well, I was able to get a little weeding done on my week off, not as much as I would have liked, and there is still some planting to get done, but this will have to do.



Yeah, it's still a mess...

Now it's back to work and wishful thoughts of getting more gardening done. On my time off I did get some knitting done and other stuff, and I also got some relaxing in, and spent time with friends and family, so it was a good week. I'll have some knitting up-dates soon, I hope... and maybe a sewing project too.

Tough to tell the difference

Earlier this year I mistook this little guy for a Monarch caterpillar, but it's really a Black Swallowtail. All spring and summer they have been feasting on fennel, dill, and parsley. We have also seen lots of the adult butterflies flying around this summer, so pretty!








And today I found the Monarch!

I love their little antennae. Now these are the critters I don't mind running into in the garden.

My garden this year

Ah, an early start. Just look at those little guys grow!


There it is! All the little plants tucked in and ready to grow.

And grow!

But wait, what's this?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's right folks. I got a lot of good grub early in the season, but once that July heat set in I kind of gave up. I should have stuck with it, I should have weeded, but that just didn't happen.

I have a few days off this week and I'm attacking it. Weeding and digging. I've got winter veg to get in the ground and I'm ready for the second round. I'll have an up-date later this week.

New hobby, or new passion?

I think I might have to classify this as a new passion, right up there with knitting. Hand spun yarn is amazing. It's not something I can do every night, or something I can spend hours on, like knitting, but I am loving it.

It's relaxing, soothing, and the end results are beautiful. My hands begin to cramp after an hour, and my already bad knee isn't liking the movement of the peddle, but I'm considering spending a sizable amount of money on a wheel of my own, so I know this is a relationship that will be well worth the pain it may cause.

Dear Spinning,
I love you...

Always check gauge

I've been working on a sweater design and when I checked the gauge I did it after washing and blocking, and boy am I glad I did. Sometime I just knit a few rows, check the gauge while it's still on the needles and call it good, but this time I had a feeling it would be better to go all the way.

I'm making a simple lightweight cardigan and I've just finished the back. As you can see from the photos below the piece drastically changes shape after it's been washed and pinned. Before blocking it measured about 14 inches from top to bottom.

After blocking it was up to 24 inches. A little longer than I expected, but I believe that once it's un-pinned it will relax a little and shrink back down to 21 or 22 inches, which will be about right. Although I don't mind long sweaters.

Next are the front pieces, then the sleeves, which are making me nervous, the shaping that is.

If this sweater turns out like planned I hope to write it out and share it. If it doesn't turn out as planned you might find a big red wine stain on it and me in the corner crying...

Not enough time

It has been tough finding time to write on this blog, and it has been tough finding interesting things to write about. After all, my hobbies are pretty normal, run-of-the-mill hobbies. I'm good at them, but I'm not cranking out things that are spectacular or anything. And lately it's been hard to find the time to be creative, and lately I've been sticking with simple projects, ones that I can do while zoning out in front of the TV.

When I first started blogging a couple months ago I had a friend look it over, to get her opinion. She laughed and said, "Oh Anna, your life looks so organized and beautiful. Ha! but I know the truth!" And she was right, I was spending too much time and thought on making my life look like I wished it looked. The truth is, my life is kind of cluttered, not that pretty, and not as cheerful as I try to make it seem. I have too many hobbies (because I'm probably trying to compensate for the boring hours I spend at work everyday), and when I do have time to work on my projects I'm often too tired and depressed to bring any creativity to the project - hence boring simple projects.

My enthusiasm for gardening usually putters out once it starts getting too hot - mid July/August , and boy has it been HOT, and the overwhelming produce from the garden makes me want to hide. I know I should be canning, drying, freezing and pickling all this food, but it takes time, time I feel like I don't have, and I'm lacking the motivation to make the time.

Ugh, enough complaining though, that's not what this blog is for. So here, here are some photos of what my life really looks like. It's messy, cluttered, full of weeds, and lacking the creativity I like to tell myself I have.

...weeds

...laundry

... messy sewing room

You get the idea...

In a few days I have some time off work and I will be spending it doing the things I love doing. Sewing, knitting, gardening, and whatever else sounds good at the time. I might even find some time to blog about it.

pretty kitty on vacation

My 10year old kitty, Bessos, is missing. She has taken little "vacations" before, once she was missing for five days and came home during a storm. This time she's been missing only three days and although I'm 99.9% sure she'll come home, I am more worried than usual because it's so hot out. We've had temps in the mid to upper 90's and heat indexes up near 110. Anyway, send good kitty vibes this way please and let's hope she's somewhere cool and safe and will return soon.

Lace & pickles

Ah, finally, some knitting. This is a lace top I've been meaning to finish for some time now, three years or give or take. I think this will be the summer it gets done. Here is the finished product.



...and while we are on the topic of lace, here is another project that I've been putting off. It's a lace pattern I've created to look like a spider web and in the center will be a name. It's for an art show this September so it will be a wall hanging when all said and done. If it gets done, and if it turns out the way I plan. It's turning out to be a big pain in the ass, but I know once it's done it'll be worth it. I'll be sure to post when it's finished, no matter what the outcome is.



On a pickling note, me and my husband put up two jars of cornichon pickles last weekend and we'll be doing more this weekend. Our cucumbers are growing like crazy, I have to go out each night to pick them, and missing just one night means giant cukes. I can only hope our corn does this well. We'll be able to do a taste test in three weeks, and of course I'll have up-dates and the recipe, if we think it's worth sharing. This is our tester year, we're searching for the perfect pickle.

We've been slightly under the weather, last weekend and this week, but I think we're on the mend and just in time too. The garden is in it's second harvest - the rest of the potatoes came out today, along with half of the onions, and of course the cukes. Tomatoes are just about ready and it might be time to plant some carrots, beets, and beans. After a week of being kind of sick I'm feeling a little ambitious, so I don't know how much of that planting will really get done.

I went to the local knitting group today, hadn't been in over a year, but it was good to be back and I promised myself I'd try to go more often. It's a good group of gals.

Jackpot!

Look at the fabulous stuff I got from my aunt yesterday!

How cute are these buttons?!

...and this elegant print

...and these bright prints

...this one reminds me of something from my childhood, but I can't quite place it

...more bright prints

...and some lovely solids

Not sure what I'll make yet, but I'm sure I can come up with something.

Had a busy weekend so I didn't get much knitting done, or anything else for that matter. Oh well. I've got four days off coming up and big plans for a couple projects. Might try to get away and have a little fun too. I'll keep you posted!

A is for Anna

Yes, in my last post I promised crochet, but things got a little crazy and I ended up doing some embroidery instead. This is something I've been wanting to work on for some time now. Monogrammed hankies. I've made them before, gifts for family or friends, but I would like to start making them to sell on Etsy, and maybe offer "kits" or patterns as well. So I'm going to be testing some over the next few weeks. I made an "L" for my best friend a while back and I really wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but I forgot. Anyway, all I do is draw my design on paper with a dark pen, and then I trace it onto a white hankie with pencil. ~ Pencil because it washes out.

Then I snap on a hoop, pick three colors of floss and stitch it up!

Yes, the photo is a little out of focus, but our camera is old and I've been having a hard time with it. Hopefully we'll be getting a replacement soon. Any ideas on what we should get? We're thinking Cannon, but I've always kind of been a Nikon girl...

Ok, next post you might see a little crochet, but I'm not making any promises!

Summertime knitting

As I might have mentioned before, my summertime knitting consist of smaller, cooler projects. No wool, nothing bulky, and nothing that sits in the lap. It's just too damn hot, you know?
Here's number three in a lovely ocean blue - almost done.

Number two, a refreshing purple.

And number one in a bright green - this one is my favorite.

They are all washcloths, BTW.

So, I'm trying to fit as much knitting in as I can, in between the garden and other household stuff, but honestly, lately all I want to do at the end of the day is zone-out in front of the boob-tube.

There might be some crochet in the next post so stay tuned!

Where's the knitting!?!

I know, on a blog named Purlanna you would expect to see a little knitting, right? Well all I have to say is sorry, but honestly there hasn't been anytime for knitting, and when I do get a minute to pick up my needles I'm usually finding myself nodding off after 5 or 10 minutes. The garden is keeping me busy along with my day-time job. I've been trying to crack down on my house cleaning too. Summer is creeping up and the house can get pretty messy pretty quick.


When I do fine the time to knit, I've been working on a simple baby blanket. The yarn is an acrylic I found on sale at the local HL, not my favorite place to buy yarn, but I was there anyway and couldn't help but check out the sales. Seriously, what is it about yarn on sale? I can even find an excuse to buy the ugliest, cheapest yarn if the price is right. I think to myself, "I know there's a project out there for this." Yeah, an ugly project! Although this baby blanket isn't that ugly at all, it's rather cute, boring, but cute.

I was recently able to get rid of a bunch of "sale" yarn in a garage sale my mom and aunt were having. However, I don't think any of it sold, there's a surprise...


OK, so I promise to have more knitting on here, at least every other post, OK? You just have got to understand that it's garden season so there is going to be lots of garden post (lots!). So, I hope there are knitters out there, knitters that also garden, or at least like fresh food, and that you will understand that this will pass and knitting will return (along with the cold, quiet, winter nights) and all will be back to normal, or as normal as a knitting addict's life can be...


And, in case you were wondering what I did tonight instead of knitting, here's a glimpse.



...and here's a friend that stopped by for a visit last night.

Peas!

The vines have gotten much taller and we have been getting lots of peas. I forgot how long the shelling process is and I'm thankful I didn't plant anymore that I did.




And here's what we got tonight.



Bright green peas, yum.

And, my calendula has bloomed!


Lots more to do in the garden this year, herbs to dry, potatoes to dig, corn to plant, and soon tomatoes to eat!

Food from the garden

Mmmm... It's always fun to start with dessert. These are strawberries from the little patch I started last year, which has turned out to be very fruitful.

For dinner it was a Swiss Chard and Cheese Quesadilla. Very tasty!

...and on an unrelated note. Here are two bears I made for the Mother Bear Project. These were two of three that I sent a few months ago. I really need to make a few more. It's a great cause and they are really fun and easy to make.

Got a busy weekend ahead, but if I'm lucky I'll have photos and maybe a few stories to share by the end of it.

I'm back

It's been exactly three years since my last blog. That was when me and my husband, then fiance, moved out to the country. No Internet, no cable, but loads to do. So now we have the Internet and are a little better established out here. Still no cable and probably won't get that anytime soon. We have plenty to watch between our 5 or so stations, a Netflix here and there, and the computers.
My goal with this blog is to mainly write about my knitting with a few of my other hobbies tossed in. Being almost summer, the knitting is dwindling down, but I think I'll have plenty to keep you all amused. And, even though there might be little knitting this time of year, there will never be no knitting. There will always be something in the works, for example









socks.


...and there's a cotton washcloth that's almost finished, and baby blanket halfway done, and a sweater that will probably stay tucked away until this fall, or a cold rainy day.

I'm also working on some crocheted lace... A great spring project.












...and lots of time is being spent in the gardens. More on that soon...














There might also be a couple sewing projects coming up soon and I hope to share a few patterns later on too.

So, it's good to be back and I look forward to lots of post full of good stuff for you all to enjoy!