If These Things Eventually Take To The Streets...

... killing everything in their path, I do apologize.

I decided this year to do some container gardening on the balcony. Never one to do something small when it can be done bigger than all get out, I planted three types of tomatoes (regular plain old, cherry and yellow), three types of pepper (orange, green and some sort of cherry variety that is either sweet or hot - I've forgotten), zucchini, cucumber, cabbage (not my idea - blech), and rainbow swiss chard. I wanted squash and eggplant, but I was brought back to reality vetoed by someone with no sense of grandeur (who also apparently wants to sit on our balcony).

So, this is the tomato tree:

[caption id="attachment_272" align="alignnone" width="224" caption="soon we shall take over the world..."][/caption]

This thing is taller than me. It is huge. Gigantic. It might be the most fabulous thing ever, if it ever grows a tomato.

I do have two cherry peppers, and if they finish ripening, I can figure out if they are sweet or hot. Preferably in some way that doesn't result in a Lucille Ball moment.

I Think I Will Have The Fish....

So we have fish now. They are small and orange and apparently endlessly fascinating to all members of the household, both human and furry. I am not kidding - these fish are now the topic of several conversations a day. For instance:

**B.B. - "I think the rocks are artfully arranged now, you can probably stop. It looks good, really good. Okay, your hand is beginning to shrivel up, don't you think it is time to stop. Maybe? IT DOESN'T NEED ONE MORE ROCK."

Me - "Just a minute, I'm not done yet."

***

Me - "Now now, if you get to have the shipwrecked pirate ship with real rocking action -the best technology 1973 had to offer - then Sweetpea gets the Dora Mermaid figurine."

B.B. - "Have you seen that thing, it is so ugly."

Me - "Yeah, well so is the pirate ship and both of them are cluttering up the natural beauty and classic lines of my carefully arranged river stones, so deal."

B.B. - "That ship is awesome."

***

B.B. "Are you staring at the fish again?"

Me - "No."

B.B. - "You are! You aren't looking at the computer, you are just staring at the fish. Again."

Me - "I was thinking that if I moved that big rock, then I could use the plants to hide the filter..."

B.B. - "You are a crazy lady."

***

Me - "Look how fast that little one is, we should name it Zippy."

Sweetpea, rolling her eyes - "I think we should name it Charlie. Zippy is a silly name."

Me - "I really thought I would manage to get past the age of four before my child realized I was a total dork."

***

B.B. - "Honey, It's four am - what are you doing? Why is your hand in the tank? ARE YOU ARRANGING THOSE ROCKS AGAIN?!"

** I have decided to refer to the man who now shares a closet with me as Benjamin Braddock (or B.B. for short) for the purposes of this blog. It's not his name, it's a terribly sadassed movie reference, but it is better than SO or BF or any other acronym, right?

Four Year Old Geography

- "We forgot Zinah's thank you card!"

- "I know honey, she moved to Germany the week after your party and we didn't get it to her in time."

- "We will have to go to Germany to give it to her! We can take a plane! I think I will check on the balcony and see if there is a plane we can take to Germany. Maybe a biplane! They are fast! And then we can take a ferry."

"I don't see any planes, Mommy, I guess we will have to walk."

Tour De Fleece #2

So I spun up some more yarn, this time Karaoke "Mermaid", a 50/50 soysilk and wool blend. Although still chunky and bumpy, this one came out much more evenly. On a side note, this spinning thing is AWESOME, and why have I been waiting so long to start doing it? Dude, I MADE yarn.

Tour De Fleece: Part 1

[caption id="attachment_219" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="First Spin"][/caption]

So this is my first attempt at spinning, with an unidentified white wool roving. I then decided to also try my hand at kool-aid dyeing - this is the final result. A very small amount of a very unevenly spun yarn.

This Way Lies Madness...

So the great big man socks are finally finished.

[wp_caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The Manly Man Socks"][/wp_caption]

These socks were cursed.

Mostly by me.

I bought the yarn in December, not realizing that I needed three balls for giant man feet, not two. Brought it home and promptly dumped it in the stash. Started the socks in March. Quickly realized I was going to run out of yarn when one ball only got my halfway down the foot. Went to buy more yarn, the yarn this store has carried for a zillion years, to find out it was discontinued and put on clearance. No yarn of this kind was to be found anywhere. (Although I admit, I didn't try the internet, because I didn't feel like using my credit card for one ball of yarn. Which would have led me to using my credit card for several balls of yarn.) So I bought a light coloured yarn that I thought I would do the heels and toes with. Started the second sock. Got halfway through and realized I really didn't like the light coloured yarn. Frogged it. Went and bought a dark gray yarn. Made a promise to myself that I would ignore the fact that one heel and cuff was plain gray and one patterned. It would be okay, they would be fraternal twins. I would NOT UNRAVEL  AN ENTIRE SOCK TO SATISFY MY OCD. This was in March.

I dithered about unravelling the sock. Dithered some more. The would be recipient of the socks started to nag. Kept on dithering until there was absolutely no time to reknit the first sock. Mission accomplished.

May rolls in. Started the second sock. Again.

Made it half an inch into the second sock and promptly lost a needle at a friend's birthday party. (Don't ask me why I was knitting at a birthday party - it's an illness.) Searched for the needle. Searched some more. Finally gave up and decided needle was truly lost. Went to three shops before I found another set of 2.5 mm Hiya Hiya DPNs in stock. Started the sock again. Unravelled the toe of the first sock so I could finish the second foot. Had a little cry. Reknit the first toe in dark gray. Finally, finally finished at the end of June.

Now I just need to weave in the ends.

Tour De Fleece

So I have committed myself to the Tour De Fleece . My goals are to actually remove my spindle from the closet, relearn how to spin, and then spin one skein of yarn. We will see how it goes.