Sunday, July 3, 2011

Sunday afternoon matinee

Dearest blog readers, here come some updates:
Garden News:
First and foremost, I have a garden, that’s news in itself.  My last post show updates from my little weensy garden space, and now I present to you the progress report:
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The back of the yard garden, which has exploded with zucchini and radishes.  The giant patch of overgrown green you’re looking at is the most successful batch of plants.  To the left, if you squint real hard, you might be able to make out the carrots and the single green bean vine that’s clinging desperately to the fence.  The lettuce was a dead end, I never saw a single plant.  They have since been dug up and replaced with a more formal spot for my exploding tomato plants.  I didn’t have the heart to choose which ones got to live and die, so I let them all live, and now I have 5 tomato plants.  Only 4 actually fit in this teensy patch of garden…
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….the other one gets to live it up bachelor style in his own plant pot on the porch, next to the saucy downtown herbs.  The tomato cages are courtesy of Momma Vrock, who let a giant tree fall on them, so they are mangled and twisted and look like they belong in a Tim Burton inspired garden for twisted and mangled things.  I bent them back into shape as best I could.
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The shady corner garden to pretty plants that we don’t plan to eat.  They’ve all grown bigger, and I really should have weeded before taking this picture.  Please don’t assume I’m a horrible garden mother, I do eventually get around to pulling out the offensive plants.
Keep your pants on readers, now we’re getting to the knitting news:
Remember the humble beginnings of my Laminaria shawl?
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Ummmmmmm, it’s DONE!
Laminaria completed
It was a long road to get there, as you may recall…
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(imagine sappy recap music, tenderly playing as we stroll through my blog montage of how this glorious shawl came to be)
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Laminaria lace detail
Laminaria with vrock
Waaaaa-bam!
I also just bought a shawl pin yesterday, a sassy little wooden number that won’t weigh down my delicate lace.

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Also, I may or may not have finished a baby sweater.  No big.
Ms. Bear is modeling here, showing off the finger details of the owl cables.
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The completed little package, with my personal care instructions card.  I had 500 of them made (vistaprint.com, love it!), and I left the spaces blank to write in the washing and drying instructions for all of my handknit things.  I also included my personal “handknit with love by vrock” stamp on the back.
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The finished and wrapped package, ready to ship to Virginia for Fuzzyhead’s cousin’s baby, arriving in August.

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And late last night and this morning, I started and finished a pair of felted slippers.  These are French Press Slippers, from Fresh Press Knits, and I love them.  I’ve loved them since I first saw them on Ravelry, and I only very recently got together the gumption to actually purchase the pattern and make them myself.
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Here they are drying on my porch.  I used two strands of grey and one strand of black for the three-strands-held-together-extra-thick soles.  This was partly because I didn’t think I had enough grey yarn, and partly because I liked the idea as a design feature.  This is my tester pair of these slippers so I can mass produce them for Christmas presents this year.  So far Slim Jim and Hamster are getting a pair, and considering these took me a grand total of 3 hours to make, I might just make them for everyone I know.  We’ll see.
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The flaps for the slippers, drying on my clothsline.  I wonder what my neighbours must think of the knitting-related things I hang on the cloths line.

Also, I’m into paper crafts now.  To accompany the owl baby sweater to Fuzzyhead’s cousin, I made this little card:
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We just need to sign it, and then the whole kitten caboodle can be sent off.  I was waiting for more than a week to zip to the fabric store to get buttons to sew on to the card. 
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This is my collection of card making stuff.  I bought a card organizer recently, and that sparked my obsession with making my own cards instead of paying way too much for them from Chapters.  My collection of embroidery floss from my childhood days of making friendship bracelets really came in handy for the stitching details on the cards.  Oooooo, I’m so crafty!
And finally, I will leave you with images from my Canada Day celebration on Friday:
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Actually, just cupcake pictures.  The fireworks, puppydogs, and ice cream party was in full swing, and I make ice cream cone cupcakes so we could avoid the giant line-up at DQ.
Onward,
vrock