My How My Garden Grows...

I can't help but name this post after the garden and I hope when you see the pictures, you'll understand why. This is going to be a photo intensive post so I hope you don't mind.
First, knitting. I've been continuing to work on what I am affectionately calling the "Alien Waves" scarf. It's a simple drop stitch scarf pattern that I'm using some KnitPicks "Gossamer" yarn I got on clearance. I really like how the colors are pooling and forming a second pattern. The scarf is really squishy and soft and light as a feather. Really cool! I've probably got about another 2 feet worth of yarn left since I just plan to knit to the end of the strand. It should end up being a nice length.
I also decided Eva needed a little sun hat to match her halter top for summer. I went to Ravelry looking for a cute hat pattern and I came across this cute pattern called "Sun Hat" from Adorabubble Knits. I've called my version "Sunflower Hat" for obvious reasons. I am thrilled with the results and can't wait to give it to her when I meet her for the first time next month. So if Momma or Daddy checks out the blog before then, oh well, Eva will still be surprised. I'm thinking about adding little chin straps to help keep it on her.
Lastly, I'm still working on the Roundabout Socks. Still enjoying the yarn, pattern, colors, and everything. I guess you can't complain about that. I just need to sit down and finish them. I will hopefully make some progress over the next couple of weeks during my turn to ride in the carpool.
OK, now to the garden. First, if anyone has actually been reading these posts and tracking the progress of the garden, I'm sorry I let you down by not posting last week. I just got behind. I did take pictures though, so all is not lost. So, here's the overall garden pic from last week. Things are growing like crazy!
And, my favorite plant to track the progress of, the Watermelon. This thing is amazing! It grows so fast and I think we're going to struggle with it wanting to take over the entire garden.
And now for this morning's picture. Wow! Every time I look out the back window and see this garden growing, I am just amazed. We seem to have some aphids on the tomatoes so I've been spraying them with Ivory solution to try and get rid of the little buggers. Even with this little issue, things are still just trucking along.

Check out the watermelon plant. This thing is a monster! It just keeps expanding and expanding. We have three little yellow blooms and I can't wait to see something happen to those.Also, you know how I talked about having a couple of blooms on the tomatoes that wouldn't amount to anything, well I guess I don't know what I'm talking about. I went out this morning to take pictures and weed and I came across two good size tomatoes on the plant. Now, the problem is, I thought this was the Cherry Tomato plant and these two tomatoes are a little bigger then a golf ball. They are not Cherry Tomatoes. I don't know what they are but they look awesome!!So, time to get a walk in this afternoon and then maybe some knitting later today. I hope so because afterall, that's what Sunday's are for!

She Knits Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round...

...like a sock, baby. For those of you who can't follow my obscure song reference in the title, you probably didn't live the formative years of your life (your teens) in the 80's. Oh well, obscure or not, the tune is running through my head as I write so I decided it made a good title.

Alright now, on to knitting. I didn't do a whole lot of it this week but what I did do was on the Roundabout Sock for S. I had hoped to get these finished for her birthday, but I have severly slacked and they are making slow progress. However, they look great and they fit her so far so, YEAH! Also, the highlight of my knitting week was the time I spent in the basement of my office building waiting out the Tornado warning on Friday afternoon. It was only about 20 minutes, but hey, I officially got paid to knit. You just can't beat that!

So, since I don't have a lot of knitting this week, you get a bit more garden. The garden is looking great. I spent about 45 seconds yesterday and weeded it. He, he. I love that. This black weed mat stuff may not look the greatest, but it is AWESOME!! We have evil weeds and some crazy grass from the neighbors yard that tends to over run everything in sight. However, so far, this weed mat is holding it back. Rock on!!
As you will see below, the tomatoes are growing like crazy. This one's got some little early blooms but nothing that will produce fruit just yet. The plants are filling out and growing like crazy.
The last picture here is of the watermelon plant. I have no idea if we will be able to get a watermelon, but I cannot wait. The plant is growing like crazy so hopefully that's a good sign. Well, that's all for now, have a nice week.

Mosaic Knitting ROCKS!

As the title implies (I'm not known for subtlety), I am somewhat enamored with the idea of Mosaic knitting. But let me back up and tell you what led me here. I've been feeling the need for some new knitting reads and I am out of money so I decided to turn to my local library. I LOVE the library. Did you know that when you go there, you can get as many things as you can carry and you don't even have to give them money when you leave. And you can keep these things (books, CDs, books on CD) for 3 weeks. Holy cow! I love it. Anyway, I decided to check out the library one day and I looked through all 138 title that came up in the subject search for knitting. I found Anticraft, Fitted Knits, EZs Knitting Glossary Video, and my new favorite, Mosaic Knitting by Barbara G Walker. Now let me tell you, I knew nothing of this book but I have heard of Barbara Walker, of course, so I decided to just check it out. Wow, this stuff is cool!
So the picture is of my first attempt. Simply put, Mosaic knitting is using two colors with slip stitches to make patterns. It is so easy because you only carry one color at a time and by slipping you stitches in a particular order, you make the two color pattern. My first attempt you see above taught me it would look better with two yarns with more contrast but I am hooked on the technique, I can already tell. I've marked a number of different patterns to try and I can see this a great little addition to some upcoming projects. :) Now the funny thing is, I went to look up the book to link it here and it is shown as "unavailable" since it was published in 1976. Well, here's the funny part, I just got the new KnitPicks catalog, and guess what's in there...right! the new version of this book. It looks like the Knitting Gods are looking down on me because I think I will need to buy this one. It's in my cart now so I just need to come up with the funds. Did I mention I have Moccasins for sale on Etsy. ;)

I also spent some time this week working on my Alien Waves scarf. I'm about half way through as near as I can figure. I still love the look of the scarf and it is so light and airy. S is pretty excited about it too. The colors continue to pool just right so I have high hopes for the whole thing.

Lastly, I've made some progress on S's socks. I not as fast as a lot of folks out there but these seem to be moving along pretty well. I really like this yarn (Plymouth, Happy Feet) and the way the colors are moving around the leg. The pattern is super easy and makes a neat effect. We're gong to a picnic today and I think I'm going to take this sock along and see if I can make some progress there.
Lastly, the garden pic for this week. Things are growing nicely and seem to be fully rooted in. We've had so much rain this spring that the peppers seem a bit wilted and I think its because they just can't get dry. Hopefully we'll get a break here soon. It has been nice to not have to lug water out there each day, I guess. Anyway, I am really looking forward to watching this grow and documenting the process over the summer. I think it will be really neat to go back in the Fall and see all the pics. I hope you like it too.