And Now for Something Completely Different...

I've decided to do something crazy. Something previously, nearly unheard of by mere mortal me. (I'm sure I dangled a participle or something on that silly sentence.) Anyway, back to something different. Are you ready? Are you sure...OK Here it is...I'm knitting a sweater. My first sweater. Now, that's not the big news. After all, I've spent a lot of time thinking about a sweater to make and what I would want to knit and such. The something different is beyond knitting a sweater. Because, really, I would venture millions of sweaters have been hand knit over the course of history. And each one of those sweaters was knit by a person like me, who at one time said "I think I'll knit a sweater." But the sweater isn't really the "new and different" thing. See, it's like this. I am like many other knitter's out there and I spend most of my time thinking about the next thing I going to knit for.....my partner, my mom, my brother, my niece, my friends and other family....well you get the picture. Or do you? Do you notice the missing person. ME! ME, dammit! Well, missing no more...

And now for something completely different...I'm knitting myself a sweater. And I can't think of a more deserving person. (I hope you are hearing the humor in my voice as you read this.) So, here's the story in highly shortened form. I want to knit a sweater. I'm too cheap to buy enough yarn for a sweater due to the fear of spending money I don't have to make a sweater that I might just completely screw up because I've never done this before. To the rescue, Big Lots and Webs. I was looking through the new Webs catalog and saw a pattern for the Deep Breath Sweater knit with a lace yarn. I had 6 skeins of Patons Lacette in my stash that I got cheap. Voila'. My first sweater is underway. Of course, I couldn't get gauge (I'm at 5 sts/in) so I've basically had to recalculate the entire pattern. However, I knit about 22 rows in the last two days and it's going swimmingly. And after all that build up I don't even have a picture. Well, trust me, it's gonna be awesome so check this space.

OK, time for some pictures and satisfaction. I finished the Alien Waves scarf. I love the way it turned out. It's about 6' long from the single skein of KnitPick's Gossamer. The pooling of the colors could not look any better!

It's really soft and squishy right now. I haven't blocked it yet and I'm a little nervous about it because I don't want to lose the squishyness. I do think it's pretty.So, the garden you ask. Well, I'm a little sad about the garden. First, I am a total novice at the vegetable garden thing, which probably shows. Well, I've got Aphids, which I've seen before and I can pretty well handle. The sad part is my watermelon plant. It has grown like a weed but now something is killing it. It's dying from the base out towards the extending tendrils. It looks like it might be some kind a virus spread by the Aphids, according to one website I found, but I couldn't find anything about how to make it better. So, it appears to be killing the whole plant and I don't hold much hope for watermelon this year. If anyone out there knows anything about growing these things, I'd take any advice.On the bright side, the tomatoes are coming along well. :)