And Now Back To Regularly Scheduled Knitting...

I didn't join the Ravelympics this month or last month's Tour de Fleece because I felt as if I had a lot going on already, and I didn't want to be pressured. It kind of felt as if imposing a deadline would have sucked all of the fun right out of something I normally love to do. That is for me, right now. I do want to take part in both at some point in the future, but this summer just wasn't right.

Turns out I'd have done just fine if I had joined in. I'm churning stuff off the needles and my wheel like crazy.

Behold...Ariann! Blocking:

I finished Ariann late last night, including weaving in all of the ends. Now all it needs are some nice buttons. I'll model later after it has dried. Here's a close-up of the pattern:

I enjoyed this project a lot. I do have to say though, I'm not going to miss trying to take decent pictures of shiny black yarn. My photography skills are pretty lame and the black shiny just shows off my incompetence in that department.

Remember my quandary? Well I opted for the green/blue/gold 100% Tencel from Tactile (go visit their on-line store - it's up!). Here it is:

Which was spun into this:

And then plied (2-ply) into this:

And then I started knitting this:

It's the Montego Bay Scarf (IK Summer 2007) by Amy Singer. A great scarf for hand-spun. This one is my 3rd, and it's going to be mine, all mine.

The Tencel definitely works better when blended with another fiber. The shiny is pretty and it's not hard to spin but it doesn't seem to have much drape. The colors, however, are fab and I can't wait to see how it knits up!

I've also started the February Lady Sweater - though barely - all I've done is swatch. I'm using some Noro Cash Iroha from my stash - in color #86 which is discontinued. It shows up substantially brighter here than it really is. It's pretty close to a dark denim.

And here's the swatch. Thrilling, huh?! Try and contain your excitement.


Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch, Grandma's Fighting Off The Zucchini...

These are 4 that escaped detection for a while; we've picked 11 more since then.

And harvested some potatoes!

When I first started gardening a million years ago (I am that old) I never considered growing potatoes because they're inexpensive and I thought they'd use up too much garden space. But I eventually decided to give them a try and wow. I had no idea how much better a home-grown potato can be. We grow ours in a potato bin - sort of a cylindrical thingy with holes that lets you grow a whole bunch of them in a smaller space. Ours is different from the one that's linked but it's a similar concept.

We opted for a few different kinds of potato - Yukon Gold, red, blue, and a few more exotic types - such as Stay-Puft Marshmallow

And what my husband refers to as 'Purple Poop' (don't Google that - I did and I'm now scarred for life):

See? Purple inside too. Kathy, that was for you.