The Golden Iris

This week is all about knitting at top speed. Super-duper deadline time. This was Tuesday... Yarn Wound Swatched (pocket linings make excellent swatches) And yesterday And today. I think I will actually be done in time. Oh, and it's called Kira , by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, and the yarn is Miss Babs Yowza. For those of you keeping score at home, this all means that I'm trying to knit a 37" seamless raglan cardigan on US#6 needles and dk-weight yarn in about a week. I wish I had a cheering section or something. Now back to knitting. P.S. Word to the wise: writing a blog post with photos, using the iPhone, is kind of hard. The good news behind this is that I have sold my old MacBook and a new MacBook Air will be winging it's way to me very soon. Lucky me!

And no, that's not some euphemism for "visiting Argentina with questionable company". Over the weekend we flew out to New Jersey to attend a big family reunion and surprise birthday party with my husband's big extended family. We stayed in a lodge near the Delaware Water Gap. There was hiking, and swimming, and lots of food and good company. I met lots of new people, all of whom were universally welcoming and generous. I also got to meet my new nephew, who is my favorite age at 10 months (meaning they can laugh and play, but can't talk back or run away). The hiking was a bit more vigorous than I'd imagined it would be. The trails were hilly and liberally littered with rocks, forcing me to watch my feet with every step so I didn't twist an ankle. But we saw big snakes and a deer - other people saw a bear - and climbed up to the top of an observation tower to see the ridges and valleys, climbed down to the Delaware River, passing a waterfall and going for a ...

Let's start off by saying I don't sew often. Yes, I sewed my prom dresses and I've made a couple of quilts, but I don't think of myself as a sewer or a seamstress - or now apparently the word is "sewist" which, irritatingly, isn't a word but does solve the homograph problem with "sewer". Linguistic complaints aside, I have been doing a little sewing. I decided it was time for a craft apron, because in a little less than two weeks, I'm headed to Sock Summit in Portland to join Miss Babs and her crew in a vendor booth. I'm excited! Back when I worked at fibre space, craft aprons were part of our uniform. The lovely Kel (sorry Kel, I forgot and thought Becky had made the first ones because Becky does so much sewing! Oops!) made them for us out of funky Ikea fabric (yes, Ikea carries fabric !) and each one was different and fun. They're great to stash a calculator, measuring tape, notepad, pen, phone, or whatever else you need, keeping ...

Let me start by saying I love Knitty . Funky free patterns from big name designers AND people like you and me - what's not to love? Imagine my surprise, then, when I was in a yarn shop the other day and I overheard that the new girl there had never heard of it. Thankfully it sounded like she was excited to discover it. Knitty's First Fall issue went live a few weeks ago. I fell in love with Cecily Glowik MacDonald 's Leaflet , which is a sweet little sleeveless cardigan with a fresh leaf detail right down the back. Bonus: it's knit in big yarn on US #10 needles! So I made a phone call to my good friends at fibre space , and soon thereafter there was a nice package of yarn on my doorstep. I'm trying out the new-for-fall Berroco Voyage , which is a knitted tube of alpaca and polyester. It's soft, lofty, warm, and knits up so fast. It's been nice to zip along on a little something for me. And seeing as I went up to San Francisco over the weekend and froze my bu...

Finally. For what seemed like the longest time, my tomato plants were flowering but not setting fruit. Today I went out to visit them and discovered that tiny tomatoes have finally started to grow. A vendor at the farmer's market had many unusual types of tomato seedlings, so this year I am trying new (old) varieties. I love Green Zebras, with their beautiful green and yellow stripes and good flavor - so I chose a Green Zebra hybrid called Copia (which will be yellow and red striped). I also got a Rose de Berne, which is another medium-sized tomato that should be pink and very productive - or so the tomato websites tell me. Now for more waiting, but I know that delicious tomatoes will be well worth it.