Knitting Mystery Shawl and Ripe Strawberries

Tonight I plan to cast on for the mystery shawl that has been designed for our knitting guild. At our last meeting the first part of the pattern was passed out and it is a chart with no written instructions. Since I detest knitting from a chart I mentioned that I planned to write the pattern out before starting, it save me lots of time and keeps me from becoming frustrated over something that I can prevent. Charts are a lazy designer's way out as far as I'm concerned but I know there are many people that love working from charts. I'm not one of them. Before I had time to go to the library and have the chart blown up and then translate it, the person I was speaking with posted a plea for written instructions on our yahoo site. Needles to say that allowed others to admit their frustration over charts also and the results is someone went ahead and translated it. Now I won't have to, I can just knit – how wonderful. I'm not sure I want to knit the shawl, well that's not entirely true, I don't want to knit it (lace) but I do want to be a part of the guild's knit-along-project. The lady who designed the pattern for our guild was asked to design a shawl but what we actually got is a scarf. Most members appear to be extremely disappointed in the width of it and so instead of knitting with the size 6 needles called for in the pattern, most are using a size 9 to get a bit more width. I am disappointed; not being a tiny, petite lady to begin with I won't be able to wear it as a shawl. I love wearing shawls and wear them often but I'm not much of a scarf person. Still, it will be fun knitting along with the other members, everyone knitting the same pattern but using different colors of yarn. The yarn is Jagger Spun Maine Line 2/8. We order it as a group and by the cone saving quiet a bit on both the yarn and the postage.

Today I was out early and deadheaded the irises then planted two row of okra. That filled my vegetable plot until some of the cool weather vegetables are finished and I can pull them out and plant more summer vegetables. Yesterday I was out really early to weed and plant. I planted wax beans, purple hull peas, speckled butterbeans, and set out my tomato plants. The potatoes are up to about ten inches now and the broccoli and cauliflower are beginning to form heads. I thinned the purple-top turnip greens and picked enough to make a mess as I was thinning them. They are already developing little turnips which I love to cook in with the greens. The cabbages leaves are huge but so far they haven't begin to form heads. DGD was out yesterday afternoon and found a few ripe strawberries. I took a little glass of water and paper towel to the strawberry patch with us and as she picked the berries I washed and dried them off for her to pop in her mouth. She loved picking and eating them. Grand babies are wonderful!

After I finished in the garden this morning I decided to take a day off and run some errands. While I was out I 'just happened' to go by a couple of plant nurseries and so I came home with the back of my wagon filled with plants. Tomorrow will find me out planting and putting in some brick paths. It is really wonderful to be working on my gardens once again. At the end of the day I'm so exhausted that all I want is a bath and the bed. My energies are so slow about returning, or perhaps I'm just getting old, who knows?

I wish everyone could see our iris garden this week. It is bursting with color; orange, yellow, pink, blue, purple, black, white, brown, burgundy, puce, and in every combination. Some have yellow beards and some have white, others may have an orange or purple or even blue beard. All these little differences are what makes the flowers so beautiful and so interesting. Some are old and dog eared (floppy), but none the less still beautiful and some are ruffled, some lacey, and some are the new space-agers with protruding beards and flounces. The weather has really hurt them this year and DH and I are frequently discussing whether it was the hot/cold temperature that hit us while the blossoms were forming or if it is from the abundance of rain we've had this spring. None the less, they are beautiful as you can see here.
Alien Mist Abbey Road Concentina Autumn Apricot
Nest post I want to tell you and show you some of DH's seedlings. Iris he has crossed and hybridized making yet another color, another twist to their parents.