I hope to have the completed fingerless mitts from bamboo yarn to show you tomorrow. Next on the agenda is a pair of heart-themed mittens in Karaoke which is made from soy silk (tofu manufacturing leftovers I guess.) Also, this week I want to do a series of posts on how to create your own stranded knitting patterns - I just need to gather all the links.

Go check out these gorgeous mitten kits from Finland. All the yarns are naturally-dyed with plants and mushrooms. I'm really trying to resist by telling myself I already have 45 million pairs of stranded mittens and that it is currently the middle of June in the hot desert.

I have to get busy cooking. Every Sunday I work hard to use up the fruits and veggies from the previous week because on Mondays we get the next box of organic goodies from our CSA (community-supported agriculture). To find a CSA near you check out Local Harvest. Here's a photo of the contents of one of our recent boxes. Our wonderful CSA, Los Poblanos Organics, is a year-round CSA with items from regional organic farms. That yellow watermelon was seriously good.



And here is some more New Mexico sunset action for you.

Wow! Panda Cotton really takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Can you believe I've ripped out this fingerless mitt 4 times so far? The yarn still looks great after all that abuse. The first time I ripped I decided to make the mitts longer. The second time was because I wanted to change one of the patterns. The third time I ripped to remove the doodads between the stars because it was messing up the gusset colorwork. The fourth time I ripped to change the gusset. Now that I've seen the photo I realize what I need to do to change the gusset again. Yes, that involves more ripping.



I really do like the bamboo in this yarn though. Can anyone recommend any other bamboo yarns I should try?

Bubbles the house rabbit and Jack the cat still don't like each other after five months. Occasionally I will see them coexisting peacefully but it mainly involves either Bubbles annoying Jack by sitting on his tail or Jack will hide behind a door and scare Bubbles when she enters the room. She then goes under a bed and thumps for a while.

At least they agree on what team is going to win the World Series this year.






Poor Jack looks demented in every single photo I take of him.

I'm working on a little booklet of 4 stranded knitting patterns using some of the new "green" fibers. Unfortunately Elann's Canapone hemp yarn is probably not going to make the cut. I love this yarn for its shininess but as you can see from the top swatch below, it is just too fine. That swatch was knit using size 0 dpns and the colorwork is still too loose.



The bottom swatch uses Crystal Palace Panda Cotton which is a bamboo/cotton/nylon blend. I was originally planning some summer gloves with lacy cuffs but this yarn is very prone to splitting. For some reason splitty yarns don't bother me in colorwork but they drive me insane in lace knitting. I think this swatch may become some fingerless mitts instead.

We planted a vegetable garden with a unique solution for our many gophers, cottontails, squirrels and other plant-munching creatures. DH made containers of chicken wire with a double wire bottom. He dug the holes, inserted the wire container and some dirt, and then the plant. I have been gardening disastrously long enough in New Mexico that I still think this method has only a 10% chance of success.

In the photo above you see some tomatoes planted right next to our trombe wall. A trombe wall is a passive-solar design element; basically it collects heat due to the windows right next to an earthen wall. There are vents that shoot heat into the house through the trombe wall in winter. Supposedly the angle of the sun is supposed to keep the trombe wall from heating up in summer but ours is always quite warm to the touch so I'm not sure there are any energy savings when you add in the extra cooling costs. Anyway, we thought the tomatoes might like the extra heat there.

Which One, which One....

I will be on Jury duty tomorrow. I have never been called upon to serve as a juror, neither in France nor here in the US. I am actually excited about it, as this should be an interesting, and educational experience for me. But before I go, I have a serious problem to solve. Some of you may be wondering whether I am trying to reconcile my experience of the inquisitorial French legal system, with the adversarial American justice system, in order to go to court tomorrow with an open mind, leaving behind this cultural bias. Well, yes I have been thinking about the differences between the 2 legal systems, but there is another pressing question on my mind. What should I bring with me to court? Knitting or Needlepoint, that is the question!




As far as knitting goes, I am one sleeve away from being done with the sweater for R.. Father's day is dangerously close and the sweater though completely inappropriate for the weather would be a really nice present. I could be done by the end of tomorrow, but it is really hot, and I don't know how well air conditioned the courthouse is, the sweater is very bulky and heavy at this point (it does have to cover my 6 foot 3 husband!). Knitting the sleeve is pretty much thoughtless.



As far as needlepoint goes, I am deep in the middle of the Kimono. The project is very portable, and weather friendly. I have even bought a non scissors yarn cutter. I could make quite a lot of progress on it. On the downside, I can't give that to my husband for father's day, though he has been very appreciative of the piece, which means I still have to either knit the sweater or find another present.

I hate having to make these kinds of decisions. I could take both with me, but then again, the courthouse security might find it odd that I am carrying so many bags. And furthermore I would only be postponing the decision. I can just see myself in the waiting room, talking to myself and begging my projects to help me decide! I might have to just use the very old but proven scientific method of "pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram." (iny, miny,miny, mo)

So here we go, pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram... Knitt... I'll just do it again to be sure! Pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, am, stram, gram... Needlepoint! It has been SCIENTIFICALLY decided that I will take my needlepoint!!

The Colors of Life

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments about Miche. I am feeling a little better today, and have been focusing a lot on my work. I got absorbed in creating my colorways for this week, and creating them gave me a lot of joy. I researched antique carpets, embroidery, and tapestries, and feasted on the colors and designs.
All these beautiful works of art became my inspiration for this week's SockPixie colorways, and I hope that you will enjoy them.



Tapestries, and needlework made a big come back in my life this week. I pulled a needlepoint canvas that I had started years ago out of a storage box, and started working on it again, and as it always worked in the past, needlepointing did its magic on me. I find that when I needlepoint, I delight in the colors, in the shapes that appear, and I loose myself in the creative stitchery.
So here is a picture of the needlepoint in question. It represents my favorite street in San Francisco, Lombard Street. (The needlepoint is actually finished, but I do not have a picture of the finished project yet.I have even started a new one, a kimono this time, and I will share that with you later.)

Today, the most beautiful thing happened.My Passion Flower plant, bloomed. Life is marvelous...

My Little Miche

I need to take a moment and stop to reflect on the last few days. Family matters kept me busy over the last 2 weeks. Finally as things were settling down, our little world was shaken again. It is so hard to express my sadness at the loss of our little cat Miche. Miche passed away last night in our oldest daughter's arms with all of us around him. We will miss you Miche. Thank you for all the love you gave us. You will remain in our hearts forever.

I've been having computer issues but at least that has given me a lot of time for spinning with my spindles. I'm over halfway done on the angora blend.



For Memorial Day DH took me on his favorite hike in the Sandia Mountains.



I'm glad I wasn't around when this Ponderosa pine fell.



This squirrel looks a bit demented - I do love the long ears though.




We even saw a UFO. I guess it is some sort of rainwater collection device.