(no subject)
Blah blah blah lurkingcakes. Blah blah blah I’m back now. Probably.
I’ve been knitting. And gardening. And listening to country music again. And I might have found a new fandom to play in (Psych). I’m also trying to declutter my house. Um, again. And I might be sending my resume to a cool-sounding job in another department where I work - except I seem to be doing everything I possibly can to avoid writing the damn cover letter because I’m afraid they’ll think I’m not qualified for the position (even though I KNOW I can do it).
Under the cut: knitting and gardening. I’ll talk about the rest another time.
Knitting
I think in my last post I mentioned that I learned how to crochet again after many years of not doing it. I made a scarf, started another one, and then… I took a knitting class. Knitting was hard. In crochet, you only have one hook and one live stitch. In knitting, you have at least two needles and lots of live stitches. It took a while to get the hang of it without getting my fingers tangled in the yarn *cough*, but I fell absolutely in love with knitting. My favorite thing right now is knitting socks on double pointed needles. I’m almost finished with my third pair. It fascinates me the way yarn can be shaped it into a 3-dimensional piece of clothing. It also impresses the hell out of non-knitters.
I’ve also made a bunch of dishcloths, and I’ve started several scarves that I haven’t finished yet.
I want to learn how to make a sweater. And those gorgeous, delicate lace shawls I see on knitting blogs and Ravelry. Basically, when it comes to knitting, I want to learn how to do everything.
Gardening
Considering the amount of tomato plants I bought for the garden this year, you’d think I’d have a helluva lot more tomatoes right now. They have some sort of blight that makes a perfectly healthy, bright yellow tomato flower suddenly blacken and wither right there on the plant. The weird thing is that not all the flowers on any one plant will be affected. There’ll be three blossoms next to each other on one branch, and two of them will wither and die and the third one will grow into a perfect, gorgeous tomato. I’m growing mostly heirlooms this year, but it’s happened to some hybrids, too. And some heirlooms aren’t as badly affected as some others.
I’m having better luck with peppers so far. I planted yellow bell, red bell, Lipstick, Topepo, Ancho, Cayenne and Italia. Except for the red bell (which I planted really late), they all have a nice amount of peppers on them.
Two of the last plants I bought for the summer were a cucumber and a honeydew. I was at Home Depot on a very hot day and I was drawn to all the poor, parched plants. Doesn’t anybody bother to water them on hot days? I grabbed the cucumber and the honeydew and when I got them home I replanted them into nice big containers and gave them some organic fertilizer and plenty of water.
The cucumber and the honeydew are now taking over my backyard. They’re both HUGE. I’m getting lots of cukes, and the honeydew has a fruit on it that seems to double in size every time I go out there to look at it. I tend to anthromorphize everything, so I like to think they’re grateful for the rescue…
I have corn, too, which I've never grown before. I planted six corn seeds. Four actually germinated and I planted the seedlings in the big pot that the peas were in earlier this spring.** One of them didn’t make it, so I have three left and I’m watching cobs starting to form. Next year I want to plant more seeds, because you need at least two plants for pollination, and I feel like three is cutting it awfully close.
All three zucchini plants have already withered away into nothing. One of them - a variety called 8-Ball - did give me three very cute, perfectly round fruits before falling over and dying. I made zucchini pancakes with them, and they were delicious. Oh well, the eggplants are doing good so far…
** peas give nitrogen to the soil, which corn really thrives on. The peas, btw, were incredibly delicious. I may end up trying for a fall crop, but I’d have to plant them very soon. Like today, which I don’t have time for.
I’ve been knitting. And gardening. And listening to country music again. And I might have found a new fandom to play in (Psych). I’m also trying to declutter my house. Um, again. And I might be sending my resume to a cool-sounding job in another department where I work - except I seem to be doing everything I possibly can to avoid writing the damn cover letter because I’m afraid they’ll think I’m not qualified for the position (even though I KNOW I can do it).
Under the cut: knitting and gardening. I’ll talk about the rest another time.
Knitting
I think in my last post I mentioned that I learned how to crochet again after many years of not doing it. I made a scarf, started another one, and then… I took a knitting class. Knitting was hard. In crochet, you only have one hook and one live stitch. In knitting, you have at least two needles and lots of live stitches. It took a while to get the hang of it without getting my fingers tangled in the yarn *cough*, but I fell absolutely in love with knitting. My favorite thing right now is knitting socks on double pointed needles. I’m almost finished with my third pair. It fascinates me the way yarn can be shaped it into a 3-dimensional piece of clothing. It also impresses the hell out of non-knitters.
I’ve also made a bunch of dishcloths, and I’ve started several scarves that I haven’t finished yet.
I want to learn how to make a sweater. And those gorgeous, delicate lace shawls I see on knitting blogs and Ravelry. Basically, when it comes to knitting, I want to learn how to do everything.
Gardening
Considering the amount of tomato plants I bought for the garden this year, you’d think I’d have a helluva lot more tomatoes right now. They have some sort of blight that makes a perfectly healthy, bright yellow tomato flower suddenly blacken and wither right there on the plant. The weird thing is that not all the flowers on any one plant will be affected. There’ll be three blossoms next to each other on one branch, and two of them will wither and die and the third one will grow into a perfect, gorgeous tomato. I’m growing mostly heirlooms this year, but it’s happened to some hybrids, too. And some heirlooms aren’t as badly affected as some others.
I’m having better luck with peppers so far. I planted yellow bell, red bell, Lipstick, Topepo, Ancho, Cayenne and Italia. Except for the red bell (which I planted really late), they all have a nice amount of peppers on them.
Two of the last plants I bought for the summer were a cucumber and a honeydew. I was at Home Depot on a very hot day and I was drawn to all the poor, parched plants. Doesn’t anybody bother to water them on hot days? I grabbed the cucumber and the honeydew and when I got them home I replanted them into nice big containers and gave them some organic fertilizer and plenty of water.
The cucumber and the honeydew are now taking over my backyard. They’re both HUGE. I’m getting lots of cukes, and the honeydew has a fruit on it that seems to double in size every time I go out there to look at it. I tend to anthromorphize everything, so I like to think they’re grateful for the rescue…
I have corn, too, which I've never grown before. I planted six corn seeds. Four actually germinated and I planted the seedlings in the big pot that the peas were in earlier this spring.** One of them didn’t make it, so I have three left and I’m watching cobs starting to form. Next year I want to plant more seeds, because you need at least two plants for pollination, and I feel like three is cutting it awfully close.
All three zucchini plants have already withered away into nothing. One of them - a variety called 8-Ball - did give me three very cute, perfectly round fruits before falling over and dying. I made zucchini pancakes with them, and they were delicious. Oh well, the eggplants are doing good so far…
** peas give nitrogen to the soil, which corn really thrives on. The peas, btw, were incredibly delicious. I may end up trying for a fall crop, but I’d have to plant them very soon. Like today, which I don’t have time for.