Tuesday, June 21, 2005

What's In The Box?


Mystery Machine and My Current Socks

Today I thought I'd show you my favourite way to carry around my sock knitting. I've tried felted knitted bags (the needles poke out), just stuffing it in my pocket (the needles stick me!), and plastic Ziploc bags (the needles poke out again). I scarfed this cute lunchbox from Thom who won it at work for something-or-other. It was filled with candy which didn't last long, then it sat on our dresser for about a year. I asked for it a couple of times but he seemed reluctant to part with it but finally, since he couldn't find a really good reason to have it sitting around any longer, he let me have it. Well he couldn't figure out what to use it for! It's perfect for socks and I can even get two socks-in-progress in it with both their yarn balls. Even the longer 7" needles fit OK. The box is ready to travel anytime I need a portable project. Scooby-dooby-doo!

As you can see I've finished one of the toddler socks and the other one is in progress. I had only a couple of yards of the Confetti yarn left, all gray and white. That was close! Good thing I divided what I had left into matching balls before I started knitting these things. That little ball in the corner of the box is the second ball for the new sock, not the leftovers from the first one! At least now the 2 socks should be fairly closely matched. The finished one is about 5 1/4" long in the foot. Hope that's big enough to wear at the same time as the hat and cardigan. I never can remember how big a one-year-old's feet are. It's been 30 years since I've had a one-year-old though, so I guess I can be forgiven my memory lapse.

Other Stuff
Today is the first day of summer! It started out wonderfully — warm and sunny — but now it's clouded over and the wind is picking up. Still muggy though. I spent the whole morning in the veggie garden weeding and planting and tying up the mints and yarrow. My hands still smell like feverfew even after a nail scrubbing and a shower! It's such a strong scent, not quite pleasant exactly. I think I'd rather smell like mint. I still need to do the front garden but not today. My physio is making enough money from me already! I should be just about ready for a treatment by my Thursday afternoon appointment. Guess I'd better get out there and put the sides back down on the tomato house before they get wet.

We've been enjoying sitting out on the upper deck having dinner with the dragonfly lights overhead and listening to the water garden. It's doing really well so far this year and looks interesting with the glass bubbles and water plants. Even the fungus that's growing on the spout looks interesting! I'll have to ask Masami if it has wabi-sabi. Of course that depends on whether she likes the "auk" that sits on top or not! He is developing a lovely patina (OK, rust) from sitting outside over the water. Oh and I finally found a spot for the orange metal star where I feel a little more secure about leaving it outside. It's hung from the roof peak of the tomato house where I can see it from the deck or the kitchen window. This star is so cool — it's a foot across, laser-cut and bent so that as it turns it has an optical strobe light effect. However it doesn't turn well by itself and really needs a motorized hook thingy like Christmas decorations sometimes have. No idea where to get one or whether or not it would be OK outside. Maybe I'd better not draw too much attention to the star anyway before someone decides to steal it. Especially if they found out that it's worth $40! (Now you know why I'm nervous about it!) And yes, I think it was too expensive. But too cool! I'll have to take a photo.

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