Gardening!

Once again, hope springs ("Springs"...get it?) eternal, and we've planted a vegetable garden! It's not much yet, but hopefully we can keep the bunnies and bugs at bay (without excess chemicals) and remember to water things faithfully (for some reason, I tend to stop watering sometime around August).

In front, there are planters with salad-fixin's: lettuce...


and tomatoes...



and herbs...



In the back (the former owners' dog-pen), there's broccoli (a first for us):


and onions and garlic: (the big ones are left from last year)



and carrots: (again, the big ones came back from last year)



and green peppers (back row) and canteloupe (another first for us!)



I also planted some spinach, but didn't take a picture.

I'll try to take update pics about once a month - hopefully there'll be something to blog about! Last year the rabbits battled us for a while despite the dog!

Everybody's Doin' It..

Ok, ok, I yield to the peer-pressure of the "7-things meme". Sheesh! It's EVERYWHERE!

The scoop: List 7 random things about yourself and tag up to 7 other people to do the same.

Here goes...

#1 I skipped third grade. (and consequently don't know the state capitals or presidents very well)

#2 I finished college (undergrad) in 3 years so I graduated at age 20 - I had a BA but couldn't legally buy a beer. (note the word "legally")

#3 I do the Sunday crossword in pen. (when my husband and I were dating we would compete to see who had finished the daily crossword faster)

#4 I teach at the same elementary school I attended. (I was in the first-ever graduating class there too. AND my daughter attends there now as well.)

#5 I don't mind snakes, spiders, or most bugs....but CAN. NOT. STAND. Beetle-type bugs - they completely creep me out.

#6 I have ridden a horse bareback. (great fun!)

#7 I am a completely self-taught (thanks to books and the Internet) knitter due mostly to the fact that I am the only person in my entire family that has ever knit!
(I am finally learning new things from my knitting group and guild, however!)

Ok...I tag Jamie and BadAmy and anyone else who hasn't been tagged! (I think everyone else I know with a blog has already been tagged somewhere along the way!)

Mother's Day, Schmother's Day

While my flesh-and-blood offspring was GOOD to me (waffles - check, dishes done - check, laundry - check), the four-legged variety has been a little, um...less so lately. First off, proof positive that a 10 year-old DOES in fact do her own laundry:


Please ignore the perpetual clutter that is my kitchen. She even irons now - I am NOT making that up - she just up and asked me one day if she could iron!

The dogs, however, have decided they'd like to be archeologists - except they dig up nothing but dirt and can't seem to bring in any grant money to fund their digs. Ahem. I give you....exhibit A:

Yes, that is what passes for "yard" at our house - truly shameful. But the front looks green and everything - honest! We even have to mow it!

Here is the alleged perpetrator of the crime:


Looks downright proud of his work, doesn't he?

I also give you exhibit B: (or...Caught at the Scene of the Crime)


We expect our shed to collapse into a hole the size of a small moon crater any day now...sigh.

Anyone got any ideas for stopping the digging? I think the under-the-shed business is directly related to various small critters living there (rabbits and cats have been seen in the vicinity). The random ankle-twisting holes all over the yard? No clue.

What would the Dog Whisperer say?

Knitting!

Why, yes, I HAVE been knitting! I've been super-busy with the rest of my life, but have managed to work on a couple of projects. Neither is finished just yet, but progress has been made!

First up is a sock for N. She picked out the yarn - Opal's Flamingo colorway. I started knitting her a sock over a year ago and by the time it was finished, her foot had gotten too big for it! SO...I started over! (Her foot is now only 1/4 inch smaller than mine! yikes! She's 10!)



Next up is Branching Out - a free pattern from Knitty (www.knitty.com). It's a super-easy beginning lace pattern (some would argue it is only pseudo-lace as every other row is purled). I was able to figure it out by myself and will be teaching it in a class this summer at Yarn Haven (see sidebar for photos of Yarn Haven)! I'm knitting it in this:



Yup, Hand Maiden's Sea Silk in the Forest colorway. I picked it up at the Fiber Fest in BG last month and I haven't regretted it at all! (Which is saying something for a $30 skein of yarn! But it has over 400 yards, so ... yeah.) It's 70% Silk and 30% SeaCell which is 95% Tencel with 5% Sea Weed. It's soft and shiny and PHENOMENAL to knit with. Hunt some down if you can. Do a quick web search to see other's opionions and results!

Here is a better picture to show the shine - it's not quite this shiny in real life, but this is a little truer to life.


Lace always looks so darned scrunchy and aweful while you're knitting it:


It's about 3-4 feet long (pre-blocking). I still have a ton of the skein of Sea Silk left, so I will be knitting for a while longer. I tried to pull it out a bit to show the pattern, but remember - this is still pre-blocking. I promise to post some pics post-blocking eventually!

Williamsburg had SHEEP!

Yea Sheep! There were just a few and they were off to the side grazing in a field.


One was very sociable (for a sheep) and really enjoyed getting scratched behind his ears. Here's a close-up view:


Here's another view:


Apparently, sheep were mostly for eating(!) rather than knitting during Colonial times. They did spin and weave with hemp, linen, and cotton, however (and silk for those that could afford it). We toured the Wythe house (a signer of the Declaration of Independence who tutored Thomas Jefferson AND John Marshall in law!). They had a spinning/weaving house on the property:





There was a knitting shop in regular (non-colonial) Williamsburg, but we were off touring places during all of their operating hours. :( All in all, it was a great trip and one I'd recommend highly. Now that we know Washington DC is only ~7 hours or so by car, I want to go there next. It's downright embarrassing that I'm 37 years old and I've never seen our nation's capital city!

Spring Break!

Yes, we've been on vacation since Monday. Thankfully the hotel has free wireless and the rest of the family sleeps later than me, therefore allowing time to upload pictures of our trip so far! Since this blog is primarily a knitting blog, I decided to create another blog called "The Bastians" (found here: http://www.bastianhouse.blogspot.com)

Check it out to see our latest pics - keep in mind they are un-edited - straight from the camera pics - I haven't had the time (nor motivation) to even name them - there's nearly 100 pics from the last two days!!

This is the first pic I took - we stopped for lunch on the drive and found this retro Denny's Diner - it was very 1952/Happy Days on the inside - fun!

New Kids On the Block!

Yup, the rumors you've heard are true...there's a NEW yarn store in town! (ok, it's in Perrysburg, but close enough!)

The really cool thing is it's owned by two friends of mine that I originally met at a local knitting night!

It's in down town P-burg at 146 E. Second Street.

No webpage yet, but hopefully this summer I will be rectifying that for them. For now, their phone number is 419-872-YARN (9276). They're open M-W-F 10-6, T-Th 10-8 adn Sat 9-4. They'll be open some Sundays starting soon! Go check it out!

I will also be teaching some beginning-level classes there starting in June!

I put a Flickr badge of photos in the sidebar, but here's the front of the shop...it's in a cute little house! (To view any of the pics in the Flickr badge bigger, just double-click on one and it will open up and even let you leave comments on the individual photo!)

Yarn Haven outside
Originally uploaded by toledonative.

Wow...25 more of me out there somewhere...

Kinda weird when you think about it, eh?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 26 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Read much?

Ok, here's a meme that's making the rounds of the blogosphere faster than a virus at my school! It has been duly noted that this is not everyone's top 100 books, and yes, there are many many good ones missing. However, it's fun! I added a twist to the basic directions below and half-bolded, half-highlighted books I've half read but got bogged down in for one reason or another but still feel I want/should finish at some point. Have fun!

Look at the list of books below: *Bold the ones you’ve read* Italicize the ones you want to read* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18 The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (George Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) (en Francais et Englais)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Spring Knitty!

Spring Knitty's up today! Yea Spring! There's a few cute things as always. And a few clunkers (in my view) also as always. Something for everyone I suppose! It is a little frustrating to see so many patterns that make excuses for using "discontinued" yarn/colorways. For Pete's sake (and my sanity!) use yarn I can buy in yer patterns! Re-knit it if need be prior to publication! Sheesh! /end rant.

Anywho... you can find yer little dose of spring (despite the 3" of snow currently in my yard!) right here:

Noro Silk Garden beanie

Noro Silk Garden beanie
Originally uploaded by toledonative.

Knitted this hat very quickly using the free pattern found here: http://acunningplan.typepad.com/andsheknitstoo/patterns/silk_garden_beanie.html

The colorway (no. 201) is mostly deep blues/grays/browns... despite the pinkish tone of this picture. There's a little circle of plum at the very top of the hat, though!

I actually had some left over - maybe enough for another round or two in the body which might just have made it long enough for me.

BUT....it did turn out to be the right size for the teacher across the hall from me's husband who is currently hairless due to chemo to treat essentially terminal esophogeal cancer. And he likes it! And he wears it! And it keeps his head warm!

Which, after all, is the main purpose of a hat!

Fat Tuesday!

Packis 07
Originally uploaded by toledonative.

Happy Packi Day!
Mmmmm.....a perfect plate of packis!
Made the old fashioned way - with lard!
Only in Toledo, people, only in Toledo!

Tomorrow starts (re-starts) the "healthy eating" :(