Everything: The Good, The Bad and The Bloody

When last we spoke I was working on the Nutkin socks. The first one had turned out lovely and had been a pleasure to knit. One would have expected the second one to go a lot better. There it sits getting it's last photo before ending up in the UFO pile. I was knitting at night. The colors were dark. I was having trouble seeing the stitches. I slid the whole thing onto stitch holders and set it aside while I just did something else, something lighter in color for the evening. That was some time last week.

Enter something brighter and more daring. This is a Bellatrix sock knit with Lancaster County superwash sock yarn (exact name is on ravelry). Purposely dropping stitches is tons of fun. The yarn is soft, pretty (in person the colors are shades of pink, a bit of purple and a small section of gray to black-very unusual) and a pleasure to knit with. One would expect this to be a win win in the sock knitting world but alas it was not. Much like the Bellatrix of the Harry Potter world this one is being a cruel bitch. I knit along happily loving both the look and the fit until the most recent try on. The foot is loose, really loose though it didn't seem that way when I had just completed the gusset decreases. I must rip back to the last decrease and do a few more. Or maybe rip back to the beginning and start over. Or just cast on the second sock and make the adjustments there and then redo what needs to be done on sock number 1. I don't know what I'll do but I did stick the sock on stitch holders and stuff it in the UFO pile.

What do you do when your knits are giving you a hard time? Cast on something mindless of course. Here we have a plain stockinette sock in Regia Silk color number 186. A little twisted rib at the top for excitement and then lots of simple knitting in the round to help forget what's in the UFO pile. Lately I've been all about the hand dyed yarn with the unique colors and skeins and matching them to a fun exciting pattern. Sometimes what's needed is just plain knitting, nothing fancy, just soothing stockinette.

The other day I went looking for the dogs. Two of them seemed to be missing. Imagine my surprise when I found them all cuddled up together in the bed they usually fight over. Riley didn't even wake up when I took the photo. I think Picasso was hoping I'd take Riley out so he could have more room but I didn't. I turned around and walked away. I know better than to disturb anyone when they're quiet.

Everyone has been posting photos of their flower and vegetable gardens and I decided I had to plant something. For years I have wanted a clematis. Well, I finally bought one. It is a Viticella Venosa Violacea. (I fixed the blog so I can link now!) We have planted more things than I can count by this pole and nothing has lasted. We have carefully amended the soil and planted this according to the directions we received from the guy at the garden center. Hopefully it will survive.

This wasn't the only planting that went on. After a few years of neglecting our garden we decided it was time to plant something so we put in 6 tomato plants, Sweet 100 variety and 1 pumpkin plant. Photos of those if they actually last.

My father is still in the hospital though things have changed a bit. Off and on he'd complained of stomach pain and finally on Monday they ran some tests and discovered his gall bladder was badly infected. It was removed that night and he spent the next few days in ICU. Just last night he was moved back to rehab. His original wound is heeling well.

In other medical drama, N fell in the livingroom (when running in the house-after being told more times than I can count-Don't run in the house), hitting his head on the corner of the wall at the baseboard and splitting his eyebrow open about an inch. Thankfully the doctor at the ER was able to close it with glue.

Since I'm sure I won't post again tomorrow: Happy Father's Day!!