Vegetables!

All of these are growing on our little porch.


















Tomatoes



















Red Bell Peppers



















Cucumbers

New

New Summer Blouse
(does "blouse" sound antiquated?)













Pattern is McCall's 5388, View B
Fabric is a pale blue cotton with white ginkgo leaves, which I bought at JoAnn Fabrics years ago.
I shortened the whole thing by about 6" because I didn't have as much fabric as I needed. I like this length, though, and probably wouldn't have wanted it longer.
Check out this finishing inside the underarm:













New Finished Sweater

















Pattern is Green Tea Raglan from Interweave Spring 2007
(which I started knitting in Spring 2007)
Yarn is Nashua Creative Focus Superwash in color 11
I ended up with accidental bracelet-length sleeves on this, which I am not sure I don't hate. I'll try wearing it as-is (and maybe I'll love it) but there's a good chance I'm going to snip the sleeves at 3/4 length and reknit the edging. Also the neckline is a little weird, but that I'm getting used to. (I think it stands up like that because I used wool instead of the recommended bamboo.)

Newly Big Tomato Plants

















Okay, so maybe they've been big for a while, but I just wrangled them into a tomato cage and tied them up, so they're newly tall. No buds yet, but I'm thinking any day now.
By the way, the secret to getting leggily overgrown tomato plants into cages is to cut the cages almost all the way up one side and then open them like a clam shell, instead of trying to get them up into a cage without breaking off a lot of branches.

H-Post

Good Things:

• grapefruit with turbinado sugar
• spending gift cards frivolously

Not-So-Good Things:

• fire alarm going off after midnight
• snow
• no Cadbury mini-eggs at CVS (tragic)

Excellent Things:

• spinach and tomato

Bobbles and Sprouts

Introducing Effervescence, a new pattern from iknityouknot:
Effervescence is a bubbly, bobbly beret, which works up quickly as a last-minute gift or an ideal late-winter pick-me-up. Worked in two shades of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, the possibilities for color variation are endless. (I'm thinking black and white, I'm thinking shades of green, I'm thinking I'm going to end up with dozens of berets.)

Of course, for a more subdued look, you can work the pattern in a solid color:Enjoy!

(Many thanks to Ann for test knitting!)

On the farming front, garlic is going strong:

As is spinach:
But radishes are still clearly in the lead:

Spring Planting

In addition to last year's surviving basil and nasturtium, and a very leggy geranium from 2004ish, I will soon have:

• more basil
• carrots
• tomatoes
• spinach
• garlic
  
• strawberries
• marigolds
• candytufts
• lavender
  

I am already beginning to have radishes:


The nice thing about living in a city apartment with no outdoor space is that I can start my seeds as soon as they are available at the hardware store, without having to worry about the appropriate week to transplant them outdoors.

H-Post Eleventy Billion

Good Things:

• publishing new patterns
• days getting longer
• lots of time to knit, and a new knitalong
  
• spring planting

Not-So-Good Things:

• job hunting (blech)
• still freakin' cold out
• and icy
• blogging every four months? (what??)