Finding Myself..

I really blog at:

http://fullofstitches.com/blog/

just needed a blogger name :)

More SWoD & A Concert

I was working on making AuntGerry's socks when my dear husband IM'd and asked if I wanted to go to a concert. I asked who was playing, Beck he replied. Isn't that a beer, I asked.
(Gerry's socks earlier - better light)

So, I packed the children in the van and headed to his work. I stopped by Chipotle, grabbed some dinner, and brought that with. They had a stage set up in the midst of the main campus.
(Ben'll appreciate the signage -though I can't read it at this size: "Yahoo Hack Day")

We ate in the break room in building A, then went upstairs for something at Ben's desk. He wandered out on the bridge between buildings for a view and we ended up staying there for the concert. There were only a couple others there, mostly for pictures. The children had free run of the bridge and were dancing and running around.

They had these puppets of the band and their own stage in the middle (see men in black) The screen mainly showed the puppets, though they did run around with "Puppet Cam" on and show the band and audience a couple times. Whatever the band was doing, the puppets were immitating.

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Patience..

I've been learning patience.. It's a long, slow, agonizing process.

We've been talking about taking a trip to OK to visit this autumn. My parents live in CO and Gramma's came to live with them earlier this year -or was it last year? My memory's as bad as when I was little. I know she was there in Jan when we visited last. Anyway, the plan was fly to CO, visit, drive to OK, visit, fly home. I'm half dreading going with the way my family generally interacts, but I feel I really must.

My midwife appointment is tomorrow and I need to be able to schedule my next one! This is, of course, way less important than the visits, but having dates by tomorrow's appointment was my goal.

It turns out that my 80+ year old Gramma is an illegal immigrant (we're all chuckling on this one). Her parents moved here from England when she was an infant and she was raised in the States. She married an American man and had 6 children, 5 of whom are still alive today. When she moved from the east coast to live with my parents, the intention was to find an assisted living place and let her live there for a few years (she enjoys living on her own). Well, her driver license is expired and with 9-11 and all that, they're coming down on anyone without proper documents. My parents worked to get documents from Ellis Isle, but there are none! In order to 'fix this' will take 2-3 years and the doctors are telling my parents that she is probably in her last weeks. (Knowing my family, that *could* take a couple years)

My oldest sister, Sarah, also lives in CO. She's married and has a little boy my BB's age -3 days older to be precise. My sister has MS. We found this out in 2002(?) when she was hospitalized for almost seizure like problems. She's been having flare up on and off and may be in the hospital today. I'm thinking of giving her my Sock Wars socks because they're a bit loose on me and her feet are bigger, so I'll have to keep the floors extra clean to keep grime off them ;). She adores handmades, and if I don't have the time this next week with making a pair for Gramma and cleaning/packing to go, then I'll offer her these scrumptious socks.

Of Pumpkins & Roses

TJ had me buy a pumpkin to make a bird feeder a week or so ago. It's been sitting on my counter as an extra paperweight since. So, on Monday or Tuesday, whilst awaiting my Sock Wars fate, I cut it up and steamed it. (Note: it's easiest to peel the pumpkin *after* it's been cooked) When it finished steaming, I skinned it and mashed it and put it in a container in the fridge. This morning, I was able to get to the store to buy more milk -we were out- and when I returned home I made Pumpkin Muffins:
(note to self: 2cups= ~16oz can)
There were a dozen to start, but the children and I ate them all up! They were so good!

Last week, I'd started on a 'sampler' from Ethnic Socks & Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Last night, I pulled the second one out again. I'd only finished to the row above adding waste yarn for the heel insert. I started looking around for my little ball of green that I'd been using and realized that it was the same yarn that I'd used in the green almost Sock Wars socks that I'd ended up finishing for Ben.

That pair had eaten up *all* the balls of Jo Sharp green that I'd had lying around. There was no more of that green!

I started looking around and found the Arrrrgyles. They were using a green yarn.. It wasn't far off the Jo Sharp! A bit more celery than sage, and smoother, but when it's just for the leaves, who's really going to take notice? I pulled out 2 lengths, folded each in half so that I could knit the 2 ankle motifs with doubled strands and got to work. Before going to bed, I had those leaves done and had begun the red for the flowers.

Today, I finished the sock legs and turned it inside out to weave in the majority of the ends. I found a tiny ball of the original green in there!!!! It was just enough to work the heel motif and tip! Now, I won't worry about them wearing out at different rates because they're worked in the same yarn. :) I did, however, forget in the mean time what I'd done to the first heel.. this time I followed the directions a tad bit better and it came out fine. I'd made the decreases on the heels 1 stitch away from the joins on the first, so I did the same on the second. But, I know I did the decreases in a weird order on the first sock to make it deeper.. Oh well.

I'll have to get them on BB sometime, she does make that a challenge! We've been running around barefoot all summer and now that the mornings are cooler, socks are becoming required. Perhaps there's too much Aunt Sue in her and she just doesn't want to let the summer end!

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R.I.P. from Sock Wars

The mourners have gathered and paid their respects in this time of my passing from the game of Sock Wars.


Sock Wars was a fun game and if it comes again next year, I'll be sure to sign up! Even with technical issues, most of us were able to work together to have a great time. What better way to go? Killed by comfort.

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Sock Wars Heel Charts

My wonderful husband helped make this for me. Enjoy, Sock Warriors!

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Twiddle…

What are you doing while waiting, oh Sock Warriors? I'm expecting 2 packages by Thursday, which will arrive first?

Sunday, my husband built me 2 garden boxes and set up my garden! So, my son and I went and planted the seeds today. If you saw my previous post, you know that I've got a little sideyard/kennel thing that I hoped to convert. I must admit, Ben did a fine job of converting it!


The new raised beds he built and filled. We moved the strawberries & bell pepper in to the corner (I'm afraid they make take over the walkways, heehee.. strawberries everywhere!)


The hot pepper was moved inside the gate and surrounded by flowers for the children. The pallet and board became a nice staging area.

TJ planted a row of radishes and carrots by the broccoli in the closer box. In the further one is spinach, mesclun salad mix, mustard greens, and 2 peas -snow and sugarsnap. I've got to find some green bean seeds and the garden will be planted. To finish it off, I'll just need some supports for the vines!

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SW Civilian Casualty!!

Sadly, in the news today, we have another yarning! This man isn't even a member of the elite fighting force, just an innocent bystander.. He was heard muttering about this "Weird war" that is "causing chaos and depravity" worldwide, and they "get their Mommy back when she loses!"

Folks, we're not sure if what we're seeing here is retaliation or a random accident..

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Sunday 4:29AM

That's the official time that I completed the socks. All ends were woven in.

After some initial frustration with the green socks (um, I didn't follow the ribbing pattern..), 3AM Sat I found this in my stash:


Ain't he sweet? My poor hubby stood there while I rolled the yarn into 2 balls (he nearly fell asleep standing). Then we went to bed. After feeding children, etc, about 11:30AM was the actual start time of Socks of Doom - take 2.


Beware the fluff of DOOM!!!



What did I do different from the pattern? First, I flipped the heel flap. When I start with a knit row, there usually ends up being points where the gussets join the end of the flap. So, I turned my work and started with a purl row, ended with a knit row. Therefore the heel turn started on a purl row and ended on a knit row eliminating that pesky 'knit back across' that makes the points. Second, at the toe I was just shy of 8", doing another pattern set would put me just over, so I knit 1 round then began the toe decreases.



Then I crocheted on the fluff...



I will mail these as soon as I can.

They also qualify for the Mystery Sock Pattern knit along. I joined a while back and haven't found a pattern otherwise that sounded good and hadn't been knitted a bunch. I knew this would end up being a pattern without a picture, so I planned on the SockWars pattern being at least 1 pair towards this knit-along.

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Aptly Named, Sock of Doom

(sigh) I have to start over... I was so close and then I had to go and read the comments on the blog and my error was brought to light. I've been working K3P1/K1P1 ribbing. It looks nice.. It's just wrong.

On the plus side, those who questioned the sizing can quit worrying quite so much. My error isn't far from the original ribbing, may be less stretchy, yet it fit well on both my husband's foot and mine! I think it's a tad snug to pull on past his heel, but once on it fits comfortably he says.. He wants them..

(longer sock is on Ben's foot).

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Dossiers Are Being Sent!

This morning, Ben decided to work from home.

Well, after he slept in..

AJ and I baked cookies, BB sampled as many as she could.


Patiently, we waited.. Hoping our dear Yarn Monkey is fine. YES!! She posted on the blog that she is sending info and is delayed because of hurricane. Bulk of dossiers will be out by tomorrow sometime.. For now, sock is on her site!

One last look at my children..
TJ (giving me a look for catching him not working)
AJ, working with her name puzzle
BB popped out of a bush and ran excited that I'd found her

And, kiss my husband goodbye! It's lunchtime, dear, the children are hungry and I'm knitting.

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Sock Wars - Delayed Beginning

Storms in Northern Ireland -hurricane, really-are keeping the knitting world in suspense. Many Sock Warriors world wide chose to have a sleepless night to start socking as soon as possible. Those knitters now look to the news and take to prayer that our dear YarnMonkey (among the many others affected) is at the least safe and sound.

Though we hope that the emails will go out to the world this weekend, the first thing we want is knowledge of YarnMonkey's whereabouts. My hope is that she was not in transit during the storms, but safe inside somewhere and that she'll post on her blog as soon as she can that she is well and the potential new date to begin.

Ain’t He Sweet?

... because he loves me?

Thank you, Ben. I love you, too.

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Are You Ready To Sock?

It's the international death by sock loser takes all championship. It begins within the next 24 hours (have yet to find out if that's going to be done by time zone..) with our host in Ireland emailing the needed information to over 700 sock knitters world wide.
I'm off gauge. 6st/in when I need 5.5! Tomorrow, I'll either seek the next size up needles or just try out the Jo Sharp Dk hiding in my stash. The yarn I bought for this (which isn't nearly such a bright red) seems lightweight for a DK, more of a sport -I hadn't realized that in the store. Either way, I shall be ready for the tournament!

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Plans

Today, I hope to make gauge with my Sock Wars yarn. I bought some bamboo DPNs last week at my LYS for this. Funny, it's supposed to be a stash buster type thing. Instead, I have to go out and get a new weight yarn and new needles. Oh well, I joined to have fun, not to work my stash. I love the colors I picked out, but who knows if my target will! I hope you like boring socks, whoever you are!

I have the mate to the blue motif sock done past the heel scrap insert (whatever you want to call that), I'm almost to the 2 motifs on the leg. I'm taking pause to work gauge for SockWars.

I have no idea what's up with the appearance of my site. Did I get hacked and they just removed the color? I dunno. I'm fielding questions to my semi-mute husband.. -- (note: apparently it was just my computer, it's fixed now, looks fine to me again)

Countdown, Practicing?

It's Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning. Are you ready? Have you been practicing your lightning fast needles? Are you geared up and on gauge for SockWars??

It's good to hear someone is!

Me? I've been learning new things that haven't much, if anything, to do with SockWars. Yesterday (Mon), I started a new sock! Today, I finished it and began it's mate. You wanna see? It's so cute! I'll give you a peek:

This is the first Samplers pattern on page 92 of Ethnic Socks & Stockings by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts (I'll post the link when I have more time - if you don't have this book, borrow or buy it!). I learned how to do intarsia in the round.. More later on that..
I wanted to use black for the background, but the black available was too thin. I used size 1 needles, it's a 44 stitch sock and it fits loose (in length) on BB (2yo), but I think I held the yarn tighter than usual and added more rows than I thought necessary. When the second is finished, they'll make cute booty-slippers for her for the 'winter' months. The first is on her foot, much to her chagrine (she hates it when I put new socks on her feet, I'm not sure why yet). AJ loves the look, so I may go on to make her a pair.

For now, I must go get some sleep!

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Argh, Me Matey!

I tried on the ARRRRgyle this morning for the fun of it because, when I had Ben try it on Saturday night, it just looked stretched. It seems to fit my ankle near perfectly! So, I guess I'm making me a pair of Arrrrgs -the need to finish them in sufficient time has gone. I can get them done on my own schedule, though it would be cool to go end Summer of Socks with a bang! Then, I can start again to make Ben's pair with larger needles!

I think the heel flap is too short and I want to add another half repeat of the diamonds. I prefer longer socks than Ben does, and don't like the look of the pattern ending so abruptly at the heel flap (so, here's a heel to frog!). Beyond that, I think I've fallen for stranded knitting!
Jeremy was here when I stitched it up and heard all my errors noted. He queried me as to whether I'd purposely repeat those mistakes to make the other sock match. LOL.. uh, no. This is the first and I think it's pretty darn good (at least from a distance) for a first stranded knitting project. But, it will remain unique, even with it's mate. The mate has been worked to the first half diamond and I think I have one hole where I forgot to twist the yarns. Not bad, I think.

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This Must I Learn!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/FEATextreme2in1.html
Double Knitting 2 separate socks/sleeves/whatever. This rocks.

I would like to make AJ a sweater for her birthday... I may have decided not to crochet it.. The sleeves would be good practice, they're tubes.

SW Practice

Can you believe Sock Wars is already beginning *this coming Friday*!!!!! EEK! YarnMonkey called for a gauge of 22st/4in (5.5st/in) in DK weight yarn. Saturday morning, I dug through my sock patterns for anything close and came up with one pattern (I may have more, but stopped at the first one), and it was a reasonable practice sock!

Not only is it cute, but it fits my 2yo great! This is supposed to be an ornament, but I continued until I ran out of purple.. which means this sock has no mate :( Which means no points toward Summer of Socks :( (Judges, may I have 1/2 the child's size sock points?)
I've got some red DK and more of this black yarn, I'm thinking maybe I'll make her some snazzy Christmas socks, but I must work tomorrow to finish Ben's Flying Spaghetti Monsters (FSMs for short)... er, I mean ARRRRgyles.. Talk Like A Pirate Day is Tuesday!! Last night, I sewed in all those ends, seamed it -my first mattress stitch!!!- and worked the heel flap. This morning, I turned the heel and began the gussets. The mate is only a cuff. I still have to begin the colorwork.

I think the black points are actually closer to matching than in the pic, but the sock is a little wonky - somebody didn't take the time to block (it'll be around his ankle anyway!), the white lines line up nicely.
Yesterday, I took some time at the park with Ben and the children. It's not the place for lots of loose balls (before the Arrrrg diamonds were done), so I took Sue's socks. She'd picked out Mineshaft in Lorna's Laces for her next pair and it took me some time to get gauge, but they make nice park knitting:

I see why they named it mineshaft! 9st/in attained this fascinating swirl thing. Wonder how far it'll continue, or if it'll pick up again after the heels/gussets.

Today, we went to the Pinnacles again. Had a much nicer hike - only like 4 hours instead of 5-6. That's 2-3 miles with 3 children. Ben's friend Jeremy and his camera joined us, so I may have pictures of that shortly. Knitting socks in the car makes Ben nervous (something about me or baby-to-be getting impaled with 4-5 thin needles if an accident occurs..), so I took some crochet. I'm working on a shawl, but don't have the pattern handy. I think I'll wait till it's bigger to get a picture because I'm really making it for the edging and I'm not there yet. The body is a triple-crossed dc stitch. Pattern called for 2 balls of Lorna's Laces and I thought, 'Oh, I've got that.' After it was started, I read the Lace weight bit.. I'm using sock yarn.. I hope 2 balls will make the body and the third ball -which has the same dyelot batch #, but is a darker color- will be the border.

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How Do I Love Thee?

Let me count the ends...

I decided to take on the ARRRRgyles as my first stranded knitting project (link is to Moth Heaven's July page - tons of argyle info!!). After all, Mom's birthday is Talk Like A Pirate Day and Ben needs *something* to wear to work! My dear beloved keeps looking over and commenting about the Flying Spaghetti Monster loosed in the living room.. I simply reply that I love him.

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Purl Crochet

In traditional crochet, the hook almost always moves through the work from back to front (away from your body). To achieve a smoother look (like when knitters change from knit to purl stitch as they turn their work), or showcase a design in some way, one can reverse the way every other row of stitching is worked. Here is an example done with sc (UK dc) to give you some practice. The concept can be used with most crochet stitches.

Insert hook through both loops of previous stitch from front to back, back-yo (wrap yarn in opposite direction than usual) pull loop yarn through

back-yo, pull through loops on hook
The 'right' or 'front' side of Purl Crochet will have distinct horizontal lines of stitching.
The 'wrong' or 'back' side of Purl Crochet will be quite smooth from typical viewing distance.

A video clip of me working to give you an idea of what I'm doing. Try this link if the first didn't work.

For a pair of longies, I worked in purl crochet every even row. The fabric above the design is hdc.

This helicopter was produced with the 'back' side of the stitches for a pullover. This looks like the 'front' side (inside of pullover), I don't seem to have a picture of the outside.
The sweaters for the twins were made using Purl Crochet. I chose the smooth backside of the stitches for the outside to showcase the floral designs.

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Why Does Sue Love Me?

Because our feet are about the same size!

I started making these socks with Cascade 220 (worsted weight) that I had sitting around. It's a nice dark gray, light gray tweed (? it's a 4ply with 2 plies in each color) that I lost the ballband to long ago.

I was just going along with the women's s-m size 'Starter Stockinette' in the book Knit Socks! when I decided to finally try them on at 7 inches past the heel (about 2-2.5 inches before the tips of the toes, right?). Well, they were loose and at my toes. Hmm.. well, Sue likes looser socks, and they'd be plenty warm in her flipflops, so I decided to split these as practice Tabi socks. I borrowed basic division from Lucia's blog and tried them on to see where I really wanted to divide. Well, across the tops, my toes are just under 3.5 inches. These are 48 stitch socks. I decided on 14 stitches for the big toe (7 from each needle on that side of the sock) and cast on just 3 extra sts between the toes. The yarn between the socks is all there is left! I wasn't sure when I started if I could make the toes the same color as the socks. Looks like I'll be fine! I just need to graft the toes, then I can finish knitting the big toes.

(later:)
To finish the big toes, I picked up the 3 stitches, plus 3 (1 on 1 side, 2 on the other) to make an even easily reducible number of stitches (20). Then I knit even in the round till my toe begins to taper in:

On each round after that, I decreased by 4 stitches until there were 4 left. Then I just sewed them shut and tada!
Tabi Socks!!

Tabi WW

Purl Crochet VidClip

Reverse Crochet VidClip

A Moment to Breathe

It was a nice weekend, but I didn't seem to have much time to post! I started writing a blog entry -which I'll post soon, need to add pics- and just didn't get to finishing. Yesterday afternoon, Ben took the children and me for a hike in Pinnacles National Monument (CA). It was a nice hike, nifty little cave in there. But, we took the wrong path after the cave and added a good hour or so to our hike. Ben carried on his back BB in the sling, so she got in a nap during the extra hiking time. We're all tired and a touch stiff/sore today.

This weekend was the Frog-A-Long (in which I participated!). (Pics lost! It's been a full week)

Purl Crochet

In 2002, we moved to London. I suddenly had much time on my hands and worked a lot of crochet. At some point, I sat there staring at my work and thinking that the horizontal lines just didn't do it justice. In traditional crochet, each pair of lines worked is shown as a joined horizontal stripe. I chose to figure out how to reverse every other line to come up with a smoother texture on one side and individual line-stripes on the opposite.

With a little practice, I came to be able to make garments with the new technique. Today, I'm beginning swatching for a sweater for AJ for her fourth birthday next month. Ben was kind enough to take some pictures over my shoulder to get a good image of just how I changed how I make the stitch.

Purl Crochet VidClip (click will take you to comment page, click again on video link, let load, watch...)
(Note: KnicKnac at crochetville uploaded this to her photobucket, so if you can't see the original, try this link: PurlCrochetVid2)

A typical pattern has a stitch to row gauge of 4:5 (which I can never get!). In this method of crochet, I get a row gauge of 8:9 (note: results may vary, practice and gauge swatches are helpful!). Obviously, this can mess with a garment's outcome! I feel that often in crochet the row gauge is more important (as long as a pattern stitch worked can be made correctly when you add more stitches in width) because at such places as necklines, etc, the patterns often call for decreasing on every row.

The problem of st/row gauge also presents the issue of yarn size. I have a pattern for a sweater that calls for DK yarn and size US8H hook. With this hook, I can meet the 16st/4inch, but my row gauge is 18 instead of 20 rows/4in. I have two options: a) use a smaller hook until I get row gauge, or b) use a smaller yarn. The first option will lead to a denser fabric which won't have the drape the pattern maker showed. The second option will give the drape and get you to the row gauge needed, but will call for you to increase the # of stitches for the width of the finished garment to come out right -which isn't that hard to just right on the page (so many stitches) added per row.

Note: Esther reminded me of two other things 'purling' crochet does: 1) Use the 'back' side for color work (it comes out much nicer), and 2) the edges DO NOT curl. This I've been taking for granted these last few years!

A Fighting Near Finish

The baby doll is together.
(looking for a game together)

AJ got it first and has been mothering it. BB came in here carrying it and was told by her trailing siblings not to carry a baby by the neck, so she put it up on her shoulders. Off ran the herd of children; then yelling occurred; then BB came back in -whimpering- empty handed. AJ was heard fussing looking for the doll.. TJ is taking care of it. "He's sleeping," TJ keeps saying.
(doll together, just needs eyes/hair)
I think this is a mark of approval. It also shows that I need to keep some projects secret or something! Perhaps work on all toys in multiples of # of children (currently 3)?

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So Close

Last night, no: this morning, I figured out what was with my printer and got the proper sized doll pattern printed out. I'm glad I'm making this smaller one (on average 64% of the actual baby doll size because I didn't check my printer settings first). This is giving me a go with new techniques and showing me what I really need for the actual doll.

The children and I went over to Micheal's and bought the fill. I've got it all stuffed and started covering the head. I've got the ears pinned on for fun, but need to check the directions for the face before I sew them on.. yeah, need to stuff lightly. Then I can sew them shut and in place.

I haven't yet decided on how the face should look. I'm sure I can attack that after naptime! After this is done, I want to do a baby-sized one now that I've got the full size pattern!

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Eyes. Blurring. Must. Sleep.

When the husband is late getting home, what do you do?

I almost went to bed early. haha, I know. But, then I sat down to read email and, in response to Kris (in need of quiet toy ideas), Esther went and posted this doll making page! Lots of free patterns for dolls. Cynthia was talking about preparing for Christmas and that got me going..

I found this one by Runo for a "life size baby doll." Hmm.. broadcloth, maybe (sub calicos, or in this case eyelet!).. knit for the skin, I've got that somewhere, in many colors.. So, I got the doll cut out, and then I started looking for the fiberfill.. I can't find it! I'm going to have to get to the store tomorrow -er, um, today- to get some. So, I sewed up what I could. The hands look so cute! I can hardly wait to get it filled and see what the face will turn out like! And what size it ends up.. all the pieces seem so tiny, but then again so does a newborn.

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Winter Garden

It's September, I'm in CA. What else is there to think of but planting?

My spring plants did mostly well. We lost the lettuce in the early summer, but I'll be excited to have some again this fall. The strawberries were mostly eaten right off the plant by the 2yo, but the plant is sending out shoots, so I'm looking forward to plenty of strawberries next year.

The crook-neck squash took over the sidewalk; the gardeners' mower trimmed the edge so we can walk again. We had an artichoke, but I think little hands broke the stem and it didn't produce a second flower. I replaced that with herbs. I had some old seeds from last year that I'd scattered on the ground. One lonely carrot has decided to grow.


Now, I've got my eye on the corner area. I think it used to be a dog kennel or something, but became a trash heap. I'm going to try to coerce my husband away from his computer at some point to give me a hand with the big stuff. The whole gardening thing may be too 'outdoorsy' for his taste, so after that I'm on my own - with the 'help' of the children, of course!