Dissapearing Act

This is 100% wool sliver, sprinkle dyed by "Shades of Narnia" there was approximately 100 gramms of the stuff. I spun it up, and navajo plied it into a worsted weight. The first bobbin of plied yarn had 80 yards on it. I was having a problem with cold hands, so I searched for a pattern for fingerless mittens. I didn't find any i really wanted to make, so I designed my own pattern, as I knit. They fit very well, and I loved the colours. I wore them for one day - one. That night I placed them beside the computer, and I have not seen them since.

I wonder why they left? I separated the roving colours carefully, spun them, all the while commenting on the beautiful colours. Sure, I may have cursed, once or twice, as I was plying, since the built in lazy kate on my ashford Traveller doesn't have tension...I skeined the yarn, counted how many times it went around the niddy noddy...then lovingly I knit it into mittens. I wore them to teach a knitting class, I wore them while reading my favorite knitblogs. Perhaps they could not stand the sight of me knitting other projects? And to get back at me the dissapeared? Whatever the case, there is one irrevocable fact i have to face: My hands are cold, and there isn't enough green handspun to knit another pair.

In other news, it is most definitely fall here. A few weeks ago I pulled up the garden, tomato plants we barely ate from (short growing season), lettuce that had gone to seed, and dug up the rest of our potatoes. This year we had Warbas, Russets, and a specialty, Banana Potatoe. If a banana could be a potatoe...well, you get my meaning. All summer and fall we have been kept well fed in very good potatoes. We left the kale out, and after a few frosts it is like butter...I swear...so tender, it melts when you look at it!


The herbs are still alive...but no longer growing. Spot the lavender and rosemary? Two of my favorites. Unfortunately, this year I bought my plants in June, and they were so rootbound in their little pots, they never grew out of it. Last year my lavender plant literally exploded, it was huge, this year...a whole summer of growing and that's all there is.

I have always wanted to have hollyhocks, but the seed supplier at the farmer's market was out of seed, and in any case, they are a biennial. We're hoping to move out of this house in time to plant a garden in a new yard, so I would never have the chance to see them in bloom. Well, it seems like everyone in our neighborhood except me has hollyhocks, so I decided to go on a quest for a few offshoots. I dug up three, after asking various owners, but only one survived. I was so pleased when it actually flowered in it's pot! upon closer inspection of it, and various flowers in the neighbourhood, I'm no longer entirely sure it's a hollyhock.

it's looking pretty ratty, i know, but it's the end of the season, and also, 2005 was the Year of the Slugs. like some cheap horror film. No mittens, fake hollyhocks, and good kale. Life is like a box of chocolates (just hope you don't get the marachino cherry).