Pet Preparedness

I've been thinking about and praying for both the people and animals affected by Hurricane Katrina.

They mentioned a charity on the news that I just looked up, I had heard of them and their animal rescue work before and now they have a website. They have a page on Preparedness, which is something all animal owners need to think about:
Noah's Wish

And another list from the Red Cross: HERE

Figs

I discovered some Calimyrna figs for sale at the grocery store, and bought some to try. I've never eaten fresh figs before. Turns out that I still haven't ~ because I couldn't eat them, they were just too weird. I did take some pictures for botanical interest.

The fruits are actually inside-out flowers ~ "inflorescences" (I learned a new word!)

Obligatory Knitting-Blog Knitting Content: ummm...... I'm still working on the zebra. By which I mean it's still on my bedside table and I'm not working on anything else. It's still black and white and it's still stockinette.

Key Lime Pie

I got my cookbook in the mail from a Favorite Recipe Swap and there are so many things in there I want to try! Here is the recipe that I sent in, it's really good! And I'm from Florida, so I know key lime pie...

Perfect Key Lime Pie

2 egg yolks (yolks only!)
2 14-oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice (I use "Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice")
9-10" Keebler Ready Graham crust or other ready-to-eat graham cracker crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Pour milk into large bowl. In another bowl beat the egg yolks with a hand-mixer until thick and light in color. Pour them into the milk. Add the lime juice. Mix until blended. Pour into a 9 x 12" glass baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes. (mixture will be bubbling a bit at the edges) Put mixture into crust (a spatula's helpful) and refrigerate, let chill for at least several hours before serving.

Coming up Roses!

I got a box in the mail Saturday with some wonderful things in it! It was from my partner in the Flower Swap, the talented Taloola, who sent:





PLUS two velvet pillows with rose appliques and emroidery. The needles (how I do love clicky metal needles!) have roses on the tops.

Thanks Taloola, and my box to you will be in the mail very soon.....

Zebra Progressing

Progress is being made on the zebra at last. It was set aside for so long I forgot where I was in the pattern, then I lost the pattern, then I found the pattern, and figured out my place, then ran out of yarn, cut and rolled some fresh yarn, and promptly dropped the pattern back behind the bed. Fished it out with a knitting needle and NOW I am rolling on the zebra. I have the piece done that is the head, neck, and body, and have cast on two of the legs ~

I'm not doing it in stripes. I'm doing black and white magic ball knitting, which consists of cutting random lengths of black and white yarn and tying them together and knitting with this homemade ombre. Weird thing is, in stockinette stitch, all the knots end up on the purl side ~

I don't know how this works. Every time I come to a knot, I try to figure out WHY and HOW, but I still don't understand it. I just accept it as one of those strange and amazing things, like marzipan, or mynah birds. It's not a children's toy, so I don't really have to worry about any of the zillion knots coming undone. I'm using worsted on dk patterns, so my stuffed animals are coming out LARGE! Which is cool.

Wisdom

"Turn Off the Computer Once in a While"

Illustration Friday's theme was "wisdom" so of course I wanted to do an owl.... this one has captured a 'mouse', so someone can go read a book or draw a picture or something. My scanner couldn't pick up this light ink sketch, so I just took a photo of it.

Kitty's Excellent Adventure

Kitty
Originally uploaded by Horse Power.

My 16 year old cat found a loose corner of screen and got out of the porch and into the yard the other day. She's been an indoor kitty for 14 years. I'm glad she got to have her little adventure because I'm sure it was fun for her, I'm glad she was apparently too old to get over the fence, I'm glad none of the neighborhood cats or coons bothered her, and I'm glad I found her before I realized she had gotten out because if I had realized she wasn't in the house I just don't know what I would've done. As it was, I was in blissful ignorance of her escape for quite a while. I happened to take the dog into the backyard, settled into a lawn chair, and after another little while heard a familiar 'meow'. I recognized Lily's voice, but it sounded like it was coming from the bushes somewhere. I called Rosie over and told her to find the kitty, and she did........ she ran right over behind the ficus tree and was getting all excited. I went over there and there was my cat! Outdoors! In the grass! Looking very pleased with herself! I was so surprised that I almost had to look twice to be sure it wasn't some equally-orange neighbor cat, but of course it was my own little furby, whom I swooped up immediately and whisked back into the house. I'm very grateful she's home. So is Rosie.

Felting Projects

Picture of an old project: felted eyeglass case with flower, made from Lionbrand Fisherman's wool; the pink trim and flower are Koolaid dyed, the cream part is natural undyed wool. It's crocheted. I threaded a strand of pink yarn between the 'posts' of the double crochet to give that woven ribbon look at the top. It's basically a rectangle with some shell edging on three sides and then sewn nearly in half.

I'm also felting a little knitted rabbit of my own design, dyed appropriately enough with Easter Egg dye. And I felted my Branching Out scarf. Yeah, I don't know why either, I just ended it after 10 repeats, dyed it with Easter Egg Dye and threw it in the washing machine. It's interesting...... I might try embellishing it a bit with embroidery floss or something. If it turns out I will post a pic.

Yarn Makeover!

I'm so happy ~ the dye job turned out so well! I just love it! OK, I know the pictures are dark and require some imagination. Picture it as it looked on the clothesline in the sun, all rich blues and purples...... very ocean ...... very Creatures of the Reef! The project is back on!

How it looks now:

How it looked before:

Really, it was pretty before, but I didn't think the pattern would show up on such contrasting colors. I think it's much more suitable for a sea theme now.

Mice Are Nice

I'm easily amused, I know, but I learned something new about the computer and had to blog about it. I've changed my mouse pointer and various other items into mice! Here's the path that worked on mine: Settings, Control Panel, Mouse, Pointers tab. Now I could either pick a ready-made scheme (mice, reptiles, ocean, nature, to name a few) or choose my own in the Customize box by clicking Browse and selecting them individually. (which is what I did) . So now my pointer is a mouse with a non-moving tail, when it's over a link in my Favorites the tail wags, I have a mouse holding the I beam pointer, and a mouse holding up his paw for "working in background", and yet another nibbling through a giant piece of cheese in lieu of an hourglass. It's magic, I tell ya.

I rolled the two new skeins of sock yarn into center pull balls ~ they are all ready to knit with! The pink and blue laceweight skeins, however, are still in the laundry room looking like two giant bats of cotton candy. I've got blue Rit dye on the shopping list for tomorrow ~ I'm going to try one more time to change the colorway into something more oceanic.

Yarn, Yarn, & More Yarn!

I got the yarn I ordered for the Creatures of the Reef Shawl. I'm trying to be positive about it, but .... er, I haven't come to love it yet. I thought it would be a light sea-foamy aqua with a touch of pink, instead it's about half bright pink and half strong deep blue. I think an intricate lace pattern would be completely lost in this. This morning I dunked the whole lot in blue KoolAid and Easter egg dye, hoping the pink would turn purple. It seemed to work a bit...... until the rinse process, when it all washed away, and now I have a ton of tangled, wet, furry laceweight still in vivid pink and blue, dripping into the utility sink. The sink, ironically, is now a lovely shade of aqua.

To cap it off, the place I wanted to get the pattern from is out of stock for two weeks, and I'm having serious doubts anyway about my ability to deal with circulars, which I hate, and I'm wondering if I should forget the whole project and use some free laceweight pattern off the internet that is plain and simple and just let the colors do the talking.

On a brighter note, I got two other skeins of yarn in the same package that I absolutely adore and can't wait to play with. AND I went to Joanne's moving sale yesterday and bought some LionBrand Fisherman's wool at 30% off, and got 4 yards of fabric for $5 that I intend to use to cover four chair seats. I will have enough left over to make.... get ready .... co-ordinating couch pillows.

I also just finished reading the tome that is Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. Took me nearly 3 days, and an entire bag of chocolate, but it has been read and is waiting to go back to the library. This has been 'the summer of Harry Potter' for me, I had not read any of them before, and have gone through 1-5 since June. I love fantasy novels, and these exceeded all my expectations, and I am really hoping to be able to see the next movie in November, and wear my Mrs.Weasley-esque green and brown Clapotis.

Peek-A-Boo!

"Peek-A-Boo!"

Illustration Friday: The word "empty" made me think of a tube. Next thing I knew I was drawing two playful young dragons looking through an empty paper towel holder and finding each other at the other end.

Checkerboard

Thanks to Crazy Aunt Purl and her nifty instructions for a checkerboard scarf....HERE ...I have cast on this:

It's a kitty blanket. It's actually quite an easy concept but my mind kept wandering yesterday and I kept having to go back and fix where I purled when I should have knitted and where I knitted when I should have purled. But I think I've got it now, and I bought some chocolate at the store this morning which always helps with knitting focus. I was going to wait til it was done to post a pic but I'm just so pleased with the pattern I couldn't wait. I did a 7 row repeat for mine instead of 10, and added a garter border.

Patina

"Patina"

This week's theme for Illustration Friday made me think of the word 'Patina' ~ which immediately made me think of a weathervane.

Summer Garden

My garden, indeed much of my yard, has gone completely feral. This happens every summer and it's a good thing, everything is really really green. I can still see the orange and yellow tops of the five foot canna lilies waving at me from the back corner where my little garden is but I haven't been out there in a while. I think I will wait for next Spring and start over. My Dad and Rosie, however, went out to check on the vegetables and returned with these:


Two chili peppers and something from a young tree I was told was a pistachio. Does that look like a pistachio? I am glad to hear that both of these plants have been thriving.

Rosie:

Clapotis II

Clapotis II! It's finished! At long last! Hurray!
Here it is, the photos could be a lot brighter, but it's all I could get.
It's made from 2 strands of sock yarn held together, US 10 needles.
The ends are brown/green variegated, the center section and tassels are deep green.