Basketweave Knit for Baby

This little number is where the bulk of my spare minutes in July were directed.  I carried it with me back and forth to school or whenever I went somewhere that I wasn't driving and would relax to a few rows in the evenings.

I came up with a fairly straight forward basketweave knit pattern and did the borders in a seed stitch. 

I used size 9 circular needles (36" because of the size of it) and Sensations Simplicity yarn in Cream (3 big skeins). 

It's a little bigger than a square yard and it turned out super soft.  I'm kinda in love with it.  It has a lovely drape to it and it washed perfectly.  And the project really turned me back onto knitting, not least of which because it seems easier to steal a couple of minutes here and there and on the fly with my schedule than it is to get into my sewing room.

This one is also for a boy, but hasn't been gifted yet, so I can't say more than that.  Can't wait to get it in the mail!  I'm linking this up to lots of the fab parties in my Link Parties tab, including Met Monday!

Flannel Owl Baby Quilt

Here is one of those baby quilts that I have finished recently.  The top is all in flannels and the backing is fleece to make it extra snuggley.  Spell-check doesn't seem to think that "snuggley" is a word, but I bet you catch my drift.

I came up with the pattern on EQ7 - pretty simple, but I wanted to highlight the owls, of course.  I also skipped the batting because I find that with fleece for a backing fabric, batting can make it too heavy.

Here's a decent shot of the quilting - I find "puzzle piece" quilting is pretty fast.  It took me maybe an hour to cut the fabric, 2-3 to piece it (I had some alignment issues), 1 hour to quilt it, and another 3 or 4 to bind it.  Reasonably quick.

And I used satin blanket binding 'cause the babies love it.  This one is for a boy, but the quilt hasn't been delivered yet so I can't say for which one in particular.

And here's the back.  Now I just have to get it in the mail, along with a couple others.  :)  Linking this cuddly one up to lots of great parties, including Met Monday!  Check out my Link Parties tab!

Vegetables in the Garden

Let's take a walk through my vegetable garden.  I know I've said before that the flowers are all the work of my mother, but I personally prefer to plant something that is going to give back something to eat - so I did.  The eggplant this year have been super productive.  We've already made eggplant curry and eggplant casserole.

And we've only harvested one yellow squash so far, but it was huge and, as you can see, there are a bunch on the way.

Here we have some yummy grape tomatoes...

And some yellow cherry tomatoes.  I'll be making tomato jam with these in another month or so when we have more than we can easily eat.

Green beans!  Basically once a week we have been able to harvest enough to serve at dinner - delic!

And I love the tendrils they send out. 

I planted butternut squash (above) in between the tomato cages and the green bean trellis and it turns out they have also made good use of the trellis.

And have taken over part of the lawn as well... we're mowing around them.

Cantaloupe.

Watermelon... these have also overgrown their boxes and moved into the surrounding lawn.  I think in another couple months we'll be overrun.

Zucchini... these have also been way bigger than the ones you find in the store.

Arugala (nice and peppery) and, finally...

Swiss chard.  Every other day or so we cut a bunch of the last two, add some of those tomatoes, and maybe some avocado and croutons for a delicious lunch salad.  Great stuff.  Now I'm hungry.