Excitement for me!!! Vegan cake slices from Whole Foods. WOOHOO! I love bakery cake with the sugary sweet icing and frosting roses but needless to say, I haven't had any in years. I couldn't believe it when I saw it in the display case. Plus, it's sooooo sweet that I split it in two and got to enjoy it twice!! I definately will buy it again.

A little peek at what I've been doing. These are dyed using the same colors even though it doesn't look like it! The yarn is KnitPicks Bare merino fingering weight and is dyed with some neon food coloring that I found at the grocery. It is being knit up into the Swirl Shawl and now that I have the pattern down it's pretty easy and fun.

I have another skein that dyed up inbetween colors but didn't take a picture of that. I decided to have a gradation of colors to make it really interesting. I've wanted to knit the pattern for years but never got around to ordering it. The only place that I could find it was at the Yarn Barn and by the time I added shipping it was almost $10.00 for the pattern. Cheaper to order the kit but could not decide which colorway to choose. But last year I found it at a "local" (about an hour away) yarn market that I go to every year. That was the only good thing I found. Unfortunately the guild that hosts it picked an impossible to find (unless you were from around there I suppose) place and only a few shops showed up. Plus, you never hear about it until the last minute and it's hard to plan for it. So I'm glad that I found the pattern because I probably will not be going again.

Been so hot (90*s and above) that I haven't been doing much but sitting in the air conditioning and knitting. Mostly socks but some hexagons for the swirl shawl.

Just finished a pair of socks made with Noro sock yarn and I have to say....I am really disappointed. I was looking forward to knitting with it but won't use it again. Some of the yarn was thick (which is fine) but some of it was so thin that you couldn't even pull on the stitch without it breaking. And I don't think that it will hold up very well on the parts that it was knitted. We'll see how they do throughout the winter.

I just love these patterns by Kristin Nicholas. This is the Autumn Leaves pattern from her book "Knit with Kristin". I'm about 1/2 way through the second one so should be finished by tomorrow if I don't spend alot of time online!

The yarn is mostly Deb Stoller's Stitch Nation Full 'o Sheep and the colors are just vibrant. My next big project is a large wrap (the kind you can throw over a jacket in the cold weather) and just got all the yarn for it. I like that JoAnn's takes competitor coupons and as many as you have as long as they aren't the same. I used a bunch of 50% off coupons to get all my yarn so ...yah...it only cost 1/2 as much. Good for me. Plus it will be my first steeked project so that should be a whole lotta angst. Teehee.
My first homegrown tomato!!! Looked a little raggedy but tasted great. I have about 7 more and 2 of them look like they are ripening up just fine.
My herbs are growing like gangbusters and I bought another basil plant at Trader Joe's the other day.

Couldn't beat the price. It was a good sized plant for $2.99. I like to make pesto and freeze it so the basil gets used up fast. I just bought some arugula today to make some more. Yum.
Here is my fabulous dinner from the other night. I used a Gardein "breast" (which is made of grains and veggies and all kinds of good things) and flattened it out and dredged it in some flour and fried it and topped it with a lovely caper/wine sauce. The greens are a collard green salad with a tamarind/miso dressing with sauteed pears on top.

Went to one of the farmer's markets today. One of the ones down in the city-Hyde Park. It's a more expensive area of town and the market was great! It was soooooo hot though and didn't help that it was set up on blacktop. Whew. Found some lovely garlic scapes (yah!). It's about the last of the season for those so I was happy to have found them. Got about 4 bunches. And some beautiful swiss chard that is destined for a millet, white bean and chard casserole. Some banana peppers and red onions (with the dirt still on them....now that's what I call fresh). I think I'm just going to saute up some of the scapes and toss them on top of some pasta with a little olive oil.

Amanda and I are always looking for a good veggie burger recipe and I have made several. This is the Better Black Bean burger from Robin Robertson's latest "Vegan on the Cheap" and I must say it is WONDERFUL! Fries up all crispy on the outside and not mushy at all. Put it on a good ciabatta bun with some mustard and soy mayo with leaf lettuce and a juicy tomato and a fabulous lunch.

I wish I could say that Amanda has some tomatoes on her plant. She did have about 11 or 12 but the deer that has been hanging around her yard obviously had a late night snack the other night. Man, is she mad. Of course I would be also.

And it was sleeping all curled up by the pot next to the patio.
I got fairly close to shoot this photo with my cell phone before it turned and sauntered off back into the woods.

She has entirely too much nature for living in a subdivision. A bunny nest in the front yard. A bird's nest in the rafter of the car port. Deer roaming through the yards and across the streets. And a whole bunch of coyotes in the woods. She and her neighbor watched one slink through the yard the other day. They are all over Cincinnati and quite the nuisance.

Alright. I am off to knit and stay cool. It's going to be in the 90*s the next few days. Just ridiculous for this time of year. Stay cool!

Knitting has commenced. Although I did finish this the other day before the finger splint.

I don't know what I did to my finger but you should have seen the bruise!I think I must have had a nasty bone bruise because it was the loveliest bunch of colors you have ever seen. And swollen. I could knit a little but it was slow going. I was sorely disappointed because last week I ordered a drop spindle learn to spin kit from Etsy and it came the same day I had to splint the finger.

I know, I know. Like I need something else to do. I've seen Robin's ( www.fortheloveoffiber.typepad.com) yarn that she has spun and it made me envious! Just beautiful. I know that "this way madness lies" teehee, but I think it looks like fun. We shall see.

Okay. I think I shall put the splint on for one more night so I'll be back with more in a few days.

This is why I am not knitting. :( Looks better in the photo.
And it makes typing 2 fingered so I'll see you in a day or two.

Here is what I did over the holiday weekend. Well, the fun part anyway. This is my new dyed yarn. It's KnitPicks Bare merino in a fingering weight and dyed with Wilton food coloring. Just 3 colors ...Royal Blue, Egg yellow and Fuschia made all the wonderful colors.

Easy to do with the microwave and I get so carried away with the dye that it's hard to stop. Here it is after being tediously rolled into a ball.

The colors are very cool.

I'm knitting a pair of plain socks with purls every so often to highlight some of the colors.

I have 3 more skeins of the Peruvian wool fingering weight that I was going to dye for socks but have decided to use for my swirl shawl. I didn't really have enough yarn (1100 yards of fingering) so I was going to double some lace weight that I have stashed. But, lo and behold, I can make my own for it so that is what I will do! I bought some great neon food colors at Krogers the other day and I bet it will make great yarn.

The weekend was fine. I was mowing the lawn the other day and forgot to put the gas cap back on after I filled the tank (duh) and ran over it and it shot down the driveway into the street. I didn't see it at the time since I was in the side yard by that time and spent a good 15 minutes searching in the yard for it. When I stopped and traced my steps I realized that it had rolled all the way down the drive into the four-lane street....arrrggghhhhh! Needless to say, the mower chewed it up quite nicely. Good job for me as it's not even 2 months old. So off to the Home Depot to buy a universal cap. It didn't look like the one I had ( smart me, I took the cap with me) and the sales clerk opened the package and then we went to the display of mowers and made sure it fit. Certainly was a deal for a $5.00 cap. But now the mower has a lovely new "lid" and the gas stays in, so all's well that ends well.

Just had the most wicked thunderstorm rolling through earlier. The thunder was so loud and the lightening was right overhead and it seemed like it was practically in the house. The booming was so loud at times that the house shook and I jumped about 2 feet in the air everytime it thundered. And it poured. Looked like the heavens opened. Thank God that's over. And no harm but some water in the basement by the walls. It was rushing over the gutters in streams and just running down the front of the house down into the basement. When it rains like that I don't think there is anything you can do to stop it but start mopping and putting down rags. But it is much cooler out right now so that's always nice.