It's a Boy!

Yes ladies and germs it's official. Jim has named his new coffee tree 'Sven' to honor the love of his life- Gevallia Coffee.

It's actually a really pretty plant and seems to be growing like a weed. My guess is that he will harvest about as much coffee as I will this year with the olive 'grove'.

As for what's going on in my knitworld this week, I should have the clogs wrapped up TODAY!! And then off to start another pair for his mom. I don't know why, but it just feels good to start fresh and with different colors of yarn.

Saturday my neighbor turned me on to these needles from La Knitterie Parisinne. Aren't they just about the queerest needles ever made? The tips light up so that a guy can knit in the dark. I have half a mind (and I mean that literally sometimes) to order a set and check them out. If and when I do I'll let you folks know how they work out. It just may be 15 bucks thrown down the toilet.

Well so far June has been a hot and humid one here in Dallas. I hope you all are having a good summer, staying cool, and knitting to your hearts content.

Two On One and My Fresh Balls

I attended my first SnB Sunday. I know I said I was going to do the last one, but didn't get too it. Kev was to be there and give me another lesson on the "two socks at the same time on one needle thing" because I still don't have it down, and in all honesty, I have not sat down properly and concentrated on learning the damn thing. But Kev stood me up!!! Can you believe that? He had a good excuse though..... had a "date". If y'all want to know my opinion on the SnB email me....I can't say it in public.

Above is a pic of the set-up stolen from Kenny's wonderful and comprehensive tutorial on the subject.

Another thing Kev introduced to me are these cool "yarn-tainers" They really work at keeping your yarn clean, pet protected and untangled. I got mine at Target in the sewing machine section and they run about five bucks.

The yarn-tainers come in three sizes however, the Target I went to only carries the tall version and actually that works out great because they stand up in my knitting bag so that I don't have to pull balls of yarn out of my bag every time I want to knit a row or two. My balls stay as fresh as ever and now yours can too!

Hurry up! My Martini's Getting Hot! (and other mishaps)

For the last couple of years I have wanted to get an olive tree for the patio and for the last couple of years everyone has reassured me that you can't grow an olive tree in Dallas. So of course I ordered one. In anticipation of my first harvest I've taken up drinking martinis.

When the tree arrived yesterday I pulled it out of the box only to discover that it was broken in half! Poor thing. The nursery assures me that even broken it will grow but they are going too replace it anyway. So maybe I will end up with 2 for 1.

And for all you out there who say it won't survive the winter, keep in mind that I have a 7ft. grapefruit tree, with fruit, out on the patio that you can't grow here either!

On the knitting front, a really great guy Kevin and I spent a good deal of time early Friday evening with him trying to teach me how to knit two socks at the same time on one circ. (By the way, thanks to 'Barbaras' Pavillion Club' for the knitting space...you make great hangovers... my liver recommends you highly) He started with showing me how to do a elastic cast on and with it being totally foreign to me it took a LARGE amount of time to cast on those damn microscopic stitches.

Then came time to progress to the knitting portion. I have never knitted on such small needles nor used such small yarn and then throw that loop de loop knitting technique in on top of it and I was lost! When I took the work out of the bag the next morning it looked like two cats had had a fight in there all night long. So I went back to knitting on the clogs.

Normally I knit while I work and it is never a problem for me, but when working the clog pattern DON'T DO IT! You have to watch this pattern line by line like a hawk. I had cast on the outter sole in the morning and was going to finish it up by the time I got off work, HAHA" Everytime I got interrupted, (imagine people wanting your attention while you are at work knitting), I lost my place in the row. I cast that sucker on three times that day.

I finally finished the sole yesterday. I got home and sat on the patio enjoying the warm but not unpleasant afternoon and started to bind the two soles together. I was within 3 stitches of finishing when the neighbor came over to get a copy of a movie he lent me. I sat the knitting down on the ground, stood up, turned to go inside to get it and as I did my toe caught the yarn and off come the stitches. Never did find them. Now I am going to quietly put it aside and get back to it when I calm down.