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I’ve been keeping a low profile lately, trying to get my back back into shape. I’m currently working with a physical therapist, and hopefully at the end of this treatment, I will feel more like myself.

One of the days that I was just hanging out at home, waiting for a decent hour to go to bed (even *I* think that 6pm is too early for going to bed), my neighbor called and said she was heading out to Joann’s, would I like to go? Shopping for fabric/craft stuff? Oh yeah! That woke me up quickly. I picked up a basket full of fat quarters, on sale for $.99 a piece and proceeded to cut.

The other night, I put squares together, to make a ragged squares quilt, and this is what I’ve come up with.

I’m not sure of the placement of some of the blocks, but I’m happy with it overall. Now just to sew all the pieces together. I also don’t have a backing fabric. Any suggestions on color? I was thinking a pale yellow, since some of the smaller squares are a pale yellow. My neighbor said a pink, since it’s predominantly pink.

In other crafty news, I’m approaching the last few rows of Clue 3 on the Anniversary Mystery shawl. I’m up to just over 400 stitches on the needles, and I’m dreading doing Clue 4 and 5. I don’t think I’ve ever done a project where I have had upwards of 600 stitches on the needles (by the end of clue 5 there are more than 600 stitches). I am a fairly fast knitter, and one row currently is taking me about 15 minutes to do. Somehow I don’t see this being done in the next few days. But when it is done, I’ll have a surprise for all of you.

Lastly, I baked bread for the first time last week or so (time is all melding together for me lately). I used a simple recipe, and rosemary from my garden. All I can say is mmmmmmmmmmmm.

- Pictures of the cupcakes and the brownie “cupcakes” from 2 weeks ago. The brownies spell out “ABYBAY”, our very affectionate term for the baby. Cupcakes are from here, and the brownies are just my brownies, in cupcake form. I cut out letters out of a piece of cardboard, placed on top and dusted confectioner’s sugar on them.

- I attempted to make scallion pancakes, using stuff from the garden. Not that bad for a first attempt. Will have to work on it though.

- Harvested a handful of peas from the garden. SO yummy, and pleased with myself that I grew these from seed.

- Started knitting Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl last Wed. Am about 1/2 way thru clue 2 (clue 5 was just released). Yarn is Zephyr, same as the Dragone Shawl and more recently the Fountain Pen Shawl. I feel like I am never going to see the end of this cone.

- A just because photo, one of the squirrels that is living in the roof of the apartment over the garage. Our friend who lives in the apartment hears them scuttling about over her head all the time. He’s cute, but he has to go. Sigh. More house stuff to fix.

- The kid’s last day of school is Friday and he’s all signed up and ready for summer camp starting in 2 weeks. We went this weekend to check out the camp and get his bag and they got him started on some of the activities that they do at the camp. Why was camp not as cool as this when I went to camp?

…my mojo. I don’t feel like knitting. I don’t feel like sewing. Or spinning, or cooking. The mojo is gone. Someone tell me how to find it, because I don’t feel like myself if I’m not crafting.

I did make cupcakes for a bbq we had over the weekend (pics to come), and brownie “cakes” for Valerie’s baby shower, also over the weekend (again, pics to come, because the downloading photos mojo is also lost). Both went over quite well, but then again, you can’t go wrong with either brownies or cupcakes with tequila in the frosting.

The most mojo I have is watching stuff grow in the garden. What I thought were cucumber plants, are not actually cucumber plants, because I found the unopened package of seed. Luckily, they are starting to flower, so we’ll know soon what I planted. The onions are taking over the garden, so I trimmed the greens and gave half away to friends and neighbors. I still have enough greens to keep us happy til they start growing again. The tomatoes are growing strong. Herbs are growing out of control. Raspberry flowers are everywhere. And peas.

I have peas. That I planted from seed. Who knew that a city girl could grow stuff, let alone edible stuff. I can’t wait til they are fat enough to pick and eat. Mmmmm.

Now, lets find that crafting mojo, shall we?

As some of you might know already, I was in a car accident a couple weeks ago. My car is fine, though my drivers side mirror is not (though ghetto fabulous duct tape is in, right?). I am fine, except I have had back pain since. This weekend, though beautiful outside, I spent the majority of my time indoors, trying to recoup. How does one kill time while indoors on a beautiful weekend? Craft of course!

I hit Joann’s on my way home Friday. Joann’s is on the way home….the VERY long way home. I picked up some stuff to keep me amused for a little while.

I spent my time yesterday and part of today working on a top. I saw this awhile ago, and then again on Jennifer’s blog. I knew it was time to make one. And I am quite pleased.

I omitted the ruffles on the top, only because they looked hard to do. Maybe the next time, and there will be a next time, I will attempt them. I did not do the full 2″ pleats, because lets face it, the girls need as much room as they can have. I did do the waist shaping; the top looked like a tent before the shaping. I am truly happy with this top. I took serious care with the sewing of straight lines, and I made good friends with my seam ripper (I had to adjust the straps 3 times). I’m already looking forward to going back to Joann’s for some more cute fabric to make a couple more of these.

In the world of knitting, I am still on a KP project. The back issues delayed me from its final blocking, but I was able to get that done this weekend, and off it goes to KP. Hopefully I will get to show you one day soon. The only thing on the needles right now for myself, is a pair of socks. The Zauberball socks, using my new Signature needles.

I have also spent a good deal of time watching my garden grow. I don’t know where I got the green thumb from, or if I’m just lucky, but my garden is full of green. I have given it so much love and I can’t wait to start eating stuff from it. The whole set is here, but here’s a picture that I love:

Raspberries. I’m growing raspberries. Every time I look at these and the other green things growing, I know I made the right choice to move to NJ. NY will always be home, but for now, NJ isn’t looking too bad, and I’m quite happy. Especially since we added these two things to the house:

I think I may need to take a couple of days off in the summer just to sit in the sun….

One more Knit Picks project that has now come out that I can blog about.

Aren’t they adorable? Pretty fun and easy to knit as well. I got very excited when I saw them in the newest catalog.

I road tripped with 2 friends last weekend to South Carolina for a tea festival. We stayed with Ali, whom I met on the Knittyboard a million years ago, and just now met face to face. I can’t say enough good things about this trip and the people I was with. Pics can be found here.

I’m working on another KP project, almost ready to put it in a box and send it off. And afterwards, I will be working on a couple projects for me. I have Whisper on the needles for myself, and I joined the ‘09 Anniversary Mystery Shawl along. Maybe I’ll even get in finishing up Sackboy for hubby and some more quilt blocks for myself. Or maybe I’ll just take more bike rides and take in exactly how beautiful it is where I live.

My boys and I went to play mini-golf in the beautiful weather yesterday. Afterwards (hubby won, but I got a hole in one!), we took a drive, and ended up here with lunch at a tiki bar listening to live music before hitting the roller coaster. Perfect mother’s day. When we headed home, I took Lulu, who’s been yelling at me from her corner in the craft room, and headed out to the porch for a little bonding time.

Like the new color polish on my toes? The blue makes me really happy. Anyway, when I was packing for MD, I came across this bit of fiber in my stash and it has no label. I don’t remember where it came from or what it is, but it’s been sitting on my desk trying to yell over Lulu.

The fiber was so lovely to spin, and I got some looks from passerbys as I sat on the porch spinning away. Only one stopped to ask what I was doing, a curious 8 year old from down the block. I finished up the fiber all on one bobbin (more accurate color here), and it looks like this:

I started on some buffalo fiber that I bought while in Vegas in February:

But after that little bit, it was time to go in and take care of dinner for the kid. A mother’s work is never done.

Hope you all had a fantastic Mother’s Day!

While there were some small breaks of sunshine, the majority of the weekend at MDSW was rainy. Come home to NJ, and it’s rainy. It’s rained every day so far, though today, there’s this thing in the sky that kinda hurts my eyes when I look at it. The weatherman promises me that it will go away and bring back the rain for the rest of the week. It depresses me, and makes me worry about these little guys:

Top, cucumber, bottom, sugar snap peas (crappy cell photos…it was 6:30am and it wasn’t raining so I took whatever I could get). I know water is good for them, but when is it too much?

Next up, socks started at MDSW…they should be a full pair tonight.

After doing a last load of laundry, double checking that my boys had food to eat for the weekend, frosting some cupcakes and packing my bag, I was off to the train station to pick up Rosi. We set off for the drive down, getting lost along the way, but ultimately arriving at Pam’s. Already at Pam’s, was Tania, Valerie (and her hubby), and Cristi. We ate, we talked, we laughed. At some point after I’d gone to bed, one more guest arrived, Denise.

We loaded up Saturday morning, and after a quick run for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A (mmmmm), we got to the fairgrounds. I’ve officially popped my MDSW cherry. I think the layout of Rhinebeck makes so much more sense, but I managed to overlook that and take in all the yarn and fibery goodness. I so wanted one of these little guys to take home, but a quick text to the hubby confirmed he was still against getting one.

After some shopping, we all headed back for some relaxation. More food, more talk, more laughter. Able to separate herself from angry maths, Roxy came to join us. YAY!! I finally got to meet my Asian sista. Rockband got played; I sang Best Day Ever by Spongebob Squarepants. Yes, you read that correctly, Spongebob.

Yesterday we hit MDSW again for a couple of hours, and I made my splurge purchase. Can you guess what it is from the purchases photo?

No? How about now?

I indulged in a set of Signature Needles, size 2.25mm. The rest of the purchases are: a Zauberball, a small yarn bowl from Jennie the Potter, Flat Feet, 6 vintage fabric squares and the new Vintage Baby Knits book. Oh wait. There is one more purchase not shown. Because they are already up on my craft room wall. I’ve been ogling them since I saw them at Rhinebeck, and after a late Admin day gift of a Visa gift card, I was able to purchase a couple.

You can go here and check them out. Left to right, is Happy Endings, Occupational Therapy, and Family.

All in all, the weekend was wonderful. I met people that I’ve only talked to thru blogs and boards (they’ll have pics…I stupidly forgot to take the camera out of the bag for anything but the bunnies). I had a wonderful host who has a wonderful husband who doesn’t mind knitters staying in his home for a weekend. I ate great food (recipes for everything please!!!) and was inducted into the OC club. I stayed on budget and went home a happy gal, though I am sorely missing my friends.

I’m sitting here trying to think of what I’ve done in the past week since the last blog post, and I honestly can’t think of what I’ve done. Either it was really boring, or it was so packed with stuff that it kept me too busy to remember. Either way, I have pictures for you.

First, the Fountain Pen shawl all blocked:

Stats:
Pattern: Fountain Pen Shawl, IK Spring 2009
Yarn: Jaggerspun Wool/Silk in red (I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t remember what it is)
Needles: KP interchangeables US6
Measurements: Before blocking 60″ wide, 27″ long; After blocking 74″ wide, 42″ long
Notes/Thoughts: I absolutely love this shawl. I only did 9 of the 10 repeats called for, and it’s perfect this way. I would definitely do this shawl again, maybe for gifting.

Gardening:
My little garden is starting to sprout. I planted a bunch of things, and while they haven’t all done well (the herbs have all died), the majority have. A couple pics of things growing.

Sweet Pea plants in window boxes on the front porch

Garlic growing nicely

Tomato plants still inside waiting for weather to stop being so flip-floppy before I put them outside

The sugar snap peas, carrots and cucumbers are also starting to sprout and grow nicely. I can’t wait to be able to pick my own veggies from my garden. Not to mention apples, cherries, pomegranates, blueberries and raspberries from the trees and bushes I planted (though the last 3 may take a couple of years).

New Jersey:
We went to a wedding in NJ on Saturday, near where Bezzie lives. I thought about stalking her, but I didn’t want to scare Chunky and Moochie. I wore the new shawl, and danced the night away.

Unfortunately, the night away wasn’t that late, because I had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to Liberty Science Center to do the March of Dimes walk. That pic is my mom, my sister and me prior to walking. We walked our 3 miles (it was supposed to be 6, but they neglected to actually walk and measure the route until a couple weeks prior to the walk), and it was a really nice day, albeit warm, for a walk. Thank you again to those of you who donated…I raised $558 dollars and my team raised $843 for the cause.

This weekend, I head to Pam’s, with Rosi and some cupcakes, for MDS&W. If you see me, say hi!

I don’t know what happened to my blogging mojo. I used to blog more than once a week. Maybe it’s the lack of things to talk about, or the lack of knitting photos that I can actually share. Dunno. I’m going to have to make an extreme effort to do this more often.

Anyways. I was supposed to have family come visit this weekend. I cancelled a knitting get together because of it. Plans got changed early Saturday, and I felt it too late to call all the knitties and say, hey, we’re back on, so I used it as a free weekend. I spent the morning cleaning my house top to bottom, and by noon, I was free. I sat on the porch with my sister and some friends, and we chatted and sipped cold cocktails til dinnertime. The hubby bought a new grill, upgraded from our tailgating grill from last year, and we broke in the new grill for dinner. I took a walk with a friend to the beach after dinner, and we sat on the beach talking and watching the sun start to set. It was quite a relaxing Saturday.

View from where we sat on the beach. That strip of land is Sandy Hook.

Yesterday, I spent my time knitting. By the time I went to bed last night, I had bound off on the Fountain Pen Shawl. I’ll have details and pics after I block it, but this is what it looked like last night.

Next on the needles, after I finish Sack Boy for the man (who’s been extremely patient), is something for me made out of this:

Any guesses?