so glad it’s friday

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

our yucca is in full bloom . . all at once it burst out with armfuls of flowers.
(must be all this rain . . . )

those are for all of you . . . thank you SO much for your support of claudia’s Ride for MS this month. you deserve big bunches of flowers (and i’m still willing to match gifts with a $5 additional donation til sunday).

before i lived in ohio i don’t ever remember seeing this plant anywhere, though i’m sure it is widely grown. i might not even have noticed it here except that we have a very large one in our yard. the first time it put out its flowering stalk, i watched daily to see what would happen next, not being quite sure what i was looking at. it’s a fast grower once it gets going. its appearance from a clump of what i thought was just greenery took me by surprise. then the size of it—whoa.
then i saw what grew on its branches and called my friend mark.

“mark!” i said, ” there’s something in the yard and i’m not at all sure what it is; can you help?”
“i’ll try,” intoned mark.
“well, it’s a big stalk—at least five feet high—coming out of a clump of pointy leaves that i thought were part of the lily bed. it has arms that stick straight out from that. and then it has these big artichoke-type things on the arms that are HUGE.”
“oh!” said mark, with relief (i think my tone of concern had him a bit worried), “that’s a yucca.”
“ok. but i didn’t put it there. and, it wasn’t there last year.”
“yeah,” he chuckled, “they don’t bloom every year. they didn’t have those in jersey city, eh?”
er, not on my street. thank goodness for real gardeners.

i haven’t been able to get near the garden this week except to snap pictures. it has rained and rained. and then, rained some more. it’s way to soggy to venture in, so i’m letting it grow—things look ok from the edge though. but i will have to get in there and get some of the rapini picked before it bolts (it’s so on the verge). and i’ll grab some other greens too, blanch them all and put ’em in the freezer.

so i’ve been busy with indoor stuff, mainly the secret project (almost done!), new charts, patterns, and swatches. and second socks. yay.

that’s second sock number 3; and the third caterpillar sock, too. i am so going to get the socks out of the way soon. i just hope i have enough yarn to finish this one . . it might be very close. i DO have another small ball of it here . . that’s not the last of the yarn there, so i might make it. david just has big feet, what can i say?

not a whole lotta bloggable goods though, sorry . . . i try to think of other things to write about but it’s hard. i can’t even tell a funny story poking fun at david a little—he’s been working so hard at his job he’s lucky to get a nap, much less a full night’s sleep. so picking on him would be bad, right? i mean, not that he tends toward cranky or anything, but he might be feeling fragile.

although . . . there is a sort-of funny story about the ant traps he put in the guest bathroom (oh heck—he doesn’t read my blog, so i’m gonna tell it).
see, we seem to get ants in that room only for some reason and it drives us nuts because, of course, that’s the one spot in the house we’d like to appear presentable. so we keep stocked up on ant motels, keep searching for better solutions, and hope our friends are the kind that let that kind of thing pass.

so, last week david came home with a new type of ant trap and placed them in the lavatory. this one was sure to get rid of them forever, right? the next time i walked in there, all i could do was stare in amazement—there were like 300 ants around the one trap.
hmm—a good result, but not exactly what we had in mind

later, i saw the same traps on the front porch just OUTSIDE the bathroom.
that david—he’s a thinker.

i’ve been swatching with the new fearless fibers merino/tencel yarn

i’m gonna have a new scarf started soon i think. i’ve got two stitch patterns that i’m playing with; we’ll see what they look like after a bath, then i’ll decide.

meanwhile, the other delicious scarf was well underway and i was lovin’ the pattern i picked and motoring along alright when i realized that there was too much stockinette near the edges and they might curl too much. darn it. i had just got into the right groove with this yarn, too.

so i ripped out the three or so inches i had knit with the slippery stuff and refigured my chart to have four less sts near the edge. i also decided the chart should begin on a different row to make the corners prettier (ok, yes, i realize i am baring my naked designer pickiness to the world—just be happy it’s me and not you).
so, that’s all the “progress” i have on that today.

but you know what? it’s friday. and that means it’s the weekend.
i’m not saying that means i’ll have lots more knitting to show for myself—but i might.

27 thoughts on “so glad it’s friday

  1. It was always amazing to drive through the San Bernardino Mountians where there was usually nothing and find SCADS of Yucca-flowers peeking up above the scrub. Amazingly tall!! So pretty too. I always wondered if they have a scent though!

    Also, is this where I tell you I made a donation to Claudia? Sorry, I am brain dead 😉

  2. Friday’s are mostly good anyway you look at them 😉 Your gardening pics are always so pretty. I love the colors of the caterpillar sock. Your scarf and mitts are also such beauties btw.

  3. Yuccas are pretty much the standard fare around New Mexico, so I got a giggle with your description 🙂 They come in about 85,000 varieties, and some of them have sharp enough leaves to draw blood. And the roots are often cut up and used in recipes, such as Yucca French Fries. I’m not a fan of those, but some people really love them.

  4. Mark another donation to Claudia’s MS ride – I love helping other people spend their money!

    I love your recent creations – if I can find the time to make progress on my WIPs, I can start some new projects, which are your old creations. When will I ever have time to cast on your new creations??
    Laurin

  5. I also made a donation to Claudia’s ride.

    I just got a few of your Little Nothings patterns, I am going to knit bramble with my first skein of decent handspun! 🙂 I’m pretty excited.

    My plan is to spin yarn for my Mom, MIL and stepmom and knit them Little Nothings scarves for Christmas, bramble will be for me.

  6. Not only are yuccas pretty, but yucca root is yummy — next time you’re out here, I’ll take you to our local Cuban place, and we can have yucca. Mmm….

    Enjoy your weekend of knitting! 🙂

  7. Hey Miz Anne,
    I just noted Claudia had not met her goal, so I donated again. The Gold Koigu prize had nothing to do with it.

    Join my donation again, woman?

  8. I finally made a donation to the MS Ride. I also think a line of baking soda between the outside and inside will stop them from coming in. Maybe?

  9. I’m looking forward the merino/tencel scarf. I’ve got three skeins of merino/tencel that don’t want to be socks and I’ve been searching for a pattern.

  10. We used to have a yucca plant in our garden…but not any more :).

    I can’t wait to see what you do with that pink yarn!

  11. Love the yucca! Very pretty. And I think being picky is what makes a good designer!

  12. i am rather glad it’s friday myself – i keep thinking it’s saturday, and it’s much better that i still have saturday to look forward to! as for the rain – ugh, yes, have we had rain. we went down to chillicothe today and actually ended up on a detour because the rain had flooded one of the on-ramps. the fields down that way are looking a mite bit soggy too.

  13. Regarding your ants….there is a product that comes in liquid form. You put a few drops along the route you see the ants, they take the liquid back to the nest and the whole nest is taken care of….works always. I wish I could remember the name but it is available in hardware stores. In Canada it is a white bottle with a red cap. Hope you are able to find it as it is a great solution.

  14. Hey I almost forgot to let you know that I donated to Claudia’s ride earlier this week. Yeah for you for matching monies! Hope she’s having a good ride out there right now!

  15. Oh! I miss my yucca in Ohio1 I had a couple of them in my yard, there, but not here, in Maine. Thanks for sharing yours! I’m glad that you post frequently, and I know it has to be a struggle, sometimes. I have a long list of blogs I read, and I check every day to see if there’s something new. Sometimes, these people don’t post for a week!! Don’t fret! You’re doing very well!

  16. I moved to Ohio a few years ago and noticed yucca for the first time too. We’re outside of Cincinnati and their everywhere. So pretty!
    Also, what kind of trap was it?! I’m forever trying to get our ants. We have traps outside, inside…Nothing seems to really *get* them. So I’m curious as to what could cause such decimation!

  17. We also have yucca to disguise our electric transformer. Our landscaper said to make sure you plant them where you want to keep them forever – or plan to use a backhoe to transplant them.

    I have ants too; Terro used to work very well, but the new formulation is just borax and doesn’t have the toxic ingredient the old one did. Better for the environment, but not as effective on the ants. It’s been a month and mine are still here.

  18. Your yucca comments cracked me up! They grow everywhere here (San Diego). They also grow all over in Costa Rica, and our guide there told us those flowers are edible, and delicious scrambled with eggs. I’ve never tried it myself, though I’m always tempted when ours bloom.

  19. As I commented on a previous blog posting of yours, I would be more then thrilled to donate for M.S. but I find it a bit unsettling that you give the appearance that your site is making rather large donations matching others. If you can show somewhere that you indeed ARE donating, then I will be happy to follow suit. I would like to add that your attitude that reveals through your blog postings appears to be quite pompous and a smidge smug. I am sure you are not that way IRL, but you do your readers such an unjustice by portraying that. Bloggers/designers with far more experience and following don’t portray anything close to that and I am sure they wil never do so.
    I am hoping you will take this as contructive critisim and not anything more. It would also be helpful to not hav your patterns all be clained as your designs when they really are just stitch patterns that anyone can do. If you designed the stitch that is entirely different, but you did not correct? I will wait patiently for fundraising documentation, I am sure you have it correct?

  20. Ants! The bane of our existence here too! We live in the woods a little ways and I’ve mostly learned how to deal with the bugs, but the ants all over the kitchen drive me crazy.
    Never mind a better mousetrap… what humanity needs is a better ant trap!

    Also… I finished my Twinings and put up a photo on my blog. I changed your pattern because of the yarn. I don’t know why… I just had this wonderful worsted weight in a colorway that said “Twingings!”, so I went for it. But I decreased the repeats tons to accomodate the increased yarn size and to make it more scarf sized.
    Hope you like it…

  21. Friday + Knitting = Start of a good weekend. Also, thanks for the reminder of the MS donations! I gave a little bit on Thursday.

  22. I am writing to let you know that I donated to the MS ride! Thanks for you generosity in matching the funds.

  23. The colors on your sock are fabulous! I like the yellow and gray mix.
    Regarding ants — I had read somewhere that they won’t cross a cinnamon line, so I tried it. We had ants in our office a couple of years ago, coming in through the window. We had to vacuum up all the ones in the office but once they were all vacuumed and I put ground cinnamon on the windowsills, we had no repeat visitors. Plus we had cinnamon in the house, readily available already. I also put fresh cinnamon at the edges of my orchid’s drip tray every 6 months and it has ceased to have an ant problem, too, so I’m a believer. Good luck!

  24. I love yuccas. We have one in our backyard in Maryland. They grow pretty easily in Texas, which is where I’m from. The yearbook at my parent’s university (which also became my university, and my brother’s, and my future husband’s and my future sil’s AND my uncle’s – what can I say? it’s the family university!) was named “The Yucca”.

    I also just LOVE your yarn shots. You work with such gorgeous colorways. 🙂

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