The Woolen Rabbit

Les Abeilles...

Let's imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee into a hive.  Usually the first thing that we would have to get used to is the darkness......
Exploring The World of Social Insects...

Last month I was merrily knitting along on my Hayrick socks and loving the new Bamboo sock blend, Pandora, that I am now carrying.  Whipped through the first one and then all the way to the heel of the second one, when I caught a glimpse of this.....

Anne, that is SO not fair!!  You know me well enough to know that I would have to immediately stop what I was doing and cast on, for this is "les abeilles" or better known as The Bees.

The above quote from The Secret Life of Bees, is perfect for my post today.  It's been a difficult couple of months for me.  I have been struggling with a bad bout of sciatica, which has been pretty darn painful this time around.  I think that women as a whole tend to have a pretty high tolerance for pain and learn to live with it until it moves to that plateau where it needs to be addressed, which this did last week.

The doctor put me on a round of prednisone which I really hate because it is one of those good/bad drugs.  Takes care of the pain, but the side effects are challenging.  I have to say that the feeling of euphoria from the release of pain is worth the current sleepless nights...well almost. 

I realized I have been living in that darkness of pain for much too long and am so grateful to feel part of the human race ...standing tall again and able to pick up little Miss Goose without feeling like I might keel over...so YAY for that!

Once again my little winged friends have found me at just the right time.  Late at night while the house is quiet and I am still wide awake this beeutiful pattern has been my constant companion.   The pattern has Anne's typical intuitive flow which I love.  I am nearing the finish line with this shawl which I am doing in a new lace weight bamboo blend that I will start listing in my shop soon. 

Knitting this shawl for me has been like reading a good book that you hate to see come to an end, therefore I am going to immediately cast on a second one in my linen blend, Muireann, as I know this is going to be a shawl that I am going to enjoy wearing and wearing and wearing.  Thanks Anne!

Friday's Garden.....

Storm breaks into pieces,
Clouds charge the horizon.
Revolving of the heavens.
Generates all movement.
Deng Ming~Dao

A few years back I spent the summer doing Friday's flowers. It was something that I really enjoyed doing.  I thought however that I would do something a little different this year and post about my different gardens on Fridays.  This will include "the good", "the bad" and the "down-right ugly"...all of which I have already experienced even this early into the season.

So even though this is Thursday, I am planning to do this each Friday throughout the growing season.  We can learn together!

Perhaps you may remember my disappointing tomato loss last summer.  I lost the entire crop to blight.  Some of it was due to the weather conditions and some of it was my own doing.  

 

One of the things I did wrong was to plant the tomato plants too close together and I didn't prune them enough.  That combined with the damp, cool rainy season spelled disaster for many tomato gardeners here in the Northeast.  I am reading that they are seeing this blight again already this year....I am praying that it won't get this far northeast.

One of the things I did differently this year was to buy some sturdy tomato cages.  Originally I was going to buy some of these, but after reading the comments, I decided to go with these instead.  They are a bitch to put together, but I think they are going to be worth the effort.  The smaller metal cages I have used in the past are just not big enough for most tomato plants.

 

I'm hoping with better spacing, the new stands and this product I will have better results.

I also spent some time learning the difference between indeterminate and determinate tomatoes given that I have both in my garden and the pruning methods that are unique to both types.  There are some GREAT videos on this website.  I see now that I should not have been pruning back the suckers on my Roma's which are determinate tomatoes.  On a bush type tomato such as a roma, you should pinch back all of the suckers and leaves beneath the first set of flowers and then let the rest grow un-pruned.  With indeterminate tomatoes, such as Early girl, Better boy and most of your cherry tomatoes you want to let one or two stems grow and prune all of those suckers that grow where the leaf and stem meet.  More energy goes into producing better fruit this way.

I was going to talk about a few of my other garden issues, such as my never ending battle with fornicating cucumber beetles, but I think I will save that for next week.  Instead I will leave you with a picture from my other garden...the perennial bed...so much prettier than those pesky bugs. :-)

Coral bells............

Until next Friday...........happy gardening!

Congratulations Courtney!

With the craziness of graduation weekend over and company gone I can now sit down to congratulate Courtney on a job well done. :-)

What a whirlwind of a month it has been here at Casa Woolen Rabbit.  Proms, exams, college orientations and finishing up with a picture perfect weekend for graduation.

The day was sunny and warm...actually it bordered on being hot, but that is better than rain, right?...even if most of us ended up with sunburned noses and ears. ;-). 

The crowd sat proudly waiting for the moment when their graduate walked across the stage and accepted their diploma, marking the end of one era and the start of a new one.

 

In the blink of an eye (well almost)...it was over and time for one last opportunity to goof around at school with friends....

   

...and the pictures

.........pictures of good friends........

 

and boyfriends....

I have to admit, I am going to miss having Courtney around when she leaves for college this fall.  She is a chatty soul and good company with a kind heart...not afraid to dance to the beat of her own drum.  I think Hannah is going to miss her as well, although she probably won't admit it...yet. ;-)

Congratulations Courtney....we are very proud of you!

A fun little ditty.............

Thanks Ashley! It made me smile tonight... :-)

Quietly busy.......

It's been a little while since I have visited with you...and in that time I have been pretty busy.

I pretty much took the month of May to enjoy a little Rest and Relaxation.  Time to get caught up with life, the dogs and the garden.  It was nice, but now it's time to get back to work right?

Have I told you how addicting fabric can be?  It's almost as bad if not worse than fiber.  So many pretty colors, so many pretty patterns!

I have been busy making bags again.  I tweaked a few things to make the bags easier to open and close.  Removing the toggle clasp and adding a double drawstring and using a lighter weight stabilizer has made a nice difference.  The bags are still sturdy enough to stay open while you are working on your project, but soft enough completely close easily.

With that finished, I am going to tackle a larger sized project bag.....hmmm....have I mentioned how much I love fabric?

   

I've also added a new sock yarn.  It's a merino/bamboo/nylon blend that I am very happy with!  I used to carry a yarn called Bambino which was soft and lovely but without the added nylon unfortunately it just did not stand up to the abuse that socks can take so I discontinued it.

The new yarn is called Pandora and so far I am loving it.  I am using it for  Anne's Hayrick pattern and while the yarn is very soft it has enough body to give nice stitch definition.

One sock finished and 1/2 way thru the second one.  I think this might be an all time speed record for me!

Ok.....back to work.  Have a GREAT weekend!