After completion
Come new beginnings.
To gain strength,
Renew the root.
Deng Ming~Dao

Pattern:  Hayrick Socks
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Pandora
Colorway:  Scottish Heather
Needles:  2.25 mm

Can I tell you how much I enjoyed working on these socks?  I thoroughly enjoyed this knit!!!

Another fantastic pattern from Anne.  Very well written with her typical intuitive flow.  I was able to memorize the pattern after 2 repeats.  I so love this about Anne's patterns!

I managed to catch Hannah in a good mood today, which meant squeezing in a few pictures of finished items.  As you probably can guess Hannah hates having her picture taken, so when she is feeling agreeable I move quickly…LOL.  Hannah's feet are a bit bigger than mine, so these socks don't fit her quite as well as they fit me….and they fit me like a glove :-)  I'm still not crazy about knitting these short row wrapped heels, but I am getting better at them.  The next pair of these I make just may have a flap heel though….just sayin'. 🙂

My only regret is that I did not add a few repeats to the leg portion of the sock.  I typically like a longer sock, but given that this was a test knit for a new yarn I didn't want to push it….but I could have as there was plenty of yarn left over.  Over all I am so happy with these socks.  Love the yarn, love the pattern….you will see another pair in the not too distant future. 🙂 

Whew….did you New Englander's survive last week's heat wave?  My hat is off to our Southern friends who live in this weather more often than not.  I can deal with the heat, but the humidity makes me feel like the Wicked Witch of the West….cranky and melting!

Since I have shown that I am not good with a regular Friday post, the garden reports will happen sometime on the weekend. 🙂

I LOVE garden greens but unfortunately they do not always like the heat, so I try to help them along.  Because I had already spent a lot of money on tomato cages and soil prep this year, I didn't have extra money for hoops and covers.  Being the good innovative Yankees that we are, Ken and I rigged up the tarp that you see above.

Putting the tarp up like this is giving the lettuce enough shade during the heat of the day and enough indirect sun for growing.  If I know rain is coming or I am watering, I just peel it back and let it rest on the fence.

 

So far the lettuce crop has been wonderful and with the hot weather the aphids and slugs have stayed away for the most part…Yay!  This batch of cut and come again lettuce unfortunately has seen it's last hurrah though.  After I snapped this picture I cut them back hard.  I will get one more small harvest and then I will pull out the plants.

Last week all of the butter crunch heads were harvested and I planted the new heat hardy Red Sails lettuce seedlings that I started in the house in their place.  With tarp shading the hot midday sun they should do ok and start giving us more lettuce in a few weeks.  I think that I will put some broccoli seeds in place of the lettuce that I will pull the middle of next week for a fall harvest. 🙂

Tomato plants thrive in this hot humid weather, but they also become very thirsty, so one of the things that I am trying this year is using soda bottles to water them a bit more evenly….kind of like drip irrigation.

It's so easy peasy!  To do this just collect a few empty 2 liter bottles of water or soda, cut off the bottom third and then drill a few small holes in the cap.  (Few and Small……ask me how I know…LOL)

I fill them up in the morning and then again later in the day if they are dry.  In between I do use the overhead sprinkler late in the afternoon if the entire garden is looking a bit thirsty.

Another thing I have started doing is covering some of the plants with straw to help retain some of the moisture in the soil.  I don't put a lot down because I don't want to encourage any fungus growth, but just enough to protect the roots of tomato and pepper plants from drying out too much…..

So far it seems to be paying off.  I will admit though after loosing my entire crop of tomatoes last summer, I still worry daily about these babies, but at least for today they are looking healthy and happy.

One of the rewards of this week's heat and humidity in the garden was the blooming and aromas of this beautiful Stargazer.  Such amazing beauty in this incredible Lily……

Until next weekend………….stay cool and stay green!

Hey, my little honey bee
Oh baby, you
been sweet on me
Hey, my little honey bee
Oh, my queen bee
Rock
me to my soul
Rock me to my soul, baby, baby
To my soul, oh…..
Dawn Landes

Pattern:  Les Abeilles
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Abeilles
Colorway:  Perfectly Pear
Needles:  US 4

It's no secret here that The Woolen Rabbit loves bees, so when I saw this pattern of Anne's I immediately set aside what I was working on to start this shawl and I will freely admit that I LOVE it! 

In fact I love it so much that I named the yarn that I used Abeille, which stands for "Bee".  This lightweight bamboo blend is perfect for a summer shawl for the occasional cool night.  Once the humidity drops a little this week I will be dyeing up a bunch of this and adding it to the store. 🙂

 Thank you Anne for such a lovely pattern!!!  Bzzzzz…………..

Lines on the face, tattoos of aging.
Life is proved upon the body
Like needle-jabs from a blind machine.
Deng Ming~Dao

Any avid gardener will tell you that the bane of gardening is dealing with the pests that want to enjoy the fruits of your labor as much as you do and sometimes they win sadly. 

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!

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!

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.

…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!

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'd like you to meet Benchmark Fairy Tale of Ballymena or better known as "Goose" here. 🙂

Now mind you I was not looking to bring a new puppy here.  Not at all.  However, Goose's breeder is a good friend of mine and frequently sends me pictures of her dogs. (she is Skyy and Cleo's breeder as well)

 When Goose's litter was born I was busy taking care of Ellie and really did not pay that much attention other than to notice that they were cute babies.

About a week ago she sent a particularly cute picture.  Knowing that she was not going to keep anything from this litter and knowing that little Miss Ellie is not looking like she will make it to the show ring, I asked Barb to send me a video of this little one on a whim.

In addition to the video she sent me some pictures of her stacked on a table.   Stacked is a show term, meaning the the puppy is set up on the table with a little bit of bait so that you can set the baby up and observe body structure.

Every breed of dog has something called a "breed standard"  It is this standard that a breeder is always aiming for in a breeding, by breeding dogs that compliment each other both in structure and in type.

Needless to say this baby has a beeutiful little body and such a pretty expression…..so after seeing the video and pictures, I said…"I think she wants to live in New Hampshire."

 

Monday I drove into Boston to pick up the little bundle……if you can believe it, she is even cuter than her picture.  Quiet as a church mouse all the way home to NH..poor thing was pooped from her early flight.

I gave her a few hours to recover before I introduced her to the rest of the clan.  After getting a thorough going over, she received the seal of approval from the girls…..even Maggie. 😉

 

After a long and eventful day it was time to crash…..I think she likes it here in New Hampshire. 🙂