Fingernail Friday!

AGAIN???

I have been chugging away at joining the hairpin lace. It is tedious. Not quite as bad as seaming up knitting, but still.....

In other news, I went out to admire my basil, as it is finally getting big enough to admire and saw this:

I didn't see the culprit, but I am willing to be it is a repeat of last year's earwig buffet. This summer has been every bit as rainy and damp as last year's and htat is exactly what mucnched up my plants last year. Bastards.

I potted up some new seeds inside today as a failsafe and am going to try to save the outdoor plant using an organic remedy that a lady on Ravelry said worked for her-take a cheap plastic container like the kind you get sour cream in, poke a few holes in the lid and then put in a mix of half soy sauce and half vegetable oil. Apparently the earwigs like that better and climb in andcan't climb out. Now, to find a plastic tub....

ciao

Second Go Around

I sat down again to attempt the hairpin lace shawl join. This time it does not look like ass! YAY!!! It's gonna be a while to join it all up though. But here, a sneak peek:

Isn't it beeeeyoooootifuuuul?

Ciao

Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day,eh? So I did a quintessential summer thing on my day off.

Baseball! Tampa Bay at Toronto. Toronto won. Yay! While there, I did another fun summer thing:Beer! A requirement at a baseball game, no?

Then I took the train home, was felled my a migraine and slept for 13 hours. So most of yesterday was fun, anyway.

Ciao

Palate Cleansing Knitting

I decided that even though I hadn't quite finished the last reallly looooooooong hairpin lace strip, that I would start joining the middle strips together. Tried it. Made a dog's breakfast of it. The pattern isn't super clear, so I consulted with a couple of crochet gurus on Ravelry. I am now prepared for attempt number 2. Later. In order to bolster my confidence, I dug out a wip that has been kicking around since April 2008 and am now up to the point where I need to turn the heel

Tofutsies sock yarn on ebony needles. Very nice. The Tofutsies is a bit splitty, so a soothing vanilla sock is just what the doctor ordered. Now if I can just turn the heel with no problems, I will feel competent again!

ciao

Puff Stitch

I am closing in on the end of my hairpin lace shawl. One of the stitches used to join the strips together is called the puff stitch. I had no idea what this was and messaged a nice lady on Ravelry who had nade it already. Turns out puff stitch is a 'regular' stitch in crochet. Who knew? Not me, clearly. At any rate, if I had kept up with my sample making from the book Happy Hooker, I would eventually have come to....you guessed it, puff stitch!

I decided to give it a whirl in a less sensitive situation and made up a swatch. Ta da!

I am expanding my horizons. Woo hoo!

ciao

Fingernail Friday!