More hat knitting

I'm still in recovery from the trauma of knitting my Potter's Shawl, so I've been restricting myself to knitting only small projects. My theory is that a small project, while I'm in recovery, will prevent me from going off the deep end.

I enjoy knitting hats off and on during the year to donate to various organizations as winter approaches.

I noticed on Knitting Paradise last week that Yelena Chen had released a new hat pattern, "Casey," and it was on sale for $1.99 for a limited time.

I snatched it up.

I've knitted three or four of Yelena's earlier hat patterns and love their designs.

This one just might be my favorite. Isn't the band attractive?

The top photo is the first one I made. I used a skein of KnitPicks yarn that I found at Goodwill last week for $1.

While at the Cashmere Goat in Camden, Violet helped me choose this deep turquoise yarn. It's a skein of Berroco Vintage worsted. What a beautiful yarn: wool, acrylic and nylon. There's enough yarn in one skein to knit two Casey hats.

(Violet chose this turquoise yarn because, at age 10, she's now in her "Turquoise Stage," which should not be confused with her Pink and Purple Stage, which lasted from age 3 to age 9. I much prefer her Turquoise Stage.)

I'm now knitting Casey #3.

P.S. Yesterday I did an inventory of my yarn stash. It's stored in three tubs here in my study. I did a similar inventory about four years ago, and my goal at that time was to reduce the stash by at least 50% over the next few years.

Major fail. That's all I can say. MAJOR fail.

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My euphorbia

The last time, which was the first time, I shared a photo of my euphorbia trigona, it looked like this.

It was a mere baby when I brought it home from my brother and sister-in-law's last fall. This photo was taken in late May.

This is Euphie today. She's going a little wild in the summer sun. I keep her on our kitchen bow window, but I move her into the living room for her photo shoots.

This is an "aerial view" of Euphie. As you can see, she has gone from being two-sided to being three-sided.

She's unusual, all right. In the second photo, it looks as if she might be producing some baby euphorbias about half way up her stem. I'll be keeping an eye on those protuberances to see what becomes of them.

I've never owned such an usual plant. I'm more the spider plant-African violet-Christmas cactus type, so this is quite a departure for me.

I just checked eBay and found Euphorbias ranging in price from $9 to $150. I like to think mine is of the $150 pedigree.

Apparently the milky-white juice of the euphorbia is highly irritating to the skin. I've never had the pleasure of finding that out first hand, and I hope I never do.

That's what's happening in Jean's Garden Center today.

Just what you've been waiting for...

I'm sure you've been wondering how my sweet potato vines are doing. (I'm kidding, but here's the update anyway.)

Well, they seem very happy out on our back deck. This hot, humid weather the past couple of days has caused them to go a bit wild, in fact.

The vine in this first photo is at the far right in  the pot.

I was concerned that it seemed to be attracting aphids a week or so ago. Then I read that a simple recipe, sprayed on the plant, deters aphids, so I set to work mixing up a batch:
Cut up an onion, add a squashed garlic clove or two, add a few cups of water, and let this "brew" in the sun for a few days.

What you'll have once the brewing is sufficient is an extremely strong-smelling onion/garlic mixture.

I strained out the onion and garlic pieces, poured the liquid into a spray bottle, and gave the top sweet potato vine a good dose of it.

The rest is history, at least for now. Not an aphid in sight, and I check several times a day. I think I sent the aphids packing.

In this second photo is the "sibling" to the vine at the top. It's doing extremely well, also, and is even trying to make friends with the coleus plants in the pot to the left of it.                            

For some reason I couldn't seem to control myself when I passed by the sweet potatoes at the supermarket about three weeks ago. Before I knew it, one potato had found its way into my shopping cart, and it came home with me. It has been sprouting fast and furiously, as you can see in the bottom photo. It's interesting that this sweet potato is sending out so many sprouts, whereas the first sweet potato had all it could do to produce three measly sprouts. There are, in fact, eleven sprouts on this latest potato, and it might not even be done sprouting yet.

My plan is to have ONE sweet potato vine growing in the house this winter. I've already bought a new plant stand for it. What I'll do with the ten others, I don't know. I don't think I could bear to kill them.

On Mt. Battie's summit

It was a perfect day to be on top of Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park last Wednesday.

The view from the summit is quite spectacular.

That's the village of Camden down below and Penobscot Bay in the distance. Just minutes earlier we were sitting outdoors at a restaurant on that harbor.

While having lunch, we mentioned to our waitress that we'd be driving to the top of Mt. Battie after we ate. She said she has hiked mountains up and down the East Coast, and to her the best view of all is from Maiden's Cliff Trail, on the other side of this lookout.



We'll have to check that out some time,... on a cool autumn day, perhaps.

Camden's Cashmere Goat

In yesterday's post I mentioned visiting The Cashmere Goat, a yarn shop, while in Camden. It's a wonderful yarn shop with very friendly and helpful staff. I didn't browse as long as I wanted to because it was almost lunch time (and we were hungry), and I had a husband waiting for me on a bench outside. I hate to keep people waiting.

Violet's a knitter and crocheter, too, so she enjoyed viewing all the pretty yarns as much as I did.

I made a couple of sightseeing tours through the shop's two rooms, selected my purchases (bottom photo), and left. Now I wish I could go back and look more closely.


Looking more closely would have resulted in more yarn, I'm sure, and more yarn is the last thing I need.

Dreary weekend

This weekend has been the dreariest of the summer. Showers. Clouds. Chilly temps.

I thought I'd try to brighten this blog post by sharing a drive we took this past Wednesday.

Our great niece, Violet, spent the week with us, so Ken suggested we take her up to Camden for the day.

(Violet's a reader.)

As we drove toward Wiscasset, we discovered the Montsweag Flea Market was bustling. We'd never visited it on a Wednesday, assuming its one mid-week day to be open would have a poor turn-out.










We were wrong.

Violet enjoyed the various collections of small items. She even managed to buy three gifts for her parents and two gifts for herself,...for a total of $5.

After an hour or so at Montsweag, we continued on to Camden. It's about 2 1/2 hours from our home.











The restaurant on the harbor front was beautifully decorated with hanging baskets of flowers. I couldn't resist taking a photo or two.

As we ate lunch we watched tourists boarding the schooners at the dock's edge to take a sail out into the bay.

This is a basket of scaveola. I had a pot of scaveola one summer and loved it. I must remember to plant some next year.

Next installment: The Cashmere Goat yarn shop in Camden. You didn't think I'd go to Camden without visiting its yarn shop, did you??!