Actual Knitting Content

Believe it or not!
Of course, since I'm leading off with flahrs, you can be forgiven for wondering. However, I just suddenly realized that this was happening right next to my front porch, and I wanted to share it!

Yes, this is my earliest camellia. I do not know what variety it is--I suspect that, like a lot of the camellias on this property, it is a one-of-a-kind hybridized by the original owner of the house (ca. 1920-21) who owned a nursery which covered most of the blocks around here. At any rate, it's about the only sure sign of fall here: the camellia begins blooming, and the liquidambars turn gold and drop their leaves. Of course, when it's been hot and dry the way it has been lately, with the devil winds blasting us, the leaves go directly from green to brown shriveled things all over the lawn. They still crunch nicely, though, and I get lots of opportunity to crunch them since I have to be out watering!
We didn't get much from the fires, thank God, other than a sprinkling of ash. I just can't begin to fathom how it must feel to be away from home, not knowing if you have a home to go back to!

Another sign of fall around here. (Yeah, I know it's backwards. What can I say? Flowers are supposed to mean spring!) These are little purple oxalis flowers--kind of like a cute oversized clover, and related to the noxious weedy oxalis, but much prettier. These little bulbs dry up and disappear during the summer months, but as soon as the air cools down they sprout again.
Minor interesting factoid, at least to me: this property grows purple oxalis. Our former house (about 3 blocks from here) had bright pink. I tried moving some of the pink ones over, but they didn't take. I've planted white and more pinks, but only the purple will grow and thrive. I guess they are Debby-flowers!

At last--yarn!! And what luscious stuff, too!
This is Lotus Yarns' lovelies, two skeins of Nirvana (and it is!) and one of Aura. The pink is called Love My Way and both skeins of pink are the same color but different yarns. Can you see the lovely sparkles in the Aura? It's merino, silk, nylon and pure silver! The red is Nirvana in Ruby Soho and this entire purchase was promulgated by Dim Sum Mary, who waggled a skein of the Ruby Soho under my nose at knitting one day. I love love love this color. Well, can you tell? it's posed on my bathmat... which is, sigh, dark red. (I will treat you to a digression one of these days about living with a bathroom that's tiled in pink. But not today. My stomach isn't that strong!)

Then there's my Yarn Pirate Killer Bees. Nifty nifty stuff. I can hardly wait to see how this is going to work up.
Have I mentioned that I love Yarn Pirate yarn?? Oh, is it that obvious?

Next up, the newest STR yarn. I love this colorway! I want a dozen skeins of it so I can make myself a sweater! I want to knit thousands of teeny tiny stitches and fondle this gorgeous stuff every inch of the way.

It's called Lenore. I love the Poe reference for Halloween! I just hope it doesn't mean that they are making this colorway just this once, and then... nevermore.... Please note, I did find a pink towel to pose it on!

There was a spider in the package. It fell out and startled me. Not that I thought it was real or anything...no, not at all.
Although this house does grow huge mutant spiders.

Enough spider talk. I'm spooking myself!


For Madgik, who wanted to know what books I had just gotten:

These...
and these...
and these! The newest Discworld novel--I am addicted, I admit it--and what is probably only the first book about Dan Brown's new thriller-to-be. One of my guilty pleasures is reading semi-trashy novels, and I got a lot of mileage out of The Da Vinci Code with like-minded friends. I'm particularly thrilled when a book purports to explain a book that isn't even out in galleys yet... Isn't that the definition of chutzpah!

More yarny goodness! One skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Lapis. This skein leaped out at me when I was in Unraveled a couple of weeks ago, but I resisted. Womanfully. Strongly. I was in charge. But ET was also hanging around, so I didn't have a chance. I had to make another trip for it!
Oh, way to go,posing the Skye Tweed on a bathmat that's almost the same color. That's to fool La. It's camouflage. That way, when she breaks in here (assuming Attack Cat will let her) she won't be able to find it!
Next up, my score (or should I say, ET's score??) from See Jayne Knit. From the top: Waterlilies (100% mercerized wool), Espressoberry (100% Peruvian wool), and Meteor Shower (70% cashmere, 30% wool). These are incredibly luscious and soft and wonderful. I especially love that Jayne does a heavier yarn, since it gives me some versatility in projects. Still great yardage and wonderful colorways. (Yeah, I know. The Espressoberry should have posed on something else for best results. When it's an FO or WIP I will remember that!)

Finally, this is my "free gift" for subscribing yet again to the Rowan magazine. I love the Rowan books, and a subscription is about the same price as buying them individually, less the cost of gas to run around from store to store, less the heartbreak of realizing that due to busyness or illness or whatever-ness, I've left it too long and the new one is nowhere to be found.

I'm almost done with a project, which is a 12" square and you'd think would have been a quick easy knit. Well, it's nearly done, and when it's washed and blocked it can have its turn on the bathmat before it gets mailed off. I am pretty pleased with it so far. (It's going into an afghan for NETA, which will be raffled off to benefit the Ships Project. As a Navy mom I am all about the Ships Project!)
There's another project underway, too, some house renovation. I've done the before pictures and will be taking progress shots along the way. If you can't stand the suspense, or want to see some truly repulsive dry-rot pictures, they're up on my Flickr page--just click on the badge on the right.
And now to go curl up with my quilt, my cat, and find out what's happening in the Discworld. I will let you know what I think about that book, too!