Veggies

Working diligently on the sweet pea sweater.  The library book is due in 2 more weeks, after all!  I'm working up the hood now:

(Ignore the rocks, they're only there to hold the edges down.)  I'm liking this patterns, not least because all the seams are done as you knit.  For instance, no side seams, and the shoulder seams were done with a 3 needle bind-off.  The hood top seam will be the same way, and the sleeves seem to be knit right on.  I think the only finishing will be turning up hems.  Yay!

Took a hit on the plankton shawl this week.  At knitting group, Ralene and I were both knitting along when she says, "So how does it work on these asterisk rows?"

Me: "Umm....  Asterisk rows?"

Ah, the dangers of printing out color originals on a black and white printer.  Turns out starting at a certain point, every 4th row has a little trick to it, and on the pattern the knitter is reminded of this by a red asterisk on the chart.  Printed on a grey background.  Render that in black and white, and guess what?  The asterisk is almost invisible.  I remember noticing this before I started the pattern, but of course by the time I was 60 rows in and the asterisks started, I had completely forgotten about it!

Then came 20 minutes of dithering along the lines of, "will anyone really notice?  Maybe I can just start doing it now, and really, who will know?"  Well, fellow knitters, of course the answer is, I'll know.  So it's time to frog.  Fortunately I put in a lifeline just a few rows before the first asterisk row.  Hurray for lifelines!  I am so glad I didn't get too far ahead of Ralene.

This week's big excitement was the creation of the seedling greenhouse in the basement.  The tomato seeds I planted last weekend sprouted in 3-5 days (bottom heat really does work wonders in seed sprouting), so the pressure was on to get them a place to live.  The plant lights had already been mounted in a shelving unit in the basement, but the basement is a little cool for tomato seedlings, so we turned the shelf into a little greenhouse using clear plastic sheet.  A 40 watt bulb provides enough heat to keep the little enclosure warm, and a timer turns it all off and on so they get day and night.  Here is is:

and here are the little seedlings safe and happy in their new home:

Next week, lettuce.  Bwa ha ha!