Update!

Oops. Sorry, dear blog, for abandoning you. Here's some craftyness to quell your monstrous crafty appetite.

First, the icing on the cake of my package from elociNNicole, a hippo tote bag!


(I can't remember the Etsy store he's from. I'll get it later.) How cute! How realistic! It's so cute! I need to spray it with Scotch Guard so it doesn't get dirty, and then I think I have a new bag for the upcoming semester. Did I mention she's so cute!?

Next, I'll introduce you to Lester the Narwhal. (Ignore Susie.)


He came from Fluffyland. Once I saw him, I knew I had to have one. I have a certain affinity for all things aquatic, and he was just too cute to pass up. Go check out her adorable mini whales, and other plushie goodies. Go, now! I'll wait 'till you come back.

...

Cute, huh?

Onwards, crafty soldiers! I think I took around 8 projects to the lake, and maybe worked on 3. One wasn't working out, and it was way too hot to work on my Watermelon Cardi. (And I was too busy sleeping, swimming and eating.) I took my Exchange Bag with me, and I got to the end of the single crochet rounds, and was about to start the shell stitches for the top, when I stopped to look, I realized it looked like this:



Not like this:

Courtesy Ravelry user jana.

Hmph. So I measured, and at the widest it's 14 inches across, not 8 inches. D'oh! Into the frog pond it goes. I have no idea what I did wrong, either. I was just going to leave it as is, but it looks really weird, so we frog and redo, frog and redo.

I also started my Reverie Beret, which I just finished yesterday. Here's some WIP shots. I'll take pictures of the FO, and fancy modeling pictures after I get my hair done Thursday.



Reverie Beret by Amy Swenson
Yarn: Berroco Love It Colors in Monday, Monday (1.5 skeins)
Needles: US 3 (I used my new Knit Picks nickel plated needles, and hot damn, they're fast!
Notes/mods: No modifications, except for using a different yarn. It had similar colors, though Love It makes stripes verses the variegated Ms. Swenson used. It's not as slouchy as my Le Slouch, but it is cute. I had some troubles at the end, for some reason not all my spirals had the same number of stitches, so on one of the decrease rows, I was doing sl5kpo's and a few sl2kpo's to make everything even. But you can barely tell, so I'm not worried.

~*~

Onto the gastronomic portion of this post.


Here's my cucumber/bush pickle! I took this when we came home. It's been on the vine for a while, and I doubted it was good to eat, so it's gone, and my plant died. Next year, I'll look for the more traditional slicers, and make sure to water it a ton.

When I came home, I opened my cupboard and saw this guy:


Oops. He was supposed to be a sweet potato salad, but not so much anymore. My mom mentioned she used to grow sweet potatoes, and that her boyfriend (in like 3rd grade) gave her a sweet potato plant. (Aw.) After I little research I found THIS site on turning my tater into a plant, so we're going to see how that goes. I'll keep ya'al posted.

And another new recipe I made off the top of my head, a shrimp scampi with veggies!


I used a half of a orange pepper (my favorite), and half of a green pepper, and fresh tomatoes from the deck. I sauteed them, and added oil, white wine, lemon juice and garlic, added the shrimp and cooked them, then plopped it all down on a bed of spaghetti. Delish. Though I got sick later on. I know they were thoroughly cooked, but I think shrimp and I aren't agreeing right now.

Apparently these are crabs. I'm not so sure. I think Cake Wrecks needs to open up a "Cookie Wrecks" chapter, because these are so there.



I also received a whole bagful of yarn from my Grandma, unloading her stash :] but I'll spare you the yarn pr0n...for the time being.