Lenina FO

Pattern:  Lenina by Wooly Wormhead, from the book , Brave New Knits: 26 Projects and Personalities from the Knitting Blogosphere
Yarn:  Plymouth Linen Isle
Needles: size 7
I found out after the fact the the book has an error for this pattern.  However I cannot blame the book for my first attempt. I was totally distracted and couldn't for the life of me count the w&ts.  I missed some vital instructions when piecing and finally gave up.    
On my second try I decided to go with a seamless modification. Instead of knitting each wedge from a provisional CO, I CO with a loop method, knit the first wedge, and bound off the stitches until I had one stitch on the needle.  Along the way I picked up the wraps, knit, then passed the previous stitch over.  I then turned and counted the stitch left as the first stitch of the next row.  There were purl bumps made by the CO row, and I just picked these up and either knit or purled them according to the pattern.  The very last bump was small  and the first few were double bumps from the wrapped stitches.  When the last wedge was done, I did a 3 needle bind-off, wrong sides facing each other and picking up the loop from the CO row.  I think it came out similar to the original:).  The yarn does not have a lot of stretch but the a single row of single crochet, a swim, and a tumble in the dry helped some.  

I started spinning my Purple Majesty.  I'm enjoying my maple/cherry Baines spinning chair from Halcyon.   It has a nice okole shape to fit my bottom.  The roving is all blue on one end, and pretty much red on the other, with purple, blue and red in the midde.  I'm going for a 3 ply and hope it all blends.  

I spent a couple hours on the azalea revitalization project.  I read that lichens mean the plant is not happy and I'm not surprised after years of neglect on my part.  First step was weeding.  Ugh.  I hate weeding.  I spread some dirt/compost around today, and gave them a spinkle.  I spoke to them nicely, trying hard not to show them the worry part.  I'm hoping it will rain some tonight.  Keep your fingers crossed!

There were enough lichen to try out another experiment.  My friend commented today, "Why bother?"  She is so practical.  

I have no idea what variety of lichen they are.  There were two types, a fructiose green one and and orange one that looked like coral.  I boiled them up, poured the liquid in a spaghetti jar, added some ammonia and plan to shake it everyday for a while.  It started off brown and is this reddish-brown color now.   It doesn't look very concentrated.  I wonder if heat is really needed in the dye process.  

It's definitely summer here.  The jacaranda trees are nearly done leaving a lavender dust along the roads.  The popcorn orchids popped. The litchi are turning red. The PV system is producing enough electricity to pay my electric bill.  I have no sock mojo.  I'm still contemplating whether to keep working or tender my resignation. Not sure why I keep hanging on!

Happy creating!