Finished!!!

I finished the Kente Inspired Baby Girl Blanket.  Although it started out as "kente inspired,"  I used more adinkra symbols than my original plan called for.  I guess I should call it "Adinkra inspired."    Besides the gye nyame symbol which is the most recognizable, the other symbols represent: strength, perseverence, wisdom, abundance, and femininity.  I am already making another blanket using water blue colors.  I have not decided on the symbols yet. But, it will be for the next baby boy in the family.  Instead of using Hobby Lobby's Yarn Bee Sweet Delight yarn, this time I am trying Red Heart's Candi Jensen Designer Sport.  We will see how it goes....
Oh yeah, I made a hat with left over yarn.  The pattern is the Squiggles and Grin Baby Hat  from Lion Brand.  This hat is just too cute.

Wisdom and Creativity

Here is another symbol for the baby blanket. I am choosing adinkra symbols which reflect my good wishes for the new baby. This symbol means wisdom and/or creativity. The color in the picture is not as vivid as the actual pink Baby Bee yarn... but it will have to do until I get a new camera.

Next Year....

Well, there is always next year. My "garden" this year was not as bountiful as last year. I am amazed at the resilience of brave farmers and pioneers who live off the land. Take a look at what is left of this years crop - a little chard, a few onions, one carrot, and hopefully (maybe) some tomatoes will grow before the weather changes. Maybe we will have just enough to make some chard soup. Yummy!

I am not discouraged, though. Next month, I will prepare the soil, and plan, and wait, and hope, ... until next year.

Strength

This is one of the patches for the baby blanket. This patch has an adinkra symbol for strength and humility. You can see two ram horns butting together in a show of strength. Sheep can be docile or strong when need be. Like sheep, people do not need to always show strength with force.

I like that the symbol does not jump out at you. Once the blanket is together, it might take a moment to realize that it is kente inspired. It makes the discovery more enjoyable.

New Project(Really Old) Project

I started working on a new project recently. Actually, it is an old project that I would start and stop for a long time now. I am tapestry crocheting patches to put together as a baby blanket. It is inspired by my admiration for Kente cloth. More later.

Square Foot Gardening 2009
Last year, I began a little vegetable and herb garden in my small backyard. I used the square foot gardening method since I did not want to use a lot of space. I got some wood planks and my tool set and constructed a four foot by four foot planter. It was wonderful. We feasted on cucumbers, tomatoes, chard, onions, carrots, lettuce, all types of herbs, sweet peppers, and cayenne peppers. I even unsucessfully tried watermelon.

This year, is some what of a dud. We did get lettuce, onions, carrots, and some chard. However, everything else I planted did not grow well. I switched the plants around so that they were not grown in the same spot as last year, so I don't think that was it. In addition, the japanese beetles that loved my leafy plants last year attacked the pepper leaves instead. I decided to pull everything except the chard and herbs and start again next year. Any suggestions?

By the way, if you want to try your hand (or green thumb) at this, look for info on Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening.

Favorite Project - Infinity Wrap

This is my one of my favorite crochet projects. It is the Infinity Wrap pattern by Kristin Omdahl. I used Red Heart Peruvian yarn, which is quite economical, simply as a test run. But, the colors worked up very nicely. It came in handy during my son's baseball season.

I will do a couple of these for gifts at the end of the year using wool or wool blend yarn.