Veggies, sprouts and a good book

Today was another productive but semi-lazy Sunday. I went to the Farmer's Market this morning. I tend to get carried away and spend more money than I mean to and/or buy things that I don't use. So today I set myself a budget of $10, and got the following:
Swiss chard, a honeydew, tomato, 2 peaches and some potatoes for a grand total of $9.70. I sauteed the Swiss chard and tomato with some garlic and tofu and had it on top of brown rice for dinner. Yum.

Oh, and that is more banana bread that I made in the background. I thought I was so clever putting a pretty bowl upside down over it as a cover. Then when I went to cut myself a piece, an earwig came crawling out. Serves me right, I was really just being lazy not cutting it up and putting it in tupperware right away.
These are little thyme sprouts coming up. I am excited for them to be big enough to use in my cooking!
I have this book out of the library right now, and I am quite impressed with it. Definitely a book I'd consider adding to my library. There aren't too many patterns, and I probably wouldn't make most of them anyway, but the swatches and instructions for all the different techniques are incredible.
I think the techniques I most want to try out now are weaving (both with yarn and with thread or other materials) and couching.

Oh, and I will be posting an official announcement of my Etsy shop soon (I'm still adding a few things and trying to figure out how to make a banner), but in the meantime, you can take a peek at it here.

WIP Monday

Yes, I know it's supposed to be WIP Friday, but I'm not very good at posting on specific days. So here I am on Monday.

I've started the French Market bag from knitty, but will not post a photo since I need to rip out a few rows first. Again. Since I've been getting a bit frustrated with that, I thought it would be good to have a quick and easy project going too. So I started this ribbed hat. I love the colors of this yarn, it's just so cheerful.
This isn't so much a WIP as a work that needs to be started. I pulled these chairs off the street. The backs are broken, and I suspect the seats will break too if we keep sitting on them without doing some repairs.
I've been thinking I would find some old canvas at the thrift shop and sew new seats and backs for them... but without a sewing machine, I think that would be a giant pain. Then I came across this pattern in Weekend Knitting:
Somehow I never really saw this pattern before, even though I've looked through Weekend Knitting many, many times. I guess it just didn't interest me so I ignored it. But this weekend I was skimming through it, just looking for general inspiration, and I noticed it. This chair cover is knitted with nylon twine from the hardware store, then you pour hot water over it and it shrinks to fit the chair. Such a neat idea. I think I may try it on one of the chairs above and see if it works as well as it seems it would. Has anyone tried this pattern? What did you think of it?

Happy Birthday to Me

A quick Sunday post before bed. This Saturday was my birthday... for some reason 25 seems to be the age people like to start making jokes about how old you are. I suppose as long as I still get mistaken for a high school student I shouldn't be too concerned.

It was a lovely, low key weekend. Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday, a wonderful hike Saturday morning, reading in the afternoon, sushi, cake and ice cream in the evening, and fishing on Sunday morning (I didn't catch any fish, but I reeled in about 6 crayfish). Lovely mix of sunshine, amazing clouds, and thunderstorms throughout the weekend. I do enjoy a good thunderstorm.

This photo is evidence of my other weekend activity... preparing to set up an Etsy shop. Now that the local yarn shop has gone out of business and I no longer have a local venue to sell my hats, I've decided to overcome my laziness and set up shop online. The photo shoot quickly devolved into silliness, as you can see, but I think I got just enough good photos for the shop. Now I just need to write my bio, finish the descriptions, and decide on pricing. Oh, and possibly make a banner. Wish me luck.

My Sunday

I didn't get too much done today, but it was a pleasantly mellow Sunday. Went out for bagels with a good friend, ran into the sweet Amanda and Max of Zhinka Dhinka Doo, strolled around the farmer's market, spent some time with my sweetheart, and baked some banana bread. A good day. The banana bread recipe is from Post Punk Kitchen, but I substituted wheat flour for half of the white flour, decreased the amount of sugar a little, and used half applesauce and half margarine for the shortening. Plus I made a double batch and put chocolate chips in one loaf. Yum.
I did not start my next knitting project today, but I thought about it. I am planning on making the French Market Bag from knitty.com with Cascade Pastaza in a pretty light blue and black (for the bottom and handles). The other yarn below is still awaiting a project, but it's so lovely it was just asking to be in the picture too. I will start on the market bag soon... it's my first felting project, so I'm excited.