blackmoondog

So the mystery tomato plant seems to have become inhabited with tomato hornworms. Now these suckers are ugly. And usually pretty big. That's expected but this guy is the biggest freakin' hornworm I have ever seen:

It is about 3.5 inches long and nearly the diameter of my thumb!

Also, I still have no idea what kind of tomatoes are on this plant. I suspected Brandywine for a while and then the darn thing turned bright orange. Definitely not Brandywine! I finally picked the first fruit (which took *forever* to get ripe) today and will likely taste it some time this evening to see whether it is worth waiting for the rest of the fruit to mature.

I'm still kinda bummed that I never got around to planting pumpkins this year. I guess planting early wouldn't have been such a bad thing after all. Maybe next year...

UPDATE: I have tasted the tomato and it is too ... fruity. It doesn't taste or feel like a tomato. It might be usable in place of fruit in a fruit salsa but I have to say I'm fairly disappointed.

Ugh. Yesterday the smoke from the Day fire in Ventura county started creeping northward. Today it has totally blanketed the southern half of SLO county. This morning when I left there were fine bits of ash on my windshield and the sunlight today is a sickly orange color.

My sinuses are going bonkers. The 2 minute walk from my office to the car resulted in a headache. I am seriously starting to consider getting some kind of mask to wear when I go outside. Normally, I might just tell myself to suck it up but I don't have any idea what effect, if any, this might have on the baby. :(

Before the weekend, the fire was about 30,000 acres and 30% contained. As of this morning at 7am, the fire had grown to over 74,000 acres and dropped to 15% containment due to the very rough terrain and the offshore (aka Santa Ana) winds that were whipping around. So there is really no telling how much longer we're going to be breathing horribly smoky air. It is scary to think that for once I'm going to be relieved to get to the Bay Area for the weekend because the air quality will be *better*.

You may remember a photo showing my first sock in progress. That sock is no more. I ripped back the entire thing and the yarn is waiting to be chucked on the ball winder. I have not given up on socks, however!

Second Sock has been much more successful, as I have given it more careful attention (especially during the increase phase) and it has made it to the heel point with the correct (even!) number of stitches. I've been kinda nervous about working the heel and since I didn't really remember much about how to do short rows, I decided to do a practice run using plain 'ol worsted weight acrylic and larger needles. I am SO GLAD that I did a practice heel. I now have the hang of doing the short row stuff and am looking into how to keep the gaps at bay (the knit side looks great but the purled side is, um, lacy).

In the meantime, I found a pattern for baby's first sweater. The Baby Yoda Sweater is described as "a simple, quick to knit wrap sweater for babies newborn to six months...knit in soft, machine washable yarn of 100% cotton (Young Jedis prefer natural fibers, you know. Acrylic interferes with the force.)". The original pattern used Mission Falls 1824 Cotton and since I've had mixed results with substituting yarns, I will be using it as well. Rather than the grey of the original, our baby will have the Little Miss Mace Windu version in Lilac. :) The yarn arrived in today's mail and I worked out the gauge this evening so I expect to get started on the sweater some time this weekend.

Oh! I'm also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns. It may persuade me to use the organic cotton yarn that I purchased almost a year ago.