pasta salad, more knitted stuff, some crocheted stuff too

first off, here's mr. dante. i went to visit him on saturday. said hi to his mom while i was there, too.


next, i went to the national symphony orchestra's labor day concert on the capitol lawn on sunday with some friends. they brought drinks and sandwiches, i brought pasta salad.

ok here's what i did...
1 bag multi colored rotini (this one was called "wacky pasta" or something. it was 6 servings when cooked)
1/4 cup italian dressing (maybe a little less)
3 T sundried tomatoes, drained
1 container feta cheese (i don't know, 6, 8 oz?)
about 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small can sliced black olives
2 green onion tops, thinly sliced

cook the pasta about 30 seconds less than normal and drain. rinse with cold water to stop cooking. toss to dry as much as possible. add pasta and all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to mix. adjust add-ins as desired. refrigerate until serving time.

so i'm making a hat for a friend's mom who's going to lose her hair to chemo soon. here's a crocheted flower that i hand felted. i used lamb's pride worsted wool. love it. LOVE it! anyway, i didn't like any patterns for flowers that i found online so i sort of made up my own. i like the way it came out. if i can figure out how to do it again, i'll post directions. to felt, i used rubber gloves for some extra agitation. worked really well, probably took about 5 mintues. very warm water, drop of DISH SOAP in the water.


here's lurlene modeling the knitted hat. i used lion brand organic cotton in "strawberry" for a basic cap with a rib. it's quite soft. the flower is still a bit damp but should dry by tomorrow. i'll sew it on tomorrow. the flower can be worn on either side. i'm concerned that it's a little too big, but i think i can fix that by making something of a seem up the back. (can you tell i've been watching plastic surgery shows all summer?)