Another Lily and a Knitted "Thingie"

Lily season is winding down for me. There are later-blooming lilies among the Orientals, but although they are beautiful, in my area they tend to sputter out and die after only a year or two.

The other strike against them in my book is that they are extremely strong-scented. As a person who shops in the soap and laundry detergent aisles of the store by taking a deep breath, hurrying down the aisle, grabbing my purchase, and trying to hurry out again before I need to breathe, I find Oriental lilies overwhelming.

Technically this beauty, White Henryi, is among that group (Division 7). So I enjoy it outdoors, but I don't cut blossoms and bring it indoors.

Another drawback of this type of lily as a cut flower is that they drip. They produce a sticky substance on the end of the stigma, plus sweet nectar in the green nectary star in the center.

As if that wasn't enough, the pollen will stain your hands yellow or orange! (Which is why if you buy lilies from the florist, usually they are either "pollen-free" varieties, or the florist has plucked off the anthers before arranging them.)

I haven't seen a pollen-free lily yet that really grabbed me. Some of them have weird petal distortions, where the center parts of the flower are fused to the petals. But most of the ones I've looked at are just "blah". My lily budget is not so large as to include things I rate "okay but not great".

On to the knitting:

You need a Thneed! (Dr. Seuss)

This is my knitted "thingie", and I'm sorry I didn't take a picture in the morning light to show the texture better. The edge has the "magic" cast-on knitted up into a flat piece instead of a toe. If I had a real camera, instead of "Mr. Snapshot," you would be able to see that better. Then I did a couple of repeats of the "Snowdrop" pattern from the "KnitalongSamplerM" Yahoo group, followed by a little snowflake or cat's paw pattern I think I found in the DMC Encyclopedia of Needlework.

It's just patterns worked into a 3-3 rib, but the soft, squashy cotton string feels so nice to knit. I thought I had a cone of garden string that might feel like this, but when I looked at it, it was thinner and even grubbier on the outside than I remembered.

Now I am going to go off and try to add a button for the "Sampler M" Yahoo group, and hope I don't mix up my template as bad as the last time I tried this!