Updates: House-Buying, Saguaro, Blanket, Doll and More

I don't usually do updates but there are a few little things I feel like I should mention so... I'm going to mention them!

House-Buying Update: We are still buying a house but its going to take longer than we thought. Expect not to hear anything from me for a couple months this fall while we move.

My Texas Saguaro: I visited my parents last month and took another photo of the saguaro cactus in their yard (above). It's still growing like crazy (previous pictures are here).

Pixel Art Blanket: I've got two or three more rows finished on the Mario blanket, but not enough to bother posting a photo. I have made a video that shows the method I'm using to attach the granny squares to the blanket as they are made (instead of sewing them together afterward) but I don't know if I should post it now or wait until the whole thing is finished.

South Park Felt Doll: I've made a felt doll of Kenny from South Park, like the IT Crowd dolls I made a few months ago. Kenny's hood comes off so his face can be seen and there is an alternate Mysterion costume (Mysterion is Kenny's superhero alter-ego). I need to get my husband to take some good photos of him and then I can do a post.

Special Project That May or May Not Happen: I've been asked to do a project that has me incredibly excited, but at this moment I'm not sure if it's actually going to happen. I would feel silly if I posted about it and then nothing ever happened, so I'm going to force myself to wait until I know for sure. So if it does happen, you'll hear about it ASAP. But if I never mention it again, you can assume it fell through. Fingers crossed that it doesn't!

My Texas Saguaro: Two Years Later

(This was supposed to be posted here two days ago but somehow I managed to post it on my writing blog instead. Oops! Apparently I'm not too good at juggling two blogs.)

I went back to Texas for another visit a few weeks ago and got a chance to check up on the saguaro in my parent's backyard. My how it's grown!

Here's how tall it was in 2009:

Quite a few inches short of the fence line

In 2010:

At the fence line

In 2011:

Above the fence line

Looks to me like it's grown at least a foot, maybe even a foot and a half. I guess the weather in Texas is agreeing with it!

Knitted Saguaro Cactus Pattern for Keychain

I knitted up these saguaro cactus keychains to give out at a geocaching event held in my honor during a visit to London in May. They were a big hit and so was the event - I didn't make nearly enough for everyone! This very simple pattern can be found below.

Knitted Saguaro Cactus Pattern

Note: My patterns are free and may not be sold. Please do not reproduce or repost patterns or instructions from CraftyCattery.com without my permission. For information on selling items created from my patterns, please view the FAQ.

Yarn: Medium weight, green (You can use any size yarn, just make sure to adjust your needles accordingly. I used very small needles because I didn't want any stuffing to show between the stitches.)
Needles: US size 3 double-pointed needles

All pieces are knit in the round. All stitches are knit stitches.

Body of the cactus:

Cast on 3 stitches and divide them evenly between your double-pointed needles (3 stitches).
Round 1: Increase each stitch 2 times (6 stitches).
Rounds 2-21: Knit all stitches for 20 rounds, stuffing as you go (6 stitches).
Don't cast off. Instead, run the tail of the yarn through the remaining stitches and tie off. Weave in tail.

Arms of the cactus (make 2):

Cast on 4 stitches. I found it easiest to use only two double-pointed needles, with two stitches on each needle (4 stitches).
Rounds 1-7: Knit all stitches for 7 rounds (4 stitches).
Rounds 8: Knit 2 stitches together twice (2 stitches).
Don't cast off. Instead, run the tail of the yarn through the remaining stitches and tie off. Do NOT weave in tail.

Construction:

Using the yarn tail left on the arms, sew them to the body of the cactus. Tie securely and weave in tails. Attach keychain if desired.

My Texas Saguaro

So I am 98% sure that this cactus is a saguaro (pronounced sah-wah-roh). If you don't know what a saguaro is, it's one of those giant cacti that have the big arms. I had no idea that they were called saguaros before I moved out here to Arizona. The saguaro is pretty much the mascot of Arizona and the southwest - there's even one on the Arizona quarter.

The interesting thing about my saguaro is that it is not in Arizona. It's at my parent's house in south Texas. Back when I was still in grade school I got one of those little greenhouse cactus seed kits while on vacation at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I'm not sure exactly when that trip was but I am guessing it was between 10 and 15 years ago.

This cactus was the only one to survive from the kit. It finally outgrew the little pot we had it in so we re-planted it in the back yard. I never really given much thought as to what type of cactus it was - I thought it was some type of barrel cactus until I noticed that it getting taller but not wider as a barrel cactus should. It's shape made me think of a saguaro, so I started researching them online.

After a few days of searching, I was almost convinced that it wasn't a saguaro because many sources said that a ten year old cacti would only be 1.5 to 6 inches tall. As you can see from the photo above, mine is between 2.5 to 3 feet tall! But after doing some more research I found that those heights were for wild cacti in the desert. Since Texas is slightly wetter than Arizona (and since my parents probably watered it occasionally) my saguaro probably grew faster than it would have in the wild.

I compared my cactus to pictures of saguaros and to saguaros I've visited in real life here in Arizona - I couldn't find anything that made me think that my cactus wasn't a saguaro. The main identifying trait that I found mentioned online was that in each group of spines, there is one spine that is much larger than all the others and points downwards. You can see this on my cactus here:

So all these things together have led me to the decision that my cactus is a saguaro! After living here in Arizona where saguaros are a big deal (a full grown one can cost thousands of dollars), it's fun to know that I grew one without really trying! And that's even more special since it's in south Texas, which is not really it's native habitat (there are no wild saguaros in Texas or even in New Mexico). It's kind of cool to think that my parents are probably the only people in my hometown with a saguaro in their yard!

(By the way, if anyone who has some cacti knowledge thinks that this might not be a saguaro, please let me know why not and what you think it might actually be. I'm no expert so it's very possible that I'm wrong!)

Update 9/29/11: I've posted an update with photos of how the saguaro has grown over the past two years.