Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Starting the Week by Working

The carpet we laid ourselves last year grew and needed a bit of stretching and kicking-our DIY guys to the rescue!  We moved most of the furniture out of one side and then Mom and I knitted while the men worked.  It was a complete success! 
Then back at my house, this is what transpired!  We are due for a big freeze tonight, tomorrow and again on the weekend.  To protect our flowers, we put up tarps to make a windbreak and keep the frost off the plants. 
Throughout the yard, there are these ghost bushes with a blanket!  
The porch has an eerie blue glow! 
We even hang them to protect the pool side potted plants!
A mild mid 30's drop is okay for a night but these few nights will be too cold for too long.
We hate to lose a plant or have to wait months to see if it will be able to recover from the shock. 
I managed to grab some studio time!  I wanted to touch base with some of the projects I had barely touched at their inception!  I arranged these nine blocks to my satisfaction and then added borders to float them a bit. 
I spent too much time putting these clamshell pieces together but I am getting the hang of it now!  The white looking pieces actually have silver dots on them so it adds a bit of sparkle to this center for a quilt.   
I like what's happening and while it is not a snappy quick project, it is going to be nice to work on. 
The cold weather brings these guys up for a gut full of cracked corn!
Better fill up, it is going to be a long night! 
The evening brought some knitting pleasure-my dyed, hand spun superwash merino for a pair of socks for my grand daughter, Abigail.  She has grown so much, she needs a  new pair of 'Grandma' 
socks!  I tell her I knit love, hugs and prayers into each stitch!

(The night is already 31F and that means a   l o n g   night of freezing for our yard....)

8 comments:

  1. Abigail's Grandma Socks are such a pretty color combo.

    I didn't cover the outside plants. I don't think we will actually get down below freezing. I did bring in the pitcher plant and all of the orchids are in the tub in the spare bathroom. Giroux had a good time hunting down the lizards that came in on the pitcher plant. I'm sure the lizards appreciated me "saving" them by hurling them back outside.

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  2. Brrrrr.....it is in the teens here and I am not liking it one bit. Whatever happened to our normal winters? Going below 30 is not normal and we seem to do it all the time now and I HATE it. I've got blue tarps all over the place too-for the poor outside kitties. It's so cold that one actually came in and stayed tonight. Love the projects. Those socks are very pretty.

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  3. luckily our temps went up again, not too bad these last few nights. the downside are the grey and usually wet days... we had similiar problems during the two very cold winters some years back, but with some of the large plants/trees in the garden there's only so much shelter that can be put up. we lost quite a few plants and have reacted to that by not re-planting the same non hardy plants again - but of course the winters have been pretty mild since then... murphy's law!:)
    love the shell pattern, but it looks like a lot of work to me!

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  4. Love churn dash! The clam shell design is gorgeous. What size quilt will it be?

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  5. That handspun is beautiful and knitting up so warmly. The tarp for the flowers cold protection is brilliant. I'm really enjoying the post bits on the clamshell quilt because I've never seen that before. My mother used to do a Japanese fan block pieced together that used to get some colorful language out of her, this looks difficult!

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  6. Abigail's socks are going to be gorgeous! She doesn't want to peek at them now -- she said she'll wait to see them in person. She's her daddy's girl for sure!

    I am looking forward to inspecting your clamshell quilt pieces next month. I can't decide from the screen whether they look fun or frustrating! :)

    Hope the tarps do their job well and that it warms up enough soon for you to get your visual space back!!

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  7. THe socks are so cheerful! I love them. HOpe all the plants survive the cold snap

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  8. I hope the tarps worked. We have been planting and planting and planting but it never seems to make much difference -- and we have a much smaller block than you! Most of the plants are flourishing but some just turn up their toes when we least expect it! The weird ones are when we plant three of the same thing, from the same nursery, purchased and planted on the same day, and one dies even while the other two are flourishing and flowering! Weird!

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PLEASANT PUTTERINGS

I did sew the rows together and cut the borders so I could sew them.  I didn't make too many mistakes (the brain is still very slow! lol...