ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

Lena and I made some hats today.  

She helps a lot, as you can imagine!

The morning rain let up so I went out to plant in my raised garden bed.  I planted string beans, Swiss Chard, carrots and radishes.  

The hibiscus are sending out daily blossoms-so beautiful! 

 (7" across)

And look at the surprise bloom --it is a starfish cactus flower

 or a Stapelia Grandiflora.  (10")

I am heading back to where you donate blood to try and alleviate an overproduction of red blood cells which is giving me some troubling symptoms.  Bill will take me but I hope to do okay; I have done this before but you never know!  

 

ODE TO YARN

The grand daughter sweater continues to grow.  I have never constructed a sweater like this so I am just doing what the pattern says and going with the flow-so far so good.

The 4th pair of Barcelona Memories 2 sock is beginning to get a lacy cuff.  I only made one major mistake on the heel that required a bit of tinking but other than that, it has gone smoothly.

I also cast on for the beginning of the t-shirt sweater that Berroco has begun as a KAL.  Another unusual start for a top down sweater so it is good to keep my brain cells bouncing around since the rest of my body is pretty inert! lol

 

YARN LOVE

My oldest grand daughter asked me to knit her a cardigan

 and I was pleased with the pattern and yarn we chose! 

 The yarn order arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to cast on!

The pattern is Lakes Cardigan on Ravelry;  it has a very interesting top-down approach which I am enjoying so far! 

I also used my new ball winder to cake the ripped out sweater yarn so I could weigh it and figure out the amount I had for the new t-shirt style sweater I'lll knit for me.  

Since I am down for the count right now, 

yarn is a bright spot in my day!

YARN: TINKING AND KNITTING

When I pulled out my pretty cabled Fall sweater to take to Georgia, I found several holes from moth damage (the moths made small holes whish I 'explored' to see if they could be fixed). 

I left the damaged sweater to think about when I got home. 

I did the only sensible thing--ripped out the whole sweter

 and save the yarn I could! 

I am making good progress on the latest pair of socks!

HOME ONCE AGAIN

I made all of these hexagons on the grueling drive home yesterday!  (2 skeins of HomeSpun yarn)I will add them to the 7 I had previously made and today I will be digging into my stash to find a few skeins I have squirreled away, too!

The colors were just beginning in NE Georgia but it won't be long and they will be enjoying even more.  We did enjoy the cool mornings and the drop in humidity while there!  I had a very pleasant surprise when we got home, to have our own humidity finally out of the suffocating range!

I wanted to show you the afghan my daughter is making--she only needs two more squares (top right-ish).  The blocks are 5" square so this is a good sized blanket--and very soft because it is made with Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn brand. 

She now has the joy of seaming it all together!!!! 

 Well, the joy comes when it is all done! lol 

 

MORE CATS AND HATS

Ollie, the orange cat, is only 2 and very curious unlike Felix, 

the 13 year old Manx.  He is much harder to for us to enjoy because he hides when 'strangers' are in the house but he always get brave on the last day of our visit 

and it was that way this time, too.

We did finally get the cats out of the way to photograph

 our haul of hats all lined up!  We had a blast all week with the knitting machine and cranked out many hats

 and tamed the old yarn bin as a bonus!

We are heading home today....enough said about that.

 

OFF TO UNIVERSITY

I went to my oldest grand daughter's university yesterday; 

 she commutes so  my daughter and I went along so I could see where she attends. The architecture was beautiful!

The structure that looks like a ladder has a large bell in each of the 'rungs' that plays on the hour.

The campus is sprawling so there is space to walk, 

to relax and contemplate!

I crocheted a skein of Homespun yarn from LionBrand--one of the skeins we discovered in the big bin binge-we wanted to know if it was feasible to work with and I think it will make a pretty mosaic hexagon blanket!

PUMPKINS AND DOE

I crocheted two Plushie yarn pumpkins;  

one for my daughter and one for me. 

 I like having a connection!

I managed to catch a shot of the skittish doe 

and her two older fawns.  

 

SIGNS OF AUTUMN

Another pair of Barcelona Memories II socks are finished--the colors are very Autumnal!  I used Luca-s Woolen Walk yarn.

In case you are looking for an 'electric' ball winder--here's the one we've been using.  (it is rechargeable with a USB cord so I am not limited by where to plug it in!)

I saw three doe this morning but didn't get a picture but I did get this shot of the young buck who is very interested in following them!  

 

TANGLED THREADS!

So daughter decided to empty some old yarn bins 

for us to detangle and sort for usability.

We matched up colors and got to work.

We put her electric ball winder to work--what a power horse!!!

We caked up all of the yarn;

 separating some to the hat-to-be pile, 

 some to the scrap afghan pile and some to the trash!

Someone looked so sweet one minute and then the next he was attacking the yarn and causing problems!

We made 7 new hats and tamed that dreadful pile into a little bin of perfectly ready yarn!  What a good job done!

 

A PUMPKIN PATCH

Our patch begins with the first pumpkin!  

Knit on the Caydo knitting machine with a crocheted stem; 

it is filled with polyfil and a small bag of beans to give it good weight so it will stay put!  More to come!

We are off to church together this morning, it is always wonderful to see daughter's church family.

 

CAT AND A HAT

Ollie was very curious about the hat making, the yarn (which is a no-no because he eats it like spaghetti) and the new machine!

In between hat making, he gave it all a good inspection!

Isn't he a beauty?  

We got 4 hats made-

tomorrow will be some male appropriate hat colors.

And then we enjoyed an incredible gourmet meal

 called Salad Nicoise for dinner!!  I tried to be a good  sous chef but you know the kitchen isn't my forte'

 but it sure is my daughter's superpower!

It was an incredible eating experience!  

(She substituted the tuna with grilled flank steak!)

 

A TIMELY GIFT

Autumn has arrived in northern Georgia; the nights are cool, the leaves are changing colors and the new mugs are just in time for hot chocolate in the evenings!

(I made the mugs with my Cricut Maker and mug press

for Abigail and Marsel!) 

Lena scans the backyard before we settle in for the night!

ARRIVED

Through beautiful country , 

beautiful fields,

 and concrete jungles,

we pushed on!  

And all three of us are very grateful for a bed to lay down on

 and peace and quiet reigns!

ANTICIPATION

I am using the planter from my daughter and planted strawberries!  There are three different kinds of strawberry plants; Ruby June, Chandler and Camarosa.  

It is placed out front where the sprinkler will water it every day! 

Lena isn't impressed with waking up early 

and heading somewhere in the car! lol  

JUST A 'WHAT IF' MOMENT

 I made the hat  on the left in the 'normal' way on the circular knitting machine and the one on the right I knit the inner layer and then took it off the machine, picked up the stitches and made the top side with slipped stitches to make it look a bit more intricate!  This can be done on the machine--that will happen next!  But first, I am all packed up to drive to my daughter's to stay for a week or so!  We will experiment with yarn while I am there!

SOCKS ON SUNDAY

The second pair of Barcelona Memories 2 socks are completed! 

 I didn't have to rip out and reknit any parts of this pair so it is becoming more familiar!  

These are made with KnitPicks Stroll solid navy yarn on size 1 needles; this is a toe-up pattern

 with a very different gusset and heel construction!

I am knitting another pair in very different yarn and slightly larger needles, which is more comfortable to knit with, 

and we will see how that goes!