Week in Review

 I have been at the quilting frame again-this is a baby quilt from Millie.

 The fabrics are cute and modern.

 I have made a few table runners trying out the triangle thing on striped fabric.  It almost works!

 I have organized the corduroy squares on the design wall so they are ready to piece.

 Bill has been renovating his zero turn mower pan.  He ground off all the rust and treated it with Ospho from Sherwin Williams.

Then painted it with industrial enamel.  Hopefully,  it will be good for another 5 years!

 As he waits for the paint to dry, Bill is continuing his work enlarging the pond.  You can see how little water is left-even tho we have had three rains this week (2/10's each time), we are so under-watered, it isn't making a dent in the pond's water level.

 I made a pair of socks for a friend battling breast cancer.  It has a hidden breast cancer ribbon until

you put them on and then you can see it!  (Thx for the yarn, Benita!)

I am up to the edging on the second Mysterious Summer Shawl from TheWholeNineYarns!

 The rain lilies are happy with the few afternoon rains we have enjoyed. 

 We have these planted all around the yard and they are all in bloom.

Bill's canna lilies are getting ready to bloom, too.  He has wanted this plant for a long time and he is going to get to see it bloom !  (The bloom stands at 4.5' right now!)

Feasting!

 We enjoyed celebrating Bill's birthday a few days early by going to Boston Lobster Feast in Orlando!  Caleb could make it along with a friend from church.  We had a great time!  Also enjoyed a game of miniature golf after to work off some of those calories! 

 Nyki found a smorgasbord of her own-this small guy found his way into our pool patio-

Bill beheaded it so Nyki could relish the game bite free!  We have a motto here-chop first, identify second!  It is a good motto !  Nyki had fun tossing the snake and 'sharing' it with her buds.  I do not show the proper affection for reptiles but she tries to engage me!

Slice of Plum Shawl

I was on a roll and finished the shawl this morning!  I only had a few yards which gave the kniltting an added buzz!  (I call this extreme knitting!)  52" x 22" again, in superwash handspun wool.

Pattern is available from Kay Meadors or on Ravelry as Slice of Autumn/Spring Shawl.

On a quilting front, I won this from a blog I follow.  The blog is by the author of the book, she was kind enough to autograph it for me, too!  Talk about inspiring........!

So naturally it gave me the incentive to spend a few hours in the sewing room today......... I loaded a quilt from my neighbor, and finished it.

 This quilt has an all over panto, 56" quilt square.

 When I finished one of her quilts, I loaded the other one on-this is like an I Spy quilt using scraps.  Very restful to quilt compared to the bright colors of the last one!  I quilted it with the same panto, this quilt measures 48"  x 60".  Saving the rest for another day.........a good Saturday, it rained some and I stayed in my pj's all day!

Slice of Kiwi Shawl

 I finished the Slice of Autumn/Spring shawl with the tricolored yarn-I have hit on a great dyeing idea, I think!
This is the shawl pattern by Kay Meadors, I only changed the garter stitch rows to stockinette but the rest is knit as written and I used only 230 yards of my hand spun superwash yarn.  This is the shawl unblocked.

And here it is in all its glory!  It is just spectacular.  (52" x 22", not counting the wing tips for length at center)   I am so pleased with the results that I immediately.....

......cast on the same shawl in the other colorway I dyed!  Happy Knitting!

Hot but NO Complaints!

 Yes, this is what Florida does well........summer temperatures already!

 If you are going to work outside, it happens in the morning when it is still in the 90's!  This is the project this morning-picking up the area where the shed used to sit.

 It picked up nicely, we are going to sell the old windows and they will be out of here soon, too.

 Bill worked on spreading some more mulch, the plants really hold the moisture so much better when you water in the morning so the sun doesn't steal all the water first.

 We had a visitor today, one of the yard's gopher turtles; this one is close to the house and not way out back like the others we have seen.

 We followed him to his burrow to see where he was visiting from....

 Then we noticed that part of the tunnel had caved in so he has a back door!  I think we will be interfering and adding a board and covering it over so it won't be open here-there are no footprints going in or out this side so I think it was an accident.

We would be in big trouble after working out in the heat if we didn't have this to cool off in!

It is just what a heated, overworked body needs!

Another shawl I have on the needles, this is the tricolored yarn I spun.......I will continue enlarging the shawl until I get near the last color change and then I will knit the edging!  It is A Slice of Autumn/Spring by Kay Meadors, available on Ravelry.

National Knit in Public Day

 A few friends and I met in the Crescent City Library to share knitting with the public in honor of the day!
We had a great time troubleshooting on projects and learning new ones!  The library has invited us to have a knitting day every month!  It will be something we look forward to sharing with our little community!

 Bill had fun........he moved the shed from the just outside the pool area...... (can you say landscaping needed?!)

to over the well.  He will be building a lean-to roof off the side to house the water filtering system, too.  Gotta love the JD tractor-it is quite the workhorse!  I didn't think the tractor could do this!  "Ok, you were right, Bill!'  (But I am only saying it once!)

Quick Report

It seems we have been in the car every day this week which seriously cuts down on the creative output!

I have been working on some knitted socks..........

I have also been experimenting with some designs for stitch markers for my lace shawls.  I will give these a try on the next shawl....

...which I just happened to have started last night-another mystery shawl because I have yarn left over!

Mystery Shawl Unfurled

 I finished knitting the mystery shawl on the way to the move on Saturday.  It doesn't look like much right off the needles-it has to be soaked and then blocked (pinned out flat to open up the stitches.)

 There were several new construction techniques that I got to try with this pattern.  The garter stitch triangle is knit from the point to the bound off edge at the top, yarn overs at the beginning of each row left a loop to use for picking up stitches to begin the lace patterning for the body of the shawl.  The border lace is knit vertically on new cast on stitches joining it to the body as you knit from one tip to the other!  An excellent knit! 

I used my own spun alpaca yarn,(440yards) so this shawl is deliciously soft. See the difference once it is all blocked?!  It measures 54" across and 32" long down the center. 

Thank you to The Whole Nine Yarns for the KAL!

On the Move....Again!

 We loaded up the stuff we have been storing for Matthew and Caleb and took off for a moving day today!

 We made quite a caravan-Calebin his car, Bill and David in the UHaul, Matthew in his car, Bruce driving our truck and Marsel, Abigail , the cats and I in her van bringing up the rear!

This beautiful palm tree is in their front yard!  What a great welcoming sight.

The house is situated in a great neighborhood, lots of tile and windows to enjoy their view.  They are only 20 blocks from the ocean!

 The back yard is fenced in, lots of room and a great patio.  The bbq grill will enhance backyard entertainment as soon as the fire ban is lifted!

It was a long day but oh, so nice to be able to share in the move!  Love you, sons!

Boating Adventure

 Off to a boating adventure today, we have friends along-which makes for twice the fun!

We launched in Crescent City, where the smoke was thick for most of the lake crossing.  There are 256 forest fires in Florida right now and 25 are in our county! 

 Lunch at Corky Bells, where we enjoyed a bit of air conditioning with our food-it is a hot day for a boat ride, the sun doesn't feel so hot while you are moving but it leaves its mark-we all got a bit sunkissed!

 There were quite a few others enjoying the St Johns today, also.

 Almost every river marker had an Osprey  nest and babies on it!

 We traveled south from Dunn's Creek today, went through the railroad bridge and on to ...

... a canal that was dug in the 1960's to allow the passage of barges from the Oklawaha River (a tributary) to St Johns.  This is the Buckman Lock which allows the 18' rise in water level .  The Rodman Resevoir is heralded as one of the best fishing areas in this part of Florida.  I think we will be exploring this in the future.

 The banks of the canal are raised (unusual in Florida) and planted with pines which reminded us of the Adirondacks of NY!

 Very pretty views as we slowly traveled the canal.

doesn't it look lovely? Use your imagination- not quite mountains but it is elevation!  I would love to picnic here while Bill fishes off the shore!  What a great day!