Blooms

Little Guy is sick

-all I've done today is clean from his misses-- piles of laundry and  then snuggles!

Be grateful I am only posting pics of the flowers!

The first bloom is open on the Magnolia tree--the scent is heady!

 on the other side of the tree, in the setting sun the tree's burnished undersides look golden instead of rust colored! 

Breath-taking!

 The humble aloe are all in bloom-

And even the small red hibiscus looks so tropical.

Will is flummoxed that it doesn't smell amazing because 'it is beautiful!'

Are you ready for the last day of the month?!

Start with a Finish!

 The Solar Socks are finished!

Don't they complement the impatiens?!

I knit these toe-up and ended with ribbing that continued the pattern of the knit stitches 

and I purled the row where the yarn overs were placed.  

This is knit with a Hawthorne HandPaint fingering weight yarn that was discontinued.

I used # 1 needles over 64 stitches.

Or Get Back on Track

 

 I pieced all of the sashing into their positions. 

 It was a good diversion from the naughty knitting.

I even loaded it onto the quilt frame

 and then stitched the first row.

 And then I got out the manual again for the Knit Radar and found my mistake.

Not to get too technical, but I had not switched the button from 1/4 scale (the poncho I made

last week) to the 1/2 scale drawing this top was drawn up as!  

No wonder it was 50" long and not 25"!

  And then as I went over every bit of my schematic and the gauge numbers

I saw that I had made another foolish mistake, I had the carriage tension set to a different number than the one I used for the swatch!  

Once that mistake was rectified, I ripped out everything

 and set to work making this top one more time!

It is working just fine now!  

Imagine that!

Look at this Hibiscus bloom!

It matches the sweater or the socks I am working on!

This is a large flower-10' across but alas, no scent.

Throw up Your Hands in Defeat!

It hasn't been a successful week on the knitting front.

The lace turned out pretty for the hemline of the coral linen Gizeh Top.

 The body of the knitting not so much-this is 5' of knitting and I am only to the armholes!

Someone's math is off!

I ripped it all out down to the hem again-twice.

 This time I made it all the way to the bind off and it is large but that is supposed to account for the shrinkage--I don't feel good about how this is turning out.  

And last night when I started the next part of the chart-I found out I was doing the 'every other' row wrong.  I decided that I will just do it right on the next section and not worry about the first 20 rows.

I am not doing any more ripping out today.  

I am going to piece the sampler quilt top and leave the knitting out of the equation today! 

Turning a Heel

 I work a little on the second Solar Sock and finally turned the heel.
The color of this yarn is superb--it has a sheen that gives it a great finish.

In the evening, I work a few rows on the Begonia sweater;

I am halfway through the first chart-half of the leaf is completed.

One project has only 64 stitches and the other, 260 stitches!

I fly through the first and savor the latter.

Every Last Bit

 Out of only one skein of the new Sugar 'n Cream Scrub Off yarn, 

I was able to knit two dishcloths and one scrubber.

 I knit a rectangle using the last bit of yarn 

and then grafted the ends to make a double sided scrubber. 

One side is soft and the other is scrubbie!   Nifty, eh?!

 This is all that is left-a few clipped off tails after weaving in the ends!

And here are the last of the Azaleas-this bush is in the shaded hedge

 and is always the last one to show her stuff! 

 Worth the wait!

Prickly Yarn and Prickly Plants

 I am down with a cold (and  miserable sinus pressure!) 

so I was down literally as much as possible yesterday!  

A little of this was accomplished--I worked on the pink dishcloth earlier in the day 

and when the UPS man came, he brought the newest Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. 

 It has a lengthy stretch of plain cotton and then an equally long length of  a 'scrubby'  section!

  It was interesting to knit with and I really like the results!  

I cast on 36 stitches with #6 needles and knit until the cloth was square.

I have three of these growing on three separate plants!

It takes six months for the fruit to mature enough to pick-that's a long time, isn't it?!

Did you know that pineapples are actually bromeliads?!

And you know it is almost May when the prickly pear cactus blooms!

Solar Sock One Done!

 I bound off the first Solar sock--

I love the way the color shimmers in the gold and coral.

Nyki always sleeps on my project bags and makes annoyed sounds 

when I need to pull more yarn or get a tool! lol

And look at the guests on my Southern Milkweed plant!  

There are 5 monarch caterpillars feasting on this plant.

They are nice and fat and I will expect to see chrysalis soon!

Easter Style

A repeat  performance by my orchid!

Today is a very important  day to Christians;

we celebrate not just the hope of what a Savior born into the world can do (Christmas)

but rather what the man/God Savior, Jesus Christ, did accomplish!

The Lord has risen!

He has risen indeed.

 I knit this small poncho to keep my shoulders warm during church.

I recently purchased one of these vintage machines that hooks up to my knitting machine --

 I drew a scaled version of the poncho I wanted,  entered my swatch information and then I knit!

Each row I knit advances the drawing so I know how many stitches to decrease and when!

Nifty, huh?!

I added a bit of a scalloped edge, knit away and voila, I have 2 halves

which seamed together while I watched a movie with recuperating husband. 

 Then I washed it and blocked it-and I will wear it for church today!


(Knit with 2 skeins of Deborah Norville's Apaca Dance worsted weight yarn)

Begonia Pullover

Work has commenced on the Begonia Pullover.
Or should I say has recommenced ?
You would think I would know better than to start a project with a lot of patterning late at night.
When I sat down with it early this morning, something was off alright.
After a long time of straightening out the knitter's problem with math,
eh, hem, I was able to get it back on track and off to a new start!
The best part is now I know what the lace pattern is doing so I don't have to stare at the chart every few stitches!

The surgery went well, all things considered.  There was a lot more pain for Bill wake up to than either of us anticipated!  Hoping each day will bring a little more relief-there was still a pocket of infection on the bone (elbow) so it is good that the surgery was repeated.  This time at least they closed it up so it can heal and DH can have the use of his right arm back in a few weeks!
 It was hard to see the great bull of a man I am married to in so much pain.....
We both need a down day today.
And we aren't under a tornado threat all day either!

Hospital Time

I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room today; 
 Bill is requiring surgery once again-
this time to 'neaten' up his open wound on his elbow and to stitch it closed. 
 No more wound-vac or nurse visits--
the end of this 2 month chapter is almost over!
There are only two weeks of not using his arm and then the stitches come out;  meantime we can be grateful he still has his arm and his life!  What an adventure!

I'm late to the poem in your pocket day 

but here was what was on my mind all day:

Ecclesiastes 3 English Standard Version (ESV)

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Here is my waiting room knitting!

NorthEasterly!

Not the direction of the wind but rather the name of this pattern

for a  sock yarn blanket!

Mine is now completed at 32" wide and 48" long;

made from doubled strands of my sock yarn stash

on #7 needles.

The directions have you knitting each of the rows pointing up

but I alternated the direction of the knitted strips-

we are knitters; we do it our way!

I sure tamed my leftover sock yarn stash!

New Neighbors?

 Neighbor Millie gifted me this bird house. 

  It is a General Store in all of its roadside glory!

 It really is very complex and interesting to admire--heavy, too,
 so it will withstand weathering.

 But this side is the clincher--it advertises Handmade Quilts!

 I couldn't wait to hand it out front in the Cassia Tree!

I would love it if it attracts a bird family but even empty, 

it is a great addition to the front garden!

 In the studio, I cut the strips for the sashing for the sampler quilt.

Soon I will have a top to quilt on the frame!

And to prove I really finished this sweater;
it has buttons and has even been washed and dried!

It is a size 3-6 months infant sweater.  

I have two new projects ready to hit the machine needles next!

Teeny Needle Tuesday

 Tucked inside the box with quilt squares my daughter passed along to me 

was this baggie of hexagons for English paper piecing.

 I used stick glue to stick the paper to the precut fabric pieces

 and then ironed the fabric to the wrong side to give me the perfect shape.  

Then the tricky bit was sewing the shapes together.

But my awkward hands did it-slowly but surely, it was accomplished!

I am going to sew it to a background piece and make a potholder out of it!

And for a pleasing visual-cosmos in bloom in the pool area.

Boy's Turn

 I completed (well, except for the buttons!) the baby boy's sweater!

The yarn is Caron Simply Soft Ombre in Blue Jeans colorway.

I did use solid navy for the bands to add continuity to the overall affect.

I made this entirely on the machine;  I have several more to conquer!

The Swatch

 I think I have said it before but I will repeat myself-

adding machine knitting to my skill set has improved my hand knitting also.

This is a great way to make a swatch, especially for hand knitting.  

The gauge I am to attain is 26 stitches in four inches, so as I knitted the swatch,

I placed a stitch marker for the center 26 stitches.

(I added 7 stitches extra on each side so I wouldn't be working with edges!)

When I finished knitting, I made sure I was way past the 35 rows stated in the pattern for row gauge.

Now it was time to measure;  I used the stitch markers to know where to place the vertical rows of

loose contrasting yarn to mark those spots and then did the same to the rows.

The quilting ruler easily shows me that I am spot on for the rows but too loose for the stitches.

I do like the fabric of this swatch so I will save it but will knit a second one with smaller needles to see if I can hit their goals as stated in the pattern .  If not, I will do a bit of math to give me a conversion number to alter their numbers-stay tuned!

To Finish, To Start

  

I plan to finish the blocks to this sampler quilt.

I will dig through the stash and see if I have fabric for sashing and borders. 

 I have only two more blocks to finish and they will be savored in the piecing!

 I also want to finish this baby boy sweater on the knitting machine.

And this sweater will be cast on today!

A fingering weight sweater in broken rib and a little bit of lace.

I hope it is as enjoyable as I expect!