Sweet Visitors

 The tube for socks are machine knitted and I have separated them and knit the toes.

The last cuff is just started--very easy and enjoyable to knit the 'parts' to the tube!

I have yet to add the afterthought heel-that is next; 

 you need to knit the toes so you can measure the distance to the heel.

 Look who is blooming again!  The night blooming Cereus (or Dutchman's Pipe)

is making my front yard so aromatically appealing!

 And quite beautiful, too.  

There are two blooms right now with several more soon to follow!

 Look who else is here!!!

My Georgia peaches have stopped by for a quick visit this week!

We are savoring our time-here my daughter is also trying to capture the beauty of this flower

and my first granddaughter is checking out her camera skills!

She took over soon enough-

-and outdid herself with this close-up!

 Such detail--this is a very complex flower.

The tendrils on the outside of the flower pulls it open at night and pushes it shut come morning.

A single night of bloom-

how precious to savor the beauty.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

The fourth mermaid is now completed;  

I still have several to do to catch up with the designs and I am glad about that.

It has been very enjoyable to put needle to fabric to hand embroider again!

For the Love of Ripping!

I thoroughly enjoyed knitting two sleeves on the new machine-things just fell into place.

Except when finished, I had one sleeve hem that fell at a different place than the other!

I know what I did, I made one hem and forgot to reset the counter to know  how to match!

So do I rip one out and make it longer or the other and make it shorter! Ha!

And the sock tube is completely ripped out because when I picked up stitches to work  on the cuff,

I discovered that I can't count on the machine-there were only 27 stitches and not 32 on each side!

I could rip out almost as quickly as I knit it!

New and Old

 I can say I am only a day late but the 12 Days of Christmas quilt top is completed!

It went together so easily I couldn't believe it was done in no time!

Now I need to find some fabric for the backing

and I will load it up on the frame

and turn it into a quilt!

I resurrected a languishing project-it must be at least a year that I left it alone!

I thought I could remember the instructions ( the pattern wasn't in the basket )

but  I made mistake after mistake and had to look it up and reprint it 

and then it was no time at all and I was on my way again.

I had thought about ripping this out but it is so pretty 

so I will keep knitting until I run out of yarn.

It is lace weight, so the yarn will run on forever which is well because I can't stand a skimpy shawl!

Flowers and Tubes

The friday feline foto-

Nyki is hiding behind the coleus so I can't see her!

 The blackberry lilies are blooming finally!  I've missed seeing their little faces!

 The bougainvillea is happily flowering-the afternoon rains and warm sun is just what she loves. 

 The time for the pagodas to bloom is here;  this is just a little portion of the 14" high blossom!

See what I mean!  Striking!

 Here is another one playing hide and seek! 

 The caladium is perfectly matching the color of this frog!

 Look what I made today--working out the timing of the buttons 

and I figured out how to make a tube called circular knitting 

or obviously, tubular knitting! 

 I used the leftover sock yarn to figure out

the tension and gauge-after tweaking, 

it is the same as my sock knitting;  8 stitches and 10 rows to the inch.  

Now I can work over 64 stitches and be comfortable with the numbers.

 See how it is a completely open tube--perfect for newborn hats and SOCKS!

More on this tomorrow!

 When the nurse came to change his bandage, we got to peek at Bill's elbow.

This is the wound vac tube--the black is the sponge which goes over the wound and removes the

fluids so it is hostile to bacteria.

 Underneath all of this is the newly closed wound!

  For the first time in 5 months, we can't see down to the bone!  Looking good!

12 Days of Christmas Quilt!

 The quilt-a-long finishes today!

I managed to get the center of the quilt all sewn together so I am happy with my accomplishment!

I found several mistakes in the arrangement on my design wall 

which had to be ripped apart and repaired 

but I did end up leaving that moose in the upper left block! 

 It is good to have a humility block-especially when I used up every inch of the right fabric 

so I couldn't fix it, even if I wanted to! Ha!

 I am now making these Christmas tree blocks for the first pieced border.

There is also a checkerboard border that will go up the sides.

I will finish this up in the next week-by the end of July is the goal!
Thanks to Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict
for hosting this event!

Avocado Anyone?!

This is a Florida avocado;  it has a smooth, thin skin and is much larger than the 

California avocado most people buy.  

We love to eat these in slices in salads, of course, 

but also as is in a snack! 

What else looks very much like the color of the avocado fruit?  My wool!

When I carded it up-by random handfuls;  I didn't feel like separating it or sorting it not even a little!

I grabbed handfuls and teased them open (dyeing condenses the fibers)

 and ran them through the carder. 

 I was pleased the color didn't look like brown mud which I was afraid it would.

And spinning it up-which is lovely doing the supported long draw in a woolen preparation this time instead of the short forward worsted spinning I did for the Masham wool for the last pound of wool!

This will be a much lighter and bouncier skein of yarn! 

 So far, so good!

From the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory--

nothing like a good spin!

Oh, and for some outdoor entertainment-pulling my husband out of a ditch!
He decided to do a bit of mowing with the tractor-one handed, says he!
And look where it got him!

He hooks up the chain and I roll down the truck window and listen to his commands!

I had him out of trouble in no time.

I have been pulling him out of 'tricky' situations for more than 46 years!

Did I mention he has been going stir crazy after this fourth surgery?!

TNT

 I've been enjoying my newly re-awakened embroidery time!

These little squares will be sewn into a quilt when I have added enough blocks.

 The designs for these are from Joy of DaysFilledwithJoy blog.

 And this one is free from CozyBlueHandmade, 

the company Kim has been regaling us with their designs she is bringing to life!

This is another of Joys designs, I will be stitching on it today!

Happy Stitching!

A Fail...

 This is known as a break--it is when you carefully dye your wool with colors in this case, 

blue, a primary color and then a secondary color-orange made of yellow and red;  

these are the colors you blend to get a sage green. 

 The pot of wool was a beautiful sage green, so I turned off the heat 

and let the pan of wool and water cool. 

 When I took the lid off several hours later-I had a shock!  

The colors had some greens but the orange had separated into red and orange--

not what I wanted at all!!!!!

I have hand carded a few handfuls and you can clearly see a gold, dark green and a red.

Now if I were to card these on the drum carder to make a batt, 

I will have a batt of mud colored wool.

I can only try to keep the areas of wool separate 

and then hope to over-dye after I have spun it into yarn.

Sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you don't!

I will be carding and seeing what I can spin later today!

Like a Butterfly, I Flit!

 This quilt is off the frame-I will add the binding tomorrow!

I have the pieces cut out for a second one just like this.

Likewise, I am knitting the second baby shrug--

I am learning to make friends with the new knitting machine 

and in no time at all, 

 I had completed next little girl's back for the shrug .

Then on to the Christmas quilt-it is quite an exercise in patience and precision!

And as I placed the newest block on the top left,

I noticed that I used the wrong light fabric in one of the center triangles.

sigh.....

I will decide what to do about it another day!

Just Today

 ...I'm working on the 12 Days of Christmas -a quilt along in July.

 ....I will be making some sweater pieces on the knitting machine.

...I will be drying this newly dyed wool so I can card it this afternoon.

Bill is feeling better and was finally able to sleep

without the pain waking him up.

I am rested again as well;

what a difference a good night's sleep makes for your whole being!

Yarn and Fleece

 

 The first little shrug is completed;  it is a size 12 months.

I will start another one is size 2 years today for big sister!

It is a thin yarn but has a halo so it is going to be very soft to wear!

I fluffed up the washed fleece outside so I could pick out and shake out some vegetable material.

Today I will put it in the pot and dye it a light sage before I card it and spin it.

It takes a big of time but enjoyable every step on its way to becoming yarn!

This is one pound of Gulf Native Fiber.  

I have several skeins already spun from years past in natural

and two in light rose which I had dyed from Prickly Pear Cactus fruit 

so I think the sage will make a good complement for some colorwork knitting ahead!

Take a Soak

 I have spun all of the Masham wool into yarn so I needed to work with some raw fleece

so I have something to spin for the Tour de Fleece;

this one is some more Gulf Coast Native fiber.

I plunged it into a tub of hot, sudsy water and let it soak for a few others. 

 Twice I emptied the dirty water before it was clean enough;

then two tubs of hot water to rinse it!

I set it outside to dry-just in time for rain to fall!

I placed it under the fan in my  studio and it was dry and fluffy in no time!

Oh, and I have another clean and dry skein of wool-another 413 yards !

Bill did well in the surgery but is in considerable pain now.

We are hoping that this will be the closing 4 weeks for this subject!

HumptyDumpty

 I'm taking along these newly machine knit pieces 

(all together, I've knit 2 right fronts, 1 left front, a back and 4 sleeves!) 

to sew together and then pick up and hand knit the ribbing

 all around the front, neck and bottom to make this little cropped baby sweater,  

at the hospital where Bill will be having his fourth surgery on that staph infected elbow!

Today they are grafting a skin flap to cover the wound

 and give the fragile elbow skin some beefing up 

so he won't rip it open when he can start to move around again in 4-6 weeks!