SAFELY THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE!

I must say that Wednesday night was very eventful when the storm woke me up with the first of the power outages, roaring winds which made noises in the attic like a ghost movie and flying debris would hit the roof or the side of the house.

By 8pm last night, the temperatures have dropped to 63F and the rain has finally stopped.  The winds are still playful at 20mph which is nothing like the previous 18 hours!  How grateful I am not to have any major damage to house or yard.  I will be heading out on the golf cart today to survey the pond area!

What did I do through the hurricane--I KNITTED!  The power went off about twice an hour so the lights, clocks and microwave were always blinking! lol  I didn't want to have try to sew or use the quilting frame under those conditions!   The hats on the left are with worsted weight yarn fitting 5-9 years old and the other 5 are with DK weight which will fit NB to 3 months.  

The hats are so cute, fun to make and a real stash buster!  

 

IAN VISITS

If you note the blue dot--that's me.  Light rain and some breezes all day yesterday but today it the full force of hurricane Ian.

(this pic is from last night 

so I expect Ian to be a lot closer today!)

I finally found a round of the O'Go yarn in the colors I am using for the Tunisian Blocks--it had been discontinued and I couldn't find the right color anywhere!  Amazon to the rescue-twice the price of what I bought a year ago but I needed it to finish out the year's blocks!

I couldn't wait to dig into the new block for Alycia's QAL---and when I made the 6th goose, I realized I had the colors wrong--the ones on the left are the right color arrangement!  Aaagh!  

In another hour, I had the pieces cut and began sewing them correctly!  I gave up on the other way of making the geese-this one is working out more accurately.

This came in the mail today, too.  No it is the 48 needle one I bought a week ago, this is only a 40 needle machine to make baby hats, etc!  Yup, I am totally enjoying these stash busters!

But no, I haven't given up on hand knitting either--I finished another block and cast on for the newest one-this one is called Bamboo!  

 

TIME IS CRAWLING BY!

Our Cereus plant is loaded with blooms--10 of them in fact!  I took this yesterday morning, hoping they would be open Tuesday night before the winds took them away!

I also took a trip to our pond that has overflowed into a swamp again like it did a few years ago!  Not our happiest conditions for that area.  It is no longer wooded with pines and maples-it is rather grim.  If we get the 12-18" of rain predicted, we will be able to row our boat around agan!

The sunshine gave way to this....

it will be grey skies for a few days.

Ian is moving so slowly, but the rains are here and I'm hoping the winds aren't extreme!

It's a good thing I know how to stay busy!

Lena helped me knock out a few hats last night while I waited for the flowers to open;  they are their best around midnight but I couldn't wait that long to go so sleep-I

 need to get the zzz's while I can!

The one on the left is from DK yarn and the right one is in worsted.  I am loving this knitting machine,

 in case you haven't noticed!

And at ten o'clock, I took a walk to look at the blossoms--the plant is about 48" tall with several 'branches'.

The flowers are large-5-6" across and droop about 8-10".  And the aroma as I approached was heavenly!  It was a very comfortable 78*F so the warmth adds to the sultriness.

It's the most amazing flower I have ever seen!

 

JUST WAITING!

Look at the sunset from last night! 

 You'd never know that a hurricane is heading straight for me!

At least I am not on the coast but this should be a very interesting weather event!

I told the Sandhill Cranes that they better hunker down....the water is high out back which is good and bad.  Good for them to be able to hide safely but if we get the rain they are predicting, 

they will run a good chance of having their hillock

 in the swamp well under water!

At quilting yesterday, I made a bunch of flying geese;  I ended up using the 'no-waste method' to make the geese.  I've only 40 more to make before the next clue on Wednesday!

Have you ever used this technique to make flying geese?!

 

AN UNUSUAL FO

 I managed to finish one sock--these have been on the needles for a record amount of time for me.  I do have the second one on the needles;  I have been way too distracted with other projects lately.  It's very unusual for me but I hope to finish the second sock before another 6 weeks pass!

I will head into our quilt group today, working on the new QAL from Alycia Quilts while I am there.  There is still some work outside to put things away-like hanging bird feeders and the hummingbird feeder but I won't put them away until the last minute!

DRAGON SCALES!

The feather quilting is completed and the quilt is off the frame and trimmed.  If the hurricane holds off for a few more days, I will be able to get the binding on and this one will be done!

I tackled the job of reloading the Dragon quilt and promptly  loaded the new pantograph upside down---AGAIN---but I saw it before I did any stitching this time!  Yikes!  I like the way the new 'scales' are more complex and do not leave such large areas blank like I had with the one I drew.  It's a good thing mine was so simple because it was a bear to rip out-even with the help of my daughter!!!!  I'd rather not have to do that again!  I found I could be upright for  almost an hour before I got shaky--I see glimmers of my better self!

While I was readying the bedrooms and doing laundry and cleaning (in case we have company during the hurricane), Bill was working on securing the solar panels on the roof, filling fuel cans for the generator and putting things away outside so they will not become missiles.  

I did a bit of knitting towards the end of the day yesterday, I think I can eke out one more kids' had out of the last skein of DK yarn!  I like the narrow stripes the best!  I will keep that in mind for future hats!
 

SHADOW SELF

I managed to make another hat--this one looks nice to me with the Fall colors on one side

and the winter ones on the other! 

Block #4 of my 12  is completed and steamed out.

  I've already half done with another one!

I've been a bit impaired this week ..the pharmacy has been out of one of my MS meds, a Class II drug which has caused withdrawals....it has not been pretty.  I'm glad to say that I finally got the doctor and the pharmacist on the phone together to work it out.  I never want to repeat this nonsense again!

SLOW

I managed to break down the skein and half of yarn into separate balls so that I can make narrower stripes on the next hat! 

 Aren't they pretty?

 I didn't manage much besides this knitting today;  

it looks much more complicated than it really is. 

The stitches just increase and decrease between knits and purls and I didn't need the chart except when I was done with a full repeat!  One more repeat and I am done with this block!

HAT ATTACK!

I used Red Heart for the two turqoise hats and Lion Brand Mandala Sparkle in Nova for the pinks/grey one.  The Sentro Knitting machine works for both #4 yarns and #3! 

 These three hats are child sized.

This one is an adult hat in Mandala, Chimera colorway.  It has a very long color sequence so I am going to experiment with cutting the colors apart and halving them for the next hat!  Stay tuned.

It is very easy to just gather up the two ends of the tube  then tuck one half of the hat into the other and secure the ends.

 There is very little finishing as even the two tails from gathering each end is just slipped between the two layers of the hat to 'hide' them!  This is the reverse side of the same hat!

And this is for anyone curious about how to easily make a hat;

just turn the crank!  

Anyone math minded, it takes 13 cranks for one row,

 and I put in 110-120 rows for a hat! 

That's 1430-1560 cranks per hat!

WOOD FOR WEDNESDAY!

The quilt frame is going well-lots of colorful thread to go with the wild colors of the fabric!

The lathe has a bowl spinning around!  It is from a piece of Holly from my daughter.

It will have some bark and a natural edge.

I have the base ready to turn the piece around and grip it in the chuck!  I am sanding and using sanding sealer to help give it a good feel to the outside of the bowl! There will be quite a bit more sanding and shining before I move forward!

 

VISIT OVER....

We enjoyed some more acrylic paint pouring adventures yesterday;  here Marsel is catching the drips off the bottom of her canvas.

She used a lot of silver with the blues and made a very fun watery canvas this time!

This is a little  5 x 7 to use up her leftover paint.

This one is mine--I am still experimenting with the black, blues and a  pop of green!  (Larger canvases are 11 x 14")

 My mini one is made with the left over paint on the table!  Cool marriage of colors!  We were much less messy this time and were more confident with mixing and pouring!  Another week would be nice...but home is calling them!

ALL IN A DAY'S PLAY!

After a swim and some rain, it was time to go out and have some fireworks!  The kids enjoyed the spectacle!

Caleb put off one of his tanerite 'bombs' that he hits with his high powered gun--quite the boom and smoke!

My blackberry lilies are finishing up their blooms.

I never took a photo of my brother and myself when in NY last month--here we are with  my sil , too!

 

A BRIEF VISIT!

My daughter and grandson have zipped down for a brief visit!  We are going to pack a lot into our few days--number 1 on the list is art!  We did this watercolor exercise for a Fall landscape.

We played with some acrylic paint pouring!  What fun to get messy with a buddy! lol Marsel wanted to have an abstract in Fall colors for her family room wall-she got it!

This is totally NOT what I thought I was going to get but it sure looks 'other-wordly' and David claimed it for his room!  (these two are 11 x 14')

 This one is a mini at 5 x 7" but I used up some leftover paints.  It looks like a weather map to me!

Today is a family gathering--three of my four kids and my brother and sil for a cook out.