Soft and Hard

 While the men continued to build roof trusses, Mom and I felted some Merino wool around our bar of Dove soap!  It wasn't as easy as we thought but it was fun.

I have another row of Flamingos on the socks.  It is a good knit on this rainy day!

Ta Da; Door!

The guys worked a bit later than usual but they got the sliding glass door in the diningroom!


Mom (the red/white/blue one) and I finished piecing our tablerunners and now I will quilt them on the frame......

In the afternoon, we knit up our dyed wool into a bowl for felting. I think we will do that tomorrow.

Doesn't it look like Nyki was posing for the wallhanging!?!
Not only is our yard a riot of color from the Azaleas but the amarylis is in bloom , too! Oh, I do love the showy colors!

Framing and Fiber

The men have spent 2 days doing prep work and that is not so photographic.

Bill has put his truck to work getting extra supplies at Home Depot--I came out with the camera right after he finished unloading the truck bed!

Today as they worked, the fruit of their labors yielded measureable results. Look, I have walls! Well, sort of.........

Hannah sent a bit of drizzle all day, but no wind so the men worked right through the mist.

Bill is working for us to help cut costs, so he gets bossed around, too. Nailing the hurricane straps was his responsiblity this morning.
By day's end this is what they accomplished!

Yesterday, I was gifted this-------> baby alpaca fiber......ooooooh, it is so soft!

I stayed in most of the morning and did a bit of this (crowns for the kids made on the embellisher machine)

and this for Molly, their cat; felt toys with some alpaca sticking out for her to attack!

and this; step three on the mystery tote-added the borders, sewed the two sides together at bottom and quilted the outer section.

Still knitting the rib on Bill's sock-I am so tired at night time that I am not knitting at all just holding it . I am feeling better each day and so I am not discouraged. Some of our bromeliads are in bloom-aren't they tropical looking?!

Speaking of tropical-see the baby hibiscus do its thing.

This beauty is for the kids.........David and Abigail, can you identify it?!

Fay's Last Hoorah!

While the winds and rains raged and the storm radio sent out tornado warnings, I placidly cleaned, erranded and was creative......my usual self!

Here is a lesson in erosion.......my veranda needs some remedial attention.

And except for some branches, we were happy to receive the attention of Fay, all 13" of her!
I had a brainstorm idea for the pile of handspun, hand knitted socks my daughter had sent to me for their own kind of remedial attention, the heels were windowed and needed sealing up. I started with a pair of my own so I could see if it felt (no pun intended!) okay after it was mended. Success and with an easy, quick and painless fix! I tackled the rest of the stack with energy and was thrilled with the results. I packed up the pile and mailed them right out!

I am definitely on to a good thing with the embellisher to the rescue!

When I came back from the Post Office, I was reaching into the back seat to pick up the detritus of previous trips and popped a rib...........I don't know how a broken rib feels, but I definitely heard a snap and have the impaired mobility I think is consistent with such an injury. Great, says I, just in time for my gall bladder surgery on Monday!

Next week, I won't notice the pain but today I am in slow-motion!

As long as I had my embellishing machine out, I thought to try and get artistic. I joined a postcard swap with a group on-line using our machines. I had a very fun hour and was satisfied with the end product. I have to mail mine to Kentucky, but I am to receive one from Australia and that will be fun! Since I am a rookie, I wanted to get mine out before I got discouraged from the other entries! Does this make sense or is it definitely a character flaw?!

I also made a couple of headbands to go with the skirts I made a few months ago.....I got to use my new Hot Fix crystals and wand and it was hard to stop and recognize when enough was a enough for the bling!

A new quilt is up on the design wall..........a wallhanging for us will happen eventually. Before I get to it, I will enjoy it on the wall for now.

'Cuz I Felt Like It

One nice thing about having to be in the car is that I can still do some of my handwork...knitting is so portable and I can knit and talk to (listen to...) Bill at the same time! To felt, you need 100% wool, knit for 18" or until you have just a bit of yarn to pick up the edge stitches and give it a bottom....... Throw it is the washer (in a lingerie bag ) with just a bit of detergent and agitate it. This took 3 repeats of the wash cycle to get it small enough and tight enough to be a bowl. (It is different every time you felt and justs adds to the fun. Sometimes it only requires 5-7 minutes of agitation and others, like this yarn, required 30 mins! )

Place the wet bowl on a form to shape it, this is my mixing bowl-I knew there was a reason to have kitchen appliances! Let it dry on its own--hours or even overnight. (Here it is dry in only hours-98 degrees of sunshine does that for you!)

Enjoy your creativity and stop and enjoy your surroundings........we have a whole new crop of these little guys running around. I do mean running around because our hunter, Tom, chases and eats these guys like candy! He knows when we yell to drop one-to swallow in one gulp so he will not lose his prey! Stinker!

Fill the bowl with yarn balls and savor your work of art!