Catching It

  At the park the other day, not only enjoyed the beautiful time with family,

I also enjoyed the scenery!  

As I was looking at this view for a painting, along came a pelican.

 He was trawling along looking for lunch.

 He had great technique and caught several with his swift motions!

He guzzled them down and swam along looking to do it again and again!

And the sock is finished!  It fits well-note the toe-up gusset and heel;

this was the Boost to this pattern.  I will definitely try it with another pair of socks,

as soon as I finish the next sock!

Off to quilting group today,

I have some areas of quilting that have been languishing!

Time to remedy this situation!

HST Block School

 We took another trip to Daytona today,

it was a beautiful crisp Fall day for us--see, 

December has the best autumnal color for us!

 This is what I learned today;

when you work with directional fabric, 

you have to understand some basic cutting rules.

Sewing blindly along will result in this unhappy situation--see how the writing isn't horizontal

as the rest of the blocks are?

I couldn't understand why I had so many blocks of one direction and so few of the other.

 I had assumed that when I drew my lines and sewed and cut, 

I would have two opposite blocks---I don't,

I have two of the SAME blocks.

 Even though these LOOK like they are opposite, 

when I rotate them 180* I have two identical blocks!

Anyone who has sewn these for pinwheel blocks, can sympathize

when they have one HST that just won't work no matter how many times they turn it! lol

I folded the square and looked at the differences and discovered I had to sew 

the blocks with the diagonal in this direction;

 I would get enough of the blocks I needed.

Now I can get the stitch directional prints

and produce the blocks I need with some determined stitching!

Scenery Close and Far

 Bill played on the tractor this week-and promptly got stuck!
It took over an hour to pull him out-he was really sunk in deeply!

 If you have followed the saga of the back woods flooding over the last 18 months,

this is a picture of what it looks like now.  

A real dead tree forest. 

Most of the pine trees and all of the maples have perished.

The great egret is happy with the shrinking water levels, though;

it makes for good fishing!

 Here is a picture my oldest son sent me;

I was born under the shadow of this mountain!

(well , in the army hospital but this was still the view!)

Mt. Rainier.

If this picture can't tempt me back into painting, nothing can.

Clouded

 The boys and I took an outing after school at the park.

The clouds rolled by giving a great mld temperature 

and a feeling of movement to match the highly energetic boys! 

 Ethan is over his flu  finally so he felt like playing 

and Will was running and yelling into the wind

to free all the 'quiet'  restraints of his day!

I finished the ridiculous garterlac dishcloth--ridiculous because I couldn't knit this at all!

I can't count the number of these I have made but I guess I have never done it in two colors

like I wanted because I was always on the wrong side to pick up stitches and had to try and pick them

up purlwise ....sometimes!  

Oh, it's only a dishcloth and stop overthinking it!

I am free-form knitting the next one--I like the little dots of white every few rows.

Sunny Spinning!

 After I dropped off the boys, I went to do some spinning by the river.  

It is day three of the Tour de Fleece, you know! 

 I managed to ply the first bobbin full for skein number one of the Southdown fiber.

 This was my view of the river today.

On the way home, I took a picture of the construction going on at the Dunn's Creek Bridge;

it will be a four lane bridge in another year or so! 

 The boys enjoy spotting the construction vehicles each time we drive by!

(and because no one was behind me, I slowed down and took this pic out my windshield!)

Top and Bottom

 A finished top!  I ended up adding the strips of leftover fabric along each long side

 to widen  the quilt.  I liked the dark color around the outside!  

I need to find some fabric for the backing so this will have to go to the queue before quilting.

Yesterday I sat in the shade to do some knitting while I waited to pick up the boys. 

 The heat is making it hard to sit outside even if I am in the shade; 

 we are in full out steamy weather and it is not easy on my internal thermometer! 

 I love how the clouds are perfectly reflected in the river!

Fall Sock Scenery

 I was working along on the newest sock for the I 💗 FALL KAL 

when I realized, I wasn't enjoying it. 

 I wanted to whiz around and around with stockinette stitch 

and just watch the autumnal colors grow under my needles!

 I ripped back the lace and took the sock with me back to the doctor's (again) and managed to knit quite a few inches!

 "Oh, my!  How do you manage to keep your bp so low?" 

 Knit, darling, knit!

I might be knitting some beautiful *Fall socks but it still looks like summer outside;  this field on the way home was all cut for hay-they will still get one more cutting if the weather stays cooperative!

*The sock yarn will look familiar to Nancy of Wyoming Breezes because

I ordered some after seeing the yarn on her blog.

It is Berrocco Sock yarn;  

since I liked their DK, I wanted to give the sock weight yarn a try, too!

A Cousin Visit

 It is so nice to have a visit from NY family;  this is my cousin, Joe, and his wife, Carol.

The sunset was pretty spectacular on the way to church!