Saturday Triumphs

I am rolling these tablerunners right off the frame. They are the left-over fabric from the mystery Christmas quilt! One is on our table, one is at church and one is in the mail to my daughter-in-law for their new house!
A new quilt is on the frame............it takes me so long to decide on a design; still my least favorite part of the whole thing! Once I got one drawn (the quilting pattern that is) and figured out how to place it and off set every other row; the quilting itself went well!

Bill put in the last sliding glass door; this one is to our bedroom to be. There is a lot of fussiness to centering these things and it doesn't help when the contractors made the opening and inch too high but he persevered and we are now all secured on the south addition. I am flying on the 'flat feet' socks-I had to begin each sock seperately and then nestle them together-couldn't do the beginning in the evening-- I guess it was 'too much, too new ' at that time of the evening! But they are progressing nicely and I will finish them tonight. I still like doing socks one at a time because they seem to flow more serenely for me. I take good notes as I knit and so have no problems getting the second one to come out an exact match but it is good to learn something new even if I don't do it this way again (Well, I am going to make up the pair for Abigail but I might not do it 2 at a time!). I am going to dye some more sock blanks though! It produces just the control I like for sock design and knitting up the blanks took no time at all.

Creative Endeavors

I dyed the sock blanks last night. As always, the pleasure is over too quickly! Bill had a piece of styrofoam insulation that he cut to size for me. I pinned my blanks on the surface and then had fun painting them. Abigail's is in pink and purple-her present fav colors.

David's is in old world red/white/blue-his special request. I laid them inside an oven cooking bag on a cookie tray and baked them for an hour. There wasn't a drop of color that came out in the rinse bowl!

This morning they were dried and tonight I am going to try to knit 2-at-a-time on cirular needles for the first time since I have double-stranded this blank, I need to use both strands at the same time for knitting. So far, so good. I finished quilting Millie's king sized log cabin quilt. She made it as a gift for her daughter.
I used a simple meander pattern on this. I now have a free frame for some Christmas tablerunners! Bill enjoyed a different kind of creativity.............finding the 'clog' in our septic system! He had a good idea of where the problem was and he found it on the second shovel full! We replaced the whole septic system last year except for the 14' from the house to this spot and when he followed the pipe back up to the house-he could see the people who installed previously had used the wrong pipe--it had collapsed and had roots growing through it! No wonder it was having problems!
He replaced the length of pipe, reattached it to the other new piping ;
covered and seeded the area and it is better than ever! Hoorah!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

My youngest son is 22 years old today. Put your chest up to the screen for a hug! We love you!

So grateful you decided to join us 2 years ago and become a Florida guy!

Mind Numbing Activities

I wanted to try to make my own "flat feet" knitting blanks and so I took this skein of 462 yards of superwash wool and unwound both ends together to into a big ball.

Bling had fun helping me. It took me about 45 mins to do this with the extra help.

I then knit up the double strands on size 6 needles so until I thought it would be enough to a pair of socks for David and one for Abigail. I will dye them and then unravel the strands and knit it up for a matching pair of socks for the kids! Well, that is the plan.

Beach Therapy

Bill took me to Daytona Beach to help distracted me from roaming the empty house and yard.

The wind was so cold but the sun was nice so he drove the 5 miles of shoreline and let the sun warm my face.

We got out only for a pic and then back to the car for our drive home.

GRIEF

My beloved fur boy is gone. .......................... We searched our whole 11 acres, miles of ditches, and hundreds of feet of hedges, put up signs and visited neighbors.

I don't even have his body-just his absence.

I have no words, a very large ache resides where my heart is now.

.................He would love to curl up on my lap in the evening and interrupt my knitting for some love.

I would always oblige him.

I would gladly put away my knitting forever if I could have him back.

Fridays Pleasures

We worked on the wicker bells after the morning chores. It was difficult and we took a break to go and feed our neighbor's baby goats! This was a pleasure Marsel had never experienced and she thoroughly enjoyed it-so did the little goat! The little buck teasing was a bottle baby, too, a while ago and he still remembers the joy! David fearlessly took off like a fellow 'kid' and enjoyed the energy of all the young goats (50!).

Abigail was frightened last visit but held on to her stick to keep the Great Pyrenes at bay and she was quite the sheperdess this time!

Bruce took pictures of his family but I did manage to get one of him, too! Caleb got to stay for another day and so was able to enjoy the farm visit-his role as uncle has priority with him as you see!

We finished our bells in the afternoon-against all kinds of set backs we have a pair of bells for each of us! We had felt pretty confident of our basket weaving skill; progressing from beginner to advanced beginner kits but this one is labeled intermediate for a reason! It shields its story as it hangs on the door..........

The Motley Crew!

We had a great time of preparation-(it is so nice to share kitchen duties with another woman) table time, walks, ping pong,

football on tv (new one with a big screen.......)and a word game called Banagram...........which really separated the men from the boys!

Far away family felt close 'cuz they sent these.......!

Marsel brought me her socks that had been started but languished for a while....well, she thought she had brought them but pulled this out of her knitting bag instead! She forgot she had changed out the take-it-with-you project and consequently brought me the wrong one! Grrrrrr from both of us! I don't like knitting deferred! I will have to finish them when I visit her at Christmas!
Tomorrow we will be weaving bells from reeds................just you wait and see them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this day!

Sending a hug to family and friends who are read this!

Just Waiting!

While waiting for company to arrive............in a few days; I am entertaining/distracting myself with odd projects. I ripped out an old sweater that was beautiful but I ran out of yarn (it was the first wool to spin which I bought to make a sweater out of and didn't purchase enough) but as WoolEnough reminded me, you don't have to waste yarn! I ripped out the old fronts, back and one sleeve, reskeined and washed the wool and hung it out to dry! All ready for a less dense sweater than the fisherman knit one that it almost got to be!

Started a little project with some scrap yarn........a free pattern from the JoAnn Fabric Store site.
I started a new project 'cuz I finished David's sweater!

I am on the last 2 hours of Millie's quilt..........I am watching the last spool of thread cautiously!

This is on the design wall........it will be a gift. The first one I pieced so quickly that I knew it was going to have to be made again and I have even ordered some more Scripture panels to make 2 more. This is a great project to use up scraps on hand but I did have to purchase yardage for the backing which will result in some more seed remnant!

A Landscaping Transformation!

We put all the plants to good use and transformed the front yard into a hint of the tropical garden it will be! Added some small stones for the splash guard........

added some good , rich soil from out back in the old swamp area that we drained......

Added the new greenery plants we got Thursday and look! First half is done!

We did the same thing to the other side of the sidewalk and then added another stone island to the other 'front yard' and we have a very nicely balance front yard! Bill has seeded it and rolled it out and in 2 weeks we will have a nice green front lawn again! Yes, while Tom helps us with all the work, Bling does this----->

.......after all, it was chilly out and the window seat was in the sunshine!

So, what do you think?!

A bonus shot, this legless lizard hitchhiked up in a tractor bucket load of dirt! After its picture was taken, we took it back to the swampland! (I thought that a legless lizard was a dumb name for just another snake when I had read about them previously, but they really are different than a snake--not as sleek, or fast-the cooler temps really help to slow this guy down, too, which made him less frightening as his cousins!)

The sweater for David just needs its button bands............I think I will meet my deadline; I just have to spin up some more yarn to be able to do this! ( Think of the Miller's daughter!)

Landscaping Trip

A friend from church offered us all the plants she wanted weaned from her yard. Gardening quickly outgrows its parameters here! Bill provided the muscle for digging up and out and I potted them and hauled them to the truck. After a few hours work we had this-

and to think we almost didn't bring the truck! My little car wouldn't have done the same amount of work! We went to the beach (Daytona)as long as we were so close..........we are not being as good lately about our pledge to each other to get to the beach at least once a month. It was a good walk and very relaxing to be there.

I finished piecing the Mystery Christmas Quilt before we left.............now I have to finish the quilt on the frame so I can do this one! This is a good problem!

Vehicle time means knitting time......finished one sleeve and started the other. I will try to have this done in time for David's visit next week!

Bill has been brushing Bling every day to try to reduce the hairball problem this kitty has. I carded the brushings (an ounce) and added some wool (for a 50/50 blend ) to get just the right color.......I didn't even disturb his nap for the picture! I will spin up a nice fine weight yarn for a little pouch momento of this feline!