Cutting and Sewing and Knitting

 We have been finding murdered yarn skeins in the living room.  We had our suspicions but no proof. Consider this proof!  Does she look sorry?  I think it is satisfaction not remorse!

I was knitting some more on the entrelac blanket;  I am on the last skein!  When I got the urge to try another flamingo sock with smaller needles so the sock is more refined.

Oh, yeah.  We have a winner.  I am using the same number of stitches around, but this one just feels better, looks better and I knew I could do it!

The quilt top for Caleb's t-shirt quilt is complete and I will load it up onto the frame tomorrow.

I made another bathing suit for Abigail's American Girl Doll using a product that is new to me which was recommended on the pattern.  At the last trip to JoAnns I purchased a package and it sure does work beautifully!  It is called Fold Over Elastic and comes in a variety of colors.  Give it a try!

More Socks and Shirts

 I finished another pair of shorty summer socks.  I like being able to make a pair with just one skein of yarn!  These are going to Marsel since they are of Regia yarn which is supposed to be guaranteed not to spring a hole in the heel!

 I played around with a bit of yarn over design on the top of the foot.   There will be more with this idea on the next pair.

 I have the rest of the T-shirt blocks interfaced and arranged to my liking.

 I cut out all the sashing this morning and then started to put it all together.

 

 I didn't get too far because the sunshine and the pool called this afternoon-the water temperature is up to 89*, my minimum temp and so I took a nice long swim until a rain storm moved in and I had to run inside!  Only four more rows to go!

I did a bit of this until supper time!  More cotton spinning! It looks like the azaleas out in bloom in the front yard.

This is the latest we have had them bloom in the 6 years we have lived here!

The color is just electric.

After the rain this afternoon, we see a lot of blooms like this one on the air fern.

Another rare sighting is this one of JD who prefers to stay hidden.  She doesn't like the rain so she has adopted this shelf on the outside of the fireplace!  I did not have permission to photograph her!

Sacks, Socks and Shirts

 The Live Oaks are releasing their last batch of pollen.  The rain helped to wash away a lot of it, gratefully!

 I made the camouflage backpack for my oldest grandson's birthday.

 He enjoys being in the woods by their house and doing reconnaissance so I can only imagine the adventures he will take this bag .

 I wrapped up the packages to mail to him........Nyki had to scent the box first to send a message to their household cats!

 I decided to tackle a long postponed quilt.  Caleb had given me a bag of old T-shirts for a memory quilt almost a year ago.  I have decided the layout, a 5 x 6 block design with denim colored sashing so I needed 30  12 1/2" squares.   I dug out, sorted and cut out squares-some the front and some both front and back.

 I then pressed interfacing to the back of the squares to stabilize the stretchy cotton knits for quiltmaking.  This press sure saved me time though it did heat up the sewing room!

 This is the pile of t-shirt bottoms I will bag up for use in the garage for rags.

I whipped up a pair of cotton socks with stretchy Paton yarn-I used only one skein for summer weight shorty socks!

Sheep and Wool Festival

 Elayne and I went on an adventure today while her husband offered to stay home and keep Bill company!  We loaded the address into the Garmin and took off for Ocala where they were holding the second annual Sheep and Wool Festival!  What a great group of people!  We learned a lot about the meat sheep of Florida and some hair sheep breeds like Barbados Blackbelly and Katahdin sheep of Maine.  There were also fleece sheep like Suffolk, Icelandic and BabyDoll.  It is always nice to get close to the sheep and feel the different fibers for yourself!

 A very nice couple were showing their Icelandics and they won the blue ribbon for the day.  The wife does most of their herd of 60 sheep and the husband also tends bees so they had lots of beeswax products, too.  What an amazing team!

 I also bought this basket and Nyki immediately had to smell everything and give it a good inspection!  This basket is a reed basket for wool-it is quite large-18" wide and 12" tall.  It is just beautiful to me!

There was a neat demo for shearing-they breeders offer one of their sheep for the 'newbies' to learn on and then they offer the fleece for a donation of $1.  Of course, we sweetened the pot, but both Elayne and I bought a fleece.  The info on the fleeces were scanty since the sheep were all in a large holding area and selected randomly but I believe we  each got a Suffolk.  We learned a lot by watching and decided the sheep didn't think much of the handling!

We had a fun adventure on the other end of our day, too.  I had left the lights on in the car and the battery was DEAD!   We did find a willing donor to jump start the car-all part of the adventure!

A Pair of Flamingos

 I finished the second sock and made some changes along the way.  I didn't like the way the bigger pair fit-the heel was still too hard to pull on.  There is a reason that two color socks have a plain heel and toe-they are too bulky and do not have enough stretch when they are knit with two colors to fit well.  I didn't mean to reinvent the wheel over this but now I know why it is done this way!  Experience is a good teacher!

 I ripped out the first sock so that I could knit the heel again in just the white and moved right along to make that second one!  I finally have two flamingo socks ready to roost!  What a journey. The good news is that I have enough yarn left to make another pair!   After a few days........

 Bill's sister and brother -in-law with their friend , Esther, came for a visit from Vero Beach!

They wanted to see Bill after his surgery and brought him a dish of galumpkies to perk him up.
It was good to have Barbara scold him as only a big sister can because he is not staying off his feet!
He is walking around with the big ice packs on his feet so it will help with the swelling!  My man...

 (The surgery was to smooth the bones on the top of his feet where some bone growths have put too much pressure on the nerve that lays near the top.  The incision is 4" long on each foot-looks a bit Frankenstein-ish but the surgery has given him the relief from the nerve pain that he needed!

His foot wear for the next few weeks......if I can keep him down!)

Tying Up Loose Ends

 I spun up some linen on one wheel and hemp on the other to compare the two fibers.

 I found very little difference in the spinning, both were done on the 11:1 ratio whorl and were then plied on the same whorl pretty tightly.  I wanted a fine yarn for knitting and both skeins look very similar.  The hemp does feel more plant like-almost a twine feel.

 The linen is definitely softer by a bit but both will soften when used and rewashed repeatedly.
They both measure out to 24 epi -almost a lace weight yarn.  I loved spinning them both!

 Here is a new guy on the block-he is very thin but so friendly and wants to get along with all the other household guests.  He is a neutered male-very tall and if the size of his head is any indication, he can be a very big guy once he puts some weight back on.  We will be putting up posters to find his family but the area is notorious for leaving pets behind when they move out of the rentals up and down our street.  Sad but true.

 He is very interested in the kitchen at the moment, then asks to go out- until you get up and open the door and he then he changes his mind.  He just wants to know that he can go  out, I think!

I am working away on the second flamingo sock-it got sidetracked for a bit but we are back on track.  It is what I am taking to the surgery center tomorrow while I wait for Bill's surgery to be done!

Spotlight on Sewing

 Earlier this week I wanted to make something for a friend's birthday so I took a stash dive.  This is what I came up with-a lined, silky skirt.  I do love to being a seamstress!

 Today, Matthew and family came by so the guys could golf and I took advantage of the opportunity to teach Ashley how to sew.  I did introduce Will to yarn while I was giving him a diaper change.  He preferred the wool-he is a discerning kind of guy!

 She has been itching to try her hand at it after the pillows project earlier this week!  I am easy to convince when I have a willing student!  Ashley produced two reversible place mats today and we will get together to make the other two soon!  She did great on every step!

Will and I got a lot of bonding time-he was a very cooperative guy!  (He is watching the ceiling fan!)  In case you are wondering, Matthew beat Bill in golf in a big way-glad they could laugh about it.  Bill goes in for surgery this coming week-both feet need to have the bones on top of his feet shaved.  This was the 'golf before the recuperation period' day!

Getting Current

 If you remember Sanford and Son you will know what I mean when I say Bill has caught the junkman bug!  He loaded this old car up with scrap metal from the previous residents and took the load to the scrap metal depot.  He came away with a very fat wallet and shared some money with me as payment for the agony of having it in the yard for years!  I like the hobby where the junk leaves my premises!

 I mailed this doll sweater off to Abigail to welcome her newly purchased doll.  It is a fun knit from Classic Elite Yarns.......called Fiona Doll Sweater if you are interested in giving it a knit!

 Saturday I went spinning all day with a friend to St Augustine-this is the yarn I made while there. I combed the cotton and spun that to the delight of hundreds of visitors that passed through the Visitor Center.  It was an amazing day!  I came home to  a full house for the Easter Weekend-suffice it to say, I couldn't take pictures, hold my grand babies and make the meal so no blogging.  It was a blessed two days.

 Today, Bill had some work to do on Matthew's car so I got to 'play' with Will and Ashley.  We went to JoAnn's and bought fabric to cover some old pillows.  When we got home, the cats enjoyed helping unpack all of my sewing supplies!

 They were very curious but wary of all my equipment!

 Will wasn't shy-he enjoyed the noises and actions of his Mom and Grandma hard at work building a home!

 This is a picture for Benita-we sighted two of these on the way home today.  There are over 1,000 wildfires burning in Florida today.  This is far away but still marred the sky for a very long ways.

I managed to finish one flamingo sock on the way home!  I immediately cast on the toe of the second sock but I ran out of car trip.......consider yourselves caught up!