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!

Got Yer Back

 I bound off the shoulders and neck last night and cast on the front for the summer tank sweater!

I did note that two stitches are out of place-12" down from the neck edge.

After holding it in my lap for several minutes....thinking about ripping out or

running down a ladder to repair just one stitch row at a time or

just leaving it and not worrying about it.  I went with the latter.

I am not going to worry about it, thank you very much.

My Gram used to say, "It'll never show on a trotting horse!"  Or my ol' back either!

Armchair Caddy

An easy and practical tutorial inspired this armchair caddy 

which I will use when knitting!
Especially useful when doing my scallop blanket 

because if I have to jump up quickly ,

this will prevent a lap full of tools and yarn ends from scattering all over!

It is constructed with a good array of holders and pockets.
It was designed for sewing but will cross lines for any work;

I think it would work for cross-stitchers, too!

I plan on putting it to good use!

Good Progress

I managed to knit just over 12 inches on the summer tank top!

Very satisfying to know where you are going while you knit! 

 The boys miss playing outside when it is so hot and steamy outside.

When we woke up at 6:30, it was only 75 so I headed out with them-slam, the humidity made it feel like 90 already.  Overwhelming!  We went on the golf cart and checked out our pond/lake!  It has grown 4-5' past its banks.  The whole area around the pond is covered with several inches of water so you slosh through the grass and hope you don't get stuck.

 The banana grove is happy....

 ...the snakes, not so much.  Bill killed this coral snake on a ride earlier this week.

Red and yellow kill a fellow........or black head, you're dead;  either rhyme sealed this guys doom.

 One of my favorite live oaks after the hurricane damage-he lost half of himself;  I sympathize.

You can see the slope of the hill-our house is at the top of the rise so I am in no danger of all the flooding in the lower part of the property.  A hundred years ago, this was the shoreline to the lake out back;  if all this rain keeps up, we will be repeating the geography!

I will stay up by the house and enjoy the impatiens.

Try , Try , Again!

                                                                           

 I had a long talk with the cotton sweater with high hopes

 but niggling doubts kept me from enjoying it.  

The needles the pattern called for are too small for the yarn (worsted weight)

 and the fabric is too dense and stiff.

 Strike two is the bane of all 'knit in the round' ribbings-it slants and that drives me crazy.

So I ripped it all out.

And caked the yarn back up for another attempt!

 I thought I would try a top down sweater; 

 the yarn works up better in a bigger needle

 but I didn't really want a t-shirt again.   

So I stopped here and ripped it back, too.

What I would like is another cotton tank like this one.

So I pulled out my old (1998 purchase) Sweater Wizard software 

and loaded the measurements and gauge into the slots 

and now I have what I want

and I know it will work!

Now I have a K3P1 ribbed  tank on the needles and it is custom designed just for me!

No guess work or doubts to haunt me now on the pretty sunflower yarn!

A Silky Neck

 This month's silk yarn arrived.  I love the color;  it is called morning glory!

And it includes the cutest sheep charms........

....which I immediately attached to clips for stitch markers/progress keepers!

I caked up the skein-it is called fingering weight

but it has the feel and drape of #5 crochet cotton;  

it is a fine yarn. 

But it knits right up nicely into a little shawlette.  

The pattern alternates garter with mesh to work however you want to do it; 

 I am working these two sections in ever increasing row counts

on #3 needles.

A nice diversion, as always!

Making Colors

 I experimented with corals and browns

as I wielded the Jacquard dye bottles .

I do love the way the yarn grabs the dyes!

 I dyed some roving, too.

I am hoping to line up some colored wool since I have spun white for too long!

It is so warm in the sunshine, it took no time at all to dry the fiber.

 This is some BFL (blue-faced Leicester wool) and Tussah silk blend.

I can't wait to spin this!

This four ounce roving is Hampshire wool, a downy breed,

 and took the dye so differently from the the long, silky wool of the BFL!

It will spin long draw and yield a bouncy wool, 

I'm pretty sure!

Will took this picture of his cat,  Nemo.

He is guarding another roving I dyed, it is a superwash Merino/nylon. 

This was an amazing view of our sky last night-

There is also a flock of egrets flying to roost.

So What If......

I wondered how this afghan would look if I used a smaller 'scallop' .

This one is big enough for a lap robe; 

 I will knit a border on the side edges to make them neater

and call it done. 

I reduced the stitches from 40 to 30 and added a few more scallops to the row

 and I liked what I saw.  

So much for using up scraps of yarn-now I will have to buy some more to finish the new idea!

Or

I will rip the first one out and use that yarn instead.

Because that is often what happens to the first one off the drawing board.

And that is what happens when you get an idea.......

Frog Legs

 I passed the halfway mark while working through the frog quilt!

I have cut my time to applique them to only 11 minutes.  

Those frog fingers will be the death of me! lol

Tw0 more rows to go and I will be finished!

Will made this frame for his Dad for Father's Day-he was so excited to give this gift to him yesterday.

I am glad this rough and tough little boy has such a wonderfully creative streak, too!

SilverLeaf Shawl Finished!

 Silver Leaf Shawl is off the needles and on my shoulders!

I thought my bright idea to add a little picot lace edging would be better

 than just the abrupt garter bind off but it took me forever to do it!

Unblocked and right off the needles.  

It is a big shawl. 

 Light and airy and wonderful to wrap around my shoulders when I have a sleeveless dress on.

 The leaf lace portion of the pattern is a good knit-

easy to do once you realize it is a two sided lace chart!  

I love the way the yarn switched its coloring right on the stem of the leaves!

  Serendipity!

 The shawl was wider than my blocking area- so I folded the top down...

and the other tip needed a fold back, too! 

 It blocked out to just over 6' by 36" !

I used two balls of Chroma fingering twist (superwash) in the Surfs Up! colorway on #7 needles.

This is a really nice pattern and I will make it again in a smaller size!  

(I added several pattern repeats that were not in the original since I had to order more yarn.)

Some Pink Going On...

 I was pleasantly surprised by the new swamp lily open this morning.  

No scent, just beauty.

 The Caladium is a beautiful, showy leaf among the pretty caterpillar ground cover.

I picked all 23 of the heavy spent blooms off the cereus plant. 

And I managed to piece all the triangles on this lap quilt.

Now to figure out the borders....

An Oasis

 My last crazy scheduled day for a while...

I started it out by giving Lena a good brushing....

 she can't hold still while I brush her-she has her own aerobics act...

play biting at my hand and the brush included

 pushing against me to roll and stretch

 and then to give a very contented sigh.  A "10" for the dramatic performance!

 After dropping Will off for Art Camp, I stopped to admire the Egret nesting ground on the shore of Lake Stella.

In the afternoon, instead of running errands.....

I sat. In the shade. And knitted.  What a perfect choice to wind down instead of winding up!