Saturday Sky

I'm posting this on Sunday - but it is Saturday's sky looking up from my patio.




It was a beautiful but sweltering hot day.

Log Cabin progress

Well I have 4 squares done - yippee! It's taking a little longer than I thought it would to pump these babies out - but they are coming along. I'm still amazed at how much yarn each one eats! One skein barely stretches to two segments of a square! I hope I hope don't run out of yarn - because I'm using sale yarn (Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky) and it's discontined!

Anyway - here's a pic


I also just got some news that my old roommate is expecting a baby girl! I finally get to knit something frilly and girlie for a change. It seems like everyone I know if having babies right now. I feel like the only one not pregnant! Anyway - I plan on making her a baby kimono from Mason Dixon to start. I am taking a break from my log cabining and will be knitting for the baby for a while. She needs a kimono or two, a few bibs, some booties and of course a blanket! WHo knows what else.

And now what you have all been waiting for - my first entry in Project Spectrum! July is for purple! It's amazing how little purple I actually have in my house. So little - I actually went around the house in search of some. Any kind of purple! I found the following:

Stiches East!

I just signed up for Stitches East - yeah!! I'm so excited! Us Marylanders are very luck we have so many awesome shows in the area. First Sheep and Wool and now Stiches! I hope I get into the classes I signed up for! I signed up for the following:

1. Unpatterns Top-Down Sweaters - where we will be making a teddy bear sized sweater knit (you guessed it) from the top down.
2. Hole-istic_lace - (Duh) - we'll be making lace
3. Knitting on the Edge - We'll learn how to add fancy edges to all kinds of things.


I can only imagine the yarn that will be there too - I'm already drooling!

Summertime

It was such a glorious weekend - hot but still great. I met up with some of my girlfriends from high school on Saturday and we had our monthly lunch. It's always nice to catch up! After lunch we saw Pirates of the Carribean. Save your money and wait for the DVD. It was definitely NOT worth the price of admission. Way too long - way too many fight scenes and way too much digital effects and way too little actual story. Didn't like it. At all.

Anyway - after that experience - I picked up cousin Kelly and we just chilled out at home and watched a better movie - Nanny McPhee - very cute! A Mary Poppins like movie of a nanny with magical powers and 7 very bad children who miraculously become good children in the course of several days. It was definitely a fairy tale!

Sunday was spent gardening!

There was a buy one get one free sale a the local farmer's market/nursery - yeah! I got 2 butterfly bushes, 2 arborvitae, 2 pepper plants, 2 hanging baskets (one tomato and one flowers), 2 ivies, 2 coleus and another burgundy ivy I don't know the name of. I also found some time to photograph the denizens of my garden.

A lady bug enjoying a stoll on my hydrangea tree:





And a butterfly with beautiful marking sipping on some flowers.




Bailey was working hard to catch this butterfly.... It was funny until he almost got it!!

Fly away quick before he gets you!

Socks a plenty

I went to sit and knit last night and started a new sock. I'm using a gorgeous shade of Koigu and making the Tropicana pattern from knitty.com

I wasn't alone in my socky pursuits - it seemed like everyone was making socks last night!

Here's a sampling of our goods...



It was a good showing - we had some new knitters and a cuty pie little knitter making her first knitted object.


There was spinning a plenty too - with Sara and Margaret breaking out the spindles.
Here's Sara



And here's part of Margaret :)




It was a great evening - live music was playing from the Lakefront and we enjoyed each other's company.

I was almost talked into going to the midnight showing of Pirates of the Carribean - but alas - I didn't go - I needed my beauty sleep! And now I have something to take my cousin Kelly to this weekend - another movie! That'll be 2 in a week. i think that's a record for me - since I havne't been to a theater to see a movie since the last Harry Potter! I wonder if I could knit in there... hmmm....

If I do decide to ever knit at the movies - I may just have to invest in a pair of these awesome needles that have lights on the tips!!



Here's a few links to various places to purchase these little gems...

BrewerSewing


Ebay

LA Knitter Parisienne

I think I may need these. Now to decide what color!!

Click is a good flick!

Sorry for the bad rhyming - but I just saw Click last night with Adam Sandler and I highly recommend it!



I took my cousin-in-law (is that a word?) and it was such a great movie. I laughed, I cried (alot!) and got a new respect for Adam Sandler. He can do comedy and drama - all at the same time!

I must admit I wasn't the biggest fan of some of Adam Sandler's movies (like Billy Madison and Waterboy). His work is a toss up - I either love it or hate. I loved Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy and Spanglish.

This movie leans more toward Spanglish than Billy Madison in style and is definitley going to be part of my DVD collection when it comes out!

It feel like It's a Wonderful Life meets Scrooge with some typical Sandler-esque comedy thrown in for his die-hard fans. A great date or family movie (except for the scenes where his dog(s) humps a stuffed duck!!)

Tonight is sit and knit - I can't wait!! I can't decide if I want to start a new sock or continue my log cabin blanket. I didn't post pics of that yet did I! I'm a bad blogger! - bad!- bad!


I have two done and many many more to go!!


Here's the my newly acquired stash of Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky and my first square.





I love the deep vibrant colors this wool comes in. I didn't want a rainbow colored blanket like they show in the Mason Dixon book. That's just not me. I love the rich colors that I found in this color combo...




I'll keep you posted on what I make tonight - a block or a sock!

Another bad rhyme!! Ha!!

4th of July Festivities

I went to DC to see the fire works for the first time in my life (and probably the last). Although they were good - it was quite a drama to get there and back in one day! We headed down around 7pm - got there around 8 - waited in line to be "security checked" until 8:45 and then just made it to get seats on the mall by 9 when the fireworks erupted. It was beautiful to see them exploding behind the Washington Monument.



This was actually my second set of fireworks this summer - I saw a homemade version a few nights ago at my friend Margaret's house. It was a fun time with some knitting around the bonfire. We did the traditional smelling of the yarn. (I thought I was the only one that smelled my yarn!) Apparently my friend Hollyanne and her son also enjoy a good wiff of wool!




A good time was had by all and I got to make S'mores! Yum - I think I was only adult at the bonfire with a stick in my hand and marshmellow on my face - but I didn't care. I haven't had S'mores in years! They are just as good as you remember - I suggest running out and making some rightnow!

I also had the honor of initiating a new knitter into the world. My husband's cousin Kelly is now officially a knitter! I taught her the knit and purl stitch and showed her my yarn stash. I also showed her my yarn winder and umbrella - which she totally loved! She said she could just sit and wind yarn all day. I'm so proud!

I started her on her first scarf - but is she is already itching to move on to felted bags and Mason Dixon wash clothes - Yeah! Another muggle crossed over our side :)

Happy Knitting!

Welcome to my garden!

I took a stroll around the garden this weekend took some cool pictures. I felt very Georgia O'Keiffe-esk on a few closeups!

Everything is blooming right now I love it! I could spend hours just looking at my plants and watering them and caressing them.... Wait - did I go too far!

Anyway - here are some of my favorites...

Hydrangeas:


A hungry honey bee


My creeping sedum jungle...


Sedum buds ready to pop


Day Lilly


Colorful Coleus



A lone chick without a hen!


A moth on my butterfly bush (go figure!)


A lone Astilbe swaying in the breeze


A black-eyed susan almost ready to open her eyes



A colorful caladium



A glowing Glamini (mini Gladiolas)



And lastly - my lastest container gardening attempt - canna with coleus and petunias.



Happy gardening!

Knitting update tomorrow - I'll have pics of my latest project - I started a wool log cabin quilt!

Finished Projects - yeah!

Knitting update! I got a lot of my unfinished projects done - yippee!!

here are my first PAIR of socks - weeee!!!!!




And my new cool iPod case....




My co-workers keep telling me I could sell these for like $10 each. $10 each! I cried - for my precious yarn and time - no way! I will only give them away to dear friends and family. I am very happy with how it came out and it gave me another change to practise my Kitchener stitch!



I also finally got the button sewn on the bib I knit for my friend - she had the baby the same day I finished - so maybe there is something to be said about that superstition that babies won't be born until their knitted items are finished!!




So - since I was so proud of myself for finishing all these things - I decided to cast on a new purse. It's a gorgeous torquoise color and has lime green and yellow novelty yarn on the edge. I will hopefully get this sucker felted tonight and maybe get the handles on in time to show you!!

Here it is - pre sewing up and pre-felting:




I think I am also going to cast on my second pair of socks this evening at my knitting group... or maybe I'll start a log cabin blanket.... or maybe.... I don't know - I'll just have to update you later when I decide what to do next!

Happy Knitting!

PS - I hope the rain stops soon - or I'll be washed away (along with all my new grass seeds!!)

Is it time to build an ark?

It's been raining for three days straight now. We have had over 10 inches in two days and have officially broken the record for the most rain to date!


To quote the weather guy:
“The persistent rainfall has washed away more weather records across the region. Washington's Reagan National Airport yesterday set a new mark for a June 26. The capital's landing strip reported an impressive 4.22 inches for the date. That demolished the old record of 2.62 inches set on the same date in 1942. There are also warnings of more showers and thunderstorms - some of them heavy or severe with rainfall rates of 3 to 4 inches an hour - this afternoon and this evening as more moisture from the tropical Atlantic pours into the region.“


Well the one good thing about the rain is that my grass is finally starting to grow - yeah! It's only been like a month since I planted it. I have been watering it every day - but I guess it needed a deluge.

We haven't had rain in about a month - so to make up for it - God decided to give us all the rain we need - all at once. I'm not complaining or anything - I like rain. But when my dogs refuse to go outside because they may get their feet wet - it can get interesting. I tried to get them outside for about half an hour on Sunday night. We had been gone all day at a friend of mine's house for a barbeque and when we got home - 7 hours later - I knew the dogs needed to go out. So - I open the door and they stop dead in their tracks. They take one look at the rain and turn around and come back in. Great! Now they'll pee on the floor! Not to be outsmarted by mere dogs I decided to take the upper hand and drag them out with their leashes. Well - Hurley can be strong when wants to and he pulled so hard he yanked the collar right off his head and ran back inside.

I decided to go out to the garage next – thinking I’d outsmart them – and see if I could get them to go that way. I got my umbrella and stood outside the garage door beckoning to them to come out – couldn’t they see that I was dry?!

Next came the treat angle – I tried to lure them out with treats. Well that definitely got their attention – but there are some things even treats can’t fix. They still wouldn’t budge – but they were now sticking their noses outside the garage door trying to reach the treats I was dangling right in front of them. Hurley got brave for a second (or his stomach just took over – and he dashed out for the treat yanked it from my hand and ran back into the garage. Bailey realized what had happened and he too ran for the treat – but this time I was smarter and ran farther away with the treat still taunting him. He decided he didn’t care all that much for the treat after all and went back in. By now – both dogs were already wet – I was wet and the rain showed no signs of lessening.

Begging didn’t help – yelling didn’t help – pleading didn’t help – they were just not having any of it. Eventually – Hurley peed in the garage. So – I let him back in the house. Now it was just Bailey and me. My little man and his will to not pee in the house was too great for him to just pee in the garage. But he also really had to pee. I could see it on his face. So I did the only thing I could do. I picked him up – carried him down the driveway and to the street – down the road a ways and then dumped him into the muck. When it happened – I don’t think he quite knew what had happened. At first he just kind of looked at me like – I can’t believe you did that! Then he resigned himself to his fate – peed right were he was and ran back to the garage.

Don’t you just love the rain?!