Happy Birthday, SH!

Today is one of my oldest friend's birthday. Oldest meaning the length of years we have been friends-not chronological years. I am actually a wee bit older than her. But we grew up from cribhood on together.

Yesterday I went to her house to spend the afternoon with her family. Her oldest son and his family are visiting from Maryland, and her daughter and granddaughter came over to visit also. I think my friend is a little bit tired, having a house full of young people running around, eating, and just making a lot of noise. She actually took a week off from work so she could be available to them. And they have been busy.

I know that I had a headache by the time I got to the yarn shop for Knit Night. And our usual quiet get-together turned out to be the night of a combination birthday/going-away party for Sarah Jo. So the shop was full, the noise was very loud, and we didn't get a lot of visiting done.

The biggest problem we have in this group is when one person shows something, or is knitting something, we all want to do that something. Last night is a linen stitch scarf knitted with koigu. Okay, I know I have tons of yarn at home, but I bought the pattern and 3 skeins of yarn for the scarf. Just like everyone else. Unfortunately they only bought 6 patterns, so only six of us are doing this right now. Or whenever I can get going. It actually looks like it is woven, because the linen stitch looks like the product is woven.

I just took a little break from this. A strange service truck pulled into my drive. I am always nervous when someone strange drives in, because it is not a normal thing. It turned out that my gas meter was scheduled to be replaced, and he then came in to turn on the hot water heater pilot. You know, I think this is the first time ever, ever, ever that anyone else other than me has lit a pilot light for me. Well, sorta, I guess. The hot water heater was turned on when I moved into the house. He also checked the furnace to see if I had an automatic ignition, and I told him it did. He checked anyway.

I scanned my usual blog entries this morning. It appears that Summer is happening to everyone right now. I don't feel so bad. I think it is seasonal, and that I have work that has to get done. I am the only one to do the work, and I haven't trained my dog to run the lawn mower - yet! I think she is such an airhead that it would look really funny when she finished.

Our sock group meets this Sunday. Four or five people have already emailed or told me they cannot come. I think it is the Summer thing again. A lot of people have family things going on, and some people are traveling. I can't get all that excited about this sock, so I am not too upset.

I am doing the waist decreases on the handspun sweater. It is kinda fun since I have to keep in pattern. Not enough of a challenge that it is demanding. I just have to keep on my toes a little bit.

My friend CF is back home again. The friend that she was staying with passed away this week. It is such a blessing, but it is sad for his children. They were all with him all last weekend, and were with him when he passed.

I am just glad my friend can get her life back on track. She said she wanted to re-evaluate her pottery and see what direction she wants to go with that. This is the time of year she can make money, and she needs to get to work on that. The gallery that sells her stuff has been really understanding of why she has such small pieces and such a small inventory. But I am sure they have called her already and asked for some bigger stuff.

I guess I will go make some lunch. It is 12:30 and I am a tad bit hungry. I know this is awful, but Red Baron makes microwave pizza by the slice. They are not so bad. I know it is not the same as homemade or restaurant quality, but not so awful. The crust is thick and chewy, and the sauce is okay.

Well, have a good weekend. I am so very close to finished on the mitered blanket thing. I have to finish the ends, and wash it. Then it's done. Yeah! Pics soon. I have put the crocheting down for a little bit. My forearm is hurting, and I know it is the way I crochet that aggravates it. It is about 28" square. I like it.

Keep cool and keep knitting! Just sit under the ceiling fan like Noodles does. He is stretched out right now directly under the fan!

June-A Month of Heat, Humidity, and BUGS!

The sunflowers are now blooming! I love the red ones, but the yellow ones are so strong and YELLOW!

I just noticed the phlox blooming right over by the monarda. What a contrast between the purple and that red!

Butterflies are loving everything, and I caught this little guy on the cosmos.

You can hardly tell he's there. Look on the left side of center, and you see the bee! I have a bumper crop of bees this year. Bumblebees and honey bees. I enjoy looking at the garden. I have to admit this year the garden is a bit wild, but I wanted a naturalized garden.

What I don't like are the darn ole Japanese beetles. Because of the other good species of insects I cannot put out poison to get rid of them. So I am trying the traps that are supposed to do something that it is not doing well. Last night I spent 30 mins on one plant just picking them off and throwing them into the traps. Yuck! They are consuming at an alarming rate of speed. My poor althea is just about lost all it's blossoms.

And I could not fathom what happened to my hollyhocks. They have been a surprise, because I did not plant them. They have been well over 8 feet tall, and the prettiest pink flowers. I love hollyhocks. I mentioned that in a previous post. Then two days ago I found most all of them have been broken off and are bent over and dying. I was really hurt by this. I appreciate the gift that was given, and now this!

Last evening I looked out the window, and guess who was enjoying the hollyhock pods and blossoms? My friendly woodchuck family! The culprits got chased off, but that is a futile job. They are really clever and will figure out that I am not always standing around watching for them. Sigh!

Let's see. I only have 4 more squares to finish the mitered blanket! Hear me scream Hallelujah!

I did spend a little time watching Antiques Roadshow and was able to get ends woven in. It is hard to watch that show and do any pattern knitting or counting.

I FINALLY got the hem put in on the sweater! Yeah! I have started the rib and cable part, but kinda forgot that I need to start decreasing on the waist. Will start that now, but have to write down the numbers so I can do it the same on next section.

I am slowly working on the fair-isle sock. Nothing ecstatic about that. I did not enjoy knitting the first sock, but liked the result. That is the reason I am persistent with this second sock.

And the crocheted afghan is going along well. Nothing exciting there either.

Still spinning -actually plying- the same wool.

And I am in the mood to dye. Maybe this weekend.

Tomorrow is our local Knit in Public Day at the Fayetteville Square during Farmer's Market.

So that about sums it up. Yucky bugs, good bugs, beautiful flowers, heat, humidity, and grass that still needs to be mowed and weed-eated. Life could not be better! Unless I get the spinning wheel that I have put a bid on. That's it for this week. Good weekend to all. Stay cool, stay calm, and think happy fiber thoughts.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my parent's anniversary. If they were living, it would have been their 63rd! A little less than one year later, I was born. I have seen a video of old home movies that a friend of mine has. They looked like kids. They were young, they were so in love, and they had their whole lives ahead of them.

The monarda is blooming. It is such a vibrant red! It looks really pretty now with the yellow of the correopsis. The echinacia is blooming also. I have the purple and an orange one of those. The sunflowers are almost there. The lambsear is blooming. The althea in the back has a few blossoms coming on. So the change is happening from the early flowers to the summer flowers.

I guess everyone has heard about the Albert Pike flood in southwest Arkansas. This was a place that I spent a lot of my childhood, and then it was not a fancy campground. We did primitive camping, and we were away from the main campground area. We had our camp set up on the banks of the river. There were two mommies and six small children. I remember that my youngest brother was 18 months old when we first went there. There was never any danger of flood then-or that I knew of at that age. We walked quite a long ways to a spring to get water. Everyone had to carry containers of water. On the news it said Langley-the nearest little town-was six miles away. I remember it as being a long ways away, and that we made a major trip there once a week to get ice for the ice chest, and maybe to wash clothes. There was someone who had a you-pick-em field of corn on the road, and we always stopped to get corn on that trip. We never worried about how to communicate with anyone. There was no danger as we know it now. Our mothers probably called our daddies when we went to Langley, but I don't remember it. The only danger I remember was the fear of wild pigs getting into the camp. We had drills where we had to run to a tree and climb a tree as fast as we could. I can only remember once that it actually happened. I also remember how intrigued I was when Miss Eloise made toast in the fry pan by putting a dab of butter in the pan, and then the bread to brown it. I had never seen that before, and that was fascinating to a little bitty kid.

And also I spent a great part of my summers in Gulf Shores, Alabama. And now it is gone too. The oil has ruined the beach, and people are not going. When we went it was just a summer place for people out of Mobile. The cabins were very simple and rustic. We always rented a cabin that belonged to a friend. There were no condos anywhere then. We put crab traps out, and we fished a lot. We had friends in the shrimp and fish business, so we always got the freshest fish as the boats came in. I remember one time that a doctor met us on the beach. He was so intrigued that there were four generations of us there together in a tiny little cabin. My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and us kids. A family friend that was older than my grandmother lived in a small town in Alabama and we would often get her and bring her along.

Sunday was spent in the raging hot sun building a fence for Miss Patty. My goal is to teach her that she can go outside by herself without me holding her paw. Right now she will only go out with me and I have to walk along with her around the yard. She is getting more adventurous, and she has ventured out onto the deck by herself. I have seen her in the yard twice by herself.

By winter it would be nice to open the door and she could go without me.

I looked out just now and a beautiful yellow finch was in the front flower garden. I guess it is eating what seed there is. But I think they know that the sunflowers are coming along nicely. They just want to stake out their claims.

CJE and JE came over during the fence making activity. My friend GO had pounded the stakes in, which is the hard part I cannot do. I had nailed the fencing to the deck, and the four of us were able to stretch the fencing and wire it to the posts. I just want to say, getting old is not all it is cracked up to be. I was hot, I was tired, and I was wiped out by the time that fence was finished.

GO left as soon as the fence was completed. CJE and JE and I ate a chicken wrap, and lay on the floor to cool off. We then did a great deal of show and tell. JE gave CJE and me a small bag of merino roving and a dog toy for Miss Patty. We had such a good time together.

I am knitting the hem on the handspun sweater. I have done this three times now, and I guess this is going to be it. Why is the provisional cast-on and then picking up of cast-on have to be so fiddly? I seem to have a major time with it.

I have been knitting on the second fair-isle sock, and I did another stupid thing with that. I was knitting along on the row, and without thinking I snipped the tail of some yarn hanging inside. I didn't realize that I had not woven the ends in. So when I got to that section, it pulled out when I inserted the needle to knit that stitch. So last night I tinked back to that section and will start over again. Sigh!

I am crocheting along on the giant granny square. I am quite happy with that. Yesterday I could tell I was tired. I had added a new color, and did a coupla stitches and kept looking at it. It wasn't right, but what was wrong? It took a while to realize that I was going the wrong way. The good thing about crochet is that you just pull the string and the mess goes back to the right place, and you don't have to worry about a dropped stitch.

I apologize for the appearance of this entry. I went back and tried to tidy up and space a few things. It got all out of hand. So I guess it is all good. Just as long as I can get some news down it doesn't really matter what it looks like.

I guess I will go sew for a while. I also have some more sorting through junk to do. GO reminded me that I need to make a new will since I have the house now. Sigh! I just want to sit and knit. I guess I need to pay some bills too. Later.

June Is Busting Out All Over!

On June 1, NPR played this song, and I can't help but remember it. It is a beautiful, joyful, exuberant song. "June is busting out all over!"

Well, anyway, my flower garden is looking really full and lush, and it is definitely a naturalized garden. There is not a drop of formality or planned-ness in it. I drove up yesterday and I looked at the garden from the street as I turned in the drive. It looks really pretty. Much better than that expanse of weedy grass that was there. My surprise hollyhocks look very odd over by the side of the ravine in the weedy patch. They are very pretty and pink. I absolutely love, love hollyhocks, but for some reason I have never been able to grow them. I get them to get to a certain point and that's that. I know they are weedy little greedy plants, and that they are like a pest in some people's gardens. That's why I am ecstatic to see them at all. I hope they take over that little patch of weediness.

Yesterday a neighbor dog came over to check out the smells in the yard. Miss Patty actually barked at the window. I didn't see him at first, and couldn't figure out what she was doing. She never, ever barks, and this was a new behavior. But he eventually came into view. I was amazed that she even woke up enough to see him there. Normally she is in such a deep, deep sleep that she never hears anything. She sleeps through the doorbell!

As predicted, it has turned really HOT! We are baking for early June. It is so weird that we had that cool, rainy three weeks in May, which was so unusual for May, and now this baking, searing, hot early June. The stupid grass seems to be thriving, and I am still mowing like mad. But I have to do my chores in shifts since I get so hot.

The yarn bombing (or yarn graffiti thing) went off without me. The last I heard it was going to be done in the evening of First Thursday on the Fayetteville Square. But the industrious little wenches went out early Thursday morning and covered the lamp posts on three sides of the square and the posts up to the City Center. Arkansas Fiber Peeps has some links to pics on their Ravelry site. It looks really good.

Our LYS HandHeld is doing a trunk show of Cynthia Parker's knitwear. Amazing stuff!

Miss Patty still requires me to go out and lead her around the yard. Now the cats have to walk around with us. So the four of us walk around the yard, and Miss Patty stays far enough away to give the cats their room. She is definitely getting her real personality showing through. There are still scary moments to her if she interprets things as scary. But she is learning to play a little bit. And she is trying to be a little bit independent.

Last night I was determined to finish the one fair-isle sock. It is done, and amazingly I like the way it looks. It is a wee bit short, but I am not undoing it. I am still knitting the finishing pieces of the mitered blanket, and I am crocheting on the addiction afghan. It looks good too. I haven't been too excited to knit or crochet this whole week.

This morning I did find a quilt that I liked, and I drew out the picture of the block. I think this is the way I want to sew the next quilt. I haven't been sewing, either, which is weird for me. Summer is always my sewing time. I have a set of pillow cases all ready to sew, and they are draped over the ironing board. Maybe next week I will get high behind and do that.

I don't even want to talk about the Gulf mess. It is very distressing. A friend of mine sent me pics of the America from 1930-1939 during the Depression. Well, in 20-30- years ahead, someone will be sending folks pics of the Gulf Of Mexico debacle. It will never, ever be the same again in my lifetime. It will take at least two generations to regenerate the eco-systems that are being destroyed.

I am going to CJE's house today to play. She has been really, really, sick with a virus that almost put her in the hospital. So off to play, and have fun.

Have a good rest of the weekend. Enjoy the sun, but be careful. Wear sunscreen and hydrate.

Happy Memorial Day!

The cats are not allowed on the table. So technically, Baby is not on the table-Right?

This is the bad boy-Paco-that I helped shear the other day. As you can tell, he is not a happy camper at all!

The front garden is blooming rather well. This year is so different from last year. There are so many more bachelor buttons and daisies. There are poppies, but not as many as last year. Also they are seeding in other parts of the yard, which is great with me. I had to look up on last year's posts to see when the monarda blooms. I have tons of sunflowers coming up, and I can't wait until they bloom. The weeds are doing well, also, but I keep at it.

This was an iris that I transplanted from the jungle hillside on the west side of the property early this Spring. I was so surprised that it bloomed this year. They are really low to the ground.

The yellow water iris is still blooming. The green fronds are over 6 feet tall.

I spent the day yesterday working on organizing and cleaning the kitchen. I bought a used hutch at my junk store. My friend CF helped me move it into the house. It actually adds a great deal of storage. The old antique cabinet I was using did not have this much storage, so I put it into the utility room next to the washing machine. It was adequate for those needs, and I was able to take out the rubbermaid type shelf that was really too big for the space.

Today I finished cleaning up the kitchen, sweeping and washing the floor, washing blankets and hanging them on the clothesline, and shaking out rugs.

I stupidly estimated that I only had about 15 squares to go on the mitered afghan when I started my granny afghan. I have been trying to get 2-3 squares a night, and it didn't seem to be growing a lot. Last night I counted, and I estimate that I still have around 18 squares to go. This is another reason why I get so tired of it. It never seems to end. It just never shows much progress. The granny square is growing rapidly and I can really see how fast it is going.

I am getting itchy about not having a sock going. Oh-yes, I do have the fair-isle sock. I could be working on that. Yes, I could. But am I? No, I am crocheting like a fool.

I did get some more spinning done yesterday. I think CJE is coming over on Sunday, and we will work on a lot of stuff then. I just cannot see a lot of progress on anything right now.

I finished dyeing yarn from the Padauk sawdust. I stupidly left it out on the deck in the dyepot overnight. So there is a dark spot where the dye settled on the yarn. Well, I guess it could be called intentional. But I don't know if I like it. I have to let it dry completely to make a decision.

I hope you have a good holiday this weekend. For me it is just another day. I have no plans to do anything but keep on doing what I do all the time. I hope to finish some project soon. I would feel better if I could see some progress. Just when I get a little rest, it is time to start all over again. The yard still has to be mowed and weedeated, and the weeds keep on growing.

Patty is settling in, but Noodles has attacked her twice. She is terrified of the cats. She is getting a little bit braver about going out through the yard away from me. I think I need to trim around her mouth a little bit. I noticed that when they trimmed her face at the groomer, they just cut her whiskers off. She rubs her face on her pillow or on the rug. Do dogs need whiskers like cats do? She is definitely a scent hound, and her face plows through the dewy grass in the mornings and late evening. When she lifts her head, water just drips off her snout.

Have a safe and fun weekend. Enjoy the day off, and time with family and friends.

Meet Miss Patty

This is Patty after she had her first haircut at the beauty shop. She is watching the cows across the road. This was after 1 week at the house. Now she doesn't care about cows, but she ran after a squirrel on Sunday.
This is Patty helping me sew. She is laying on the suede that I put there to get it out of a box. Now I guess I have to put it back up so it doesn't get ruined.

This was the first day I got her. She is watching Animal Planet. Remember this was the first time ever she had seen a t.v. Now it is nothing to her, but it was so intriquing at first.

This was just after we came home. I hadn't even taken the harness off of her. And it was before she had her haircut. Because she doesn't have teeth, her tongue hangs out the side of her mouth. And usually she has the one ear up and one ear down.

But on to other things. I am having a terrible time with a HUGE FAT raccoon eating my bird seed and suet. It comes out during the late afternoon. At first I was waiting until the birds ate their last meal before going to bed, and I would put the stuff away. Then about 4 p.m. I noticed a huge thing sitting there eating away. And now it comes early to empty the pot out. It also unscrews the hummingbird feeder and drinks the syrup. I know this because one morning after I had put away the bird feeder stuff I saw the hummingbird feeder hanging minus the bottom. I thought it was broken and I would have to replace it. But when I searched around, I found the bottom and it was not broken at all! This meant it had to be unscrewed.

I finally got the front porch painted. I need to put a coat of stuff on the flooring to touch up where it has worn. It looks so much better-all clean and white. I bought that Behr paint that is primer and paint in one. It was so much easier to use. The only thing-it does not clean up with water. Not good. It is good that paint brushes are fairly cheap. I am a messy painter, and it was not a pretty site where I dripped. I am still debating about putting a blue on the ceiling of the porch. I used to live in a Victorian house and it was traditional to paint the ceiling of the porch with blue. I think a light grey blue would be pretty on mine, but I am thinking about it.

I found a lightweight battery operated weed eater at a garage sale for $30 on Saturday. Boy! It is my savior. I have the hardest time starting the heavy duty thing, and it is hard to hold it for long with all the vibration. And you have to mix the gas and oil and it is stinky and yucky. I can't do heavy duty weed eating, but I can certainly do the trim around the edges and in some places that I don't do often because of the heavy duty thing. Now I can do it every week. Yeah!

I love it. I am finding as I get older I am looking for simpler things like battery operated weed eaters.

Yesterday was my birthday. I decided that I was not going to work any at all. I need to mow, but I was not going to do that on my birthday. I did go to WalMart-yuck-and get some things I needed. I took myself out to a restaurant and had lunch. I spent time with the cats and Patty and sat in the yard some. I knit a little bit. My neighbor came over late in the afternoon to show me some quilt tops she had from her grandmother. She also brought me a piece of cake, and she didn't even know it was my birthday.

Sunday was our sock club meeting. So I got up early and made cinnamon rolls. There were just six or seven of us, and we ate well. Two folks were working on their Christmas stocking and two were working on their fair isle sock KAL. I was crocheting on the granny square addiction afghan, and another lady was knitting on a sock.

I have not been doing much in the fiber world in the past week. I am trying to finish the final squares on the mitered blanket. And I started the Giant Granny Square blanket using some of the sock yarns that I gathered for the mitered blanket. I have been doing a little bit of spinning. I have a dye that needs to happen, but I keep putting it off.

Today I am going down the road to Dr. B's house to help shear her llamas. She called me last night and said she had done two of them, but if I wanted to help she wouldn't turn me down. So in a coupla minutes I am heading out the door. They aren't used to being handled that much, and they are a handful. She did get spit on yesterday. She does have one that I think would make a great guard llama. He will get right up close and personal with that look in his eye. The others just stay away. I hope to get pics. She wants my opinion about the wool, too.

So I won't be posting too much in the next week. I am now using my laptop because the last storm did something to my p.c. I cannot get internet on it, and all my files are on that. My brother sent me an email with a sourch for a software and cable that will transfer my files from p.c. to laptop, and I am waiting for that to arrive. I am busy with the yard too, and it is the time of year I am not in the house sitting around knitting and/or spinning.

If anything interesting happens this week, I will post. Otherwise just know that I am out doing chores. Nothing interesting there.

New Family Member

I have adopted a new family member. Her name is Patty (actually Peppermint Patty), but Miss Patty by some folks. She is a miniature Schnauzer. She is 5 years old, and is a rescue from a puppy mill. I don't know a lot of her history, but I don't want to know it all. I do know that she has rather large mammaries, and some big nipples. She had such horrible dental issues that the vet ended up pulling her teeth. Her tongue hangs out the side because of this.

Miss Patty has been with our family for one week today. She is compared to a special needs child. She is learning to integrate into the family pretty quickly. Today I took her to the groomer to get pretty. She has a nice short summer cut now. I had them cut off her "beard" because it was really long, smelly due to drooling and tongue hanging out, and she was scratching it a lot. So they very carefully snipped off that mess with scissors.

I did a lot of house stuff before Miss Patty came to live with us. I have cleaned out my closet and drawers completely. I do not have a lot of clothes now. But that is okay with me. I find I don't need a lot of clothes. I rearranged my bedroom furniture, and I cleaned the carpeting. It was awful.

After that and after Miss Patty came to live with us, I found that I was tired and would just sit and watch mindless t.v. I also was depressed with all the rain. I did not knit a thing for several days. I did not finish the projects I gave myself goals to complete.

Last Wednesday I took Miss Patty with me to Oklahoma to Lake Tenkiller. I have a friend there that has a cabin that she visits a few times a year. So we spent the day with her and her two dogs and sitting by the lake all afternoon.

So Friday I got high behind to set some more goals in the fiber world around me. I decided I wanted to make the giant granny square afghan. Two other people in our Knit Nite have made them, and TR is making another one. I decided I have enough yarn from the Lifetime Blanket to start one. It has grown to small kitty size already. Baby can lay across it diagonally. It is truly addictive. It grows rapidly and easily. I can see progress already. Yeah!

I also decided that I will finish the latest section on the Lifetime Blanket and call it done. If I decide to add onto it in the future, I will at that time. So soon I will be finished with that. Yeah!

Sigh! I laid out my sewing yesterday. Then I got distracted and decided I would just crochet on the granny square instead.

Today I got a lot of my yard mowed while Patty was at the groomer. I just finished that chore. It has really grown with all the rain.

This rain has been super weird. It is not unusual to get a stormy start to May, but usually by this time it begins to taper off. The tornadoes have been around us, but nothing here so far. I did lose my Internet service for three days due to a lightening strike. I finally got that back on Saturday. It turns out that the lightening strike that I thought was on top of us was actually in my neighbor's tree in the front yard. Bark flew everywhere as the lightening went down the tree into the ground. Poor tree!

So Happy Monday! I hope this week will be productive for you. We actually have two days without rain scheduled this week! Yeah! Time to get the yard work completed and ready for the next time around.