Now what?

Finished this yesterday at Joyce's camp. Wonderful spot, swimming, spinning, fiber discussions, good food and wonderful company. Next on the needles are felted mittens for me.

Trip to Dairy Queen

Here is Matthew with his first cone. He knew right away what to do with it and had no trouble finishing the whole thing.

Sunday morning blog catch-up

Here is the progress on the second Trellis sweater. Tried the sleeve in the round on double points, but didn't enjoy working on it that way. Had trouble with yarn and sts catching on the dp needles, and difficulty reading the chart. Kept making mistakes, as the chart reads back and forth, reversing the sts every other row instead of knitting in the round and doing the same thing. So, decided to take it out and do the sleeves flat and sew the seams. Was glad I tried that method, but sometimes you have to do what's enjoyable so the project will get done in a timely manner.


This is an update on the flower bed with the new perennials. See a few posts ago for some earlier photos of it. We have had an amazing summer here, lots of sun and rain, warm temperatures, even some warm nights!


These are the salvia, had no idea they would get so big so fast. They might have to be moved, they are crowded, in with the asiatic lilies.

This is a mystery plant, it was supposed to be a gallardia ( blanket flower) but it doesn't look like one. Any ideas? Don't think it's a weed. Will probably email the person I got it from, and will post her answer if I hear back from her.


The tomato plant is very tall, but just noticed the top doesn't look very well. Something snipped the blossoms off, I am guessing a deer.


The morning glories are sprawling all over here, will start training them around the tree trunk. There are sweet peas in there too, to the right of the photo. Also transplanted some of the cosmos seedlings.

This really needs some color, have some red impatiens and pale pink begonias to plant when I have a minute...A better shot of the cosmos, also.


A pink astilbe, it probably needs relocating, also. It is getting crowded by the hydrangea.

Plying & spinning

Had the time to do some plying recently, this is a denim blue plied with a gray. Already spun, was on a bobbin clearing mission.
These were also spun already, just needed plying. There is one more little piece of this combed top left.
Have been wanting to try spinning coils for a while, finally tried it. Had trouble with overtwisting, and the coils didn't end up looking like the photo in Spin-Off but overall was glad I tried. Learned a few things, like it is possible to do textured yarns with my wheel after all ( a Kromski Mazurka), you just need to stop and manually turn the bobbin and take the textured part out of the hooks. The overtwisting wasn't as much of a problem after the yarn was washed and hung, either.
Didn't do a whole bobbin of this yarn, it was some green combed top in the stash, from the fiber of the month club from Fiber Whims. (birthday gift from my in-laws a few years ago)

This is how the extra thick/thin yarn turned out just plyed normally with the leftover blue yarn. Maybe there is enough for a little hat.
Now there are 4 empty bobbins, time to start working on some handspun to enter in the fair. Oh the possibilities...

African violet

Had to take picture of this one, it's the miniature violet and so heavy with flowers that thay trail down to the windowsill.

Summer is here

This is the round flower bed that was redone this spring, adding more dirt to raise it up, it was always getting flooded in the spring. Have added a knockout rose bush, 2 salvias, echinachea, 2 butterfly weed plants, a gallardia and some annuals in the front. Also transplanted some asiatic lilies.
Pansies are so bright and cheerful.
This is a perennial geranium, Splish splash.
Here is the front bed, transplanted a campanula,two columbine and the yellow pansies have been coming up for the last two years. I like the pink/yellow combination of the pansies and some pink petunias and salvias.
Morning glory seedlings.

A close up of the asiatic lilies, and some cosmos seedlings. Hope these are the shell cosmos, only two plants came up from the other pack of cosmos seeds so far, and can't remember which was which.

Baby sweater #3

This is made from handspun, also. Hope somebody will come along that will use it, the yarn is a bit too prickly for a hat. I thought about knitting a liner in a soft acrylic yarn and making a hat, but this pattern is an easy one to work on in the car, or pick up and put down a lot. It's garage sale season, and this is what I took along last time...