Well, Blow Me Down

 

You don't see that very often when you check the weather. Erin seemed too close for comfort. The wind had me up at 4 am because....trees.

I was sitting in the sewing room with the window open listening for any limbs coming down when this big truck pulled up. Remember that house across the street that had a tree go through it in February? Six whole months ago? They are just NOW starting to repair it. That's just crazy.

I was in the sewing room because I was trying to wind up some manly sock yarn. It didn't go well. In order to get matching balls of an old Static colorway, I had to wind it all over the dining room to find where the color pattern repeats. After all that I never did get them cast on but at least now I know where to start.

We had some errands to run and a pup to walk so off to the beach we went to see how it was making out in this wind. It was wild. It was a "hold on to your hat" kind of day. Those strong winds from the north were actually chilly. My kind of weather.

The only thing on the beach were the seagulls. They had more sense than to try and fly in this weather. The town beach crew were looking pretty bored. Between all the rain and now the hurricane's glancing blow, they didn't have much to do. 

Auxiliary Report

 

Thanks to three days of rain, I was able to get to some things that usually get neglected. The latest towel is almost done. It's been a nightmare. My repair job somehow pulled it all cockeyed so every shuttle pass requires me to adjust the reed to get it to look straight. One more block of white and I'm throwing in the towel....ahem.

Poor Spiral Chicken has been abandoned for the time being. I just couldn't find the right gray. I've picked up Hearts and Flowers until I do.

I've been punching the mug rug. This is the back. You work from the back.

Here's a peek at the front. It's hard to photograph because of the frame. 

The vegetables are being punched also. Again, this is the back. The part I see.

And the front. In all honesty, this punching thing is just silly. Nothing useful is going to come from any of it but it scratches an itch in my brain.

I've also been adding pieces to my little Colorwash quilt. I feel like I've been making these for ages but I don't seem to be getting very far. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

Two more pairs went into the gift box this week. I've got some man socks on the left. Man socks are in short supply in the box. I need to get on that. 

When I went stash diving, I intended for the Regia on the right to be more man socks but forgot about it when I cast them on.

Now I have two more pair of lady socks on the needles. I have pulled out several skeins of yarn in man sock colorways. I just need to get winding. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I'm slowly marching across the bottom and right side of the border adding those little flowers. I do a couple a day. Any more and my head would explode. 

I've replaced all the orange background dots that I had to pull out and I'm glad I went to all the trouble because this looks much better. 

Dear Jane block E3 is slowly coming together. This one is such a big relief after those first two blocks. 

And....now that all the paper piecing is done I have started appliqueing the pieces down on the outside border. I'm still not sure what the corners will look like. I'll have to figure that out when I get there. 

Road Trip

 

My usually productive Sunday got sidetracked by an unexpected field trip to Virginia. I did get some new socks on the needles on the way up and back so it wasn't a total loss.

We went to Grand Puppy's house. Isn't he darling? He's grown since the last time we saw him. 

We had to go pick up some cigars The Mister ordered and had sent to his house. They can't ship cigars to our state anymore so The Mister has them sent there which is a good excuse to see this little guy and the Big Grands, of course. One had a recent birthday and one just graduated out of elementary school. Big happenings with the not-so-littles these days. 

I also got out of dinner duty when The Mister decided he wanted a Ledo's pizza for dinner. You've probably never seen a pizza like this one outside of Maryland. I call it ketchup on a cracker. It's good but it's not pizza. It has a sweet sauce on a ridiculously thin crust. You could eat the whole thing. You'd feel sick but you wouldn't be full. 

Hot and Bothered

 

How humid is it? This humid. July is statistically the hottest month but August is always the most miserable. 

We had an 8 am appointment to drop off the car down by the beach for some maintenance so we were out early and stopped for coffee on the boardwalk.

We haven't been out to the coffee shop at the beach in ages. It's just too hot and sunny on their porch for Pup and I to sit and wait for The Mister to come out with the goodies. 

Pup knows her way to this place by heart. I'm sure she can smell those muffins baking from a mile away. 

I miss digging through the little lending library. I always found something good to read.

This time I found these three. Since I'm stuck inside waiting out this terrible weather, I'll make short work of them and get them back in no time. I swear I need an advent calendar for Halloween. That's when the weather finally breaks around here. 

Bingo

 

My new thread is here and it looks like it's just what I needed. I found these hard to find colors at 123 Stitch of all places. They have a great selection of hand quilting thread. Who knew? 

Friday Fluff

 

How it started: It was two ounces of Polwarth and silk that was dyed by some ladies who bring fiber to sell at our monthly beach block party.

How it went: Transferring all those skinny singles onto a Ladybug bobbin was a hair raising experience. There was breakage.

How it ended: Chain playing those delicate singles was equally hair raising and there was even more breakage. Chain plying was not the best idea but I wanted to keep those colors as intact as possible. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with this pretty little two ounce skein. I have no idea. 

Up next for the drop spindles is this BFL that's been in my stash for years and years. It's very pretty and since it's a subtle gradient I won't be tempted to try and chain ply it in order to keep the colors together.

And....now that the Ladybug is free again, I dug out this beauty. It's a cormo/silk blend in the It's Complicated colorway from Hipstrings. It's purple with pops of orange. Speaking of orange, as you can see by my Crocs, I'm ready for Taylor Swift's recently announced orange era. Now I've got to go make Taylor Barbie an orange dress so the search is on for some sparkly orange material that gives definite showgirl vibes. 
 

Color Blind

 

Can you see the difference between these two colors? Apparently I couldn't. All those big dots behind the Funky Flower were supposed to be in the yellow NOT the orange. 

Here they are again on the pattern's photo. Don't those dots look orange? I realized I had it wrong when I noticed that I wasn't going to have enough of the orange to finish all the dots. Argh....

In my panic, I thought about just buying another kit but there is only one available on eBay and they want a fortune for it. Not happening. I tried to match colors with yarn I could buy online but that's risky. So....there was nothing to do but pick out all the orange stitch by stitch. It took all night and there was no way to save it. It's a big pile of orange fluff now. 

Now I have to stitch those dots all over again. The orange was only being used on two small flowers so I did order some DMC wool in different colors now that the orange is mostly gone. In my defense the chart for the pattern is pretty terrible. It's very easy to mix up symbols but I'm still kicking myself. This was very stupid mistake and the SECOND time I've got the colors wrong.  

Wednesday WIPs

 

Since our Grand sitting adventure is over, we're back to doing a lot of this. We have a lot of finishing touches to do in the bathroom not to mention the kitchen and staircase that we re-did several years ago. We're not very good at getting trim and transitions done in a timely manner.

That means that I've been following The Mister around doing a lot of this. I've got three pairs of socks all needing toes at the same time. I should hopefully have them all done by next week. 

Thanks to the unexpected addition of three new Barbies in the past weeks, I had to make room on the shelf where some of them live. Chestnut was taking up room in a box there so it has now come out of storage. I haven't started working on it just yet. I'm still trying to figure out where I am in the pattern. My notes don't make sense to me. It's a very complicated pattern and I had to modify it to work with my brain. 

That means that I've got to get back to weaving in all those ends on Bon Ami so it can be steeked since it's the trial run for Chestnut. I'm just about to finish this sleeve but I have one more to go. I hate the idea of doing it but whenever I pick it up, it turns out to be a pleasant way to pass the time. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I really thought I could whip through this border and have it done but it's been slow going. Those little flowers in between the scallops will be the death of me. 

Funky Flower's background is still being worked on. I've decided that I like needlepoint. Big needles, big yarn. You can make a lot of progress in a little time. 

Dear Jane's block E3 looks like this now. All the paper pieces are covered. I just need to assemble them. No applique on this one, thank goodness. 

And....Taylor Barbie finally got her wedding guest dress finished. This was my second attempt. The first one had wonky gathering on the skirt. What she really needs are better shoes. Those pink pumps aren't right but my collection of shoes is horrific. Whatever happened to those dainty little shoes from Barbies past that always fell victim to the vacuum? 

Midnight Madness

 

I spend too much time watching people do things online late at night when I should be sleeping. 

Exhibit A: I saw someone using their Gelli plate to make botanical prints so I ordered some acrylic paint so I could try it on my beat up old plate. 

There's a lot of ways to do it but this particular video used a "hinge" method of securing the paper for multiple passes. I found a small hosta leaf and a piece of a fern right outside my door. I wasn't all in on this yet so foraging wasn't going to happen.

My first attempt ended up in the trash but my second attempt showed some promise. This could be fun.