Ciao September

 I used to love September. Now it's just a dreary extension of August and I hate August. I might have had the windows open twice during the whole month. Since I was stuck indoors hiding from the bugs and the heat I did manage plenty of crafting time. Mr. Jacob joined the flock. I had packed it away until next spring but got it back out one day when I was bored.

 The September block of the Sheep Virtues got its required parts done.

 Up next is Kindness.

There was some spinning in September. That's Polwarth in the Wooden Duck colorway from Misty Mountain Farms.

 Last night I picked up this fall colored sock yarn at the Farmer's Market. I have no plans of casting it on at the moment. Maybe later in the month when fall finally shows up. It's sitting on the fall colored dishcloth I just finished. I will be casting on the fall Scrubby soon. Maybe.

 Spiral Chicken got a face and a flower this summer She's getting packed up today and tomorrow I will bring out my Halloween pumpkin rug to work on. I think it's almost done. I think.

 This is how far I've gotten done on the sweater. It's a wonderful knit. I just can't find the time.

 These are to blame. I am doing five in the morning and five in the afternoon. As soon as it starts getting dark I'm done. I can't see anything at night anymore.

I haven't forgotten you October participants in the surprise fall giveaway. I'm just putting the finishing touches on the cards. Sometime this month they will get sent out-but I'm not saying when.

I Kid You Not

 The baby shower curse is still upon me. I'll get to it in a moment. First let me share the mess I've been making.

 I've got two tables set up in the living area all covered in invitation making supplies. It's crazy.

 It took me all week to stamp, color and die cut enough critters for 50 cards. I'm seeing penguins and polar bears in my sleep.

I've got 20 made so far. The cute little insert is a note asking for books instead of cards. It's a popular thing I hear. I had to buy a new stamp set that had a book with it. Believe it or not it's a Valentine's Day stamp set. I'll show it to you when I'm not so busy. Every minute counts.

Now to the "you've got to be kidding me" part. The new blue material arrived for the baby quilt. See that brown beach material? That's suppose to be 3 yards of blue polka dots for the backing. I kid you not. Now I have to do a return and then wait for the new fabric to get here. That quilt does not want to be made. Maybe it's a sign.

The Difference a Day Makes

 Wednesday I thought I was going to die from the heat and humidity but today we had a breeze and temps in the 60's. The humidity is still off the charts but it's an improvement so we ventured out for a walk.

The beach was deserted. It could have been the middle of winter.

 Well, it was almost deserted. The birds were having a feast in the low tide.  I don't think I've ever seen a vulture hobnobbing with the seagulls but there you have it.

It was a good day for bird watching.

 The osprey nests were empty. They must have taken off on their long trip to South America where they spend the winter.

 They never had to put the nets up for the jellyfish this year. The Bay was not salty enough for them. That has the environmental scientists very worried as the food chain has been disrupted pretty drastically.

 It was a cloudy day but you could see all the way across. That's Tilghman Island which is right off the Eastern Shore.

 We even had the koi pond all to ourselves. I know the town needs the tourist money but I am so glad they've all finally gone home.

In a Bind

 I spend my morning's making baby shower invitations but my afternoons have been all about trying to clear out the quilting corner.

 I'm putting that red binding on Daddio's Thangle quilt. I normally love this part of the process but using a solid fabric is fiddly. You can't just eyeball it. It needs to be even-or as even as I can get it which is not actually very even.

 My latest Dear Jane got completed but it was not easy. Yesterday I ran a needle through my thumbnail which broke it off down in the ouchy place. The nail broke off in that area and the bare part hurts like heck. You never realize how important your fingernails are until you lose one. 

Thankfully it was a very easy block. It needs to spend the night now under a weighted book to flatten it out. Then it will join the others. One down and twelve more to go in Row C. The next one is a real doozy. Dear Jane was apparently a glutton for punishment-or had a wicked sense of humor.

New Stuff

 I ran out of blue mica making that awful soap for the baby shower. My new supplies of color have shown up with some new glitter and a fragrance sample. You know what that means. I'm going to get the bug for designing a new soap BUT I still have 50 bars to remake for the baby shower first. I am just waiting on fresh oils and butters for try number two. Sigh.

 Daddio's Thangle quilt is ready for binding so I tore the stash room up looking for something to make it with. I came up empty handed. I really wanted red and the only red he had in his stash was Christmas material. I just happened to be in Walmart when they were putting up a new display of pre-cuts. Look at that. Red. $2 a yard. You can't beat that.

On the same aisle I found some fallish colored Scrubby. The Mister and I are in love with our bright green ones but they are not doing it for me now. I really was hoping to find something more traditionally fall-like but you get what you get at Walmart. Having said that, it was in the 80's today and pretty miserable out. I wore a sundress and flip flops to Walmart and I was still hot. Fall still hasn't fallen here-yet.

Not So Single Minded

 This was supposed to be an easy peasy blog post. Show off the knitting and be done. But if you look closely you will see what caught my attention. One of those cables is not like the other. Argh......

 In the middle of taking the photos I had to unravel a big section and re-knit it-after I fixed myself a gin and tonic. I needed some courage. 236 sitches times four rows would be a lot of tinking if I couldn't pull this off.

All's well. The fix fixed it. Whew. Tinking back 236 stitches times four rows would have been awful.

Now back to the original post. Here is the project that I started when I said only a few days ago that I was only going to knit one thing for a while-that sweater. BUT when I went to change over the house to fall I noticed a shortage of fall colored dishcloths. Problem solved-as long as I can keep my wits about me. It seems to be getting harder and harder these days.

Three Strikes

 You know that baby shower where all the invitation pieces got lost in the mail? The one where the soap all turned out yucky? Well, the gremlins weren't through with me yet.

 I decided to get started on the piecing of the baby quilt I wanted to gift the Mom-to-Be since there was no project happening on the regular sewing machine. I spent the day happily cutting and chain piecing everything I needed for a little Square in a Square quilt.

 I was following along with a Missouri Star Quilt tutorial and everything was going along nicely until I went to lay it out to add the next round of material to the center squares.

 How did I NOT NOTICE that half of the material is PURPLE? I thought the whole collection was in blues. I took it outside. I asked The Mister. I looked at the packing slip for the $70 worth of material. I guess I didn't know that periwinkle and azure are purple. I know now. This is the same Mom-to-Be that wouldn't let me put skates on the penguins because they might look too girly so I know purple is not going to cut it. Arghhhhh.......

 I threw the whole blipping thing back in the box and ordered more blue material. $40 more to be exact. Arghhh....Since I was in a piecing mood I dug out these beautiful charm packs and was just going to settle down to make MYSELF a Square in a Square quilt when the phone rang.

It was Daughter. The second round of invitations pieces arrived safe and sound and the expectant mother decided on what she wanted on the card so instead of piecing my day away, I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday making cards. Daughter wants all FORTY of them mailed out by this weekend. Argh......

A Rookie Mistake

 I made soap yesterday but this is all I have to show for it. A big mess to clean up.

 I should have known better. You NEVER do a big batch for an important occasion using a new color AND a new fragrance. It was a total disaster.

First, the minute the batter hit the colorant, the new blues turned a yucky gray. Ugh. I used up every other blue I had to try and fix it and now I have none left to redo the mess.

Then the new fragrance made all the batters lumpy. It was like pouring grayish blue cottage cheese in the molds. It's pretty hideous. If I had looked at the reviews I would have seen that this was an issue. It also stinks. It smells like baby wipes. A sniff out of the bottle wasn't too bad but now I have a whole house smelling like a diaper change. Yuck.

These THREE loaves, all 27 bars, are useless. What a waste. They were supposed to be for that December baby shower. You know, the one where all the invitation pieces got lost in the mail? Yeah, that one. This whole project is NOT off to a great start.

Happy Fall Y'all!

My calendar is telling me it's fall but my Jurassic yard is not.

 It's still tropical outside but inside I've got pumpkin spice in my coffee.

In my Vermont Maple flavored coffee to be exact. I haven't gotten around to changing out the seasonal decor but when I do my new fall themed dishtowels will get a prominent place in the kitchen. Critters wearing scarves and sweaters. I love them.

I've also been using the Pumpkin Oud soap I made a few weeks ago. It's the one I made with pumpkin and red palm oil. I usually just test a small sliver but that sliver was so nice I went and got a whole bar of my very own. Unheard of. It's that nice.

One Down

 This is what one pattern repeat of the cable/lace chart of my sweater. See that ball of yarn behind it? It looks pretty small. I wonder if I am going to have enough to finish this thing. I only have three balls left and this yarn is at least 10 years old and discontinued. I am thinking a different colored yoke is not out of the question.

The last row I did was the cable row. Years ago I taught myself to cable without a needle but it wasn't coming back to me or feeling particularly comfortable so I dug out my cable needles.

 I thought I liked the Knit Picks needles but I don't. Those grooves irritate me. I had to go dig out this old gem. It's a Brittany Birch and it's much nicer to use.

My sister, the school nurse, gave me some old Epi pen containers which are perfect for holding that little needle. You know I'd lose it if I didn't have a safe place to keep it.