Wednesday WIPs

 

Truth be told, not much is getting done here this week. It's all floor, all day. By the time dinner rolls around I've got nothing left in the tank. I put a few inches on the fronts of the blobs and call it a day. 

I haven't been very far either so this is as much as I've gotten done on the travel socks this week. A few rows here and a few there is all I could manage. 

I did get the yarn for the Sheepish Little Sweater wound up early one morning but that's as far as that went.

Baby vulture has been hanging around a lot lately without Mom or Dad. It was showing off its wing span yesterday. There's a big flock of baby vultures down at the marina right now. I'm not sure why this one hasn't joined them yet. Shy, maybe?

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

The top border of the summer patchwork is finished. I just have one more border section to go now and I hope that will happen sometime in August. This week I'll be working on autumn which I discovered with dismay had NONE of its borders done yet. 

Peter Rabbit's bottom half is starting to appear. That pink thread helps me figure out where I am. I do one grid box at a time and if I didn't mark them off as I go I'd be lost. 

Dear Jane has one more block of row C completely finished. I did all that crazy applique on D3 and got its borders on too.  It's another one of Jane's rather peculiar ones. I only have five more left in row C that need borders so until they are done I'm not starting anymore in row D. 

After taking the Sunday off, we are back to working on the floor. We had the last of the crazy cuts around the doors to do which was NO fun. We have one more insane section that will go in front of the laundry area and then it should be smooth sailing across the big room. I hope. 

Walmart (?) to the Rescue

 

Since the binding is done on two of the quilts in my finishing pile I've had time to work on some other things that needed finishing around here. 

The Willy Nilly Sock Yarn Scarf has been languishing because of lack of time and yarn. 

I ran out of two colors I really needed and when I went to the Webs website they didn't have the white one in stock. I really, really needed the white one so I was not happy. A Google search told me that Walmart of all places did have some in stock. I didn't believe it but I ordered it anyway thinking I would get an email saying they didn't have it either. It was here in two days. I'm not sure how or why Walmart carries Valley Yarns but apparently they do. Thank you Walmart.

Now I guess I need to get back to work on this too. That next warp isn't going to wind itself.

Another Big Harvest

 

The Mister's friend with the big garden is back from vacation and they had lunch together last week. The Mister mentioned how much I appreciated all the veggies so he invited us over yesterday to pick some more. It looks like dinner for the next few days is going to be a repeat of last week. Lots of ratatouille and eggplant parmesan. 

He also said to help ourselves to whatever green tomatoes we wanted so I turned a couple into a dinner. 

And.....look what showed up with my birdie buddies yesterday morning. A baby. I really didn't think they had any hatch this year. This one is a bit older than we are used to seeing.  Its white mane is almost gone. Soon it will be gone too. The parents will fly it away and drop it off somewhere so it can find a mate and start a life of its own. I suppose it isn't too different from dropping the kids off at college. 

All Dressed Up

 

The Mister had a dentist appointment on Thursday so I took advantage of the quiet time to do this.

Even though I already have a suitcase full of Barbie clothes I have a new one that needed an outfit change and nothing suited her. 

I wanted a brunette Barbie and I found a reasonably priced one on eBay but she came looking like this and it was a bit too precious for me. 

I didn't realize her pink headband was a permanent part of her hair until I took it off. She's rather bald under there. I started this whole thing off by having to  make her a new one and it soon escalated into a new dress using the pattern book I have.  

It was NOT a good experience. Thank goodness I have this little tiny clover iron. I'm used to working with tiny pieces because of Dear Jane but this was something else. There is so much wrong with that pattern and the directions. I honestly think I can do better on my own and I'm going to try. I'm not giving up.

The hardest part was the fabric selection. In a room full of fabric I had next to nothing that was the proper scale for a tiny doll. I didn't have a thing that matched the new headband which was made from a charm square. Daughter had bought this brown floral fabric to make masks with and while not very exciting it worked for a trial run. 

And.....on the home front it was trim day which is a terrible bore. If I didn't have the Olympics Opening ceremony to watch on my phone while I waited around I would have lost my mind. I have to say the French really understood the assignment. It was one crazy ride. 

Friday Fluff

 

Usually I don't want to even think about fiber after the Tour but this year I've got plying to do. The Cormo/Silk blend is behaving nicely and the colors are starting to make more sense to me now. 

That wonky cotton is being as difficult as I thought it would be. You've got to keep an eye on it every minute. It's not for knitting. It's for weaving so all the lumps and bumps that usually drive me crazy aren't bothering me at all.

There's not too much to that cotton. It will be finished up soon and the wheel will be free again. When I was cleaning up my craft room and putting away all the quilting stuff that I don't need anymore, I realized I had uncovered my little fiber nook by the window and a project was born.

After dusting it all off I got out my bin of merino and used my carder to blend some colors. 

The last time I did that I made this puny little 3 ounce skein so I thought I'd make a companion skein in case I want to do something with it someday. I'm not sure what. It's wonkiness is off the charts.

This time around I weighed my little nests. They come in just under an ounce each so I suppose 5 more of them would do the trick. No problem there. They really are fun to make. 

The Home Stretch

 

That quilt I need to hand off to my sister next week is almost finished. I'm taking advantage of The Mister being gone for the afternoon to get it done. 

That'll be one less in the binding pile. I've got the baby quilt ready to go and poor Charming Stars is still waiting patiently for its turn to be finished.

We took a walk out yesterday morning before the rains came and watched the crab boats come in. I haven't heard if this has been a good year for them or not but it looked like they had a quite a few bushels ready to  be unloaded. I'm going to need another bushel in the near future for another family thing so I hope whatever luck they are having keeps on.

Wednesday WIPs

 

The Gray Blobs are progressing nicely. Light gray blob is getting an icord bind off being done to its front bands and dark gray blob is still having its double knit front band worked on. 

I actually cast on socks this week. Two pair of Pairfects in the same design but different colorways. I needed some travel knitting. I was just about to cast them on when The Mister got ants in the pants so I packed everything up and got it done in the car while I was waiting for him to come out of the hardware store. 

I've got yarn to wind up....

...so I can make this for the new addition due to arrive in the fall. It's the Sheepish Little Sweater by Melissa Kemmerer. I'm not in a big rush because I'm making a toddler size. Newborn sized things are not very practical so I'm resisting the urge to knit a tiny little thing as much fun as that would be. 

And....on the home front it was painting trim day. 

While The Mister was busy putting nails in things I also painted the inside of the heat pump closet. I am ashamed to say that in the 30 plus years I have lived in this house I NEVER thought to either paint it or clean it although I did give it a vacuuming once in a while. What a disgusting mess it was. 

TNT: I've got a Secret

 

For the past several weeks I've been keeping a secret. I know family members read my posts and I had a BIG secret to keep. I was doing the bare minimum on my other stitching projects so no one would get suspicious because I was really putting all my effort into this. It doesn't look like much because...

....it's been a real challenge. I'm no fan of fill stitching and this is all fill. I've got to use the grid to know what the heck I'm doing. One day it will be Peter Rabbit because that's how Daughter is decorating the nursery for the new addition WHO IS DUE IN NOVEMBER. Daughter kept it all a secret from everyone including me for a very long time and now I've got to play catch up with this birth sampler AND the new little guy's tummy time quilt AND of course a sweater. This will make SIX grandsons. My three kids will each have two boys now. What are the odds of that?  

All my other stitching projects are on the back burner except the seasons. I'm trying to find a few minutes here and there to get them done. I finished the top edging on Spring last week and will be switching back to Summer this week. 

Dear Jane has also been suffering from lack of attention. I did lattice up C5 and started to work on D3. D3 is a nightmare. I've got to applique those triangles down and there's even more crazy doo dads that go in the corner.  It's one of those blocks that make you think Jane was off her rocker which I am now convinced she surely was.

And.....we did get all the new tile grouted yesterday. I always like doing this. Today we should be putting the trim down in the hall section so we can move the furniture back so that we can get to laying the laminate in the big room. Every day we get closer to being finished. I can't wait. I've got baby things to make.

The End of the Road

 

The Tour isn't just a spinning event for me, it's a sporting event. For three weeks I've gotten up at dawn to listen to Phil Liggett and Bob Roll call the race. I love seeing the beautiful French countryside fly by.  I only spin while it's on and this year I didn't get much time in front of the TV, I'm afraid. This is the sum total of my work minus the red bobbin.

I've been collecting those singles since 2021 but this year I finished them. That last toilet paper bobbin is this year's total. 

I'm very proud of these singles. They are as close to frog's hair as I can get. That's spinning talk for lace weight. I've got to finish transferring them all onto my Ladybug's bobbins so I can ply them but first I have to ply the Cormo that's on my only other bobbin. 

All that was done on Saturday so yesterday while I watched that miserably boring time trial they decided to finish up with, I played with the support spindles. Next year my effort will go into finishing up what's on the big Russian spindle. I'll never finish all that fiber but I should have enough to ply if I put my mind to it and I don't keep getting interrupted. Mister, I'm looking at you. 

What! No Zucchini?

 

The Mister has a friend who has a big garden. Every year he goes away on vacation for a week and tells The Mister to help himself to whatever's ready to be picked. We got these beautiful eggplants, peppers and.....

....tomatoes but NO zucchini. I never heard of such a thing. Everyone always has way too much of it, right? I usually make a giant pot of ratatouille with all of this goodness.

Lucky for me, the Farmer's Market had one little basket of mixed squash left when I got there at 9 am yesterday morning.

On Saturday night I finally got my giant pot of ratatouille....and it was definitely worth waiting for.