Last Gasp

 

On this last day of August, our hot summer is hanging on for dear life but it's been strangely nice out in the early morning hours. 

Since the sun rises over the bay, it's usually miserable down by the water in the morning. Not this week. There was a lovely breeze and overcast skies.

This particular beach welcomes furry friends. One doggo was going for a morning swim. Pup tried to join in but got hit by a wave in the face and that was it for her.  

We took a short walk on the boardwalk instead. That land you see in the distance is where we usually hang out when we want to be near the water. This beach is south of town and only open to town residents so there's rarely anyone else here.

The whole walk down to the water I was looking for signs of fall. What I saw were signs of the drought we've been suffering. I'm standing on a bridge that usually has water under it. Now there is nothing but sand. The wetlands are not very wet this year. 

This is usually a deep swamp area. Now it's just mud. You can hear the frogs chirping loudly when you walk past this area but not now. Not a peep. We need rain and we need a lot of it. It just keeps passing us by. 

Friday Fluff

 

I'm still spending a few minutes every day watching La Vuelta and doing some spinning. The red merino that I'm plying has filled my bobbin and it's getting uncomfortable to add more but I've still got a lot of singles left. I'll have to figure out something. 

I've spun one and half of the wonky merino nests. I'm trying to do a better job this time around but it's still got the thick and thin thing going on.

I made another nest since I'm getting ready to run out. This time I held different colors of fiber in one hand and carded them at the same time instead of adding one color at a time. It doesn't look much different than the others but it did work up more quickly.

The polwarth/silk blend is proving to be a pain. The silk is a bit clumpy. It's got a sheen and a halo I'm not fond of either but I'll keep going. Happily, it's only two ounces that I have to endure. 

 

Puzzled

 

The dining room table has been covered in quilting things all summer but they are all finished so I got out my puzzle board and dumped this one on it and......before I knew it The Mister had it finished. I got one piece together. 

Since he had taken over the kitty I went and got out another board and a puzzle I had bought during the lockdown and never got around to working on. It's a fall scene that will never be done by winter. It's a hard one. The border is driving me crazy. 

I'm hoping that this one will keep The Mister's hands off of the one I'm working on. He's anxious to get it started but I needed a head start. I'll put the kitty one away when I'm good and ready.

Wednesday WIPs

 

I've decided to go monogamous with the gray blobs. This one will be finished first. I just have one side of the button bands to bind off and the pockets to finish. Nothing new to learn here so it should be done in a couple of night's worth of Datelines. That's how I measure everything these days-by how many Datelines it will take to get done. 

The Pairfect twins are back on track after all the ripping. The heels are now the colors they should be. 

Speaking of sock yarn, the sock yarn scarf only has about one more crank and it will also be done-just in time for all this nasty hot weather that's returned. I suppose it's still August so I shouldn't be complaining but those cool days and cold mornings were sure nice.

 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

One more border box done on the spring patchwork project and one more to go. I'm going back to autumn this week because I have the attention span of a gnat these days.

It's been slow going on Peter Rabbit. I did conquer the shovel and the little bird that sits on it. 

I finished putting the lattices on the last two blocks of row C so I laid Dear Jane out to see how it's going. I'm not sure where I'll stop. There are 10 more rows to be done but that's NEVER going to happen. I guess I'll keep going until I run out of material. That sounds like a plan.

Spooky Town

 

When we put up the cabinets over the washer and dryer we had 12 more inches that we could squeeze another one in so we went and picked up one. 

Before we could get to the cabinets we had to walk through the Halloween display. It wasn't there when we went a couple of weeks ago. 

I couldn't believe how BIG these things are. Some of them are 12 feet tall. The Mister and I had way too much fun pushing their buttons and bringing them to life. 

I have no idea when the second season of Wednesday is happening but they had a whole Wednesday section with shelves of cool stuff. 

I couldn't convince The Mister that we needed any of it. I couldn't convince him to bring home any of these gorgeous little Crepe Myrtles either. My front yard looks awful ever since my neighbor razed the little forest she had growing back there. I am itching to fill our bit of it back in but The Mister says no-we have to finish the downstairs first. Sigh....

Charming Stars

 

I get up early every morning. Around 5 am. Why? Because I have a kitty alarm clock that goes off then and I can never get back to sleep. The mornings have been chilly so I had The Mister fill up some boxes with wood so I could have a fire on the deck if I felt like it. 

I love to fix a cup of tea and sit out in the quiet.

It was also a good opportunity to take Charming Star's mugshot. It's now a done deal and I have to say I loved working on it so much that I miss it. I'm tempted to start another. 

It's an easy peasy pie pattern that uses charm squares and you know how much I love charm squares. I've got a million of them.

This one was made from the leftovers from a big Disappearing Nine Patch I made for Son in 2013. I had a whole box of leftovers from it but now I don't. One box down. Many more to go. The fabric stash is finally going in the right direction.

A Fond Farewell

 

Dearly beloved, we come together to honor the memory of a valiant warrior in the mighty meal wars. This Rival electric skillet belonged to my mom and must be at least 30 years old. She made her amazing Calypso Chicken and Halloween donuts in it among other things. I made countless meals in it for Daddio after she passed. Then it came home with me. It was a wonderful little appliance but alas, its journey is over and I'm sad. 

Its replacement showed up yesterday. At least I hope so. I tried to replace it a few years ago, spent a fortune on it and then it only lasted a couple of meals before the non stick coating peeled off. In the trash it went. I'll put this new one together today and hope for the best. First up will be some salmon cakes for The Mister. 

It was only a month of so ago that I had to replace my equally old Oster food processor with this new one. I'm pretty sure I won't see 30 years of use out of this one. You can't beat the old appliances. They lasted forever. The new ones-not so much.

Friday Fluff

 

I put the Ashford Traditional back to work on those merino nests I carded. I'm trying to match that other wonky skein and it looks like that won't be a problem.

I've been watching the Vuelta de Espana in the mornings and trying to get these singles plied but it's slow going. I got a lot of yardage out of that 4 ounces of fiber.

And....my Golding spindles are empty now so I had to go stash diving for something to do with them. I came up with this incredibly soft Polwarth/Silk blend. The colors is meh and it's only 2 ounces but it'll keep me busy at least until next year's Tour. 

The Devil is in the Details

 

You would think I'd be done with the binding on Charming Square but I'm not. I just can't get a long enough stretch of time to work on it. The weather has been too nice for inside things this week so I'm literally going inch by inch on it. 

When I do get a few minutes to myself I want to do something quick and dirty like making a few more of these cute little scrap blocks. Talk about instant gratification.

Ditto for this paper piecing project I started ages ago. I could be working on Dear Jane but making a few pieces here and there on something new sounds like more fun right now. I'm not even sure what this is going to be but I just like playing with all the pretty fabric.

My lack of bandwidth is coming from the weather and the stage we are in with the downstairs. We've got a lot of fiddly work to do and neither The Mister or I are good at this part. Exhibit A is my kitchen that is still lacking some finishing touches. We've got a lot of thresholds to put down, doors to put up and other doo dads to deal with and we're doing everything but committing to actually getting these done. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

Wednesday WIPs

 

I've got a knitting theme going on this week and it's not good. Here's my twin Pairfects right before....

....I realized I had started the heel in the wrong place for the color change and had to rip them both out. No fun there. 

Don't even get me started on the blobs. Lots of ripping out with them this week too. For every inch I knit I seem to have to rip back two. No fun there either. 

But....my new ever blooming azalea has finally decided to show off and it's really pretty. I had no idea they even existed and now I want more. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Woo hoo! I have a finish. Patchwork Ete from Jardin Prive is a done deal. Now I have to finish Printemps, Automne and Hiver. All in good time. I'm heading back to spring this week. 

Peter Rabbit still doesn't have a head but he almost has a shovel. It was giving me fits this past weekend but I'll eventually figure it out. 

I'm behind on my Dear Jane schedule but I hope to have the last of Row C done this week. 

I could have gotten more done if I had remembered to put the half finished block under some weight overnight so I could have gotten the last two lattices sewn on. I do this to flatten out the paper pieces. Ironing just doesn't work but gravity does. 

Sweet Summer

 

I'm not the only one enjoying this milder summer weather. My new little rose actually put out a bloom that didn't immediately wither and die. 

For the first time in forever I've got things in flower all over the front yard. 

Here's another sign of fall, my wild purple asters are ready to pop. They don't usually show up until late September. 

My Black Eyed Susans are still hanging in there. They put on quite the show this year. I've got them in a pot and it may be time to put them in the ground so they can spread out. 

I put some impatiens in between the hostas and some survived. I'm going to be moving a lot of these hostas come late fall so next year I'll have more room for flowers.

This was an experimental year seeing that we have a lot more sun since my neighbor cut all her trees down last year. I have pots of different annuals along the sidewalk to see what can live in my yard. Everything looked terrible up until the weather changed for the better. Now they look promising. 

I even got a portulaca to live in a lava rock we used to have in our aquarium. We spent most of our summer working on the downstairs but next year it will be the front yard that gets the makeover. I've got plans.