Friday Fluff

 

How it started.

How it ended. This being Polwarth and silk means that it's neck worthy soft. I need a new cowl so a concept of plan is being formed. 

And....happy birthday to this little dude. That's Middle Son and he's 46 today. The realization of that made me gasp out loud. I had to use a calculator to verify it and I still don't believe it. 

Seven

 

It was our seventh and final week of Grand sitting duty. MIL made it home safe and sound from her tour of the islands that surround Australia and is now sleeping off her jet lag. She should be back in the kid sitting business next week and for that I am grateful. Our "something new" this week were soccer Barbie and Ken. We had a foosball like game going on with them and I have to say that Ken doll has a nice kick with those big feet of his.

The were holding a First Responders Night Out in the park across the street. I stayed home with baby while The Mister and SIL went with Big Grand. They had a great time which apparently included seeing a dead bear in the back of a truck. The wildlife folks brought a rather gruesome looking stuffed bear I suppose to make the point that black bears have been sighted in the more urban areas recently. At least that's what I hope was going on there. 

Baby Grands new trick is to throw things. He has a basket full of little wooden farm animals and I spent two days fetching them for him. For the most part he's an absolute joy but there were glimpses of a toddler temper starting to appear. They just don't stay small long enough, do they? 

Wednesday WIPs

 

The summer of socks is soon coming to an end and so are these two pairs. After this week's rides up and back for Grand sitting I should be close to the end of both of them.

My colorwork sock and the ski sweater won't be a done deal for a long while. I do two rows a night on each and I swear the house gnomes rip it all out as soon as the house is quiet. I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast, especially on that sweater. 

And....ta da. A finish! The entrelac dishcloth is a done deal. I now see what you mean about that ugly top edge, Cindy. Now that I've done it wrong, I should be able to figure out how to do it right on my next go round.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

All of the flowers are now finished, white background and all. I'm going to be spending time with that border for a while. It's a bit tedious. 

I've been working on those background dots on the needlepoint project and had a near catastrophe. You pull the knot through the front with needlepoint and when I went to snip it off, I cut the canvas(!). I've managed to hide it by stitching into the yarn itself to hold the stitch in place. I don't want to do that again. 

Dear Jane's block E2 is finally finished. Those crossed oval shapes in the center nearly did me in. They are still a bit wonky but I gave up. Close enough is good enough I told myself after my third try. That pile of paper pieced Xs is done. I needed forty four of the big ones and I have forty four. I still need a few more of the smaller ones and a lot more small squares. I'm going to try very hard to make September first a deadline for them. I'd like to start appliqueing down the border on that top this fall. 

Still Playing Chicken

 

The gray wool that I bought a while back made that left hand corner a solid dark spot so I ripped out some of it hoping to use some of that new wool that just arrived.

I didn't get too far before I realized I hated it. It had a weird white edge on it that made it look sloppy so it was back to the drawing board. I hate to think how much money I've spent buying gray wool. 

In desperation I tried throwing some light gray strips into some dye. They were too light so I was hoping they'd absorb a bit more color. 

After they dried they were still too light so silly me threw them in even more dye and then they were too dark. Sigh...

So I found even more wool to dye and tried it again.

How hard can it be to get different shades of gray? Really hard. I'm not giving up just yet but I'm getting close. Spiral Chicken might have to go in time out until I can get myself to an in-person vendor of wool bits. The next opportunity would be at the Shenandoah Fiber Fest in September. I need to put that on the calendar. 

The Beginning of the End

 

And so it begins. We don't get much fall color here but every year this little tree is the harbinger of the end of summer. The big trees don't get the message until late October anymore but we'll get spotty color here and there from the vines and bushes. It's not quite pumpkin spice time yet but this is a good sign that cooler weather is around the corner. 

In the meantime, we'll just have to enjoy this break from the dog days as best we can. 

First Friday

 

What a difference a day makes. On Thursday it was hot as blazes and last night I heard someone on the beach complain that it felt more like October than the first of August. 

On the first Friday of the month our twin beach towns hold a big street festival and the weather was perfect for it. There's always a DJ and dancing in the pavilion on the boardwalk. A radio station was holding an ice cream giveaway there tonight so that space was packed.

Food vendors are everywhere. 

There's everything you can think of from seafood to the obligatory taco truck. 

We'd already had dinner but The Mister wanted some fancy beer and a bag of kettle corn. Pup did too but she had to settle for some hush puppies we picked up at the seafood truck. We'll be back there this morning bright and early for the Farmer's Market. There's never a dull moment down at the beach. 

Ouf....I Did it Again

 

Only other weavers will be able to look at this photo and understand what fresh hell I've fallen into. Yes, I've tied some ends on. Yes, there are still some ends that are just laying in the reed and I've still got ends that need to be threaded. Why all this you might ask? Because while starting the plain weave at the beginning of this towel, I noticed that I had made a terrible threading error about a third of the way back. I had, gasp.....threaded two #2 heddles next to each other when I only needed one. It leaves a lump.

Since the lease sticks that keep everything in its place are gone, I have to climb around to the back to put small sections in order and then go back to the front so I can thread them. It takes forever. Since it always seems like I'm inventing new ways to screw up a weaving project, I deserve every minute of this extremely fiddly repair job. You'd think I'd learn to be more careful in the first place.

Six

 

This was our sixth week taking over for MIL who is the usual kid sitter. She happened to be on a cruise ship in a Hawaiian harbor on the night this happened. It was a tense few hours for SIL waiting to get the all's good from mom. She's flying home on Monday and taking a week to recuperate so next week our sitting adventure comes to an end. 

It's been a lot of work but memories have been made. This week there was banana bread baking.... 

...and card games played.

Big Grand got to eat lunch with Barbie. The Mister found her on a clearance aisle for $4 when he ran into the grocery store to get me another watermelon on our way up. I am happy to report this watermelon came home with me. 

Baby Grand was all about cars this week. 

He's also decided sleeping is not for him. A few minutes of shut eye with his Mr. Sloth toy is all he needs for hours and hours of play. All the grownups were exhausted after playing pass the baby around the clock. Daughter leaves for work at 4:30 am so it's a looong day.

When the bedtime battle was won and that hard earned, tiny window of down time appeared, SIL made us a smokey version of an old fashioned. That glass decanter is filled with smoke made from that little doohickey in the photo. Somehow it's infused into the whiskey and it was good.

And....shy kitty has been warming up to us a little more each week. I wouldn't go in for a scritchin' just yet but at least there are no more hisses. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

I made sure when I packed this week to go up to Daughter's that my projects were in good order to be worked on. My Friday Fluff handspun projects never go with me but I did pile them all up on Sunday to take a photo for my Tour de France 2025 Ravelry project page. I make one every year so I can go back and remember what I worked on from year to year. Like my spinning projects, I didn't manage to finish anything but everything got worked on daily. The Garter Squish lap blanket just needs to be cast off. EZ's Pi Shawl just needs a edging. I'm heading down the foot on the handspun sock and I'm having too much fun with the Granny Squares to think about quitting. Unlike my spinning projects, I hope to have all these finished in the next few months or so. I've got all those skeins left from this year's Tour to turn into something useful.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

The last of the flowers have been stitched. I still have to fill in all the white around them. That will be this week's job.

Dear Jane's foundation has been finished and the applique pieces made. When I get back from this week's Grand sitting adventure I'll tackle sewing them down in the weird way Jane has planned. We're on our way up there again this morning.

I'm closing in on finishing all the big paper pieces I need for the Patchwork quilt top but have a long way to go for the small crosses and the squares.

I had a bad moment with the needlepoint project when I took out the pattern to start the center background. I realized the white ring on the flower was supposed to be yellow. I'm not sure how that happened. I hope I have enough white left to finish the thing. I also had to take a permanent marker and outline those spots in the background. Either they have faded over time or they were never printed dark enough in the first place because I couldn't see them. I can still barely see them even with the marker so I guess I'm going to be free forming a lot of circles. 

On the Podium

 

I might not deserve any awards for finishing anything this year but I did manage to spin every day and considering the big Grand sitting adventure that was a miracle. 

I'm far from being done but the Women's Tour started Saturday so I'll be watching that in the morning while I ply these babies.

The Vuelta a Espana starts on August 23 so I'll have three more weeks of watching men's cycling and working on these again. Even with all that to look forward to, I'll be sad all day. Jumping out of bed at 6:30 and making an iced coffee to the sounds of Phil Liggett and Bob Roll setting up the day's stage becomes a habit after 3 weeks. One that's hard to break. 

Made in the Shade

 

The Tour has really messed with our dog walking routine. By the time it's over every morning it's HOT out. Pup got another haircut on Friday. She doesn't like the heat so her shorter do is making her happy.

When we do go out, we make a beeline for the shady spots near the water. There's usually a nice breeze which makes a huge difference. At the end of the Catholic Church's parking lot is a group of trees with lots of shade that has a nice water view. We spend a lot of time there under the trees watching the boats.

The sidewalk at the koi pond gets very hot but there are some shady spots here and there. The sound of the little waterfalls is very nice on a hot day if you can find one of the shady benches open.

The wetlands park has a shady wildflower garden and....

....a pavilion that overlooks the water. The only problem here is the smell when the tide is out. Think the dumpster behind a fish factory. 

The beach and the boardwalk are off limits in the hot sun. I really don't know how people lay out on that hot sand and the boardwalk is like walking on fire. The workers say it's 15 degrees hotter than the asphalt bike path that runs beside it which is too hot for dog feet.

We spend our time out running from shady spot to shady spot telling ourselves that better weather will be coming soon. Not next week. It'll be hotter than blazes here again next week. July is going out with a bang.