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?