Wednesday, August 25, 2004

I finished the entrelac infants hat from Lorraine Major, that I was working on, to go with the evolved baby sweater. Right now I'm trying to decide what to do about the blanket, that I plan to make to go with them. I was going to use some bias knit squares I have...but they just don't seem to go with the sweater and hat. So I'm thinking about ripping them out and redoing the blanket in either entrelac or just stripes. I would love suggestions on that. Pics of the hat and sweater are in the gallery under Charity Knitting.

Now to decide what my next project will be, another baby set or should I work on the Christmas stocking for the swap on SpeakEasySocks... I also have to work on Bob's socks and finish fixing Jenny's...lots of knitting and then there is the spinning to do. I have to get my MIL's hat done before the end of September when she is coming to visit, so that I can give it to her. I spun the yarn for it two years ago and haven't gotten it knitted yet :(

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

I got $20 from my MIL for my birthday! I knew what I wanted to get with it, but had to get Bob to let me use his credit card to order it. I wanted a spindle from The Bellwether, by Cascade Spindles called Little Si. He gave me permission to order it last Wednesday and it got here on Saturday evening. The whorl is made out of maple with a birch shaft and it weighs 29 grams/1.02 ounces! She sent me some roving from Crosspatch Creations called Lucy in Starlight to try. I love both the spindle and the fiber. I would love to get more of the fiber to use.

I finished the evolved baby sweater that I was doing, then started an entrelac hat to go with it. I'm having a few problems on the hat, but I will work it out. I got Jenny's socks done, then realized that the leg was going to be to tight for her to wear them. So I had to rip the legs out and redo them. I have one redone and will get to the other one tomorrow. I started swatching for socks for Bob and had to go down to a US 00, so will wait a bit and see if I can relax enough to be able to use a US 0, for them as that is the smallest I have in circs, since I like doing his 2s2c as they are so large.

Starting on Wednesday, last week, for 4 days straight we worked on the walks around the house. We got the framing, fill and roadbase done. The topsoil is in the flower beds and half the walks are completely done with rock. We have the front and back patio areas and the walk going around the north end of the house to put rock in. Jenny and I got half the front patio done this morning, but it is a large area and we are still tired from all the hard work. Planted the Trumpet vine on the north end of the front wall, purple fountian grass in the bed south of the front patio and the other vine I had on the south wall of the house. I put pictures of what we have gotten done in my gallery.

Bob let me bid on some daylilies on ebay over the weekend and I won 5 of the 6 I wanted. We are going to make the daylily bed out away from the southeast corner of the house, so that I can enjoy it from where my swing is or any of the windows in my bedroom. I will post pics of them when I get the bed made and the plants in. They won't bloom until next spring, but this will allow them to get settled in before winter.

Friday, August 06, 2004

I was working on the Dumb Baby Sweater and discovered I had made several major mistakes. :( I was getting frustrated with it already and that just made me decide to rip it all out and do something else with the yarn. I decided to do another Evolved Sweater with it, with the pink as the main color and stripes of cream and green in the body and then half the front in cream, the other half in green and the back in pink. I'll see how this works and post pics as soon as I get it done.

We are slowly getting the walks and patios laid out and filled in. The ground is uneven, so we are having to use fill to even it out before we put down the road base. Once that is in and packed, it will be easier to keep the house cleaner as we won't be tracking in so much mud. I put my swing back in place this morning, now to just put the landscape timbers in place and fill in the low spots, so I can get the roadbase around it.

We have decided to put a trellis wall along the south side of the trailer with climbing plants on it just outside of the walk. That will give some shade to that side of the trailer and help to keep it cooler. We have Yellow Trumpet Vine and Bougainvilea to go on it and want to get Honeysuckle. They are all plants that will attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I will also put a hummingbird feeder at the back end of it so that it will not be able to be seen from where the other one is.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

We spent the weekend on starting to layout and level walks and patios around the house. We are using landscape timbers for the frame and then filling them with roadbase, a rock/sand mixture that packs down and forms a hard base, then we will put fancy rock on top. Between the walks and the trailer, we are planning on planting beds for flowers and cacti. I posted pics of what we have done to the gallery.

I also worked on the bird garden a bit, hauling more of the debris away and dug a hole to put the birdbath in. I'm doing an in ground birdbath as a lot of the birds here are ground birds. I'm using a large terra cotta saucer for a flower pot as the birdbath, sinking it into the ground and putting rocks in and around it, to make it look like a small seep. I will be putting some roadbase in the hole under it, as that will prevent it from sinking into the ground.

I recieved a package from a friend this weekend with yarn for socks for my SO. He has picked out the one he wants me to start with and wants them long enough to wear under his workboots for this winter. I need to get to work on them, as I have enough yarn for 5 pairs and he wears a men's size 12 shoe, with the leg needing to be 6" above the heel. That is a lot of knitting with fingering weight yarn, but he is well worth the work. :)