Well Hello!!

This was a first...while doing a little computer work this afternoon I glanced out the window and saw this visitor:

I should add, I do not own a pot-bellied pig. I live in suburbia. But long story short, she resides 2 houses away and apparently decided to take a stroll this afternoon.  She was quite friendly, and after I treated her to a slice of tomato, she happily followed me back to her house.  I think she was smiling:

Northeast Florida benefited from 3 days of nearly uninterrupted rain this past week. Our weather people have announced we are now officially out of our drought.  We were happy to see gorgeous sunshine today.  Monarchs have been climbing out of their cocoons these past few weeks. I never tire of watching them and seeing them fan their damp wings to dry them.

This April, like last, brought a raging case of Knitting Startitis, much more fun than my raging bronchitis.  I managed to finish a baby shrug & baby blanket for my new great-niece, Rebekah Rose, who decided to arrive on my birthday.

Love baby girl clothes, especially little frog feet & hat!

Speaking of frogs, it sounds like a million of them are out in the woods...guess the rain really made them feel like singing!

Wishing you all a wonderful week.  Thanks for reading my blog!

Spring Is Here!

It's been such a busy 3 months this year and would be difficult to post all the things that have happened: lots of stitching events, way too many hours spent at work, knitting away when I can stay awake that is.  The project that is currently #1 on my needles is a baby blanket for the next baby in the family, due to arrive in April.  I found these colors in my LYS and they jumped off the shelf into my arms:

Pretty spring greens and pinks.  I'll post the finished product..soon I hope.

Well I am surprised I remember how to update this blog. I'm not a super techno guru so had to refresh my brain re: uploading from iPad, etc etc.  My hat's off to you bloggers who update frequently and with such style.

Wishing you warm happy spring days. My monarchs are back & that makes me happy.

Happy New Year! OMG I'm Posting!

Hoping I remember how to do this! Just a quick note to wish any dear readers who might happen by...a very Happy New Year! I managed to start the year with a finish, a little watch cap that will be sent to the Afghans for Afghans folks.  Made from Cascade 220 on sizes 6 & 7 needles. A little hard on the hands but a great cause. It should make its way to an Afghan child to help warm him/her during their bitter winter.

I managed to finish 7 scarves in December for gift-giving.  One of my favorites but I cannot recommend it (took almost a year to knit on size 3 needles with skinny scratchy yarn that did soften up when soaked):

And 4 of these ruffled boa style scarves from novelty yarn:

It was a warm sunny day here in North Florida today, with a high of 78 degrees! We'll be dropping to the 30s soon but it was sure nice to start the new year with a warm day. 

Wishing you many sunny days ahead & lots of time to work on your favorite projects!

Baby Blanket, Baby Steps

Poor neglected blog. It will be a real surprise to receive a comment after a summer of no postings. Much has transpired this summer, lots of growth, in the garden and in the soul. In fact there are probably lots of good garden metaphors that would fit here: weeds, too much rain, life-sucking aphids :)  But most of the flowers have hung in there and continue to bloom. Today in NE Florida it's gray but the butterflies are feasting. A person can stand among the 6' tall milkweeds and be surrounded by these beautiful creatures.

Quite a few new knitting & cross-stitch projects were started, but non finished save this baby blanket which seemed to knit itself:

Pattern from Drops (18-16). Yarn is Cascade 220 Washable in Caribbean (it's a pretty aqua, not the blue that is showing up on my monitor).  Made for a coworker's first baby.

Off to watch a little football and do some knitting. Curtis & Maizie are busy too:

 Thanks for stopping by!

Hatches Battened!!

Whatever batten means! We're sitting tight here in Jacksonville, Florida, watching our very own beaches on the Weather Channel.  Gosh, we sure need the rain in this part of the country, but we don't need it all at once!  Tropical Storm Beryl is already onshore but the strongest winds and rains are said to be coming during the middle of the night. I've spent the afternoon filling vessels full of water in case we lose electrical power.  This house is on a well, and with no electricity, no running water in the house! But the pantry is full, the cats are napping, lots of knitting projects are on hand. Too bad our big annual Jazz Festival and Memorial Day tributes had to be cancelled, but overall, it could be worse.  Hope you are enjoying your weekend in your part of the world.  I'll be posting again soon with Finished Objects, flowers, and more.  Then it's off to the knee doc on Wed for repair of a torn meniscus.  I'm hoping the recovery time will allow for some knitting. :)

Blogging...In My Mind

April was such a busy month with LOTS of good blog fodder. But did I post? Noooooo!!! But in my mind...oh, in my mind, I blogged every day!!  In April we had a bathroom remodel, Easter, a milestone birthday ending in "0", visitors, gardening, closet cleaning, major stash acquisition, flowers blooming, butterflies hatching, bluebirds nesting...I'm sure I'm missing a few things but it's all humdrum without snaps, so here are a few:

Yesterday I noticed the bluebirds carrying what appeared to be eggshell far away from the nest, and by this morning I could easily hear the little "peep peep peeps" from the nesting box that can only mean newborns!! Here's a snap of mama bluebird getting ready to deliver a tasty treat into the box:

I planted quiet a few new flowering plants that appeal to butterflies, hummingbirds (they're back!) and the fattest bumble bees you've ever seen! I swear they're the size of chickadees!

I caught a serious case of 'startitis' too..both knitting and cross-stitch, in a big way!!
Working on My Brother's Keeper by Plum Street

Started Lizzie Kate's Green FlipIts:

Started Wendy Knit's Double Ruffle Scarf in color-changing Kauni EffektGarn, on Size 3 needles; liked it so much I ordered 2 more skeins in different colorways:

Started & frogged (more than once) a gorgeous lace shawl by MimKnits named Aspen Grove Shawl.  Now that my new stitch markers are here I'll tackle it again.  Note to self...stop trying to knit lace while watching TV late at night!  Received this month's installment of Romi's 2012 Lace Club yarn, a fabulous skein of golden lace weight from A Verb for Keeping Warm

I'll leave you with a snap of Curtis Willis being his usual cute self.  He survived his 2 year checkup but was a little jumpy the rest of the day.  And a snap of me on the beach late Easter afternoon, which also happened to be my birthday!

6-0 BAY-BEE!!!

Springtime in Jacksonville

Some call it summer. We've had temps in the 80s for a few weeks now. The upside to that is many of my milkweed plants are in full bloom, and with the blooms come the monarch butterflies and their caterpillars and even chrysalises already! We had at least 2 hatchings last week!

Several new kids in the neighborhood, above.

I was making great progress on the Ann Dale reproduction sampler with a goal to finish it this year, when it was announced that there were a couple of errors in the chart.  While waiting for the corrections to arrive I finished a few knitting UFOS:

Another Tanta shawl, prior to blocking (low on the priority list just now).

A 2nd sock (Knitpicks yarn, discontinued) for Afghans for Afghans.

And a hat, soft as can be, from Cascades Pure Alpaca.  Interesting that all 3 projects were in the orange color family.  To celebrate St. Patrick's Day I cast on this lovely color of green (Wasabi!) in Shibui yarn; pattern Embossed Leaves. After knitting 4" of sock I realized it would be more suitable for the Jolly Green Giant, so I unknit the whole thing and started anew with size 1.5mm needles, down from 2.0mm, and all is well.

Then the itch to stitch hit me, and I started My Brother's Keeper from Plum Street Samplers.  It was only after 6 hours of stitching that I noticed my first block was positioned the wrong direction on the fabric.  Arrggg...it only took about an hour or so to snip out the stitches, including a letter and a half stitched over one. Thankfully I have a pair of scissors specially designed for snipping erroneous stitches!  This is the newly stitched block, positioned correctly.

The Crescent Colors and Samplers Threads are beautiful, as is the Vintage Exemplar fabric by Lakeside, but it's hard to capture the real colors.

It was an emotional sports news week here in Jacksonville, as many Tim Tebow fans (including me) waiting with high hopes to hear that he might be coming to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Alas, our hopes were dashed as the Jets signed him to play Up North.  That's closer than Denver but not close enough in our books!

Hope you all have a wonderful last week of March (and how did that happen?).  I'll leave you with a snap of my new favorite rose bush, showing off her blooms in the front garden.

Thanks for stopping by!