Pumpkin Sunrise

  The baby blanket is coming along nicely, ideally I'd like the final measurements to be 36 inches by 36 inches.  However, I'm also gauging (guessing!) on my yarn amounts and definitely do not want to run out of any given color so I keep squeezing my blue and purple skeins that I'm alternating in the middle to decide when to start decreasing.  I do love a challenge. My banana leaf shawl is a delight to knit and pairs well with audio podcasts.  I cannot read and knit with this project.  If I wasn't working on the baby blanket at night during tv time, I'd be working on this project instead. I had high hopes of finishing this cowl over the weekend and that didn't happen due to living life.  Yesterday I added the next section and see the finish line! What are you working on this week?

The famous Miss Holly Hello!  How was your weekend?  Mine was boring.   If you know me well, you know that boring is the very best kind of weekend for me.  I stayed home, I slept in the best bed ever, and drank the best coffee ever made in the best coffeemaker ever.  I know, I know, you're saying 'but Karen, didn't you do anything exciting?' Nope.  Glorious, isn't it? I wasted most of yesterday looking on line for a chair that matches our kitchen set.  We have a chair stretcher that keeps breaking so I thought I'll buy another chair.  Well, when your set is 20+ years old the internet does not have an exact match. So I switched to looking for a chair stretcher part - and found it in Maine.  So now I'm waiting for my husband to do the official measurements to make sure we buy the right size (I've discerned the right style) and put the order in.  Phew! years and years of yarn tags sorted and still kept Today I delightfully ...

Right now:  I'm noticing the beauty of summer.  Butterflies flitting, cicadas singing, abundant birdsong and a lull in the heat.  I'm focusing on the colors of flowers, the warmth of the sun and pushing back that tiny feeling when I wish for the next season.  Right now:  I'm finishing up week seven of my summer break.  How can that be?  No matter whether I'm busy or bored, time flies by quickly.  Right now:  I'm grateful for seeing the butterflies AND having the camera in my hand.  I went outside believing I'll be photographing the same old same old.  How lucky that butterflies graced my garden and I was able to capture their beauty. Right now:  Our major garden overhaul has been successful.  Out of three butterfly bushes, one has died (heat wave with no water due to the beach vacation).  We will swap it out with another this week.  Right now:  I'm grateful for the endodontist my husba...

This week has been a knitterly week for me. I've been spending lots of time in the afternoons knitting away while reading a book.  This cowl has me captivated by the simplicity of the pattern and the ease to multitask while knitting.  After last week of having the 'blahs' regarding creativity, I'm thrilled to be inspired and enthusiastic in my knitting.  I've decided the super secret project isn't so much of a super secret.  I'm spending a ton of time on it so I might as well share with you what I'm working on.  Otherwise you will think I'm not knitting much at all!  (Also the truth is I hate keeping knitting secrets). I'm making a baby blanket for my niece who is due in November.  I dug deep into my yarn stash and started a dishcloth pattern (start at corner and increase).  My goal is to have the blanket measure 36 inches by 36 inches, however, this is dependent on how much yarn I have.  I've been having fun striping in new col...

How was your weekend? My weekend was fabulous, we went to see my dad and his wife and celebrated his birthday.  I had some fantastic food while enjoying the visit.  My sister and her husband were also there as well.  Whenever I'm at my dad's place or my sister's place, I take the big camera for some photos. After celebrating and eating too much lemon poppyseed cake and raspberry pie, I went with my sister to the bookstore and did some shopping.  I took a chance on two books outside my usual reading genre.  I was in the mood for something new and different.  I need to finish my current reads before starting these books but I'm excited to begin reading them. On Friday evening my aunt came over to my sister's house and we socialized some more. Saturday morning I watercolored and chatted with my sister.  We had a lazy morning creating and exploring some new techniques. By the way, thank you all for the comments you shared with me (us...

Imagine me with a look of despair, I'm wilting from the heatwave that hasn't really even started.  My hair has gone wild with the humidity.  Truly I strive to not wish a season away but what I dislike most about summer is the heat and humidity.  We've only started summer!  Oh look, me grumbling away.  While I talk about my creativity challenges I'll be sharing with you some new garden photos.  I find them very pretty to look at inside a cool AC house. My watercoloring has been challenging.  I've been frustrated with so many aspects and my knee gut response is to not paint.  How sad.  Every stroke, every wrong color choice is a learning opportunity.  I know that and yet every single thing I paint I want to look perfect.  Being a perfectionist is not much fun.  At the end of a painting session I sit and think about what have I learned.  Sometimes this helps me center or balance my thoughts, my internal dialogue a...

Good morning! My knitting projects have been slowly coming along.  I started another cowl with the same pattern continuing my deep stash busting of partial fingering weight skeins.  These cowls are a perfect summer project, it's like sock knitting only no heel shaping and you wear it around your neck. My son is visiting for the week.  By the way his lasik surgery went swimmingly well!!  The electricity was on and stayed on ha, ha.  We were there for the morning and everyone was commenting on the bizarre event.  He had an appointment 24 hours after the procedure and he has normal vision (already!).  Ah, the resilience of youth! Back to the knitting, because my son is here, the knitting is seldom.  I did manage to give this banana leaf shawl some rows, when he leaves I'll have more time to focus on this project.  Also I have a super secret knitting project that one day I will reveal.  I have a hard time keeping secrets so m...

Another weekend here then gone.  The days go quickly by, I'm half way through my summer break already!  Yikes and yes, I do miss work (after five weeks).  How are you?  How was your weekend? Yesterday started off fantastic.  Our son came home for the week (he is having lasik eye surgery tomorrow morning, remember when it was canceled in June due to a lightning strike??)  I had a slow day of doing a little bit of everything.  I started a new book, finished an old book.  I knit on a few current projects and I also painted.  I worked on color theory and mixing with my paints.  Overall, I had a great time.  You tube is a wealth of information and I keep saving more videos than I can possibly watch.  I also worked more on water control (this is a work in progress). Last night after watching the movie, Stranger than Fiction, I fell asleep reading a book in bed (my usual).  At midnight Frodo was digging at the bedroom...

I have been patiently waiting for these flowers to bloom.  They scream 'summer is here!' and are a beautiful shade of yellow to behold.  The other reason that I love them so is because they are hardy, pest resistant (so far) and drought resistant.  Maybe they are so great because they are a native plant? This week marks the fifth week of my summer break, so I'm half way through?  Gah!  My happiness lies in the speed of which this summer season is going.  Summer is my least favorite season and every year I try my best not to hate it.  The humidity gets me every single time.  I end up being in the house the whole day just like in the winter months.  My RA flares up in humidity and so I hibernate and go outside for limited amounts of time. I've been faithfully spending time on my knitting projects in the afternoons.  Sometimes I'm listening to podcasts and other times I'm reading a book while knitting.  The simple proje...

There are times I amused myself greatly.  Taking photos of this cowl was one of those amusing times.  In the photo above I'm being silly with poses and laughing while doing so.  Simple pleasures! I love this cowl pattern immensely for its versatility.  This time around, I used up odds and ends of half skeins of mainly super-wash fingering weight wools from my stash. The main reason I love this cowl is because when the winds are blowing or when rain is spitting at your head, you can pop the edge of this cowl up and over your cold head and still have a very warm neck.  I've done it many times while wearing the first cowl during the winter.  I enjoyed the challenge of using up scraps and getting creative when I was running out of mainly green and blue.  I'm an oddball in that I take great satisfaction of playing yarn chicken and winning through problem solving ideas. Ravelry notes