Autumn update

I've been knitting. I hope that's not news to anyone who might read this. I have been working on several things lately. I've made some progress on a baby sweater that is for my great granddaughter who is due in January.


I've also done some work on my 10 stitch blanket since the end of Stash Dash and made a little progress. (The stitch marker on the left side is where I left off at the end of Stash Dash and the needles are where I am now.)


I got sucked in to the Beekeepers Quilt and have about a dozen little hexagons made and gathering in a bag. I finished another one today who didn't make it into the photo op.


I've been working on a project that I can't show pictures of and have been having a time with that one and gauge. I have restarted different parts of this project two or three times each. Some of it was just that the parts of the project are small enough to be swatches themselves so I haven't been swatching. That means I have been ripping back and starting over. I'm really good at that part.
I finished the Monkey Mitts for my granddaughter. Word is that she loves them. I certainly hope so.


We got 17 3/4" of rain during Lee. My back yard was a lake. It's not a lake at the moment. The hawk sat on the start of a burn pile and scoped out breakfast. There are several bunnies that live around our property. I didn't see one become breakfast, but the hawk was awe inspiring.

The pile below is from when our property was cleared. We are taking care of it a little at a time. I wanted to use a chipper on most of it, but that isn't feasible. In our area they cost about $450 to rent for a weekend and that pile is taller than I am and part of it is too thick to go into a chipper anyway so part is getting burnt and we are thinking of buying a chipper in the future.

We have been building new raised garden beds and planting in them. We have onions, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, and sugar snap peas in the beds now.

I'm getting ready to transplant the strawberries to a different bed so that I can put plastic under all the beds. When we moved out here we did a quick job of moving our beds from the other place and it is time to start organizing the garden and getting it ready for a big year next spring. Although we are getting peppers from the garden I think this year was a fail in that regard. Peppers and cantaloupes are all we've gotten.

My citrus trees survived being put into the ground and the two lemons that I had on one of the trees are starting to turn. Looking forward to more citrus next year.

Rain, rain, go away

We are geared up for the busiest time of the Hurricane season here. Historically, September is the height of the season and we have a depression sitting in the gulf that isn't moving at the moment. It seems that unless something changes that it will be a rainmaker more than anything. If that's the case I can't help wishing that it would go in to Texas where the whole state is in a serious drought. Here in my little corner of the world we could use the rain, but not 10 to 20 inches in 72 hours. It cannot soak in or drain that fast and will cause flash floods. That's not good for anyone.
I feel so badly for those in the northeast who have had to deal with Irene and the aftermath of that storm. I know how they feel.
I have been knitting and crocheting since my last post. I've made a pair of Monkey Mitts for one of my granddaughters and am crocheting some simple scarves for the granddaughters too.
I also got caught on the slippery slope that is the Beekeepers Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits. I looked at it and thought that it was pretty and interesting and that I should turn around and walk away immediately. Then I wondered if I could figure out how to make those tiny little hexagons and if I was as crazy as I thought I was since I had already played that game with the Sock Yarn Blankie by Shelley Kang. So I did. I walked away. No, really, I did. What got me was wondering if I could figure it out without the pattern. Now I think the pattern is lovely and if it was in my budget I would have bought it, tucked it away, and left it be for the foreseeable future. Now although I am not scrounging pennies for gas and milk (been there, done that), since my husband is currently on disability until he recovers from surgery, I do not have the cash for patterns. Especially patterns that I have no intention of making. But to use my mind to see if I can figure it out on my own is a worthy challenge. I now have two and a half of those lovely little hexagons in a bag in my craft room. They don't take a lot of yarn and they are a change from the Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown that I am also working on a little at a time.
Like I said, slippery slope.
On the home front I will be battling Morning Glory vines. They are along the side of our property and have found their way to my roses and my raised garden beds. There will be much pulling of vines so they don't take over. They are pretty, but I don't want the yard filled with them.
I also found some Cypress Vines that the butterflies love and something that I'm not sure what it is that the bees love.

The rain has started and it's coming down steady. I will update later with how much we have. It's now time for a cup of coffee.