finished projects

Wow, since the last time I was here I have finished Krista.

It's all sewn up and fits well. I need to find something appropriate to wear under it. With the lace it's not appropriate for church until I find something to wear underneath. Preferably something comfortable. I guess that means I'm going shopping for under garments.
I also put the buttons on my granddaughter's cardigan and it went home with her. She threatened to wear it to bed the night she got it. I think that may mean she liked it.

I now have to make one for her big sister who's feeling left out even though she got the last sweater.
I finished my grandson's new socks and gave them to him. He had some apple green ones and now the blue and he's put in an order for a pair in every color of the rainbow.



The garden is doing pretty well. We had a cool snap and the high has only been in the upper 80's and low 90's with heat indexes at about 98 to 102. It's inching back up now. On the upside, we seem to be back in our summertime pattern with afternoon thunderstorms which will help us get back up to our normal rainfall amounts. We're still dry compared to our normal. Officially, we are not in a drought right now, but unless the rain keeps up, we will be. I have family in Texas and it's pretty severe over there now. 77 counties in a drought situation. Unfortunately, all we can do is pray for rain for them and hope and pray that it doesn't have to be severe weather to get them out of this situation.
Life here is much the same as always. There is always something going on. We're looking for a piece of property that 1) we can afford, 2) will allow our mobile home on it, 3) doesn't have covenants preventing us from putting up a workshop and possibly a studio on it. That's not as easy done as it is said. Property here is pretty pricey (compared to what it was even 4 years ago --before Katrina) and most has covenants on it. A lot of what we've seen says that you can't even build a garage for parking your cars or tractor. (Because you know that it looks worse to have a big building sitting there than it does to have your equipment sitting right in plain view.) Okay, I'll calm down now. Of course, if the price of things keeps going up, we won't be able to afford anything anyway.
I am counting my blessings at present though. We are relatively healthy, DH has a job, there is a roof over our heads and we have food on the table. Oh yeah, we aren't running around naked either. Those are blessings indeed.
May God bless each of you and all of us.

knitting, bees,gardens and cool(er) weather

We're having a cold front. It's 10:20 a.m. here and my thermometer is reading only 80 degrees. The air conditioner hasn't come on yet this morning and I'm so glad after just paying the last electric bill. Let me just say ouch! My garden is still going well. I've got tomatoes every day which the mockingbirds are also after. I still have more tomatoes than we can eat coming off the vines so far. Good thing my family loves fresh salsa. Unfortunately the cucumbers are well loved by the worms.

I've been working a little on the Everlasting Blanket. Not enough to justify a new picture yet. I'm not up to 300 squares which I will consider the next milestone.
Also on the needles is a raglan sweater for my youngest granddaughter. She approved the shade of pink that I bought at the IWAnnaKnit Retreat (yarn bought at Knitting Today [knittingtoday.com]) in June.

I also have Krista blocked. She just needs to be put together. I think it will be really nice when I get her sewn up. I'll get new pictures then. This yarn was also bought at Retreat. I'm so proud of myself. I never manage to use the yarn I buy at retreat the same year. Go Me!

I'm working on my plum colored shell and cardi on the LK150. The back of the shell is complete and the front is on the machine. I'm up to the second half of the neckline and armhole shaping. I'd be done if I could actually read and follow directions. Ok, most days I can do that just fine, but the day I was working on it my comprehension was in the dump.


I need to go out and cut the grass, but it will wait until tomorrow morning. After my incident where I got swarmed and stung by honeybees a month and a half ago, I'm a little jumpy. I know that I scared them as much as they scared me, but I still have that adrenaline rush every time one flies by me now. As I was mowing the grass that day (yes it has been done since) I went past a power pole and got swarmed by the bees flying up from it's base. They hadn't been there before so I wasn't expecting them. I still don't know why they had a nest in the ground right there. They've moved on now. Something told me to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt when I went out that morning to mow. I never wear long sleeves and usually only wear capri pants, but that day I listened to my gaurdian angel and wore the appropriate clothing. I got stung on my hands and wrists 5 times, but didn't get stung anywhere else. I panicked. I know in my head that you shouldn't run, but my head wasn't working after the second sting. I ran for the front porch. My brain kicked back into gear then and I knew I couldn't go in the house because the bees swarming me would go in with me. That wouldn't help. I kicked on the door so that my Mom, who lives with me, could spray them and get them away from me. Normally, I don't spray bees, but I had no clue whether I was allergic or not and I already had 5 stings. It didn't seem to be a time to be nice. I finally got inside and into the shower where I tried to calm myself down. When I got out of the shower, still shaking, I bent to pick up my clothes and take them to the laundry room and discovered another bee still hanging around. Let the panic attack ramp up again. My mom came and got rid of the bee. I couldn't even take my clothes off the line a week later when a bee buzzed me. It wasn't pretty. And from this end it's still not really funny. I can cut the grass again. I'm forcing myself to pick the vegetables in the garden and telling myself that I know they won't sting for no reason. I know I'll eventually get over it. Please God!
Back to the knitting and the garden now.

It's summer in the south

Well, the heat is on here. It's supposed to be about 95 today with a heat index of up to 105. No rain in sight. I'm watering the garden with a soaker hose almost daily and the tomato plants are taller than I am. Of course, I'm only 5'5" so it's not like it took a whole lot to get there. I have some huge Brandywine tomatoes on the vine and I can't wait for them to turn.
It's to the point that I'm giving serious consideration to fried green tomatoes. That wouldn't be a big thing except for the fact that we don't eat many fried foods anymore.
On a crafty note, I'm still working on my Everlasting Blanket. It hasn't moved along much lately because I've been trying to design a twinset for myself out of some lovely deep plum cotton. I actually think that I'm going to go plain on the top and might add a lace hem to the cardi. I'm also working on a child size afghan for my grandson. It's from the Afghans for All Seasons book that has been on my bookshelf for years. Copyright is 1993 and I'm pretty sure I bought it new when it first came out. It has red, green, yellow, blue and white in it right now but he keeps trying to add colors to it as we go along. Every round or two he has to stop me so he can "try it on" for size. It's going to be another week or so before it's done and that's only if he can let me work on it. It's going quickly since it's double crochet. I don't have pictures yet. I should get one while he's not here, but I think I'll wait for one of his "trying on" sessions.
I haven't done anything with the yarn I got from IWannaKnit yet. I need to let my youngest granddaughter check out the shade of pink that I bought for her. She informed me she only likes "Princess Pink" and I'm noat sure that I bought what she considers to be Princess Pink. You really have to love a 3 year old who has definite opinions on her clothes. My little fashionista. The gold I got for myself is waiting to be swatched for "Krista" by WhiteLiesDesigns to see if I can get gauge for it.
Could be that I have too many projects that are in my head and on my list to get anything done. Nah, I can start several things and work on them as the mood strikes. I dont' have to be monogamous to each project. That's good, because I need the variety and have more ideas than hands to work on them. I did give in and start a list in my Ipod so I could keep track of ideas and projects that are on the needles. I'm not sure how that's going yet. I don't think it's been long enough to tell. How do other people keep track of ideas and projects?
Off to stalk the tomatoes in the garden...

I'm home from the IWannaKnit Retreat hosted by KnittingToday in Shipshewana, Indiana. I had such a good time. There was a secret project, a class (several actually, but I only got to take one) taught by Susan Guagliumi (I finally learned to pronounce her name. Not Susan, I already had that part.), and a class with Joan McGowan-Michael. It was great. I learned a lot. Now if I can apply what I learned to my actual knitting I will be in good shape.



There was yarn purchasing going on. I only bought 26 skeins and one cone of yarn. There were 4 skeins in my goody bag, but I didn't buy those so they don't count. I bought some tools for my LK150 and a pattern (Krista by Whiteliesdesigns.com aka Joan McGowan-Michael) I should have gotten more yarn. I decided on the way home that I want to make the Einstein Coat and I don't have the right yarn for it. I suppose I should finish up some other projects first. I really blew my Stashdown commitment unless I buckle down and knit up a lot of stuff between now and the end of the year. I told my youngest granddaughter that I bought yarn to make her a sweater and she looked at me with her big puppy dog eyes, batted her lashes and said "gloves too...my hands will get cold." I don't know that I have the yarn for gloves for her, but I will certainly check on that. We can't have cold hands.
I was exhausted when I got home and I had babysitting duty with my not-quite-4-years-old grandson and he made the exhaustion much more intense.
I added some squares to my Everlasting Blanket while Elmer was driving and someone gave me some little balls of yarn for the project while I was at retreat. I'll still need more, but I need to see where I am before I go to the store or order any more. I wish the yarn fairy would just drop some off. I'll just order some more from Yarn Expressions or Robyn's Nest in the next month or two and maybe join a swap on Ravelry for it.
I need to get some pictures of the garden. Some of the tomato plants are as tall as I am. I picked squash and jalapeno today and grandson got to pick and eat some cherry tomatoes yesterday. I see homemade salsa in the near future.

counting the days

10 days til the IWannaKnit Retreat begins. We're still hoping that Elmer gets his vacation time and he can drive. If not, I have not one but two back up plans.
My oldest daughter and her family have gone to Disney World. It is my granddaughters' first time to go. Part of me wishes I was there. The rest says I'll have more fun at Retreat and we couldn't afford both. I hope they're having a grand time. While they are gone I'm feeding the animals and taking care of the garden. We've had rain ever since they left and I'm pretty tired of it. I can hear my grass growing and that means another allergy attack when it dries enough to cut it.
I'm still working on my Shapely Tee. I really need to get it sewn together before I leave for Retreat. I'm also still working on the Everlasting Blanket. Elmer asked me if I was half way yet. I just shook my head. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'm barely a quarter of the way. He asked how big I'm making it and when I told him it was to fit our bed he asked if I was going to do one for the camper too. Yikes, that's a lot of little squares.
My garden is growing. I had to pull the lettuce since it was beginning to bolt and had a not so nice bitter taste. I think we have about 50 tomato plants. We have cherry, grape, roma, and brandywine growing. They are in the regular garden, hanging in Topsy Turvys, hanging in regular hanging pots, and in buckets out by the garden. If they begin to produce like I think they will we will be donating some to our local food pantry and will still have more than enough for the family. (I might have to learn to can tomatoes.) I've already had to pick off Tomato Hornworms. Blasted things. I asked Elmer if he could use them for bait. He didn't take me up on that for some reason. I can't imagine why.
My compost is beginning to feel the heat of our summer. That's a good thing. I'll top dress the beds this autumn before planting any cool weather crops.
It's been a quiet Memorial Day here. I've spent some time thinking about our servicemen and women. I suppose it hits close to home for me because Elmer gave twenty years of his life to the Navy. I have a nephew who is a Marine and one who is Army and a friend of my son is also a Marine. I know they put their lives on the line every day of the year at a moments notice. Even if I don't believe we should be in a war (not posting my opinion on that) at any point in time those young men and women will have my support in any way I can give it. God bless each and every one of our servicemen and women.

How does your garden grow?

It's been a couple of busy weeks since I was here last. I've been gardening (there are tomatoes,bell and jalapeno peppers,cucumbers, zucchini, squash, onions, garlic, strawberries, and cantaloupe in my garden this year),

knitting,


sewing,



taking care of my grandson, and getting ready for the IWannaKnit Retreat (info at KnittingToday.com.
It's a busy time of year for me. I'm up to square 215 on my Everlasting Blanket, which is about 25% of the way complete. I didn't think I'd be this far this fast. It took two pictures to get it all. The orange tee is the Shapely Tee by Joan McGowan-Michael (Whiteliesdesigns) and is part of a knitalong that I'm doing on Ravelry. It just needs the sleeves put in and it will be finished, except that I think I'm going to add a little more garter stitch at the hem. Just something thats I think I'll like better.
I still don't have as many hats as I'd like to take to retreat with me, but I just think I'm goin g to be short this year. So much to do and so little time.
It's cool here in south MS today. It's in the upper 50s with a north wind blowing and since we've already been in the upper 80s this year this feels really cool. I might have to put my sweater back on. Now for some lunch and to check on the clothes on the line.

And DSL is here

I finally took the plunge and we now have DSL at our house.  It's the slowest speed that was available, but still a lot faster than my dial-up was.  I'm keeping my aol because sometimes DH isn't in a place where he can get wifi at the hotel and he has to use a dial-up connection.  It's a pain for him, but much less than if he had to find somewhere that had wireless access.

Today is my first day with the new internet connection so it's going to take some getting used to.

In knitting news, I have swatched for a tee but haven't measured my swatch yet to see if I've got the gauge that I wanted to get.  I'll see shortly.  Other than that, there isn't much going on except for me waiting for IWannaKnit Retreat(check knittingtoday.com for information) to start in about 31 days.  It will be a long drive, but so worth it.

Off to check my swatch and see if I need to change my settings on the LK to get gauge.