Monthly Archives: July 2012

Craft group

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Before I go any farther, I am posting this from my iPad. I apologize in advance for any inconsistencies with the formatting, spelling, and general wonkiness.

Mr. Aitch and I are house/dog sitting for his brother this week in my hometown. My aunt also lives here so we’ve been spending time with her as well.

On Monday I went a senior center where she leads exercises for the residents.  I am embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t keep up with them.  These women (including my aunt) are at least 20-30 years older than I am.

Yesterday we went to a craft group. I took my knitting with me and the ladies there wanted to know all about my felted bag since I was working on the one for my sister. They weren’t quite sure how that flat piece of knitting was going to end up as the 3-D bag.

I did finish all the flat knitting and now have to sew the loose squares and side seams before I add the I-cord edging.

The colors are really charcoal and lime green.

The ladies also oohed and awed over my next project: Sheep Carousel Tea Cozy.  I hope to get started on that soon.

Here is a picture from the craft group.  Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a picture earlier as one of the ladies had already left.  So from l to r: my aunt Evelyn, Josephine, Dorothy, and Deo.  A lovely group of ladies.

A new treat

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I read and subscribe to various blogs.  Some are about knitting and some are not.  Kate Davies’ blog, “needled,” is one knitting blog I read regularly.  I have a link to it on the right side of the screen.  I truly admire her.

She recently published a pattern that I fell in love with instantly.

The Sheep Carousel tea cozy.

I’ve only purchased one kit previously and I decided to treat myself to another one.  It’s sent, I mean dispatched, from Jamison & Smith.  I usually wrap a tea towel around my teapot to keep it warm but once finished my teapot will be very fashionable and warm in Jamison & Smith 100% Shetland wool.

I ordered it on July 7 and it was dispatched from the UK on the 9th.  It was waiting for me when I got home from work today.

The contents:

The pattern (a bit wrinkled and crinkled):

A close-up of the project bag (squee!!)*:

The back of the booklet:

A couple of the techniques are a bit daunting for me.   I’ve done stranded colorwork, corrugated ribbing (semi-successfully), i-cords and centered double decreases.  Steeks scare me.  A lot.  What?  Cut my knitting?  Are you nuts?!?  Vikkel braids  look so interesting.

There is enough yarn to make two tea cozies.  My teapot can have two outfits: one with moorit (brown) sheep and one with white sheep.

I only hope I do this pattern, yarn and designer justice.

* Did I just type “Squee”??

Things I ponder

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The electricity went out in our area around 4:15 this morning thus knocking out my alarm clock.  It eventually came back on but I didn’t wake up until 6:15 a.m.  I need to be out of the house by 6:30.  Needless to say I was late for work.

In my haste to get ready and not be too late, I forgot to pack something for breakfast that I planned to eat once I got to work.  I usually have cereal bars or something like that stashed away in my desk but I ate the last one yesterday morning.

What to do?  So I ventured to the vending machines to see what deliciousness was available.  We have been in this building for three and a half years and this was the first time I actually bought anything from the vending machines.  A 76 gram carbohydrate and 420 calorie cinnamon roll was calling me.

So when you eat a cinnamon roll, do you just dig in and eat it or do you uncurl it while you eat?  Just one of the many things I ponder.

 

Ruby’s nest

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At the end of May we discovered a hummingbird nest right above our deck.  It belongs to a Ruby-throated hummingbird so we named her Ruby.  Not too original, I suppose.

We didn’t see a lot of activity with the nest until a few days ago when I snapped these pictures.

Two babies.  Do you see their tiny beaks?

I don’t know how much longer they will be around as they appear almost adult-size to me, though I’m no hummingbird expert.

We had a terrific line of storms come through Friday night with a lot of downed trees and power outages in our area.  Ruby is still here.