Kosovo, Soldiers Spoof of Beach Boys Kokomo

What a Mess

I finally finished my Carol Doak Block of the Month (BOM) quilt top. I probably shouldn't say "finally". After all, I only got one block per month x 12 months, so I'm not sure I could have finished it that much more quickly. I am very happy with the way it turned out - I put all the blocks on point and used Carol's China Star to offset the BOM blocks. Of course, the problem with paper piecing any quilt is the mess it makes when it's time to take all the paper off. This picture REALLY doesn't do justice to the mess in my house when I was finished pulling off all that paper!

It really looked like it snowed in our basement there for a while. The SigO (those are his feet in the picture - so cute!) tried to keep it under control by picking up papers every so often, but he was fighting a losing battle.

Of course, the real mess came when I nearly chopped off the end of my finger. We were watching Horatio Hornblower while I was trying to cut some fabric with the rotary cutter. I mean, honestly, who can expect anyone to be concentrating on quilting when Ioan Gruffudd is on TV? So, off came a sizeable chunk of my index finger, and off I went to the ER to get some coagulant stuffed into the hole (nothing there to sew up) to stop the bleeding. That put a real damper on the weekend, needless to say. But it's almost all healed up already, so ho hum - moving on...

I just signed up for a class to learn how to do colorwork in my knitting and - you might want to sit down for this - learn to cut (Yes! Cut!! Yikes!!!) my knitting. I'm working on the Enid Cardigan and I'm learning to knit continental for this project since Olga (instructor) wants us to knit the colorwork using both hands. So, that's somewhat awkward.

The reason for steeking (cutting) this knitting is to put in the button band - so if I chicken out, it just won't be a cardigan - it will be a pullover - see how easy life can be! This class is a three day class held over six weeks to give us time to do all the knitting. Olga wants us to have the body done up to the yoke and the sleeves done for a bonus before the next class, which is in two weeks. If I weren't trying to knit continental, this would be a breeze, but I'm not so sure I'm going to make it. And I can't just switch back to the good ole comfy throw method since my tension is completely different between those two techniques. So, I might be the problem child in this class. Oh, let's not kid ourselves - definitely, I am the problem child.

Thursday night I'm taking a crochet class from the same instructor. I decided it might be a good idea since one of the projects I have on my needles right now is the Beachcomber Tunic:

Which, as you can see, is knit for the top, and crocheted for the bottom. I don't think the actual crochet is all that tough, but reading the pattern has me thrown right now.
I'm knitting the Enid Cardigan in my current size, because it's a cardigan, so who cares if it's a tad large, but I'm still knitting all my other tops in a size too small because I'm devoted to losing some of this weight, although I can't say I've been very dedicated to the process. I blame the SigO. I'm not saying it's his fault. I'm just going to blame him.

I have finished all the knitting for the Filatura Di Crosa top. Here are the sleeves, all nice and blocked:I still need to crochet the belt (see, another reason for Thursday's class) and then it's just a matter of seaming it up and sewing on the sleeves - yeah - the dreaded finishing. That's why it's still on the blocking boards, even though I finished it well over a month ago.

Not much exciting going on in the way of trips lately. Not for lack of trying. We tried to go camping for Labor Day weekend and all the campsites in our chosen weekend spot were full. So, we went winery hopping. Such a hardship! And that pretty much sums things up for me for the last few weeks - lot's of knitting, wining, quilting, some trauma, some work, mostly fun.

An industrious, if unexciting weekend

The big event this weekend was pulling the bowflex out of storage and getting it set up in the media room. My quilting space took a hit for the team, but since the sewing table can collapse and roll around to accomodate my space issues, and the bowflex, well, can't, it was a logical decision. The SigO and I are both very pleased with the final outcome:
That's my first ever wall-quilt behind the bowflex. It has so many flaws and goofs in it that it's the perfect backdrop for the bowflex, since I'm hoping no one will try to climb behind that bulky thing to try to look too closely at my quilt. The only part of putting the bowflext together I helped with was putting the cables on. The SigO did everything else...aren't you proud of him?! Meanwhile, I played in the yard this weekend and got the weeds pulled, the pond cleaned, etc. The weather this weekend was very mild and I had enough deet sprayed on to repel even Them!
so, after playing in the yard for several hours, I sat out on the deck to do some knitting and watch the wildlife - which in my yard consists of several different types of birds, some butterflies and a handful of squirrels. Ever since I've moved into this house, I've been trying to attract hummingbirds and I've finally had a measure of success with that! I now have two regular visitors - one male, one female. The female is one bold lady. She hovers right over our heads, checking us out while we're on the deck and at one point, literally hovered one foot away from my face. I had my camera with me at the time, but when a beak that sharp is that close to your eyes, you don't make any sudden movements! I sat out there for some time trying to capture pictures of all the gorgeous birds and butterflies that come to visit. We even had a bald eagle fly overhead at one point, but those dang birds are Fast! By the time I get upstairs and download the pics, all I've managed to get is blurry images. This golden finch is the only halfway decent shot I got.
You can also see a household sparrow about to take a drink from the pond in this shot:
You can well imagine that with me trying so hard to get some shots of the local wildlife, I don't get a whole lot of knitting done. I did get one really good shot of a wild animal that wandered into my yard a little later in the day:Quite the specimen - but beware, cuz yes, he does bite!

I have made a great deal of progress on the pullover. In addition to both the front and back shown here, I've finished one of the sleeves and am 2/3 done with the other. I hope to be blocking the sleeves within the next few days, and then sewing it up this week. I'm very pleased with the way it's knitting up. I've had to frog several rows and tink several times due to not reading the directions, or simply knitting along thinking I had tons of rows to go to reach the desired measurements, just to have to frog back when I discovered I'd gone 3" too far - this is my first time knitting with 100% wool. I'm more accustomed to knitting with DK weight or smaller, so I'm not used to four rows = 1 inch. It's nice to work with something that knits up that quickly, but it has thrown me off a few times.
Finally, I wanted to share some pictures from the Lion King, just to show that even though the dance routines needed some more work, the makeup and costumes were well worth the price of the seats.
Scar, my favorite character - how can you not love anyone who's main line is: "My Teeth and Ambitions are Bared!"
The woman that played Rafiki could really belt it out!

Young Nala - my favorite part of the entire show was young Nala, Rafiki and Shenzi singing their mourning song after Mufasa dies and Simba disappears. Very nicely done.

Quilt Odyssey, Green Gables, Filatura di Crosa

As usual, I'm way behind on my blog. This time it wasn't my fault. I wanted to show off a picture of my completed Green Gables top and we couldn't find the computer cable for the camera until yesterday. But here it is: The picture shows off the fit of the top, but doesn't show the lacework (at the top, near my neck) very well. The funny thing is I wore it to work Monday, and when I got home and hung it up I noticed I missed a few ends that still need to be woven in. Thought I had gotten them all.

I finished the Green Gables top Friday night and immediately started on my Filatura Di Crosa Sideways Striped Pullover.

I've gotten the back done and just started on the front. This picture doesn't do justice AT ALL to the yarn. The yarn knits up beautifully. This is my first 100% wool project and now I see what everyone is on about. And of course the colorways are spectacular. I'm knitting this a size too small for me - and I fully intend to be able to wear it this winter. If this doesn't keep me motivated, I just don't know what will. But, then, considering I have a closet full of gorgeous clothes I can't wear right now....yeah, but this is different! Yeah!

Anyway, the Quilt Odyssey this year was awesome as always. I took a class with Phil Beaver to learn how to paint fabrics. It's funny, when I signed up and it said we were going to make sunflowers, I had this image of a cheesy looking quilt top in my head. I had no intention of making any sunflowers - you've all seen what I'm talking about - cutesy, cheesy, boring. But I was interested in learning how to paint my own fabrics. We painted four panels. This is my favorite one:

and as you can see, my quilt turned out to be anything but cheesy: There were many gorgeous quilts on display as usual. Here's a small sampling:

This is just a few of my favorites. OK, I admit it - this is how many I got before my memory card was too full! Anyway, if you want to see them all, here's a nice slide-show:

http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o11/sewpam63/quilt%20shows/Hershey%20Quilt%20Odyssey%202008/?action=view&current=7a4581b1.pbw

Enjoy.

Just as Well

It's just as well that I'm a week late posting this time...unless you want to hear all about my exciting weekend doing house work and yard work...no? Right - that's what I figured, so as I was saying...

Unlike this past weekend, last weekend was pretty exciting, if a tad painful. We went kayaking down the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. The scenery was gorgeous:

and I had a great time watching the SigO flex his biceps:

The only drawback to the whole day was the length of the trip. On the way down there, it began to dawn on me that 6hrs on the water in >90 degree heat might be a bit more than I could handle. Of course, I knew the heat would only be one factor - there would also be the 6hrs of paddling - so, like a smart girl, I called ahead and told them we would be changing our plans from full day to half day. No problem they said. But when we got there, they sold us a doozy: "Oh, don't worry - the river is so high the full day is only taking about 3-4 hrs - which is what the half day would normally take. The half day is only taking a few hours."

"Oh!" say gullible, silly us "well, in that case, yes, we'll stay on the full day!"

Here's a nice picture of a bridge over the Antietam river:

This is where we were at hour #3. This is when we were ready to get out. It's also somewhere a little past the halfway point. At hour #4.5, we were ready to get out and walk the rest of the way - screw the boats. At hour #5, we finally rowed into the home base with raw hands, sunburned shoulders and aching backs. Pure misery - let me tell you!

I can't wait to go back and do it again!

That was Saturday, last weekend. Sunday we decided to stay closer to home and hike Prince William Natl. Park - one of the most under-utilized parks around VA - which I'm not complaining about. It's a gorgeous park with tons of trails.

Even though I've hiked it regularly for the past five years, I never tire of its beauty.

I didn't just hike and kayak all weekend. I'm working on the Zephyr pattern Green Gable that I bought over a year ago (pics in the next post - honest!). I also spent a great deal of time putting all my books, magazines and yarn in the Ravelry post. With numbers like these:

And a stash like this:

only a crazy person would go out and buy more yarn anytime soon...right??!! Ermmmm....

That is the one fun thing I did this weekend. I picked up Ella Rae's Bamboo Soft in mocha. Very pretty, very soft yarn. No plans for it. Maybe I'll just roll around in it.

Back to the real world

Well, the vacation in Maine is over and it's back to work, but we had a great time and got some great pics. We had some perfect days, with clear weather and cool temperatures and some overcast days that shrouded the mountains in a wonderfully mysterious cloud.

This picture was taken from Otter Point on a great day when the waves were crashing gloriously against the rocks. We sat and watched until we got too hungry and had to leave. It's actually a little astonishing that we were able to ever get hungry, considering how often we ate on this trip. Amazing what bringing teenagers along will do.

One of my favorite hikes was around Jordan pond where we got this nice shot.

Those are the Bubbles in the background. The story, supposedly, is the man that donated this particular piece of Acadia named them for his girlfriend's nickname - because they reminded him of her. Not sure if that story was true or not. The character that relayed it told a few other whoppers so who knows. The character's name is Charlie and he was our carriage driver for our trip down memory lane on the old Carriage trail built by Rockefeller in the early 1900's

Another great hike was with just me and the SigO. We hiked along Jordan stream, which passes under this bridge.

The best part of the hike was when we unexpectedly came out on a beautiful meadow completely surrounded by trees and mountains and covered in Blueberry bushes. There was a single old tree smack in the middle of the meadow that stood sentinel over it all.

We started the 4th off with a parade in Bar Harbor. It was a funny little parade since it seemed it was open to anyone who owned a business on the island. So we had a truck full of lumberjacks, another full of firemen, one for a tree service, a local construction company, and most entertaining, one for a local go-kart business

They had tracks mounted over a yellow SUV and would zip up and over this truck. Definitely the most entertaining part of the parade. I'm not sure who these guys were supposed to be:

but they played some mean bagpipes. None of them lifted their kilt for me though - pretty rude of them, don't you agree?

Since the SigO broke my circular needles, I really only had the socks to work on while we were there. I admit, I got more knitting done during the driving than any other time. We spent most of our time there hiking, swimming, shopping and eating. I did manage to finish my March STR Sock of the month.

They look really great, and I'm excited to start on May's, but I've done so many socks lately I think I'm going to take a break and do a top or something for a while.

I also finished the July BOM from my Carol Doak quilting group.

This is the second one I've designed on QuiltPro before sewing it up. I'm starting to get limited by my diminishing supply of indigos, unfortunately. The Quilt Odyssey is only a few weeks away and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the guys that sold me these indigos are there again this year. I'd really like to do a sister quilt of this on, this time in Blue and White instead of Black and Blue.

Finally, for the "awwwwwww" factor, look what we found in a hanging plant in my back yard:

You'd think this less than a stable environment to start a family, but who am I to judge. Also, just because I really love my new weeping pine, I thought I'd include this picture of the right hand corner of my yard.

I used to have a big old pear tree in this corner, but it had been pecked so much by local woodpeckers that it was mostly dead by the time I moved in. Everytime a slight windstorm came through another piece of the old gal would blow off, so we cut it down several years ago and I just recently got around to replacing it with this pine. The plants around the pine are Patriot Hostas - really loving that something is finally blooming in my back yard. I wasn't sure that was possible.

So, it may be back to the real world for me, but with a life like this, who's complaining. Right?

Hazy, Lazy daze in Acadia

Today was the first pretty day we've had since we arrived, late Saturday evening, here in Maine. We've had lots of fog and rain since we got here, but today was gorgeous. So, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the sights. Even though it was pretty clear, you can see there was still some misty clouds hanging around the islands. After the drive we hiked up to the top of the Bubbles. That's a short little hike (.5miles) but a tad steep. It has a gorgeous view at the top, as usual.This particular picture was taken while I was looking for the trail down the other side of the hill to hike around the lake - no joy there. I never could find that trail, even though I got a few scrapes and bruises trying.

I've done a little knitting since we got here, but after starting a little cotton top, my SigO broke one of my needles, so that put an end to that project - for now - then I started on my second March Sock of the month Socks that Rock project, only to realize after finishing the cuff that I was using the wrong pattern...so, I need to rip that out and start again. As you can see, not much progress all in all, although, I did put a nice little short row heel on my traffic socks. I used a different pattern this time and it came out better than the last one.

Also, before I left for this trip, I managed to complete the June Block of the Month project for my Carol Doak challenge:

This was my first quilt block designed with Quilt Pro, then actually created. It looks a little different in real life because the batik doesn't stand out as much as I'd like. Still, I was pretty happy with myself for being able to put it together on the computer first. My next project to construct with the computer is a Storm at Sea in blues and yellows. Wish me luck.

As my last act of "catching up" on the blog, this is the only major cross stitch project I've completed since I fell so far behind on this blogging thing.

I've done four other really tiny little cross stitch projects - you know - the kind you can finish in a few hours...those are really rewarding, especially when you're working on a never ending afghan as a knitting project. Truth be told, I've put that aside and it may never be completed. Now I'm working on a different afghan. This is from the "Absolutely Fabulous Throw Kit" from Collinette, in the Ivory Colorway. It's not exactly at it's most photogenic phase right now, but the SigO has already claimed it for himself. Finally, speaking of the SigO, check out his shin:His daughter thought he might have leprosy or something - but I know better - he's just as big a clutz as I am - thank heavens we never procreated!