A sneak peek...

Here's a little sneak peek at the baby blanket I'm making right now. It's name is "Posy Patch", thanks to one of my knitting friends. They're great at coming up with names for my patterns!

I love the way this yarn is working up. It's so soft! And the stitch definition is terrific. I'm getting 6 stitches per inch on size 6 needles, which means this will probably end up just a bit smaller than 28 inches square, before blocking. Perfect size for a little baby. ☺

♥

It turns out my suspicion was correct; I'm definitely going to need more yarn. I'm less than halfway done, but I've used most of the third skein of yarn already. So I'm going to need at least one more skein than I originally thought, probably two. I'll wait until I'm precisely halfway, before placing my order.

A new project.

Well, I went to the chiropractor yesterday, but I am still in pain. Phooey. But it's raining today anyway, so it's not like I could work in the yard even if my back felt fine. I'm spending the day in my knitting chair, alternating heating pad, ice pack, and back massager. And knitting! I cast on a new project last night, and have already almost finished the first skein of yarn. Granted, they're small skeins, only 123 yards in each skein, but still. A whole lot of knitting going on. I haven't taken any pictures yet of this new project, but I will after I get a few more inches done on it. Right now, it's still too scrunched on the needles to get a good picture. So for now, you'll just have to imagine: soft pink superwash dk wool, being knit in alternating blocks of lace and stockinette stitch.
I am in love with this yarn. I'd never tried it before, but had heard great things about it. It's Knit Picks Swish DK, in the color "Petal". It's perfect for this baby blanket I'm making with it. I just hope I have enough. I bought 5 skeins. I'm thinking I should have bought 6 or 7. But I'll wait and see when I get about halfway through, whether I'll need to order more. Of course, the challenge then will be trying to get more in the same dyelot. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And then, if I do need to order more, I'll order the same amount more in the blue that I got with the pink. I'm making two blankets, with the same design, one pink and one blue. I hope I have enough already.
Ok, enough rambling. Back to knitting.

A wasted day

I fully intended to do yard work today. I made a to-do-list, and planned to do everything on it. Five minutes after I made my list, my rib slipped out of place. And my chiropractor isn't open today. So I am in intense pain today. I spent the day on the couch, in bed, and in my knitting chair. But not knitting. That would require moving my arms too much. I can't breathe deeply without pain. I can't turn my head without pain. So naturally, I didn't get any raking done. I wanted to do it; it just wasn't gonna happen. Hoping the chiropractor can fix me up tomorrow, so I can get back to work.

Demolition :)

Remember I mentioned my to-do list yesterday? And that ripping pickets off the back fence was on the list? Well, hubby surprised me by coming home from work early, so we got started on the project. ☺

Here's a before shot of the fence. It's served as the backdrop for many of the pictures I've posted here on my blog. Say goodbye to the old fence.

Here's hubby, ripping off pickets:

He preferred the pry-them-off approach.

And here's me, ripping off pickets:

I went with the pound-them-from-the-back-with-the-hammer-until-they-fall-down approach. Both methods worked well. (Yes, I know my pants are too tight. I'm working on that.)

And here's what the fence looks like now:

...except for the pile of pickets on the ground. I took care of that after I took the picture.

Moo.

Yard work and house work and knitting, oh my!

Oops...once again, it's been a while. I need to get back into the habit of writing. I don't like this writing once or twice a month stuff. And yet, I keep doing it. Oh, well.

♥

Anyway, we did more outdoors work this past weekend. Most of the window trim on the back of our house was rotten and/or bug-eaten. It had gotten to the point that it needed to be replaced ASAP, or the rot would have started to get into the framing of the house, which would be really expensive to fix. So we hired our new friend Kerry to come and replace all of the rotten trim, and Hubby and I worked alongside him, learning as we went. Then Kerry's employee John painted the whole back of the house, and all the trim around the whole house(the front and sides of the house are brick). My house looks so good now! Well, on the outside, anyway. I need to do some serious cleaning and de-cluttering(as my mom calls it) inside. Maybe I'll do some of that today.

♥

We also did a bunch more yard work while Kerry and John worked. Hubby went behind our back fence, into the poison-ivy-overrun pasture, and cut down all the trees and vines behind the fence. I can see the sky behind my fence now! I am so happy about that. And he sprayed some "vegetation-killer" on everything that was growing back there. It's pretty strong stuff; the fumes were giving me a headache, and I was next-door talking to the neighbors when he did it. Hopefully it'll kill all the poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac; we've been assured all three are back there. Inside the yard, I did more trimming, and raking. Hubby cut out the roots of the bushes and trees I had cut down, so we'll be able to plant grass in those spots.

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I'm not really much of a gardener, but I'm making a valiant attempt this year. I'm doing a container garden on the deck right now, and I might move some of the plants to prepared ground if I think it's necessary later. Here's a pic of my baby tomato plants; I just transplanted them to these containers, and I'm hoping they survive the shock.

In the largest container in this picture are pumpkin plants, and the little one to the right of that has zucchini.

In this last picture are my bean plants. I love fresh green beans! I also just transplanted these ones; I had about 15 plants in one pot. I picked the best 10, and split them between two pots. The ones in the right-hand pot have perked up some since I took this picture on Saturday, thank goodness.

The next thing on the to-do list is to burn all the brush; once again we have piles. We won't be able to work on that today; it's supposed to be windy. Safety first. But another thing on my to-do list is to pull all the pickets off the back fence. We're going to redo it, as inexpensively as we can, which means leaving the posts and some of the supports that are already there, as long as they're level and square. We're also going to make it about half the height that it is now, to take advantage of the great view of the pasture, now that all those trees and vines are gone.

♥

In knitting news, I've made a bunch of squares. ☺ And I'm working on more. I also got yarn to make baby blankets for a friend of mine who is having twins. I'm going to make a pink and a blue blanket, both with the same pattern. I'm designing the pattern, and I'm going to submit it to Knit Picks, for their Independent Designer Program. I'll be using Knit Picks Swish DK yarn, which, I've been told, is a lovely, soft superwash wool. It definitely feels soft in-the-skein; I can't wait to get it knitted up.

♥

And I have a new favorite yarn: "I Love This Cotton" from Hobby Lobby. I got some for making squares, and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to try out this lovely yarn! It's incredibly soft in-the-skein, and even softer in the knitted fabric. It has great stitch definition. It's a much smoother, softer cotton than the "Peaches and Cream" that Walmart sells, or the "Sugar and Cream" that Hobby Lobby sells. And the price isn't much higher than that of those yarns. If you haven't worked with this yarn yet, go get some. You will love it, too.

Yard work

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. The fence that separates our back yard from our neighbors' yard has been leaning since a hurricane hit a year and a half ago. Our neighbor's business has been slow, thanks to the economic downturn, so he finally had time to work on the fence. I've been helping a bit with the demolition and building; since Hubby is working these days, he can only help in the evenings and on the weekends. Anyway, the fence is almost completed, and it looks great!

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There hasn't been a whole lot that I could do, so I've been doing other yard work. I've trimmed our crepe myrtle trees, which I really should have done two or three months ago. I trimmed our Mexican fan palms...which needed a lot of trimming. I cut down several bushes and trees that were dead or dying. I dug out roots from those bushes and trees. I planted a few new plants. I raked and bagged leaves. I carried all of that brush to our back yard, to await permission from a nearby farmer to burn it in a small section of his field. Once we got permission, I carried brush from the piles in our back yard to the burn pile. My tasks for today are to mow the lawn in the back yard, and kill whatever poison ivy/oak/sumac I find, and maybe dig out some more roots in the back yard. I'm trying to get our back yard done so that I can set up the new wading pool I got for the girls. It's not technically summer, but summer weather has already arrived, as it usually does this time of year in our area.

♥

In knitting news....not much has happened. I had an idea to make felted oven mitts that my girls could use, since the ones I have are really much too big for their little hands. I used size 15 needles, and three strands of worsted-weight wool held together. I started by making a very large swatch and felting it, to test the felting properties of the wool. That swatch became a potholder. Then I began knitting a basic (huge) stockinette stitch mitten. I felted the mitten, and it became the perfect size for my oldest daughter's hand. It was still drying yesterday, so she hasn't tested it out yet to see how well it actually protects her hand against the heat of a hot pan or baking sheet; maybe it'll be dry today, and we'll have the opportunity to do that. I haven't got the pictures downloaded from my camera yet, so I'll have to wait to post them.

♥

One week old.

The kittens are one week old! They are still so tiny. But they're very soft. Emily let me pick one up today, but she let me know she was watching me closely.

"These are my babies. Go stare at your own babies."