Home again, home again :).

It was nice to have a few days away from Rainy NH.  After a horrendous rain/hail filled ride to the show, we really enjoyed the mild sunny days that we had in New Jersey.

Both Cleo and Skyy did well.  Skyy won her class both days and made the cut for Winner's Bitch and Cleo did well to place third in a very nice class, especially given that she was shown without her clothes.  Poor little nekked Cleo is completely out of coat…but her turn will come 🙂

I did manage to get quite a bit of knitting done on this trip as well.  The ride down took an extra long time and that time was well spent working on Hey Teach.

I mentioned earlier that I had not worked with many of the Rowan yarns and was looking forward to working with this All Season Cotton Yarn .  I have to tell you it has been a pleasure to knit with.  Very thick and cushy with no splitting.

It's been a nice change of pace to work on something other than socks and shawls.  Historically I have not been very good at getting the sizing correct in sweaters for myself, so I tend to avoid them. I am hoping that all of the measurements that I took ahead of time and the swatching I did will help me get it right.  If nothing else this pattern has been a joy to work on!

The best part of dog shows………….snuggling with puppies in bed!

Earlier in the spring,I picked up a flat of these flowers,not having a clue what they were, other than I liked the picture of what they would become when they flowered.

Ashley, my middle daughter, who is a professional gardener told me when the plants finally bloomed, that this beautiful flower is part of the Rudbeckia family and this particular member is called Indian Summer.  Who knew?  Isn't fun when our kids can teach us new things?

When I did a little research for this week's Friday flower, I was surprised to find that another favorite of mine in the garden is also a member of the rudbeckia family.

It's not hard to tell that the golden flowers are amongst my favorites.  Black-eyed Susans, marigolds of every kind and of course the biggest and best of all…..

While the sunflower is not a part of the Rudbeckia family, it is truly one of my most treasured flowers in my garden. 

This lovely is the first of the grrls to show her sunny face.  I am looking forward to the late summer show of sunflowers this year!

I bet you are wondering how the dye job went…….well, it took me three tries to get it so that I wouldn't cry when I looked at her.

I started off by doing just the end and it grabbed waaay too much green and turned dark very quickly.  So, I sat and thought about it for a minute and decided to go to the other end of the spectrum with some soft orange, which did help, but then the tips were VERY different from the rest of the stole, so I added a bit more orange and reversed directions, putting the rest of the stole in the dyepot and keeping the darker end out.

It was ok….but the bottom was still a good bit darker than the rest of the stole…so I cried a bit and had a cup of tea to relax and regroup.  When an hour had come and gone, I finally decided to take a breath and go a shade deeper than orange and headed towards a toffee color.  

Immediately I knew that this was going to fix the discrepancy in color….but I was still sad that she was not the color she was supposed to be.

I put the bigger part of the stole in the dyepot and let it simmer for a bit and then I put the bottom in for the last few minutes.  (kind of like pulling the color thru your hair after it has sat on the roots for a bit).

 

While Bee is a good bit darker than I had envisioned her to be, she is still the 

golden color of honey in the comb as seen in this picture that I snagged from a bee blog that I read.  I hope Becky doesn't mind :)  Actually this will be a very nice colorway for fall, don't you think?

I am going to take some nice pictures of Bee outside if it ever stops raining.  I don't know how it is in other parts of the country, but here in Northern NH, it has basically been a continuation of what we saw this winter, except instead of snow it has been rain, rain, rain and more rain.  It's has also been very humid which I really hate.  Not very good for the garden either.  (more on that another day)

We hare heading out tomorrow morning for a dog show in NJ. Coming with us on this trip is the newest member of Ballymena Cavaliers. 

Meet little Miss Gypsy :).  Her registered name is Marjorelle Travelin' Show and let me tell you, this little one is full of beans for sure!

I have been trying to be a better blogger, so I have actually blogged ahead a few days for when I will be away.  I have heard it takes 21 days to make something a habit…at least I think it was 21, so I am trying to keep on track. 🙂

Wish us luck…….

Can you see it?

Let me get you a little bit closer….there, can you see it now?

I bet you can……..and you would be right.  I ran out of yarn for the last 5 or so inches on my beloved Bee. 

Now, I will be honest, I thought I was going to be able to squeak by with a 1200 yard skein, even though the pattern calls for 1400 yards, as I know Anne is always generous with her yardage amounts.  I almost made it….but alas, almost is not quite enough.

So I fired up the dye pot last week and tossed in a small skein…..argghh…. too dark.  Another small skein…..again, too dark.  The third skein, I felt pretty good about and it is the one that I used, but as you can see it was not quite close enough. 

The good thing ………..I think I can fix this with a mini dye job.  Kind of like getting your roots done in the salon :).  Of course my DH thinks I am nuts to bother…..but my feeling is, if I worked this hard on something, I don’t want the one little flaw glaring at me when I wear it.  I bet you feel the same way too.

Wish me luck with the dyepot tomorrow…..fingers here are crossed!

As I finish up a few projects I have been working on during the month of July, I am looking forward to starting a few new things.  This sweater that is featured in the new Knitty caught my eye.  Having spent a lot of time lately knitting lace projects, I am anxious to try a few new things. 

I know it’s hard to believe, but I have never worked with any of the Rowan yarns other than Kidsilk, so  I am really looking forward to starting this sweater…..but not until I finish Bee, which will happen today…whoo hoo!

In the past I mentioned a little theatre that we have up here in the Mountains called Stone Mountain Arts Center.  I can’t tell you how fortunate we are to have this little gem up here.

Last month Ken and I went to see Nanci Griffith, an old favorite of mine there and last night we saw The Cowboy Junkies…..they were fabulous!  Go take a peak at their new album.

I will leave you with one of my all time favorites of theirs.  This song brings me back to a time in my life that was filled with turmoil….but when I hear this song I think of the precious days that were spent on the beach with my children…the only sanity that I had during that time……it still makes me smile.

Storm breaks into pieces,
Clouds charge the horizon.
Revolving of the heavens
Generates all movement.

Without movement, there could be nothing created in the universe.  The revolving of the heavens can generate wind, rain, thunder, lightning.  The revolving of the earth enables us to have day and night, the very cycle of the weather, the seasons, and the growth of plants.  Movement is responsible for creativity.
Deng Ming~Dao

It’s time for me to get moving again to stir up some creativity!  July has been a quiet month with ups and downs, but relaxing all the same.  It is nice however to be back!!

I have zero’d out my bloglines and am looking forward to getting caught back up with you all in blogland :);

Alternate between the solitary and the social.
Whether alone or with others, keep serenity.
Den Ming~Dao

The last week has been about tying up loose ends and looking forward to new ones for me.  Off the needles is my last scarf for a little spell, even though she was a delight to knit!

Pattern:  Brambler
Yarn:  Opulence ~ Twilight
Needles:  US 6

This was another thoroughly enjoyable knit.  Using a little heavier yarn than was called for, I reduced the total stitches a bit and made it longer than any of the other “Little Nothing” scarves I have worked on.  It will be a nice way to dress up a pair of jeans on a cool summer evening.

Of all the little scarves that I have knit though, so far my favorite has been the Fiddlehead scarf.  I started a sample in a softer shade of orange sherbet the first time around, so I will finish that up sometime this summer as well…..but that won’t count as a new scarf, right?.  Fiddlehead was pure joy to knit and one I highly recomend!

I also finished my Roguish Rooster and I have to admit, I think I am hooked! (no pun intended)

Playing with colors in rug hooking is fascinating.  Watching a plaid wool create texture in an otherwise plain, flat piece of linen and then adding swirls here and there making the background come alive is so addicting.

My class is over for now, but I will sign up for the fall advanced class which includes learning to play with color……

Hmmmm….I played around with some wool that I purchased that just did not seem to have the depth of color that I wanted and look what I came up with.

I am seeing some new things to play with in my future over the next month.  It’s always fun to discover new mediums in which to practice the things that we love to do, isn’t it?

I am stepping out of Blogland and Ravelry for the month of July to take some time to enjoy my family, garden, dogs and craft over the hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer.  I will be with you all in spirit and hopefully have some new things to share again in August.

I hope you all have an enjoyable and fruitful July!!
~Peace~

Today’s flower really isn’t a true flower, but rather an herb.  These yellows and greens are just about my most favorite of all  summertime colors.  I’m sure that you could probably tell from some of the yarn colors that have been in my dye pot this spring, that I am “green” thru and thru.  Love it!

Everywhere you look at this time of the year are the scrumptious greens that are not only beautiful to look at but even better to eat.

This spring I played around a bit with my garden, changing it up a bit, but time will tell if it will actually be better.  The salad greens are doing well, but I am not sure about some of the other things, such as my cukes.

Cucumbers are just about the easiest things ever to grow, as long as the cucumber beetles stay away, but this year mine are struggling, and it really is too late to plant a new batch.

I planted a bunch of dill to make pickles this year, but I worry that those cukes are just not going to make it.  They are inexpensive enough to buy at local farm stands, so I just may have to resort to doing just that.

Of course the weather really hasn’t been much help with the garden this year either.  The temps have been in the comfortable 70’s, but it has been really humid, rainy and gray…not much sun or heat for those tomatoes or peppers…..and of course there are the bugs…….always the bugs.

On tap this summer is a good deal of reading on gardening, composting and successive planting so that I can have a more fruitful garden next year.  Perhaps I will settle down with a big glass of cold ice tea and catch up on Norma’s garden……..her’s looks fabulous!

 Speaking of settling down, just this morning I finally picked up Bee.  Geez…the bad part of not finishing something right away is trying to figure out where you left off.

Usually I keep pretty detailed notes on a pattern, but for some reason I just could not find the portion of the shawl I had been working on. 

I looked in all of the usual nooks and cranny’s that I tend to leave my fiber stuff, but that page was no where to be found…..grrrr….

So, I ended up spending a good 45 minutes backtracking, printing out a new pattern and counting before I found my place again.   Once I started knitting I thought it would be good to dig out my little knitpicks chart keeper to make it easier to read the pattern.

Can you believe it….that is where the missing page was…duh!  Agghh!

All in all it is so good to be working on this stole again and this time she will not be cast aside for any new girl in town!

We also celebrated Ashley’s 23rd birthday this week.  It actually takes my breath away to think that she is actually 23!!  Yikes…where do the years go?

Thinking along those lines, I have decided to take the month of July and just turn off the computer (except for email). 

I want to take the month to enjoy the girls, the garden and the summer.  The dogs need some walking and the house needs some organizing, so I will be busy for sure….but it will be a relaxing busyness.

I have a few more posts that I want to share with you before the first of July, so we will chat soon 🙂

One of my most favorite flowers in my garden are the huge Baptisia bushes that dress up our pasture fences.  These 3 bushes are nestled in between 3 equally huge Peony bushes.

This plant is also a favorite for my little buzzing friends.  Come this time of year, those bushes are completely abuzz with Bees.  It was fascinating for me as I was taking these pictures to see the different types of bees.  There were of course the huge bumblebees, but amongst the honey bees, it was easy to see that there were different kinds.  Some with dark bellies and some with lighter bellies.  Big ones and smaller ones sticking their noses into the flowers and randomly bumping each other now and then…….fascinating.

 

Unfortunately the flowers on these bushes are fairly short~lived.  We get to enjoy their beauty for about 2 weeks before they fade away….It's always sad to see the flowers go, but the bushes remain nice and green for the rest of the season.

With Brambler finished and heading for the blocking board today……….I think it is time to pick up Bee again after visiting with my little friends.  I am looking forward to getting back to this knit for sure, along with these little cuties I discovered today.  Thank you Denise for sharing the link!