TGI Labor Day Weekend

This image is from a few days back but I just love this time of day. This is taken from inside the house. Why didn't I step outside????? It doesn't show up any of the pics I took but the gravel is crisscrossed with I guess spider webs. They were reflecting light like jewels. It was really pretty.







The roses continue to bloom. I just dead headed this a.m. so had to take some pics. Yes this one is a lame attempt at camouflage. You have to get that water away from the house somehow.















I plan to watch this one all weekend.
















Do you ever read someones blog and they tell you they will send you a little something just for commenting, answering a question, etc? Well I enjoy reading Mary's blog. She was doing a little cleaning out and sharing with her readers. Look what I got! I am so excited.
This is the top layer. Oh yes, there were layers.















I loved the little extras. A wooden spool, a strip of leather, odd buttons, wire for beading.....




















A kit for a bookmark.




















A box of baubles.




















This eye candy is a combination of things. The lovely pink yarn I received along with a packet of teas, they were wonderful. I'm not sure why I received this package. It must of been from a long ago swap that I have forgotten about. I hope I kept up my end of the bargain. The purple is the yarn my daughter picked for a scarf to go with the new coat she plans to buy this fall. We were at Wildflower in Manhattan, Kansas where my daughter attends school. I was so overwhelmed and couldn't decide what yarns to purchase when my daughter saved my budget by telling me she would love a scarf. Needed some shorter DPN's as well. I could have bought oh so much more and within hours of getting home I signed up for a new KAL. I will have to go back.






















I had entered three items in the Ravelry Olympics. I metaled with this one. It is a scribble lace shawl that looks great with a little black dress I bought recently. The other wip, my son's log cabin blanket, is still a wip but I am hoping that a road trip tomorrow will finish it off. Lastly I was going to learn to knit socks. Foolishly that is what I was trying to do during the opening ceremonies. The ceremony was simply too amazing to get much of anything except plain old garter stitch done.

My Weekend Adventures

8/2/08

I read brooklyntweed's blog so I already knew I liked these mittens. Stopped by the book store to see if Vogue had hit the newsstands yet. I didn't even see the title until after I have picked it up because of the cover. I love the cover. It has it all, color, texture, expression, balance. I rarely buy a magazine but I brought this one home in part because of the cover. Thankfully I like some of the projects and articles inside as well.






My husband is in Sturgis for the big motorcycle rally. The original plan was for wives to go along but I couldn't go because of work and other wives had other issues. We wanted to take a support vehicle so the guys wouldn't have to carry so much on the bikes, we could take turns riding with our guys and we could actually lock up things like cameras. My husband almost never travels without a camera. This week he will have been in at least four states other than Kansas with no camera.
So with a week to myself, other than work, the fair, and who knows what else crops up I hope to get a good amount of knitting done. That much knitting requires a few movies. I went to the section marked 2/$1 and picked up some that I wanted to see and some I had never heard of. I actually got home with one I didn't intend to get. It may turn out to be the best of the bunch.

Saturday morning I took four projects to the county fair. Two received red ribbons, one didn't receive a ribbon at all and I didn't expect it to. It was one of the scribble lace shawls and other than the yarn they are nothing special. My Everlasting Bagstopper, I don't remember if it got a ribbon or not. Our display space is adequate at best. To see the bag I had to get down on my knees to look at the bottom shelf. Next to my bag was a lovely garment of some sort but I couldn't see the tag to see whose it was or what it was. There were several other items in the same predicament. I believe when we meet at the fair for knit night this week we will be discussing the display situation.


On my way home I stopped at a couple of garage sales. I found this lamp. It works. I don't usually go for things like this but it kind of spoke to me. Once I find a shade that works with it will decide its fate. At this point I am thinking of sanding it down and spraying it with one of the paints that looks like stone. I might also do some sort of mosaic or decoupage treatment. Time will tell.















My other garage sale purchase was this box of beads. A nice little assortment to add to my collections.








My last stop was at the craft store in town. They have everything BUT yarn. We are trying to talk them into it because they have employees that know yarn. One of the employees raises sheep, spins, dyes, knits and weaves. We will keep trying.
Anyway, they have a pretty decent bead section. I picked up a few things to work on an idea for some stitch markers.








Here I added some beads from the garage sale box.











Now I have added in some of my own beads. I want to keep the grey/silver tones but add a sharp contrast and I think it will be red. I have lots of red beads.


A lamp project and a beading project. I only thought I was going to get a lot of knitting done.





I am test knitting a pattern for a breast cancer fundraising calendar. I don't have a yarn source close by so when I went to "the city" I picked up every pink yarn I could find that would work for a dishcloth.
I am using the mercerized cotton second from the right and it is working up beautifully. Pictures and info. on the calendar at a later date.





Love this car seat blanket pattern but do not like the yarn. I was on my way out the door and needed something quick. It is sooooo yucky but knitting anything on a long car ride is better than knitting nothing. It will make an OK gift for someone or for the grandgirls and their baby dolls. I will knit this pattern again in something much nicer.





















8/3/08
I love ripe fresh from the garden tomatoes. This one has been ripening on the counter for a couple of days and it was perfect on Sunday. I

Pizza or Turkey?

7/27/08

I made homemade pizza with all the fresh veggies from the garden. There is onion, green pepper, garlic and tomatoes. It was the best pizza I have made in quite sometime.

I love my baking stones. The handles on this make it much easier to get in and out of the oven. My old one had a rack to set it on but I was always forgetting the rack. It was passed on to my son so I could justify this one.

7/28/08

This turkey has several siblings that "hatched" last fall. I knit up three or four of these guys for gifts in a short amount of time. I chose this pattern to knit for the household items category at the fair because it was an easy but visually interesting knit. I knit the first 1/4 of this cloth several times and finally cut the yarn off and threw it away. It was beginning to resemble a well worn piece of string rather than yarn. Once I got past the half way point I didn't have any further problems thank goodness. There is one very obvious error but of course I didn't see it until I was blocking. I'm sure the judge will see it as well but I enter more for fun than for the ribbons. Too bad I didn't remind myself of that when I was having so much trouble knitting this thing. After the fair he goes into the mail to an Internet friend who has mentioned she would like to have a turkey.

In addition to this dishcloth I took a scribble lace shawl, my misknitted Everlasting Bagstopper shopping bag and a preemie hat. There were other projects I had planned to take but it is best if they are completed before entering them in the fair.

Today I cast on a pink dishcloth that I am test knitting for a breast cancer calendar fundraiser. More on the topic in the weeks to come. I have tested some patterns for quilt designers before but this is the first time testing for a knit designer. I hope I am up to her standards. She does beautiful work.