Miracles

I can tell I'm getting old. I spend Saturday nights sitting outside knitting and watching the flowers grow. These hibuscus flowers are as large as dinner plates. If you scroll back, I show these every year - they are magnificent.Each blossom blooms in miraculous glory for one day, then it withers and falls to the ground. Mother Nature really outdoes herself with these.

We have red ones, too! I have seen them in white and yellow as well.

We really can watch the sunflowers grow and change. They start out as a bundle of green leaves. The lovely yellow petals unfold from the center, then the middle portion, looking so much like a spirograph drawing, starts opening from the outer edge, sending lots of pollen for the bees to wallow in.

We store up the memories of all this glorious color for the winter when the world seems black and white for about four months.

Even if we never get a pumpkin, the yellow blossoms give the side of the house a cheerful look.

I hope your summer is full of miracles, too.

Summer Days

We are having a delightful summer! Larry and I went back to Saugituck, Michigan for three days, and had an even better time than last year. If only we hadn't forgotten our camera. LOL! My sister, Sara, came for a few days, and we made her grandson a pair of little man socks. It was such fun to knit alongside my sister.

Loving the beautiful colors of summer.

These are Sara's birthday socks. It's been an incredibly hot summer, but she'll enjoy them in a few months.

Our brother, Peter, joined us for dinner one evening. Sara and I were knitting like crazy that evening, because she was leaving the next day and we wanted to finish the socks. Luckily Peter is used to conversing with females who can knit and talk at the same time. We were sorry our sister Janet couldn't be there to knit and chat, but she lives a long way away, and travel is expensive.

I hope you, too, are enjoying the season. Of course for some of you it's winter, but winter in Australia looks a lot like summer here!

Our pool reached it's all time 15 year high temperature of 85 degrees! Pretty sweet.

Hi!

Do you ever watch those backyard makeover shows on TV? They're pretty inspiring! Somewhere we have a photo of what the side of our garage looked like before Larry decided a makeover was long overdue. Both windows had been victims of errant baseballs, and were covered with plywood. The small deck you see was a tree house Larry made for the boys about twenty years ago. We lost the tree that made it a treehouse in a storm several years ago, but it's a nice sturdy deck. The raccoons and squirrels use it all the time. Underneath was an accumulation of old bricks, flower pots, leftover topsoil, and a big ugly retired pool cover. It will be even prettier when the tiny seedlings are all abloom. Thanks, Larry! We love swimming around in circles and admiring the hanging baskets of flowers as we go by.

If we can't grow a pumpkin this year we're pretty pathetic. Look at all these blossoms! You've been reading our (non) pumpkin saga for several seasons now.

Another pair of socks in the works. I have worked 98 hours in the last two weeks, so progress is slow. My reward is. . . the next six days off! Woohoo!

Wishing joy to you and yours.

Something new!

I hadn't tried dying anything since I was in high school. I was visiting www.Ravelry.com and saw several references to using Kool-Aid to dye yarn, so I thought I'd give it a try. The Dollar General Store had their drink mixes priced at 10 for $1. Unfortunately they only had red and orange, which actually worked out really well since I'm always trying to find the perfect sunrise color. One ball of yellow yarn (many thanks, Ginny!) and two packages of drink mix produced some lovely hand dyed yarn. Who-hoo!

It is a surprising process to watch. The yarn sucks the color right out of the water, and you are left with completely clear water! If I do it again, I think I will knit the item first and then dye it. It was hard to keep the yarn from getting tangled. The posts did mention that you have to unwind the ball first, or the inner yarn won't be able to absorb the dye.

June

I love June! I love the long daylight hours and watching things grow. Look - I found some socks growing! I am loving knitting lace socks in Ginny's yellow yarn. Thank you, Ginny! I also used it for a stripe and the toe of Larry's new socks. It knits up so nicely. Knitting a lace pattern is lots of fun, but I can only do it when I have time to pay close attention to what I am doing. "Plain vanilla socks" (as the yarnharlot.com calls them) is for when I'm visiting my mom or watching Jeopardy! with my family.

We're optimistically trying to grow pumpkins again. This year we planted them in full sun, hoping we may actually get a pumpkin this year. We have always gotten lovely greenery and gorgeous flowers, but never a pumpkin. The raspberries are looking good. My dad gave us our raspberry bushes several years ago, and it's fun to remember his gift of growing things long after he has gone.

It's swimming season again! In case you don't see much of me this summer, please know that I am happily occupied with all the joys of summer (and the usual 40 hour work week :>}

Wishing you, my blog friends, all the best!

Remember Bobby?

In January 2009 so many very talented people sold their marvelous crafts for the Australian bush fire relief fund. I bought Bobby from the very talented Rachel Slater and told myself that someday I would learn how to do something like that.

Rachel's Bobby is on the right. We used the same pattern, but different weights of yarn and sizes of needles, which is why mine came out so much larger. The pattern said to use "oddments" of yarn, and I had no gray oddments, so I used gold for the buckle, buttons, and badge. Yarns and needles have different definitions in different countries, which makes it a bit confusing when the internet makes it so easy to shop internationally. Oh, but I am so glad it does! Fifteen years ago I wouldn't have had any idea how to search for a pattern for an English Bobby. Thanks to Google and Jean Greenhowe I was able to find the pattern right away.

The next Bobby I make will be the smaller size, but I am very pleased with my first attempt. It's not as cute as Rachel's, and the head looks kind of blobby, but I find the badge on his hat very charming.

My reintroduction to knitting started in January 2010 and I've enjoyed it ever so much. I have a lot of people to thank for this, starting with my mom who first taught me how to knit when I was seven years old. Suzanne and her mum sparked my interest when they sent me an adorable Aussie koala, baby sweater and booties, and darling doll, all knitted by Sue's mum. Then there were all the blogs with hand knit socks - Lucy Locket is an amazing knitter! And Lisa Boyer, quilter extraordinaire, was knitting socks, mittens, hats, and sweaters when she wasn't quilting. Ginny has made the most gorgeous shawls you've ever seen. Her daughters fight over who gets to wear them.

I found myself needing a quiet portable project for visiting my mom, and the knitting began. First the snowmen, then a pig, a cat, and two bunnies. I tried a hat; the first time something had to be a particular size. Then the socks - seven pairs! Now Bobby, and then back to more socks. My first sweater is going to be doll sized. This is fun!

Still here. . .

My nephew once wrote me a thank you note, and the subject line said, "Not dead yet." As you can imagine, it was a rather belated thank you note.

That's how I feel. I'm not dead, just busy.

And it's spring! It's hard to do things inside when the sun is shining and you can finally go outside in shorts and sandals. We wait all year for this - ahhhhh. . .

I'm taking my knitting outside. It's a fun project, but not blog ready just yet.