Gardens, Knitting, Love, and Birds

I made Dandelion jelly and Violet Jelly last week.   The Violet Jelly turned out a beautiful pinkish purple.   I tried to save time and double the batch of the Dandelion jelly.   Well, that didn't work.   It tastes good but it didn't jell up.   So it has the consistency of thick honey.   The children still like it so I think I'll let it go for now.   Note to self:  next year, don't double jelly recipe.

I finished one of my baseball knitted handtowels.   I choose an easy project to knit while I'm at the games.   It helps to pass the time when the boys aren't playing yet and it keeps me from being too nervous watching the game.   Lately it has been fun to watch them since they are playing better and they are winning.   Nathan's team has now won 3 in a row. 

Note:  the picture-taking created a kind of optical illusion.   The towel is much longer than it is wide.   In real life, it doesn't look like a giant potholder.

My iris are up!    This is the first spring that I've had iris in a long time and I am glad to have them back.

I also tried the Allium for the first time.   They all came up in purple glory!

This is a picture of love.   My dh would go through his entire life without ever needing pea fences.   But because he loves me, he put up fences on all of my rows of peas.

This sad bird broke his neck on our front window trying to scare off his reflection from intruding on our property.   I asked a friend at church and he says that this is a Mourning Warbler and that he was on his way to the northern forests.   The other Warbler that was challenging his reflection seems to have left so I hope he is safely on his way to the north.

I'm My Own Grandma

I have some yarn covered hangers that my grandmother made me.   I really like them, especially for my dresses.   But some were finally falling apart and I needed more anyway.   Where could I go to find more?   Since I didn't think of them when my grandmother was alive to teach me, I turned to the internet and found out how to make them.   Here is my first one.

You basically take two hangers and cover them with yarn in a series of slip knots.

But they didn't look quite like Grandmother's.   I looked closer at hers and found out that she put 4 knots of one color before going to 4 knots of the second color.   

By using this pattern and scrunching the yarn up close, it makes the hanger look like it is covered with little colored triangles.

So now I have yet another thing to do with my hands while I'm watching a movie or waiting for baseball practice to be over. The children are quite fascinated by the whole process.

Shawl Finally Finished

I finally finished making my Christmas shawl for my mother!   Only about 4 months late.   I made it with a silk yarn that goes from a denim blue to gray to a light olive green.

More Blue Shawls

I had a skein and a half left over from my blue shawl so I decided to make Deborah a shawl out of it.   It is a little skinny but Deborah likes it.   We both wore our shawls to church on Sunday.

My Blue Shawl

I finished my varigated blue shawl. It is made from a yarn that not only varies in color from light blue to dark blue to purple but varies in the width of the yarn from thin to thick. My knitting mentor told me to use a prayer shawl pattern since it would feature the beauty of the yarn itself without distraction from a more complicated pattern.

I finished it about a week ago and wore it to church today. And as it was about 8 degrees this morning, the shawl felt very good in church.

My first pair of socks

I took a break from my big knitting project to make some fun tube socks. These don't have a heel and were easy to make. Deborah picked this color out.

Deborah modeling her new socks. She says that they are great for sliding on the wood floor.

Well done Deborah!

Deborah finished her first knitted washcloth. She did all the knitting except for the cast-on and the bind-off.

Knitting and more knitting

All summer long, a group of women have been meeting in our church basement to learn knitting for our resident expert Nita. She's taught all of us quite a bit this summer.

The young girls have also enjoyed learning. They are working on a variety of washclothes, doll scarves, or scarves for themselves (depending on attention span).

I finished placemat number 4. I think it may be the last one for a while. I have a few other things that I want to try out.

This summer Nita taught me how to knit in the round and how to felt. This is a purse before felting. Felting is running it through the washer with hot water. The purse shrinks and also gets fuzzy.

Here's the finished purse drying. See how much it shrunk? Pretty cool.

One placemat done, three more to go

I finished my first knitted placemat. I did have to start over once I had knitted three rows. But once I started over, I only had to undo a couple of rows one time. There is one tiny backwards dark blue and one tiny backwards light blue stitch, but overall, I am pleased with the work.

January Handiwork

I finally finished my second rag rug and put it out at my sink area this week.

I also finished Deb's scarf. She wanted one after she saw me knit one for her dolls. She picked out the color herself.

And last, but definitely not least, we have a cheesecake for my dh.

I'm hip!

Knitting is the "in" thing now. All the cool people are learning how to knit. Or so says my knitting friend Kim. And who am I to argue against hip?

Anyway, I taught myself to knit using a book, getting frustrated with that book, calling Kim, and going to a knitting help website she recommended. The website really helped and here are the results. First I made just a regular knitted washcloth (all knitting, no purling).

Then I made a fancier washcloth with increases and decreases and a fancy dancy patterned yarn over hole along the edge. Note: I did tuck in the ends after I took the picture last night.

Lastly, I made a doll scarf for Deborah. She liked it very much and wants a second one for her other doll.

The happy recipient.

And when did I have time to do all this? On the looooong ride to Illinois and the on the loooooong ride back home. And while I was backing up my computer files. And while I was burning our photos onto CDs so I can clean up the hard drive. Turns out knitting is a great way to still feel productive while your computer is working on something.