Pictures - Part II

Since Blogger wouldn't let me load any more photos on my last post, I have a couple more I hope you'll let me share.

More favorite memories:

Visiting the Olympic Park in Park City (that's a real person practicing aerials off a ramp into a pool!):



Mt Littlest Olympian:




Fountains at the Mormon Temple Square (do these really only go off for wedding pictures? One's going on to the left and capturing all my daughter's attention):




And my favorite, a family hike on the last evening capped off by a lot of rock throwing. We climbed in a National Park and visited a mine and we strictly forbidden in both places to climb - but not here:


Heavenly!

And now, back to regularly scheduled programming!

Vacation is But a Memory

Since I'm in a reminiscing mood, here are some of my favorite photo memories of our trip to Utah (or for Madge, the Beehive State):

Resting during a Timpanagos Mountain hike:



Pushing tires at Bingham Canyon Copper Mine (the largest open mine in the world, large enough to be seen from space, and too large for me to photograph!):






More later when Blogger gets with the program!

These Socks Really Rock!

Re-entry is always a bit dicey after vacation - I'm having a hard time getting back to "normal"- so I'm hoping that sharing vacation pictures helps.

I started a sock pattern before I left so that I would have something little on the plane. I also needed to make some kind of showing with the Summer of Socks, especially after I made a (ambitious!!) list and all. I cranked out my Leetle Bag, started the anklets in Cascade Fixation, and hit the road. Somehow I lost a bamboo dpn before leaving and there were none left in Richmond, so I picked up metal ones. Wow. Much nicer than I would have expected. I'm thinking of getting more. Especially since I seemed to have lost one or two more along the way. The Leetle Bag needs to be a leetle bit bigger.

Here's the sock on the plane during takeoff out of Washington National (little to no security lines - yea! - the camo was a fashion choice by favorite male offspring):



And here's how long the plane trip lasted:



That's amazing progress for me! I was so excited, I stopped by a Wal-Mart while on vacation, just so I could get a plastic needle to kitchner the toe. Even the kids were happy for me:



And I immediately started sock #2. Maybe there is no second-sock horror story when you are making anklets! The little picot edge was a new one for me - and I also learned that reading direction is helpful as I made the heel flap inside out. I'm declaring it a fashion statement. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Here is sock #2 enjoying a family hike:



See - these socks really do ROCK!

Garden Friday

The garden post is going out a day early because we are headed to the Beehive State. The fun thing about have an overplanted garden is that you discover things everyday. The vegetables get kind of big before I discover them. And when you don't remember what you planted, it is even more surprising!

Here's the big mama I found yesterday - from outside the gate. I was hoping it was a watermelon (didn't we plant some watermelon?), but turn out it is a birdhouse gourd.



And here is one of the many babies on the way:



We even have a few sunflowers poking through:



And beside it all is a pretty little magnolia tree that is throwing out some very pretty blossoms:



Looks like the plants are thriving despite the heat!

It's On Now!

I talked my lovely neighbor, Pam, into a mini-KAL for the MD Moss Stitch Grid Hand towel. Really, this seemed like fun. I had Euroflax, she was using cotton thread (Aunt something "Denim" from Ben Franklin at $4.99 for a humongous cone) - it might be neat to see how things work up - or so I thought.

Here are the swatches:



I'm using size 5s, but realized that I don't have the yarn specified in the pattern. I didn't know there was more than one Euroflax. I'm using Geneva and it calls for Original. And a lot more of it than I have. I might be making a long, skinny washcloth!

Here is the Mutt-and-Jeff shot of our first rows:



Well, we can still do this. But I forgot something - I really don't like seed stitch. VERY time consuming. And why do they call it moss stitch. I think just to dupe simple people like me into thinking it is something more grand. Kind of like when I first heard of butter beans. Butter on beans sounds pretty good, huh? Oh no - they're just limas in major pretend mode (and I hate limas). Get behind me butter beans - I denounce you as the lima you really are.

Anyway, this is going to take a l-o-n-g time to knit. Pam thinks I am going to whip up on her because she can't knit in her job like I can. We've gotten together twice and I have maybe 12 rows to show for it. Even my husband noted "You have knitted much for all the time you've spent together" at which point we fell upon him with our spare needles. But I have a secret weapon:



Her yarn got all snarly and she has to detangle! I'll smile and wave when I pass her on the inside!

Garden Friday

I haven't kept with Garden Friday (showing shots of my garden each week), just like I haven't really kept up with the garden. Here's why:




Holy Hot Dogs! It's a jungle!! You can't even see the pots any more. And finding produce is a bit of a problem. The birds have no problems, though, finding tomatoes and peck holes in almost 5 out of every 6. Yuck! Usually they get the first few, then lay off, but not this year. Maybe because it is so dry? I'm actually picking the tomatoes I can find first a little less than red so we can actually eat one. And our cucumbers - another yuck. They all have an awful taste to them. Kind of like the bitterness you sometimes get in the ends, only throughout the whole cucumber. I have high hopes for the assorted vines we planted, thinking something has to come out right. But if it did, we might never find it in the tangle!



My littlest offspring loves watering and I often find her watering any plant within the reach of the hose that strikes her fancy. Which is OK as every plant is super thirsty right now.

Here's hoping for a summer shower (and an early freeze!).

Crochet Fever

Inspired in not a small part by Amy's beautiful baskets, I decided to try my hand at crochet again. It's been ages since I tried it, having never learned to hold the yarn properly, even taking a beginning class at the local Ben Franklin to refresh. Nothing seemed to take until I saw Amy in action and borrowed a copy of Simple Crochet. It's so much easier to do something the right way!

In a rare moment of early wakefulness on my part and late sleeping of my offspring, I set up shop at my kitchen table to get started without interruption. I used two strands of Sugar 'N Cream ($1 sale at Michael's!), puposely offsetting the variegation so that finished product would be more mottled instead of striped.



Look! Crocheting in the round! I'm doin' it! I then noticed that the color of the cushion in the book picked up the colors of my hydrangeas. No matter that shortly thereafter the breakfast crew had wrecked my idyllic little scene, I have proof that there was a brief moment of tranquility:



Aaah!

And at the end of the day, here's what I had:



I had picked up some very fun Laura Ashley paper while at Michael's, so I tucked them into the basket to give my sister-in-law.



I thought that the red ribbon would add a little oomph and tie (pun intended!) in with the ribbon on one of the paper packaged, but it just looked weak. It was removed, and the basket was gifted very nakedly. I added the crochet hook in this picture for scale. Now I know what I can make with one day and two skeins of Sugar 'N Cream. I think next time, I'm going shopping at Amy's!

Think Pink

Thanks to Mary, I sent off a pink scarf to participate in the Think Pink Challenge.



If you're not into links, the Challenge consists of trying to collect 1000 (yes, thousand!) pink scarves for women facing breast cancer by the end of September. They'll be distributed in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I made this very whimsical scarf from remnants of a former prolific knitter's stash. She used mostly acrylics, which works great for a scarf that you want to be able to clean. Lots of reds, whites, and pinks. It was fun to make as I used a sampler approach as suggested in Kids Knitting.



I hope this can lift some one's spirits this October. If you have time and some yarn in your stash, this might be a fun cause to support - with your needles, even!