Amazing

This weekend during our Memorial Day celebrations, we witnessed something truly amazing.  Well, it was amazing for us.

Can you see it?  It’s only two inches across.

It’s a hummingbird nest.

She’s right above our deck.

We had never seen a hummingbird nest before and had no idea she was there until we heard her chirping when we opened our umbrella over the table.  I was lucky to get these few pictures before she flew off the nest again.

We can’t see inside the nest to know if she has any eggs but it’s fun just knowing she’s there. 

Our feeder is about ten feet from her nest.  I will be very diligent in keeping it filled with fresh food.

Felt flop

Before felting:

After felting:

Looks like I’ll be starting over.  Again.

Budding beauties

The twins spent the weekend before Mother’s Day with us while our daughter and son-in-law went away for the weekend.  I thought I’d help the girls make cards for Mother’s Day.

I took photos of them pointing to their eyes, a paper heart taped to their chests and the camera.  Then I made an accordion card and added some text and headless flowers.

The card wasn’t ready for them to take home (and I didn’t want them to know everything about it as one of them can’t keep a surprise) so I mailed it to our son-in-law.  I had to talk to him first so he knew what to do with it when he got it.

I included various flower and bug stickers for them to use to decorate the cards.

I think they did a wonderful job!  Their mom was so surprised!

Stylish

Remember these?

Good manners never go out of style.

I always appreciate a thank you card and the students I had the pleasure of meeting two weeks ago sent me a beautiful handmade card.

They all signed it and they all wrote something.

Stylish.

And so is my BFF modeling a Harley jacket for her kids.  She is an awesome teacher! 

And my best friend!!

Spring fragrance

Lily of the Valley is blooming in my garden.  The flowers are on the opposite side of my house and unless I walk around to that side, I don’t see them when I come home.

But I could smell them as soon as I got out of my car.

I plucked a few and brought them into the house so now I can smell spring inside as well as out.

Whew!

I’m glad to be home.

The box bags were a hit.  But I don’t think I will be making any more for a while.

Charleston, South Carolina is a great place to visit.   We toured the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, the USS Laffey, went to the Open Air Market in downtown Charleston, took a carriage ride through Charleston, toured Fort Sumter, dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, visited the Citadel, went on a nature ride through Magnolia Plantation and a boat ride through the swamp lands there as well.  We saw a couple of dolphins and lots of alligators.  We all had a great time.

Knitting?  Nada.  No knitting happened.  Our days were too full and we were too tired to even look at the pattern let alone get out our yarn or needles and cast on.

I drove part of the way on Sunday and finished the trip on Monday with a detour to IKEA in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I did the return trip in one day.

Total distance: 1,188 miles.

Total time behind the wheel: 19 hours and 28 minutes.

Filled

The box bags I talked about yesterday will be with hand sanitizer, purse-sized tissue pack, a bottle of water, a package of peanut butter cookies, and Tastykakes.***  If you’ve never had a Tastykake, you’re missing out on some fabulous goodness.  My favorites are the Butterscotch Krimpets and the Cream Filled Buttercream Cup Cakes.

***I did not receive any compensation nor am I a paid spokesperson for TastyKake.  I just wish I was.

Box bags all in a row

My friend is taking her 8th graders to Charleston, South Carolina this coming week and I’m meeting them there.  I’ve never been to Charleston before and am really looking forward to going.

I made box bags for all the students.  The tutorials I used can be found here and here.  Remember my quandary about the fabric?

The final count: 4 in the bicycle fabric, 12 in the granite fabric.

The bicycle ones have all different colors for the lining.  The granite ones have 4 different colors between the 12.

If I ever decide to make 5, 16, or 45 of the same thing again (and I really hope I don’t), remind me the make them ALL. THE. SAME!  This changing colors of thread for each lining color was a pain, or as I like to call it, a PITA.  You can figure out the “A”.

I do like them though.

You’ll be able to see what they’ll be filled with tomorrow.

Houston, we may have a problem

Silly me.  I assumed something and we know what that means.

My iPad cover swatch.  Remember it?

I pinned the felted swatch to the cover on my ironing board to dry so I could use the squares as my measurement.

Great plan.

Those squares are one inch so my swatch would be five inches square.  And I really had to tug to get the width to five inches.

Mr. Aitch’s cover was 48-49 stitches so I thought I would make this one a few stitches bigger since I was doing a two-color design and I had to work within the color pattern.  I cast on 26 stitches for this swatch since I planned on 52 stitches for the width.  Wonderful.  I needed the cover to be about 10 inches wide.  This was going to be a piece of cake.

After felting and measuring the wet swatch, I went on my merry way.  Now with only a few more rows left to knit I’ll be ready to felt in no time.  Then I decided to remeasure the dry swatch one more time.  The swatch is not five inches square.  The swatch is 4.5 inches square and the finished cover just might not be wide enough.  How can this be?  It must have been stretched so much that once it was unpinned, it relaxed.  Relaxed a half inch.  Which translates to one inch on the finished project.

Had I realized this before I cast on, I could have just made it eight stitches wider.  But n-o-o-o.  I had to hurry up and cast on before checking and double checking my swatch.  Length-wise there is no problem.  I can knit a few more repeats.  Width-wise is the issue.

I’m going away next week and really, really, really wanted to have this cover finished for my iPad.

Do I keep going as though nothing is wrong and hope and pray (and tug, and tug, and tug) that it will fit?

Do I pick up some stitches along the sides and make a gusset-type of thing?

What would you do?

The CCM hat decision

Remember a few weeks ago when I finished my Carrie Cahill-Mulligan hat?

Well, I finally decided what I was going to do with the brim.

Paisley.  I love paisley and found some generic paisley shapes to use as my inspiration.  My plan is to embroider eight paisley designs around the entire brim but I’m going to start at the front and work my way around from side to side so I don’t have to have it completely finished before wearing it.

Yes, I know it’s April and we’ve had some unseasonably warm weather of late (90 degrees yesterday!!) but I don’t want to wait until next fall before I return to find it still naked of all embellishment.

I love this hat.

And you can have your very own!

It’s easy.

Go to Carrie’s website and:

1. Order a kit.  Or two.  Or three.  You get to select the colors of yarn you want.
2. Buy a gift certificate for a kit or a hat for a dear friend, your spouse, yourself, or anyone.
3. Buy a hat.

I know that Carrie and Andy, her husband, would really appreciate it right now.  Go on, check it out.

Have you read it yet?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Mr. Aitch got the e-book version for his tablet a few weeks ago.  I borrowed his tablet, started reading the book on Tuesday and finished it today. 

Wow.

Some reviews were not favorable but I enjoyed the book.  I’m looking forward to the second book in the series called Catching Fire.

Now that that is out of the way, I can concentrate on the iPad cover.    Since I’m doing a stockinette stitch and a two-color houndstooth design on this one instead of one color and the garter stitch, I thought I should felt another swatch.  The swatch is finished and felted.  I just have to make sure the two-color knitting it very loose on the back so the stitches don’t pull too close together while being felted.  I may decide to knit a couple of stitches along the sides for a small gusset to make it a little wider just in case my knitting is too tight.

I think the houndstooth pattern will show up nicely once it’s finished.

Happy Easter!

Surprise package

A few weeks ago I commented on Wool and Chocolate’s blog about not ever having seen, felt, smelled, or touched Malabrigo yarns.  Much to my dismay, my local yarn shop (LYS) does not carry it.  Mrs. Woolandchocolate sent me a message back saying she would see what she could do about that.

Do I know this lovely woman personally?  No.  Only through the blogging world.  In fact she lives on the opposite side of the continent.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I was greeted with this package.

 

Malabrigo worsted in Velvet Grapes.  My photo does not do this justice.  The colors are beautiful and more varied.  The yarn is squishy, soft, and smells great!

Thank you Shelly!  Knitters are the BEST!

Diaper stacker

A friend of mine is due any day now with her second set of twins.  Yes, second set.  She needed a diaper stacker that would hold enough diapers for one day (or more) so I offered to make one for her.  I had made one of these a few years ago and tried to remember the process.  I didn’t really have a pattern but there are several online.

My grandmother was an excellent seamstress, knitter, and crocheter. She would use whatever she had on hand and somehow make it work.   She was also creative with embellishing anything she made.  Rick rack was a favorite of hers as well as lace, binding, piping and of course, her beautiful hand embroidery.  I used rick rack and binding.  Following my grandmother’s thriftiness I looked through my sewing materials and used fabric from my mother-in-law and some leftover rick-rack I had.  The only thing purchased was the binding.

Detail of the trim.

The section at the top has fusible fleece inside to give it more stability and strength.  The top tabs have Velcro closures that allow one to hang it from a hanger, towel bar or dowel rod.

I love it when things all come together.

New header with pipes

We have the day off today so I thought I’d do some sprucing up around the house and the blog.  I was tired of looking at those fingerless mitts in my header so I changed it for the current project.  It will be felted so those wonky stitches will disappear.

I’m also knitting a swatch to see how it will felt since this is stockinette stitch using two colors.  I like it so far and hope it will felt up nicely.

My son and family will be here for Easter and I need to get the dust bunnies under control.  Before that happens though, the bagpipes need to be shipped to my cousin.

Bagpipes?

Yes.  They were originally my uncle’s pipes, my cousin’s father.  I acquired them after my uncle got married.  I took lessons when I was 15-16 years old and played them in a Scottish drill team as well as in our high school production of Brigadoon.  I was not as dedicated as I should have been so I didn’t practice often.  Like right before my lesson kind of practice.  As with any instrument practice makes perfect.

In 2002 the bag was replaced as the original one had many, many pinholes in it and was not able to be played.  The reeds were also replaced.  I fully intended to pick them back up and relearn to play them again.  My goal was to play Amazing Grace perfectly.  That didn’t happen and it only took me 10 years to realize it was never going to happen.  I still hate to practice.  Plus Mr. Aitch is not a fan of bagpipes.

So my cousin has graciously decided to take them off my hands.  I hope she and her family learn to play and love them.

Now where are those dust bunny traps?