Vintage Crochet Scarf and Hat - Finished!

Thank goodness I have listed gardening as one of the subjects of this blog.  Because that seems to have been my only topic of late.  I was feeling a smidge guilty about that for a little bit.  The thing is that weeds wait for no one.  You either spend time outside pulling them before they set seed or you spend a lot of time later when they multiply and spread. 


I have snuck in a few non-gardening projects, but they have moved along sooo slowly I have not blogged about them.


Friday evening I put the finishing touches on a  hat and scarf set.  I blogged about the scarf here.  But then it went into a black hole.  Not really, I just didn't blog about it.  I couldn't bring myself to commenting on "I added two more rows and they look fantastic".  That seemed silly, even for me.

So here is the finished product.

At first I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it.  I thought tassels on the bottom of the points might be cute.  The pattern  added scallops around the edges.  Maybe I could give it a try and if I didn't like it, I could rip it out and go with my original idea.  Well, the scallops were totally cute, so no tassels.

I really wanted to make a hat next.  You might remember this pattern was for a baby blanket - not a hat.  I decided to add one more repeat of the main pattern and make a large rectangle.  Then I would add ribbing and and cinch the top together.  If it was too small I could always add a couple more rows to the body of the hat and ribbing.  Seemed pretty easy.

I used the tutorial written by Attic 24 for seaming the body of the hat and the ribbing.  It worked very well, and I think it will be more secure than if I stitched it together with a needle.  It also resulted in fewer ends to weave in.

The sweetie thought it needed a little something, so I added a tassel.  Good idea.  I think it turned out to be really cute.

Here is the set together.  Awwh.

Now I am on the hunt for some cute crochet mittens!  This has been a very fun project.  I hope you like it.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It has been a very cool and cloudy spring in Seattle.  Just a week before the Memorial Day holiday and here's the forecast.

Monday Partly Cloudy, Light Showers Day: 55° Night: 44°

Tuesday Partly Cloudy Day: 63° Night: 49°

Wednesday Mostly Cloudy, Morning Rain Day: 59° Night: 43°

Thursday Partly Cloudy, Light Showers Day: 54° Night: 46°

Friday Mostly Cloudy, Evening Rain Day: 56° Night: 42°

Saturday Thunder Storm, Rainy Day: 53° Night: 43°

While I would prefer warmer, sunnier days, the garden is very, very happy.  Especially the weeds (but I'm not going down that snarky path).  Here are some photos I snapped this morning in my jammies (from inside the house).

This is the  backyard, looking out through a bedroom window. 

The left side of the driveway.  Even on an overcast day, it glows.

Alchemilla mollis or Lady's Mantle.  One of the cool things about this plant is the leaves are covered with tiny hairs which causes water to bead on top, looking like tiny transparent pearls.

New growth on the Lady's Mantle.  In a couple of weeks there will be sprays of tiny, tiny yellow flowers that sit above the leaves.  They hold well as a cut flower.

Wiegela 'Dark Horse' against a bright background of Spirea.

I debated whether to include this shot.  The focus was not on the center of the tulip but rather the tiny drops of water on the petals.

Allium, just starting to open.  When in full bloom, this will look like lavendar fireworks.  It's an interesting dried flower too.  Some of the tiny flowers are holding rain drops.

How does your garden grow?

A little focus... please

I'm not complaining.  Really, I'm not.  I'm just tellin' ya how it was...

Yesterday, I couldn't seem to stay on task if my life depended on it.  Anyone who has known me for more than 15 minutes would know that I am a pretty focused person.  As I type this, I can see my mom and  sister snorting.  'Pretty focused' is a bit of an understatement.  We are a family who enjoys self-deprecating humor.  If we don't poke fun at ourselves, others will.

If I take a small excerpt from my day, it took me 20 minutes to get out the door to take some items to the dry cleaner.  Here's how it went down:

I put the dry cleaning items into the bag. 

Then I looked through the closet to see if there was anything I'd overlooked.

Hmm.  There's a suit I hadn't worn in a couple years.  Oh yeah, because I had worn it to death.  Should I give it away, or throw it away?  The elbows of the jacket are shot, and the trousers are not much better.  I should throw it away.  Wad up the suit, set it on the bed.

Where's my jacket?  It looks chilly.  Is it chilly?  Go outside to check it out.  Gosh, I really need to weed and my bok choi is bolting.  Go inside and get my jacket. 

Where are my keys?  Wallet?  Phone.  Wasted a good 5 minutes looking around for those.  OK, so the thing about that is that I always put those items in the same place.  I hardly ever spend time looking for them.  Except yesterday.

In the bedroom looking for my keys I move the suit from the bed to the dresser. Still no keys.

Oh, gotta tell the sweetie I am heading out.  Down the  stairs I go.  Walk past the washer.

Hmm.  I really should put a load of sheets in to get the laundry started.  Back up stairs and strip the bed, being careful not to dislodge one of the Unusually Helpful Helpers who was taking a nap.

OK, the wash is going.  Now where are my shoes?  Should I wear the waterproof tennis shoes for the 3 block walk to the dry cleaners or my Keens?  The calendar says it's spring even if the temperature does not, so I go with the Keens.  They are waterproof - sorta.

Found the keys.  Where is my phone?

The entire day went like that.  Seriously.  The. Entire. Day.  Aside from putting clean sheets on the bed I honestly cannot say I completed a single task.  I started about a hundred.

When I relayed  my adventure to the Sweetie on the way to the Sounders game, he said it was likely I had too many things to do in a short period of time and couldn't decide where to begin.  The really funny thing was, that we were on our second route to the game because traffic was all crunched up (at 6:30 on a Saturday evening!).

Perhaps today will have a better outcome...  Although the Sweetie has already me away twice to watch highlights from the game.

Tulips

One of the perks of our cooler than normal spring is that all the blooms seem to be holding longer.  My tulips are still going strong.

These are 'naturalizing tulips'.  Similar to daffodils they come back year after year.

This weekend was the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market.  It jammed with vendors and tasters.  As much as I love cheese, it was again the tulips that caught my eye.

Playing in Water

I've been dying to try to capture moving water with the new camera.  Just drops.  So I practiced a little this evening using the water feature in the front yard as my subject.

And now featuring the kitchen sink...

Close, but I think I will focus on my day job to pay the bills.  Clearly I am no threat to professional photographers. 

As I was deleting shot after shot, I was grateful this wasn't the era where film had to be processed to find out they weren't very good.  Technology is awesome!  I just need to work to master it.

Hosta

I had a chance to get out into the garden.  Saturday I was armed with clippers and a hand hoe, but Sunday afternoon my tool of choice was a camera.

We recently bought a new camera.  And while I still have so much to learn it has been fun to play around.

I've not even begun to look at editing aside from trimming from time to time.

I love the curving lines of the veins on this image.

Max, hiding in the bushes.

How does your garden grow?

Humor, a little on the dark side

This last Friday on NPR's Morning Edition, there was a story on Bourbon Balls.  Makes sense, the the Kentucky Derby this last Saturday and Bourbon being the state beverage.  I don't know if it really is the state beverage - I made that part up.

Anywho, I've attached a link.  They have transcribed the interview, but for best effect consider listening to the audio version.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/06/136021711/bourbon-balls-give-a-sweet-kick-to-kentucky-derby

Later in the day, someone at work reminded me of the Saturday Night Live sketch Delicious Dish with Alec Baldwin called Schweddy Balls.  It's a riot.  This is not G-rated.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/nprs-delicious-dish-schweddy-balls/2846/

We both would like to believe that NPR has a sense of humor and thought about the connection between the two when they ran their story on Friday. 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone.  Somehow I had forgotten it was this weekend.  In my brain, it was next weekend.  The Sweetie reminded me on Thursday morning. 

"Gah!  This weekend!  Really?" 

I had a present all picked out.  It just wasn't in the mail and needed to go half way across the country.  The Sweetie told me they now have a kiosk at the Post Office to send packages 24/7.  Sort of a self-serve thing.  He said it was great as there were no lines to wait in any longer.  Of course, he was sharing this because it would be easy for me to mail the package after work.

With a tiny bit of pleading the Sweetie mailed the package for me.  Hadn't he just told me how easy it was?  I am happy to report, it arrived on Saturday... just in time.  Thank you, Sweetie!  You're the best!

The last several weekends, since we returned from Hawaii have been spent on yard work.  According to the folks at the local nurseries it was a hard winter in the NW.  Just enough outside of normal for folks to lose a lot of plants.  Although, I think they say that every year.

I have dug up and replaced more shrubs that I really care to think about.  My yard waste container has been super duper full each week.   I have my fingers cross that the last two will pull it out.  A variegated Azara, an evergreen tree that lost all of it's leaves (not a good sign). 

This photo I pulled from the web (see the reference on the pic).  I would show you mine, but it's just a bunch of small  bare twigs at this point.  I did see some tiny, tiny buds, so I am hopeful.



And a Chilean Fire Bush, also evergreen, and also lost all it's leaves.  This one will break my heart if it doesn't make it.  I have nursed it along since the seedling stage.  It's fairly difficult to source, and I hate to think about replacing it. 

The photos below are from Annies Annuals.  In May this tree should be covered with fire engine red flowers and is a humming bird magnet.  Mine has not yet bloomed, too young I think, but I have been long looking forward to the day it does.



Aren't the flowers stunning?



The rest of the garden is slowly coming together.  I'll see if I can take some pictures to post soon.  It's not the hot mess it was earlier in the season. I think I am down to clearing moss and weeds out of the beds.  The bright green growth of new leaves and tulips make everything look better.  I even planted most of my pots yesterday, which makes everything look even more cheery.

Have a great Sunday!

New Crochet Project - Vintage Crochet Scarf

Hi.


I didn't blog yesterday. 


I thought about it, but it was just too nice to be inside.  It was sunny and in the 60's.  Yup.  Like only the second or third time this year.


Hmmm.... Blog or putter in the garden.  The garden won.  It was fantabulous.  (Fantastic + Fabulous = Fantabulous.)  I am very sore.


So, a couple of weeks back I started a new crochet project.  Likely when I should have been doing something else.  Like vacuuming, or making dinner, or something.  Crochet is such a great procrastination thing for me.


Any who.  I am using a pattern I picked up from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island last summer.  My folks had come over for a visit from WI and we stopped in Winslow before dinner with my in-laws.  I found this really cute pattern called Vintage Crochet Blanket.


Here's the image from their website.  I fell in love with how graphic it was with only the two colors.  There is a 10 color version, but that didn't say 'buy-me' in the same way.





The pattern had been languishing in a notebook, until I rediscovered it recently.  I had tried to start it once or twice last summer.  You know, just testing out the pattern with some stash yarn, but it wasn't meant to be.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I just happen to find myself at Acorn Street Yarn  (which is walking distance from my house!!) and I found just the stuff.  5 skeins each of  Baby Alpaca D.K. by Plymouth Yarn in red and black.  I never intended to make a blanket - just an scarf - so I tweaked the repeat to adjust for the narrower width.

I am happy to report that this pattern comes together very quickly.  Changing colors each row is a bit of a pain, but that's drama of my own making.  I mean, if it was really that big a deal I should have selected a different pattern.  I know, right?

So at last measure, Saturday, it was 7 inches wide and 43 inches long.  But I have worked on it since then.


I don't think I will end up using all 10 skeins so my next idea is to make a hat to match.  The stripe will go vertically, with black ribbing, and a pom pom.  It should be great!


This blog is supposed to be about trying new things.  With this post I think I took a giant step backward.  I mean, I 'm making a scarf - again.  And using Alpaca - again.  Maybe next project..


Now, onto more mundane things - like re hemming a pair of pants for work that seems to have 'come undone'.   But I am blogging instead - my second best procratination tactic!