wearin' the green

Pattern: A little Lace kitchen cloth by Carol Bristol
Yarn: Peaches and Cream
Color: lemon/lime
Needle: US7
Recipient: a secret

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

what did you do on the 4th?

what a day.....we had plans to go to our friends' house for a picnic and then fireworks. The rain and our schedule of events cancelled out the fireworks.


We're driving along and all of a sudden the battery light goes on..... (mind you the check engine light has been on for about 5 1/2 weeks and nothing has been done about it) a few miles later the ABS light comes on and then the engine starts to rev. I suggested that we pull over... and turn off the car. So DH kindly followed my instructions. Then tried to start the car and it gave that rr, rr, rr sound of a dead battery. So call AAA (thankfully we have AAA+ which tows for 100 miles for free) and I start thinking who can pick the 7 of us up? My brother won my vote and as serendipity would have it (in a bad situation) his van was finished getting fixed, so he just had to pick it up and my nephew followed in his car. They let us have to van to use until ours gets fixed. Mind you, my brother lives 50 miles from me (albeit in the direction we were traveling) but still, he's an Eagle Scout through and through.
We unloaded the car with stuff that we'd need and all the people and parked in someone's front yard along the side of the country highway (a state route... that is fairly busy) and waited for the tow truck, which came pretty quickly once we figured out where we were. Oddly enough after the tow truck took away the car, the people in the house came out and looked a bit puzzled but were very kind in offering their facilities should we need them. My brother and nephew came and rescued us with their van and rabbit (be a better story if they rode in on a mustang, no?) and we continued on our merry way.
I'm curious to know what the problem is and if it's related to the check engine light.

Two of the caterpillars have pupated and one is in the J. The fourth looks about ready. I'd take pictures but the batteries in my camera died and my kids used the rest of the AA batteries in the house, so I'll have to go get more tmrw.

I started this cloth on the way down, finished it at our friend's house and left it for her. I found the idea on ravelry and think it's a brilliant way to use up those scraps of kitchen cotton.

Pattern: Lizard Ridge Dishcloth by Laura Aylor
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Colors: Delft Blue, Red and White
Needle: US6
Made for: Gaby

There's one goof in it, but I left it go. All in all it's a great patriotic cloth and another wonderful use of the Lizard Ridge pattern. Thanks Laura! :-)

I still haven't finished sock #2. There is about 3 inches left to knit. I should get cracking. Tomorrow, OK technically today, starts the Tour de France and with it the Tour de Fleece... I'll spin up what I have in rolags and hope to card more as well.

And last but not least, some pictures from the Philly zoo yesterday. We bought the family deluxe membership so the kids got to go on all the stuff that was available and we'll have to go back again in the next year (I personally could go there every day!) We arrived around 11:30 and stayed until closing. Suffice it to say that there were 7 very tired people when we got home!










The tree house. This is a very cool large room where everything is oversized even for adults. You can climb up inside the tree and look out at the room. There are giant frogs kids can climb inside. A HUMUNGOUS beehive, gargantuan monarch caterpillars and butterflys, Some dinosaur replicas, a flower seat and more. The kids had a blast here.

There will be more pictures after I steal them from my FIL's camera ;-)

life

I was chaperone to a class of 3rd graders on their field trip yesterday. The first field trip I've done in 21 years of teaching and I hope the last. There were instances of rude behavior (which I'll deal with the next time I have them in class) and we found out on the way home that one of the kids shoplifted from gift shop. (That was dealt with as soon as we got back to school). The classroom teacher had recently had eye surgery and they thought it would be better if she stayed home (since she can't see out of her one eye) The field trip was at Quiet Valley which is a lot of walking around outdoors and of course it rained the entire day. I'd have great pictures, but none of them really came out well, much to my chagrin.

Dad's celebration is tomorrow. I volunteered to put together a little poster of pictures to jog folks memories. I'm using this picture for the center of a tri-fold.

Have to get everything printed as I didn't want to cut apart or used the original photos as many of them are really old. So I scanned them all.... which also gives me the benefit of having them stored on my computer. Hope it turns out the way it is in my head.


The last of the cloths of the tea rose and persimmon combination colorways. This one is the garter slip stitch pattern. Have I said that I love this pattern? Not only how it looks, but also how it feels. And it's a quick knit.
Must. make. more.

So I'm gifting the persimmon and tea rose trio to a dear friend of mine who works at the school where I teach. Thought you might like to see all 3 together.



Last night finished another block of Lizard Ridge in color 185D

short projects

are flying off the needles.

Pattern: Garter slip stitch dishcloth by Monika
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Colors: Hot Blue and Hot Green
Needle: US6
Recipient: ravelry dishcloth swap partner
This has become my new favoirte 2 color cloth to knit. It's fast and easy and I love the nubby textrue it creates. I think it will be really good for washing dishes (or bodies) Actually I've started my second tonight in a colorway that matches the cloth below, but I'm tweaking the pattern in just one little area.....will post more about that later.

Pattern: Mason Dixon Ballband cloth
Yarn: Elmore Pisgah Peaches and Cream
Colors: Persimmon and Tea Rose
Needle: US6
Reciepient: Darlene

This is the first ballband that I've actually made correctly. I discovered that I had been knitting them with a mistake up until now (knitting all 4 rows of the bricks... such a dummy head!)

Tomorrow I am chaperoning our third graders (with many others) to Quiet Valley. Usually I never get to go on field trips but the one teahcer recently had eye surgery and still can't see out of one eye, so it's really not safe for her to go and be in charge. Instead, she'll be teaching my classes and I'll be chaperoning her kids. I love quiet Valley, so it's hardly a hardship for me to do this, even though it is mth easiest day of the week for me, until after Memorial Day that is. But I can spend the day knitting, while on the bus both ways and when the folks are lecturing in each building. I'm really excited about goin.

I took some pictures of the iris in the garden today so that my mom could see the them (since they came from her garden originally. There is one that is all white with lavendar at the edges that I want a ictuer of, but the sun didn't cooperate and the picture is a bit washed out. I'll try again tmrw. It's really pretty.

My own kids have decided that they want to sell their artwork in order to save for a Nintendo DS...I don't have the heart to tell them that they probably won't sell

The final cloth…

for the August birthday


Pattern: Mason Dixon ballband cloth
Yarn: Lily's Sugar & Cream and Elmore Pisgah Peaches & Cream
Color: Pumpkin and Butter & Cream
Needle: Susan Bates size 6
This makes a half dozen and with that I think I'll stop. Time to get the needles clackin' on something else again!

It was like Christmas at my house today. I got a package in the mail with double the amount of this lovely Corriedale cross roving... two pounds of it. I bought it from ebay but it orignally comes from Ashland Bay. Now to decide what colors to dye it. I think I'll dye before spinning, then braid it and look at it for a bit.... it feels lovely. DH just rolled his eyes. LOL

I'm thinking of printing one of my sunflower pictures to put on the top of set of 6 cloths after they're wrapped. The colors would be perfect... too bad I can't just put a sunflower on the top! Maybe I should consider a sunflower hot pad to go with the set.... I really am addicted to knitting these small projects, they go by so quickly and are so satisfying.

On a very sad note, I learned the other day that a dear friend of mine who moved away from me a couple of years ago was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She has had a full life, but I still feel so sad. The prognosis isn't good, they've predicted about 8-12 weeks left. So prayers for a peaceful passing would be appreciated for my dear sweet Gene. She is my surrogate mum in the best sense of the word.

FOs

Just a few pics to post and not much time to say more.


Pattern:Janet's Moss Ivy face cloth
Yarn: Sugar and Cream
Color: Hot Purple
Needles: Size 7 KPO

I was tardy with this one cuz we were at the beach when the mid-month KAL for the monthly dishcloth group started.



Pattern: Lion Brand's nana's bathmat with modifications
Yarn: Sugar and Cream
Color: Taupe and Warm Brown
Needles: Size 10.5 KPO

I don't know how to crochet so I didn't do the edging, nor did I follow their size, except for CO stitches, so I stopped when it was deep enough. However, it wasn't wide enough, so I picked up stitches along the purl ridges in brown and garter stitched on both sides.



Pattern: Princess Crown cloth
Yarn: Knit Picks Crayon
Color: Pink
Needle: Size 5 KPO

This is for DD for the bath. The yarn is so soft, but kind of like a bouclé and I really don't like knitting with it. Fortunately there isn't that much of it in my stash.. I have to say though it makes great spa cloths cuz it's so soft. But better to use where there is no picture to see... just regular knitting would work best I think.

I inventoried my cotton stash... it's a bit overwhelming.. Mostly sugar and cream, Tahki cotton classic and Plymouth Fantasy Naturale. Although there are some miscellaneous types in there as well. I still need to finish the index cards for the cotton and put a snip of each yarn on the card so I can see what colors will go together when I start that MD cotton blanket. When I'm finished that, the next to inventory is the wool. That will take a bit longer!

DD has another week of morning art classes. This time at the Baum School of Art. She loves it and is learning so much: warm colors, cool colors, color wheel, proportion. And I think there's a show near the end of the summer to exhibit the art work from all their summer classes.

Tuesday P and I did a hands on spinning demo at the Warren County Public Library. She brought 2 wheels and I brought mine and 3 drop spindles. We had fiber to be picked and fiber to be carded along with sets of handcarders and a flicker. The ladies tried everything from picking to carding to spinning... it was great fun. Of course, I forgot to take along my camera... sorry!

Since Tuesday I've washed the rest of the Targhee, the Peace Fleece, the rest of the Lincoln Longwool and today I'm working on the Polypay. My goal is to wash all the fleece I have in the next week so it's ready to pick and comb/card/spin!

OK... gotta get moving on this house. DS's family party is Saturday and we are in NO WAY ready for guests. I've been freecycling up a storm

My daughter, the artist!

WARNING, Will Rogers! PICTURE HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!


Wow! I am so proud of her. Today was the last day of art camp for the week at the Crayola factory. Tonight they had a show and reception for the kids. All the families were invited and the works were displayed beautifully. The 3-D pieces were on semi-circle tables with colored table cloths and the flat work was displayed on display boards. There were only about 15 kids and their families there. I know not everyone could attend.

So to begin! I took pictures at the show, but I think some of the pictures I've taken at home show the work better, so those I'll post a mixture.


Flowers in a green vase
This is a painting on artist canvas.
The given still was only the vase, then they were able to add to the picture as they wanted
The flowers are like 2 little colorful bursts,
each emanating to the side.





Underwater adventure.
The students were learning about Japanese stamping and how they used dead sea creatures as their stamps.
Here the stamps were rubber. FIrst they used watercolors on the paper, after that was dry they chose their stamps, applied acrylic paint to the stamp with a ruler then pressed them on the painting in the desired location. Cool, isn't it??




This abstract painting took 2 days. First day, the glue was applied in whatever design they wanted. It dried for a couple of days. Then they painted over with water colors. After that dried, they used a toothbrush dipped in water color and fanned it with their thumb to apply the spots.







Door hanger.
This one is self-explanatory; made with the foam pieces (but thicker than the stuff you buy at A.C. Moore), 3-D paint and little pom-poms. I love her design :-)












When pigs can fly!
These are little ceramic piggy banks that the kids were given paints, fabric and feathers and wings with which to decorate. DD had lots of fun with this one. She has a smaller one at home that SIL bought her at the factory store last summer. Now there's a pair!








Coil pot.
This is air dry clay. They made the coil pot first. Then painted with tempera (I think) There was no limit to the amount of clay they could use. Some of the pots at the show were really big. They were given them 2 packages to bring home that day. We made a little coil pot. DD of course, couldn't let it alone to dry, so she broke it. Never fear... I added a bit of water to the clay and we made birds from it. They are still drying, then she'll decorate with markers or paint.








And my favorite of all.
It's a cube made up of 8 cubes that are attached on some corners.


So that you can open it flat,












make steps




or leave it as a cube






that has 12 different sides!






They had punch, cookies, pretzels and cheese curls in a separate room. That had beautiful flowers on the table.


They also decorated a hat with the Crayola logo similar in shape to the hat from the Cat in the Hat. An art camp t-shirt, a crayola factory T-shirt with crayons in a teacup (they used fabric markers on both of these) and a white crayola t-shirt to use as a smock. They made a memory book (scrapbook similarity) a diary (journal) complete with key. And they were given a Crayola treasure chest that had markers, watercolor pencils, slick crayons, paper, a plastic storage box with under/over writer markers, colored pencils, crayons, super fine markers, 3-D paint, 3 pair of scissors (2 plain and one with a fancy cut), glue stick, regular glue and glitter glue.

I'm so pleased with her week as I know she is as well. She requested to go again next year, and I think DS1 will go too! I suggested to the director that they run a camp for parents concurrently. Hopefully the idea will fly and I can have fun next summer along with them!!!!




Oh, and I have one or two things of my own to put on the post.
This is from the Dishcloth Fun KAL


Pattern: Flutterby Fairy by RaAnn Clegg
Yarn: S&C
Color: Sage Green
Needle: Size 5 KPO


One sock is finished... now to CO the other, except I misplaced the needles ARGH!!!!!!! I remember putting them in their case and putting the case in a safe place, but now I can't remember where that safe place is.........

I leave you with some more eye candy! Happy crafting.. wish me luck finding my needles!