Happy Sunday!

Well, it's a chilly and kinda rainy afternoon, so I thought I'd update my blog. This weather lately has been great for knitting although we have braved the rain and taken a few walks. We also spent most of yesterday at the first choir retreat with our new director; it was a fun and productive day as we got a head start on Christmas music. In addition, I even have a few finishes to share.

Can you believe this is the seventeenth Interrupted Cowl that has come off my needles? I just cast on # 18 the other day and still have 2 more skeins of this yarn left.  It's a fun and easy knit.

One of my choir friends is about to have her first grand son, so I made these booties for her to give him. This is another one of my go-to patterns although I swear the yarn I use has less yardage than it used to.

For some reason these socks don't appear to be the same size. Stella tried one of them on, and I think that's why the one looks larger but really isn't.  Maybe it just stretched out?  The pattern is quite interesting although I didn't continue it down the foot of the sock.  I LOVE this yarn color because it makes me think of peppermint sticks. ( I purchased the yarn a while back at  Vogue Knitting Live when it was here in Bellevue.)

Our backyard has been pretty busy lately. This guy and his pals visit regularly along with a squirrel that takes a peanut from my fingers.  Other birds have been here en masse, too, including nuthatches, juncos and towhees. As a result, our bird feeder needs filling several times a week!

Much to my delight, our fall blooming clematis has added a bright spot to our back yard at this time of year.  In addition, it reminds me of my dear friend, Linda, who gave it to me a long time ago.  She is no longer with us, but I think of her so often as she is the one who convinced me to move to Colorado where I met my husband! 

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Hope you all have had a great weekend! 

One Done and One to Go................

Gosh, I've sure not been a good blogger lately, but this time I have an excuse. I had my first cataract surgery last week and for 6 weeks beforehand I had to quit wearing my contacts and instead wear some very out of date glasses.  It was worth it though as now my vision in that eye is great...at a distance. Thankfully I can now wear one contact and am seeing much better, both far and near. Later in the month the other eye will be fixed. Other than that, life has been much the same as always with choir, the family, and volunteering.  I do have some finishes to share though.

This quilt is finally finished, hurrah!  I learned a hard lesson with this one: Do not use spray glue to hold your backing in place unless you plan to finish the project immediately.  As the glue ages, it yellows and leaves very hard to remove stains.  With persistence, the stains mostly disappeared which was a relief.  I did the embroidery and piecing on this quilt and it was quilted by a friend, who is now deceased.  Lots of memories in this piece.

This is the second pair of socks I finished during September. The pattern is called Impossible Girl's Socks and is free on Ravelry.

And these socks are my first October finish.  The pattern, also free, is Sunday Swing and was part of a KAL sponsored by Dee.  Val suggested only doing the pattern on the cuff.

On a totally different topic, we've had some fun nature experiences lately. We had these four little visitors right on on back step this past week in the early evening.  They went nose to nose with our cat, so it was good that there was a pane of glass between them!

In Mid-September when Dick's brother and wife visited, we took a fun walk at Coulon Beach Park and were treated to a special sight.

En route to the above cairn, we saw these turtles sunning themselves on this log, and on our return, this is what we saw.  Turtle number four tried hard but didn't get to stay on the log for more than a couple of minutes.

That's it for now.  I hope you all are enjoying a great week!

What's Up? And a Finish!

Wow! We are almost halfway through the month of September already, and I'm not sure how that's happened.  We've been busy with the beginning of a new choir year, which for us means dealing with lots of music in our position as choir librarians. Then there has been some doctor/dentist visits, some work in the yard, visits with relatives and of course, some knitting. Somehow I manage to get behind with blog visits; but I'll bet you've figured that out already?

Our roses have been so pretty this year!

This birdie, a Steller's Jay, is pretty tame and visits almost every day, hoping for a peanut. There's also a friendly squirrel that took a peanut from my fingers today, but it's harder to get to sit still long enough to photograph.  Someday, maybe.....  They both have friends but no others are as tame.

This is the first time I've ever knit a right and left sock!  It's a fun and also free pattern. The yarn is  Schachmayr sock yarn. I'll be making this pattern again, for sure!

So, that's what's been going on here. We expect to have a busy weekend as my BIL and SIL are returning from an Alaska cruise and will be staying here for a couple of days before heading back home.  Hope you all have a great week!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Well, here it is the first day of September, and once again August zipped by very quickly. We were out of town for a couple of days, celebrating our anniversary. This time we went to the North Cascades and spent a couple of days in Winthrop, enjoying its western flavor.  En route we explored a bit near the Gorge Dam.

One morning we did a bit of hiking to Ladder Creek Falls 

When we were exploring the town, we saw this mama  deer and her two yearlings snacking on  the side of one of the roads.

Our most interesting discovery was the museum. Its grounds are open all the time, so even though the building was closed, we learned a lot about the history of Winthrop and the surrounding area.

Time in the car plus the August birthdays of two grand children inspired these two finishes.The youngest grand daughter loves unicorns which resulted in this project.

 This kitty went to our  oldest grand daughter whose family loves cats.  I saw a sample at a yarn shop in Coeur d'Alene and was delighted to find the free pattern on Ravelry. (It's only about 3 " tall.)

I also finished my August Camp Loopy project using one of my "go-to" patterns.  Remind me to never knit with lace yarn again as it took forever.  It looks the same on both sides which is great for scarves.

And best of all two long-time UFOs are now FINISHED. Hurrah! 

This pattern is one of my favorites.

I varied the pattern of the foot for this pair

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So, there you have it, that's what's kept me busy recently.  Hope all of you have a most enjoyable three day week end and a very Happy Labor Day tomorrow!

Friday Felines

What better place to nap than a newly finished shawl?

Catching Up!

Well, the rest of July disappeared in a flash!  We  had a wonderful week-long family gathering in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, and then company from Colorado.  And now it's August. Wow!

Twenty-three of us from my sister's and our families were together and had so much fun playing, talking, and catching up. With the exception of an incredible windstorm, the weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed the sunshine and water activities.

Then at the end of July we had visitors from Colorado. Nancy and I taught together in California many years ago, and our two families have stayed in touch every since then.

With lots of car time, I finished a couple of projects, this shawl and this scarf. The scarf is Valerie Johnson's "Going My Way" pattern. Isn't it pretty?

Before all the end-of-July excitement, I also finished my contribution to our quilt group's Ronald McDonald Christmas stocking project.

Both sides of the same two stockings

And now I'm going to go eat breakfast and then go outside to water the flower pots.  Hopefully I can also get caught up on my blog reading!!  Have a great week.

Rainy July~~~~

So far with the exception of the Fourth, we've had some rainy days, but the plants just love it.

This Rocket Hydrangea was one of two table decorations that have survived in our garden since I retired some time ago. (I think a few others were devoured by local deer.) Anyhow, I look forward to their blooming each year as they bring back fond memories of my years of work in adult literacy.

Have you ever seen a Monkey Tree?  They seem to appear fairly often in landscaping around here, but we had never seen one in bloom before. We spent an afternoon in Gig Harbor, WA, recently and discovered this one after visiting one of my favorite yarn shops, Rainy Day Yarns.

Here are two close-ups of the tree's leaves and blossoms.

Can you guess what this is?

If you guessed baby spiders, you're right!  We found this group of eggs on the window near our front door, not knowing for sure whether or what would hatch.  Well, hatch they did, and while we were gone to Newport, they all took off to do their spiderly business...catching flies and mosquitoes, I hope.

In case you're worried that I've not been knitting, here's proof that my needles and I are still busy.  Actually, I finished this Stella Shawl at the end of June and forgot to include it in my last post. (A couple of other things are on my needles now and will hopefully be done by the end of the month.) Here's the link to the sock pattern that also wasn't in my last post.  That's all for now, have a great week.