Happy Sunday!

 

Look what was flying above our house yesterday afternoon for long enough to get these photos!

In addition to that nice surprise, this azalea tree is in full bloom just in time for Mother's Day. Have a wonderful Sunday!

A Fun Adventure

 Yesterday was so beautiful, we rented a car and went to Gig Harbor, one of our favorite places. Of all the times we've been there, we never walked on the Donkey Creek Trail.

The trail goes under the road and along the creek and past this old school house which is visible from the bridge.

The school house is part of the history museum where we also saw this old fishing boat. (Next time we may get tickets to explore the museum.)

Then, at the end of the trail we saw an amazing monument that overlooks the water and provides some more history of the area.

And to top everything off, it was great to see lupine blooming, too, a sure sign of spring!

Two Finishes and Our Recent Visitors

Lately I've been working on some dishcloths and actually finished a couple!

This one was a bit challenging.

This one is bigger than most. And that's why there are two red stripes since I though I might run out of the pink yarn. (I was right!) BTW, both patterns are Free on Ravelry.

On another note, we've had a few visitors lately in our yard.  For the first time in a while we've seen this guy and a bunny.

Bunny was just checking things out, but these two squirrels stop by daily for peanuts, and lately we've had another native squirrel visiting as well. That one is too shy still for posing.

Have a great week!

 

Finally A Post!!

Sorry for being slow to post, but April was  a difficult month for us.  A few days after my last post we had a car accident that totaled our car, but thankfully neither of us was hurt. (And getting a new car these days is quite a challenge due to lack of availability, at least here.) We also lost four friends and a neighbor's daughter.  May, sadly, hasn't started a whole lot better as our oldest daughter's father-in-law is in the hospital as the result of a hematoma. On a brighter note, I did finish several knitting projects.

This shawl was on the needles for a while; the hard part for me was the eyelet edging. If I were to do it again, I'd make the larger version.

This cowl was a MKAL and a very interesting project; it had a lot of pretty stitch patterns as well as an unusual construction. It requires 5 small amounts of yarn, and I was delighted to find a set of yarn in my stash! The colors are more blue-green than the photo though. 

Once again I found the required yarn for this hat in my stash!  (It's not getting much smaller, however.)  The pattern is for a slouchy hat, but I adjusted it to eliminate the slouch

Probably the best thing all month was the arrival our our neighbors' first grandchild, and you can tell by the color of the booties that it's a grandson.  Since they have 2 daughters, I think they were extra excited upon his arrival. That little guy weighed in at 8 pounds 14 oz, so I made the full term size and hope they fit!

The first spring flowers have definitely brightened our days. The first to bloom were the daffodils and primroses, and just the other day the trilliums surprised us.

Then yesterday these tulips popped open in the sunshine.

Flowers sure do brighten the day, don't they? Happy Spring!  I just finished my first project for May and will share it soon.  Hugs to all of you!

Another Hat and a Few Flowers

Despite our recent spring-like weather, I've been working on a hat with a pattern I got from a knitting friend.  The pattern turned out to be free, and I even had some appropriate yarn. I decided to try to convert the pattern which was for a slouchie hat and make just a "normal" one. And here it is!  Boy, does bulky yarn ever knit up quickly!

Since we've had some nice weather lately, we've been doing some raking of leaves and

enjoying some spring flowers. 

Hurrah for spring flowers!

 

Done!

What in the world is this? That's probably what you thought when you looked at this photo, isn't it?

Well, as you can see, it's a two-sided hat that's supposed to be extra warm!

It was kind of like knitting a giant sausage! It's not a difficult pattern, however, I am not sure how to block it.  Any suggestions?  As for warmth, I will let you know after the recipient wears it, and that won't be for some time because she's off enjoying the sunshine at the moment.

FINISHED! (Finally)

I have been working on some WIPs lately and finally finished these mitts, one of which was completed in the last century. Sigh, and now I know why: after finishing that one, I decided it was enough. This pattern is probably the most difficult one I've ever done.  However, I have enough beads to do it again, but not for a while, that's for sure.  Besides, I have more WIPs to attend to. Are you surprised?

 The pattern is called Winding Stairway Mitts and includes vikkel braid and some beading. The beading is done one by one using a crochet hook which isn't difficult. However, the vikkel braid was hard, at least for me, and that's what makes the steps. The photo is of the left glove front and the right glove back, and it shows the vikkel braid plus mostly left cross cables. So, if you are bored, give this pattern a try and see what you think. 😉 You can rest assured that I will be doing some stockinette stitch tonight! (Just edited this to delete all those spaces and don't know where they came from!)