Happy Socktober!

Wow!  Somehow September escaped with hardly any posts from me.  I will try to do better this month but am not making any promises. I've been diligently working on a few projects with a deadline, but I did manage to finally complete two UFOs.  I finished two pair of socks that didn't get posted then, but isn't Socktober a good time to do so?

The cross-overs in this pattern drove me nuts.  You can see the fronts of the socks on the pattern page, and if anyone has any tips on the cross-over, I'd love to hear them!  I really love the Cascade Heritage yarn in this color.

I finished these with yarn that was supposed to make a matching pair. It came pretty close, but what interested me was the way the pattern (Solar) affected the stripes.  I am tempted to try again with a different stripey yarn to see if the same thing happens, but since there are other things waiting in the wings, I will try to be good and refrain.

This cute little guy is wearing the angora booties made just for him!

Recently we went to the Issaquah Farmers' Market and tried "marbling" at my friend Debbie's booth. It was really fun, and the finished scarf was sent off to our daughter in Chicago for her birthday.  I haven't heard whether she likes it, but  If you ever get a chance to try this process, do it!  You can see more pictures at Marmo Silks on Facebook.

On the home front these two were in our backyard at 8:30 AM last week. If you look closely, you can see the pale-colored deer's little horns. They didn't stick around long though.

These two continue their Peanut Wars, and both put on a pretty convincing act. My friend Becca was able to catch Squirrely's plea. (Not only is she a good photographer, she also crochets beautiful things!)  Did you know that the blue jays can swallow a peanut, shell and all, without choking? It's amazing to witness!

Have a great week!

Florida Photos as Promised

During the first part of March we spent ten days in Florida for another "sun fix".  We had a great time, too, visiting friends and relatives all over the place, including Dee and her husband who kindly met us in Daytona Beach, not too far from one of DH's cousins in New Symerna.  Sadly we didn't take any people photos, but we did get a few nature ones.

Some kind of turtle

Moor Hen

Different shots of what I think is  an anhinga

Sandhill Crane (about 4 feet tall) 

Our hotel was down the road from the race track, and amazingly we got a nice room in a hotel nearby because it happened to be the week between two big races.  Who knew?

There's lots to see and do in this interesting state which is good because it's about as far away from here as you can possible get and still be in the continental US.  Nice people, too!

On the Needles and a Bit More

Here's a fun and free pattern if you have a big stash of cotton yarn. It's a pattern for a market bag, and after the somewhat fiddly first row, an easy  way to use up that yarn.  I'm about half way done.

It's mostly an easy to memorize mesh pattern which is supposed to be stretchy and has a "solid" bottom.  There's more than one of these in my future!

This week I bit the bullet and tackled a quilt block for the first time in a while. (My accuracy sure needs some work.) There were some choice words and ripping, but it's done.  The next task will be to put the other blocks together as this is a group project with fabric I brought back from Aachen, Germany, last fall. Everyone's block is different, so it should be a fun quilt.

As you may have already heard, it's been hot (by PNW standards) here lately, very dry also. Look who's claimed the fan!

And look which deceptively cute critter thinks our garden is its own private salad bar:

And last, but not least, look who would like to claim the neighbor's dog as her own:

Big brother's not so sure. Have a great weekend!  And oh, check out Patchwork Times to see what others have on their needles.

Off the Needles at Last!

Haven't gotten around to posting this yet, but I finally finished this scarf that I started a long time ago.  Don't know why I didn't finish it but must have been distracted by another more interesting project.  But it is DONE now. Yay!

The pattern is Ann Norling's Short Row Multi-Directional Scarf and the yarn is Taos.  It's actually a fun project, and I've already started my fourth one.  You can make it any width you wish. Nothing else to show in the project department, but look who showed up last week?

Not sure whether it's the same one or now, but it seems like this deer comes to our yard every Wednesday!  On last week's visit it did some snacking and seems to me to be saying, "Excuse me, but you interrupted my lunch!" I wonder whether it'll show up tomorrow?

Happy Easter/Passover everyone! And happy stitching/knitting, too!

Exploring Maui~~~

After Catherine and family left to go back to Seattle, we did a bit of exploring. First we hiked along the boardwalk at the Kealia Pond and saw all kinds of interesting birds.

(If you enlarge this photo, you can see a whole line of wind turbines on the mountain.)

This is a mystery bird.  Do you know what it is?

Cattle egrets are everywhere, even parking lots!

This bird is an endangered one, but we saw quite a few at the pond. It's a black-necked stilt.

We think this is a baby night heron that will eventually look like this adult:

Later that day, we drove past Wailea to the end of the road where you can see the lava flows from an eruption of Haleakla in 1790. Another day we drove up to the crater, but it was raining sideways and was so windy that we didn't get any pictures.  There were many brave bicyclists that we encountered on our way up the rainy mountain! We were glad to be in our car.

One of my favorite places we went was the Hookipa Beach Park where we saw lots of sea turtles. They are huge!

Our last day in Maui we went to the Iao Valley which was very beautiful.

We read that warriors kept watch on the Needle long ago.

It was fun walking on the trails through all the greenery.

 We never expected to see this little fellow and on a leash, no less!.

We had a great trip, but it's good to be back home, awaiting the first day of spring.

Aloha!

We just got back earlier this week from 10 days in Maui.   Despite the fact that the weather was less than stellar, we had a great time. It was warm, but rainy and windy also for quite a few of the days; in fact, I never even got out my swimsuit! We had fun exploring though and saw lots of interesting flowers, plants, and wildlife.

Our condo looked right out onto the water and a couple of times we saw humpback whales frolicking in the distance.

Some interesting birds visited our patio each day.

Our younger daughter and her family were there, too; they were the ones who convinced us to come and our time there overlapped a few days with theirs. Their condo was about an hour away, but we still managed to visit them each day.  

One afternoon, we went into Lahaina Town and walked around in Banyan Tree Park.  Just one tree makes up the whole park!  It's 60 feet tall and 200 feet wide and dates back to 1873!

Not too far from the park, a man was offering to photograph people with his parrots.  He had 7 of them, all different, and they were fun to watch.

In the lot where we parked, we discovered a breadfruit tree

and saw these beautiful hills in the distance. 

In another post I'll show some photos from our excursions after the kids left when we had some time to explore on our own.  But for now, I'm headed to bed as I'm still not used to the time change, and we have to be a church early to sing tomorrow. G'night!