Wow..What a busy last few weeks!

Can't believe more than 2 weeks have gone by! We had a great visit with Dad and Arden. Went to see Kelli and Rachel while they were here. The garden is producing. I made more pickles! And then I made dill relish! It sure was yummy. Have more cucumbers to do something with. Still have to wait to taste the pickles as they are supposed to sit for 8 weeks! Dad, Arden and I went out to Grisamore's to pick more blueberries and got peaches as well. I made peach jam and canned a couple of jars of peaches as well! The jam is delicious. Thinking about getting more peaches and making more jam and canning some more peaches. Will taste good in the winter. Found a tiny purple pepper in the garden yesterday and the purple tomatoes are getting ripe. They are soooo good. Such a meaty tomato.Started my lacy socks with the bamboo yarn Kelli dyed and spun for me. I took it out 5 times before I gave up and wrote out the pattern. I can read the chart, but I just make tons of mistakes. Fewer mistakes with the pattern written out. Hopefully I can learn chart reading as writing it all out is tedious. But the sock is looking good!I also am working on a new knitting bag. The one I made seems too small for what I want to carry. Either I carry too much or it really is too small. Hopefully I can finish soon and see if it works better. I used interfacing in this bag and it seems sturdier. It is also reversible.
Purple back. Should have put the pocket here instead of on the front, but I thought 2 pockets back to back would make the bag too thick one one side.Purple front with blue pocket so you don't see much purple.
Blue front.
Blue back with pocket.

Off to be creative with some project or another!

Socks and Things

Well I finished Gary's socks yesterday! They even match, but best of all he loves them! Now onto my bamboo socks. I got the yarn from my daughter Kelli who owns Llady Llama Fiber Company. She dyed the roving and spun the yarn into a fingering weight for me!I also got Dinosaur Egg Yarn for my birthday that she dyed, as well as a new knitting book for babies.I now have a ball winder and new needles as well, including circular needles. I'm still working with DPNs, but eventually I want to make sweaters and will need to learn to use circular needles.

Arden got me The Knit Kit, which is also called the swiss army knife for knitters for my birthday. It has all of the basic things needed for knitting in one easy container! I love it. No more searching for tape measures, scissors, place markers, or row counters!

We have spent the last couple of weeks, visiting old friends and family with Dad and Arden. It was great catching up on all the news. Our visit to Kelli and Rachel's was great. We had a wonderful day. Rachel gave me a picture of a bat knitting which she drew! (these are 2 of my favorite things...bats and kniting).

Dad and Arden witl be leaving tomorrow morning for home. It sure will be quiet around here after 2 weeks of company.

New Yarn and New Books

Dad and Arden finally made it on Tuesday. They were only a couple hours late getting in. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I went shopping at Knitting Etc. in Ithaca. I found new Berroco sock yarn. It's called Comfort Sock and its stripey! I'm really enjoying knitting with self striping yarn. I'm still working on Gary's second sock. This new yarn is acrylic and nylon. I haven't used acrylic in socks before, but it's so soft that I thought I would try it for lighter weight socks. Dad got me Ann Budd's Favorite Socks book for my birthday! Gary gave me money (besides the ice cream maker!) to buy yarn for the cardigan I want to make for myself. Yay...more shopping! More yarn for my stash! Kelli dyed new sock yarn and named one Dinosaur Egg and put is on her etsy site. When I went to show it to Arden, it was gone off her site. She took it off to give it to me! I cried more. Now I have to more yarns coming from Kelli. With what I bought and what Kelli has for me, I will be knitting socks forever! Happy, happy feet!

Llady Llama Fiber Company has Yarn!

You must check out the great new yarn on Kelli's site. The Dinosuar Egg one made me cry. That was such a tough year for Gary and I, but all the girls seem to remember was all of the free adventures we took, like picking fruit at Dorothy and Warren's and coming across partially ripe plums on the ground. Gary called them dinosur eggs and the girls believed it! Thank you Kelli. I love you.
http://lladyllamafiberco.etsy.com/

Gary's First Striped Sock & A Weed That Hurts

I finished the first striped sock for Gary and he likes it! Have to start the second sock, but first I must make pickles and pesto, since the garden is growing and growing! Dad is coming tomorrow for 2 weeks and I can't wait to see him and Arden!
I was weeding in the garden yesterday and pulled up a weed and instantly had sharp pains in my fingers. It felt like I had burned my fingers. I came into the house and washed my hands, but that weed must have had some kind of poison in it. It had little prickery barbs on it like a wild berry bush. Kelli thinks it might have been a wild parsnip. My research says it may be a cow parsnip or called hogweed. Anyway, my fingers burned and hurt most of the evening. My fingers are better this morning, but feel a little strange, almost like the tips of my fingers have blisters on them, but I really can't see much. Gary went out with gloves and pulled the rest of the weed. I have never come across this weed before. Guess I will need to weed with gloves on from now on.

Off to make pickles and pesto!