Cucumbers

We have lots of green beans, tomatoes (I repeat do not put in compost unless you have Plans for many tomatoes), and we're starting to get cucumbers. The rabbits are enjoying the bolted lettuce and we've been out watering at least every other day because of the lack of rain...

Pretty Picot Shawl in Regia

An in progress shot of my shawl. I have a couple people test knitting so I'm working on writing it out so that exact row counts are possible.

I'm even thinking about a bottom up version's specifications so that another edging could be knit sideways with the shawl stitches picked up and decreased down. We'll see if that doesn't make my brain hurt after helping Em with her math. I'm not entirely sure how I became the go-to help person for that : )

Just Because

Swallowtail on our Parsley

Found three of these little guys on our parsley but they've since disappeared...

Michigan Bear

Originally I had earrings with the centerpiece bear but one cracked in half the second or third time I wore them so I've repurposed the remaining bear.

It makes me deeply happy to know that the beads match up on both sides and are all colors found in the bear itself.

Happy Belated Birthday Em!

I finished a pair of gauntlets/fingerless mitts just in time for Em's B-Day. These only took one skein of Red Heart's Heart & Sole colorway toasted almond.

I have so many projects to photo/blog about it's not even funny. Hopefully by the end of this week; probably Friday? I'll have posts ready to go with all the photos processed.

Margaret Dashwood Shawl

This is one of the patterns in the most recent issue (Summer 2012) of Jane Austen Knits & I'm modifying the pattern a bit to make it fit me better. I'm currently on my 37th point increasing & I hope once I get up to my 39th it'll be long enough that I can start decreasing. The pattern is fairly simple and I love how this looks.

I've used two balls of Knitpicks' Palette in the colorway Whirlpool so far but I expect that the shawl will end up taking 4.

Beading Frenzy

These are the earrings I was talking about last time.

 They're so delicate but simple I think I'll be wearing these a lot.

My size 10 needles which I've been using for my cotton wash cloths. I believe the jump rings which make up the stitch markers are 10mm.

These are 24 stitch mitred squares & they're pretty small.

I think I'll eventually do a 32 stitcher eventually.

These too are for larger needles.

I got feedback from my Grandma about my Pretty Picot (link/pattern coming soon) and she disliked how her stitch markers were creating a bigger hole in her YOs.

So I made a set of stitch markers for her, me, & Mom with smaller jump rings so they'll fit on sock size needles and will work for my shawl.

They're shown on one of my size 3 needles.

And while I had the beads out I made a pair of earrings and another necklace...

Shalom Cardie

I think this will be super warm this winter but easy to throw on...

My camera doesn't love the deep color of this and I won't have better photos until I can stand to wear this around noon instead of the evening.

The Shalom Cardigan is a free pattern on Ravelry by Meghan McFarlane which I did some mods on.

I used 2 complete balls (440yards) of Knitpicks Full Circle Worsted in colorway Quarry.

Love my buttons which I got on sale at JoAnn's.

White Pines Village in Ludington, MI

Spinning Wheel in the Old Trapper's Cabin

Spent a morning over at Historic White Pines Village which has several restored buildings from the mid 1800s & enjoyed walking around...

Old Post Boxes

Millinery Corner in one of their General Stores

I thought the play of light & darks in the Log Cabin was cool...

Michigan Lake Photos

Not our cabin but pretty view....

I've finished uploading all my vacation pics and I'm working through my project photos so I thought I'd share some of my favorites...



Gulls on Arcadia Beach



Gulls were on the next dock over and Em & I had a close encounter when we tried to feed the ducks...

Lake Michigan and the blue is completely true to life...

Cloudy day at Point Betsy but lots of sailboats (15) and lots of fun relaxation time. Portable stadium seating on the beach with a back is soo worth the effort.

More Point Betsy

Mom, Em, & I all had fun building rock towers...

So even through the 90s (F) without air conditioning (or fan/breeze), the car's needed repair (Awesome yarn shop in Traverse City!, pretty Bay & two independent bookstores, Horizon Books & Brilliant Books), & the hailstorm...

Michigan's pretty lakes made up for it all.

Morning Glory Sweater

I love how warm and heavy this sweater turned out. The ribbing was knit on size 3s and the straight stitch on size 6s. My gauge was 5.5 stitches per inch so I actually went up a few sizes to a bust size of 40" but knit the pattern for a gauge of 5.

I finished this on the 4th of July but it was cool enough (for one evening) on vacation to take photos...

It's really hard to do the color justice but it has flecks of red and indigo spread throughout along with the black and tan tweed.

The pattern is the saddle shoulder in the Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd.

I used 10 balls of Knitpicks' City Tweed DK in the Morning Glory colorway.

Rosy Gauntlets Finished

Em was very gracious and helped model these for me. I was really happy that I was able to keep the ribbing consistent on the thumbs with the rest of the gauntlets.

I finished them on the way to our vacation destination and the ribbing seemed to take forever...

It ended up that these used about the same amount of yarn as a pair of socks because they do go well over my elbow. I think in the future I'll just knit gauntlets to my mid-forearm; but I'll wait until it gets truely cold before making a decision.

This is Knitpicks Felici Self Striping (currently on sale) in the colorway Peachy on size 2 needles.

Newborn Calf & Momma

Went to the State Fair last Saturday & was lucky enough to see this little guy's first steps...

I have lots more blurry animal photos but Mom's the one with cool fair shots...

We rode on the cross-fair high tramway which has seats a bit like a Ferris Wheel but with a sunshade and travels over all the food wagons, trees, and some of the games on a zipline type thing (slowly, with some stopping and swaying; not my favorite moments). 

But I'm not at all comfortable with hights, so I was clinging to the bar and trying desperately not to loose my shoes (I was wearing flip flops & I imagine it's frowned upon to startle people with flying shoes).

The exhibits were fun to visit & all the barns were vastly amusing : )