Bad Pictures

More rain today, more rain tomorrow, so you get bad pictures because bad pictures are better than no pictures at all. First, the yellow yarn I spun for Miss M's present. It's sparkly even if you cannot tell it in the picture. It's also soft and squooshy and incredibly nice. The blue is from the Corgi Hill batts and looks just like old jeans. It's not nearly as soft as the yellow and I haven't a clue what it's going to be knit into.

Next, the buttons on my February Lady. I tried to get a picture of both sweaters together and I tried to get a picture of the red/black one complete. I'll try again tomorrow but for today, the buttons look very nice on it.

And, a baby blanket I made for a friend's new grandson. It's incredibly thick and cushiony - the kind you always wanted when you had to put the baby down on the floor. I'm sure the new mom will love it.

Water, Water Everywhere . . .

And lots and lots of it. It's been raining for days. It's been raining very hard for a couple of days. Since midnight last night, we, here at this very house, have gotten over eight inches of rain and it seems like much more than that. The basement flooded this afternoon. The backyard was no less than ankle deep and in most of it was almost knee deep - for several hours. The pond overflowed, not just overflowed it's banks, it got so overful that it overflowed the stacked stone wall around the pond which is 18" above the liner. Now that rock wall has no dirt, cement, liner or anything else to hold the water in - it's literally just stone set on stone set on stone. It isn't meant to hold water, it's meant to keep turtles in the pond. But the water came down so fast and hard today that it was flowing over the top of the rock wall. I had to wade out thru the lake that my backyard became and make sure the drainage thing was open - it was, there was just more water than it (or any 50 like it) could handle.

They closed a couple of county's school districts today because of the rain that came down yesterday and the day before. Then it rained even harder today. The drive to pick up kids at school was more than a little frightening - I have to cross both Peachtree Creek and Nancy Creek to get to the school. Both of those creeks are expected to flood at record levels tonight - we're talking 40 & 50 year record levels. They've announced even more school closings for tomorrow, but not our school . . . not yet. But I hope they do close it.

I have several things knitted that I should like to post pics of, but I need some sunlight to take the pics. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow and dry up all the rain.

The flowers are still blooming.

And the Bloomfest goes on!

First, a couple more passion flowers. It's been raining non-stop here, so the pics aren't the best. The first one is blurry, but the colors were closer to right than they were in the clear pics so this is the one you get. I love this flower, it's a seedling that my friend Craig sent me to grow on the bushes by the mailbox. This is it's first flower, but it's absolutely covered with buds and all over the bushes - it's going to be very pretty for the next few weeks. The second flower is p Star of Bristol and it's blooming all over a rhododendron.

These are some of Craig's waterlilies blooming at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. There were a bunch more of his lilies blooming and the giant victoria lilies he sent them were growing like crazy and all of them have buds and spent blooms on them. These were taken with a blackberry because I didn't think I'd take my camera in the rain - the pics would have been better if I did take it.

And this very blurry picture is of some absolutely gorgeous orchids we saw at the gardens today.

Bloomfest!

All of these passion flowers were blooming yesterday. There should be at least a few more kinds blooming today and in the next couple of days. These are, in order: belotii, Lady Margaret, Amethyst, Incense, Blue Bouquet, citrina, batwing and Pura Vida. And the last pic is the Gulf Fritillary Butterflies that love to eat them.

What I've been doing. . .

First, the Februarly Lady Sweaters. I finished mine a while ago but it didn't have any buttons. I got a lovely, hand made, ceramic button in the May Phat Fiber box and kept thinking how nice it was. So I contacted Shelby at Heartstone Ceramics on Etsy and told her what I wanted and what colors the sweaters were. The purple sweater (mine) was easy - I fell in love with these buttons with the little purple flowers on them. She went to my projects page on Ravelry and figured out what color to paint the flowers so they matched exactly (which they do even if the pics are bad) and made the buttons. The red/black or burgundy/black or maybe it's brown/black sweater was tougher because we can't even figure out what color it really is - the yarn is discontinued and that's probably why. Anyway, she had a new glaze she called 'plum black' and she made some buttons in that and then some more that were dark but had white from the buttons that showed through. Tina, who the sweater is going to, looked at all that were made for her (3 sets) and picked these - and they are perfect. The sweater is an odd color and the buttons are shiny, so the photo doesn't do them justice. Her photos are much better - but don't show how well the buttons match the sweater. Shelby was a dream to work with and I love her buttons.

This yarn was a special order from Danido Crafty on Artfire, custom dye job just for Miss S. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's watermelon colors - green and a bright ripe pinky-red. She isn't sure what she wants me to make from it but she doesn't want socks.


And this lovely yellow fluffiness is for Miss M. I got the small batt in the middle in the last Phat Fiber box and she fell in love with it cuz it's soft and it's yellow. She wants me to make a duck. It came from Jela's Fibers on Etsy - the sample is merino, white bamboo nepps and angelina. She didn't have any exactly like that in the store but offered to make some up for me. She did have almost the same thing - merino, bamboo fiber and angelina - already made up and since that was going to be smoother and probably easier to spin, I just got those. And yes, they are smooth as can be and incredibly easy to spin and they are making a lovely yarn for me to make a duck with - even have a couple of duck patterns. It took a full 3 weeks for the package to get to me because it came from Canada and Canada Post seems to be having troubles - but it was worth the wait.

I finished spinning the blue batts from Corgi Hill Farm, but you'll have to wait for pics cuz the yarn is being washed. It turned out quite nice - much thicker than I usually spin, but I was trying for thicker. I'll try to post pics of that and the completed burgundy Feb lady in the next day or two. And I hope to have the baby blanket that is under the watermelon yarn finished and a picture posted in the next day or so as well.

Flowers, Fruits and Tatting

First, the flowers. This is my Carolina Red Hibiscus that a friend sent me - it's a deep and glorious, pinky red. It's a small plant, but it's been blooming like crazy.












And one last passion flower - this one has tiny flowers, about an inch across. But it has wide, leathery and spotted leaves. I like the flowers, so that is what you get to see (and a bug eaten leaf).

And the fruit . . . These are growing in Miss S's garden. She wasn't getting any fruit, so I went out with a paintbrush and made sure some of those little flowers got pollinated. Now she has fruit.

And tatting . . . I've been busy tatting. I have a couple of bigger things that are half done, but not ready to show yet. But as you can see, I've been practicing on little things quite a lot. There are half a dozen different flowers and different butterflies. I've also done a couple of motifs just to get the practice. I've taught myself two shuttle split rings and single shuttle split rings but haven't exactly worked out how to use them to move from one round of a motif to another.

And I've made lots of little three dimensional roses. I had more than there are pictured here, but I gave several away. I like making these little things - and I love them when they are made. Miss S has been tatting quite a bit too - Miss M, not so much. Perhaps she will this weekend.

August Phat Fiber

I was pretty lucky and managed to get an August Phat Fiber box. I got the fluff only box and I must say it was stuffed fuller than any box I've ever gotten and practically fuller than all the others combined. Miss M loves that yellow mini batt so I ordered more of that - bamboo and merino. The white is alpaca.

These lovely colorful bits are wool in the back and the orange is milk. It's the softest thing I've ever touched.

The white in the back is cotton which I traded for some linen/flax because I have a ton of cotton and so far, can't spin it!

The hand lotion smells like pumpkin pie!

Studio Ghibli Swap

I know it's been a while since I posted because this should have been posted more than two weeks ago. I apologize - it's just been very busy around here.

So, I joined the Studio Ghibli group on Ravelry because it's a great way to find out what is out there and what is going on. I learned of two movies that I never knew existed - one is available here and the other is not. I also learned that there is (was) a new Miyazaki movie coming out the middle of August. The girls love his films and so we went to see Ponyo soon after it came out.

Anyway, while browsing the group, I saw that there was a person setting up a brand new swap. I'd never done a swap, but often see pics of what people get in them so thought it might be fun to do one. I've participated in Christmas ornament swaps and not had very good luck, but never a knitting swap. So I knit up a totoro and soot sprite and here are pics of what I sent off to my swap partner:

She's a new knitter - just learning, in fact. So I found some used books that had good instructions on how-to and several small simple projects so that she won't get frustrated and quit. I stuck some yarn and some needles in the box along with some japanese candy and some tea. This young lady also likes origami, so I got some origami paper and star paper for her at the japanese store here.

And pics of what she sent me - she cross stitched the lovely little picture of totoro. I really like it because I'm not a cross stitcher, so have little of that in the house! She went on a trip to London just before she mailed off her package so I got tons of stuff from there. She got me the Uncle Joe's Mint Balls - which I brought back years ago in a tin (like them). There are three London Key chains in that pic and a Tower of London cross stitch kit - so I can learn how. She tossed in some Rice candies, some dried mango (that's all gone now), some chocolate and a little electronic cat (so cute)! There are two balls of yarn - one is blue glittery and just for me and the other is black fun fur which I love because it's getting hard to find fun fur and I always seem to need it. She also got a very cool comic book with stickers but somehow it didn't make it into the picture.

I was very happy with what I got and I think she was too - so it was a very successful swap! I might actually do it again.