Baby Blanket

Teddy Bear Illusion by Wooly Thoughts

for the girls' doctor who is due any day now.

Teresa

Is Anybody Home????

 I can't see you.

Are you there?

 Oh, Hello.  Whatcha doin?

Um, could I come in?  It's kinda hot out here.

Billy

At the feeder

 The birds have gone nuts this summer!  We have dozens of baby cardinals in our yard - well, I guess they are juveniles now because they follow mom and dad to the feeder.  DH fills this feeder to the top every day and they eat every bit of it before nightfall.  What's worse is that the neighbor now has 4 feeders and they are doing the same to him.

I know these pictures are blurry.  I had to take them through the kitchen window or the birds all fly away.  If you look on the wall of the pond, you can see a little chipmunk who likes to hang out under the feeder for his snacks.

In fact, we have a lot of ground birds that eat under the feeder.  The Towhee's are hilarious - they hop at anyone else who tries to get seed on the ground when they are around.  That little bench is a child's bench - less than a foot tall to the seat (for size comparison).

And yesterday, this fella was eating the seed on the kitchen sink window sill - not too worried about me inside, but he did run away after I shot a couple of pictures.

Teresa

It's an Alien Invasion!

Sometimes, when I'm working on a big project . . .

I like a little mindless knitting.

These little guys were just the ticket . . .

Some of them have 3 legs . . .

Some have a tail (yes, this one does even if you can't see it) . . .

Some of them have this kind of top knot (lots of knots) . . .

Some are floofy . . .

 Some have antennae . . .

 Some have braids . . .

Some have a ball . . .

 Some have this type of top knot . . .

 Some have three eyes . . .

 And others have only one . . .

 Some have one eye and a bow . . .

 And some have bumps on the back of their head . . .

 This one has ears like a teddy bear . . .

Two more in solid colors and three micro mini aliens . . . made with sock yarn on size 3 needles.

I never know what they are going to look like until they are all done.

But I'm always pretty sure they are going to be cute.

Most of these are going up north to live, some will go south and some will stay here.

Cute, aren't they?

Teresa

How many do you see?

Count the musical instruments . . . we didn't include the Jews Harps or the small electric keyboards which are more toys than musical instruments.

 We did include the Melodica.  Girl Far From Home cannot ever be Far From a musical instrument.  She can't afford any more right now and I can't either.  So I guess this is the end for her.  That Other Girl has a bass guitar on order and has the money saved to buy it.   I keep hearing about people finding instruments at garage sales, never happens to me though.

 One more shot . . . how many instruments do you see?

Progress

I'm not sure quite how it always happens, but it does.  I post a lot for a while and then suddenly, I find that days and sometimes even a week have gone by since my last post.  My excuse is that I've been busy and have had little to show for my time.  I've been knitting this Teddy Bear Illusion baby blanket since we left for the beach and it's not done yet.  Baby blankets are pretty big and take a bit of time and they are boring so I'm easily distracted.  It's more than halfway done though and will be a nice sized blanket to take the baby into the toddler years.  You cannot see the bear when looking straight at the blanket nearly as well in person.  The blanket is acrylic, so doesn't need to be blocked but I find that running them through the machine helps them lay flat and loosen up a bit - which this one needs to do.

Teresa

Trial Run Birthday Cake

Not your traditional Birthday Cake, but then this is not for a traditional kinda guy.  Steve doesn't like cake or any other sweets much, so it's always a challenge to celebrate his birthday.  We used to do blueberry pies, but in the last few years even those have been a failure.

This is just a pie shell with fruit and a little greek yogurt.  The fruit is incredibly sweet and the greek yogurt has some vanilla flavoring in it.  There is more fruit than anything else, so hopefully it will be a big hit.  His birthday is next Tuesday, but we thought we'd try our idea out on him this week to see if he likes it . . . the girls and I like it, so it will get eaten either way.

Teresa

Beach Knitting

It's coming along - still has a long way to go, but it is moving. It looks like it is going to be 32" wide before the border and it is now about 11" from cast on. So it should be about 38 x 32 before I add the border. I haven't knit a third of the yarn yet but I am already wondering if I am going to have enough.

Teresa

Summer Flies

Finished the large test knit I was working on last weekend.  I can't show it yet because it's a mystery knit along for a yarn company and it hasn't started yet.  I was working on it almost exclusively because I had a deadline for it (end of June).  But I had to have something easy on the needles for when I got tired of that or when I was drinking (it was definitely not drinking knitting).  This was a quick and easy knit.  I changed the end of it - the last lacy section (knotted openwork) is several rows longer than the pattern called for it to be because I wanted to use up all the yarn.  The ruffle on the bottom is done differently because I wanted it to really ruffle right on the end - it worked pretty nicely I think.

My model was reluctant, so I chopped off her head.

Teresa

Happy Independence Day!

The pond is always ablaze with beautiful red and pink flowers in July.  This year, I have lots of red ones for the Fourth! 

Happy Fourth Everyone!

Teresa

Traveling Again

and another new project on the needles, again with a deadline. That baby won't wait for the blanket to be done!

Tatting Shuttle Collection

 I've been expanding my Shuttle collection - when I grow up, I want to be just like Diane!  Since I'm almost the same age as her and so far behind, I have a lot of catching up to do.  So, I started on Ebay and Etsy.  This shuttle was shipped from Hungary.  Laszlo makes them and sells them as Smalcoin on Ebay and Banyek on Etsy.  I've actually bought a lot of really nice shuttles from him.  Sadly, I gave most of them away before I decided I was collecting shuttles.

Anyway, as you can see this one arrived broken.  He states quite clearly on both Ebay and Etsy that he can't be held responsible for the mail, but he was so nice when I let him know it was broken.  I mentioned that it was to be a gift for my daughter who loves cats.

 So, when he sent the replacement, he also sent another "child's" tatting shuttle.  I think it's just crazy cute!  I had never seen him sell one like this.  Girl named it Dougly.

These two are from Rosita's on Ebay.  The carved rosewood wasn't too expensive and it feels so nice in my hand - I love the feel of rosewood, so smooth, solid and warm.  The brass with the sterling silver and copper accents was a little expensive but I really loved it.  Now I have to quit buying Rosita's shuttles for a while.  (Neither of these were the ones that went for $300 or $630 - those were gorgeous but WOW! that is a lot of money for a tatting shuttle.)

 This little lovely is the first one that I plan to use.  It was blinged by our own Diane and when she showed it on her blog (much better picture here) I fell in love with it.  I love the cheery raspberry sorbet color and the roses.  Diane is so generous that she sent it to me - Thank you so much Diane, it is even prettier in person!

And last, but not least - this little gem arrived in the mail today.  I won it on Ebay from a seller I hadn't seen before.  I really loved it when I saw it and it's even better in person.  That doesn't seem to be paint, I think it's stain.  The girls had some like that when they were little - we stained some wooden boxes for them to keep their treasures in and each of them still has her box.  They are really pretty and good memories for me - maybe that's why I like this shuttle so much.

Teresa

It's Too Hot!

I want to go back in the house!