It's Fall Y'all

A neighbor has a sign letting us all know it is Fall. I love it and the fact that Fall is quite different here.

When I woke up today it was hot and steamy. This afternoon it cooled and began to rain. This weather provided the perfect opportunity for me to finish a couple of projects.

This design is from Rowan - The Milk Cotton Collection. Beware if you find something you love in this book because the fine print will tell you that many of the designs are made with Milk Cotton Fine. My LYS was wonderful and ordered it for me.

The original chart included the entire row in teeny tiny print. My copier enlarged in a tad, but it became blurry and just made the whole knitting process more difficult. The last issue of The Knitter included this design as a book excerpt. They were genius in cutting the chart to list repeats and to enlarge it exponentially. These changes made finishing Camellia a breeze.

I did increase the length of this top and still think the design is not an ideal choice for one with my hips, but I still love it.

This was knit on size 1's and there was still a small issue of gauge. I adjusted by making the smallest size and it came out perfect to spec.

Hang on there because I also finished the baby blanket

There is already something new on the needles and I'm so excited to be knitting a new project with Briar Rose Fibers. That yarn is yummy!

seriously?

The thought of finishing up the Baby's Texture Blanket has been so exciting and has made me a bit nervous as the end has neared. The ball of white yarn has been getting smaller and smaller.

Dag-gone-it!

Are you serious? I am nearly out of yarn! There is no way that is enough yarn to finish two sides of edging.

After an unsuccessful search on Ravelry, I broke down and ordered one ball from Knit Picks. It makes me flinch to pay more for shipping than the yarn costs, but that is exactly what I did.

Shipping from Knit Picks can take awhile so after the little white that I have is gone, I will proceed to finish up Camellia. I've also hunted high and low for the perfect pattern to accompany my Briar Rose Penny Lane. The pattern is on it's way to me and I've already swatched so it will cast on as soon as my package arrives.

09 Winter Garden

Just one more thing to love about the warm climate!

It was thrilling when I found out that there are two planting seasons here. Of course, we had missed the first one because of the timing on buying the house. The second is here and was not passing me by.



Our relatives to West advised on which crops will thrive in the Fall/Winter and the appropriate plantings and seeds have been tracked down. FYS and Hubs built the above ground planting boxes over Labor Day and I've been waiting for a dry moment to put them into the ground.

We've put in tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, some sort of pepper for FYS, broccoli and cauliflower. Oh, I snuck some garlic in there, too.



Don't gross out, but I've been saving up the bunny droppings for fertilization. No one in my family or any acquaintance I've ever known in my life would believe that I actually did this and used it in the planting holes.



It will be exciting to see how my garden will grow.





There has been hummingbird activity for the past month. These little guys are very hard to catch with a camera and this is about the best I've managed.



I was poised for the large feeder off to the right and he swooped in and was away before a better shot could be had. He must be camera shy.





We also had a nesting of doves. They worried us because they sat under a small tree out front for days until one morning they were on top of the mailbox.

They remind me of hubs and I.


Lots of productive knitting is being accomplished and I hope to have some exciting posts around the weekend.


Oh...one last thing - they have a Pie Festival near here. Yep, I said a PIE Festival. I guarantee that is one that won't be missed!

just nice

Hubs made it home safely and we celebrated by dining at a local Italian restaurant. The restaurant was new to us and is just what we've been longing for in our new haunt. We splurged for a terrific bottle of Chianti and enjoyed each other's company. I felt like a stuffed sausage afterward and realized I haven't eaten that much in quite awhile.

On the knitting front, there has been a lot more time to finish projects during the past week. There are officially two WIPs (Swirl Shawl just needs blocked, so it does not count) and both are nearing completion.

The Textured Baby Blanket from Itty-Bitty Baby Nursery is coming along fine. I simply need to stitch all of the squares together and then knit on the border. This is knit with KnitPicks Crayon and the color availability concerned me at first. I've gotten past that and think that it is an interesting blanket full of possibilities.

The other WIP is my Camellia top from Rowan. The chart had me struggling due to the size and lack of repeat sections they published. They charted the entire row in very small font. My copier enlarged the chart, but it was still quite small and became blurry in the process. The newest issue of The Knitter published the pattern as a book excerpt - to my delight, their chart was larger font and listed the repeat section. The top is flying like a dream now and I just wonder why it did not occur to me to re-chart it in the first place.