Baby, it's cold outside!

A Year of Blankets - #8

Yeah, Atlanticus is finished. I am only 2 months behind in my goal to make one blanket per month - thank you Summer! But I am getting there.
Atlanticus was designed by the lovely Vanessa from 'Hooked on Sunshine' and done as a CAL in her FB group.
The yarn is Lion Brand Ice Cream in Lemon Swirl. I don't remember how many balls I used, because I had to order more a couple of times, but it was at least 11. He is a big boy.

A new square

I now have made 20 of the squares from my FB group and I am ready to put them together in a blanket.

Then I will start a new set of squares (there is one to make every week) in different colors.

A Year of Blankets #7

Meet 'Rosslyn', a beautiful pattern by Helen Shrimpton. She was supposed to be finished in July but the hot Summer made it impossible to sit on the sofa with a large blanket in my lap.

Some recent projects

Well, the weather got warm again and my energy left. I managed to knit a sweater for Del's laptop so it can travel safely and I made two more squares, one for the Kalevala Cal and the other one for my FB group. I do hope the temperatures will become more fall-like soon.

We are still here!

Wow, that was a nasty hot Summer. I must admit the heat totally paralyzed me, our A/C was struggling, the cats were listless and I was unhappy. I don't remember ever having sweated as much as I did this Summer, yikes. Of course not much crafting happened either. I am working on two big blankets that are in the end phase now that it got cooler and I started a new CAL, the Kalevala Cal.
Here are the first three squares I finished. I am using different colors for the odd and even numbered squares (have not done #2 yet, it is rather complicated).

My garden showed a lot of promise in the beginning then took a turn when critters stole every single tomato. I had seven tomato plants and only got a handful of cherry tomatoes. I seriously need to come up with some kind of deterrent for next year. Back when we used to feed all the cats in the neighborhood we had no problems like that, but now, the girls having moved in with us and the toms scattered, rodents of all kind are running wild. I don't want to kill them, but I don't want them in my garden either. We even had mice in the house, both Mr. Moose and Mr. Frankie caught one each and were proud as can be about it. We use electronic rodent deterrents in the porch and the basement now and that got rid of them, no idea what to use in the garden. Most gadgets seem to be based on motion sensors which I don't find useful and the strobe light might disturb us and the neighbors at night (our bedroom faces the garden).

We are all healthy and right now waiting to see if "Irma" is going to cause any trouble for us. We prepared the hallway as a possible tornado shelter since it is the only windowless room in the house.

I am also overcome by a big urge to purge. I want to get to the point where I know what I have and where it is. What good is stuff that is stored and never used? I am only keeping things I actually use or love. And, yes, we really do need all these cats. :)

I got a new mug for my birthday!

I am trying to get back into blogging now that my favorite season is just around the corner and I feel alive again but sometimes I wonder if anybody is actually interested in my ramblings.

Socks

When it gets too hot for big things there is always room for more socks.

Weekend Finishes

The Moonlit Shawl, a lovely pattern by S. Paul at 'Cherry Heart'. I used a wool yarn in sport weight I had in my stash. The pattern is easy to follow and did not take long to finish.

And another pair of socks, these are knitted in Opal Fresh & Juicy.

A Year of Blankets - #6

Another ripple lapghan for the donation box.

New Socks

Very colorful, the yarn is Stylecraft Head over Heels in colorway 'Etna'. The yarn is soft and squishy, I love it. This is pair #46 in my quest of knitting myself 100 pairs of socks.

Abundance

Time to break out those zucchini recipes.

From the Garden

Still no tomatoes.

A New Shawl

This one is called 'Namaqualand Shawl' by the lovely Dedri Uys. It is a free pattern and can be found on her blog here. The yarn is Sirdar Colourwheel in Colourama.

More Garden Goodies

The zucchinis are doing well, I just wish my tomatoes would start to blush.

From the Garden

First Harvest and a New Pillow

I picked the first two peppers this morning, they will go into tonight's dinner.

Over the weekend I finished a new pillow case, the pattern is called 'A Momentary Eclipse' and can be found here. I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn that I had left from other projects, I like both the pattern and the color combination.

Around the Garden

Things are looking good so far.

New Socks

I love knitting socks, almost instant gratification.

Roses

I am glad I got some pictures before the heavy rains of the past few days wiped them all out.