Treasures

This week, I did the unimaginable. I left my knitting at home. On knit night.

After a brief panic and bailing out on even going to knit night because obviously I was majorly exhausted, I called the yarn shop (which was closed) and begged my dear friend that if she was going to be around after I left work, I would really, really, really like to buy a couple of things as the FiberTrends hedgehog has been driving me crazy since one of my friends decided to teach it at the shop soon.

Then while gathered with my coworkers near my office in a pseudo-staff meeting, another dear friend walked straight into my office and back out again with no acknowledgment other than a smile. While my coworkers looked at me with this "does that happen a lot?" looks. When I got back into my office, I found this with her extensive needle stash.



I have some amazing friends and count myself lucky every day. I think this needs to be a swallowtail shawl, but the jury is still out (ideas??). At knit night, I worked on the hedgehog and here are the colors this little beastie will be:



A progress post is still to come!

Rock, rock, flower, goose

I may never go back to HD again. This was trip SIX:



More stepping stones. More river rock. Some flowers threw themselves onto the cart, which if they had understood how my work hours generally translate into my not seeing daylight at my house, they would have hidden from my view. I got some confederate jasmin, bougainvillea, pentas, and tulips.

After trip SEVEN, this project is essentially complete! More rock as well as border grass are needed, but that will be solved on the next plant shopping trip and as I thin out my existing border grass and mom thins out hers.





This house project seemed to stress out mama goose, as I drove the suv around the house unloading rocks at varying times. No hatchings yet and her mate hasn't tried to chase me off lately.



Goose issues aside, I am thrilled with my final product and am planning my next outdoor projects now.

Stitching update

A while back, I signed up for my Embroiderers' Guild correspondence project - a crossed stitch band sampler by Dakota Rogers. I finished up lesson one on Saturday!



I was not liking the color choices so much, so I found a variegated silk I liked and then picked my mom's brain on colors to match. Mom was also kind enough to let me raid her stash of silk threads to replace the cotton color recommendations. It is a much more muted color palette than what Dakota recommends, but I think I will like it much better.



So I will hopefully get stitching on this today!

House Progress

I have a house project that just won't end, actually, I have a lot of them. My side yard has been washing out as of late, so last fall, I started bringing home stepping stones and river rock to fill in the area.



Yesterday, I made my FOURTH trip to HD for more stepping stones. And irritated the goose this morning by driving around the house to drop off some of the stones and the river rock. I know I still need more river rock, but I am incredulous that I need more stepping stones!!! Not so much for the back yard side:



But for the front yard side:



The door you see here is to my (eventual) studio - yeah the one still in progress. In the back, the side porch overlooks the path on the side and a bed of ferns, a bed still in creation, and a arm of the lake.



Eventually, this porch will be screened in, once I get a little more repairs made to the house.

On Creativity

My bloglines is a wide range of creative people - knitters, weavers, stitchers, sure, but also scrapbookers, designers, decorators, organizers, and more. When I am not in the mood to do anything but web surf, these folks are great at recharging my spirit and giving lots of inspiration. So, here are two creativity encouragements!

Random fibery goodness

After rearranging all of my fiber, I told myself to dial down the fiber purchases, because, well, I haven't really spun all that much lately. So I behaved like an adult, and canceled my wonderful fiber of the month club.

And then my friend Silver posted that she was loading her shop with lots of goodies. And my willpower failed me. And two braids of superwash landed on my doorstep on Monday. But they are very pretty!!!!!!!



In other news, the goose is still on her nest



Meet the toe color of the week, which was better in concept than in reality.

Goosewatch 2009

Remember this mention of the goose pair? Well, they decided to make a nest right by that pine tree in the back yard. And then proceeded to ignore it for days.

Until now. So I took advantage of an unsupervised moment to take this quick pic,



while the pair headed for me with much splashing and honking. I saw at least one egg under that straw (look at the stick on the right hand side, then look at the center of the nest, about the level of the top of that stick).



Blurry shot as I was backing up while taking it. Which was good as he started to fly at me after that. So I left them checking to make sure I had not injured their pre-hatched young.

The other wildlife that likes to abuse me (aka the beavers) appear to have abandoned their home. Willingly or unwillingly, I have no clue. But, it means that the irises don't have to have protection and I can maybe screen in my porch!!!

While I wandered tarjey today, I looked at some possible porch furniture. It likely won't fit, and is a bit cost prohibitive at the moment, but I can dream! For some reason, I seem to be in a wicker mood at the moment....