Afghan update!

I am finishing the 19th square this morning and that means I have 5 to go, then I will put her together! I also need to decide on a border but that will come to me when I get there.

Happy Knitting, Trish

I am so excited!

My friend Helen is going to teach me how to make a small quilt!!! I have tried to learn to sew at least 3-4 times in my life without any real success. I made an apron with my mother in law once, I made a pillow with my grandpa and I made half a bag with my friend Stephanie. In the case of the apron I was using my mother in laws machine and I couldn't continue after we finished the project. With my grandpa I was given the machine but soon decide that I needed to move far far away to be with my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, so I left the machine behind. And the most recent attempt with Stephanie, I had been given an old machine and it broke half way through the bag and was a very costly repair! I didn't have it fixed. So needless to say, I hope it sticks this time! I am going to use a friends machine to start and if I really like it I will purchase one of my very own.

This is the fabric I bought. My little Elliott was with me and he picked it out with a little help.

Have an Adventure! Trish

How many?

How many stitches can you knit in a minute????
I am practicing my continental knitting, to see if I can get faster. I think that I knit about 40 sts to the minute continental and 32 throwing! How about you? I will let you know if I get any faster as I practice more. I have knit continental for years while fair isle knitting, but I have never knit an entire project continental until now! I am knitting a pair of socks. I think it is going to take me a while until I am satisfied with my gauge and how even my stitches are! I am a very picky knitter.

Happy Knitting, Trish

As promised

Here is a picture of the skein I dyed a couple days ago. This is a second skein in the same dye bath of black beans. It soaked for 4 or 5 hours and I took it out and rinsed it. I really like this nice light blue. There are a couple of tiny spots on the skein that look almost purple. That is the color it comes out of they bath as,then when you rinse it it turns blue. Anyway I had to share. I really still want to get a yellow or orange. I will have to head out and do some plant collecting soon.

Happy Knitting, Trish

We had a BBQ

We had a little party last night and it was lots of fun! I had 8 little boys between the ages of 13 and 7 sleep in tents in my backyard! We had lots of noise accompanied by lots of fun and a few tears. You can't get that many children together and never have an issue. My youngest was the sad one and he didn't even sleep in a tent. He slept in the house! He is a tiny bit afraid of the dark. I think that we had 12 kids total at the party and boy did they have a good time. I know they liked roasting marsh mellows and making shmores over the campfire, my husband built them. I really love summer and I hope my boys have happy memories of times like these. Anyway I had to show pictures of the pre-party flowers and berries.

I thought that my Garden Pouch's looked so nice hanging with flowers in them!

The boys demolished my berries in minutes!

I dyed a skein of yarn yesterday also. I will share tomorrow.

Happy Knitting, Trish

Berry berry and more berry!

We had a lot of fun picking berries yesterday. I love Oregon! There are so many you pick farms here and the berries are really cheap! We picked 14 pounds of berries yesterday. and I spent just under $14.00. I made jam and muffins and have some very happy little boys.

I read about berries for dye, they are more of a stain then a dye so I guess I won't be using them. O-well I guess we will have to eat them all, my poor family how will we manage!!!

Happy Knitting, Trish

The Last Skein!

So here is the last skein that I dyed the other day! I am really excited about this color. I have really been wanting to get a green and I did! I would have thought that the black-eyed susans would have dyed yellow or orange but no, I got green. I think that yellow and orange are the next colors that I want to go for. I see onion skins in my future. Ha, I see onion skins almost every day I just need to remember to save them! I will have to dye again next week, this is just to much fun!

Helen also made another bag it is reversible and really cute!

Today the boys and I are going berry picking. The weather is cool and overcast just the right kind of day to pick berries! I will tell you all about our adventure tomorrow! I wonder if berries make good dye???

Happy knitting, Trish