Day 133: Going out of town

I am going to visit my mom for a few days, and I am leaving in a couple of hours.  We are taking a metalworking class together.  Actually, we are taking two classes (one advanced and one continued skills) which will have both of us slaving over some torch and chunk of metal for 8 hours a day for the next four days.  I don't know if I will blog while I am away or not, but be assured that I will have great show and tell when I finally do report back to the blogging public!

Until then, pictures of my garden!
 These beauties are early bloomers even in the delayed Minnesota springs.....YEAH FOR FLOWERS!

This is my FAVORITE ground cover (Lamium.....this one is variegated) as it grows nicely in shade or semi-shade, under acidic conditions like evergreens and walnut trees.  Hubby and I are giving up on growing grass at all next to this flower bed and have resigned to letting this crawling beauty take over since the grass hates my walnut trees and the rocky soil used to fill in some sewer line work done by our home's previous owners.  Ground cover can go to town as far as I am concerned!  It doesn't get wilty and distress in late summer and these pretty little yellow flowers are charming!

Bleeding hearts are favorites too.  I really need to plant more of them!

Days 131-132: Blogger Down and Finished Scarf

I am sure many of you noticed that blogger was down (maybe it was just me????) yesterday and much of today....so I am behind on my posting although not behind on my creativity time.  I finished my scarf yesterday after WAY to many hours of seemingly little progress.  At any rate, I pushed through and managed not to give up and trash the whole thing or leave it unfinished and sport an obviously short scarf.  I have a little bit of yarn left as I couldn't finish in the pattern if I went to the end of the ball.  I will just need to make a flower or something with it!

Day 130: Genuinely despising knitting today

I know, I know.  It is not nice to say, but I am genuinely not enjoying the current knitting project.  I am into my second (and last) skein of yarn on the "cross roads" scarf, and I just can't seem to enjoy it.  I am bored to tears, and I have been locked into this section of oranges forever now....so not even the gentle change of the yarn is entertaining me.  The yarn blends, and I thought that was cool to start, but as I work with this particular yarn, I am realizing that the predominant color scheme is green and orange.  Now, I am PRO green and orange, so it would seem that this should be a plus, but the green and orange are separated by pink and blue hughes.  The colors just sort of clash as they go.....am I alone on this one?  What do you think?  I am not sure that it is really fair to ask as my flash makes all of the colors seem extra vibrant.  I will ask again when I finally finish it.  This is the part where creativity can be a discipline.  It is taking everything in my will to keep from throwing the whole thing away and pretending it never happened.  Extreme, I think....but how I am feeling today.

Here are some little pink, crochet blossoms made out of Be Sweet t-shirt yarn.  I need some more of them before I pile them onto something and call it an actual project.

Not my most inspired day.....when my kiddos left for school, I just went back to bed and stayed there for way longer than socially acceptable.  It isn't late now, and I am ready to return to bed and call it a night.  Maybe a few more rows of wretched scarf before I actually zzzzzzzz.

Day 129: Flowers

I worked endlessly on my crossroads scarf, and have only seemed to make a very little bit of progress. I also did some flowers from yarn scraps. I will post pics tomorrow though....dead camera battery is making crafty Jerri very sad.

This one is very full as I did more rows before forming into a flower.  The pictures really don't do these justice.  Pins are fun to make and they use up scraps very nicely.

Days 127 and 128: Weird Frog and New Knitting Pattern

Yesterday, while out on the back patio, a frog presented himself (or herself) perched here on the top of the back of a chair.  He/she was very pale, and I would have missed him/her entirely had he/she not been pointed out to me.  I promptly took his/her picture, and placed him/her temporarily inside a cleaned peanut butter jar until proper examination by curious young minds could ensue....then he/she was released to go hippity-hoppity into the wild once again.  What a great day to be outside!

I started a new pattern yesterday and found myself in some sort of time warp.  I have been knitting like a fool, and yet, I haven't finished even one skein of yarn in almost two days of concentrated effort.  I have two skeins of this blended, self-striping yarn and I have vowed to use every last inch of it on this "cross roads" scarf.  I altered it some to make it narrower and still get the feel from the pattern while being a quicker knit....and yet, here I still am with many more hours in front of me.  I am many rows from completing the first skein, so I am not yet half way done.

I hope all you mothers out there had a great day!  My kidlets smothered me with love and kisses all day!

Day 126: HATS

a little interest in the cables on top...

Last night after blogging, I knit my first hat (for Hubby) and it was a simple ribbed skull cap type thing.  It took me a little under two hours and a little over one ball of yarn.  I was proud that it fit him, and is so soft. I actually wore it much of the day today as I wasn't feeling well....it kept my head cozy while I knit a coordinating hat for myself.  I stuck the rose pin I made yesterday on there, but really, I have a cable thing to add to mine.  No more for tonight though....just sleeps.

I went to a wonderful concert tonight to visit my former band students.  It was really heart warming and heart wrenching all at the same time.  Many of those kids I have had since my very first hour on the job.  I love watching kids grow up.  High school is such an important time in their moral, spiritual, soulful development.  I have really been blessed to take part in their journeys, and I have loved having them on mine.

 Making my hat took much longer since the ribbing went around my skull instead of up to the crown.  There isn't as much stretch in mine.  The bottom edge rolls a little too.

This one took lots more time and nearly three times as much yarn.  It was still interesting to work on.

Day 125: Hooded Scarf DONE...also Yarn Scraps Turned to FLOWERS!

 I am done with the finishing touches for my hooded scarf.  I added the luxury of a layer of fuzzy around the front edge of the hood....GREAT for just feeling good and warm and fuzzy all over.  I admit it.  When I finished my fuzzy additions, I wore it....sitting on my bed....covered also in my great gran's crochet blanket....working on my flowers to finish off my stash of spare ribbon used on this project.  Yes.  It is officially Spring in Minnesota.  And YES, it is over 60 degrees outside with the beautiful sun shining.  And YES, I am sitting inside with a LINED, HEAVY WOOL KNIT, FUZZY, WONDERFULLY LUXURIOUS HOODED SCARF!  And, YES!  I love every second of it!

As I put it on, I found that the scarf ends could be wound up around my neck for further comfort or they could rest on the front with the neck closed with my rose pin, or they could rest along my arms and be gathered at the bottom to make sleeves.  So, I added buttons and loops so that I could clasp the scarf ends together to make a cuff.  They are not easy to fasten with one hand, but if I fasten them before putting on the hooded contraption, then they work well.

I used the tail end of my ribbon leftovers to make a knit flower that I attached to a pin.  Originally, I thought I might sew it on to the lapel area of the hooded contraption, but I figured if I put it on a pin, then I could use it on other things as well.  On this scarf, I used it to gather up the hood around my neck like a closure.

I learned to make this flower in the Nicky Epstein class this past weekend!  Thanks, Nicky!  I have many little balls of almost finished yarn that have this to look forward to.

 I secured the pin onto the flower using the same ribbon yarn and it blends right in looking clean and finished.  No "threads" showing or hot glue to hide.

I put a few beads in the center just to give it a little hidden, detailed interest.  The ribbon yarn itself is so decorative that the beads weren't really needed, but who am I to leave off the bling when I have it on hand?





Yes, now off to other projects.....what shall I do now?  Only time and the blog will tell!  Stay tuned, friends!  I love sharing my journey with you!

This one is my favorite picture from today....it just shows very plainly and honestly how I feel today.  Warm, fuzzy, surrounded, and comforted....I know being home right now is a great place for me to be.  I can explore the meanderings of my mind, and even though I have had many reminders lately of another path that I could be on.......I took this one, and it makes me feel.....like this.


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