One of our favorite restaurants, La Tapatia, in Picayune, is about to re-open on a daily basis. Last year before they decided to re-structure, they had a shop next door to the restaurant where they sold all sorts of products from Mexico, hence the trying on of some Charro hats. Gradually they closed the shop, or rather moved it in to the restaurant, removing over half their tables to do so. Then they cut the hours and days for the restaurant. But now they are ready to increase the size of the restaurant and hiring another cook and wait staff, so hopefully we will be able to get sopes and enchiladas and other goodies again. I can hardly wait!

Some time this spring I finished the Paloma top from French Girl knits. I had to fiddle with the pattern just a little to get something that would fit well through the shoulders without being too big through the waist.

It is a very comfortable top to wear. I used the yarn specified in the pattern. A merino/linen blend, from Louet, and comfortable fiber for all but the most humid days. The laciness makes it more wearable here in southern climes. It was fun to knit, and I have thought of making it in a cotton or cotton blend, but still must continue to work on ufos.
I am taking the week off to try organizing and simplifying and am still formulating my plan of attack, so off to work!

Matisse shawl finished

I am pretty happy with the way Matisse turned out. It is a nice size, not too large, but big enough to wrap up in or to serve as scarf, just right. It measures about 60" across the top and 24" from middle top to point. The pattern is Old Shale Lace, from summer 2008 Spin Off magazine and designed by Evelyn Clark.

I was trying to get the scallops to match each other, but one side definitely wanted to scallop more than the other. I wonder why that is? I decided not to do the picot bind off, the plain bind off seems to suit this piece much better.

It is even lovely just thrown across the bed. I have someone in mind who I think this will suit wonderfully, if I can avoid the temptation to keep it!

Another photo of our Mockingbird Cafe knitting group this time with Marg and Evie. In the back, left to right: Cherri, Marsha and Evie, seated left to right, Marg and Eileen. We have a lot of fun together seeing what everyone is working on. We're still missing a few here, but this seems to be our core group.

Now that the Matisse shawl is done I am trying to finish more projects: the Crystal Cove Pullover from Just One More Row, a fluffy cotton baby cardigan from Classic Elite Yarns, and then if I'm really good I will start another shawl using one of the Free Fall yarns I've spun. And I have another Matisse roving to spin. I just saw a fabulous video on Navajo plying sent from Spin Off, and I may try tackling that on the next spinning session. Oh what fun!

Critters on the road and at home

Being new to Southern Mississppi I am constantly stopping to see precious sights like these. The first time I saw this little sweetie I thought he was a dog as he was bouncing all around mom across the field from us. The other day they were right by the road and I finally remembered I have a camera in my phone. (Oh, the techinical advances! One day I hope to be up to speed on them.) I am so glad he stayed still long enough for me to get this snapshot.

Not far away from the miniature ponies we found this group of cows enjoying the water and shade. I was about to drive by when in the background I noticed mama cow had just given birth. We must have missed it by about ten minutes or less (?) as baby was already on his feet but mama was still attending to licking him clean. I could have stayed to watch alot longer, but this is a narrow country road and we had to get out of the way.

Back at home, having replenished the feed station, I sat down to see who would visit. I was quite surprised to have been able to get this shot of a house finch coming up for some more seed. We get finches and sparrows and cardinals, tufted titmice, chickadees, and in their season rose-breasted grosbeaks, orioles, red winged blackbirds. Even woodpeckers will come to the feeding station.

Here is a momma red bellied woodpecker on the left and her young 'un in the lugustrum (sp?) trees that border the backyard. Momma flies to the station and hangs on while filling up and then flies over to the trees where the young ones are. There were two waiting for her, the other one moved to the other side of the trunk. So far the young ones haven't learned to fly to the station themselves, but one day I'm sure we will see them there.

Speaking of babies, here is the cutest little male cardinal just barely starting to get his color. He has a very fine crest already and knows how to get to the feeding station just fine, thank you very much. It seems that mama cardinal takes them to the grassy area underneath the station when they first venture out, but this young fella has graduated to the top of the feeding station already.

Next time some photos of the finished Matisse shawl.

Beginnings and endings

Beginnings of a shawl using the 'Matisse' yarn spun from the last of the spring/summer Roving Art club. I thought quite a bit about what I wanted to do with this yarn and I kept going back to the Old Shale Lace Shawl from the summer 2008 issue of Spin Off magazine, another Evelyn Clark design. I like the simplicity of the pattern, especially since there are such long repeats of color. I had a momentary issue with it as it was July when I began musing on what to do, and I was thinking of Paris and July and that led to Bastille Day and my mind jumped to Madame Lafarge and her knitting aristocrat names and crimes into her work, and all the eyelets made me think of rolling heads, quel horreur! I started to reject the idea but I kept going back to the pattern and this time my thoughts turned to more pleasing venues such as this shawl could be something Peter Mayle picked up for his wife in Paris and she would toss around her shoulders when the evenings turned cool sitting around their enormous outdoor table in Provence. Or perhaps something Leslie Duncan would have left over her chair when called to do another scene. Feeling much more comfortable with it I began. But not until I finished the Whisper shawl.

I am astonished with how beautifully lightweight this shawl is and how pleasing it is to wear. It was a lot of work, and I do admit that I would set it aside to do some spinning or other knitting, but I am so glad that I picked it up again determined to finish. The challenge here was whether or not I would have enough yarn to finish the entire shawl, as I only had the one skein, and I am happy to say that I did. I thought perhaps I might have to leave off the final edging across the top, but I had enough yarn to finish that as well.

Another temporary ending with the prospect of a new beginning is the skein of Free Fall #128, also from Taos Sunflower Too. I was able to get 678 yards from 3.8 oz., so I am very happy with it. As I was plying it my mind kept seeing autumn leaves so perhaps I can come up with a pattern that would show this off in a lovely leaf pattern.
I still have two more 'skeins' of roving to spin and lots of projects to finish and even some baby knitting to do for new arrivals. I will let you know what I come up with.

Ciao, ate lago, au revoir.