362 days later, more or less...

Riding along the bay we frequently see this beauty. Often shadowing the fishermen, some days he gets a nice share of what is caught or even some bait. He was a little ragged after Hurricane Isaac went through, but managed to survive. How?

 Love driving by and seeing the pelicans and cormorants hanging out, sometimes we catch them diving, fishing. I have some more photos around this time that I will post very soon.

 A finished project, destined for a bride, a lovely lady. This is what I finally did with the beautiful dyed roving Martie did many moons ago, in her 'Roving Art' series, this based on a beautiful painting of an orchid. I loved knitting this. It is the Petal Shawlette from Sock Yarn-One Skein Wonders. I knitted an extra repeat of one of the charts to get it a little larger, and had what I think was a happy accident. I was running out of the handspun and was pretty sure I wouldn't have enough for the leaf border, so I started rummaging through my depleted stash and found this Rowan Kid Silk Haze in this perfectly matching 'greige-ed' off white. It truly 'finished' the shawl.

My stash has depleted deliberately as I sorted through it and donated bunches to different new knitters, those who had learned to knit with simple acrylics can have fun with bits and pieces of fun yarns.

 Another thing we did this year is to get a membership to the zoo; in our meanderings we came across these turtles, enjoying the sun together.

 Our group of knitters continues to meet at the Mockingbird Café. I loved the colors and the concentration of this little knitter. This is practically the only time I have to knit anymore, so I try to make it every week, although sometimes I don't make it.

 Here, my teddy bear, stuffed with lavender, has volunteered to model a baby sweater and hat I finished for one of the girls who used to come early and visit our knitting group. This is one of Jill Eaton's Minnowknits designs and was another fun knit.

I have lots of other photos to share (soon)(very soon), trips to Jackson, Mississippi, and New Orleans, a couple of other projects, more birds. Bear with me. Tee hee.

Finally a moment...

I can hardly believe it has been so long but hope that some photos will make up for it. This shot looks as if it should be in some exotic locale, but in fact was seen in the little lake (pond) area in the back of a trailer park. Shows that beauty can be found anywhere, eh?

These two were posing just like this and I had to stand on my brakes and back up (thankfully nobody behind me) to catch them. No fears, they stayed this way.

Yarn bombing day at the Mockingbird Cafe a little while ago. It was fun, but a hot morning! Nothing to compare with what we are experiencing now but hot enough to head to the shade every few minutes. The owner of the cafe was thrilled, hugged us all and gave us complimentary coffees, which we didn't expect but appreciated. The stair railing was adorned as well, and has held up pretty well despite rainy days.

A Hospital visit for Sophie, and playing with the camera app on my phone to get different color effects. Liked it. And Sophie got to go home the same day, so far everything is fine.

The cactus fruit was really beautiful in front of what used to be Los Tres Amigos but now is El Maguey in Bay St. Louis. They remodeled just after this was taken and uprooted this and planted it along the sides of the parking lot.

New construction along the beach front in Bay St. Louis, scandalous in that after finishing it they denied permission to use this to access the Beach!! Plans are surely in effect to remedy this, in the meantime its a great place to get a walk in, in the cool of the evening. (What cool?)

I'm trying to think what I've been working on. I finished Madli's shawl but gave it away before I could get some decent photos of it. I think I got one drying, I'll have to look for it. Working on a little dress for a six to eight week old neice, socks, of course and another petal shawlette out of a yarn I spun from Martie's Spin Art series from a few years ago. The 'orchid' yarn. Thinking of sewing a summer dress, and another apron. Hmmmm...
Hope all are well and keeping cool!

No rhyme or reason...

To my absence from these pages; here are some photos I have taken in the duration. I caught a glimpse of these babies a while ago, and had to stand on my brakes to get this shot as it was the first time they were so close to the road. So-oooh! cute!

Not sure if these every which way lines are leftover from Katrina's destruction or before; it was a beautiful day and the light was amazing, my phone- photo doesn't do it justice.

And, yes, that little orange dot is the moon rising as I headed home one evening. Talk about not doing it justice! It seemed enourmous to my eye and the color was beautifully reflecting the sunset behind me.

Like many, I imagine, I've just been doing what the days call for, trying to keep up with my routine, not much time for knitting (took me two months to finish a pair of socks, aughh!). Now I am trying to sew some simple cafe curtains for a friend's new kitchen/ dining room; started another pair of socks, and have until the 24th of March to finish a shawl I started (?) a long time ago. Gave myself a deadline, hope it helps.

Some more ramblings...

Not too long ago, a very breezy day, the bay was choppy and the sea birds were all hunkered down on pier pilings left over from Katrina.

This guy was eyeing the bait of a nearby fisherman. We were able to get pretty close before he started to move away.

And something I've rarely seen, on the side of a house in Bogalusa, a walking stick. Amazing.

Another view of the wrought iron balcony of 220 North Beach Restaurant, so pretty, and not in New Orleans, right here in Bay St. Louis.

I continue to work on socks and am contemplating a shawlette from the Jane Austen Knits special issue from Interweave. Dealing with sick car and hence a new car, that already has a slight transmission problem, being serviced as I write, but as it gets terrific gas mileage I am thrilled.

A beautiful day today, nice and warm, a bit of rain in the forecast, a good day to make something yummy in the kitchen. Hmmmm.

Colors changing softly

So here is the shawl blocked, a detail, showing the subtle color changes. This was the yarn I spun from the Colinette roving, already dyed, 100% merino, lovely.

From a little further away; I added one more repeat of the petal pattern, and I really enjoyed working the leaf edging. It worked up quickly. If I didn't mention it before, this is a design by Bonnie Evans and can be found in Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant.

These leaves changing color reminded me of the subtle, soft colors of the shawl and vice versa.

And a shawl too

My fingers were itching to do something other than socks for a little bit of a break, plus I had this skein of Colinette's dyed roving that I had spun up just sitting there begging to be put to use. So I went looking for a shawl pattern and came across this one in 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders' edited by Judith Durant. It is the 'Petal Shawlette' by Bonnie Evans, who explains that this is an adaption of an old tablecloth design from 'The First Book of Modern Lace Knitting'. One of the things I really like about the pattern is that the center line of eyelets that usually adorn the middle of top down triangular shawls is joined by many other lines of eyelets and so seems more a part of the shawl and not just a line on which to fold the shawl when storing. I know some who consider that an eyesore.

It is growing nicely and I am enjoying seeing how the colors work out. It is not a very big piece, hence 'shawlette', but I think it will work nicely as a scarf this fall/winter.

Ok, so I've been knitting socks...

I broke down and bought Ann Budd's 'Sock Knitting Master Class' when I opened it up and saw the 'Stealth Argyles' designed by Eunny Jang. I'd been wanting to do a pair of Argyles for my brother, but when I saw these, I thought 'Perfect!' only two colors to deal with and no bobbins..and being constructed by shadow knitting the pattern vanishes depending on viewpoint and becomes a simple pair of striped socks. Brilliant! Rather quick to knit as I wanted to see how it was going to work out!

Next I tried Cat Bordhi's 'Pussy Willow Stockings', also a very fun knit, although I felt that I was in danger of breaking my dpn when I got to the slip stitch part of the heel..the stitches are slipped purlwise through the back loop, and it took me awhile to settle down with it. Another thing it revealed to me is something you can see better in the close-up:

Look at the difference in the size of the eyelets from one sock to the other. The sock on the right is for the right foot and the eyelet is nice and loose; in contrast the eyelet on the left sock is smaller and tighter. The only thing I can figure out is that on the looser eyelet, a m1 increase is performed before the yo, and in the tighter version it is performed after the yo. I believe this operation tightened the eyelet, and I'm thinking that I should have tried a different increase. Any ideas? Suggestions?

I went rummaging around in my sock yarn stash and found this partially knit sock (which in the meantime has been re-knit). This is a Classic Elite sock kit from many many moons ago using Fox Fibre Naturally Colored Cotton, in a simple lace rib pattern. I had cast on more stitches than called for to make it for me, but I have decided to make it for someone else with smaller feet who won't wear wool. Hence, ripping out and casting on fewer stitches. Almost to the heel flap.

I do want to return to Ann Budd's book as there are several other sock patterns in there that are attracting my attention, including two that allow you to totally reknit the sole when necessary without reknitting the whole sock or even the instep again. I do recommend the book as worth perusing for beyond the ordinary socks, not to mention that it is accompanied by a DVD that demonstrates some of the techniques used.