Tangles

I started a scarf for a Christmas gift and just haven't been in the mood to work on a pattern involving concentration on every single row. This has to change, obviously, or this gift will be a little late. Last night I wanted to knit something simple, so I made a dishcloth instead. I used Sugar and Cream in a color named "Mistletoe". The pattern is Terri Royea's Blissful Moss Rib cloth. I'm not crazy about the way the colors in the variegated yarn played out, but it's o.k. for a dishcloth.

Thank you Knitter's Review Secret Pal

I have been terrible about keeping up with the postings lately. My Secret Pal from the Knitter's Review forums swap #2 sent a wonderful box of goodies several days ago and I haven't done a proper public thank you yet.

My box o'goodies included 2 skeins of Paton's Classic Wool in a great RED shade, two balls of Reynolds' Odyssey that are soooo soft and pretty, a Clover yarn cutter, a book with an orchids theme--The Cranefly Orchid Murders by Cynthia Riggs, a floral bookmark, 2 sets of patterns for scarves and fairisle, a can of almonds, a great little tote bag--perfect to hold my lunchtime knitting, and a handmade card with a hummingbird photo. Oh, and she said nice things about Oreo. It is obvious that my secret pal is the best ever. She spent a lot of time choosing things that she knew I would enjoy and I really appreciate everything.

This hawk has been checking out the bird feeder action lately. I'm not having any luck in trying to get a shot of the front of the bird.

Kitty Bed #2 is finished

I haven't posted much lately because of trouble with the computer. I had to reformat the hard drive last weekend. After dowloading and using Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for a few days, I suddenly lost all online access. Turns out this is not unusual--I have learned my lesson and disabled all automatic updates from MS. Trying a system restore to an older date was the final blow--computer locked up and wouldn't budge. I just gave up and reformatted.

On the knitting front, I finished the baby blanket. Pictures will follow shortly. I'm not crazy about this one, totally my knitting fault, though. The squares are not exactly the same size and that made it tough to get a flat seam. By that point, I had enough and just did the best I could so I could called it done.

Kitty bed #2 is all done and felted. Look in the knitting photo album for pre and post felting photos. This one is smaller than #1, but is nice and firm.

I finally have a photo of the sky to share. I took this one today at about 6:30 a.m. It started to rain about an hour later. This is the view from the back of the house.

Here's a picture of the rain coming down taken from our front door. In another couple of hours, the rain was gone and the sun was out. Our area received a little more that 3/4 of an inch of rain--our first measurable rain in exactly 6 months.

I have started a new photo album of pictures of the birds, flowers and other goodies from around the house.

My Secret Pal has gifted me again. As you can tell, there is a definite red theme going on here. I took the picture with the red tissue paper as the backdrop and that only added to the red effect. My goodies included 3 skeins of a Dale yarn called ARA in a variegated red colorway, a box of chocolates from The Greenbrier (most yummy), red needle protectors, a candle and some handmade beaded stitch markers. She really is the best Secret Pal!! Thanks....

Quiet Sunday

I haven't posted about it before, but I'm working on a baby blanket for charity. 4 squares are done on the diagonal using a medium blue and white and then sewn together. The pattern is from Designs by Judith. Not very challenging, but a good TV-watching project. 2.5 of the 4 squares are finished.

Mon and I went to Alamitos Bay Yarn Company and then had a fun lunch at the new Ruby's Diner. I picked up some size 7 DPN's, a couple more skeins of Encore and two discounted skeins of KiC2 Creme Brulee DK for some CIC socks.

Think Blue

I've been saving this picture for the day that the Dodgers made it into the playoffs. Today is that day!! I took the photo back in June when the Dodgers played the Angels at Dodger Stadium. The Angels won their division today, too. An exciting basebal day here in sunny Southern California.