Busy Gardening and Knitting

I love spring in the south,(except for the 90's already) the flowers are blooming, the garden is growing. My back porch smells wonderful! Of course my sinuses are griping, but it's worth it.

The fern is getting bigger!

The Bromliads are vibrant this year!

And look at the garden! Loaded already!


The tomato bushes are huge!
Squash!

The garden is putting out really well this year. The squash and beans are coming out in buckets full every day!

Just four squash out of the garden. Cut up and ready to boil.


Green beans, or as Tristan says "Bean Greens! MiMi!
The flowers are blooming like crazy!

The Petunia's are beautiful! I love this color.

Three different colors of Hibiscus this year.

tiKKi: Rainbow Dress

tiKKi: Rainbow Dress
Have you seen this cute dress?! It is absolutely adorable. And what a cute model! My favorite part? It is knit completely in the round! I have loads of DK weight yarn and two grand daughters, a definite match made in heaven!

BLOG CONTEST: 8 SKEINS OF YARN

Everyone who purchases one of my patterns between now and June 1st, will be entered into a drawing for this!
Eight skeins of yarn, plus a free copy of one of my other patterns, your choice.
Just a little something to help with my stash reduction, and your stash enhancement.

An Alarming Trend

I have noticed, through out the Internet and in magazines, there is an alarming trend going on!
Downloadable patterns that used to be the best way to buy a pattern, even the most complex ones were only around $8, now, for a simple pattern you could pay as much as $15! What happened. Dishcloths used to run around two dollars, now they are pushing five. It's not like I want a printed copy, you know, you buy the paper, you buy the ink, you print it out, package it, drive to the post office, pay to ship it. Then maybe I can see it. But $12 for a pattern that I can download and all you have to do is type it in and at the worst, email it to me!?!?
I know the work behind getting it ready for download, but you know what, a year ago, that work was worth $5 bucks, now it is more like twenty.
I know the rising price of gas has driven up a lot of things, things you wouldn't even think of, like simple box of salt we used to get for 5o cents, and now costs almost two dollars. Like it cost more to ship it with the thousands of other items jammed onto that truck headed to your local Wally World, but I digress. My whole point was...........WTH............ why are the price of patterns going up? Is the demand that big, so now we can charge twice as much as what we would have just a year ago.
I admit, I am a pattern pack rat, but if this trend keeps up, I am going to have to find comfort in the hundreds I have already.

Pattern Posted

I posted the new pattern and I think you are really going to like it. The easy to memorize stitch pattern makes it an ease to knit. And the smaller needles and highly textured pattern make it perfect for either dishcloths or bath cloths.
I have been knitting away on hand towels, and I will be posting a pattern for those over at the Knittinfree blog in the next day or two.
Have you tried the new CotLin from Knitpics yet? You really should if you haven't. Grab you up one skein the next time you are on their website. Email me leah@knittinfun.com and I will tell you the pattern I used. It is perfect for the bath.
I also have 'another' order of yarn coming from Peaches N Creme
I was reading on one of my lists, someone was using the double ww cotton for rugs! Now I know this is not a new idea, but I just realized now I can make rugs for the bathroom to match the loads of cloths and towels I have made! It was an epiphany!
I know I am a little slow, but once it hits me, I am up and running.
I have been trying really hard to be a good girl and do some sweater knitting for the, soon to be five, grand kids for this winter, but I am still stuck on the towels and cloths. I guess because we have been so hot down here on the Gulf Coast, that it is just too hard to get your heart into sweater knitting.
But I will soon, or at least get started on the flames caps for Brian and Kevin.
Right now, the cotton is calling, so more cloths and towels it will be.

New Dishcloth Pattern

New dishcloth pattern to be posted today.
This easy cloth has lots of texture and will be a great dishcloth or bath cloth.




Hip Cloth

$2.00

Lemonade Ridge

New Pattern Added

I have added a new patternI hope you like it as much as I do.
I flipped through quite a few books till I found a pattern I liked, that hadn't been done before. I love the scurbability of this cloth. The textured design gives it plenty of ummppphhh for those stuck on stains.
It is knit with Peaches N Creme, but any WW cotton yarn will do.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for the knitting patterns.

Lemonade Ridge

$2.00

Desire' is finally HOME!The Trip, The Ceremony

It's time to go! Kevin's just a little excited

The kids are loaded up and ready to go

And we are off

Some of us didn't make it too far

And some of us were so excited, we just passed out

It was a long ride

Kevin knows this will be the last time he will get to drive Desire's truck

On the road

Look what we found along the way

Talladega!

Our Heros!

We made it to the base, Ft. McClellan

The decorations were great!

Then we start the long wait

Very long wait.....

The boy was all decked out for his sister's home coming

We wait

And wait......

And wait.....

And wait.......

And practice waving the flag....

The BUS!!
Being escorted in by the Patriot Guard Riders!


Patriot Guard Riders

Showing their support

Finally! We get to hug her

Isaac finally gets to hold his Mama!

Bella is a little more cautious

She's second in line as the came in

Thanking God for their safe return
Remembering those who still fight.

The speaches

More speaches


Thank you Partriot Guard Riders!

It was so good to see her smilin' face in person again.

Yes, she's short

The Salute

The Medals

Four Medals for her service in Iraq

Cpl. Benjamin Brosh comes home

Cpl. Benjamin Brosh comes home
As we wait for Desire' to get out of Iraq, we got this news today.
Cpl. Benjamin Brosh is returned home from Iraq.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Miss Woolly Knits

Miss Woolly Knits
Along with my obsession for knitting for the house came a huge....(no exaggeration) pile of scrap dishcloth cotton. I started a Log Cabin style blanket, cloth, hand towel thingy yesterday. My own personal solution to the ever growing mound.
Then today I found this, hmmmmmmmm............ do I frog the thingy, or just start with a new pile of scraps. The more I look at the 'thingy' the more I hear......ssshhhh.....you can probably hear it too.... rippit....rippittt...

This is a great website!

I have become totally and completely obsessed with knitting things for the house.
I have made the hand towels for the bathroom, countless dishcloths, and a wash cloth for the shower. Now dear Hubby won't 'ever, ever use another store bought cloth". (I may be knitting my self into a hole here) (pun intended) ;0)
This website has allot of great patterns for around the house.
I already have the Columns Kitchen Hanging Towel hanging on the oven door handle. It's been there for a year now.
She has lots of great patterns for hanging towels and such. Her newest addition has got to be one of my favorites The Simply Striped Sack Sock No knitters home should not have one hanging in it.

I will post pictures of all of my FO's as soon as my new camera gets here.
It should be here by Friday, then I am going to become a snap happy fool!
Lots of pics to show you.

One other pattern I just ordered, and am most definitely going to start ASAP.
Not a house pattern, this is the FiFi
This looks like a great top, I can't wait to get it started.

I have been knitting!

My order from Knitpicks came in.
The lovely, soft, crisp CotLin yarn that I ordered.
I promptly cast on for the towel in the front bathroom.
This yarn is great! It has the crisp feel of linen and the softness of cotton. If you can get that from one skein of yarn, really, it does. Go ahead and give it a try.
This is towel one of............. probably many.
This one was made with two skeins of the CotLin yarn from Knitpicks and size 6 needles. I had to smidge at the top of the pattern, honestly, two skeins are not enough to follow the pattern exactly. But that is ok, it came out great, and for a bigger towel, the next one will be knit with three skeins.
The pattern is the Moss Grid Handtowel pattern from the Mason Dixon knitting book. If you haven't seen this book yet, run, don't walk to a LYS, library, anywhere that you might be able to get your little hands on one.



Here is the same pattern with 4ply 100% cotton from Peaches & Creme on size 5 needles.
This would be a great kitchen towel, or bathroom hand towel. Mine.... bathroom of course.

Flying Geese Dishcloth done in P&C on size 6 needles.
In my opinion this is the best cloth for scrubability.



This is the Lacy Checks cloth, there are allot of patterns around the web for this one.
Just have a look around and I promise you will find it.



I have also completed
1.Dolly The Dolphin
2. Lighthouse
3.Fiesta
All the cloths were confiscated before I get pictures.

My hands have been very busy indeed.
I plan on finishing the 4ply hand towel in the next day or two, then starting another with the CotLin.
It's an obsession almost. Must...... knit....... handtowels......
yeah, it's weird.

Fast typing.......and no posting

Now that sounds like a serious contradiction in terms doesn't it?
I found this speed typing test today online, I am not good, I know, some people can fly circles around me. But I am pretty proud of this score, so I am posting it.

57 words

Not too bad. What can you do?
As for the no posting, we took a serious lightening strike to the house on Saturday morning. No cable, no internet, and no power to anything in the back yard. Poor baby chicks were freaking out without their light.
Everything is finally back to normal. The cable guy made it out yesterday. So more posts are now forth coming ;0)

CotLin Yarn Knitting Yarn | KnitPicks.com

CotLin Yarn Knitting Yarn KnitPicks.com

I know I shouldn't have, I wasn't going to, I sure didn't need it, but.............
1. It's 70 % cotton
2. It's 30% Linen
3. They have the colors I need for the Mason Dixon hand towels for the front bathroom.
4. It was my birthday, not even a week ago, I think I can use that for at least three more days!

This yarn looks like it is going to fit the bill for the bathroom hand towels.
Have you seen the Linen HandTowel pattern in the Mason Dixon knitting book?! It is one of my all time faves and I now have a "Mason Dixon" master bathroom. (figuratively and lieterally ;0) The pattern calls for sport weight linen, but I use either WW cotton or DK weight, we like our "prissy" towels to be big enough to be useful.
This is some awesome looking yarn and I can't wait to get my hands on it!
I have been on a knitting craze, dishcloths, dishtowels, hand towels for the bathrooms. I have been all over it.
I will get some pictures of the ones I have done already, so far the count is
2 Grandmas Fave for Kevin
2 Grandmas Faves to give away
2 Lacy Checks one for Kevin, one for me
2 Fiesta Cloths one to give away, and you guessed it, one for Kevin.
I absolutely love the fact that he likes my cloths! Between him, my FIL and myself, I could knit up every design ever made and still not have enough.
OTN: I have a Linen Hand towel from the "Mason Dixon Knitting Book" done in Peaches N Creme 100% WW cotton on size 5 needles. I usually do 14 repeats of the pattern for a longer hanging towel, but with the WW I am going to follow the pattern as it is. I haven't done one with this yarn before so I think it will come out the length I usually like.