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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

It's Not Finished, Y'all

Don Juan floating in a bowl of water. He's so versatile.It always amazes me to see this...
...turn into this. Well, I don't actually see it happen, but still. (Fuchsia, it is.)
I finished the main part of my crochet shawl and the picot edging on the long/neck side of it. The lower sides...that's another story.
Here's what it's supposed to look like after the edging is attached. I'm not sure if it's me being a lunkhead or if the directions are less than clear. We'll see if I can muddle through it in a few days. Meantime, lettuce dine (take out crochet related irritations) on wilted lettuce. I know you're just dyin' to know how to make this great tastin' southern salad, so roughly...a pile of leaf lettuce (torn in frustration), a sprinklin' of apple cider vinegar, dash of salt, bacon crumbled (up maddeningly), a green onion or two chopped with intent to...then wilt/kill the whole mess with some smokin' hot bacon grease. I have to go get the leftovers out of the fridge now...see y'all next week.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Blackberry Winter

Last week's little chill was evidently just a precursor to cooler weather for us this week. Early morning temps here this morning were in the low 40s and even colder in the mountains. I sneaked and turned the heat on...TVA beware! Oh yes, those heating bills are costing us a fortune these days. These blackberry blossoms will become tasty berries in just a few months. Don Juan..a charmer of a rose. I bought this eighteenth century styled bird bottle at the pottery factory near Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia about ten years ago and hung it on the deck facing the morning sun, but in all that time I've never had a bird nest in it. Sigh.The crochet shawl (Bernat Handicrafter pattern Style No. 2343-220) is coming along, albeit slowly. I've made mistakes and had to rip back to correct them. This picture is current this morning, but I just found a mistake eight rows back, so I'll be ripping back again over a skein of yarn to correct it. Crocheting is faster than knitting, but correcting mistakes is deadly to progress since you have to ravel all the way back to where the mistake is to fix it. (I hope to be perfect and not make any mistakes someday...chuckles.)Lettuce just be glad there's forgiveness for our mistakes.
Have a great week, Y'all!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Enthrawlin', Completely Enthrawlin'

Feel that chill in the air? We're having a li'l blackberry winter here in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. I don't mind it a bit, though; it sure makes a nice cup of coffee seem extra good. Here's a look at my purple clematis.Goodman and I went to Virginia to see Youngest and her DH over the weekend. We had a good visit with them and a very nice time taking in several of their area nurseries. We stopped at the first two and just enjoyed looking, but at the last one this beautiful hanging basket of petite petunias called Superbells caught my eye almost immediately. Youngest noticed how much I liked them and snapped it up for me for Mother's Day. (It looks even better in person. :)Truly, I'd planned to just look at all the nurseries' offerings, but this burgundy petunia was too pretty to resist. I do love burgundy flowers and petunias especially.
On the way back home we decided to take a back road near the mountains, and what do you think we passed right by? Uh huh, the Lodge Factory Outlet Store in Sevierville. It's one of my favorite places to browse. I could spend a lot of time in there. It takes a while to look at all their cast iron pots and pans and fireplace accessories, etc., but this skillet stood out right away. Yep, those bears followed me all the way home.
Remember the circular shawl I started a few weeks ago? Well, I've run into two problems with it. First, a disheartening mistake further back than the ones I'd already redone, and then..the book that the pattern is in has vanished. I'm at a loss as to what's happened to it and, frankly, I don't want to think about it right now. See, we took four or five boxes of books to the Habitat Thrift Store recently...oh, yeah. Sigh. So, pressing ever onward, I started crocheting this completely enthrawlin' little shawl. The yarn is CotLin from Knitpicks in their Linen colorway. I'm about one-third finished with the body of the shawl and will start the border very soon, hopefully.
Hope your week is a good 'un. :)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

May Flowers & More Showers

Happy May, Y'all. It's the best month for flowers around our place. A clematis that is supposed to adorn the deck likes to climb in the poplar tree. We're getting lots of rain lately. We burned a large brush pile yesterday evening, and a gully washer from heaven put the fire out for us. We felt a few sprinkles and hurried, but by the time we got into the house we were drenched! Ah well, that took care of our weekly baths. ;) This yellow iris smells like nutmeg...mmmm.
I've had these irises for years and years. They just smell regular-like.
Miss Frilly...not to be confused with the purple iris I showed you last week. This one is ruffled and lighter in color. Most of my irises are compliments of my neighbor-down-the-road a bit. She gave me two buckets of them last summer and some the year before that. Would we all had a neighbor like that. :) One of our favorite things to do is go yard-sailing (I know..chuckles) We went to several sales last week, and had the best time. The grandgals were here, so we took them along. Everyone found some nifty prize they couldn't live without. Mine was this very cool, little two-cup teapot. I paid a little sweet lady fifty cents for it and went happily on my way.Why is it so cool, you ask... It has it's own strainer! It's perfect for my home remedy, herbal tea infusions. Honestly, I don't think it was ever used as the label on the bottom was snowy-white and clean. Can't wait till my chamomile blooms...These honeysuckle blossoms are growing on a bush on the fence line. As soon as I put the bouquet on the counter of the old Hoosier cabinet all the peeps gathered 'round for a sniff. I've been knitting, yes, but not on the shawl, Y'all. We'll talk about it next week. :)
Hope you're having a grand week!