4H fair week

..is almost over! The boys did well with the few projects they took this year. Mike was champion and then grand champion in gardening, champion model airplane and reserve champion in needlework with his knitting. Both Matt and Aaron got all blues with their entries. We picked up animals today, and tomorrow we hand out ribbons and we are DONE for another year!

Birthday thinking

Yesterday was my 51st birthday. (How the heck did THAT happen?) I also met our new pastor for the first time. The two got me thinking about introductions. If you had to introduce yourself, and really try to convey the essence of who you are, what would you say? Five short sentences? Five nouns and then an explanation of what that means to you? Five points of your life that shaped who you are? Five people who have helped form you? I have no idea why "5", just a nice number, less than 6. excuse me while I play with this.....

Five nouns: 1. Christian
2. Wife
3. Mother
4. Grandmother
5. ????

The first four were easy. The fifth, not so easy. Reader? Bibliophile? Knitter? Master Gardner? Seamtress?

Gardening

We moved all the raised beds from the back acres into the front side yard. HUGE job! But, with all the babies, getting into the back was very difficult. Now they are just a few yards away from the playground equipment. So, weeding can happen while the little ones are in the sand box.

Tomatoes, peppers and squash are in the ground so far. The next bed will be all paste tomatoes, and the next one is for green and yellow beans. After that, it's all play. Some cukes, some carrots, some eggplants. The potatoes stay in back as they require less maitenence after they are mulched.

Now, it's lovely to come into the AC and knit on the EZ pi shawl.

WHEW!

It's been busy here! Lots of birthdays, lots of activities, lots of heat! Fortunately, some knitting also got done. I finished the Cobweb shawl. But I think there is something wrong somewhere. At the increase rows, it looks as if it's ruffled? When I try to gently pull it out into shape, it doesn't seem to help. Hmmmm.......

Nikko's Red Scarf Project

I came across this today. As a former foster parent, adoptive parent, and homeschooling mom of 3 sons who were at one time our foster children, this mission touched my heart. Two of my boys knit, and several of my girls, along with various grandchildren. Red scarves, here we come!

Progress!

I'm slowly but surely working my way through the Cobweb Shawl pattern. Last night I finished the rotation I was working on and the last increase series. Pretty good, considering that I was yelling through the finale of Dancing With the Stars at the time. I found 1 mistake, and fixed it. I thought. This morning I looked at it, and guess what? Not so fixed. I have a lovely repair, but it's supposed to be a hole! Hmmmm.......

Second sweater done!

Making yet another grandchild yell!

I finished the second hooded sweater, seems like this one fits Kymi. She is (unhappily)wearing a size 12 month, but this is knit for the 24 month size and is NOT too big. Hmmm....I know, SWATCH! The pattern is Lion Brand "Simple Hooded Cardigan" and the yarn is Laines DuNord "Softlight" . I bought it at a retreat we went to sponsored by River Knits. The pattern calls for 2-3 skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy, so I was hoping 2-3 balls would do it. Of course, the pattern does not include the yardage, and I didn't have a wrapper or my laptop that weekend. Feeling insecure, I bought 5. Guess what? I ran out halfway through the hood! Thankfully, Steph had bought 1 ball of the green, so I striped it in, finished the hood, and added some duplicate stitch to make it look like it was done on purpose!

The next one is for Andy, and I increased the overall size after he tried it on.