Today's Garden Pics

The garden actually looks very pretty on cloudy days like we've been having and photographs best without bright contrast too. Everything is lush looking from all the rain and I'm enjoying my yard very much! I have some gorgeous mint and am thinking I should obtain the rest of the ingredients for some mojitos!

I'm watching the blueberries grow and know that the dogs and various birds are also anticipating them...who will get to the ripe ones first this year?

This hardy geranium is Buxton's blue and I grew it from seed and have several plants around the yard.

The arbor bed is pretty, but needs some work. Plants have moved around on their own and I never did get a tall border all the way across the back of it. Hopefully next year I'll start some more seeds for that. It could use another 3-4 peegee hydrangeas as well. I might be able to do some cuttings from the two I have already.

A view of the very wild butterfly garden! The way I see it, it may be crazy full of plants, but they are plants I intended and not weeds. It's nice to successfully smother out weeds once in awhile!

A row of butterfly bushes forms the back of the butterfly garden. There is a little path along the back between the gardens and the north property line/stone wall.

Saffy, as you know, enjoys the gardens. Usually playing, resting and smelling flowers...

but occasionally taking a bite!!!

Sunday Repeat

Last Sunday's drive to Sakonnet Purls and Gray's Ice Cream was so enjoyable that we did it again this week. With Rove knitting up quickly, I was starting to think ahead about my next project. I settled on one with Rowan Summer Tweed. It's so hard on my fingers, but I do like the fabric it makes. Anyway, there was a shortage of Summer Tweed colors and skeins at Sakonnet Purls, so I was not able to get the amount I wanted, though I was able to get one of my top color choices. There were 5 remaining skeins of 'rush'. I started winding them up on the drive home and here is one ball shown nestled in my sage plant in the pic.

My plan was to get enough skeins for Lull, from the new Studio 15 book I got last weekend, but I will need to do an online order instead. In the meantime, I will use today's yarn to make the tank top from the Summer Tweed Collection pattern book, though I had hoped to do it in a different color. Maybe I still will use a different color too, one can't really have too many tanks in summer time.

Although I could make this other top from the Studio book with the yarn I got today, I really think I'd want a different color for it, either the raffia shown in the pic, or something dark.

I got a ton of yard work done yesterday and particularly enjoyed the mowing with all the flowers to look at as I went around and around the yard. I cut back the out of control property border shrubs to the south and dragged the trimmings to a new burn pile. Saffy and Silas enjoyed 'helping' me, but did not figure out that the branches were supposed to be piled in one place, not dragged all over!

Here's a picture of daisies blooming by the back door/patio. They are sunny, even when the sky is cloudy like it was much of today.

Calm Knitting

I'm getting going on Rove and love the Rowan calmer yarn! It does seem to keep me calm too, no knots or tangles and it's easy on the fingers because of the slight stretch. What a fab yarn to work with! I think there are going to be more projects with it in my future, but in the meantime, here's a pic of the back half of Rove.

And, Jeff got a surprise in the mail this week, his work related 'Author's Award' which is a digital picture frame!

Visiting My Favorite Shop

Jeff was interested in doing a little Sunday drive to Tiverton, RI with me yesterday, so I put on my new tank and wore it out to Sakonnet Purls to look for a new project.

I picked out the Rowan Studio, Issue 15, pattern book with a number of items I like in it designed by Sarah Hatton. The yarn for my first choice pattern was not available and I didn't feel like working out a substitute with Jeff waiting patiently for me, so I opted to knit another tank and picked out some Calmer for it.

I have been wanting to try Calmer for some time, so this will be a nice way to see how the slight stretchiness works for me and then I might try it with a bigger project, with sleeves. The shop had a sample sweater in Calmer on display and it felt amazing.

There are some gorgeous color choices in this yarn, but I especially like this blue.

Happy with my purchases, I went out to find Jeff and we headed on to the reason he went to the knitting store with me in the first place...a visit to Gray's Ice Cream just up the road from Sakonnet Purls!

(The book and yarn were photographed in my herb garden. You can see the sage, etc.)

FO: Terracotta Tank

I made such a stupid mistake on the first row of this knit which I did not discover until I was dividing the front and back at the underarm. Yes, I did not divide the stitches evenly between the front and back. Mentally, I locked onto a number for a different size and proceeded to triple check that, not realizing my error in the first place! Aaarrrgh! I was *not* going to frog all that work. I decided to let the slightly longer side be the front as some of the slack would be taken up by the bust half of me and the back half would be flatter against my shoulder blades.

It seems to have worked out ok. It feels fine on as well. It hasn't been blocked yet, but hardly needs it.

(Excuse the sunlight/shading in this pic, the yarn is just one color throughout.)

My *intentional* changes were to end the eyelet rib at the under bust line and lower the front neckline scoop. Also, I knitted the back of the neck straight, I did not scoop it like the front.

So, I have a new summer top, just in time for the hot weather to arrive!

Saturday Progress

This afternoon, I visited a local fabric store called Sew Nice Fabrics and found a plain cotton material for the lining of the bag I recently made.

And, I finished the body of the tank and picked up the stitches for the neckline, knit it in eyelet rib and got that bound off as you see in this pic (it was a bit dark for my camera).

I still have to pick up the stitches and knit the armhole bands in K3P3 rib. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done tomorrow and have an FO to share!

Early June Garden 'Tour'

Yesterday, I snapped some pics around my yard while I was out with Saffy and Silas. My all time favorite shrubs are in full bloom, wine/pink and pink weigelia...wish you could smell them!

The yard is beautifully perfumed by them this time of year, not cloyingly, just a light whiff.

These are Knautia which the butterflies and bees love, as do I!

I am going to have to regain *some* control of the butterfly garden one of these days. It's completely filled in! Here are the lupine...blue, purple and pink shades.

Hardy geraniums have been coming back faithfully for years now. I started them from seed and they get bigger every year too.

A patch of shade by the barn door is full with a Jack in the Pulpit, false Solomon Seal, bluebells, lily of the valley...there is a bleeding heart and sweet william in that area too, but not showing in this pic. The bleeding heart has gone by and the bluebells are past peak.