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Getting ready for summer

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The baby blanket.  Finally, it is finished.   I participated in a granny square swap last year or so.  Each five member group created ten squares and received ten squares.  Adding two personal squares, the total become twelve.
The squares were supposed to be 12 inches.  As I put the blanket together, I found that 12 inches was relative.  To what, I don't know. One square was not a square at all.  I don't know enough about geometry to identify its shape. 
Of course, one block unraveled when I laundered the blanket.  That was fun. 
Of course, the blanket is all acrylic.  Once again, I am assuming the mother will keep her baby from open flames.    That is just good parenting, I think. 

I decided to increase each square to 14 inches on all sides to get some uniformity.  That meant that I did not need to use all 12 squares.  I created three strips each with a different border color then selected one color to combine them all.
As you can see Lil Cat approved.

I made this blanket for a student of mine.  I had this yarn that I wanted to use it on something.  I crocheted in the round. Every third row was a DC pattern.  I liked it. It is also acrylic baby melting yarn.
Now that those two blankets are out of the way, I can concentrate on the items I am making for myself.
A white tank top and a skirt . I am asking for everyone to wish me luck.  I needs to be completed by the end of July.

More flowers bloomed this week.


Late Spring clematis. I guess that is it for the vines.  I just hope the vines do not grow into the AC again this year.

I am trying to pull the morning glory sprouts.  Morning glories are not as much fun as you might think.  They spread everywhere.  Like that old movie from the 80s, Creepshow. 



Sedum.  This variety is a great ground cover or around rocks and such. It doesn't seem to be bothered by the kids walking on it either.
The mums are making an appearance.  I pulled these out of my mom's yard before she moved. 
And finally the Asian lilies. I love their color. 


I have worked on a campus for more than 14 years.  Each campus has its own type of wildlife.  I encounter both geese and ducks. 


The campus wildlife.  I try to snap photos of the birds. 
There are mulberry trees everywhere.  The trees attract birds of all types.
And stain all of your clothing and shoes.
You can't really text and walk during the Spring, as you might find yourself sliding on goose poo.  Lots of goose poo.
The squawking is fun to hear.

Severe weather is expected this weekend.  If necessary, you will find me in the basement with a ball of white cotton blend yarn and size 3.75 mm needles.

Gardening and Beer

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Hello Spring. These are the flowers that bloomed last week.  I am about two weeks behind in my blog updates. Unfortunately, funny stuff happens to me so often that I do not always have the time to stop and blog about it.  My dianthus. 
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Another daisy variety. I have many in the garden.  This one is called goblin. 

More dianthus.  I love these flowers they will bloom all spring and summer for me as long as I remember to deadhead or shear them. 


I have pink, red and pale pink. 

All of my okra plants are gone.  I wish that I had noticed it earlier.  I would have realized that slugs had taken over my garden. I did not and I lost a lot of strawberries.  I can plant another okra plant but the strawberries are the real crime.  

I poured sand around my other vegetables.  A twitter friend told me about using fleece to ward against slugs.  I will try that too.  
I have tried the beer trick. I bought a little slug trap that looked like a frog and held the beer.  I just can't keep beer in the fridge long enough to remember to place some in a cup and in the garden.  Seems like a waste of good beer.
funny pictures of cats with captions
Writing of beer, I missed the World Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth MI because the forecast said rain.  Oh how I missed it.  I hope there will be more beer festivals in the area.   My current favorite beer is Summer Shandy by Leinenkugel.  Yummy.  I really need to stop drinking wheat beer but there isn't much gluten free beer out there readily available.  So I live with the heartburn. 

Dude brought me some Samuel Adams beer the other day. I scoffed at him.  What do Easterners know about beer? I am a Midwestern girl and I want Midwestern beer.  
I didn't drink it on principle.  

The alpaca fleece that I have is now infested with moths.  It is sad really.  It did not occur to me that moths would find the fleece tasty.  You should have seen my face when I pulled the fleece out of the garage.  Ok.
I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would I store alpaca fleece in the garage.  
I don't know.
It was stupid.
So I had to track down a friend with an empty deep freezer.  Not easy.... Not easy at all.
She has agreed to plug it in so that I can freeze the fleece and kills the moths.  I guess that I have to allow it to thaw and then freeze it again to kill any left over eggs.  
Once the freezing process is complete, I might try cleaning and carding it.  
Or I might not.

I ran into the Weaver's Guild this weekend.  They were talking crazy to me.  Talking about me buying spinning wheels and carding machines for the alpaca that I have.  And joining the guild.  In our little town we have a Weaver's Guild, a Spinner's Guild, Knitting guilds (2) and a crochet guild. 
So many guilds and I have to work all day. 


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