Summer is Going Too Fast

This week is going too fast, as always. Sunday's lunch with the priests was great. All three of them are from India. We learned a lot about their culture(s), since they are from different parts of their homeland.

On Saturday Kubota Man Jr. and Kubota Kid (Carter), along with Carter's dad had a camp-out at our place. Carter got a lot of tractor driving in. Their campfires made a bit of a dent in out pile of downed wood from the storm.

Daughter #2, Shelley, surprised us. She works at a very intense job as a team leader with our Immigration Services. She works off her stress/energy in her yard. She has decided to make a huge perennial bed, so she needed perennials and shrubs. We raided some of my own perennials, and she bought a real nice selection--she insists on paying her own way, so I convinced her that we are having a 50% off sale. She went home with a truckload, and even some gooseberry bushes for our favorite SIL, Scott the Plumber.

Kubota Man has been working hard on the greenhouse reconstruction. I've been trying to rescue various parts of the yard from weeds. I cleaned the strawberry patch--the sheep got 5 full loader buckets of weeds. They sure appreciate those.

It's still dry. Rain is predicted for tomorrow. But I'm going to put the sprinkler on the garden anyways.

This cutie's name is Noah. He lives with his parents in Passau, Germany. He is wearing the Blue Baby Hoodie that I sent him along with some other "Welcome" gifts. It took 2 months for the parcel to reach him, because the postal codes had been changed and I had sent it to the old postal code (although I had the correct street address). Noah's parents came to Canada on vacation about this time last year.






These are the "Spring Posies" socks that I just made out of the blue, because I didn't feel like doing anything else. When the yarn is so pretty, I just make my basic sock pattern.

I'm also working on a pair of plain socks in Mary Maxim's Bamboo sock yarn, color Hibiscus, a beautiful design in various shades of rose and pink.






The Alpaca Man (The friend for whom I knit alpaca sweaters) came on Sunday, and took a box of finished sweaters with him. He will be bringing me cones and cones and cones of yarn within the next couple of weeks. We discussed new designs, and I recommended another spinning mill he might try for this year's shearing. I also suggested he acquire sample bottles of Eucalan Wool Wash, and give them away with each sweater purchased. He liked that idea. I showed him the finished Honeycomb Sweater #1, which he really liked, but I didn't send it because I hadn't washed it yet.

Here's another glimpse of it. I wish I could show you the whole thing, but I'm sure I'm going to submit the pattern somewhere, so I don't think I'd be allowed. Because I'm making them for sale, I think I will make some changes to the style before submitting it.







Ooooops Time!
It's a good thing that the Honeycomb#1 sweater wasn't washed yet. And a good thing that I didn't give it to Alpaca Man. Because it has a great big OOOOPS in it. It's hard to tell from my grainy pictures, but the honeycomb pattern has little diamonds that alternate. (The July 9 post has a good picture of the pattern stitch.) Two pattern repeats below the shoulders on the back piece, I didn't alternate the peaks. There are two peaks on top of each other. I don't think the picture below is clear enough to see that. I entertained the thought of just leaving it, but the sweater will be quite pricy. It would be like leaving the scene of an accident.
The sweater has a button/buttonhole band that is only a couple of garter sts. wide. So, my plan is:
a. Open the seam of the top only of the sleeve cap, down to just past the BooBoo.
b. Open the cast-off edge of the button/buttonhole band. Put the sts of the band on the fronts onto a circular needle for holding. Unravel the garter rows over the back neck sts and the shoulder seam.
c. Open the shoulder seams.
d. Frog the back down to the Boo Boo. (making careful note of everything I've frogged.)
e. Reknit the back correctly.
f. Reassemble everything.
g. Give thanks that it wasn't further down in the sweater.
h. Check the whole sweater carefully for other Booboos. ( Maybe that should be done first).

















I'm excited because I might get to personally meet another fellow-blogger--Mrs. Spit. I have already met Mrs. Needles
Till next time: Because grandparents are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations. (Jimmy Carter)