Feeling lazy

I feel lazy; I know I've done a good share of tasks over the past 24 hours....but I just feel lazy.  I think it's because I never got around to actually quilting up Wafer Cookies yesterday, nor do I feel like standing behind a quilt machine right now for some quilting.  I feel like sitting.  With my feet up.

Candace, my model

I finished up the double-knit scarf yesterday morning using Caitlyn's Knitting Loom.  I didn't really keep track, but I would have to estimate I spent 10-15 hours total on it and used two ... ummm.... "things" .... of yarn.  Not being a yarn user, I don't know the actual name of a "package" of yarn.....

Google to the rescue.....

A SKEIN of yarn.  Well....there ya have it.  I used two SKEINs of yarn;  a dark brown and a dark blue/navy/purple/brown mix.  I can see doing another project.  It's kinda fun doing something new (and easy!)

Lazy Sunday, Part 3 was also ALMOST finished up!  All purple bricks and white squares cut;  all 156 "diagonals" sewn (and double-sewn for bonus HSTs), and SOME of them cut and pressed.

The bonus HSTs were even pressed as I went along.   The part is ALMOST finished;  another good hour of cutting apart the double-sewn seams and pressing should do it.

Ummmm, I'm trying to remember how I got sidetracked away from my sewing room yesterday......

....

.......

Gosh!  I'm getting old!

I don't remember how, but SOMEHOW, I got sidetracked... and ended up outside on the lawn mower.  

LOL

I spent a couple of hours mowing and "raking" with the yard sweeper behind the mower.  

Which then lead me to weeding Paul's newly planted berry bushes....

Then lead to mulching the bushes and the 'rescued' tomato plants.

Then lead to hoeing 45 hills of the white potato patch

Then lead to

OH!!!!!! I REMEMBER NOW!  I hauled up some jars of green beans for lunch yesterday;  we had three jars left from the 2011 batch (buried behind the 2012 jars).  I warmed them up in the microwave.......ehhhhh.  They didn't taste that great (it may just have been in my mind) .  SO, I  dumped them into a bucket, along with some overly ripe grapes, and took them out the pigs after lunch. 

Which then lead to emptying the compost bucket...... which then lead to the lawn mower!  LOL

 So, when all the outside work was said and done, it was 8PM and time to relax.  

There was NO quilting on Wafer Cookies like I had hoped, but.... that's okay.

I grabbed up the Knitting Knobby again while watching some marathon episodes of Snapped.  Until MIDNIGHT!!!!  Good golly!  That cup of coffee at 8PM probably wasn't the best idea.

But I made some progress.  All of the outer rings (the speckly brown/tan yarn) were knitted (icorded) last night.

The rug looks a little bigger when Candace's feet are on it, though :)

Some of you were asking about the Knitting Knobby.  I use a very simple, plastic yellow one;  I think it was from my mom to one/all of the girls;  and I snagged it up since it wasn't getting used.  

A google search lead me to a picture of one that is what I used as a kid;  I had the "mushroom" headed one;  it always reminded me of the Smurfs' houses!

My google search also shared other names used for this tool:  Toy Knitter and Spool Knitter.

Regardless of what name is used;  it's an EASY way to introduce a child to a crafty project.  

And today so far.....

it's been another morning of good sewing ambitions, but filled with garden distractions instead;  and a 2 hour detour to the local strawberry patch to pick 2 buckets of berries.  Our timing was perfect too;  Cassie was almost finished with her assigned rows as we were finishing our picking.  

And now....

I feel like being lazy! :)

Caitlyn took a crochet class during her first Summer School session, and she wanted to desperately show me how to crochet.  Since Kathy posted her progress on her crochet rug for yesterday's Slow-Stitch Sunday, I thought a refresher on crocheting would be a good way to spend some downtime after lunch.  So, with Youtube in the background, and Caitlyn next to me, we both grabbed a crochet hook, some yarn... and crocheted away.

This is mine.  Practicing an oval shape to get ready for a new rug (see a post on a former rug).  Caitlyn crocheted a massively long chain-stitch.  The right side of this lil project turned out good....but not so sure what happened on the left.  I think I lost count of my stitches right off the bat in my 2nd round, and I haven't quite been able to "fill it in" yet.  

BUT.  With this refresher, I think I'm ready to grab some fabrics and give my go at a rag rug again :)

Have I said I'm feeling lazy!??!

Lazy Sunday and Slow Stitch Sunday

Ultimately, I have three goals for today.

1) Finish the scarf I started two days ago on Caitlyn's Knitting Loom.  This will be my Slow-Stitch Sunday project for Kathy's site;  it's been ages since I worked on a slow-stitch project.

2)  Finish Clue #3 of Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday mystery via Quiltmaker magazine.    The blocks were finished a few weeks ago, but the purple "diagonal" units have to be cut and sewn yet.

3)  Finish the quilting on Wafer Cookies, and maybe even sew on the binding.

It's a beautiful morning outside right now;  sunny and 60s.  It's supposed to warm up nicely to low 80s.  I may have to fight off some puppydog eyes who might be asking to head to the beach.  LOL.  We'll see what the day has in store.

2013 Garden layout & the Knitting Loom

Due to the late spring we had this year (remember our May snow?), everything in the garden is a bit behind normal, and DEFINITELY way behind from where it was last year with the "early" spring we had.  

Paul and I are hoping we have trained Cassie enough to the hard work of gardening-n-the like, because she starts picking strawberries today for a local berry farm.  She's extremely excited for the possibilities of her first inflow of cash.  LOL.  

Thankfully, it's a perfect day for her first day.  Mostly cloudy and 70s.

Upon returning home from dropping her off, I headed to the garden to do a bit of TLC in the form of mulching the strawberries, and thinning/repotting the green beans.  This is the third year now where I've not simply thinned out the sickly looking green bean seedlings, but I've dug up plants and repositioned plants in order to spread them out for the growing season.  Using a third reserved row that was empty 'til today, I have them spaced about 6-8 inches apart now;  three rows of about 32 plants in each row.  Ummm........I really thought I sized down the green bean section this year, but coming off of a year of 105 plants, I guess I didn't size down afterall.  LOL.  Whoopsies!  We have 5 cases of green bean pints still in the root-cellar;  we really didn't need so many plants this year.  Ah well---that simply means that friends will be invited over again to enjoy our harvest as well.

Here's the layout of the garden this year......

L-R 

Raspberries (in drastic need of a haircut!), 

a small plot of strawberries mulched in the front, 

and some odds-n-ends of peppers that Paul filled in

L-R

left: 45 hills of white potatoes,  12 rows of corn behind the potatoes

middle: 10? pepper plants, 24 hills of red potatoes behind the peppers

right: 16 tomato plants, 3 rows of green beans behind the tomatoes

L-R from water tank...

row1: lettuce, a variety of radishes, dill, basil

row2: Cauliflower, celery

row3: a full row of peas, fenced for climbing vines

row4: carrots, kolarabi (sp?)

on the trellis: 12 cucumber plants, pole beans

cabbage (under the white covering)

last rows: onions

I did end up rescuing (only) 8 Roma tomato plants;  they are housed in the virtually empty upper garden.  With the late planting, we simply didn't bother with our spreading plants this year that need longer growing times (watermelon, squash, pumpkins, gourdes, ...)  Therefore, the upper garden is mostly empty.  Paul purchased a few varieties of berry bushes and planted them up there.  I have a feeling we are going to fill much of the space with berry bushes over the next couple of years and no longer use it for vegetables.

NOW.....
Since I absolutely lazed around yesterday watching Gangs of New York from 9AM - 1PM, cuddled on the couch, I am determined to get some sewing/quilting done today.  Although, I did play with one of Caitlyn's Christmas presents from last year....

When out looking the other day for some Knitting Knobby information, I watched several YouTube videos on the Knitting Loom.  One of them sparked an interest, so I asked Caitlyn to loan me her loom for a short time.  While watching some movies last night with the girls, I loomed away.  It's definitely a beginner's method, but something that any of the girls can take over with as well.  Besides, now I have a project that is readily available next to my glider :)

Alrighty.

Happy Saturday everyone!