Namaste

So, as my knitting circle knows, I have been strongly opposed to circular needles for quite some time now (and yet double points no problemo, go figure!). It wasn't that I didn't want to love them but that they didn't love me back. I just could not get them to work for me no matter what I did and believe it or not it wasn't that I was twisting the yarn, it was the joining of the ends and moving the knitting around in a circle! Anyway, with a little tough love and persistence it suddenly all fell into place for me. Now, I think I may have become a convert thanks to the pattern for my new felted yoga mat bag. But just as I'm finishing up my bag I realize something peculiar about the pattern.... it's incomplete! The last line of directions says "join A and knit 1 rnd. BO 62 sts - 18 live sts remain." And that's it! So what, I'm supposed to just have my needles hand off the bottom of the bag for the rest of eternity? So I opted to scrap that last bit and move on to fudging a strap (which is too long but better than too short) and I even decided to add a pocket for my yoga strap and keys. Now it's juuuuust right! But, if someone knows out there in blogland where this pattern originated from I would love to know so that I can give the designer their props as well as see the second page of directions.

Over-all though the experience was quite satisfying and now I feel confident that I can begin the artful afghan as well as a thousand other projects that I have put off for my fear of circular needles :-)

before felting...



...and after (sans pocket)

AHHHHH Blogger what are you doing to me?!?! Once again it's going through the motions of uploading my pictures (right down to telling me to click "done") and then nuthin'! A big fat hairy nothing is posted! Grrrrrr. Luckily I had time to upload these two pictures yesterday or there'd be no shots to show you at all.

Nothing Much

So I finally got some stuff done in the yard today. It started out as a plan to quickly stake the gladiolus that had suddenly bloomed and fell over in about 5 minutes the other day. But then I thought, ok, I should really cut back the weeds that have grown to over 2 feet tall and all but smothered the "real" flowers in the side garden. And then I decided to plant a few things even though it's extremely late in the season and they probably won't grow but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Meanwhile Mom was at work and Dad was in the way back yard working on cleaning up the area back there as well. Yes, our yard has a "way" back where there's nothing but trees and dirt, and of course the hammocks & screened in tent. By the end of the day we were all beat so after a little lunch and what-not we hooked up a second hammock that I recently picked up super cheap ($2.99?!?) and this is how we spent the remainder of the day....

Mom playing her Tetris (she's hooked!)

Then it was time for a nap

Dad said "I want to burn something." Luckily he had one last Dura-Log.

Then it was time for a nap

Can you picture a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

A month passed by, really?

Can't believe I haven't blogged in so long, my bad! Between beach days, holidays, the internet being down on my laptop last week and all of the other daily things that get in the way, I haven't even taken the time to read anyone's blogs never mind maintain mine :-(

So let me give you a brief run-down of what's been going on...

In the garden, things are growing. Pretty flowers as well as some super yummy raspberries that I planted last year. Lucky for me I put some perennials in the ground last summer because I got nothing planted this year! I weeded and got the garden ready and then, well then I slacked off. But either way, things don't look too bad considering all things.

Next item on the list, Chris and Joe had their wedding reception on the 2nd. We had an amazing time and the food was unbelievable, especially the dessert table which I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of. I only went half way down the table but my plate was over-flowing with some many goodies I had to walk away. I could go for a little sample of that spread right now! Here's a picture of all the knitting girls including the bride. This is the 3rd wedding we've gotten to celebrate together which is just so wonderful and tells you how much love there is in this little SNB group.

Oh man! I wanted to add pictures of my little brother's HS graduation, the trip to the city with some of the knitting girls for The S Factor intro. class and other random moments but blogger has decided I've added enough photos for one day. Next time, promise :-)