Morning Tea and a Game for Boys

What fun to share time with friends on a beautiful almost-summer morning.  Gal friends gathered in our back yard today for cold drinks and cucumber sandwiches and good conversation.

The little finger bites of vegetables and bread and butter were quite good; the picture above shows it made 24, less one previously consumed for quality assurance purposes.  Here is the recipe used for the cucumber sandwiches:

And I should have made a double batch.  Next time.

One momma brought her boys after swimming class to join us. Are they not just darling?  And smart, to boot!

The boys were offered 10 cents each for every "face" they could find in the garden.  The husband and I made a game of it last night while sitting outside and we found 39 faces in the garden. The boys came up with 40!

 Here are a few of the faces found in the garden:

Thanks, friends, for a fun time!

Hello, June

We've been saying hello to spring. Sprucing up. Painting. Gardening.

(in process, but now painted)

The master bathroom has been painted white the entire time we have lived here, so it was only appropriate to welcome in spring with a bit of a face lift and a few new accessories for the necessary room.  The picture above is a "before" one of the east window.  Indulgent Mocha from Behr over builders' white paint is now its cover.  A new clock on another bathroom wall to let us know how long it takes to brush teeth.

And I whipped up a new valence for that east window.  Seems it always gets hot in mid morning from that direct sun, so perhaps this fabric will shield some of that sun while taking showers.

Gardening!  Our wildflower garden planted last spring is doing nicely, thank you.  But the bluebells did not make it over the winter.  It was just too darned cold for their survival.  But the penstemon did VERY well.

Welcome to my garden with purple and yellow columbines...

 

 

honeysuckle that opened up this morning with a heavenly smell...

and welcome also to the prayer garden in the back that is filling in nicely with ground cover, iris, chives, mums and natural tall grasses, along with a few other bulbs.

 

And then it was time to whip up a few new dishcloths (the eLoomanator and Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth held with triple strands of cotton yarn to make a couple of fiesta potholders.

 



 

 

Sadly, my husband the chef said that three strands of cotton was not enough thickness to keep his hands from a burn.  So these fiesta cloths might have to go into the facecloth pile in the closet. Sigh.  

 

For lunch, my favorite chicken salad recipe found here by Emeril.  It uses fresh tarragon, of which there is an abundance in the herb area.   I use more than Emeril says, and we seem to never have an apple on hand, but it is good enough even without the apple.   Next time a picture; this time I forgot to snap a picture of the herbs, and the salad is not yet made.

 

How are you welcoming June?

Creature Comforts Knit Up

It has given me fits!

But IT is finished.  IT being the Creature Comforts Cardigan that over 600 Ravelry knitters have also completed.

This is the picture of the cardigan as shown by the creator of Madelintosh yarns, because I can't do as good a job of capturing the sweater as did their professional photographers.

 

Now here are a few of my pictures as the sweater progressed:

 

See how the oak leaf and acorns are being knit?  Pretty cool!  This pattern goes down the back of the cardigan.

The Sweater minus the sleeve cuff finished, but Too Big!

 Now it has been wet again and blocked to the appropriate size and Momma is Happy Again :o)

and my notes as it was being knit:

Love this hand dyed yarn; it s t r e t c h e s when blocked; it originally came out as 47” wide x 36.5” high, although it was knitted to 30.5 inches high as indicated in pattern.
Since it was too large, I machine dried the “blanket” for five minutes in the dryer, pressed the seams and came out with dimensions of 42” x 29.5 ” (see picture). 

After the machine drying for five minutes it turned out too small! So NOW I am re-blocking it with a 32” length. 

The leaf and acorn close up is NOT the color of the yarn! My computer did that.
I pulled from two separate balls of yarn because of the hand dye effect and was afraid of pooling colors. Even doing so, I still have one complete skein of yarn untouched and two small sized balls of wound yarn left over. 

After reading others’ notes about the size of the arms, I made the armhole 11 inches around. It happened to work out that I picked up 60 stitches, which the pattern called for. I did use size 6 DPNs for the cuffs instead of the called for 7’s. The snugness is just right below the elbow. 

Other than trying to get the right length and width for my body, it was an enjoyable knit. I might do this pattern again, having learned the ins and outs of the wool and how much to stretch it when wet.

Linking up with Finished Objects Friday and Tami.