I am about to dump all sorts of things on you guys – road trips, shopping results, family events,a little DIY, and of course, knitting. Sorry to have been gone so long, but I will get you caught up with what I have been up to!
First off – the beaded lights project. I wish I had a before photo for you – but let me describe, instead. The original string of lights had the square frames, wrapped with clear beads strung on a wire. I collected a variety of strings of colored glass beads, divided them evenly by the number of lights I had (10) and strung them on beading wire. I attached that to the frame, and then just wrapped between the rows of clear beads. It took about three hours to complete, but I think they are a lot prettier now, and more fun. I hope to hang them on the screened porch, but I might put them in the dining room where the door to the porch is, so I can see them inside and out.
Next up – travel! Niece C the younger graduated from high school in CT last Friday evening. Mom and I drove down, went to the celebration, stayed over night and hit IKEA before we drove all the way home again. It was a long two days, but worth it in so many ways.
Graduations mean presents and cards – and being a procrastinator, I did not take photos until just before I left,so I had to use a flash to get them. Sorry about that, it means a little glare…
I am so proud of this girl – she works really hard at school, and it has paid off, she won three achievement awards, in Business Marketing, Chemistry and Pre-calculus. Plus, she is just NICE. 🙂 I am not too prejudiced.
I love this photo of her with her mom, and not just because she is opening the card I made her. Although, looking at it, it is a better photo of the card than I took at home that morning!
On to IKEA. I went with the intention of getting 6 dining room chairs and whatever else caught my fancy, within reason. But they opened later than I had hoped (10) and Mom and I had a long drive ahead of us, so we literally RACED through the store. Got the chairs – I’ll have photos of them another time – and got the lights and candles and things I wanted but did not get to dig around the marketplace as I had hoped to. I was able to pick up a few things for my neighbor’s birthday in August, and I got a rolling cart to hold knitting things which now take over the coffee table. I don’t like the color, but I will spray paint it and make it unique.
It turns out people are not the only living creatures who like a good trip to IKEA…
And then A attacked the boxes and created this cat heaven. They never use it in front of us, but in the night we hear them, and each morning, the boxes are in disarray. I hope it is not a permanent installation in the living room, but you just never know around here.
So. I didn’t knit much last weekend, as you can imagine! A road trip is usually good knitting time, but A didn’t come with us, so I did the driving. However, some progress was made on the green and purple socks, and the dropped stitch scarf. I kept up my Socks with Sarah commitment, even though Friday and Saturday I think the “knitting some every day” was literally less than a row. I am on the home stretch with this pair now, just have a couple of inches left on the second sock to do.
The scarf is made with some yarn I dyed using black cherry Kool-Aid and the crock pot. I really experimented with different small bowls with different amounts of the same dye, to get a variegated yarn, and I am pleased with how it came out.
So, that’s it – my week or so in review. Now, I have to go tackle some of the other things on that Friday list of mine. And of course, I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on. Let me just go grab a cup of coffee.