Summer socks #1 finished
This pair of socks has only a band before starting the heel. So it was faster to knit. I used Elan’s “Sock it to me” collection in Puzzle as it is a lighter weight. It took one ball of yarn, knit from the top down.
Hooking up with Judy at Patchwork Times
Strip Sorting done
These fabric strips have all been sorted by color now, and most of the boxes are fairly full.
Does that mean I have to make a lot more quilts out of scraps or can I continue to make new quilts out of new fabric and create more scraps?
Here they are in their resting place. I taped of piece of fabric color on each of the box fronts so I know where the color is when I need a color. Perhaps when summer and canning is over, I’ll be more ready to make a quilt from these.
A bit of gardening and alpacas
20 peppers have been planted. I really wish more of the red and green mild peppers had grown. Most of these are hot.
Picture taking day – not their favorite.
This is what happens when you forget to follow mom. You stand there and bawl your head off until she comes back for you.
Often times the hens would rather choose their own place to lay eggs, even though they have several very good next boxes. They want to see if we are on our toes, or if they can be a mommy this time and we won’t catch them. There are few dull moments when you have animals.
l had to show you our delicious meal. This is stir fry over rice.
Our prayers are going up for those of you in these Texas rain squalls. Please do everything you can to stay safe.
Blue scraps and bees
Today Jeremy came back and nearly finished up with the hives. He didn’t bring marshmallows for the queen boxes and I never buy them. So tomorrow he will come back and fit the queen boxes with those. The worker bees eat it and free the queen, that makes here their queen. Do you see the tiny box – the darker spot in the middle – that is where the queen is right now. There is a cork plug on one end which will be replaced by the marshmallow. The workers can feed her through the mesh on the side of the box. Then Friday, I will check and see if they have released her. If so, I can remove the queen box.
After all our shopping this morning, I worked on pulling the blue scraps out of 4 different boxes and putting them all in one. Then I took this photo to show you, then I turned around to start the greens and there was another pile of blue scraps of which I did not take a photo.
There were reproducing as I was putting them away. Here is the final (I hope) photo of them. I could barely get the lid on them. Remember, these do not include the ones that I cut into squares – only the longer ones. And I’ve used a lot of scraps in my quilts. Oh, well, I just have more to use. Tomorrow, I hope to tackle the greens.
Bees and more scraps?
The bees have not been housekeeping very well. They have been storing the honey in bands that go from one frame to the other instead of straight along the frame. Not that it really affects them, but it makes it more difficult for the human to get the honey.
Though there are many, many, many bees in the one hive, it appears that some of them flew off in a swarm with their queen this spring, so there isn’t a queen in there. But there are enough bees, they are being divided into two colonies and the fellow helping me is bringing out 2 new queens tomorrow. The hive I thought was not doing so well, is a slower hive, but has a good queen, quietly doing her job of laying eggs.
How can that be? I thought after the last big scrap cutting event, I had them all organized and in one place. Not so! I found several more smaller boxes that had scraps tossed in them, more or less by width sizes. Now I need to put all of one color together and in one box so they are usable. I find I have about 3 times as many scraps as I thought. That should keep me busy this week.
Know when to say no
I spent a considerable amount to time dealing with the people who wanted the dog collars as well as working on the collars. This morning, I cut all of them out – it took 90 minutes to cut the fabric, lining, and interior of all of them – 15 collars and 12 leashes. Then I started sewing the leashes as they were fairly easy. The machine was not cooperative as it really needs to be serviced. I gave up and called these people to tell them what the situation was. Then I “kitted up” each collar with the accessories so that whoever when from here had part of the work done. I am so glad I stopped when I did for the following reasons.
-
There was no way that I could make a collar in 10 minutes as they expected,
. I didn’t have the time to keep them informed on a daily basis.
The fabric had at some time come in contact with a smoker.
I didn’t need ulcers over something I was doing to help someone.
Yes, they were unhappy their collars weren’t finished today and didn’t even bother with thanking us for the two finished. But they did ask that when my machine was fixed, would I do collars and embroidery then. I just told them, I couldn’t make promises for the future and we went our way feeling it was a good decision.
We stopped at the tomato place and picked up two more peppers and two more tomatoes. Then we purchased some sheep feed and came home.
For the first time our new mommy brought her babies up from where she keeps them at night to introduce them to the rest of the flock. She has been missing and we feared the coyotes had eaten her. But the last 3 days she has had these little fellows on the pond. If you look carefully, the one in the middle has 2 heads, making a total of 4 babies. Spring is such fun!
,.,
I’m thankful
The last two months have not been kind to me starting with a broken metatarsal in the toe and hopefully ending – with a twisted muscle{?} in the knee. I do not enjoy the sidelines or having my pace slowed. But even with all this, I am so blessed. DH planted the broccoli and cauliflower in the hoop house
While I tied up the tomatoes
These purple Cherokee tomatoes are just starting t o bloom
as are these Isis candy tomatoes.
These plants still all need to be planted plus I started a few corn, squashes and melons in pots yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I can get help with planting carrots and beets directly into the soil. I have had trouble with beets transplanting well.
Today, I stayed off the leg, so I can hopefully work tomorrow.
Summer socks
Almost done with this short pair. In summer it’s nice to have socks that just fit into one’s shoes.
