Stripey Diagonal Baby Blankie

After one month and 1 day of working on the Diagonal Stripe (knitted) Baby Blanket, it is finally completed.

I used Bernat Baby Sport yarn in the color Sweet 'N Sunny and a size 8 circular knitting needle.  I had one large skein of this yarn and still have enough left over to make a sweater.  The free pattern is on the Lion Brand website or you can find it by clicking here .

Small T wanted to "model" the blankie, so here goes.

She was portraying what a baby or toddler would do if they were given the blanket.  lol  I'm thinking more along the lines of what a toddler would do.  ha!

A Little Tie-Dye

Small T wanted me to show you all her new shoes.

What do you think?

She bought them off of a couple of teens (from the next town over) that are "making" them.

Weather & Crops

So far, here in Missouri, we are experiencing the 10th wettest June in 129 years.  Honestly, it's not that hard to believe if you live here.  You see, all it does is rain.  All the time.  6 days out of 7.  It's crazy.  That rain can be both a blessing and a burden, if you are a farmer.

 The corn is loving it and is growing quickly.

 The beans are coming up nicely too.

 But...on the other hand, the pecan grove shown here is surrounded by water.

And the river is HIGH.

Every couple of years the river will flood and then the farmland for several miles will get washed out.  I'm hoping this won't be one of those years, but it's looking like it will.

Baby Veggies

 I wanted to share a quick update on my container garden.

 These plants are starting to get some little green beans on them.

 I've got a tomato starting to change color.

And look at all those little peppers forming.

Cool, right?

Kids

Almost two weeks ago, Little Ty moved out of our house and into an apartment with his mom. They've been frequent visitors though.  In fact, Little Ty stayed all night with us Sunday night so I could take him to basketball practice Monday morning.  After that, Ty was "resting" on the sofa when Small T got home.  She promptly tackled him for some "snuggle time".  She missed him.  Imagine that!

24

Yesterday morning, I finished Block #24 of the Knit A Block A Week Challenge that I'm participating in.

I knitted 45 of the rows on Sunday, then finished it up yesterday.  It felt good to have the square knitted up so quickly for a change.  I wonder if I'm finally getting the hang of the knit stitch.

This square is made with Caron's Simply Soft yarn in the color Off White.  I had to buy another skein of this since I had used all of it that I had in my stash.  This skein purchase now means that I've bought two skeins of yarn to keep this blanket going.  Originally, I started it with yarn out of my yarn stash in the colors Blueberry, Lavender Blue, Woodland Heather, Light Country Peach, Off White and Bone.  I recently added the color Victorian Rose, which was the first purchased skein of yarn.

I'm excited to see my stack of finished blocks growing each month.  I'm getting closer and closer to the half way point of this challenge and I'm also working on my knitting skills at the same time.  It's a win-win situation for me.  :)

Hexagon Blanket

I've always wanted to make a Hexagon Blanket.  Or so I thought.  Once I started it, I didn't like it.  I have no idea why though.  So I've been making myself stay with it and work on it every now and then.

 The above photo shows what it looked like yesterday morning.

 After working on it yesterday afternoon and evening, this is what it currently looks like.  It's a lot bigger, that's for sure.  I finally have the width I'm looking for and now I just need to work on the length.  I counted the hexagons up and there are 60 of them at this point.

I took a bit of time this morning and dealt with the ends that needed sewing in.  I try to work a "row" then weave in the ends.  That way they are dealt with asap.

The yarn I'm using for this blanket is all out of my yarn stash.  It's various colors of Red Heart Super Saver.  I'm using a size I crochet hook.

Diagonal Stripe

I decided to take a photo of the Diagonal Stripe Knitted Baby Blanket that I'm working on.  This is what it currently looks like.  I'm glad to be on the decreasing side of the pattern now.  It means that I'm past the half way mark and am getting closer and closer to the finish line.  I try to knit a few rows each day on it and before I know it, I'll be done.

Company

We had company yesterday.

 Do you remember this little cutie?  She was formerly known as Baby E, but she's almost 3 years old now.  It's Little Miss E, my great-niece.

She was here for a couple of hours and we even had time to do some coloring together.  We used one of Little Ty's leftover poster boards from school and created a masterpiece!

Oops!

I've been occasionally working on the Hexagon Blanket.

 It's bigger than this now, but I wanted to show you my mistake.

 Can you see it?

Yep.  Somehow I managed to end up with a 7 sided Hexagon.  It's the Turqua one.  I ended up having to rip out three hexagons to fix it.  I'm still trying to figure out how I did that.  I figured it out when I went to attach my next hexagon and it didn't fit.  I'm really glad I didn't have to rip out a whole lot more of them.

Just Lovely

In the past week, we've had a LOT of rain.  It's rained almost every day.  Sometimes it might be just a sprinkle, but most often it's been a downpour.

This past Wednesday though, it was just beautiful outside.  Big Daddy and I went for a ride in the truck and I found myself snapping photos with my phone.  I think the sky was looking just beautiful!

Messing Around With Crochet

Over the 30th and 31st of May, I messed around with the crochet Diaper Shirt pattern I've been using.  I was attempting to create some "detail" to the bottom of the shirt.  I think that what I've done looks "ok" but I'm not satisfied with the finished product at this time.  So I'll just have to keep working on it.

Container Garden

I thought I'd share some photos of my container garden as of May 30th.

 The green beans are really growing!

 So are the tomato plants.  The stalks are getting good and strong as well as quite tall.  Two of the plants have tomatoes on them already.

 I don't know about ,my radishes anymore.  They are "iffy" in my opinion.  I've put them out in the yard so they can get more sunlight.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

This is just one of my pepper plants.  They were both infested with mealy bugs.  Thank goodness that Small T is on the Horticulture Team for FFA.  She correctly diagnosed the problem so we could get them treated.  I used the home remedy of water, Dawn dish soap and cooking oil and after two treatments, all the mealy bugs were gone and my plants are really healthy looking now.  I'm glad.  They all have lots of little peppers forming on them.  I would have hated to lose them.

I forgot to take a photo of the carrots.  Honestly, I think I'm going to get maybe 2 carrots out of the whole container.  I think Big Daddy planted the seeds to deep.  Oh well.  He'll know better next time.

23

On May 30th, I started and finished block #23 for the Knit A Block A Week Challenge.  I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn in Lavender Blue, Victorian Rose and Woodland Heather.

21 & 22

 On May 29th, I finished Block 21 for the Knit A Block A Week Challenge.

This square is the color Victorian Rose.  It's Caron's Simply Soft yarn.

On May 30th, I finished Block 22.  This square is multi-colored.  I used the colors Bone, Victorian Rose and Off White.  All are Caron's Simply Soft yarn.

Pedi

On the 29th of May, I went bright and early in the morning for a little pampering.  I got a partial pedicure.  I love having my toenails looking fantastic during the Summer months and it was high time I had them done.  I had two main reasons for getting them done in a hurry though:

1.  I was headed to Lifeguard Recertification classes on Sunday and Monday and wanted them to look nice.

2.  I needed some "pick me up" and painting my toenails does that for me.  I also needed a bit of confidence for the recertification classes.  It seems weird that pretty looking toenails will make me feel more confident, but it does.

So...that's the story of the pretty purple pedicure.

Simple Stitch Dishcloth - Stashbusting For Stashaholics

On May 29th, I made this Simple Stitch Crochet Dishcloth.  I used this pattern http://www.petalstopicots.com/2013/07/three-color-simple-stitch-crochet-dishcloth-pattern/ and another ball of Peaches & Creme cotton out of my stash.  This color is called Bright Blue.  This was the 2nd part of the Housewarming Gift that I gave my sister.

Crunchy Stitch Dishcloth - Stashbusting for Stashaholics

On May 28th, I made this Crunchy Stitch Crochet Dishcloth.  This is a free pattern which can be found here  http://www.petalstopicots.com/2013/07/crunchy-stitch-crochet-dishcloth-pattern/ .

I grabbed a ball of cotton out of my "yarn" stash for this, so it's a Stashbusting for Stashaholics project.  :)   It is Peaches & Creme cotton in the color Bright Lime.

This dishcloth (along with another) was a Housewarming Gift for my sister that just moved into a new place.