Joe Pye's friend

Each year the Joe Pye Weed by the pond is taller with more stalks. It is becoming a problem to mow around but we must leave it until after it has bloomed. Swallowtail butterflies are just one of the grateful natural feeders.

Peach Pickin' Time in PA

This is our first crop of peaches and they are fantastic! So sweet and drippy ;-) They are just as good as Chambersburg peaches and much better than Georgia peaches.

Speaking of which, have you heard the 1929 Jimmie Rodgers song "It's peach pickin' time in Georgia'?

A li'l bit of camp

entices ;-)




Marilyn, Janine and Meg hold versions of the same sweater, all of which Marilyn created to be shared in publication soon.








Cheryl models everything wonderfully even though there are some blurry shots!











Robin models yet another purple, this time her cabled hand-to-hand sweater. It's a version often overlooked.






Pat is a newbie this year but what amazing show and tell! The 'Stetson' Amy is wearing is a knitted, felted hat Pat made for her friend. But what else Pat is showing is a project on which she and friends are working to create knitting charts and then knit them into blocks based upon from American Brilliant (cut glass) patterns. These are to be published 'soon'. Her detective work qualifies her for the PBS show "History Detectives". We were all totally fascinated. Was our knitting itching piqued? Absolutely. Am I telling more? No!

When I cropped this shot I purposely left in Linda also shooting at the same time. It seemed everyone with a cell phone or camera loved this show and tell. Sarah's black top proved to be a most excellent backdrop for the blocks. We really hope Pat joins us again next year.




Here's Debbie (dwKnitAholic on Ravelry) from Ontario with her Hibiscus designed by Anne Featonby of 'Shades of Shetland' blog fame or fairislefanatic on Ravelry.

All show and tell and contest entries are not represented in my collection for no other reason than I also await Al's DVD to arrive and that I get enmeshed in the process, forgetting to press the camera's button!

As the lyrics read, "We've only just begun..."

A FO!

This year's camp knitting project is finished!

If I would have knit even an hour on the ride home or during the hectic after camp return, this hat would have been cast off on Monday.


This is a Rolled Brim Hat based upon a pattern from Claudia at Countrywool.

Details forthcoming...
Yarn: Amazing by Lion Brand, 53% wool and 47% acrylic, courtesy Yarn Elf.
Needles: #9 16" circular for body and #4 doublepoints to finish top.
Cast on 108 for large size.

I've cast on for the small size for when I need 'mindless' knitting!

It runs in the genes...

As soon as Thursday night dinner was over at 2.75 Russ scurried off to Wausau to visit with DD#3.






DD#3 takes after her father in many areas...














lovin' dogs, especially big ones....







truck/equipment driving...













enjoying time on the water with wildlife and tennis ball-crazed Max!

Knitting Camp looks like...

crossing between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan after a great pre-camp visit with Sarah and household.









Friday morning starts out with breakfast.








Everyone looks forward to The Kitchen Table with its wonderful breakfast, atmosphere and food!







Many of us are extremely fond of Meggie's granola, yogurt and fruit.
Many thanks to Lloie.







I just love this vignette of miniatures along with designs by Romi available at SHP.














J&S and Jamieson's shetland colors are combined into wreaths by company and shade for easier color combining in those must-have projects.














It's been a couple years since I had a picture taken with Meg...and then we go and crack each other up!!!

My nametag is the same I used last year. It was my version of the SHP KAL with Lizzie Upitis for Latvian mittens. Knit this way it makes for a great hotel room key holder. No more losing the key card at the bottom of a tote!

Elming

Drooping Summer Elm is as done as she's going to get until a wire blocking. For now the pins worked a fair job.


Nothing like blocking on motel towels in Merrill, WI, one could say ;-)



Details:

Cascade Heritage Handpainted Sock Yarn, color 9824 purchased two camp treks ago in Menominee, MI.
U.S. 6 Addi Lace Turbo
cast on from Montse Stanley...double loop twist cast on
pattern is drooping elm from Barbara Walker

For sense and sensibility I wrote the lace pattern onto an index card and used opaque tape to mark the row currently knitting or next to knit. It's a 10 row pattern with patterning on each row, a knit side and a purl side to pattern.

To the U.P.

Approaching the Mackinac bridge, crossing the bridge, Lake Michigan at Manistique as the front passes through with periods of misty drizzle drops this P.M.






Thank you Sarah and family for the visit!

See all at 2.75 in two sleeps and two wakeups! (Terms originating with Debbie and Linda!)

Don't Leave Me!

Here is the one fella who gives us fits as we're leaving him.



Tawny just howls and barks and dances when he sees suitcases. He tears up the stairs at the sound of a suitcase zipper.

The latter is helpful when getting him upstairs for his holiday bath!

Russgate

was today's home improvement project! The back porch gates had been around a long while and this one, the one leading to the driveway, has been in need of refurbishing.

The first week

of summer vacation brought helpful kids from DH's bus route over here to help paint aluminum siding, columns and latticework! All were anxious to pick up $ for summer trips. Great workers! Think it helped they were plied with Gatoraid and water and lunch every day?

Somebody had a birthday

back on April 14th.

Spring Poppin' 2

Wild violets spread happiness by the pond.
















Apple buds are ever-bursting forth.















Young peach tree shares its glory.












Cinnamon ferns unfurl their harp-like magic by the moment.

Spring poppin'

After record-breaking Winter snows and temperatures and then record-breaking heat in the mid-80's for a week, Spring is poppin' really early.




Giant Eagle has many flowering trees planted in its parking lot for all of us to enjoy. Unfortunately the flowers are all white. At the S&T bank there are white and pink trees alternating around their drive.



Magnolias are flowering abundantly and early this Spring. DH pulled off onto the berm (shoulder) of a main road for me to capture this magnolia in a yard.




A driveway was our parking spot for these gorgeous trees in a front yard. I get embarrassed pulling into someone's driveway to take pictures of their landscaping but DH says the people would be happy others enjoy their handiwork.

The daffodils are almost finished but violets, grape hyacinths and early rhododendron are blooming. Some choke cherries and pears are blooming throughout the woods. Lilacs are budding with some buds purplish already. Our peach tree is in full bloom while the cherry, crab apple and apple trees are ready to pop today or tomorrow. Ferns are uncurling in magical harp-like shapes.

Green Sweater Progress

"Fir Green" colored single ply Briggs & Little yarn is a mix of greens, blues and golds just as none of nature's colors is solid, neither is this yarn.



These pics were shot this morning before I cut the two front steeks.




Why the coiless pins? Even working in bright sunlight, I am having a great deal of trouble staying on track while crocheting my 4 steeks. Astigmatism will not win this one, so I put the coiless pins in the gutter between the stitch halves being crocheted. It's really easy now to crochet on either side of the pins and to cut the steeks! The two front steeks have now been cut, ready to be tacked. Sleeve steeks are next.



Speaking of green, here's the back yard this morning reveling in warm sun after its first mowing! Apple, peach and cherry trees are just breaking forth leaf and flower buds. The neighbor's decorative weeping cherry burst into bloom yesterday and smells soooo good!

Clee-op, clee-op, clee-op

go my tennies in the dryer as I begin to catch up on the last month's activities!



Ravelympics ended with the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics. That happened when we were starting our trek. Although I wasn't able to even begin to compete in my third event, the flyingcamelspin (spinning), I did win three awards! This first one was a very big surprise as it is an award for being a co-captain of the team SHPknitters!



Ah, the giantslalomghan event medal is for finishing Beth's afghan. We delivered it to her in person! She really loved it. She also thought that her son might just borrow it permanently for his apartment! Haven't heard if the afghan is still outside Austin or in College Station. Grin.




WIP's (Works In Progress) Dancing Ravelympics award comes with my completing a BSJ for charity. Knitting the collar onto it was a new technique for me. This little sweater just looks so much more 'finished' with its collar. Since this was knit in February, our record-breaking snowiest month, the colors came through in fine form to cheer me through that horrible weather mess.



These shots are the finished items that won the Ravelympics medals!




I miss being able to watch good television (the Olympics) every night rather than the 'entertainment' decided by network executives or the news and weather (also too much NBC entertainment) channels.

On Saturday, February 27th at 9:30 AM after seeing that the roads were finally clear because of a dry slot between storms overnight AND despite 14" on the level spots and mountainous drifts/plowed snow, Russ asked if we could be ready to go by 2 PM instead of 8 AM on Sunday? We still had to grocery shop for critter goodies, finish laundry, finish packing, catch the sitter up on things due to this kind of weather....

But the prognostications were 1-3 more inches of snow Saturday. The last two storms of 24" and 8" started out being predicted at 1-3".


Oh. My.


We left at 1:50 PM. On the road again only as far as Columbus; but, that's far enough to get out of the worst of this particular storm!