twinset.us

Dear Ellen,

Finally, I post…It’s really time for me to be heading to bed, and I still have to put away the stuff on it. I am down to 7 boxes in the bedroom though…and 3 in the bathroom, plus about 10 in my office. Really not bad for having received our belongings this past week. We do have quite a few boxes in the garage, but we had sorted those out for storage before we left Virginia. They’ll get put into storage and we’ll get them back when we move from here.

No knitting since we left the hotel…but here are the photos I promised last weekend. First, the Baby Surprise with its buttons on! I realize I’m violating Baby Surprise protocol by actually completing it by adding buttons within days of finishing the knitting, but these were perfect and I had to see how they’d look. Then I had to figure out what to do with almost a full ball of the “Amaizing” yarn leftover. I decided to make up a little hat. It’s knit in the round from the bottom up. The first 8 rounds are done in reverse stockinette to get them to curl up and then the rest of the hat in garter stitch. After about 2 1/2 inches of stitches I used your decrease with the line of knit stitches sandwiched between left and right leaning decreases on the knit rows of the garter stitch. After I finished the basic hat I picked up stitches around 3/4 of the diameter just at the point where the reverse stockinette turns to garter. I knit back and forth decreasing at the front edge for a few rows and then added some more ear flap shaping using short rows. I knit the first 5 stitches on the last row and then bound off till I reached the last 5 stitches. These I knit back and forth in garter till I had enough for a little chin strap and then joined with the live stitches from the beginning with a basic kitchener stitch. I’m really pleased with it. I didn’t keep great notes, but if I have time, I’ll go back and see if I can recreate the pattern.

I also have a few more photos from our final dog walks at the hotel. (Don’t worry, Max and Ruby will still get dog walks in the mornings, but it’ll be in a groomed neighborhood setting, so I don’t expect to see the range of flora. I should have made Ruby stand next to the puff ball. It’s the lovely large yellow daisy-like flower gone to seed. And it’s ENORMOUS. I’d say it’s about the size of a small grapefruit (or REALLY big orange). I was amazed. I was also impressed by the poppy thistle (as I’m referring to it.) I’ve not seen anything like it. The flower looks every bit like a white poppy, but it is at the top of what had previously appeared to be an ordinary thistle. Are poppies and thistles related? The bees like them regardless of their lineage.

I was tickled to see sunflowers raising their heads up to the sky. And these orange flowers made me smile with their riot of color.  Last, but not least, it wouldn’t be Colorado without a bit of tumbleweed.

Okay, now I really do need to get that bed cleared off!

Love, Jan