WHERE HAS SUMMER GONE OR HAS IT ARRIVED YET?

I can't believe it is already the end of August!!! Just where did the summer go. I wonder did I sleep through summer this year? It certainly seems so. We have so much rain yet my friend tells me that we really had the normal amount of rain we usually do. When I see this I find it hard to believe. Here are photos of the mold on my zucchini leaves.




AND the zucchini rot before they fully grow.


BUT I have lots of yummy tomatoes.



AND I see more red ones just a couple days after these photos were taken. I have several plants that have only green tomatoes and one with yellow cherry tomatoes which when I purchased I thought were yellow large tomatoes.

My garden is quite a mass of green.

I have Swiss chard,


beets and yummy beet greens (I know as I ate the greens when I thinned the beets),


lots and lots of beans (yellow, purple and green) and


even a couple of cucumbers. Unfortunately, most haven't made it to this size. So far only three have.

I have carrots and some weeds hiding in amongst the carrots.

My wild daisies are doing well. I have the white ones in my backyard.

Another way I can tell summer is over is by looking at the trees in the backyard. Would you just look at the yellow and red leaves already on the trees. I don't want to even mention the amount of leaves I see that have fallen on the grass already. How sad this is.


So I started this on Friday and it is now Saturday. Once again I awoke to a wet outside where it had been raining, YET AGAIN!!!! Last week we had a nice Saturday and Sunday, then a nasty drizzly rainy Monday, nice Wednesday, not nice Thursday. Some days it is nice after the morning rain ends but as this past Monday it was damp, humid, cool and rainy all day.

I have been trying to keep myself in a good frame of mind despite the weather.

Thursday morning I was able to see my doctor. During that appt, another referral for an MRI of my left knee was sent. I found out they can't do both knees at the same time despite my having an appt for the right as it would take another 25 minutes to do another limb. I guess that one won't be booked until into or after Dec now. My doctor spoke to physio yet again about my left knee since while I have been there nothing has been done for it. He also wants the physiotherapist to recommend a brace for my left knee. HA even with the request of a specific one for my right knee a different one was given. AND lastly a referral to an orthodpod was made. Friday morning I got a call and had my appt. It is for Sept 30 at GULP!!!! 8:45AM for the non morning person. This doctor sees patients on Wed and operates from one hospital on Mondays and Tuesdays and at a second hospital on Thursday and Friday if it should come to that. The referral was made since my wait for the MRI's are sooooooo long. I even had my B12 injection while there which was a bit late

As for knitting goodness,

I need to express my thanks for the wonderful swaps I have received and have been late in blogging about. I have thanked the individuals for these.
Now I just need to post photos on ravelry.

From my SP who remains nameless at this time I received this very tasty card.

Some very cute paper clips which I haven't seen before. Imagine sheep paper clips. Should I keep them for my sheep collection or use them. I don't like making decisions.

Two books I have yet to read. I would like to get the rest of the series of each


AND some most luscious angora yarn. It is soooo soft. All I want to do is pet it.

I am so sorry for posting this soooooooooo very late. Please forgive me.

These next three swaps are also late in blogging about BUT not as late as my SP 14 package and again I have thanks the senders already.

In my Ravelry Color Swap 3 package from ceraphina a swap partner I have had before I received the most wonderful PINK package. Thank you ceraphina for taking some great photos I found on Ravelry. Here are all my goodies.

AND here they are so you can see them better. My goodies before I unwrapped them.

Ceraphina made me a PINK drop spindle with a painting of Solara on it.
This is the other side of the drop spindle.
She also made me some beautiful stitch markers and

a lovely small project bag.

I also got a small container with some of my favorite flavor Jelly Bellys, a PINK notepad and a nylon bag which I can put in my pocketbook.

Solara decided the netting was for her. You can see her chewing it or maybe she was trying to open the container and eat MY Jelly Bellys? HEE HEE

I received some lovely PINk yarns.

I received one skein of Kristine yarn which has lots of PINK in it along with GLITTER.

A hank of Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester to spin with my new drop spindle.

There were two hanks of Firestar which has lots of glitter in it. I was told you spin it with another fluff.


AND two skeins of Cascade Fixation sock yarn in PINKS.

That is not all I received in my package. I got some PINK beads since I enjoy knitting with beads, a pen, candies in a PINK box, some Bath and Body Works body lotion, and PINK grapefruit soap. Such a wonderful PINK package.



I was thinking when the next round of the ravelry color swap begins I am considering this time choosing PINK as the color I want to receive. Did you think I might choose a different color? PINK makes me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy.

Another swap I received is my Ravelry Coffee Chocolate and Yarn Swap package. This may have been the 7th one. My partner is Lori who is also my partner in the Ravelry Christmas swap. She has stepped in since my original partner dropped out just before it was time to send packages. Lori sent me four skeins of Noro Silk Garden, a pattern and Eight O'Clock Coffee (beans).


I think I have a skein or two of this same colorway which is NOT in my ravelry stash page yet so I may choose not to make the scarf but something else which uses more yarn like a sweater or some kind. I had first thought of purchasing two other different skeins of Noro Silk Garden and knitting the Jared Flood Brookly Tweed scarf. Now I am undecided.

My Tea Swap and More Back to Basic Tea Swap also arrived. In this swap we were to send a skein of yarn and a bag/box of tea (loose or bagged). My partner was discoqueen a person I recently sent a package to in previous tea swap.

I received absolutly wonderful PINK hand dyed sock yarn from PortFiber.etsy.com. I also received a tin of Jasmine Tea. I love Jasmine Tea.

What else has been going on in my life.

I finally have my washing machine. Here is the truck it arrived in.
AND here are the delivery guys taking it out of the box before bringing it downstairs.


It is a Whirlpool. It sure is a nice looking machine. Here it is next to my dryer which is on the right.

It has a lot of bells and whistles I hadn't planned on getting.

I don't have to set the water level on this machine when I put my clothes in. The machine senses it and does it on its own. The only drawback is that I can't open the machine to see how my felting is going b/c once you lift the lid the machine thinks you are adding more clothes and adds more water. How did I find this out? By opening the lid when I put the bag in I was felting for my felted bag swap #2. I did notice there wasn't much water which was nice but once I closed the lid the machine added a lot more water. This machine has two cool water temps, a warm temp, hot temp and a tap water temp. All rinses are cold. I wish I was allowed to decide if I wanted a cold rinse or a warm rinse. It is also a quiet machine. It has a big drum, 4cu ft. My requirements were it had to be a top loading machine with a very low water level & a very high water level and a large drum so quilts and comforters would fit in the machine and get washed well. This machine even has a setting called bulky for comforters which tells the machine to add more water.

A couple of weeks ago the 6th Annual KNIT OUT occured at City Park on a damp and rainy Sunday. Fourteen of us showed up and despite the weather we enjoyed outselves.

Here is Deb showing a gentleman how to spin.

Anne taking pictures and Corrie tasting her new Knit Picks yarn.

Susan and Karen knitting.

Corrie, Shelagh and Misstea busy.

Hi Shelagh.
On the left is Joanne Seiff a new Winnipeg resident using her drop spindle who joined us sitting next to Deb who is still spinning. Joanne will be giving a presentation at our September retreat called Colors for the colors of the fall and all the colors of the beautiful yarn available. It again will be held at Delta Marsh.

Again we had Misstea, Shelagh and Corrie discussing something very important.
There were wonderful prizes. I donated an Avon gift bag. There was almost a prize for everyone one. I recieved a prize. I won this sock yarn donated by Mona and Rachael at Wolseley Wardrobe.

There was an area on the table where we could bring any yarns, patterns, buttons etc we were getting rid of to make room for other items. I found a few yarns I thought I would like. This is what I took from the give-away pile.

I plan to knit the Mini Circle Creature with this yarn. At first I thought of combining it with another and knitting a scarf. Who knows I could still change my mind and knit the scarf.

I found some sock yarn is a beautiful me color. There was another like this but the color just wasn't me. Also, it is good to leave some yarn for others.

I found two organic cotton yarns that looked nice. There were two others of each of the ones below in greens and greys but I chose the cream colors. They were more me. I am NOT sure what I will knit with these yet.

I also took home this yarn. When I saw it I thought HMMM this would be nice to knit (or crochet with help) a poncho for a five year old for Christmas.

Lastly, I found a few buttons to add to my collection.

So now you want to know what I have been knitting.

I finished Sayon's Parfait socks that I knit for her fifth birthday party held last weekend. She loved them as she did the music box that plays 20 songs. She carries that music box around all day everyday and I think it is driving the adults in the home nuts now.



I also finished my Cookie-A Rick Socks and


my 2009 Sock Pentathalon sock #3 Mosaic Socks


Now I have a problem taking good photos of the socks on my feet. If anyone has a pair of manniquin feet that they wouldn't mind parting with I would love them. I guess sock blockers would also work something I don't have but the feet may make the socks look nicer for a photograph.

I finished a item for my Ravelry color swap partner who should be receiving her package shortly. So until she has it I can't post what it is. I have also finished knitting and felting my felted bag for my partner who I haven't heard from since the end of July. Now I am putting on the final touches of it. Only I have been asking for my partner for her address so I can send her the bag when it is compelted but she hasn't responded to any of my PMs or emails. I may be sending it to another who can't seem to make contact with her partner either. I always wonder why join a swap if you aren't going to follow throught. You get a bad rep like that. I know life does get in the way but an email or even a snail mail helps alleviate the wondering.

Presently I am knitting another pair of socks. I have one completed Cookie-A Sunshine Sock and the second I am on the foot. It is the second pair I will have made of this pattern. I really enjoy this pattern. For these socks I am using Fleece Artist Trail Socks. They are a bit larger than the first pair I knit using the 100% Alpaca yarn that I was given in a swap but they seem to fit. I need to finish the second sock by MN August 31.

Here is the toe of the first sock. Yes they are very dark and filled with all the goodies you find in Jamacian Fruit Cake.

I am also knitting something for my partner in the Kitty Toy Swap. I can't show it as it needs to stay a secret until it is received.

I have joined the pool for So You Think You Can Dance again. I lost my first dancer in the second or third week and my other dancer did make the final four but was number four. When I joined the Pool for Dancing with the Stars I lost my dancer in week two or three. I guess I did a bit better the second time around having one partner in the final four. The winner of the pool gets a prize from everyone else in the pool which means nine gifties come your way. It is fun when you win but it is also fun to shop for someone else also.

Has anyone been to this site http://www.aktraditions.com/ ? It is very interesting and very expensive. I love the dolls and also the animals. It is from down under. So when I win the lotto I will be shopping there. Until then I guess I can dream.

While I was cleaning up the basement I came across the big bag I made that didn't felt well. I think it was b/c I put the bag in too small of a pillow case for the felting process in the washer. I happened to put it down on the floor and this is what happened. Solara loves anything felted.