Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Please pass me the hip waders

Well, the snow lasted one day. Now, the second coming of The Flood is bashing northeast Ohio. I may have more than ducks (yes, Mary, they're ducks, not geese :) ) on my pool cover.

That's good. I could use some seafood in my diet.

A knitting word for all of youse guys out there: if you're ever given the opportunity to take a class from Lucy Neatby, take advantage of it! My guild hosted the lovely lady over the weekend for a sock lecture and two 3-hour classes (intarsia and finishing techniques). She was helpful, entertaining, and full of great suggestions on everything from managing high insteps to casting off without lifting stitches over. Loved the accent, too: reminded me of a cross between Tom Jones and my Canadian Aunt Esther.

Of course, I've got a Lucy Neatby project now in the queue. I'm underway on the Cables After Whisky pullover in Beaverslide Dry Gools wool. Photos upcoming once it looks like something other than k2p2 ribbing.

The Pearls pullover will be completed as fast as I possibly can complete it. It is driving me nuts. The yarn is quite slippery; I dropped one stitch during the sleeve decreases and wound up ripping out about 6 rows. I'm yearning to work with my other cottons that are taunting me from across the living room.

Oh, and the cotton I ordered from Knit Picks a couple of days ago...

And the sock yarn I got off of eBay about a month ago....

Not to mention the quilt fabric that is taking up the other half of my house...

I need help.

#$^&@)($*()!!!!

It is April. Late April. This is my backyard:

One lotto win, and I'm outta here.

On blog spammers and even feed feet

First off, I need to apologize to those of you that have tried to leave a comment and have been rudely blown off by my anti-spam filter thingy. Blog spam has been getting way out of control around these parts, so I installed mtblacklist some time back. It works really well, but every once in a while, an innocent word gets eyeballed by the filter and the comment is refused. So, if you do get denied, don't feel bad; you're not the only one who tried to use the word, "credit," without trying to sell me a home equity line. Just email me and let me know--I'll find out what was your "bad word."

Word of warning: don't sign anything with the name, "Bob." He has left me over 1000 blog spams in the past 6 months.

"Tranny" isn't a good idea, either....

Now that that has been said, yes, I'm still in quilt mode. The southwest symbols are in the process of being machine quilted (my least favorite part of the process). Once again, you may need sunglasses...

So far, no big goofs. I'm not holding my breath, though. Goofs and quilting go hand in hand for me. I did make a goof in this latest top I'm working on. Can you find it??

Didn't think so. There's actually an extra slice of fabric in the rays because I didn't feel like ripping out a piece I had sewn in that was about 1/4" too short. I think of it as adding character to the piece. Kato is busy giving her paw up to the fabric I chose for borders over the weekend:

This was originally to have Kokopelli border fabric and half square triangles in black and turquoise. Being me, I changed my mind and decided to go in the "Thank God It's Spring" direction with the flowers and lighter triangles. It's going to be a knockout once I get the borders on.

OK, and when I hand applique the sun in the center. I hate applique. That gene didn't get passed down from Mom--she's the Applique Queen.

I did manage some knitting during Reality TV Thursday; the front is now about an inch or so from the sleeve decreases:

Progress...not a lot, but progress...

Oh, I almost forgot. I had a birthday on Sunday (not a milestone of any sort, just another birthday and a reason to drink beer on someone else's dime). My Dad decided to get a little creative this year and made me this:

Is that cool, or what? I have another big golf ball case in the house, but this one will look so nice hanging on the wall once I get to Home Depot and get a few screws to do the job. Right now, it's just another reminder that I haven't gone to the driving range yet, and league starts in two weeks.

This could be a very long golf season...

What do Chris DiMarco and I have in common?

Well, both of us play the same brand of irons, and I'm certain I could easily lose to Tiger Woods in a one-hole playoff at The Masters. Yes, I was glued to golf on TV this weekend. Something about the beauty of that course in Georgia: green grass, trees with leaves, flowers that were flowering.....gives me hope that one day I'll see that here.

The trees are budding now and the Indians' Home Opener is today. Spring is so close I can smell it.

So, what does one do when stuck watching really good golf? One quilts. I made tremendous progress today on the southwestern quilt. Put on your sunglasses:

My mom commented this weekend that I've gone on a southwestern kick. I'm not sure why this surprises her. I do this every year after I get back from my yearly journey to the desert. Wait until she sees this thing. She'll know I've gone off the deep end.

I did manage to get a couple of skeins of that purple corriedale plied before I went into quilt mode.

This is some really soft yarn. Of course, I haven't come close to putting a dent in the box'o'fluff sitting in the living room. Maybe I'll spin outside when the weather allows; you see, there's lots of veggie matter in this fiber which is decorating my floor. Wouldn't be so bad if my vacuum cleaner hadn't died last week. And no, I haven't gone shopping for a new one.

Laziness, thy name is Leona.

I've never been so delighted to mow the lawn

After Mother Nature crushed her old record snowfall last Saturday (we have had over 105 inches this year...it sucked), we needed a break. Today, it's 72 glorious degrees out there, so, if it needed it or not, I mowed the front lawn. As if an omen, the mower started on the first pull! I may have trimmed off about a half an inch, but it still felt good.

Couldn't get inspired to do any other yard work. It's all about pacing oneself. Can't go too crazy too quickly.

Last weekend, my brother and the gang managed to get into town before the blizzard hit. This is the first my niece (11) and nephew (13) saw the wheel. Both of them, of course, had to try it. My niece has very little patience--her singles were pretty messed up. My nephew, however, has the gene I must have. After a couple of tries, he was spinning like a little pro. Here's the finished yarn they both contributed to:

Not too bad. I'm thinking of making them both hats with a stripe from their own yarn. It would be so Uncle Leona of me.

Speaking of spinning, the corriedale is singling away:

...in spite of a little feline fondling.

If there ever was a look of cat ecstasy, this is it.

I'm steadily making progress on the southwestern symbols wallhanging. The second square is done:

And the third will be sewn together tonight:

These are some really cool blocks. After the wolf is done, there are three more to go (two turtles and a roadrunner). And yes, I know the thunderbird has a goof in it. I made it like the pattern said, so it's staying that way.

Unless it starts to really bother me. Then I may use some magic marker and fix it.