I'm Back To Gardening, Knitting, and Life in General

Cooking Mitt for Brother, unfelted at top and after felting below.


I haven't blogged in two weeks and the hardest part of blogging is getting started, at least that is hardest for me. Mr. Rō and I have been busy as bees these last two weeks. Our visit to GA was great, I think the best visit ever except for seeing my sisters become old, and for the family members who are sick. I visited both sisters and my brother and several of my nieces and nephews. My nieces and nephews prepared all our meals for the week except for three, can you believe that? What a wonderful family I have. Another one of my sister's lives in SC and drove down on Monday to spent four days with us enjoying the gatherings and going with us to visit an iris display garden in Warm Springs, right across the road from Roosevelt's Little White House. Another sister and her daughter were also with us and we had such fun introducing them to the 'Rainbow Flower'. Irises are called 'Rainbow Flowers' because of the many colors they bloom in, like the colors of a rainbow. Did you know iris bloom in all colors except for a true red and that, I believe, is not far away. Hybridizers are working on it continuously hoping to be the one to introduce the 'true red' iris. A gorgeous iris named 'Lady Friend' was one my sister coveted most and that I can understand, it is also one of my favorite. Lady Friend is a beautiful rosy- red colored iris that stands out in any garden and it is one we grow. When we dig in late summer we will reserve a piece of 'Lady Friend' for my sister and we will be sending a big box of rhizomes to my niece, Lou. Lou has a number of older iris in her garden so we plan to send some of the more modern ones and some of the re-blooming hybrids. She was fascinated to learn some iris are bred to bloom twice each year providing the climate is right and they are fertilized after the first bloom and kept watered throughout the summer.

My knitting gifts were a hit but there was a problem, I didn't have one for everyone, the family is 'way to big'. I still have one sister in Mississippi to knit something for to have given all the sisters and brother a hand-knitted item. Did you ask how many siblings I have? Well there were 'ten of us', eight girls and two boys; eight of us are still living. We lost our oldest brother to colon cancer three years ago, then next to our oldest sister to Alzheimer's disease in December. I'm the youngest at sixty-two. Anyway, when you start knitting for a family this size you need a lot of yarn and a lot of time. I have some hand-dyed mohair from our local fiber festival that will make a fine looking shawl for my sister, Lucy.

I mailed my Knitter's Treat package to Marianne, in Cambridgeshire, UK, before I left on vacation. I was afraid if I waited until I was back home it wouldn't be received May 5th, the cut-off date. The clerk at the PO advised me to send it fast post (doubling the cost of postage) or it could take up to six weeks to get there; it arrived at her door in less than a week. Visit Marianne's blog, www.picperfics.blogspot.com where she posted some photos of the package and has a lot of other photos along with her knitting blog.

I still have to knit my WhoDuKnit Mystery partner something from a skein of purple tweed, Cascade 220 yarn she sent to me. Any suggestions of a neat one skein project? I have a couple of ideas but am still thinking I may find something more interesting. I have already purchased the mystery book to go with this exchange and a couple of other items I think she might enjoy.

ITEIV is about to begin and I debated whether or not I would have time to knit one more bag; I am waiting to receive the name of my upstream partner in the 'Felted Bag Exchange'. I have loved bags and shoes since I was a little girl so I never pass-up a new one. With older sisters in the house there was always high-heal shoes, falsies, and pocketbooks to dress up in. Thank heavens I don't need the falsies anymore and high-heal shoes are no longer a part of my attire but I still love lots of shoes and lots of bags.

The rain that we had during the night and earlier today has stopped and the sun is out with humidity building.
Mr. Rō is already out in the garden working on the new beds he begin building for me yesterday. I had planned to knit this afternoon but will work in the garden instead; lots to be done, the 'Rainbow flowers' are beginning to bloom.