More Beach Pictures and MS3

Those darned squirrels distracted me so much last week that I forgot all about the beach pictures I'd promised you in last Monday's post. By now, you've probably figured out that I'm a sucker for wildlife, nature, all that jazz. Seeing critters in the wild really excites me. Today's beach pictures will futher illustrate that!

Our beach place is about 5 minutes walk to the beach, and along the way, we pass a marshy creek that is alongside a shuffle board area. There are always rabbits playing in the grass near the shuffle board court. They remind me of our Phoebe bunny. Here's one of the little guys.


I love birds--big ones, little ones, all of them. We were wading in a creek that runs through part of the beach when this guy landed. He was very cooperative and allowed me to get close for several photos. This is one of the better ones.


Because the tide was low, we were able to wander way up into the creek. I'm glad we did, because look who we found. He was having his dinner--nothing like fresh sea food!


Now, on to the knitting! I'm about 1/3 of the way into Clue 3 for the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. Daughter and I were at the beach again this past weekend, so I didn't start on the clue until Sunday night. This seems to be a trend, but you gotta get in beach time when you can. I'm so pleased that this pattern is coming easily for me. I was intimidated at first, because I've never knitted from charts nor with beads. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. There is no progress photo, because you can find a gazillion of those on line if you just look. Suffice it to say, my stole looks like everyone else's, and that is not a bad thing.

Here's my knitting set up for the MS 3. I have the chart printed out and am using a magnetic dry erase board from Wal Mart as a chart holder. (I also spotted some of these magnetic boards at Target in that little dollar and up section at the front of the store.) It's working well, but it's a tad bit shorter than the chart. I hear some folks are using cookie sheets to hold their charts, but all my cookie sheets are huge and would be too clumsy for this. I do want to get a roll of magnetic tape to use to mark my chart lines. Right now, I'm using magnet strips that came in an old cross stitch chart holder I have.

I'm a sucker for bags, and this little beauty joined the collection yesterday.

It's a Shopper Bag by Paperchase. The bag is a good size for holding projects, a book, my datebook, and other things to take along on car trips.

Squirrels

For many weeks now, I've noticed that we have a squirrel who likes to lie down. At least I thought it was just one squirrel. Within the past several days, we've noticed that there are numerous lounging squirrels. This morning, I had as many as three loungers at a time. Figuring no one would believe me, I captured photos of lounging squirrels to present to you here as proof that I'm not nuts!




He looks like he's crawling, but he's lying down.




This guy grabbed a bite to eat from the bird feeder, jumped down, ran over to the picnic table and decided to have a little lie down.

Life's a Beach

We enjoyed a nice long weekend at HHI. Surprisingly, it was rather quiet. I'd expected more of a crowd because of the holiday. My brother had been at the beach earlier in the week (before the 4th) and his experience was just about opposite ours--lots of people and noise!

We had a great time walking on the beach and lounging by the pool. Life doesn't get any better than that. I managed a little S-E-X on the Beach. We visited two LYSes--Needlepoint Junction which is in the Wexford shopping area and The Courtyard which I think is off Palmetto Bay Road.

I found this awesome Colinette Jitterbug (color Mardi Gras) at Needlepoint Junction. I've never seen this yarn in person before, but I could not resist the colors. The shop had several other colors, too, but this one was my favorite.


The Courtyard was having a Fourth of July sale, and I snagged this Sockotta for 30% off.

I also found the Fall and Holiday 2006 issues of Vogue Knitting for $2 each and got copies. The Fall issue has a load of sock patterns in it. Although they were not on sale, I picked up two pair of Colonial Rosewood Needles (sizes 4 and 5) to add to my collection. I love those needles and am slowly building a collection.

It would have been nice to go to Savannah to visit Wild Fibre and our friend Jennifer, but the desire to be by the pool was stronger this weekend. We had an incredible case of the Lazies!!

I took several knitting projects with me to the beach and ended up doing not much of anything. I managed 2 pattern repeats of the Storm Water Scarf in Handmaiden Seasilk, and that was an effort! (See earlier comment about "Lazies." I'd toyed with the idea of taking along a printer and laptop so that I could print out the second Clue for MS3. Didn't happen. We had a laptop, looked at the chart and said "Oh that's pretty" but I didn't actually print and start the chart until last night.

Coming later this week: beach pictures.

FOs on the Fourth

We've had a lovely and lazy Independence Day. I got up bright and early and managed to finish Chart B of the MS3 KAL before anyone else got up. Here it is, mistake free! Yes, I am going to put a lifeline in before moving on to Clue #2!


I finished up my Tomato yesterday and got it washed today. It fits very well. This photo is not the best as it just shows the top drying on my blocking board.

The color is not great because I didn't have any natural light to work with tonight. Once the top is dry, I'll take a modeled picture (and maybe even get a photo for my Ravelry profile!

Finally, here is Miss Isabella Bunny. We've had her for two months now, and she's growing though she is still not a very big bunny.

Her mane is grey and she also has grey fluff on her hips, around her tail, and a bit on her tummy. I have to brush her every day or she'll get tangles. Isabella is a sweet little bunny, but she's still not as tame as Phoebe, our angora.

Taking a Ride in the Mystery Machine

Both husband and I are participating in the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. We ended up making needle changes yesterday, and I also changed yarn. Here's my progress so far. I've completed Chart A.



I'm using size 3 Crystal Palace circulars, Jaegarspun wool/silk yarn in white, and iridescent glass beads. I really don't think the beads are doing much for the knitting so far, but I'll continue on. Chart B uses more beads within the pattern of the stole in addition to those on the edges.

This is the first time I've knitted with beads, the first time I've knitted from a lace chart, and my first KAL. I'm finding the charts to be easy to use. The beads aren't so bad either, but I've ditched the tiny crochet hook in favor of a loop of dental floss for adding the beads. The hook was splitting my yarn. The dental floss I'm using has a stiffened end followed by a thicker portion and then regular dental floss. I am stringing on several beads which are held in place on the thicker portion of the floss, then inserting the stiff portion of the floss into the stitch where the bead needs to go. I then slide a bead down, loop the stiffened end back into the bottom of the bead (forming a loop through the stitch, and slide the bead onto the stitch. It is still a bit clumsy, but it's working better for me than the crochet hook.

Our yard never ceases to amaze me. These little guys have been frequent visitors to our bird feeder since the spring. I hope they have a little family somewhere nearby. These are a male and a female American Goldfinch.