My Knitted Florida: Foxtail Palm Seeds

Hello there, it has been a while since my last post; I hope you are all keeping well.

It has been a busy couple of months for me. My husband was travelling frequently and my work place was in overtime mode. I tried to keep up with my blog reading and with my crafts.

I was sitting outside one day with Poppy and knitting a mohair sweater when I noticed that one of our Foxtail Palm trees was fruiting for the first time.
The seeds are so round and so much bigger than other palm trees. Their color is so beautiful. It ranges from gold, orange, pumpkin, to a deep red as they ripen.
I know I should have carried on with my mohair sweater…but I simply can’t help myself. I just have to make a palm seed or two. I have so much fun. Cute right?

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

What's on my work desk? Two sewing projects: a summer top and some cotton wash bags.
What's in my bath tub? Washing a light grey Suffolk Romney fleece.

This is a whole raw fleece.

What's on my knitting needles? A shawl. I read about some lovely shawl patterns over in Jules's blog Handmade Things. I cast on when we were vacationing at Cape San Blas. Even though I have knitted 118 rows, but with the fine needles, I have only made a small corner.

Also knitting a swatch for a jacket. The yarn color makes me think of red maple leaves.

North Florida: shopping locally

I didn’t do much shopping during our visit. The nearest Publix supermarket is 30 miles away and 50 miles for a Starbucks. So we only purchased a few supplies locally. Bought some oysters and blue crabs. They sell the oysters by the sack full.

Got a loaf of bread from this shop.I kept seeing the sign "Boiled Peanuts". My curiosity got the better of me.I have to try some, very soft like baked beans, but salty.

North Florida: the southern country

Even though it is Florida the north is so different to the south. The pace of life is more layback, with big open space and quaint seaside towns.The first time a waitress greeted us with a good morning y’all in her southern accent, I blinked and thought wow, we were in the deep south of the US. I noticed that we were driving past a lot of swampy areas. We were right next to the ocean but you would have to look over the marshy patch before you could see the open sea.

The marsh lands here remind me of the Everglades.

One thing north Florida shares with south Florida: they too have alligators.

North Florida: Cape San Blas

I have always wanted to visit north Florida. So when my husband and I took a week off work we traveled 500 miles north.

After a long drive, Poppy crashed out when we stayed overnight at a hotel.
Having a break at a pit stop.

Arrived at the beach house.

Poppy checking out her new surroundings.

Taking a walk…

and watching the sunset.

Annie - the baby pink elephant

I have named my little baby elephant toy Annie. I finished kitting her earlier last week.
Then I realised she doesn’t have a tail. Elephants have tails right? But the knitting instruction did not give direction for a tail. SoI made one up for little Annie.

She is all in order now.

I hope you are too.

Have a great weekend.

* * * * *

Material used: Double knitting

Needle size: 3.50 mm

Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague http://ysolda.com/store/toys/elijah/

Rained In

It is hurricane season with us and it rains more or less every day now. Turn on the sound loud if you want to hear the rain.

When we get rained in like this, Poppy and I would hide out in my craft room. While I picked up the stitches to make the elephant body… Poppy worked on her treat. Making progress with the little toy.

Doggie Story: Noisy Neighbors

Last year, on Poppy’s birthday, I posted a doggie story. Well, it is that time of the year again. I will share another story with you.

When we first moved to our home it has this heavy brown front door with a metal frame. The house sits in a large tropical garden.
One late evening my husband and I settled down to watch a movie. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise resonated through the house. It sounded like a wild animal’s mating call, or some sort of strange big bird, I thought it was coming from the tree tops outside in the backyard.

As you can imagine, Poppy went mental and insisted on going out to investigate. I went with her. I used a powerful torch light to scan the tree tops, I couldn’t see anything. Poppy searched the yard and she turned up nothing.

A couple of days later that noise happened again. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and thought it came from the front garden this time. I went to the front door with Poppy by my side. As I stood there with the door opened, the animal made the noise again. Poppy started sniffing the door up and down and found the source of the noise.

Can you see the white arrow on the door?

A closer look...

Tree frogs. You wouldn’t think these small creatures made those big noises, but they did.

We changed our front door. Poppy can relax now, no more noisy neighbors.

Happy birthday Poppy. Happy seven years' old.

Unfinished business

I am not a pink person so when I was given some pink yarns they stayed in my stash for a long while. Since I am on a stash busting mission I thought I would use it up by making a jacket. It is a thick yarn it would be a quick project, right?

Here is the back. The left and right front.

The sleeves.

Then the edging.

Just a few more rounds...but I run out of yarn Oooooo%$#@*&^!! I sewed everything in as I went, locking all the threads, so there is no way I am going to undo this.

This yarn is discontinued. Patons Beehive Shetland Chunky Shade 9012 Lot 39210.

Let's hope someone will sell them on the internet. Right now this little unfinished business is going back to stash! Not a quick project after all.

Decoration for my work place

My current employer is very pet friendly. Poppy visited and stayed with me one Friday afternoon. She was so well behaved. She would give people love and kisses when they wanted to pet her, otherwise she settled down in her corner under my desk.
My work cubicle is rather bare. As it happened we have moved to a new expanded area yesterday. My new station looks the same but it will be my permanent home. I want to decorate it with handmade stuff.

Gathering up scraps and yarn ends.

Using an Embellish Knit to make I-cord…it is very fun to use.

My first butterfly...going to make leaves and flowers now.

Thank you for visiting, until next time, take care and have a great weekend.

Lace Doily

I finished the doily last week, washed and blocked it over the weekend.
It is about 19" (48cm) across. The pattern is from this Japanese book. I used size 10 cotton thread from Aunt Lydia's which is thicker than what the pattern asks for.

14 July 2011 Reply to a comment

Where to buy the pattern? http://www.yesasia.com/ and search the words "crochet pineapple lace"

In the right frame of mind

I have not written for more than 2 months. Not that I don't want to, I just needed to be in the right frame of mind to do so.

When Poppy is not well I fret over her. It is not that she has been ill. She was just plain clumsy. She run across a slippery surface one day, her back leg went under her, and she tore a ligament in her knee and injured a toe. It took nearly three weeks for her to heal.

Just when we thought all was well, Poppy started having dizzy spells and one time actually collapsed. It turned out to be an ear infection that affected her inner ear and her balance; after a week of medication Poppy is better now. I can relax and spend time in my craft room.

I have two more rows to do then the doily is done. But the next row is tricky. I would need to join and cut the thread to do 12 separate sections before working the final round. I started another project: it is a little toy elephant. I took it to bed with me, knitting a few rows every night. The head is nearly done.It is hurricane session with us now. It has been raining today. The sky is so grey and dark.But a little bit of rain is not going to stop Poppy waiting outside for the love of her life (my hubby) to come home from the gym.Poppy is good. I hope you are keeping well and are enjoying your summer where ever you are.

Till next time. Take care.