You may remember the Bernat Blanket  yarn that Yarn Canada was so nice to send me a few months back….

I’d started a simple feather and fan baby blanket with it… but I’d forgotten how much I hate knitting with chenille.

All those sticky, stiff K2TOGs were driving me crazy, and I knew if I wanted to have a baby blanket to enter into the fair, I’d have to do something drastic.

So I frogged it.

And I cast on again…

This time for my Bias Garter Afghan. And it’s going MUCH better. While I might not like knitting with the yarn, I love the feel of it knit up. And I do love those pretty stripes.

It’s a super-bulky yarn, so if I keep at it, this should just fly off the needles. Here’s hoping…

While I am trying  to focus on my fair entries, Mom finished the quilting on Pigs in a Blanket, so I took some time out to tack down the binding.

Since the blocks were already made, this was a very simple quilt to put together.

It’s a nice little square quilt, perfect for a baby.

The fabric on the back matches one of the fabrics in the blocks. And as you can see, Mom did some pretty little loop-dee-loops for the quilting. I think it works perfect on this quilt.

And now it’s been packed up and sent off to Natalie, where hopefully it will raise a pretty penny for the horde of kittens she has right now!

And

I didn’t mention it, but I’ve been on vacation this past week. It’s been just a little staycation – and sadly one too hot and humid to get up to to much trouble, but I was able to devote a good many hours to fair knitting.

As such, I was able to bang out and entry the the Baby Hat and Bootie Category.

I figured since it’s a fall fair, it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of a fall theme. So I dug up some perfect orange Stray Cat. I couldn’t find quite the pumpkin hat pattern I wanted, so I ended up making my own (I’ll release it soon)

I used a simple garter rib to create a nice plump pumpkin texture and I’m thrilled with the results.

My Baby Janes pattern was perfect for the booties, and some sweet little orange flower buttons finish it all off.

Hopefully this little pumpkin brings home a ribbon!

 

 

 

 

As you know, my main goal in planting my gardens was to attract butterflies.  And it does just that. There’s never any shortage of White Cabbage Butterflies…

At any time, there’s a least one flitting around, sometimes two or three.

But we don’t have a great variety of other butterflies, as I’d hoped. I’ve only seen one Yellow Swallowtail.

The only other butterfly I’ve seen on a regular basis is the Monarch. I see one bopping through the gardens almost every day. But getting them on film has proved difficult. they have been very shy this year. Every time I get outside with the camera, they fly away.

That is, until the other day.

This guy was quite content to let me get close and snap away.  If you look closely, his wings aren’t overly vibrant, and they were a touch on the translucent side, so I think he was on his last legs.

But regardless,  I was glad I was able to finally get a few decent shots. While the flowers themselves are their own reward, the butterflies they bring in are icing on a wonderful, colourful cake!

 

 

Who can resist a good cat belly?

For all you out in blogland suffering from the horrible humidity, here’s a little snow…

.. or one snowflake at least. As promised, I’m trying to focus on my fair projects, and it was easy to knock this one out for the dishcloth category.

It’s from my Special Little Snowflakes pattern, and it’s my favourite of the three designs. I had it knit up in an afternoon. If only all my other projects were that quick…

We’ve dispensed with the hot, humid, dry weather of July and have moved onto the hot, humid, wet weather of August…

The gardens seem to much approve of the latter, and are just going crazy!

The Strawberry Mango Coneflower is absolutely covered in blooms. i bought this plant last year, and I didn’t expect it to get quite this large this fast. It dominates the Little Bee Garden. I may have to expand it next year. I almost didn’t buy this one, because it was much more expensive (part of a ‘pollinator’ series, so they jacked up the price). But I was using my loyalty points, so I splurged. And I’m so glad i did. I may cut some and bring them inside.

The raspberries are doing as well as they always do, but what’s really making me happy are the Blackberries. The plant is now four years old, and it’s gone nuts this year. All those big red berries will soon ripen to a nice deep purple. I’m really hoping I can get enough for blackberry jam.

The Burgundy Blanket Flower (which is really more of an orange-red) has spread out all over the place and it’s blooming up a storm.

The pink Dahlia I planted in the centre of this pot couldn’t take the heat, but the trailing petunias are loving it. As long as it gets water, these things just keep blooming.

My Burgundy Shamrock is in heaven with this weather and covered in little pale pink flowers. I’m going to have to figure out what to do with these guys come fall. They can’t winter outdoors, and the planter they are in has a couple big holes. They will most likely get split up into smaller pots.

These Purple Coneflower were started from seed the second year we were here, and they never fail to delight.  They just get bigger and better every year!

The Black-Eyed Susans aren’t very tall this year, but they are blooming nicely. They are one of my faves because they bloom right through October!

Earlier this summer, I threw some white petunias in a planter, and this weather has really made them shine

And last… the Fuschia in the front hanging pots just love the rain. They bloom and bloom when its wet out!

What’s bountiful in your world?