In knitting news, I started a new project that should go pretty quickly during some TV watching. It's a scarf for a woman at work, in a ladder-type ribbon yarn from Lion Brand called "Trellis." I made a similar scarf out of Eros four years ago and when I wore it one day and showed it to her she exclaimed about it so much I almost gave my scarf to her right then and there. Maybe I should have, but I'm selfish and like the scarf a lot. But I did decide to surprise her with one of her own. It's not the same yarn but it should look similar. I hope she likes it. The color in the picture doesn't really come out. The yarn is a combination of gold and beige and cream. The colorway on the label is "champagne."
In sewing news...no sewing this weekend but I did visit my fabric in the trailer. :-) The trailer is an enclosed cargo trailer we bought years ago for the purpose of hauling family items across the country and because we don't have a basement or room in our yard for a large storage shed, the trailer has proven to be very useful for storing materials during our remodelling projects...and for storing my fabric. I have a lot of fabric. At least I do know what fabric I have because it's all catalogued on index cards. I recently re-organized the cards by color and fabric type (rather than by the box they're in) because I think it'll be easier to pick out coordinating fabrics without having to look through every single card. Anyway, I ventured to the trailer to get some flannel to back a baby blanket I'm making for my husband's co-worker who is expecting their first baby. I make the blanket out of two 1-yard pieces of flannel. I round the edges using a quilter's template but I'm sure a plate would work fine as a guide. If I'm going to embroider the baby's name and birth information, I do that on one of the pieces first. Then I sew the flannel with right sides together, leaving a small opening for turning it right side out, and then I hand stitch the opening closed. Finally, I stitch along the perimeter of the blanket using a decorative stitch on the sewing machine. I've found that the flannel sticks together pretty well, so I don't need to do any stitching across the center, but I guess you could. That's it. Easy-peasy baby shower or new-baby gift. And personalized too!
As far as the rest of the weekend, we did lots of weeding in the backyard and cleaned it up some more. We haven't yet planted our summer veggies but hope to soon, although the weather forecast for later this week is calling for a high of 101. Yikes. Spring seems to have come and gone already. I ate the first ripe cherry from our tree, which, like the rest of the fruit trees in our yard, are showing signs of a huge harvest. I see lots more plum jam, peach preserves, and canned pears in the future!
After gardening we went for a long, leisurely bike ride of about 15 miles. It was great to get out on the bikes and also to exercise. It was a beautiful, sunny day and not too hot but the shade along the route was still welcome. I was a bit stiff later on but not too bad the next day. Love my bike!
On Sunday we ventured out to look at new cars. We've decided to purchase a Prius to replace the 2003 Saturn Vue we dislike (it's underpowered, loosey-goosey on the turns, big, and had mechanical problems at 50K miles). I know the Prius is a sought after vehicle and may "sell itself" but perhaps Toyota salespeople, at least the ones we encountered...or rather didn't encounter...shouldn't be so lackadaisical towards prospective buyers. Maybe they thought we were Mother's Day looky-loos, but we weren't just looking. We were ready to buy and we had to hunt someone down to talk to us. And when we did find someone, they didn't seem so interested in selling us a car! We went to three different dealerships and have experienced this lack of interest from Toyota in the past. If we weren't sold on the Prius' good gas mileage and interior perks (navigation and bluetooth in particular), we'd be shopping elsewhere. So, we don't have a new car...yet. Maybe later this week.
And finally, although I don't talk much about work here, I will say that my current project should launch (as in a real lift off from Cape Canaveral) next month and I'll be able to move on to the next project. This is good news because I'm ready to finish the old and start the new. Not unlike my knitting and sewing projects.
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