Fiber Dreams

Weekend things

Dave got a bee in his bonnet this weekend. He decided that he’s tired of people parking on our stand-up sprinklers and breaking them, so planned on moving them to the back edge of the top of the garden, instead of the front edge of it. He started digging to find where the lines were running, and to put them in a new place a couple feet away. He found a couple gopher tunnels, filled those in. At one point when Dave was taking a short break, the gopher decided to take a little look around. Cheeky little guy kept looking me in the eye and daring me to do anything about him. Sigh. I didn’t, of course, well, except I looked back at him. Ooh. Big threat. LOL Not! He wasn’t afraid of me at all. Not one little bit. Such cheek!

Anyway, while Dave was digging he found some old white water lines criss-crossing the yard. I think the bee in his bonnet nipped him in the butt. The project went from a simple repositioning, to an excavation.

In the first picture I’m standing in the driveway looking down. In the next two I’m standing on the stairs that go down between my neighbor’s house and mine. Yes, I was standing and hold the camera straight. Our hill is really that steep. Actually, that’s not the bad part. There’s a part of the slope down below that’s a lot steeper.

At this point we’re planning on replacing all those plastic pipes with new. These old ones are disintegrating. Dave’s been wanting to put the yard on automatic sprinklers for years, and now has more of a reason to. We are planning on three zones: the top flat part, the main slope, the roses and elephant ear. I think that’ll work. The hill got the best of poor Dave this weekend, though. He’s very stiff and sore. It’s amazing how much leg power it takes to stay upright and hold your position on that silly slope. And then there was all the digging and chopping he did. Ouch. He got a little sunburn on his legs, too.

While Dave was starting his project I thinned the bougainvillea a bit. The blooms are starting to die back, and the plants needed opening up again so we can see through them to back out of the driveway. I’ll do more later when more of the flowers die. About noon I abandoned the project and got ready to go to a tea party at Mikki’s house. Mikki invited a bunch of friends, most of whom I worked with a one point or another, and we all got together and had a nice afternoon in her yard drinking tea and eating yummy treats. It was marvelous.

I went from there to Santa Ana, and met Dave at Rachel’s grand opening of her new storefront for her business, Path Design. Rachel has a great eye, and is super at picking colors for the interior and exterior of houses. She does other fabulous interior designer things, too. If you’re in the area and have a need, check her out. The grand opening was fun. Lots more food, wine, fun people. Since Rachel’s sharing the space we got to meet her space-mate’s friends too.

From there we went to Kim and Troy’s house. More wine. Relaxed in their backyard by a brightly burning fireplace. Ah. Wonderful. Made for a late night to a fabulous day, and a Laura who felt a little delicate on Sunday. I can sure tell I’m not 30 any more. I hate that.

Knitting things

Back on May 4 I told you that I’d ordered some discounted sock yarn from Discounted Yarns. Well, it arrived on Saturday. This yarn is definitely Cherry Tree Hill’s Supersock. And the two colors I got, Bark and Cherry, are fabulous. Now that’s the red sock yarn I’ve been pining for. Score.

I found and joined the Lace shawl KAL the other day. It’s a perfect accompaniment to the Victorian Lace KAL, and especially good since I don’t think the next shawl I make will be from that book.

The second forget-me-not sock is progressing. This weekend I knit the heel flap, turned the corner, picked up the gusset stitches, and knit the first row of gusset decreases. The sock is a lot smaller than the other one. I’m still very glad I went down a needle size.

The green lace shawl from page 32 of Victorian Lace Today is coming along nicely, as well. I’ve now knit 111 rows, and am starting to really get into the rhythm of the pattern. Though longer, the rows are going faster, because I’m comfortable with what I’m doing.

Couch things

Dave got a call from the upholsterer on Saturday, saying the pillows were done, and asking if they could bring them by today. Sure! They called again this morning, and dropped off the pillows. Sorry the picture is so dark. It was still a bit foggy out this morning, so the room was a bit dark. There are three pillows: one wide, one square, and one cute little round one that he made for me, gratis, as an apology for the delay. I love them. They finish the couch of very nicely.

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