October IHSW

Sorry, sorry!  I have been gone all day!  No chance to post until now.

As usual, I worked on Nostlagy for my IHSW project - I can't wait to get my half-page done and get back to Lovers, though.  For some reason it is so much more fun to work on!  I'm not sure why.

Anyway, here is QS Nostlagy last IHSW:



I finished her hair! I think.



I know I finished all the three main colors, fixed a few mistakes, and then I did two needle-fulls worth of brown confetti stitches around the main colors.  There are probably more shades of brown to go, but I decided to go back to the background for now.  I know that looks like the hoop-mark left holes in my stitches, but it's just the light reflecting off the floss.  It's not as bad as it looks!  The mark will go away when I wash and press her.

Par for the course, I did not have much time with her this weekend, but I did get a little of the background done, too.  This is how the project looked on Sunday:



I also worked on three afghans at various times.  I will have an afghan done sometime this week!  The pretty green one.  I will take some pics of the others when I photograph it.

Off to check other blogs now!

Two Down

I finished another afghan!  I put the last stitches in yesterday, but it was a gloomy, overcast day and I couldn't get a decent picture.

Today was a little better, but I still had some trouble.  These were the best I could get for now.  I took them to my Mum's house, where my parents have just finished building a guest room - the outside has been done for a while, but now the inside is done except for there is no carpet.  But it is painted in soft white, which I thought would help the lighting, and there is a king-sized bed in it.  Good for size reference.

So here is 'Filet Diamonds', all finished up.  It is in my SIL's choice of tan, or 'Biscuit' as the yarn was labelled.



I didn't measure it, but it is, like I said, on a king-sized bed.



It went pretty fast for a bigger afghan!  I didn't work on it steady - when do I ever? - I took each strip along with me in my bag.  Joining them (it was a weird technique) took the longest time.  Then two rows of single-crochet for the border.  I only have to cut the loose ends off - I forgot to do it before I took the pictures.



This leaves me with either three afghans or six afghans to go - here is where my Mum's is, currently.  Her's is a lap-sized one, although it will be wider than this - the border is huge and will add quite a few inches.  It's so pretty but I am only on the second of ten skeins of yarn!  It's mostly single-crochet, like the green and tan one I finished earlier this year.  I wish it was a better picture; this one has a gorgeous textured pattern.



I don't have an updated picture of the green afghan.  I probably won't take a picture until it is done.  I have one and one half repeats to go, and then fringing!  It will definitely be done this month.

I should have started my nephew's afghan next, as it is the third of the definite three that I want to finish, but I only have one hook in the size it takes and it is being used for the green afghan!  So I stepped out in utterly silly confidence and started my brother's afghan.  Here is one whole row!



I laid it with my Mum's because when I add the border, I hope that my Mum's will be almost as big as this one.  Almost.  The border should add about five inches to each side, so we will see!

Is IHSW this weekend?  My new blog feeder seems to have eaten the Random Ramblings blog.  I have to go look!

Fruits of a Neglected Garden

I thought the garden was done for the year - I went out to pull up some of the dead, dried up plants and found a very short, fat cucumber!  I laughed - it was sort of funny-looking.

Then I went toward the last of my zucchini plants and noticed something dark green and shiny under the dried-up leaves.

Oh, my.

I brought my loot in and laid my cordless phone down next to them for size reference.  The first is the cucumber.  The rest is zucchini.



That is the single biggest zucchini I have ever grown!  Mostly because I pick them small, but still!

Also, we planted watermelons this year, and they didn't do very well.  At least, in the 'real' garden, they didn't!  But earlier in the summer, we had a pool party and someone apparently spit their seeds into the old, empty flower beds that line one side of the pool.



Those are some good-sized watermelons, considering we just decided to leave the plants and see what would happen, and they got no attention at all.  Not even Miracle-Grow.  We are picking them tomorrow and I will take a picture with something for size reference.  There are three or four other watermelons on the plants, but they are not this big yet and we are trying to nurse them along, with newspaper over them at night to keep the cold away.

Here's a tiny bit of stitching for you - I took this picture a week or two ago and forgot about it.  It is Fred with a little more than 1/4 of his backstitching done.  I'm working on the second half of the top shelf, now.  He still needs his whiskers, but they are last!  It's taking me a little bit of time since I found some missed stitching, there are metallics, and also I keep putting him down to work on afghans.



And another HAED for your viewing pleasure!  This is Sun and Stars by Katerina KouKiotis:



And QS Kissy Fish by Hannah Lynn



By the way - there is an un-announced 50% off sale at HAED right now!  May I have another layaway, please?