More Bits and Pieces

In no particular order:

Beautiful rain

Today we have gotten successive waves of gentle, steady, persistent showers, my very favorite kind of rain. I know the east coast got deluged, but many parts of Michigan are suffering from drought, so I am enjoying every drop. Any day that I don't have to pull hoses around and run the sprinkler is a good day. Before it started to rain, I took a couple more lily pictures.

I bought the two on the left from a lily club I used to belong to. I have often wondered if the bulbs I got were labelled correctly. I think the electric orange confection on the left is "Prawn Tiger". I am pretty sure the paler orange lily in the center is "Chinook", and I'm certain that the one on the right is "Roma". (This is the only stem of "Roma" that did not break off from having its stem hollowed out by stem borer larvae.) You can see in the first two pictures that I don't care to water my grass to keep it green. Unless we have severe drought, the lilies will usually bloom successfully without watering.

I didn't get a picture of the hummingbird I saw at my "Tiger Babies" lilies. I was glad I had so many of those in bloom, because it went to every single blossom, one by one. I tried to switch windows to get a closer view, but in the seconds it took to walk from one to another, my tiny little bird had zoomed off.

Rain story: As I was checking email and editing lily pictures, I realized I hadn't heard my son playing for several minutes, and my Mom Alarm went off. I jumped up to find out what mischief he was into, and found him on our concrete step, playing in the puddle that forms at the end of the roof gutter. His hair was totally soaked -- and he's a kid who hates to have his hair washed!

West Michigan Lace Group meeting

We did something different for our July meeting last night. We had a picnic at Pinery Park on De Hoop Avenue in Wyoming, Michigan. There had been rain in the forecast earlier, but we had beautiful warm sunny weather. We brought food and had a potluck, and had plenty of room for a "Try It" bobbin lace pillow and our show-and-tell items. And to eat, of course!

Tatt3r brought the roller pillow shown in her 7 July post, and the "Try It" pillow set up with bobbins and a pricking.

N. brought a large plastic bag full of "rescued" (from antique shops, flea markets, and junk shops) lacey items, and we had a lot of fun examining them. I wish I had brought a camera! There was a handkerchief with a delicate scalloped hairpin lace edging, a round doily with a linen center with a netted edging, several nice crocheted lace pieces, some large darned netting items (as large as a tablecloth), and others I can't remember right now.

L. brought a beautiful Art Nouveau tin (many tatters seem to be tin collectors), found at a garage sale, that I coveted. How could she know that Art Nouveau, particularly Mucha, is one of my early loves? I warned her if it disappeared, she should look in my bag!

I brought along the Sun in Splendor Pi doily, my "Sampler M" (or is that "Sampler A"?), and the X's and O's dishcloth. I also brought my pierced *pizza pan, because I'm not the only one in the group who sometimes needs to block round items!

*The pizza pan is actually an Ekco Bakers Secret (TM) AIR 15" Large Pizza Crisper, that I think we found at Wal-Mart. Or maybe it was Target. I should note that since it is aluminum, it is possible for it to leave gray aluminum smudgies on white items if you were to rub them around on it. Please don't do that.

When I was a girl of the age to do the family dishes, we had a kitchen sink with aluminum banding on the counter edge. Many were the white shirts that I got gray lines on the bellies of, leaning against the counter while I washed the dishes! So consider yourself warned about the gray aluminum smudgie problem.

"Sun in Splendor" Pi doily

There is no pattern for the "Sun in Splendor" Pi. It is a Pi doily, a la Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitter's Almanac", starting with 9 stitches at the center and doubling as she directs in the book. I was using multiple needles, and I just used lace patterns that fit on each needle in between the doubling rounds. If enough people bug me, I can probably shuffle through my pile of scribbley notes and figure out which patterns I put in which rounds.

Cool Knitting Thing

Oh! I did a cool knitting thing this afternoon that I have to share. (I'm sure I didn't invent it, since there is nothing new under the knitting sun, but it is new to me.) Anyway. I cast on as in Judy Becker's Magic cast-on at Knitty.com, but then I knitted a stitch from one needle, then purled a stitch from the other needle, to make a cast-on that looks just like the grafted cast-off that I use on my toe-up socks! I am so pleased with it.

Unfortunately for us "visual" people, I did it using some soft cotton string, and it's the devil to get a decent picture of. I will have to do it using something crisper. I also have to wait for brighter weather, so the flash doesn't wash it out.

Then, no doubt, knowledgeable knitting folk will say in mild surprise, "Oh, that's the [blah] cast on found in [very common knitting book]. Didn't you know about that one?"

This happens to me all the time, as a 3-year-old knitter!

I don't care, I love the excitement of finding this stuff "all on my own", even if it does turn out other people have been picnicking in my secret camping spot!