Some Finishes and still HOT!

Hello my friends.  I hope you're all enjoying your summer as much as I have been.  I have to say though, that this is one of the hottest summers we've had that I can remember.  It was 102 F on our deck today in the shade.  That's really unusual for us and now we are under a Fire Weather Warning.  We have several fires burning here in Washington State and conditions are perfect for even more.

It was so hot that I even came home from the lake a day earlier than I had planned.  Swimming is great, but as soon as you get out of the water the heat takes your breath away.

I have managed to finish a few projects though and so I'll take you on a tour of my most recent makes.  First is Pipers sweater.  It's finished!  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  This picture was before blocking but it gives you a good idea.  The pattern is the "Wondeful Wallaby".  It's a great pattern and fun to read, but it has you jumping around the booklet quite a bit.  I actually had to go online and find some help from people who had made it before.  Now that I have made one, I think future sweaters would go much quicker.

The pattern doesn't call for a button, but I think I'll add a crocheted loop and a button closure at the top of the placket to keep out cold winds.  I also changed the placket and hood trim from garter stitch to seed stitch.  I think it's nicer for some reason.  I like the way the pattern has ribbing round the neck to draw it in a bit to keep warmer.

I finished a baby blanket that had been on the needles for a couple of weeks.  I would pick it up when I needed mindless knitting.  It's just the Grandma's Dishcloth pattern with size 9 needles and baby yarn.  This will go to the hospital for a new baby.

Closer look so you can see the baby blue color better.

This dishcloth is also about the same blue color but for some reason photographed gray!  I like this pattern.  It has lots of ridges for good scrubbing power.

Also done is a sweater I made for World Vision Knit for Kids.  They provide the pattern and you MUST make this same pattern.  You can choose the yarn.  The sweaters are distributed around the world where there are children in need.  If I make it again I will definitely use a different yarn.  This yarn is just plain ugly and I hated knitting with it.  It was like knitting with plastic.  I think it's Red Heart although the label is long gone.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I"ve had this on needles for almost a year, I hated it so much!  The preference is acrylic yarn for ease of washing.  I may try it again with the crocheted version.  It is the same general style, just with crochet instead of knitting.

I told you I had an angel who has been sending me yarn.  These six skeins are from the box I recieved last week....

and the next two pictures are the box I recieved this week.  Look at all of the sock yarn!

All of this yarn is from Barbara way out on the East Coast.  She also makes hats and sends them to me for the babies at Holy Family Hospital.  Isn't that just the sweetest thing to do?  I'm very grateful for her kind heart and generous spirit.  Thank you so much Barbara.  Now to decide what to make with the yarn?

The next picture is a huge spaghetti salad.  It doesn't look like much does it?  Until you realize the bowl is 7 1/2 inches high and 12 inches across.  Some of you may have the same bowl from Tupperware.  It's HUGE!  There are over 2 lbs. of spaghetti, 7 tomatoes, 2 cans of olives, 2 onions, 2 cucumbers, 1 big green pepper, 1 block of cheddar cheese and 5 bottles of Italian salad dressing in it!

We have two funerals at church this weekend.  One is Friday and one Saturday.  We're providing a meal for the family and friends afterwards for both funerals so I decided to make one huge salad and split it into two bowls for the two dinners.  It's really yummy and I hope the families like it.  Hubby loves this salad and it's perfect for hot weather.  You can also add salami and it could be a complete summertime meal.

We're still waiting on a buyer for Brad and Mandy's house.  There was a promising prospect earlier this week but that seems to have fallen through.  Please pray for a sale soon.  It's hard on all of them to be apart.  Mandy says for the past three days Piper has gone to Brad's pillow on the bed and patted it saying "Daddy, Daddy".  So sad.  She misses her Daddy.  Facetime is just not the same as being there.

And now, it's past 10:30 and I need to find my own pillow.  I washed the sheets this morning from both our bed here at home and the camper and hung them on the clothesline to dry.  It was so hot they were dry in less than 15 minutes!  I love the smell of sheets hung outside and believe it give sweet dreams.  :-)

I hope you all have a lovely week and I'll be back to visit soon.

Blessings,

Betsy