Lunch hour bliss

It's so hard to come back to work the day after a long holiday weekend. Even more so when I had two extra days and turned it into a five-day vacation at home. But today's lunch hour made up for it. It's warm, sunny, not humid, nice breeze and there's an easy knitting project and iced tea waiting for me on the porch near the glider. Lunch time bliss!

And now for a little holiday time!

Ah, finally it's summertime. Warm days, cool nights, the windows are thrown open and the breeze just moves through the house. Wonderful! I have five days in a row off from work. It's almost like being on vacation. (Can't hear the ocean, though...)

First off, here's a shot of the salvia in my front flower bed. It's really beautiful right now. The hummingbirds and the bees think so, too. Then I finally got to the garden center and picked out a pink azalea and a pink rhododendrum. I've not had much luck in the location where these bushes are going. I'm not quite sure what the problem is as the rhododendrums that were in this location originally died after being there for years. It may be some kind of bug problem, but I have a little something that will take care of that.

I've been knitting away on what's going to be a felted tote for my laptop. It's mostly KnitPicks Wool of the Andes with some Lion's Wool thrown in. As you can see, the front and back are finished. I'm working on the bottom and I'm playing around with mitered squares for the sides. It all gets put together with a three needle bind-off and a double I-Cord handle.

I have a few other minor projects I'd like to do over the weekend involving laundry, gardening, and a picnic on Monday. Have a great weekend and don't forget to put out your flag!

P.S. I've spent most of the evening trying to upload the pictures to Blogger. It wasn't going well... Saturday afternoon -- still not going well, but I figured a way to work around it, I think.

Landscape

My Landscape purse is finally felted and I'm very pleased. It was a fun challenge to knit. I finally decided to use a double i-cord for the handles. And I made the handles long enough to wear over my shoulder. All that is left to do is the lining and I have that worked out in my head.

A little something I've been working on

I haven't entirely given up on knitting. My wrist is still a bit sore, but on the whole it's much better. So, I've been really pacing myself with my knitting. And here's a little something...
I found a very nice felted tote bag that another blogger is working on. I've scoured the web and can't find a place to purchase the pattern on the web. So, I'm using my ingenuity and have been creating from my stash. I'm hoping to make a nice sturdy felted bag that I can use to carry my laptop in. This is side one. Side two is on the needles. Then I have to figure out what I'm going to do about the sides and the bottom. The handles will be a double i-cord coming (I think) from the sides.

Spring is finally here and I've really been enjoying the birds in my neighborhood. Cardinals nest in an ornamental cherry tree in my neighbor's front yard. One of these days I'm going to get a picture of them. Someplace there's a barn owl in the neighborhood, I know because I can hear it in the mornings. I also saw a very yellow bird in my yard the other day as I was coming home for lunch. I'd love to know what it was -- maybe a Baltimore Oriel. I am participating in the Second Pennsylvania Bird Breeding Atlas project. It's sponsored by Carnegie Natural Science Museum and the PA Game Commission. About ten years ago there was a survey done by volunteers across the state to see what birds were where. There were many surprises. In some locales where birds were thought not to be, there were observed to have adapted and are still living and breeding. It's been ten years and they are doing an update. So, it's a kind of fun thing to do.

Frustration

I could just scream. The carpel tunnel problem in my right wrist is showing it's ugly head for the first time in about three years. Too much typing at work. So, there's no knitting going on. Just ice, the wearing of the brace, and advil. I'll just sit here quietly and pet my cashmere scarf. sniff, sniff.