Spectra Spectacular

Madtosh Merino Light Forestry and  Noro Silk Garden Sock

 Well we might be a little late for the party, but we are all making up for it. Stephen West's pattern Spectra is causing a little bit of a knit frenzy amongst us.

Cathy is knitting one too. I am not sure what colour the Madelinetosh is but I am guessing Vermilion. It contrasts dramatically with the SG Sock. Stunning! I will have to do this combo too.  We both like strong bold colours ( in a very refined in your face kind of way).

Tianna is doing hers in Madtosh Calligraphy and Noro Silk Garden Sock. Lovely palette of golds greens and browns.

Sally's is finished and it is beautiful.

Brenda has chosen these colours. Very pretty!

nice nose

We all love Brenda!

Madtosh Twig and SGS

Rebecca/Becky chose some awesome colours, the pics don't do them any justice. This is going to look incredible when it is knit up . Rebecca is a fabulous knitter, check her projects out on Ravelry. Her nom de plume is Beckabee. I still have to get pictures of Maria's and Jane's Spectras. It truly is a lot of fun seeing all the different colour combinations knit up as you really don't know exactly how it is going to look.
 We are such a bunch of enablers. One great project and we are the knitting lemmings of the world. We just can't move fast enough to look at colours, talk and talk and compare and discuss perfect colour combos, and  finally finally decide (well maybe, what do you think, I like yours do you think this is ok?) on the perfect match. Next get our patterns and needles (which ones what length which ones do you like), and off we go-straight off the knitting cliff! Fortunately no one has been injured  yet (to my knowledge)  in the general stampede. It is such a blast! So much fun!
  I am knitting this scarf with a set of Cubics needles-well come to think of it we all are now. Colleen, a member of our group who has RA, absolutely raved about them. I tried them and I really really like them. Who knew a cubic needle would a) be invented and b) be so great!. They are nice and light and really comfortable to knit with. Life is full of surprises.

What's that bright shining orb in the sky?

Armenian Cornflowers

 Today the sun came out in its full glory! I know for many millions of people who are suffering through a terrible heat wave in the States and in eastern Canada this is complete crazy talk.I can't imagine how hard it it is to suffer through such heat without any power and even with power come to think of it. Let's hope some of our cool wet weather will travel across the continent. We have had a very cool, extremely wet June
  I love this plant, the blooms look like giant yellow thistles-bees love it too.

Everything is growing well but I have noticed my perennials aren't nearly as large or as tall as they usually are, due to the lack of sunlight I guess. As we usually have such a hot dry spring and summer most of my plants are more drought tolerant.

Moonshine Yarrow, Fleabane, Shasta Daisies

I started digging up the front yard a few years ago. I do love flowers.

This year I haven't done much gardening, for several reasons. I didn't plant any zinnias which are my favourite. Sigh. However in the grand scheme of things its no biggie,

Linen-Linen Project Bag

 There has been some scattered knitting though. Sounds like a weird weather forecast . On Thursday morning there will be mixed knitting conditions for Kelowna . Expect bright sunny spots of clear and calm contented knitting punctuated with occasional outbursts of loud grumbling noises and torrents of ripped out rows. Favourable conditions are expected to prevail for the rest of the afternoon. Okay okay enough.
 I started this little project today and I really like it. It is the Linen-linen project bag, a freebie on the Churchmouse website. The pattern calls for a Rowan yarn, which I don't have. I am using Nashua Creative Linen, in the Faded Lime and Bright Pink colourways. I really like the look of this bag. It can be used for a knitting project or for anything else really, Great gifty idea too. The only mod I have made so far was to cast on 50 stitches. This allowed me to get a finished width of 10 inches. It is knit using the linen stitch which is aptly named and is actually quite fun to knit. I seem to be knitting (and ahem buying) a lot of pink yarn this year. Judith says it is the colour of healing, I thought that was quite interesting. I just love cheerful bright colours!

False Sunflowers