all in a busy Saturday's work

this scarf has been completed in record time -- just about a week of working on it and it's on the towels being blocked

I really like the end panels and the center is a wonderful four row repeat that uses up very little yarn for the length you get from it

(and so simple I didn't have to constantly look at a chart to get it done)

yes, I could get to like this whole scarf thing


but in the meantime I have more mittnz to do (I'm working on mitten number 20 right now)

and there's an afghan in progress

and the annual Christmas knitting will be commencing shortly (there's that whole swatching thing that has to happen)

as I mentioned yesterday, the blue and gold beads are complete, but since I can't locate the item I wanted to use as the focal bead (I KNOW it's here -- SOMEWHERE!), I have started on the next project

I made some slight modifications in the pattern -- these are actually a bit shorter than the blue and gold ones

the silver looking beads are pewter -- I picked them up at the gem show we went to the first part of March

and unlike the gold beads, I can do all but the very last row of these without the magnifying glass since the beads have a bit more variation in color so they don't all just blend together
the fish part of this block is finally done -- complete with all of the gold cording around everything except the eye, and I stuffed behind that so it stands up away from the surface

the whole surface looks kind of "brocade-y"

the "sea weed" is just pinned on, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to actually stitch all of it down -- this may be too much

I think I'll start with the small pieces at the bottom first, and that may be the end of it

it's pretty exciting that this is coming together so well -- I should be able to start setting the whole quilt top together this week -- YEAH!

progress is being made on the trees and the sunflower too
and even though it is still cold enough that the furnace keeps coming on at night, it is warm enough to start little peat pots with some seeds

this tray will go out into the sunshine during the day and come inside at night (we think this will be a better plan than what we tried last year)

I used some miscellaneous craft wood to make little labels for each pot -- each one has the name of the plant and a color code (the color is a permanent marker, and it's just in case the lettering fades off before we get these into the garden)

so now I have all these little plants to keep an eye on -- pasilla peppers, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkins, baby blue hubbard and acorn squash -- and we hope that there won't be so much cool weather and so much hail this summer!