Yesterday was the Independence Day here in the USA. Fireworks are traditional; my neighborhood goes kind of overboard with the celebrating in that regard. Poor Hannah cowered under the bed and Mateo vanished for the three hours that skyrockets boomed directly overhead and showers of sparks glittered in the night. I finished up all the knitting on the Soldatna Crop, closed the gaps under the sleeves, and then wove in all of the ends. Towards midnight there was a huge thunderstorm that outboomed even the loudest of the skyrockets and I gently misted the sweater and steam blocked it into its final shape.
The Hannah savaged spot is just barely visible, but I am over it.
Do you see it now? The biggest damage is that some of the color has been removed in the fibers that were pulled off in the aggressive grooming Hannah incident. If I move fast, no one will ever notice it and I want to get on with the next knitting project because a new pattern appeared that I want to start right now!! It’s another little sweater by the same designer, Caitlin Hunter, called Alpine Bloom. I downloaded the image of the sweater so you can understand my urgent need: isn’t that the cutest ever? (sweater image is copyright of Caitlin Hunter)
I’m planning right now on doing the colorwork in the hot pink and I may slip in some flower details with the purple. I’ve been looking at other projects online and I actually like the ones that only use one color the best, so I may just stick with the hot pink. Check out the lace at the neckline and the sleeves: cute, cute, cute!! I need to get my needles switched over to this new project right this second, so the Soldotna is now declared done.
In other new, I actually saw a BUNNY in the front yard this week! It is an adult, and it came from across the street to hang out by my tree, but it made me really happy to see it. Stay away from the back yard, little guy!
Finally, how about an update on the roses? They are continuing to flourish and the new blooms are appearing daily. I did a count this week, and I actually have 34 plants right now. Obviously, I need to get another few to take it up to 40, right?
I do have room in the garden because not a single one of the really cute lavender plants that I put out last year came back. A couple of the well established English ones made it, but that was all. I did a little sleuthing on the internet to try to figure out what happened and quickly discovered that the Spanish lavender that I thought was so cute didn’t have a chance.
Yeah, if this plant struggles with temperatures below 10 degrees F, then the -24 degrees F that happened last year absolutely was too cold for it. Actually, it was a problem for most of the garden as I lost the part of the rose plants that were above the ground, but thankfully they all grew back from the roots okay in the spring and it really did help that we had a lot of rain.
Lesson learned.
More roses!!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
So pretty! And your needles haven’t even had time to cool before you’re chasing the next one. 🙂
Yep, gotta make it a nice round 40 bushes.
After all my angst about the colors and the misadventures that this sweater has had, I am so happy with it. I cast on the new one this evening…
Absolutely, there needs to be an even 40 bushes, right! I think that I need more red!
Oh, one of my knitting friends is reporting FIREFLIES in Greeley. Amazing! It must be all the rain. I so want a firefly in my backyard.
I haven’t seen any “lightning bugs” since I was a kid. Fond memories.
I grew up in Southern California and didn’t see one until I was in my 40s. Wow! Best thing ever!! It would be cool to have them in Colorado.
We’d catch a bunch of them, put them in jars with holes punched in the top, and set them on our bedside tables as “lanterns.”
1. Bloody brilliant !!
2. Anyone noticing that bit and not being knocked out by the skill and beauty of the whole jumper will not be anyone worth encouraging.
3. I’ll possibly grumpylise you by saying that imnsho the delightful pattern on Alpine Bloom is greatly enhanced by the yarn’s variegation .. No, I don’t know if that’s a word ..
4. Bunny sighting wonderful but worrying. That bitch next-door should not be allowed to affect her neighbours’ lives as she does.
5. Roses heavenly. Best flower in the world (even were it not half my moniker).
6. Take care – continue to take care, Marilyn ..
I decided that no one would really notice the Hannah spot (or it they did, they’d think it was a smudge of toothpaste or something…), so that was the end of fussing over it for me. I’m mulling over options for arm warmers with the left-over yarn. 🙂
2. The lady next door is really a piece of work, but she mostly doesn’t interact with anyone so it usually isn’t a problem. I realized this week that I haven’t seen my other neighbor’s cat for several days; I hope it is okay.
3. I usually would agree with you about using multi colored yarn, but I realized that the pattern is really interesting in that you see different patterns in the design as you look at it, and the color changes mask that. I am going to go with the one color for this one, but I can also do more than one, right? It will be fun!
4. I’m taking care!
Yer A Good Woman !!!
That is an excellent repair job – I am glad you are over it. Splendid roses and a surviving bunny who may produce some replacements
I’m heading off to the nursery today to find some more roses. 🙂 I mean, the bunnies need shade to snooze in the afternoons, right?
Right. Do you have Arthur Bell over there? A prolific scented yellow climber
There are very few climbers that are approved to grow in our climate, and Arthur Bell is not one of them.
That is a shame
That’s life a mile up in arid conditions and extreme temperature changes!
What a dramatic background to you finishing your knitting – fireworks and thunder! It looks really great, congratulations.
Oh, it was dramatic!! Everyone should order up fireworks and thunder when weaving in ends as it made it seem almost exciting. Thanks for the kind words. This sweater will be memorable for many reasons.
Very pretty Soldotna Crop. I love lavender, especially after making a lavender wreath a few weeks ago. Mine survived the artic blast last December so I want to plant more. Apparently English lavender is good for food/tea while French lavender, what I have, is good for scented items. I want to make more sachets to store with my yarn stash.
I love lavender so much!! I thought I was doing well with the planting last year, but the new ones all became victims of that artic blast. I’m betting that their roots weren’t deep enough. I now have a new plan if I can manage to find some more of the cute Spanish lavender… pots that can come indoors in the winter. I have an indoor garden with grow lights, and I think that it would totally like lavender over the winter! Like you, I want to put the dried blooms into the stash.
The finished sweater looks so good! And then next one is super pretty, too!
I started the new one Friday and I’m already really liking how the colors are working together. Yay! So far no ripping has occurred!
Awesome! I haven’t done many colorwork items that weren’t part of kits, so I’m still in awe of people who can pick good color combos the first time around. 🙂
Oh, lord. I still struggle with color choices, and then there was the whole Soldotna saga…
I do remember that saga. But it turned out great!
Your jumper looks great, I hope the rabbit is surviving your nasty neighbour.
That neighbor put her house on the market!!!!!!! I heard her telling someone that she was trying to get all the stuff off the grass so they wouldn’t walk on it, so I think that the bait is now gone. I do hope that the house sells quickly!!
That is good news and good riddance to them x
I practically cheered when I saw the sign!
Ooh I love both of your sweaters! And your roses,too!
They are so cute, aren’t they! I actually started looking for a cute charcoal blazer to wear along with the sweaters for nice occasions. They are going to be nice layering pieces and right now I can wear them on cool evenings.
Your Soldotna crop turned out beautiful! Your roses are gorgeous too 🙂 Yes, you definitely bring it up to 40 😉
It’s really hot today, but I’m still thinking that I should go buy a couple of roses at the garden center near me…
You definitely should!
I did! Writing the post now…