Let the bidding begin

Hello Friends,

I've finished the Foliage Hat for September's "Knitting for a Cause" auction on my blog. I'm so pleased with the results that I have started another Foliage hat with some more yarn from Don -- Jo Sharp's Silkroad Tweed (85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere) in a really nice color called "Wintergreen." Anyway, I'm digressing here, so let's get back to the auction hat. Below is a view of the entire hat (laying flat) so you get an idea of how the stitch pattern looks. Yes, there are holes in it, but they aren't very big and I imagine it would be warm unless you're a person with no hair at all or you're standing outside in a stiff winter wind.

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Measurement flat is about 9.5" (so the hat is at least 19" around)

Here's what the hat looks like on me. Since I like a hat that covers ALL of my ears, I added one more pattern repeat than the pattern listed, so you can see that this hat comes down over my ears and forehead quite nicely. I have a medium sized head and I think this hat fits just fine! (BTW, my head got pretty warm during the 5 minutes or so while I was attempting this photo shoot in the bathroom mirror.)If you're interested in bidding on this hat to help Kristy deliver hand-knitted hats to orphans in the Ukraine, you can leave a bid in my comments section or if you're uncomfortable with that, send your bid to me in an e-mail (rjknits at msn dot com). I will leave the bidding open until next Wednesday (September 10th) at 8:00 PM (CDT). I would like to have the bidding start at $10 and see how things go from there. I'm going to be interested in seeing how this turns out and I hope to get bids from lots of folks--not just my regular commenters but also those people who regularly read my blog, but have never left a comment.......I know you're out there! I would love to send this hat to someone who will enjoy it for themself or give it as a gift to a loved one or special friend. Hat season is not that far away.......

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Since I was washing and blocking my Foliage hat, I decided to do the same for a couple other projects I've finished in the past couple weeks. Shown below is a neck warmer. This yarn is 100% alpaca and hand-dyed. I found it on sale at Ram Wools a couple months ago. They had all kinds of different colorways and I think I bought 9 or 10 different colors. They're 50 gram balls and it was just enough yardage for knitting this neckwarmer (they're nice for keeping your neck warm in the winter--especially if you don't want the bulk or long tails of a scarf around your neck).
I also had a red shawl to show you, but the pictures of it lying flat on the bed just didn't do it justice, so I'll have to enlist Mr. Johnson's assistance and try to get some photos of me modeling the shawl. I think you'll like that one and it would also be a good item to auction on my blog for an upcoming worthy cause.

Almost Done!

With Miss Penny's assistance, I'm making lightning fast progress on the Foliage Hat for auction! This is a fun pattern and I can't recall that I've ever knit a hat from the top down, but it's working out very well. The plan is to get it finished tonight and then wash and block it tomorrow (to get those rumples out). After I post some good photos of the completed hat, bidding will begin on Friday!

If you're new to this blog or just missed the original announcement and wonder what's going on here, please click on this link to find out more about the upcoming auction.

I Have An Announcement

Remember all that yarn my dear friend Don gave me a few weeks ago? Well, this afternoon I had a brainstorm....... How about knitting some items that I can auction on my blog with the proceeds going to worthy causes! You know like The Raptor Center, The Nature Conservancy, the McCain Presidential campaign (oh sorry, I didn't mean that, just checking to see if you were paying attention!)

My plan is to knit one item for auction each month, I'll tell you what worthy cause we're going to support each month and then keep you posted from start to finish of the project. While I'm knitting, you can dream about how much you'll love your new hand-knitted hat/socks/mitts/shawl/whatever that arrives at your house when you make the winning bid!

Take a look at this lovely ball of 100% handspun and hand-dyed wool in really nice shades of gold.

Now envision how this yarn will look once it's knitted into a "Foliage Hat" shown below. Foliage Hat - designed by Emilee Mooney (free pattern can be found at Knitting Pattern Central)

This month, the worthy cause I have selected as the beneficiary will be Kristy's Hat Quest (click on the link to learn more). Here's a picture from her blog showing some of the children at one of the orphanage facilities in Rivne.

Kristy's original goal (back in May) was to deliver 300 hats to the orphans, but she has already received 688 hand-knitted hats that she will be taking to the Ukraine later this month. What an overwhelming response! In addition to hats, people also knitted and sent her mittens, socks, and scarves. Now her concern is how much it's going to cost to ship the huge suitcases of all these knitted things over to the Ukraine. And that's where this blog comes in. Whatever amount I raise from the auction of the hand-knitted hat shown above, I will be sending to Kristy to help defray her expenses. So stay tuned, think about how that Foliage Hat will work for you or as a gift for someone special, and get ready to bid later this week. (I'm starting the hat after supper tonight and you all know I'm a pretty fast knitter!)

Welcome September

Wasn't it great to have a 3-day weekend? I was so happy to just stay at home for the majority of each day and have the chance to watch out my windows and see what was going on with birds in my backyard. I glanced out the kitchen window on Saturday morning and saw this:

What the heck is that? I thought to myself, because my mind was telling me it wasn't a bunny just laying in the grass. So I grabbed the binoculars for a better look....... Holy Cow! It's the Cooper's Hawk! Have you ever seen them just laying in the grass like this before?

I wondered if it was injured or maybe was sitting on top of something it had killed, but when I tried to open the window to get a better picture, it heard me and flew right away. I will turn this unusual hawk behavior over to Susan, the raptor expert and see if she has any insight on what this hawk was doing.

Here's what I think is the same hawk cooling off its toes and tail feathers in one of the birdbaths also outside my kitchen window. While the depth of water in this almost empty birdbath is ideal for chipping sparrows and house finches, it's quite inadequate for a Coop, although it appears he/she was trying to make the most of the resources available. This picture is a little clearer than the ones above that I had to take through the kitchen window....for this picture, I was able to crawl out onto the deck and snap the photo using the side of the house as a blind. The deck is not very hospitable for crawling on bare knees, but I was happy this picture turned out great on the first try because the Cooper's Hawk eyesight saw me after about 3 seconds.....bye-bye!

We enjoyed summer-like temps (with highs in the 80's) for the entire weekend. However, a front is coming through tomorrow and will bring us some rain and then, finally, some lower temperatures (daytime highs in the low 70's and down in the 40's at night). Hooray! Welcome September!

Trail Camera Check

We went out to the woods tonight again to check and move the trail cameras. In an effort to boost deer activity near the cameras, Mr. Johnson also sprayed some of the magic "C'Mere Deer" elixir on the ground and nearby vegetation. That stuff is irresistible to deer so we had quite a few more pictures of deer than last week (like this doe and her 2 fawns).

And this is the first buck we've gotten a picture of for 2008. His antlers are still covered in velvet.

We hiked down into the woods to check the StealthCam. After the warm weather and a little rain we had earlier in the week, the vegetation is still very thick and the woods are still looking very summer-like.

Due to a battery malfunction, there weren't any pictures from the StealthCam. We moved both of the cameras to new locations and set up a "mock scrape" with the doe pee scent dripper in front of one of the cameras. We'll go back on Monday for another check and maybe I'll have some new pictures to share with you then.

We saw plenty of other interesting things on our hike in and out of the woods. Do you know what bird this feather is from?

Here's an example of the damage hungry raccoons can do to a farmer's corn crop. This is just a small area but last year this farmer lost almost the first 8 perimeter rows of corn along the edge of the woods due to raccoons and deer. At $8/bushel, you can see why most farmers around here are usually pretty willing to let people deer hunt on their property.

I was happy about the good deer pictures we got on our camera, but while we were setting up the camera in a new location, I was even more excited about a pair of barred owls "hootin' it up" in the woods nearby. Turn up the volume for this short video clip.

Mr. Opportunity

As I was walking past the dining room window, I had to look twice at something in the birdfeeder hanging outside because that sure didn't look like a sparrow or house finch..........


Forget that little cartoon dude on TV.......here's the real Mr. Opportunity!

How do they manage to stuff that much seed into their cheeks without hurting themselves?

No wonder this feeder got emptied out so fast! How do you think he got up there? Climbed from the pole holding the feeder? Dropped down from a tree branch? This is the same little chipmunk I usually see on the deck, so he must have cleaned out that feeder tray and discovered this tube feeder with a convenient seed catch tray for the optimal dining opportunity.

What I've been up to......

I've got so many things going on right now and, as usual, time on the computer is coming in at last place, but just so you know I'm not neglecting my blog completely, here's a look at some of my recently completed knitting projects for August.

In the photo below are some of the items I'll be donating for the flood victims in Iowa. I have some other scarves and hats and an afghan downstairs, plus one more mitten to complete a pair, but these are the items I made earlier this month (and used up 8 balls of yarn!)

My SIL in California had a birthday yesterday. These are the socks I knitted for her. Even though it's a lot warmer in California in the wintertime than here in Minnesota, their family sometimes heads to the mountains for winter activities and these socks should keep her feet warm inside her boots.

My great-nephew has his first birthday celebration this weekend. Since his mom is a Minnesota Vikings fan, I thought it would be fun to knit him a little Vikings colored sweater. I even managed to find the cutest little football buttons (click to enlarge)

I made this sweater using the "Sweater Wheel" pattern that was given to me by a woman at work who bought a couple of these, but then decided she was never going to take the time to knit any sweaters from them.
It's a pretty neat concept.....on one side are all the kids sizes and the other side is adult sizes. You simply place the arrow from the "Start Here" section on the size of sweater you want to make. Magically, all aspects (stitches to cast on for whatever weight of yarn you're using, inches of ribbing and body length, shaping and bind offs, etc.) of your pattern appear in the cutout under the arrow. You start with the back, the proceed to the front, and lastly you're directed to the sleeves. Thankfully I'm an experienced knitter, I don't think I'd want to try this as a knitting novice--at least not without someone nearby who could answer all my questions about what to do next.

The southward migration of summer birds has also started here in Minnesota. We have quite a few (at least for me) hummingbirds hanging around here right now--I've seen as many as 6 at a time. After I finish supper and the dishes in the evening, I head out to the deck with my little hand-held hummingbird feeder and spend at least an hour with the hummingbirds coming to eat from my hand. It's such an amazing experience for me to have them sitting so close I practically have to watch them through my bifocals. They are just the coolest little birds and I'm going to take advantage of their thirst for nectar and natural fearlessness for as many evenings as I can before they depart for Mexico in a couple weeks.

P.S. It sounds like a lot of people are going to be taking time off work on Friday, so my plan is to get as caught up as I can tomorrow so I have a chance for more "creative use" of my computer time on Friday, if you know what I mean.......

Backyard Butterfly

I know not all of you are experiencing ideal weather right now, but here in Minnesota, we're having the most beautiful weekend of the summer. It's the memories of days like this that sustain us through January and February but unfortunately there are too few of them each year. It's tough to cram everything you want to do outside into your waking hours and I truly resent the fact that I'll have to go back to work tomorrow because I don't have anymore paid time off left and can't afford to just play hooky. (sigh) OK, well this pity party's over and I'll get on with my story.

I took Sophie out for walk in the backyard this morning to see if there was anything blogworthy going on and I spotted this pretty tiger swallowtail flitting around in the wildflower garden. I decided to wade into the sea of purple coneflowers in an attempt to get some photos. First I tried it on "zoom." Close, but not good enough yet.......

Maybe I can sneak up on it.......and then again, maybe not!

Ah, that's better!

Isn't he handsome?

And my patience finally paid off when he landed on a coneflower not 3 feet away from me and actually sat there long enough for me to film this little video. I was so delighted to see that you could actually watch the butterfly probing for nectar with his long proboscis.

This isn't a swallowtail, but because Sophie isn't scared by the camera when she's outside, I was able to take her picture while she got a drink at this "multipurpose" birdbath.

P.S. And on the excellent advice from Larry at the Brownstone Birding Blog, I now know how to post my photos in Blogger so if you click on the picture, you can see a REALLY BIG version of it in a new window. Thanks Larry!

Whooping Crane Festival

Has anybody made plans for the 3rd weekend in September yet? Here's an idea.......meet me and my sissy at the Whooping Crane Festival in Necedah, Wisconsin! Click on this link for more information. We'll meetcha there!

Trail Camera Pics

For the first time ever, all the treestands are in place and we're ready for the bowhunting opener a month in advance! A couple Saturdays ago, we took both of the trail cameras out to the woods and set them up in what we hope are strategic locations near the deer stands. Mr. Johnson's plan is to move them every week or so in an effort to see what kind of deer movement there is in each area and that will give us an idea of which stands are going to be most productive in the early season.

After supper tonight, we went down to check on the cameras and swap out the picture disks. We have viewers for both of the trail cameras, but that little 2-inch screen doesn't show much, so we have to wait till we get home and look at them on the computer screen (assisted by some Photoshop enhancements). Here are some pictures we got in the last week:

These first two are from the Leaf River camera. We've got it on a tree next to the deer trail that comes into the woods from the cornfield.

See how gray this one's fur has gotten already?

These next pictures are from the StealthCam. This camera is much farther down in the woods and placed on a tree near a confluence of several deer trails.

Even though I've got the flash set to "auto" for whatever reason it sometimes goes off in the daylight too (that's what happened when this deer walked right in front of the camera).
This picture was really dark and when I first looked at it, I couldn't see anything at all until I compared it to another nighttime picture on the disk. I finally saw what triggered the camera but only after enlarging the photo to about 125%. Can you see them? (look right in the center of the picture....)
Remember when I was first testing this camera in the backyard and I was worried that it didn't seem to be sensing bunnies--even though it had an infrared sensor in addition to motion detection? I thought maybe the bunnies were too small. But here's the proof that this camera even senses the small critters (this is what was in the photo above that activated the camera):When I was looking at the photo, it was the striped tails that caught my eye!

Purple Coneflowers & More

I've noticed that some other bloggers have been talking about their purple coneflowers, so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth also with some pictures from my wildflower patch.

I love these purple coneflowers and so do the butterflies. I started this wildflower garden probably 13 years ago with a few packets of wildflower seeds. The problem with some of those packets is that some of the flowers are only annuals and obviously not suited to surviving Minnesota winters, so after a few years only the hardiest of these wildflowers are still brightening up my backyard. For the first few years, I added some more packets of different flowers and even some plants from pots as I expanded this wildflower garden.

In previous comments, some people asked whether I weed this garden. When I first started it, I weeded it a little bit, but as you can see from the photo above, there's no need for weeding anymore! And the flowers are so tall and those flower centers are so prickly that it would actually be hazardous to try and bend down into them anymore. Sometimes in the spring I will burn off portions, but I always worry about little critters that might be living in the duff below the flowers, so I don't even do that regularly.

Now it's dominated by purple coneflowers, prairie coneflowers, and brown-eyed Susans. Also doing well is Joe-Pye weed, Queen Anne's Lace and Canada Goldenrod. I have a couple of Evening Primroses blooming this year and a couple years ago I had one plant of Rough Blazing Star that the Monarch butterflies absolutely adored.

That plant never came back but it's on my wish list for plants I still want to add to this garden.

Once fall gets closer and the coneflowers have finished blooming for the summer, the asters will take over and those really attract the butterflies! I have pink, purple and white and I'll try to remember and do a post (with pictures) once they start blooming in September.

I took some pictures the other day just to show you the variety of sizes, colors, and shapes of the purple coneflowers in my backyard.

There are tiny ones

And HUGE ones

Some have a classic "daisy" appearance

While others have droopier petals

Here are some with flat centers and cone-shaped centers

I even have one sort of pathetic white coneflower! I think the poor thing is overwhelmed by all the purple coneflowers, but it always produces a few blooms every year.

While I was out photographing coneflowers, I happened to notice this Eastern Forktail (male). What a cool little damselfly! See the green stripes on his sides and shoulders? And you can't really tell from this photo, but that blue spot on the end of his tail was glowing like a bright blue LED in the sunlight.

My dragonfly field guide tells me these are most commonly found at "small, well-vegetated ponds," so I was delighted to see find this little guy visiting my wildflowers.

P.S. Three more monarchs hatched in the "ranch" today! I'm so glad I have all these wildflowers as a perfect spot to release these monarchs for starting their new life.

P.P.S. If any of you are interested in seeds from some of my flowers, please send me an e-mail (address on my profile page) and let me know your mailing address. I will also have lots of common milkweed seeds again this year and would be more than happy to send you seeds from any of the plants mentioned in this post.

51 Years!

1957-2008

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

A Miracle in My Kitchen

When we got home from work Friday afternoon, I found the miracle of a newly-hatched monarch butterfly in my monarch ranch.

After locating my tags and tracking worksheet, I stuck a tag on this male's left hindwing and placed him outside on some brown-eyed Susans. He spent some time there getting used to the "real world" and when I checked back in about 10 minutes, he was gone.

There are still 8 more monarchs in the ranch to hatch. All of these were raised from eggs except #1 which was a full grown caterpillar I found out in the wildflower garden.

I'm always hesitant about choosing full-grown caterpillars from outside because of the possibility of parasitic flies or wasps that may have laid an egg in the caterpillar (remember that previous disappointment I posted on the swallowtail cocoon?) But this time, I think all is well with this monarch cocoon.

Here's a close-up of cocoon #1: Isn't it cool how you can see the veins of the butterfly's wings?

The empty cocoon to the right of this one is from the butterfly that just hatched.

I think it's just so miraculous that a caterpillar can change into a butterfly in only 2 weeks and that it all happens inside this tiny cocoon.

I love this time of year--there are butterflies everywhere right now! While I was mowing lawn this afternoon, I saw quite a few monarchs, cabbage whites, tiger swallowtails and even a few giant swallowtails. That was pretty cool!

Knitting Update

I haven't posted anything knitting related lately, so here is your recommended daily allowance of "Fiber!"

I finished up my tenth hat for Kristy's Hat Quest and got them mailed off to her a couple weels ago. (you will count 15 hats here--5 are 'bonus' hats that I had completed prior to this project and stashed away in the yarn cupboard)

Kristy's received over 300 hand-knitted hats that she will be distributing to orphans in the Ukraine on her trip there in October. What a neat project. Thanks Kristy for taking on this challenge.

I'm still working on some knitting projects for the flood victims in Iowa. These don't have to be done until November 1st and I'm thinking about actually delivering them in person to Carol Anderson (a knitting pattern author and coordinator of this project) as she lives about an hour away in St. Ansgar, Iowa. I will post pictures of these projects once they're finished.

Last week I got a call from my friend Don who's enjoying a "staycation" this week and working on some major room rearrangements at his house. Because he was trying to free up more space for other projects he wants to work on, he decided it was time to get rid of some yarn. Now Don is one of the most fantastic knitters I have the privilege to know and he's always buying more yarn (like me, he would have to live to be at least 200 years old to complete all the projects he's got patterns and yarn for). Fortunately for me, when Don decides to "get rid" of some of his yarn stash, he calls me and I got the phone call at work today saying he had some yarn sorted out for me and I'd probably want to bring the truck by to pick it up!

I'm always inspired after visiting Don and seeing what projects he's working on and today was no exception. Two hours later, here's what Don sent me home with--a few boxes (every one of these boxes is stuffed with yarn!)

Here's a sampling from one box

Here's another afghan project Don started a few years ago and never finished. I will enjoy the challenge of getting these squares done and learning some new knitting stitches. Plus this will make a fabulous afghan to donate somewhere for a silent or live auction fundraiser.

But wait......there's more! When Don ran out of boxes, he started filling bags with yarn! I tell you--he wasn't kidding about bringing the truck! The trunk, back seat, and front seat were all full by the time I was ready to go home.

Here's a sampling of some of the pretty yarn in the bags:

The autumn colored item in the right side of this bag is a partially completed prayer shawl. That will be a great item to complete and give to someone special.

Here are just a couple of balls of some really nice yarn in one of the bags too--it's a blend of merino wool, silk and cashmere. I wish you could feel it--it's so soft. I think it will knit up into really wonderful hats or scarves.

There's no way I can ever re-pay Don for this yarn (worth hundreds of dollars!), but he is so generous and he knows that I will give this yarn a good home and be using the majority of it for projects that will be donated--either to folks in need or as fundraisers for non-profit groups. In exchange for all this yarn, I gave him some fresh veggies from the garden, plus the orange bag (labeled "4") in the picture above contains a vest Don started knitting for himself that I will finish knitting for him (hopefully by winter).

So if you don't see any posts from me for a while, you'll know that I'm busily knitting away (so I don't have to figure out where I'm going to store all this yarn in my house!)