Just for the Huck of It

This guy's going to Cindy's for a fried chicken dinner.  Yum!

Now that I have your attention with the pineapple upside down cake--no drooling on the keyboard, please!--I will explain my title.  As related last week, I was about to start working on Big Bertha, truly another set of B words.  My, she is large!  But my first project seems much smaller.  Seems, I say because I chose some Huck lace napkins from May/June 2011 Handwoven, Dotted Swiss Huck Lace.  They're so pretty!  And the thread is quite fine, 20/3.  It takes 551 threads for a measly 12 1/2" napkin!  Wooooo!  I wound half of the threads yesterday.  I need to move 200 heddles onto shaft one next week because the half of the design comes from shaft one.  Should be interesting!

  And on the home front, I cut off the first lace panel, destined for the front door, and began rethreading for the two side windows.  I chose the Huck Lace Sampler from the Weaver's book on huck lace, with the lace border treadling.  But it won't be a border; it'll be an all-over design.  If I like it, that is.

I've been knitting a lot, too.  These socks are for me, and I could have used them today.  I can't seem to get warm!  They also have lace in them, between the cables, but it's more of the yarn over, knit two together variety.

It's been too wet today to garden, but the front yard is coming along nicely without my help.  My azaleas are nowhere near as gorgeous as Carol's, but I do like the color.  They have some health problems, which means they'll get pruned as soon as they've finished blooming.  The climbing hydrangeas on either side of them are flourishing, but have no flower buds yet.  I wonder how many years before they start to flower?

  The beds on either side of the front walk are popping out with all kinds of color.  Well, mostly pink and purple, but still nice.  The sweet william seeds I planted last year have take off and are lovely.  Lantana isn't supposed to be perennial, but the pink ones from last year didn't get that memo.  A lot of flowers have yet to bloom but are getting ready.  I learn more about gardening in the south every year, and believe me, it's quite different from the desert southwest!  

So, I hope you'll follow me along with my obsession with huck lace!  It's the current bright shiny thing in my studio.  We'll see how long it takes for me to be over it!

Happy weaving!

Maggie