Hydrangea Heaven

This year has been a good year for my hydrangeas. Hydrangeas are one of my very favorite shrubs - easy to grow, great garden color from late spring through early winter, long-lasting blooms - what more can you ask from a flowering shrub? I have 3 varieties in my front gardens: Oakleaf, Limelight, and Annabelle. I would have more, except they would have to go into the back gardens, where they would become deer candy, which would break my heart and cause me to put out a contract on Bambi & co.


These were planted last June, right after we moved into the new house. They bloomed much heavier than I expected and I was able to dry a bunch of them to bring to my new neighbors as they moved in. This year, I've harvested a huge bunch which I've started drying out on the porch. As soon as they're done, I may do another batch since they are still out there in abundance. This way, I'll have flowers all over the house throughout the winter as well as few small bunches to share.






I also found out how to block the silk scarf I recently finished knitting. It was much less complicated than I thought it was going to be. Here's how I did it:






I used my cutting board as it has a grid. I pinned the scarf all around with stainless steel T-pins. Then I spritzed it with room-temperature distilled water and am leaving it to dry overnight.





I also found the yarn I will be using for the Funky Scarf swap. It's Shaefer (a merino with a touch of nylon), hand-dyed in the "Rosa Parks" colorway. It is very cushy and I can't wait to start it. One of the gals at the lys helped me select a pattern that won't be too challenging for my limited attention span yet is quite funky. Hope my FSpal likes it.






Finally, I cast on and completed 6 rows of the grey "Urban Camo" scarf, which is similar to the dark green "Urban Camo" scarf I had completed for my brother and then frogged because it ended up too short:(:(:( I am using a different variation of the placement of the colors which I think I like better. I'll get back to my brother's scarf at some point since I don't need it until Christmas and need this grey one before then. I want to do a few rows of the second color and will then post a picture of the WIP.



And now, it is time to gather up sleepy kittens and puppies and go to bed because we have lots of cleaning to do tomorrow in order to be ready for C's aunt who is coming to visit for a few days. There are LOTS & LOTS of dust bunnies to round up, so must...get...sleep...