Summer doings

Well, hasn't it been summer, though!  We have had a spell of hot and humid, and before that it was very dry, which has made it a very summery summer.  Thankfully today is cooler with a bit of badly needed rain.
It sure is a busy time around here.  The garden is beginning to produce with a vengeance.  I have already frozen many beans, blueberries and raspberries.  Made raspberry jam.  Every night at supper we have something fresh from the garden.  It is such a great feeling to just walk down, pick something, than come back to the house and cook it!
And I am cooking it on my new stove.  The old oven just upped and quit a few weeks ago.  As it was about 13 years old, and had been repaired twice, we decided to get a new one.  I love, love, love the new one!!!  It is a Frigidare with convection oven and a 5th burner in the middle that is for a griddle (that comes with it).  I can't wait until canning time as I think that it is going to be so much easier on this stove top--the other one had pot issues, as the canner didn't fit on the grates very well.
The excitement for last evening was the first of the honey extractions.  Jeff uncapped and spun out 9 frames.  It went quite well.  I even got a chance to spin it.

Uncapping the comb

The extractor holds 4 frames

Spinning the honey out

Now the extractor is sitting in the bathroom waiting for a sunny day.  The warm day will make the metal heat up, which in turn will make the last of the honey on the walls run down to the base.  Then we can bottle it up.  He got some nice jars and pretty labels to go on them.  Yum Yum!!
There were two baby events that needed knitting for.  I adapted a pattern for the first one, using the Garden Trellis Dress pattern from the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book.

For Sophia's sister

I then decided that I liked the shape of this little dress and used the basic premise of the pattern to make a second dress for a little four month old who had surgery recently.

Adaptation

The shawl is finished, is being blocked, and when dry I will take a photo so you can see it completed.  I am very happy with it.  Now I am on fire to do a little gift weaving.  The first project is going to be made of cotton and is not handspun at all, which is exciting me, as it will have 20 epi, a doubling of warp compared to my latest weavings.   I hope to get the cones tomorrow.  It is for a wedding shower.  The second bit will be the wedding present.  That will be a throw with my handspun as warp and a beautiful royal blue chenille as the weft.  Meanwhile, we will be hosting the shower here, so I have had to really work on the flower beds to spiff them up.  Like I said, it's a busy time!