A Shortie

I love this Diamond Rain Pattern and have wanted to make it for a long time. So, here I am making it for my little cousin Isabella in Detroit.

The pattern photo of the vest is adorable. The pattern looks pretty standard but I think the vest is more on the petite size. I was reading Ravelry notes from the Diamond Rain project pages and the consensus seems to be that the vest runs short. In fact way too short.

A good majority of knitters either found the vest too cropped after completion; a good deal of knitters who viewed those notes then lengthened the vest in one way or another.

Yarn Harlot chose to add one repeat of the diamonds. Many others added an inch or two to the ribbing. I may do both. I want to add one diamond repeat and one extra inch to the ribbing. When I make the vest for myself, I will do the same.

Again, this is the Lion Brand Wool-Ease in the Rose Heather. This photo shows the color more accurately. Pink is Isabella's favorite color.

The Case Of The Woman Who Would Not Listen

Here are some of the wildflowers I picked the other day.

Forgive the wilted rose in the back.

It's my first flower from Mr. W. and I can't make myself throw it away yet.

I love flowers, particularly wildflowers. Or pretty weeds even. I love driving through the country and pulling over just to pick a few flowers. I will go into the backyard and pick buttery colored dandelions and bunch them together with fuschia roses and white daisies. I have a knack for really beautiful arrangements.

A couple of weeks ago the lot in back of my house had small Shasta looking dasies that seemed to have bloomed all at once and all over. It was as if I was on a free flower shopping spree ! I had a bunch of dasies on the kitchen counter, the cocktail table, the dining table and the kitchen table.

When Mr. Willy found out I'd gotten them from out back he told me not to go back there again because of all of the poison ivy. Yes, I'd seen the poison ivy. I had it in my yarn up in Michigan. I know poison ivy very well. Okay, I said. I'll be careful.

I had pretty much picked every blooming thing from out back so I began to pick wildflowers off the side of the roads. My daughter and Mr. Willie said that was no good either because of the snakes. I scoffed at them, that is, until Mr. Willie had the episode with his own rattlesnake. Okay, I get it.

Yesterday morning I went out for my walk which takes me out of the neighborhood and onto a busy backroad. When I say backroad, I mean backroad. I'm walking past cattle and barns. I noticed some fluffy white flowers (probably weeds) on the other side of the road and made a mental note to get enough for my small vase at home.

I broke off a couple of the stems which shook the plant and about three wasps flew at me. I am not a person that will harm themselves getting away from a bug but I did have to back into the road to get away from them. I think they were actually going to hurt me. I walked back up to get more flowers/weeds and stepped a little further into the red clay. I was pleased and had just enough blooms for my little vase when my ankles and calves began stinging and I mean bad. I looked down to see that I was standing directly in a fire ant colony.

I quickly brushed them off of my legs and stomped my feet to get them off of my shoes. I knew from an experience a couple of years ago that I should not take off my shoes but instead I dug down and smashed the ants that were heading downward. All was well.

When I got home, my daughter asked, "How was your walk? I see you got more flowers." As I headed into my bathroom for peroxide, cortizone and Benydryl I answered "Oh, it was fine, just fine."