Rambling.

My hollyhocks are finally blooming (they don't bloom until the second year). They're very pretty, but unfortunately the plants also have hollyhock rust, as you can see. They're not blooming as much as they should, and some of the buds have fallen off before they even had the chance to bloom. I'm collecting and drying as many blooms as I can, hoping I'll have enough to do some natural dyeing with. The zinnias are also blooming, and they're basically the most adorable flowers ever. :)

This week I took in my sewing machine to be serviced. I've had it for nearly six years, and I've never had it serviced. (I know, I know...I'm really bad about things like that.) They already have lots of machines waiting for tune-ups, so they won't be able to get to mine for a couple of weeks.

Being without a reliable sewing machine makes me feel surprisingly uncomfortable. (I do have a vintage one, but I haven't done much sewing on it and it's probably also in need of servicing.) It's not like I've been using my machine a lot this year...my garment sewing in 2014 so far has consisted of: a t-shirt, a pajama t-shirt, an incredibly sloppy pair of pajama pants (which also happen to be exceptionally comfortable), and two skirts for someone else. But creativity comes at the most inconvenient of times...now that my sewing machine is unavailable, I'm suddenly struck with inspiration and I want to sew clothes for myself again. I need more knit shirts and some floral button-up shirts and a dress pattern that I really love and feel comfortable in. Well, at least I can be looking through my patterns and fabric and jotting down ideas while I wait to get my machine back.

I've been doing lots of knitting but I'm so far behind on getting photos of the finished items. I think I have about six items to get pictures of? Ugh. 90 degree weather does not motivate me to put on my warm woolen knits for pictures. I just need to get it over with, I guess...it's not like it's going to get any cooler!

And I think I'm going to be knitting another sweater soon. I just can't help myself...I ordered the yarn today. (Big surprise, I was sucked into the KnitPicks summer sale.) This one will be a shorter cardigan to wear over dresses, and I'm knitting it in black because that will match with most of my church clothes. But I hear that knitting with black yarn can be a pain, so I hope I don't regret it. :) I'm trying to be practical. I had some gorgeous blue yarn in my cart but I knew it wouldn't match with anything, so I switched it out. (I can always knit with that yarn later, after I sew something to wear with it.) I might wait about a month to cast on, because I'm hoping that Shannon will be hosting her summer sweater knit along again this year, and I'd like to participate.