SUNDAY KNITTING & GARDENING

Something new to work on -

Because it's always satisfying to use up old Debbie Bliss cashmerino!  My color combination reminds me of the creamsicles that we used to crave -  those childhood memories of the ice cream truck chug-chugging up the hill with its infectious melody breaking the summer afternoon silence.   Mothers would groan and reach for their change purses.  Do you remember change purses?

Another view with a complimentary cotton dot ...

I've had somewhat of a traumatic weekend.  Traumatic in the garden sense ... the resident groundhog and her two babies dug under my fence and helped themselves to ALL of my swiss chard, my beautiful romaine (5 heads) and every bit of parsley in the garden.  I've tried every single thing that I can think of to persuade them to move off.  They aren't prepared to go anywhere when Le Cirque dining is in front of them - for the digging.  I spent most of the afternoon in the vegetable garden waving my arms and cursing and weeding.  Oye. 

How about that for greed?  And just look what they did to this beautiful head of romaine;

 It was a treat then, to come indoors and work on the little creamsicle sweater for a bit.  And my BFF is coming over to get her birthday cake and gift - which is wonderful.  I made a banana chiffon pound cake ...

It was dusted with confectionary sugar shortly after this image was taken, and it was quite delicious!  I made a sweet little patchwork bath mat for my friend which was tied and backed with a nice absorbent terry cloth,

and she seemed to like it a lot.  it will look nice draped over her tub - a little patchwork always makes for a smile. I am getting back into the swing of sewing again.  My daughter will like one of these mats in naturals with salmon accents and I favor something in teal and purple and cream.  NICE!  My Bernina is back from the shop all clean and oiled and ready to go!  I'm not ready to put the old Record away yet.  It's been fun getting reacquainted and now I think that I'll need both machines out and at the ready!


Because I am worried about what tomorrow may bring - what, with the hungry groundhog family afoot, I MUST add a few images of the garden taken just this evening, in the rain.  It could be a memory by morning!

The garden shepherd ... rain doesn't bother this boy.  He had a grooming this week - isn't he pretty?

It has been a most delightful endeavor ... hopefully, it will be intact, come morning!  From my mouth to God's ears

'Who plants a seed beneath the sod
and waits to see
Believes in God'
- anonymous

Walkway over the Hudson on a clear day, to the north: Albany

To the south - Manhattan

Down the middle -

A perfect ending to a good day.  We live in a place of beauty and we appreciate these moments.

What I find most interesting is this curious fact - I am one who can be undone by height.  It's a phobia that runs strong and deep - and travels back to childhood.  When my son and his girlfriend asked me to walk the bridge, I hesitated.  The first time I walked this bridge, fog blanketed the entire length and stay of our outing.  There was no fear, as I could not see the water.  But on this clear bright evening, nothing is left to the imagination... it is a tremendous height from bridge to water.  My legs were rubbery.  I fixed my sights on these young people, laughing, alive, completely in the moment.  Unafraid.  


I relaxed and the fear slipped away.  So much gratitude have I, to have NOT declined, to have gone along and enjoyed these moments, to have established this potent memory.  Many thanks to Andrew and Merilee...

On the fiber front - I went to JoAnn today - my LEAST favorite place, for some embroidery floss.  Look what I found:

Cherries.  Orange polka dots. Heaven.  There are two little girls in my life that need summer tops.  I think that I made good selections - really, how can one ever go wrong when cherries are involved?


And lastly, my New Dawn rose is chumming it up with her perennial boyfriend - the clematis that needs no introduction - I mean really, aren't these two made for one another?  Summer romance - so sweet, so fleeting!

MOTHER NATURE, WHAT GIVES?

She's off on a tangent - hurling humidity, flash floods and the threat of a tornado these past few days.  Mother!  This is northeastern New York, for jeepers sake - not the midwest!  How am I supposed to get my June gardening done when you drench my beds one moment and racquet up the temperatures to near-Hades levels the next?   Your behavior is annoying to me, it makes me think that I might have to resort to some of the H word  ...  dreaded housework, ugh.  Or, I could pull out those promised images of my book-making efforts.

This is my first book, made of fiber.  I've started another since, but like many original efforts, this one owns my heart.

It consists of perhaps eight double-sided pages which have been encased as one would a quilt - with batting and assorted fabric treatments.  Each page offers a little life 'lesson', such as:

That's a good one, yes?

Eat Good Food.  Your mother always tried to teach you how important this was - you probably didn't catch on until you had your own children!  I used to make my babies their first foods - I was particularly proud of my pureed chicken!  (and they smacked their lips and never spit it out!)  It was really good.

I loved beading these pages and scrounging through my 'stuff' for paper beads and wires and stamps and whatnot.

Sorry about that.  Turn head to the right, please...

Tell the Truth.  Eat Good Food.  Honor your Family.  Remember -    

No matter where you roam, there's no place like Home.  Make a book for someone that you love.  Pull out all of your creative stops - use your favorite fabrics, your treasured threads, your best sentiments.  Learn a new technique and apply it - silky tassels, machine embroidery, beaded and bedazzled edgings.  Whoever is fortunate enough to receive such a treat will absolutely

LOVE it!

WEEKEND WANDERINGS

Goodbye season of the peony!  I already miss you!  When you hang your heavy head I know that June is upon us and that the daylily border needs attention.  The days grow longer and still, there are not nearly enough of them to match the garden's demands.  And I need to sew.


Never one for purchasing kits, my resolve weakened years ago when Keepsake offered this patriotic package that I thought would be wonderful for my country house.  I envisioned it hung out each Memorial Day and 4th of July.  In between gigs, it could reside  on a wall - perhaps the stairwell.  Such good and worthy intentions have I.  When I hauled it out I was dismayed - I'd thought that I'd made a lot more progress than I had before hiding storing it!  It's onward and upward with this because I REALLY want to display it before July 4th arrives!

I've since learned that kits are not my cup of tea.  Wait - the exception to the rule is just about ANYTHING that my friend Linda Hibbert creates.  If she presents it, I want to try it!  She is offering some of her African animals in a gigantic sizing - go over and look.  I want them all.

In all fairness, I DID manage to complete the creamy stripes, but for the life of me cannot get an image that is usable.  I've been dreaming about that Nikon ... I even 'accidently' watered my Canon the other day while I was taking care of the seedlings.  That sucker STILL works.  Go figure.

Here's something that you didn't know - I make books.  Soft fabric books.  Books with beads and grommets and ribbons and paper piecing and silk and - well, next time I'll bring some of these images along.  Fabric books are totally satisfying and amazing - to create, to receive.  

In a weak moment I joined my first KAL - Ravelry has been like a Siren song with these things cropping up all over and I decided that it was time to see what all of the commotion was about!  My group produced a Potato Chip scarf. (clears throat)  People.  This was a horrendous waste of good yarn.  That's all I'm saying.

Misti Baby Alpaca and silk.  There should be a law!  

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY (almost)

I feel as though I MUST comment on my old friend, my stand-in, my faithful Bernina Record.  I bought this machine in 1974 and it was BRAND NEW!  I thought that I had died and gone to heaven after learning to sew on my grandmother's Featherweight (which gave me electrical shocks!)  The Bernina 830 has been the most  reliable machine that I have experienced - far eclipsing my newer Bernina which is currently in repair,again.  I'm thinking about taking the 830 in for a good rubdown and overhaul - it deserves that.  I'm remembering all of the features that I loved about it all of those years that we spent together!  Do you have an old machine that you cannot bear to part with?

I LIED ...

There was a promise made which involved NOT bringing the garden to you again until it was full and abundant.  Turns out that this is easier said than done.  You see, there are many more gardens.  One last black iris -

This is 'New Dawn' and she is truly lovely.  She emerged this morning and I was so excited.

Her blossoms mimic the shade of a ballerina slipper.  She fills my vases and rooms with her soapy-clean fragrance and makes me long for a proper rose garden so that I might have cuttings all season!  Her thorny boughs are a safe haven for the house wrens and sparrows.  And I have seen the Cooper hawk turn away from that hurtful maize in mid hunt - opting for a safer and less painful lunch elsewhere!

The honeysuckle bloomed today as well.  Lonicera ... the scent is unreal - wafting out over the entire property.

It's become so dense and prolific that one has to duck in order to get into the potting shed!  If you need something to climb a fence or stand in as a wall - this is for you.  And your backyard bees will be happy as well as the little sparrows who will build their nests in this vertical thicket!

My early lavender with the helleborus as a backdrop.  I don't have much success with lavendula in this garden as it takes a beating from the north wind.  To my mind, one can never have enough lavender.  I need to scout a location and set in a few dozen new plants.  

My 'Endless Summer" hydrangeas are astonishing - I've never seen such bloom on these shrubs.  In addition, they've shot up at least 12 inches and are covering the window boxes - a first.  I did remember to fertilize last year, but this is out of control!  I'll be eager to see if the flowers are as large as in seasons past.

The hosta and violet bed - waiting to be weeded and mulched...

Another dream is to add a water feature to my gardens, but for now I must make due with several bird baths as well as this organic rock 'pond' which I keep filled regularly with fresh spring water.  I spent eight hours in my gardens yesterday.  All good.

And, believe it or not, I started a fiber project in the very early morning.  Something for the home, something soft and needful.  Stay tuned ...

TWO projects, to be honest.  I'm no good at keeping secrets!

THE HANSON'S or, we are what matters to us

It's a trio, but I promise not to get all Biblical on you.  There are icons and then, there are ICONS.  How curious that three of the most masterful icons (in my humble opinion) in quilting and knitting ALL share the same last name ... HANSON.


There's Anne.  She single handedly changed my view of knitting, period.  Because of her extraordinarily beautifully executed patterns, I found the courage to knit LACE ... ahhhh.  She is a master (mistress?) of our craft - with her tailor-ly  informed sensibility, her intelligence, her style and her panache.  Not only does Anne take us to knitterly places that we have never been, she embraces and introduces us to small independent purveyors of hand-dyed fibers.  She can also cook.   And when I met her at Sheep and Wool last fall, she was gracious and warm - one of us!  Approachable.  (Her husband David models for her - lucky us!)  But not this time ...

There's Maria.  This woman is a force.  I don't think that she sleeps.  Ever.  I go to her blog for inspiration and am never disappointed.  She can pony up the good stuff - not only is her taste in knitting and quilting impeccable - she offers it with humor and grace and faith.  She also shape shifts - just like I do - straddling the knitting and quilting worlds with ease and distinction.  She reminds me that it's ok to cherish both crafts, that monogamy doesn't have to exist in fiber, and that housework is a necessary evil.  She has five children - four living at home, and still, she can produce in the most prolific manner!  As I've already mentioned - the woman cannot possibly sleep.  God bless you, Maria!

Last, and certainly not least - Wanda.  Here we have a woman who understands color, and this, my friends, is a vast understatement.  Her work is brilliant - streaming with texture and form and design.  And she is unstoppable!  Visit her blog, on any given day.  You will be treated to a plethora of design walls - shapes and forms and stories unfolding before your eyes -  carried out in color combos that you've never imagined.  She makes me feel brave.  She is truly a fiber guide - one that you've waited for.  Go find her!

This entry was unavoidable once I realized that these amazing women shared a last name.  'The muse is both a deity and a messenger, is the one who makes demands and brings the gift, is the one who inspires the work of art'.  Sometimes the muse appears and we recognize her.  Sometimes we call her name.  HANSON!

(this is my all-time favorite Wanda quilt - the one I covet...)