Finished!

This fits perfectly! Yeay!
Pattern: "Cinnamon" by Kim Hargreaves.
Kind of a weird yarn:
Collezione S. Charles Filati d' Italia "Sahara"
44% Viscose, 20% Linen, 36% Bamboo.
It’s somewhat tweedy.
I’m happy with this one.
I need to re-seam one of the side seams at the bottom since I noticed in the photo that the ribbing doesn’t line up.
Yikes! How did that happen?
I was so excited to get this finished I guess I rushed the last seam.

That’s dahlia “Keith H” in the background.

So Close

I spent the entire day in one spot knitting today. I am so close to finishing a sweater and whenever that happens I go into a ridiculous knitting trance that lasts for a crazy amount of time. The treat today, while in the trance, was tuning in to the Metropolitan Opera's presentation of Puccini's La Rondine on PBS while knitting. This opera has one of my absolute favorite songs ever: Chi il Bel Sogno. There just isn't a more beautiful song! It simply transports you to another place of expansive fields of red poppies and summer heat, even though that is not the locale of the scene in the opera. Okay, time to get back to the knitting. Only seven more rows, of 237 stitches each row, to go and then sewing up the seams. So close to being done with this one. Then on to the next one.

Mushroom Walk

These are some of the most beautiful of the wide array of mushrooms
that I saw today on a walk through The Bloedel Reserve.
I wouldn't dare taste any of them.
The motto of mushroomers is
"When in doubt
Throw it out!"
What a beautiful day today!
Just a delight at this time of the year
to be treated to full sun!
Cheers!

wowahlias

Asahi Choji

Asahi Choji

Mary Eveline

La Bomba

Aren't my girls pretty?

Cornus kousa fruit

words of the week

Here are the words of the week after reading the Sunday New York Times:
schadenfreude
truculent

And the quote of the week is by Cisco Morris when describing a lovely new variety of Panicum (an ornamental grass):
..."so stunning that even squirrels cry when they see it!"

Worksheet

I donated my time to illustrate this worksheet for children who visit the Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful public garden. I hope they like it.

Words

In an article in the Sunday New York Times about Victoria Beckham's burgeoning fashion empire three words were new to me. I love looking up new words. Revealing my ignorance the words of the week are:

Argot
Alacrity
and Suplicant

I also loved a quote by Victoria, "it's exhausting being fabulous"! Can't you just see her saying that?

new dress

Here's a dress that I made recently from IKEA fabric.
When I finished initially it was huge,
so I had to rip out the zipper and then take in several inches
along the center back.
Now it fits perfectly due to the expert pinning of my handy assistant.
Thank you sweetie pie.
Happy summer dress.
Just in time for the heat!

Race Day

Yesterday I thought that I would skip it. I wasn't sure last night. This morning I woke up and looked at the start time on the race notice and decided, well, I paid for it, I signed up for it, but what really made me go for it was a note that mentioned that the first 600 participants receive a race medal. That little token sucked me in. I thought that would be a nice addition to last year's medal on my gym key ring. My hesitation to race today was based on the fact that I hadn't run since Monday. I have been running all year long and it is getting harder to force myself to go to the gym after work now. But I had been training up until recently to get faster, and so I just didn't want all that time in the gym to go for not if I didn't race today. I didn't have great expectations since I thought that I would get winded easily, since I had not run since Monday.

The nice thing about today's race is that they provide a trainer to give a stretch workout before the race. So I warmed up at the workout and then ran around for the next twenty minutes to get loose. Then race time came and I positioned myself near the front of the line, since at the 4th of July run I got bogged down by all the kids and strollers in front of me at the start of the race. The horn sounded and the race was off.

I started passing teenagers and young kids which gave me a sense that maybe I could do well today. Then half way through the race a woman ran right next to me with white hair. I looked at her bib and she was in my same age division. So I pushed it harder. I made some headway in front of her and then she gained on me, then I pushed ahead and then she again surged. I really pushed it in the last 400 meters seeing the finish line ahead but about 10 feet from the finish line she surged ahead of me. I thought to myself that I had tried to stay ahead of her for this race and I wasn't going to let her beat me at the end so I dialed it up for the last 5 feet and beat her at the line by .5 of a second.

I came in first for my age division for the second year in a row for this race. My time was quite a bit faster than last year only because that other woman was neck and neck with me. She pushed me to really give it everything I had. It felt good to come in first after putting it all out there. I would have been so disappointed if I had come up short at the finish line. But it turned out in my favor and I'm glad that I decided to participate today after all. The blue ribbon went up on the wall in my sewing room with the rest of my race ribbons when I got home.

At my age it feels good to accomplish a physical goal, when I have never considered myself to be athletic in the least. Maybe just maybe my genes contributed slightly to make my daughter the state track star that she is. This is the fifth race I have entered in a row where I have come in first in my age division. Time to dance a little jig for this old lady.

Hot!

When it's hot my daughter and I like to paint with mendhi.
There are cooling properties to mendhi as soon as it is applied to your skin.
What a wonderful sensation!
No wonder it is used in some of the hottest countries in the world.
Cheers to summer!

kitty gingivitis

Fascinated by Words

Whenever I come across new words I am intrigued and usually write down the word to try to remember it. Most of my new words come from reading The New Yorker magazine. I think I might start listing my new words here and show how ignorant I am of the English language.

The word of the moment is pinioned.

Boléro

Here's my latest knitting project
completed today from

Naoko Shimoda's Standard Knit 下田直子のかんたんニット
It's a Japanese pattern, but charted, so it was easy to follow.
I love the simplicity of the pattern.
I ripped apart a vest that I made over 28 years ago
and recycled the yarn into something more contemporary.
I knit until I ran out of yarn so the neckline
is a bit larger than the specified pattern.
I love it.
The alpaca mohair yarn is so soft, like bunny fur.

cocoon

this week's illustration friday submission:

her exquisitely crafted cocoon

of twigs, moss, mud and grasses
could not protect her delicate eggs
from the ravages of a marauding raccoon.
...
this is what i found in our garden
this morning.
i had watched mama build her nest
for days,
eventually laying her clutch
and keeping them warm for two weeks,
until this.
my heart goes out to you dear mama.

Hermes

I love this website ... Hermes

Not only can you see the finest technique employed by master seamstresses sewing rolled edges of silk scarves, and glove makers creating their guanti, but there are games, crafts and endless inspiration for crafters.