Crochet Wrap

Rowan Bark Pattern, modified
It was supposed to be a quarter circle but I wanted a wider wrap.
I like how it has a bit of a shawl collar.
Suri baby alpaca + mohair.
This is one cozy wrap for lounging around the house in the long dark days of winter.

Blooming December

Searching for beauty wherever it may be hiding.

As the air chills and the clouds lock tight to exclude light
there are those that resist the season and continue to bloom.
Roses, ceanothus, hydrangea, feverfew, camellia, fuschia, cyclamen, erigeron,
viburnum, lithodora, arbutus lift my near winter weariness with their varied petals.
Thank you flowers. I love you.

Isolation

Death means permanent isolation from those that you care about.
Sudden unprepared death is shocking,
a temblor to one's core.
It's been hard to breathe.
Someone so central to our lives over the last three years,
someone that we would see every day is gone
forever.
We never said goodbye,
until after he was gone.
He knew how much we appreciated him however.
We knew how he felt about us.
Crying hasn't been this profuse since
my world was shattered in 1984
when my father died
suddenly as well.
I know that only time will
begin to heal the hurt.
Why do good people always go long before they should?

Off the Needles, On the Hook

Here's a closeup of a scarf that took one day to knit.
I modified a pattern from Twinkles Weekend Knits
and used up a Rowan Big Wool Print yarn that has
languished in my stash for a long while.

This one is still in progress.
It's a Rowan pattern called Bark that I have wanted to make for years.
It is crocheted in a quarter circle to make a shawl.
Eventually it will have a picot edge of Rowan Big Wool Tuft.
I have started this pattern at least six times with different yarn combinations in the last few weeks, ripping countless stitches and rewinding ball after ball. Now I think I have found a combination that I am happy with. The pattern is supposed to be made with very thick yarn and when I worked it up in that yarn it was too stiff for my liking. This may be a great pattern to start using up the expansive stash pile, or I may use up the stash to make a stripey knit blanket.

Note: I have ripped the whole shawl. I didn't like it after all.

Make Us Proud

Bring light into darkness.

Make the important things count like quality education for all, safe bridges, access to medical care, safe food, renewable resources for energy, clean air and water, upholding real human rights, and an unquestionable democracy. Banish greed, access to power only through special interest, war. Embrace diplomacy, freedom of ideas, personal choice, peace, prosperity for all. We need you more now than ever before to lift this country out of its hollow to become a haven for truth and rational thought.

Best wishes to this land of ours.

Happy Halloween

Here's a little project that I made up from two skeins of sale Rowan Big Wool. I call it my core warmer. It makes me nice and cozy as the weather turns chilly, even though I look like a pumpkin. Big Wool is so satisfying to knit since a project can be completed so quickly. I wish I had bought one more skein so I could have made it a bit longer and had enough to make straps. Oh well, I found some nice braid to make straps. Right now I'm working on a Big Wool wrap that should be done soon.

Done!

There was only one skein of this yarn at Churchmouse's 40% off sale so I asked if it would be enough to make a scarf. I was told that I should make a lace pattern. After experimenting with several different patterns I settled on this one and am so happy with how it turned out. It's made of silk and cashmere and oh so deliciously soft.

Crataegus phaenopyrum

This gorgeous tree, Washington Hawthorne, started out as a 6" seedling from the Arbor Day Foundation and has grown into a glorious mature tree that the deer love to browse. Watch out while clipping for wreath-making since the branches are covered with four inch thorns!

seed seekers

While the Stellar Jays and Red-breasted Nuthatches worked the bird feeders overhead the pheasant kept looking up as if to ask if they would kick some seed out his way.Once he discovered me he exited in a hurry.

Poppy

Here's a little sweater that I made in one week as a gift for a new baby. I wish all the sweaters I've made only took that long to construct.
It's a Debbie Bliss pattern with GGH Samoa yarn.

Crop

This has been the best pumpkin crop ever. They're huge and plentiful. It's surprising since there was very little heat this summer, yet plenty of rain. They drank up and filled out. I love the mix of varieties: cinderella, ghost and jack-be-little. Plus there were the seedlings from last year's crop, although I can't remember if they were sugars or seedlings from yet another previous year. I see them splayed out along the kitchen floor with lusting visions of pumpkin bread, soup, roasted seeds and pies, plus scary carvings for Halloween. Oh the glory of autumn!

Edibles in the Public Realm

As I drove past the elementary school this morning, and saw a woman picking rose hips, I thought that our public landscapes should have far more edible plants, that it should become public policy to help feed people, especially as the world struggles with high food costs. Rosalind Creasy (she takes gorgeous photographs of edibles) impassionedly lectured on edibles while I was in college yet her zeal for food plants has never caught on in the public realm. I've always tried to have bird habitat in my public plantings but I think it's time for a human edible movement. Not only should everyone be encouraged, ala Victory Gardens, to plant edibles at home, but to share the public lands for food production. Lawn only sucks up water and fertilizer and fuel to cut it in the public landscape. How about digging up some of that grass and planting blueberries? Even if no one picked them the birds would enjoy them.

Best Ever

This year our apples are better than they have ever been. And no sprays of any kind! That spring rain made them big and juicy. These are liberty apples. It's just dreamy to go out in the afternoon and pick a perfect apple off the tree for a fabulous snack. I love you beautiful yummy tree!

Cornus kousa

Partially hidden in the long unmown grass were these Cornus kousa fruits. Every time I go outside there is something to be discovered. An adolescent male pheasant nearing his adult plumage. A mama and her brood of pheasant babies taking a dust bath and scattering dirt in all directions. Huge Cinderella pumpkins buried beneath huge protective leaves. Colors pop in the low near autumn sun angle.

State Fair

Our annual three day trek to the State Fair has concluded. The usual tears and cheers over all the 4-H contests seem far behind as I relax at home in comfortable chairs and a real bed instead of sitting on a backless wood bench, or attempt to sleep with hundreds of other girls and their moms in the 4-H dorm on the top bunk with the loudest snorer in the world in close proximity. Our amazing little white bunny that came to visit last November, who was starving and filthy and nursed into excellent health was crowned best of breed for the state. Our other bunny was also a best of breed, thrilling my daughter with our only two bunnies on the Best in Show table finals. I was so thankful for grand weather this year, as years past have been marred by cold and rain, that added to the drawn out nature of the events. When time permitted I stole away to visit the Horticulture Building to see the shock of dahlia displays and other flower entries. Other times I would drag my daughter to see the Needle Arts and loved a few of the quilts. I keep thinking about this one in particular with crows and appliqued flowers. I'd like to find the pattern. Next year, since I have to go anyway, I may enter flowers or arrangements at the fair. I won't enter quilts since I would have to take them all the way there and pick them up another time. Flowers could come at the same time as our 4-H events and just left there. Last year I entered flowers at our county fair. It was fun to see how they rated.