New

Here are a couple of projects I have finished lately.

I need to find a source for more colors of cotton lace thread, especially in subtle colors.
I used DMC Pearl Cotton for the edging of the potholder
and won't be using that again for crochet.
It isn't dense enough for crochet and starts to fuzz while crocheting.

Hook Case

I'm very happy with how my crochet hook case turned out.
It's great to have my hooks so organized now.

Octomom

As the 4-H rabbit leader I receive calls from lots of folks regarding rabbits. Yesterday a call came from a family that had found a couple of rabbits that were sitting at the edge of one of the busiest roads on the island. They went right up to the rabbits and were able to pick them up and bring them home. We were summoned to assess them and when we arrived we found a couple of very sweet cross-breed rabbits that were totally calm. It seemed that the doe was the mother of the younger buck. He would nuzzle up to her and she seemed protective of him. They seemed in good health. This morning I received a call from the family about the doe going crazy overnight and breathing heavily. I suggested putting a nest box in the cage along with newspaper and hay. The family was gone through most of the day and came home to the doe and eight kits. She had plucked her fur to make a nest in the newspaper, which is amazing that she hadn't plucked herself days sooner before kindling her kits. We went over to check out the kits and all were healthy and the mother was in good shape too. Kits are born fur-less and with their eyes shut. There were black ones and white ones with all sorts of markings similar to English Spot rabbits. They will be oh so cute as they get their fur. More later.

Goodbye Old Friend

Tomorrow will be the last publication of the venerable Seattle Post Intelligencer. The morning ritual of reading the paper with breakfast will never be the same. Why didn't the paper ask their readership if they would fork over another few bucks a month to keep the paper printing? Perhaps that wouldn't have been enough to save it. A newspaper is something so elemental to one's life that you take it for granted that it will keep cranking out day after day, year after year. What happens to society when newspapers disappear? Where will the oversight come from of political corruption, business and fashion trends, medical breakthroughs along with cooking recipes and gardening advice. Will Betty the Blogger become the only, unreliable, source of social information? The importance of newspapers is even written into the Constitution. I'm just so upset that newspapers are folding across the country. I've heard that the San Francisco Chronicle is also on the chopping block. These papers are such an integral part of place making. They speak of the issues that define a place. In the constant spiral of bad news the loss of newspapers has to be the greatest threat to the integrity of our country. Where's the bailout of the newspaper industry? I would be far happier to have taxpayer dollars going there than to pad AIG's executives' bonuses! What a world turned upside down! Reward the idiots that create massive debt and ignore the valid needs of the nation. Have you seen the 1976 film "Network" lately? Watch it. It is very relevant and timely. Pete Finch's character Howard Beale is one of the most memorable in all of film.

When the world is so oppressively convoluted I retreat to my little sanctuary and sew. Pictured above is a corner of that world.

In the Garage

It has been too cold for the bunnies to be outside for the past few days (nights rather), so they are in the garage where it is much warmer than the arctic freeze outside. There are windows in there so they get some nice light. It's much easier to feed them in the garage instead of slogging through the tundra to get to the hutch corral. I have lilies to plant but the ground is frozen solid. This has been one relentless winter. But I do very much enjoy the sunshine we're having. The sight of the low morning light illuminating the iridescent feathers of a pheasant yesterday was a moment that I just wanted to park in my brain forever. It was spectacular. As the pheasant moved about, pecking away at the ground right at my back door, shiny brown feathers would magically transform into mauve, aubergine and orange.
I've been copicing my pussywillow, next up is the eucalypt to keep the juvenile foliage going strong. I think the crocus are a bit late this year, likely because of all the cold weather we have had. The stripey purpley ones are my favorite. The solid purple ones have taken over my garden.

New Crochet

bracelet
using Daiso Cotton Lace Thread #40
The bead end was fun to make

bowl
Optima cotton thread #10
This will hold my tiny crochet projects that are in progress

What a Beauty!

It's a startlingly gorgeous morning. Snow, sunshine, visibility to the Olympics, new flowers, pheasants and bunnies. The cherry tree is just starting to bud out. The hamamellis is at its peak, crocus are bursting and narcissus are sprouting. Spring is on the way despite winter's grip on the temperature and white precipitation. Oh my oh my it is just gorgeous out there! It's a day to say, thank you for being alive!

Necklace

My latest crochet.
Cotton lace thread #40 Daiso.
I used my great grandmother's hook.
It is a lovely decorative steel hook.
I wish I had more of them.

NW Flower + Garden Show

I love the pattern + patchwork quilt quality to their display!

Ah the texture of California!

Wow! What a trough!

I loved these succulent balls hanging around the shop.
They had upside down succulent pyramids too (see below).

This year marks the last for the garden show in Seattle. It has been the biggest garden show on the west coast. Rats! No more browsing the delicious lily and dahlia shops. No more garden show great deals from Lee Valley. No more chit chatting with the experts. What a shame to end this rite of spring. Shown above is my favorite spot at this year's show. It's the Smith + Hawken shop booth. It wasn't even a garden display but it was far more inspiring than the mediocre grand displays that get all the attention.
Long ago I quit my job from a sexist bullying landscape architect's office to study for my landscape architecture exam. During that time I worked at Smith + Hawken in their original Mill Valley store, before they sold out to a corporation, and Paul Hawken's office overlooked the nursery from across the street. He didn't like it that I wore my Ville du Sole (oh I miss that store!) French hat while working in the nursery. He sent word to the store to have me remove my lovely hat and wear a Smith + Hawken straw hat instead. Too many customers were asking where I had bought my lovely French hat, and he was getting miffed.
That was a lovely summer. The plants were propagated in part and selected by the great plantswoman Sarah Hammond. The planting displays were exceptional! She said that they had never had another employee in the nursery that could sell as many plants as me before. It was my unbridled enthusiasm that roped in the buyers. After studying at Oxford, a few years earlier, and writing my research paper on Folly Farm, a Gertrude Jeykyll garden, I was fully engulfed in the English perennial border mania that was rising at that time. It was dreamy working regular business hours in a lovely inspiring place. That store is no more. The corporate takeover wiped out that little haven for garden aficionados. Sarah gave me a gorgeous Deutzia 'Goldsal Pink' when my son was born. She had brought back the plant from England and propagated it in her Bolinas nursery. I still have that plant growing in my garden and swoon when it blooms. By the way, I passed the five day landscape architecture license exam that summer, quit my job at Smith + Hawken, and went to work in another architecture + urban planning firm in the city. Yes, I made more money as a professional, but working at Smith + Hawken was more enjoyable by far.

Crochet

Using a tiny crochet hook
I made a cell phone pouch
to easily find my phone in my purse.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Crochet stuffed with lavender, I love the asymmetry of the shape.
Great pattern found on Ravelry.
(You have to join to see the web page)

Pretty morning

Hamamelis 'Arnold's Promise'

I think that the pheasants watch for me to put out the bird seed.
As soon as I step back inside
they seem to come out in a flash
to gather up the droppings from the feeder.

We're getting close. Close to my self-determined date of the return of light. I consider making it to Valentine's Day, with sanity intact, as the date when the length of daylight is no longer an issue, and when I breathe a sigh of relief. By then I no longer subconsciously complain about the grimness of the northern winter. By then there is a sufficient amount of daylight to quell any longing to go south. And just at this pivotal point in the earth's rotation a lovely dusting of snow reminds of winter's renewed grip. Yesterday, while tidying up in the garden, I found crocus pushing up through the surface of the earth with tight buds. Soon the vast expanse of purple petals will be here. Those guys are such prolific reproducers. I don't mind one little bit that they have spread all over the garden.

Hooked

All of the patterns in Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Lacy Crochet are lovely. It was fun and I will definitely make more patterns from this book.

On the Needles

I'm trying to use up yarn in my stash.
This Rowan pattern, called River, is a light airy shawl.
I'm using a mohair yarn that just happens to be the same color as the pattern photo.
They call the color smoke in the specifications.
True to the name it seems to disappear.
I love watching the pattern evolve with each row created.
This will be one soft wrap, but not quite as diaphanous as the yarn specified in the pattern.

Friandes aux amandes

For our celebratory inaugural dinner I made friandes aux amandes in mini muffin tins, easter egg tins and shell tins. It was quite an assortment of shapes. Next time I'll make them in madeline tins. I am in love with the shell pan. I finally figured out how to make the cakes slip out easily after they are baked. I have had some disastrous madeline bakings in the past where, after all the preparation, they were cemented into the pans. Grrr! These were lovely cakes however. I am in love with this delicate recipe. They would be perfect for a tea party.