Serious summer fiber fun!

We finally have had some beautiful weather here this summer mixed in between all the early cool and rainy days and the long stretches of blazing hot humidity! But I guess most of you around the country have had a taste of all these, too. We have struggled to maintain our gardens, the veggies have suffered the most. This just won't be a banner year for the produce from our backyard. We have moved into the orange and yellow flower phase in the perennial beds and it truly looks like August and you get a hint of fall edging closer already!

I really have been playing and working with some fiber projects this summer despite how my last two posts have sounded. This is my recently finished pair of hand knit socks. Knit from a very soft yarn called Melody from Jojoland, they are very comfy and though 100% wool I am sure I will need to wear them sometime soon!

Because it never feels right to be without a pair of socks in the works I have now assembled a long list of favorite sock yarns from various shops on Etsy for my next project. Now it just remains to narrow the list down to a reasonable number that won't break the bank! If you knit socks you should search for sock yarns on Etsy, the selection is amazing!

The summer scarf is finally complete and I love the way it turned out. It is light and airy but at the same time it has a cozy feeling - all good characteristics for a scarf! I have woven with this yarn before and because it has both colored flecks and a nice textured slub it really results in beautiful fabric surface. My photos do not do it justice! I need photography HELP!

This is a cuff that started with a white wool felt oval. The next step was crocheting the base and band from a lovely natural colored linen. I love the two natural fiber colors together. You just can't go wrong combining these!

Now all the little bits of color are chosen and all lined up. I have some small bits of wool, some sewing threads that just speak to me and beads and buttons that will bring it all together.

I hope I can translate the sketch and the embellishments into the piece that I have imagined! It is such a satisfying feeling to complete a project, even a small one.

I have been writing haikus this spring and summer (more about that on another day) and this is one that I wrote about my need to "make".

To be, I must make.

Shaping the things around me

Is just what I do.

Please allow yourself to "MAKE" to your heart's content!

Spinning through the Fall

The gold flame spirea bushes in the front yard are just beautiful this year. I cannot remember them ever being such a great mix of colors. I cut some branches for my desk at work as I know they won't last long outdoors now. In fact it is raining this evening and the wind is getting quite gusty so everything may look a lot more like the end of October by tomorrow morning.

The prep work is done on my next spinning project. This is a nice variegated purple, lavender, and grey wool that has been in my fiber stash for a long time. It has been on my list of projects to be completed so it feels good to get at it!

I was hoping to spin it directly from the locks as it is in the photo above. But after closer examination it proved to have too much plant material in it.

I spent several hours pulling the locks apart and gently opening them to release the little bits of grass and dirt. I usually work over a white cloth laying across my lap to catch the fallout and to give a light colored background that makes it easier to see the foreign matter. This is time consuming but very rewarding!

I now have a box full of this purple cloud-like wool! I am not going to card this or prep it any further so I will hopefully get a nicely textured yarn. This will make a single ply yarn that is not a bulky weight but a little heavier than a worsted. That is the plan. I will photograph the results and report later.

The last rose of summer!!!!

Yes, on Saturday, Oct.23 I photographed this rose blooming in our backyard! The serviceberry tree that it is leaning on has dropped all it's leaves and most of the plants around it are going dormant but this rose was fooled by the warm temperatures and has just kept growing.

Enjoy whatever fall weather you have left. There is the mention of snow flurries in our forecast for this week. Winter will come. . . . . . .

Can summer just go on, pleeease?

We had some magnificent summer skies this year. Many of them were accompanied by equally impressive rain storms, some with wind or hail. Fortunately we did not have any storm damage in our neighborhood. Not everyone has been that lucky and the heavy rains and resulting floods have continued that summer pattern into these early autumn days.

All the rain has led to an extended period of color in our gardens. Love this tree hydrangea!

I sat on the deck in the backyard and was amazed at how green and lush it can be on September 27. I know the snow will come so I am trying to enjoy the color now!

We will pick the first brussel sprouts of the season this week. I like to leave them in the garden for as long as I can bear. My dad always says they taste best after the first frost. But Mom told me that she roasted fresh brussel sprouts from their garden this weekend and now I don't think I can wait any longer.

They will be delicious. . . . . . .

Back Home . . . . . . .

This title is appropriate in two ways. My mother just had foot surgery and I spent a whole week with her and my Dad in my childhood home in Oakland, NE. After a week with them, two of my sisters took over for a few days and then I have been back on two consecutive weekends. Mom is doing much better but it is a trial when you can't walk without using a walker and she has some pre-existing back and neck issues that limit her mobility at times. Now I am back to our home here in Minnesota and it feels so good.

In the course of these past three weeks it feels as if summer has slipped away. The flower gardens are winding down, mostly golds and yellows except for the wonderful little "Nearly Wild" pink roses in the front border. The feeling of time slipping away was with me during my time with mom and dad and made me so grateful to be able to be there with them. Like the summer days, each bit of time with them will be cherished. I feel so fortunate to still have them in my life.

I am trying to soak up as much of the remaining warm weather and to somehow keep it in reserve for the cold months that will surely come. The vegetable garden is waning, still a few zucchini to be harvested and the brussel sprouts that can stay in the garden until after the first frost. Every year we lament the end of the fresh veggies but celebrate how wonderful it was to have them even when we cursed the never-ending green beans to pick daily!

Enjoy the sun while you can and tell your parents how much you love them . . . . .

Uninvited guests. . . . .

These uninvited quests are not distant relatives arriving for extended visits but cute little animal pests in the garden and yard. CHIPMUNKS!! We have noticed their digging in the back yard and around the step at the front door.

Just look at that face! Adorable. But they are very messy and incredibly loud. They have an incessant, angry chirp when they feel you are invading their space. So Patrick has begun the second season of involuntary chipmunk relocation, i.e. trapping followed by a scenic drive to the neighborhood park.

I think he must have moved a whole family by now. Number seven was lured by peanut butter and bird seed, then carried off to join his brothers, sisters, cousins in the new chipmunk suburban development. Lovely green space with a view of the pond.

The cute little baby bunnies in the neighborhood have lost some of their charm, too, as they have been nibbling on the veggies at the edges of the garden. Unfortunately there isn't much hope for trapping and relocating them - this would be an endless task! So we are doing our best to just relax about them and the backyard has been the perfect spot for relaxation.

I wish summer didn't have to end!

In summer, the song sings itself. - William Carlos Williams

Wow, what a busy summer so far! I have intended to post to this blog more often but my energy has just gone other places. . . . .all of them fun and intriguing. I have had only tiny bits of time to work on anything that resembles "textile". But I guess that feels somehow right for summer. Cold indoor days will return all too soon and more textiles will call.

The flower gardens are full of great color and texture. We have seven different daylilies in bloom right now. We have had enough rain in between the very hot days to keep most of the plants looking very healthy.

I have woven red coasters or mug rugs while enjoying the evening air on the screen porch this past week. I get nostalgic weaving on this little old loom. It is amazing to think of the hundreds of these I have made!

Such a simple process and so basic but endlessly satisfying!

This process, the tools and even the cardboard spacers woven between each coaster on the warp are like old friends. These are the "comfort food" equivalent in my weaving world.

In my yarn storage boxes there were neatly chained warps for several more colorways of these coasters. The red batch is almost finished and I believe I will string the green warp next. You just never know when you might need some comforting simple weaving on a lazy summer night.

But whatever your summer project might be, don't forget to stop and smell the roses . . . . . .

Gardening, it's in the genes.

I love to be in the garden, from the first pale green sprouts in the spring all the way through their promise of flower, color, fruit or seed. I think I have loved the idea of "garden" always, and I know that comes to me through my genes and from my childhood environment. So many of my memories of home center around gardening or preserving the food from those gardens or watching the changing color-scapes of the flowers as the summer progressed.

My clearest memories of my maternal grandfather are of him in the garden and of an afternoon he killed a garter snake there with his hoe. My dad's father, Grandpa Oscar, had a garden in his backyard, too. I remember my uncles helping him grind the horseradish that grew there and the strong smelling jars of the white pulp that were shared with all.

I still cannot eat sweet corn without thinking of Mom and Aunt Bonnie cooking, cutting and freezing dozens of ears of corn each summer. Or as kids, helping to pick up potatoes from the freshly dug rows of potato plants in the extended family garden. Enough potatoes to last until the next year's crop was almost ready to harvest, if we were lucky. I can hear the ping of canning lids sealing as the jars of tomato juice cooled on the kitchen counter. And I won first place at the Burt County Fair with my Celosia flower that I raised in my own little corner of my Dad's vegetable garden.

A couple weeks ago Patrick and I were in Nebraska with my folks and he took these pictures of my 81 year old father and me in the garden. We were picking asparagus from the patch that has been there for as long as I can remember and Dad was showing me all the plants in his "downsized" garden this year. The asparagus was amazing. But I will treasure these pictures always as this is where I come from and this man is the gardener in me.

Thanks Dad . . . . . .

Brave Stitching

First of all, I have to show you some of new additions to the beautiful blooming plants in the gardens this weekend. It was a warm and sunny two days here which we all needed, especially the plants.

I love all the changing color in the garden. I can't wait for each new stage as we move through the weeks of summer.

This stitched piece is a good example of how used materials and little pieces collected in the studio can be inspiring. I love stitching on paper and combining materials. This is on a recycled piece of cardboard, from my favorite breakfast oatmeal I believe. I really like the very bare brown color of this kind of cardboard, it is warm and unobtrusive.

I am often pressed by things happening in the days of someone in the family to work around a phrase that speaks to me in that particular instance. BE BRAVE - so simple but just what is necessary sometimes to face what lies before us!

Looking back at my life so far, I wish that I had been more courageous, pushed myself more, ventured out of my comfort zone a little further. I still have to remind myself -- BE BRAVE.

Go for it . . . . . . .

Spring Fever in our garden...

This beautiful, warm weather and lots of sunshine is unusual for us here in Minnesota at this time of year but we will take every bit. The earliest little peeks of color are such a boost after our long, gray winter. SPRING FEVER!

We spent a large part of three vacation days working over our backyard . There was just too much plant material that requires way too much maintenance. Many of the plants were very overgrown, spreading out of shape and out of control! So we decided to simplify. This kind of simplification took a lot of hard work but we love the result. And it will require less work over time. Once the newly arranged beds fill out I will post pictures. Can't wait.

The cherry tree is just luminous with all of its white blossoms - that probably means lots of cherries (and pies) later!

A trip around the yard can always inspire a project and send me back to the work table. Love the textures of the woodpile, especially these copper river birch logs.

The smallest and simplest of things can spark an idea. Though the stitching tends to want to split the bark, maybe this will be the prototype for a larger piece at some point.

Soak up the spring time.......