weekend

A weekend of puttering about.

Local air show watched from the side of the road.

Ingredients for eggplant lasagna from a roadside stand.

I dyed "mill end" wool from a local factory with Black Cherry Kool-Aid.

Finished Dandelion embroidery, now what will it become?

Some Color...

I've been posting so much grey lately I decided it was time to show some color!

The sky has been its usual March self; turbulent one moment and glorious the next.

This past weekend I haunted a couple of the local Antique Centers, searching for

a variety of pretty handkerchiefs.  I plan on sewing them together and then hanging

the shade in my kitchen window, a translucent patchwork of flowers.

The seed packets were purchased as much for their lovely packaging

as the seeds they contain!

Sophie is sleeping on my sunny windowsill and I must get ready for work.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying some bit of Spring like change.

Enjoy tonight's full moon!

March roared in...

...cold, windy and grey.

After the Snow

Today was bright and windy as yesterday's storm moved away.

I had wanted to take a walk but the blowing snow stung my eyes.

I picked up a sweater that I haven't worked on

 in months and sat down at my drawing table again...

Ideas are plenty and now there's the time to explore them.

patterns & colors

my knitting kit

winter green, peat and grey

blue sky alpaca royal petite knitting patterns, complete with alpaca 'trading cards'

grey, yellow and pink

"There isn't time as in a universal tick tock,

there are times..."

   -Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos

As Autumn Approaches...

Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox; 

the sun will be directly in line with the equator.

12 hours of daylight and 12 of darkness.

A day of in-betweens.

Pears, pumpkins and burning sunsets.

Happy Autumn to all.

The Drive Home

Barn quilts and sunflowers

a missed turn

home to boiling clouds...

The trip took longer than expected

but that wasn't a bad thing.

North Carolina Sky

Every morning began with thick fog that covered the ground 

with dew so heavy you thought it had rained overnight.

By 8:00 am most had burned off to reveal a bright blue sky, 

the benefit of being far from a major city.

Come evening the clouds would boil with color before 

again settling down over the hills for the night.

Loose Ends

Yesterday's heat brought on a fierce late day thunderstorm.

Today the sky is almost blue and it's only in the low 90's.

Quite a relief.

This morning I set back to work on the Farm books, half should be bound by this evening.

Other books are waiting to be made...I couldn't ignore them any longer.

Last night I finished up my Rocky Coast Cardigan.

A seamless construction that required only a sewing in of ends and a quick blocking.

It kept slipping off the hanger and falling into pine needles while photographing.

Not the last time it will find itself covered with pine needles, I'm sure.

Cicada shells on the tree.

So now a new knitting project 

and that much closer to another book idea.

Saturday - Garden Book

It feels like summer has officially arrived.

The air is hot and muggy; typical Pennsylvania haze

gave way to intense thunderstorms that still grumble in the distance.

The last couple of days I've been working on my next little book.

Again, it will be a tunnel format but with a twist this time.

The proof sheets are pictured above.

I spent little time figuring the plates out and didn't do any 

preliminary drawings but instead drew directly 

on the blocks and cut fearlessly.

My mantra, "This is supposed to be fun."

The salad bowl in the first picture came from the local garden center.

"Don't keep it indoors," the sales person warned me repeatedly.

Could she tell I was without a plot of land or balcony?

So there it sits on my windowsill.

Tuesday - Ride Home

Sophie is not a morning girl and doesn't much like her picture taken,
but we both love that the sun is coming our way again.

The sky was soft and the air still cool tonight.
Willows are turning yellow.
And that beautiful moon...

Tuesday

                                         It was amazingly Spring like today!
                                         The temperature was near 60F with the slightest breeze.

                                         Although I had many chores to catch up on, laundry and
                                         grocery shopping,  I still found time to fling open all my
                                         windows for a much needed "changing of the air."

                                         An Italian friend of mine once said, "When there are
                                         sheep in the sky, it's bound to rain," and so are the predictions
                                         for the rest of the week.

                                         A new knitting book for my birthday and a delicious little tart
                                         just because.
                                         Slowly working my way through My Heart Wanders.