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R's 6th year. He was an A #1 picker this year. E's 4th year. He was an A #1 eater this year. We picked the perfect day this time. The berries were not too under-ripe or too over-ripe. 88 degrees F and breezy. We had the whole patch to ourselves aside from an old couple leaving just as we showed up.
Who knows exactly what is making me want to wear and sew skirts. Maybe the weather finally improving? Maybe the fact that I have to wear long underwear and turtlenecks most of the year and there's just not much that's girly about that? The fact that there are two weddings and all the surrounding festivities to wear them for in the next two weekends? I go through this skirt-phase every now and again so I try to go along with it while it's here because it usually doesn't last long. It just seems easier most days to throw on a pair of pants or shorts.
I've had two of these fabrics for over 10 years now, bringing them from Colorado when we moved. The flowered rayon has that crepey feel of some vintage dresses. The lighter blue rayon is suedy-soft. The other darker blue solid linen/rayon mix I picked up in St. Louis a few years back and is lightweight with an almost denim-y look. Lots of blue here and lots of rayon. Not all rayon fabric is created equally. These ones just caught my eye, or rather, my hand with their feel and drape. It feels good to finally be using these.
The pinkish skirt from Anthropologie is from a recent issue of Country Living mag is my latest skirt obsession. The knitted, felted handbags bags featured in the article by Mary Dolan/Wisteria Editions are nice too. Simplicity 4365 (view E) seems similar to this skirt. I'm using a brown linen/rayon blend with the same blue flowered fabric for the "godets" as they're called in the pattern. I'm not sure how I feel about the fabric combination and, although it's the same pattern size as the other two skirts, let's just say that this one might turn out a bit, let's just say...**ahem.**... form-fitting.
Oops! I forgot to include the pattern numbers for the skirts: New Look 6953 on the left. Simplicity 7090 on the right. Thank you for all the nice comments about these (and other posts, too).
Good intentions:
#1: I had intended to post pictures as soon as the weather broke after receiving this, my Trim Swap package, from Vintage Pleasure but it somehow worked its way to the bottom of my knitting bag instead. Thank you, Kristy. I love it all, the buttons and the reddish lacy trim in particular, and the little brown envelopes they came in, too. Somehow I've misplaced the fantastic Black Apple postcard she included (it is the one on the left here called Snail Rider). I also intended to take and post a better picture.
#2: I had what I thought was this great idea to institute Friday Pie Day around here for the next few months taking advantage of all of summer and fall's fresh fruits. I have baked four pies so far, one on a Monday (a disaster that set off the fire alarm!), one on a Saturday, two on a Wednesday, and none on a Friday.
#3: Speaking of pie, I was supposed to drop by to see an older couple down the road and pick all their rhubarb for them (for us, actually) on Friday. It's not that we need the rhubarb as we already have plenty ourselves, rather that they were lonely for visitors. It's now Tuesday and we finally stopped by this afternoon in the sweltering afternoon heat: 95 degrees F. We came home with 15 cups worth of rhubarb to freeze and a bottle of his homemade wine, very dry, tasty, and quite potent, too!
3 evenings, 3 Barbeques: chicken, gyros, moose sausages.
2 skirts cut out and ready to sew: New Look 6953 and Simplicity 7090.
1 swim in the lake and 1 pair of socks: Regia Strato #5741, Dschungel. Cast-on on Father's Day for C. This is his preferred sock length so they're quick. Problem is, there's even more leftover sock yarn each time I make a pair for him. I think there's enough for at least one pair of child's socks or another pair of longer adult socks if a different matching/contrasting color is used for the heels and toes.
I just couldn't resist the Jo-Ann's sale last Friday and Saturday (anybody else?) and so timing my errand running around it. After revelling in all the neutral-schmeutrals of color week I found myself seduced by nearly all colorful fabrics, coming home with a pile of half yards from the calico wall and clearance section, only a few of which are in the neutral range. I mostly stuck to my list, picking up interfacing at 25 cents a yard, new sewing machine needles at 50% off, and a couple patterns at $1.99 each. A couple yards each of a linen/rayon blend in the colors of the brown and red on the edge of the Denyse Schmidt book above snuck home with me, too. The books were the big splurge, but at 40% off, I picked up two that have been on my wish list. The thread, more on the neutral side, were marked down in a bargain basket.
Speaking of color, I just came across this blog: Ulla's Garnlek in Sweden through a link at Tuula. If you're in need of a color jolt, check out her Flickr site, especially her acid dyed yarns, her craft room set and her gorgeous sleeved version of Picovoli!
And speaking of new craft rooms, Stephanie at Little Birds just created hers and I'm in love with it! It's a bit eerie how much hers echoes what I was thinking of for my own craft room..the tall table on wheels (I'm planning on a similar one and just thrifted the wheels a week or so ago), the shelf unit (I have a taller IKEA one waiting to be moved in there) with the wire freezer basket (I have some of the same ones), the orange swivel chair (I have an IKEA knockoff I was thinking of using but it probably won't be tall enough for the table). Only, I know my space will be more cluttered than hers is, even from day one.
God's eyes from bamboo garden stakes and yarn. A bow from the leftover bamboo from the god's eyes, yarn, and rubber bands, to replace the missing or broken plastic one, and this one didn't last long, either. Paper plate and bean rattles decorated with buffalo, one standing, one pooping. Silky Crayon drawing/paintings. Solstice Pies, one strawberry rhubarb, one raspberry rhubarb.
And most of this before noon yesterday, on the longest day of the year. At this rate we'll I'll be worn out by the end of the week! Thank goodness (not really) for the shorter days ahead.
Overheard:
E: "I like playing!"
R: "E----, that's what kids are made for...playing."
E: "And making stuff."
R: "Yeah."
And my own personal observance of the soltice after all was quiet on the homefront. Since there was nobody else awake to share it with, I thought I'd share it with you, still burning outside under Jupiter and the stars. Good day. Good night.
And for those observing the opposite solstice, this and this.
Some Summer Solstice I am going to get up with the birds before dawn and stay up until after dark. Until then, C will greet the morning sun and I will put it to bed at night. Tonight, after a solstice potluck at a friend's house, and after C was in bed, the boys and I brushed our teeth, put on pajamas...and stayed up, outside, until we almost couldn't see, coming back inside with handfuls of daisies. These pictures were taken between 10:00 and 10:45 pm. Yes, this was truly as magical as it looks, and more. Never again will I let a solstice go unnoticed. This is a special one among days.
Can you see it, third row down, in the top right corner of the picture on the right? Does anybody know what planet that is, in the south sky at dusk right now? Aha! Wait. I found it. Here it is. It's Jupiter.
A pleasant Summer Solstice to you and yours. Let the summer fun begin.
Breakfast in bed is out of the question since C wakes up 3-5 hours before the rest of us, so his one wish for Father's Day was to spend it fishing and the sun came out for the first time on Sunday after a long, heavy rainy streak. Hooray! We spent the day at one of our favorite lakes up the road. It was chilly when the sun went behind the clouds and there was still snow around the lake in the shady spots. We paddled across the lake, right below a bald eagle up in a tree and then E and I hiked back on the trail in our sandals through mostly icy runoff water and snowy patches, checking out glacier lilies, globeflowers, false hellebores, and more coming up right where the snow had just melted and also directly in the cold creeks. (The Marbles socks got their first bath!) The huckleberry bush blossoms are starting to open in the sunny spots. (I'm crossing my fingers for an abudant berry year.) E caught his first fish and even stripped down and dipped into the lake (that's our native Montana boy!) I went for a bit of an unintentional swim too trying to de-snag R's lure. When the boys were ready to come ashore C took off to fish on the lake alone for awhile. I enjoyed seeing him take some time like that to himself. It's a rare sight.
The boys wore the pair of nearly identical hats I just made for them out of Schoeller-Stahl Limbo color #2573, Ireland, a quick and fun knit in a DK superwash wool on #3 dpns, winging the pattern as I went. I was finishing knitting R's that day on the drive to the lake. Each hat used almost one entire 50 gram ball.
Lest you think I'm focusing too much on the boys and my knitting on Papa's Day, I cast on a pair of socks for him while in the canoe on the lake out of a similar colorway, Regia Strato #5741, and the same work of his that was published here is now featured in the editor's pick for Home of the Month in the August 2006 issue of Log Home Living magazine. The article won't necessarily bring him any new work but it certainly is nice for him to see his work in print.
There were some sleepy boys on the way home, and later a good, basic dinner of fresh cutthroat trout with brown rice with our favorite Mirror Pond pale ale.
The STR Marbles socks are finally done! After frogging, skeining, washing, weighting, drying, and rewinding, I decided to go with simplest possible pattern, but not after a couple more false starts with other patterns. These are toe-up over 54 stitches with a picot edge. I made them short, thinking that the picot edge would be tight but, surprisingly, it's the exact opposite. The picot seemed appropriate for the girlyness of this colorway. I think that it's the ever-so-slightly mustard tinge in the yellow that keeps this colorway from being a strictly pastel baby-ish yarn. Even having just called this yarn girly, Larissa's Baz pulls this colorway off here MORE than perfectly well, don't you think? SO CUTE. I wonder if the heavier weight yarn was dyed darker than mine? His looks a bit more like my jar of old marbles that used to belong to my dad and his brother when they were boys. Here's what state the Marbles yarn was in before I completely frogged it and started all over again.
I transplanted all of our poppies to new locations last fall and they must still be feeling the shock as they're not blooming AT ALL this year. I'd seen a small patch of poppies blooming near the highway at an old homestead site and went there one day last week to go pick some but when we arrived we couldn't see them anywhere. Traipsing through the tall grass we found the holes where someone had recently dug them up. I'd bet they'll be back again from the remains of the roots in the next year or so, though. Glancing around we came across a few stray Iris and Dame's Rocket still surviving and blooming here and there, along with a beautiful wild rose. We picked a few of the iris for a vase at home and a handful of rosebuds and petals to dry.
