The Day Begins

The day begins.

I've added a few sites to my links that are fun and inspiring for the textile side of life.  I've been so hit and miss here lately that I've gotten behind on the other sites I link to.  I really enjoy the photos posted by 3191 Miles Apart, and Valerie Jardin with her international street photography workshops.  Take a moment and look through these sites.


And then there's the "kitten fix":

Phoebe.

In bocca al lupo.  m

Swatching

Checking the gauge.  Back to the meditation that is knitting.  Listening to baseball and enjoying a sunny afternoon. Such peace.
Quince & Co Sparrow yarn in Sky. Linen spun in Italy.

In bocca al lupo.  m

Where Have I Been???

It's been such a long time! I've never gone this long and the story is too long to tell. Suffice it to say things have changed and are now beginning to settle into getting back to the new normal. Same house. Same camera...and me.  I want to make a push to post regularly again, at least weekly.  I will try...if anyone is left who checks in.

I've been reading, here are some of the titles:

Spirals in Time
The Narrow Edge
Lisette's List (again)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (again)
When Books Went to War
Prisoners of Geography
and currently:
Hamilton (on going)
Americans in Paris (on going)
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms (on going)

The garden is in full swing with peas, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, beans, asparagus, cabbages, and assorted herbs.

That's the mercifully short version of life around here.  Oh and there's always knitting, just not as much...

In bocca al lupo. m

A Break

Taking a break.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

What I'm working on...

Besides learning photography I'm also working on a couple of cardigans for myself.  I was going to say "one for winter" but the summers here can be quite chilly and damp. A nice soft wool sweater can feel pretty darned good on a cold, foggy July evening.  But, just in case this weather continues to prove so much warmer than our normal, I have a summer sweater on the needles too.

A perfect moment is when I can combine photography with the knitting.  They've been keeping going along with all my dear, dear friends.

So, a little burst of color amid my favorite black and white images.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Today 3/3/15

Back home working

In bocca al lupo  m (no v)

Today 1/26/15

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Today 1/13/15

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Brookly Tweed

This post is a thank you to Brooklyn Tweed who sent the skein of yarn when the project I was working on ran out with two rows to go.  It was one of those rare events where a skein was "light".  I contacted them to see if they could send me a few feet of the color and they sent an entire skein!  I have thanked them profusely and am now spreading the word.  I wish I had more readers to this blog!

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

This Morning 12/11/14

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

This Morning 11/29/14

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

The Corner "Studio"

Setting up my corner photo shoot for the hands project.  I have working hands, exploring hands, teaching hands, loving hands, and now (hopefully) creative hands.  I'm loving film, but love the digital as well!

In bocca al lupo.  m & v

Color

I love to use these colorful baskets to store fabric and yarn.  I use small ones for knitting projects and large ones at the farmers' markets.  I love to see the collection of them side by side adding color.

In bocca al lupo.  m & v

Knitting Break

I've had a long hiatus from knitting.  Recently, however, I felt a couple of small projects wouldn't break the bank. So I started a hat for v (just in case). The yarn is such a vibrant red which he chose, to my delight, and the wool is so very soft and comforting just to knit.

This is a little project for me. I've wanted to try this pattern for a long time (from Madder at Swatch Diaries--see link).  The yarn is from Quince & Co.  It is American wool from this little American company in Maine (also see link).

Then, out of the blue, I received an email telling me that our local yarn shop has been sold and the owner is liquidating stock at really terrific discounts so....

v is getting a new cardigan from some sumptuous wool from Uruguay: Manos del Uruguay.

Just to let you know how the weather is here on the Central Coast.  As I  looked through all the gorgeous skeins of yarn to choose from I kept saying this, or that, would make a wonderfully warm sweater for the summer.  Where I come from, honey, that would be unheard of!  But here, it feels like July is far colder than February sometimes with our wet, dark fogs that roll in for days on end.

I'll be having some more shots from our recent get away soon, but I just had to take a knitting break.

In bocca al lupo.  m & v

Sewing Day

We call it Sewing Day, this day that my friend and I meet every other week, but lately it has been more toward fiber art.  Sometimes it's a garden day and we spend our time checking out the local nurseries.  It is always friendship and sharing of ideas and any new skills either of us has picked up.

More often than not, I'm the one on the learning end.  She comes from an incredibly talented family with four sisters.  Someone is always learning something new and passing it on to the others:  Jewelry, spinning, wood working, sewing, needlework, collage, canning, preserving...

They cause me to miss the sisters I never had.

In bocca al lupo.  m & v