Stuff

I’ve worked some on my Jelly Roll baby quilt and completed all of the blocks.  It turns out there are enough blocks to make two baby quilts.  I sort of thought that would happen.  I spent some time laying them out in what I hope will be a good arrangement, and got one set all pieced together.

I bought peach colored fabric for borders and backing, but I’m not sure how it will look.  It was tough to figure out what would go with the fabrics in the roll until it was undone.  I’ll try the first quilt with the peach, see how I like it and whether I have enough for the second quilt before I decide whether to do that one the same.  I think I’ll be doing simply straight line and diagonal quilting on this, since I want to machine quilt it, but don’t feel confident yet with free motion quilting.  Straight line should work well with this design.

John and I visited the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in Scotland Neck, NC today.  Pretty interesting place.  I couldn’t get many good pictures because it was around noon and a lot of the birds/ducks were asleep, or were behind fences or cages.  But we saw some really beautiful birds and ducks, anyway. 

I had a great conversation with a beautiful toucan who tried to lure me into sticking my finger into his cage.  He got upset when I walked away, and when I went back he entertained me by showing me his beautiful beak and eyes up close and demonstrating how he could pick up bits of fruit and toss them down his throat.  Sadly, I couldn’t get a good picture with the cage in the middle.

I did get this picture of a Hawaiian Goose — I really like the coloring and design on this creature’s feathers as you look down on them.

And this guy looked so wise.  I don’t recall what kind of bird he is. I don’t even know if it was a guy, but anyway.

And finally, a couple of plant pics:  Caladium and Bougainvillea, one of my favorite flowers.

Read Full Post »

Butterflies, Dragonflies, and Birds

Last night I completed another section on the snail trail:

I really like this pattern (on the left) that is another from the selection of blackwork fill-in patterns I’ve been using.  Now I’ll be filling in the other two sections to mirror these.  I’ll need to complete one section a day to finish this piece by the end of the month.

Yesterday we walked the Dutch Gap Conservation Area Trail at the site of the 1611 settlement of Henricus.  There’s an historical interpretation center there, but it’s closed on Mondays so we didn’t visit that part of the park.  We were there mainly to walk and enjoy the outdoors anyway.

This park is along a portion of the James River where two loops of the river were bypassed by a canal dug by Union troops during the Civil War.

There are hiking and biking trails as well as a water trail that can be traveled by canoe or kayak.  

Here are some pictures I took:

 

All along the walk we were surrounded by butterflies and dragonflies.  We were serenaded by birds all around.  The dragonflies were in a myriad of colors:  blue, bright green, black and white, red-orange, glistening gold.

 

The park is a wildfowl refuge and includes a heron rookery.  We saw several great blue herons and egrets.  There are also many kinds of warblers in the park.  Although we didn’t see any we definitely heard them. 

Mishka, who can keep up with us on mountain bikes in New Mexico, wilted in the Virginia heat and humidity over the 4.5 mile walk.  She wanted to slow down and rest in the shade whenever she could.

Near the end of the walk we spotted this amazing sculptural tree trunk.  There are leaves and branches at the very top, forest canopy height.  The trunk looks large enough to make comfortable seating for one or two. 

Although the weather was quite warm and humid, it was a great walk with some beautiful sites. It would be fun to return and do the water trail and visit the historical site.  

Read Full Post »

One Step (Stitch) at a Time

Traveling along the snail trail I’ve moved into the next round of sections with a pomegranate blackwork pattern from

Fill-in Patterns from Sixteenth Century Blackwork Embroideries.

If you squint your eyes you can see the swirl, especially in the darker colors.

My goal of making a post each day on this piece is sometimes hard to meet, but is a really good way of staying “on track,” especially as the sections get larger and more complex. 

I continue to like this piece more as I go along.  I’m planning to make it into a pillow top inset into some sage green linen, if I can find it. 

Today we’re going to walk the trail at the Dutch Gap Conservation Area which is considered by the Audobon Society to be one of the top birding sites in Virginia.  ‘Hope we see some birds, although we don’t have our guide book with us, so we won’t be able to do much identification.  There’s a heron rookery there, so maybe we’ll see some of those majestic birds.   

Read Full Post »

More Tracks

One more round is completed on the snail trail.

Yesterday we did some driving around the area.  We were on some back roads south of Petersburg and found this water area.  We weren’t able to find the name of it–don’t know if it is swamp, pond, or river–but we were amazed at the thousands of blossoming pink and white water lilies.

I took some pictures across the water and a few close ups of the water flowers near the road.  I wish I could have gotten across the water to see this mass of flowers close up.

We also drove a short distance into North Carolina and had lunch at a lovely tea room called Timeless Tea in Roanoke Rapids.  It’s a really neat place divided into separate tea rooms, including a princess tea room especially for little girls and a tea for two room.  We’ll definitely be going back there.

We also found the Roanoke Canal Trail along the Roanoke River.  There’s a very nice museum that details the lock system that used to be used to move goods up and down the river.  We didn’t have time to explore the museum and trail yesterday, but will as soon as we can.  It’s an eight mile long trail than can be walked or cycled.  Roanoke Rapids is about twenty minutes from Emporia.   

Our third stop was The Woolery in Mufreesboro, NC.  It’s known as one of the best sources in the country for spinning and weaving materials and tools.  Sadly, I forgot to check the hours.  They are only open a few Saturdays and this was not one of them.  Another place to return to.  I did peek in the windows and saw lots of great things.   

That also means I didn’t get the needles to start my shawl.  I’ll be checking out the Yarn Lounge in Richmond this afternoon.

‘Went out for my first bicycle ride in VA since our return, this morning and was amazed how much easier it was.  Elevation really does make a difference. 

Read Full Post »

Friday Frolics (I know, I can’t think of anything better)

Here’s a picture of a pretty little knitted gift bag my Taos knitting friend, Laura, gave me.  Tucked inside was a safety pin full of pearl and bead stitchmarkers.  I’ll be reminded of her every time I use them.

 

Laura is the one who “founded” our knitting group that has become so close-knit (pun intended) over the past five months.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been meeting such a short time, because we’ve all become fast friends.  I will really miss them when I’m in Virginia, but I know that whenever I come back for visits they’ll be there on Wednesday nights.

Yesterday John, Mishka, and I went for a four mile mountain bike ride on a new trail.  It’s actually a short forest road off of a tight curve of hwy 64 as it heads up the mountain towards Angel Fire.

What a gorgeous place.  The road had only a few really technical spots for riding and it was bordered by a meandering creek and lush green grass.  Mishka was in the creek right out of the truck.  I don’t know how she knew it was there, but she was in it.

While we road she ran in and out of the creek, and the grass, and ran up the hill on the other side of the road, chasing who knows what.

At the end of the road was a pond surrounded by aspen and another track where we left our bikes and walked for a bit.

We found patches of wild iris all over the area.

 

In one place they were blithely taking over the human-made road.

Coming down the hill we rode about 10 to 12 mph and Mishka kept up the whole way.  After her running, sprinting, and generally nosing about, she was filthy and pretty tired.

When we got home, she laid down by my sewing chair while I worked on a new project.

 

Here’s a teaser.  I’ll post more tomorrow.

Read Full Post »

Knitting in the Garden

In spite of the high winds we’ve had in Taos lately, I’ve been able to get in a little knitting in the garden.  Our garden walls block some of the wind, and the light is wonderful for seeing small stitches and true colors of yarn.

I’ve gotten to the heel flap on the first of the socks I’m making for John with Interlacements Tiny Toes yarn, but my camera battery conked out before I could get a picture this morning.  I’ll have more finished to show tomorrow, anyway.

I’m also making progress on my Branching Out alpaca lace scarf.  The perfect project for garden knitting.

Next to one of my garden sitting and knitting spots our first iris of the season has opened up and it’s gorgeous.

We haven’t known what color any of our iris are since they were put in a year ago in April, and by the time we arrived in June they were already finished blooming.  So we’re having fun guessing what colors we have this year.  We have only a week left, so I’m hoping more will open before we have to head back to Virginia.

This morning a Ravelry knitter from Lawrenceville, about 18 miles from Emporia, contacted me, so I know I now have at least one knitting friend ready and waiting for me when I get there.  WhoooHooo for Ravelry!

We’re off this morning to explore a new mountain bike trail.

Read Full Post »

Early Wildflowers

I was surprised once again to find a number of early wildflowers on our walk along the Rito de la Olla yesterday.  I thought that at this elevation wildflowers would not be out until much later in the year, but there are a few hardy ones that start blossoming early.

I’ve used my Audubon wildflower guide to try to identify the ones we saw yesterday.

I’m pretty sure this is spreading fleabane.  This flower apparently grows in a variety of colors, but we only saw these white ones–lots of them.  What’s distinctive about these daisy-like flowers is that the petals do not overlap, even though that’s hard to tell in the photo.  The flowers are less than an inch in diameter.

 

I’m stumped on this one.  I saw only one small example of this wildflower and can’t tell from the pictures and descriptions in my book whether it’s Rough Menodora or Yellow Cryptantha, or neither.  I’m leaning toward the latter because of the leaves, but the blossoms look more like the former.  I’ll have to take the book with me next time and hope to find some more.

We saw only one example of this one, as well, and it looked as though the blossoms were finished or wilted.  ‘Can’t tell what they look like opened up.  Again, I’m not sure of the identification.  It could be a Southwestern Thorn Apple, but I’m not sure of the leaves or flower.  The guide says the flowers are “generally withered by early morning” which these surely were. 

If the identification is correct, this is a member of the nightshade family and its extracts are highly narcotic, even lethal.  Extracts from this family once were important in religious ceremonies of southwest Indians. 

This is another one I’ll have to try to get a second look at.

I didn’t have much time for creative work yesterday as I spent a few hours writing some professional papers I needed to complete.  But I have made good progress on my Monkey socks and should be able to show them soon. 

Read Full Post »

Transformed

As promised, I have pictures today of my blocked Suri Alpaca Blue Jeans Leaf Lace Shawl.  The hand spun yarn came from A Simple Piece of String and the pattern from

Ramblings of an Uncluttered Mind.

This shawl measures about 50 inches across the top and is about 25 inches deep.  The sides are about 35 inches each.  I made it slightly smaller than the pattern indicated, using size 3US needles with the lace weight yarn.

   

My vision was for an ultra light, warm, little shawl I could throw over my shoulders that I would barely notice.  That is exactly how it has turned out.  Alpaca is both extremely warm and very light weight.  And the shawl just rests on my shoulders and back.  I can bring the ends together in the front with a shawl pin if I want to.  but it’s not necessary, as they are not long and don’t get in the way of what I’m doing.  I have it resting on my shoulders now as I’m writing this.

I can envision keeping this shawl in my office for when it gets a little chilly from summer air conditioning or winter temps.

It took quite a lot of hard work to transform the jumble that this piece started out as into this lovely, light, lacey shawl.  I had to stretch it quite a lot and started over with the blocking a couple of times in order to get all of the leaves to line up correctly.

 

Yesterday I read in The Walk by William DeBuys about the glaciated boulders that slowly move along the river bed that passes through his walk.

I imagine that if water could dream, it would dream of the ocean, where it is always trying to go.  I imagine too that if boulders could dream, they would dream no less for the ocean, but they would dream incomprehensibly slowly, and they would dream of themselves as sand.

Talk about transformation!  And a vision of what we are to become.  I wonder if any of us thinks about ourselves becoming so totally transformed and complete in our life purpose.

Someone in one of my Ravelry groups has been writing about the terrible struggle she’s been having knitting a lace stole.  Lace is no simple thing to knit as you are usually working with extremely fine yarn and there are lots of yarn overs and knit togethers that are what create the lace.  Unfortunately the yarn overs are very easy to forget to do and difficult to find and fix without un-knitting, sometimes back a very long way.   There are many times when you just want to chuck the whole thing and give up.  

It seems to me that knitting lace provides so many good lessons about the transformation of a life.  We can envision where we want to be, what beautiful finished thing is to become.  But, oh, it is so painfully slow and difficult to get there.  Most of us are not water joyfully rushing to the sea, but big heavy boulders, slowly creaking and cracking our way, trying to become sand that ebbs and flows with the unceasing waves.

So what if the metaphors are mixed:  lace and boulders.  Isn’t that what transformation is all about?   

Read Full Post »

Of Sweaters and Birds

My Bettna sweater made from Noro Silk Garden yarn came off the blocking board yesterday and I was able to wear it to Wednesday night knitting group.  It was a cool, rainy afternoon and evening, unusual for Taos, so it was the perfect thing to wear.

The colors and style are a little different for me, so it will take some getting used to, but I love the yarn.  It’s a combination of wool, silk, and mohair.

This week I began reading William DeBuys’s book, The Walk.

DeBuys’s book, River of Traps, coauthored with Alex Harris, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1991.  I’ll have to read that one, too.

The Walk is interesting to me because it is about, among other things, DeBuys’s walk through the fields and forests around his home in Las Trampas, NM.  Las Trampas is not too far from Taos, on the high road from Santa Fe, and is a singularly beautiful area.  And, I love to walk, so it’s a good read combination.  

Anyway, in yesterday’s reading DeBuys was talking about bark peels on the massive orange and black Ponderosa pines in the forest bordering his property.  It seems that the Jicarilla Apache would make a peel of bark a little less than a foot wide and about four feet long and extract the inner cambium for a food source.  These peels would not harm the trees and provided either regular or starvation food for the Apache people.  He noted how he had never even noticed the old peels on the trees around him until a retired forester friend pointed them out.

I thought this was interesting enough, but he also told how legend says the tanager taught this method to the Apache.  I wasn’t exactly sure what a tanager was, but I thought it was some kind of bird.

Lo and behold, this morning I was looking out my back door and on the wall between our yard and our neighbor’s was a most amazing bird.  It was bright yellow with a brilliant orange-red head and dark black wings.  I had never seen anything like it before, and it was colored so brilliantly it looked almost like a child’s toy sitting there.  But then it flew down between the houses.

So I had to find out what it was.  I looked it up in one of my bird books–interest in birds is another thing I get from my family–and, you guessed it, it was a Western Tanager.  Wow!  This picture is from Birdnote.org.

‘Turns out this is a species of bird that winters in Central America and Mexico in the shade forests where coffee is grown, then migrates to western North America for breeding. 

You can hear the call of the Western Tanager and learn a little about the connection between the western tanager and coffee by clicking this link.  Yes, that’s the beautiful bird call I’ve been hearing the last couple of mornings.  

I think it’s pretty amazing that yesterday I was just reading about this bird and wondering about it, and today I see one in my own backyard.  I think I may try to lean more about the lore of the tanager.

I wonder what this little bird has to teach me. 

Read Full Post »

On the Blocking Board

Yesterday I blocked the lower back and front pieces of my Bettna Sweater.   The larger piece is the back turned vertically, rather than horizontally.

While they are waiting on the blocking board I’m making good progress on the sleeve and upper right body.  It looks a little funny at the top because I couldn’t get the cable to lie straight.  I’m close to finishing this piece.

Next will be another sleeve and upper left body before the whole thing begins to come together.  The back of this sweater is really pretty when the pieces are joined together.  Getting a head start on blocking the lower pieces should help out with space for blocking the upper pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went for a walk along the Rio de la Olla yesterday and I collected some texture and pattern pictures.  The first two are cottonwood bark from great big trees that grow along the banks of the river.

Rocks embedded in the road surface.

Rock strata.

Tree branches against the sky.  I didn’t see the strong equilateral triangle formed by the branches until I put the picture up on my computer screen.  Cool.

I think these make good sources for design ideas.

While we were walking we saw lots of new evidence of beavers at work, both in new dams in the water and newly cut trees.  There were several like this.

Unfortunately, lots of these trees fell onto the road instead of into the water.  Must be young beavers practicing without planning.  Smile.  You can just see the older, wiser beaver just shaking their heads. 

Read Full Post »