Knitting along again today. Getting a start on the fish hat. It is a funny pattern- this will be the fish's mouth which will fit over the head- there will be fins and a tail and eyeballs and all! I am reading Last Child in the Woods right now in between gardening books and books about pig raising. I think I need something lighter soon. Anyone have any good novel recommendations? I am finding it hard to find books to read that fit my parameters- I want something that has depth but I can't deal with things that are dark or disturbing these days- I need life affirming and inspiring- any ideas?

My wool order arrived and there is lots to get started on. Ari's sweater is most pressing- his birthday is just a few weeks away and I am realizing it is probably not humanly possible to start and finish a sweater by then. I'll get a start on it and see what I can do and be sure to get it done while there is still a spring chill in the air that calls for woolly sweaters. 

And finally some pictures of my love in his finished sweater. I do find the neck a bit funny on this pattern, it is the same one I used for Dorian's sweater - the EZ seamless raglan, and if I ever knit it again I will need to learn how to adjust the pattern to make the neck less wide. But all said- it fits and he seems to be pleased with it and I am glad to have finally got over my fear of full sized sweater knitting. That will make Ari's sweater a breeze and it will just fly off the needles, right?

Happy Wednesday friends!

We've been working of a few things this week- I am still awaiting my wool order and so am puttering away on little baby knits- they are so fun and satisfying.

The boys worked on several projects, they painted butterflies and then the painting scraps were turned into egg shapes. Ari spent a lot of time cutting and decorating and hole punching these eggs which he wants the string as a garland. He has been decorating each one carefully.

And I have been gathering up wool from my stash to make fish hats with some other local knitters for an anti-pipeline event. I am excited about this project as it is something I can putter on at home and enjoy the process- unlike the other anti-pipeline activity I am taking part in- making an oral statement to the joint review panel- which just thinking of  makes me get jittery and feel nauseous. So I will just focus on this nice safe pile of wool to calm myself down. Deep breath. Phew- that's better. 
And the sun is shining and we are heading out the door to play in it. Happy Wednesday friends!

projects past

I wrote this post awhile back and am just publishing it now- a few crafts and projects from the summer. There are more still to add, but this is a start anyway! 

I've been meaning to post about various craft projects from this summer, but I seem to have a hard time remembering to photograph the things I'm working on. So I'll gather up the pictures I have on hand and write about what I've got. 

I dyed this wool with lichens I had been collecting for a shawl I want to make for a friend. It turned out a very subtle beigy- brown, but a warm tone that I think will be quite pretty as a shawl. I enjoyed the whole process a lot and I think I am going to want to do more dying of my own wool. My sister got me a book on planting a dye garden, so next year, I think I will include some dye plants in the garden plan and try for some more yarn dyeing. And then, someday I'll actually learn to use that spinning wheel that is collecting dust in the big house and spin my own yarn from wool I've dyed from plants I grew in my own garden. That does sound like fun. 

I knit these red slippers on one of our camping trips this summer. Ari requested red slippers with red pom poms.These were knitted in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry with two strands held together.  I imagined that these would be worn with the cuffs folded down, but he likes them this way, and says they keep his legs warm. I had planned to sew a leather sole on the bottom, but Ari was not in agreement, as they currently make terrific skates on the wood floors. I'm not sure how they will hold up to such treatment, but until I happen upon some suede at the thrift shop, my little skater is in luck.

I finished these PJ's for the boys a little while back- the fabric had been sitting cut out and half sewed for ages and I finally managed to finish the job. Ari really needs new PJ's, and so I had him choose some jersey from the fabric shop to sew some for him. More red of course! Dori doesn't need PJ's at all, but I knew he would really love a pair of mama made ones, so I made these ones quickly from a plus sized thrift store women's shirt. They are quite funny- the bottoms are too short and rather tight, as I used the 3/4 length sleeves to make them from, and I giggle when I see him wearing them. But he was pleased and that's what matters. I will use the pattern I used for Ari's PJs again, I quite like how they turned out and they fit him really well.  

When I made Ari his red slippers Dorian declared that he needed a pair too (he has 2 pairs of slippers that fit him just fine,) and he needed purple ones. I wasn't too excited with the idea of knitting him something he didn't really need, and I didn't have enough purple in my stash to knit slippers anyway. So I knit him some mittens, which he does need, in the only purple yarn I had. These don't look like pairs much- more like distant cousins, especially with the different rib pattern on the cuff and the slightly different shaping- oh well. I knit these on another camping trip and I was paying more attention to the scenery and the kids fishing attempts than to my knitting. But they are warm and Dori seems happy with them.
Perry and the boys worked on the strawbale playhouse awhile back. It got a second coat of stucco and then a paint job with natural mineral pigments. I don't have a picture of the completed project on hand, but it looks quite sweet and the boys are very proud of it. Every visitor to the property must have a tour of the strawbale house/ icecream shop.




And this yummy yarn is waiting in the wings to become some other fun things. There are some future socks here, and a hat and scarf for me (yay!) and not pictured is the wool for a sweater for Perry. The rainbow wool is especially calling me, isn't it pretty? Oh, there is nothing like a package of new wool to play with to make this mama happy.

 I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind comments and e-mails over the past few weeks. I have been quite terrible about replying and keeping up with correspondence, I will really try to catch up. But in the meantime, know that I appreciate your words so much- thanks friends!

today

::Casting on for a knitting-in-the-car project. First line of business when getting ready for a camping trip that involves some car time. This will be slippers for Ari. He requested red slippers with red pom poms. I am happy to oblige.

::Packing. Rain gear, woolens, wool hats, sun hats, wool socks (I finished those ones I was working on, and they are getting a lot of wear this winter summer,) bug spray, a zillion changes of clothes and, with great hope in my heart, the swim suits. Ah, camping in the North.

::Kitchen projects. Granola and water kefir (we are loving our water kefir so much these days- the boys have named it "ginger-ella" which sounds so wonderfully fairy-tale-ish like a magic potion or elixir, which it kind of is.) I made zucchini muffins with the boys yesterday and Perry made yogurt today. Loading up the cooler with good treats.

::Chasing a deer out of the garden. We love these beautiful animals and have never had them in our garden except at the very end of the season, but with no dogs on the property right now, this one decided to come for a visit. Apparently it likes our chard. All of our chard.

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Ari burst out crying when he discovered all the chard had been eaten. It's his favorite. I think we'll cover what we can with row cover before we go camping, for what it is worth. Our poor garden is having a rough go of it this year with the cold and lack of sun and now the deer. I'm still holding out hope for some kind of harvest.

 And really, when you have this much cuteness under your roof, what else matters? 

Good night dear friends. 

weekend



This weekend we've been inside and out, dodging the rain, playing outside when we can, enjoying our time together. We bought a flat of strawberries at the market and enjoyed them all weekend. We picked greens and herbs from the garden and enjoyed some good local meals. We were supposed to spend the afternoon as a family working some of our CSA farm hours but we got rained out. Perry went on his own and spent an afternoon picking garlic scapes in the pouring rain. We'll join in next time.



Canning strawberry rhubarb jam for winter,





homemade strawberry ice cream with local ingredients (except for the sprinkles of course!)



supper outside

mud pies

forts inside made from all the chairs in the house plus the couch cushions and the craft table...

trying to choose just the right green to finish a project.

I hope your weekend was lovely, friends!

rainy days

Hello friends,


Thank you for all the lovely comments on the last post. We did enjoy our celebrations and the boys were so excited to celebrate solstice and the coming of summer. It has not been feeling very summerish these past few days however. We have a fire going in the wood stove today, and it is rainy and very chilly. The plants in the garden look like they are just hunkering down, waiting for warmer weather.

I took these pictures last week- nothing has grown much since then, it just looks wetter now. Though the potatoes are up now, and the peas are growing well. Often the end of June is cold here, we are holding out hope for a warmer July.
(this was last week, when we had some sun- the boys had a mud factory that manufactured mud paint for greenhouses.)


There has been more indoor play the past few days. Playing card games with the kiddos is good fun. Rules are very loose, but they enjoy trying, and then usually end up making up their own game that is more fun for them.

I've been enjoying knitting, though there have been some frustrations. These socks have been partially frogged a couple times with tension issues (different weights of sock yarn...) Though now I am done this one and onto the second. I love this picture though-those little legs! I can't believe how big Dori's feet look in this picture, he's getting so big!

And my yarn arrived before the postal strike, but with a couple disappointments- the one colour I ordered for a half-finished (secret!) project came from a different dye lot and I learned why knitting books always say to order more than enough for the project at hand- the shades are totally different! Ak. So I knitted it up anyway and am trying to find a creative way to cover up the line between the two shades. If all goes well it might end up nicer that it would have been with all the same dye lot. I'm waiting for the buttons to arrive before I finalize my plan of action.


The other disappointment was that lovely blue yarn I purchased for a special project. I want to knit a shawl as a gift to a woman who has been a wonderful support and guide to me. I ordered the wool thinking it was a light greyish blue- a colour I think she would like. But it arrived a very saturated blue- much brighter than she would wear. I've already thought of a couple projects that I could use it for, but now I have to find a good yarn for this shawl. How I wish we still had a yarn shop here! I'm thinking of dying some wool I have with some lichens I gathered last fall. I just need to track down a really big pot to do it in.
We pulled out the summer books and read through them today (by the crackling wood stove!) I love these books. Flower Festival by Elsa Beskow is my absolute favorite. The pictures of all the flowers and plants as little people are brilliant. I especially love the weeds! I could read this one over and over, and this year Ari is really enjoying it too.



I also love Berry Magic by Teri Sloat. It is a traditional Yup'ik Eskimo story about how berries came to the tundra and it really is magic. The story is beautifully told and the pictures are lovely.


I picked up A Day in the Garden at the thrift story- it is out of print I think, but it ist such a sweet, dreamy wordless book showing a family through a summer day in their garden.

Ari and I are reading a Thorton Burgess story book at night and enjoying th antics of the animals. Dorian has been loving the "small" series by Lois Lenski- Pilot Small, Cowboy Small etc.

And we have a quiet weekend planned. A farmers market in the rain and a trip to a farm in a neighbouring town for some raw wool (they were going to compost it!) and then we'll be home by the fire.

Have a great weekend, friends.

good stuff

The party for Ari this weekend was so much fun. It was raining when people arrived and since I hadn't planned much aside from letting the kids roast hot dogs and run around outside, I was a little worried. But the sun came out and it turned into the first really lovely day of the year and everyone was just so happy to be outside visiting and playing and enjoying the day. The one activity I had planned for the kids- making and decorating pinwheels-never happened as there was too much running, giggling, fort-building, kite flying, sand-ice cream-serving-fun happening out in the sun.

I wish I had taken a picture of the gifts people brought (or really, of most of the party- I just was too busy enjoying it!) but they were perfect for our boy. There were several special rocks and seashells chosen by his friends, hand-made art, a homemade cd of favorite tunes, a kite,a story box to inspire made up stories, marbles. The simplicity of the gifts made me love my friends even more, and Ari was thrilled!


This was the cake Ari requested. White cake (I used Orangette's Banana cake recipe, only subbed applesauce for the bananas and it was yummy,) with strawberries, vanilla yogurt topping (I just strain it for a bit-) and chocolate sprinkles. Pretty good taste for a 5-year-old I'd say. We served it with homemade vanilla icecream and we were just able to squeeze out pieces for the 40(!) people that came.

::popsicle weather!::

Sunday was beautiful- we spent most of the day in the garden building a new composter and working to layer the compost properly- something we've been wanting to do for years. We stayed out well after the kids bedtime enjoying the day. Which was good since it has been raining ever since and we've been spending more time inside. Though we did head to the lake for a walk with friends in the rain yesterday, which was lovely in its own way.

And as if the sunshine and party were not enough excitement for one weekend, we were able to attend the first farmers market of the year (my kids favorite thing in the world- There are bunnies to pet, and cookies to eat and pony rides and spanikopita and live music and all their friends! So much fun.) We also went to a community arts event with dancing and a symphony performance, and then there was this- this amazing huge basket of wool!

My friend gave me a heads up about a garage sale that was selling off lots of yarn and fiber items. I got up fresh and early and scored this incredible stash of wool, bamboo needles, wool wash and the beautiful basket! Most of the skeins were being sold from .75 cents to 2$! I will be set for a good while with all this yarn. I was positively giddy! I just keep sifting through it, feeling each skein, trying to decide what my first project should be. Oh, the possibilities!

This week has continued to be busy, with visits and appointments, the house is a bit of a wreak and we are all a little tired, but happy. Planning some down time, some garden planning and some knitting. I hope you are well, dear friends.