bee creative

catching up

It doesn't matter what I am trying to do, the cat wants to be involved; preferably from the shoulder. 

She's been a constant companion as I've finished Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks. I want to dive right into Underland but am making myself wait.  There is no way I am going to finish all 12 of the books I picked out at the beginning of the year but I'm going to see how close I can get. 

The tomatoes are gone for another year.  I used a version of this recipe to make chutney.

Changes to the recipe:

• Chipotle powder for red pepper flakes.
• Regular granulated sugar and a good dollop of molasses instead of brown sugar.  It won't be preserved so the balance of vinegar and sugar isn't as important (other than to taste). 
• No star anise, not my favorite flavor. 

 

The quince crop was small this year. I made a small batch of quince paste. It's lovely as a layer in scones.

The current bus project.

Instead of switching colors daily as originally planned I've been switching weekly.

Marking time, measuring time.

 

moving into October

I've given in.  The fireplace is on now and the cat is very happy.

There are still strawberries at the farmer's market.  Good flavor but firm.  I bought some to dehydrate and some for jam.

The jam went right into a batch of scones.  I split the dough in two, flatten out the first half, add jam, then flatten out the second half of the dough and place on top.

They are baked as a whole disk for about 30 minutes and then cut into wedges, pulled apart and then baked until done.  Just like making biscotti. 

I am loving these right now.

I need to finish dyeing with the fresh indigo.  There are some cold nights coming.  This is the first batch.  The color isn't quite right but it"s close. It's brighter and reminds me of the sea.

From the right hand corner, clockwise: the shawl I knit this summer (silk/wool/alpaca), wool, a tank made of hemp and silk (I made it for my mom awhile ago), and local wool yarn.

 

y is for yellow, yes, and yarn

From the garden.

Yummy yellow beans and lemon cucumber.

Goldenrod from the garden at work.

I brought some home to do some dyeing with, but really need to transplant some of it in my garden.

It's on the endangered list at work...Goldenrod looks a bit weedy and it's in the front entry way.

Cleaning up the yarn stash.

Saying yes to play.

The babies are growing up.

 

x is for multiplying

The color isn't true in this photo, but the stripes are visible.

Multiply, to increase.

This shawl is built with increases.

Closer, contrasted with white.

Color provided by fresh indigo.

Grown from seed.

Another increase.

Next year I'd like to have a white sweater done to add to the dye pot.

t is for thinking about...

Time.

It passes quicker than I think.

I lost track of it on Sunday and didn't dye anything that I meant to.

There is time still time.

Another shawl. 

They are perfect for the bus.

I've decided to use a different yarn each day that I work on it.

To use up the stash.

Another way to track time.

Someday I'd like a tiny house.

Not tiny enough for this.

Tiny for me.

Tangled and twisted.

Thinking about that too. `                            

s is for salad, shawl, shirt/stitch and summer

Salad: butter lettuce, peaches, sherry vinegar, olive oil with lemon and herbs, scamorza cheese.

Shawl.  The edge is secured and ready for the dye pot. 

Shirt/stitch. It has a few extra seams so that I could use scrap fabric. It's a self drafted pattern inspired by several sources (Spirit Cloth, School of Nomad Arts, Conscious clothing, dosanyc). 

Summer.

It's the season (noun) and it seasons (verb) everything.

r is for rest and record

It rained this morning...

My sense is that there has been more rain this summer than usual.

There was knitting on the porch.

A lot of repetition.

At the moment I plan to stop knitting on Sunday, harvest some of the indigo and dye this.

There were vegetables (romano beans, zucchini and onions) in red sauce (roasted red peppers, onions, and tomatoes) for dinner. 

Topped with paneer. 

Sometimes I buy paneer, made by one of the local cheese makers; other times I make it (recipe). 

Tomorrow I'll have to prep a few things for the next few days.

The weather report is temps in the 80's (F).

Salad weather...

o is for one

Sometimes I wish I could be interested in just one thing.

Sometimes I have to remind myself if I just do one thing a day I will be moving forward on something...

Sometimes I tell myself, one more day, one more week, one more row, one more page, one more hour...

 

e if for effort and essential and exquisite

"Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"  Mary Oliver

What is essential? Food, water, shelter, safety.  Play?

Dyeing fabric with raspberry juice.  The raspberries were the freezer, dated 3 years ago. A bit frosty.

I ask myself often why make something?

Where to put effort?  I'll need the sweater I am working on in the fall but find myself working on the shawl more often. It's more of a summer project.

(And I'm hoping everyone will just forget that ambitious idea of making 4 sweaters...even if 3 of the planned sweaters were on large needles. I might manage two.)

This didn't take much effort.  A bit of yogurt with cucumber grated in.  Grated beet on top (chiogga).

I found a moth. 

It's markings, exquisite

A is for assignments

 

A... 

I am revisiting the alphabet again. 

This time as a consideration of projects.

All of the assignments I gave myself fell apart in June.

There have been distractions. 

Time to regroup and try again.

Twenty-six days to reflect and think about what I am working on and where I want to go and why.

Altered.

The bus project is no longer just done on the bus. It's worked on every moment that my hands are restless.

It's expanding. Not just the yarn I started with, a wool silk blend; now there is a yarn that is all silk and one that is an alpaca silk blend. Some all wool could be added, a bit of cotton, maybe some linen. More blends. Dyed, it would create stripes just from the different ways the yarn would take up color. It could be nine (thinking of Jude).