Old friend: Vanilla pudding (I use this recipe but I leave the butter out) + raspberries.
New friend: Vanilla pudding + gooseberry curd + sour cherries soaked in a sprinkle of sugar for 24 hours + a macaroon (I don't use a pastry bag, a small cookie scoop works).
Well balanced: 2 egg yolks for the pudding, 2 egg whites for the cookies.
One pair of pants + one skirt =
Won't be wearing this to work, it's wool (the skirt wool gauze) and I would cry if bleach got on it. Well, maybe...it could always be mended and/or over-dyed.
Cost, about 15 dollars. I live close to a really fabulous thrift store which is a great resource for work jeans. Sometimes other things can't be resisted!
The top part was cut using the facing pattern for my favorite tank top. For the skirt, I cut out the lining and the zipper, cut it in to 2 pieces and then put it all together.
Another photo with bad lighting that needed a little help. Lola is very happy when I am home. Especially if there are leftovers...
About 2 cups of risotto + 1 egg + 1/4 cup cheese + about 1/3 cup zucchini butter.
I keep forgetting things like this stay together better when the mix is chilled before baking/frying.
Oh well, still tasty.
Decrease: I've decided to start this sweater over.
Increase: Just one more sleeve and the yoke on the solid green sweater.
Increase: Making flowers as patches.
Decrease: the scrap pile is a little smaller. Working hard on this.
Make one: more digital collage.
Decrease: less paper collage happening. Need to get back to that. Working on decreasing the paper stash too...
1. I was out on the porch when I heard a crow above me. It was sitting on the peak. It paused for a moment, long enough for me to take a few pictures and then flew off.
This is a combination of three layers and two filters.
2. Last weekend I found a post on NPR about how having a sense of purpose might extend life, protecting a person from cardiovascular diseases in particular. I love the connection of purpose and heart.
3. Ready to stitch:
Sprouting broccoli, rhubarb, and one spear of asparagus. I made stir fry with the broccoli and the asparagus.
Playing in the garden:I'm going to plant it full of nasturtiums.
And color from the garden:
Wool dyed with golden hops, bronze fennel, rose petal leaves, blackberry leaves and a few dandelion leaves. I bundled and boiled in the water I had used to make a bundle with onion skins.
Not really looking for leaf patterns, just color.
January, February, March...
March's bundle includes cammelia, Oregon grape, and pansies.
Everything seems tea stained so far. The March bundle will be as the cammelia leaves I included are from the type that is used for tea. The cold snap caused a few leaves to drop but not to bad.
The pot I am processing the jars in has room for two more jars so I made up a few bundles.
One of onion skins, avocado and a few stray eucalyptus leaves.
The other dried sumac leaves, the drupes of the sumac and a eucalyptus.
The fabric for the bundles was raw silk that had been dyed in fresh indigo. It was a very soft aqua as the dye bath was almost exhausted.
Assignment #5 is to make or mend each week, with the idea that a project is finished. It was not accomplished during the first full week of the month but if I hurry it will be for the second. Tomorrow I hope to finish the edges on this jumper (dyed in walnut) and attach pockets (maybe the original color?).
An update on the rest of the assignments...
Assignment #1
A collage is happening everyday.
Yesterday while looking at a photo of water lilies I was inspired to make my own. I've been thinking about how there is an essential shape to anything that the human eye identifies and labels.
Assignment #2: January's dye jar is brewing away happily. I occasionally tip it and wonder what color is being absorbed into the fabric. The water is a lovely golden tea color.
Assignment #3 I am on track to finish Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit by the end of January. A friend (Nancy at pomegranate trail) recommended Silence by Earling Kagge which I checked out as an audio book and have been knitting to. There is much that I like about this book including the following definition: "Wonder is the engine of life."
Assignment #4 The sweaters.
Sweater number one is at about 8 or 9 inches. At 15ninches I'll start the sleeves. This will be a short cardigan intended to wear with dresses and tunics. The length is based on a favorite sweater.
A lot of the knitting on this one is happening on the bus or on lunch break. It's mindless knitting...knit one way and then purl the other.
Sweater number two is cast on and moving forward. Right now it is my "at home project," for when it is quiet and I can concentrate. There is another new skill with this one that was not considered...reading a chart for the color pattern (yes I had to start twice). Once the yoke is finished it will pretty much turn in to around and around we go and will take the place of sweater number one as the on the go project.
The colors of this one make me think of sunlight moving through the forest.
At first I thought the goal of 4 sweaters might be ambitious but it really seems doable. Part of this is choosing the right project for the right time of day. Which is really the truth for all of these assignments I've given myself...
A few posts back in the comments I mentioned the idea of gathering a collection from the garden and processing it in a jar (India Flint style, Stuff, Steep +Store) once a month for a year. Starting next January 2020, I'll open one jar a month. Maybe I'll even make it continuous...open one jar and then process another.
Another form of field note....
Here it goes:
January's collection: a fern, some yarrow, fennel, sorrel, black berry, a few lingering rose leaves, dandelion, vinca, the last of the loganberry leaves, sage, st. john's wort and two different types of ivy.
A few of these things aren't usually around this time of year. We've had a few hard frosts but not enough to have them die down.
The water in the jar is a soft tea color so something certainly has color.
..........
Another project under construction:
As part of one of India's classes I was able to take part in a challenge offered by Beautiful Silks. For the cost of postage we were sent about 5 yards of silk to play with.
This includes some of all the silks that were sent except one. The last one I don't want to dye as I like it just the way it is. I'll be making a cowl that could be worn with this to "dress it up."
Something I've been considering a lot is how to make a wardrobe that is everyday but that something small could be added to a few items that would make it "special occasion." Part of my goal to have a sustainable wardrobe.
A little closer look at the bottom. The bright green is dye from the top piece of fabric that ran, the rest eucalyptus and onion skins. The two light fabrics were first dyed in my fresh indigo vat. A little bit of that turquoise remains.
I love the random flow of colors in this, a collage of color.
I've set myself a few assignments for the year 2019 and a word for the year; wonder. Wonder to me is part curiosity and part joy. I want to approach these assignments from a place of wonder. To consider what if from a place of joy. To wonder how about how things connect.
The word wonder comes with a question.
One I haven't quite formulated yet.
Assignment #1 is to make a collage each day. It could be digital, paper or cloth. Or a combination. This is yesterday's collage.
Collage is something I love creating but it's also about zero waste. A good way to use up little bits.
Daily practices can be hard for me but they are good so I keep trying. To help keep the momentum up I decided to take Year of the Collage.
Blanket used as packaging.
I included diapers, wipes, and balm.
Blanket unfolded.
Good thing Mama-to-be doesn't need straight lines.
I'm incapable of making them...