Goin’ West

For Project Spectrum, I headed West to the land of tall buildings and the fictional home of JR Ewing. Back again, without extra yarn. I’m hoping the pictures I took will come out and I’ll be able to show you the few blue skies I got to see during a short visit to Dallas. There was great food, I got to see people I see once a year, and I wasn’t in the office. The bad part — I’m exhausted, I’m not sure I have something appropriate to wear tomorrow morning, and the cats were very very angry.

No, I did not go to the museum about Kennedy’s assassination. I did get to see an amazing Asian art museum (if you’re ever in Dallas, check out the Crow Asian Art Museum to hear calming beautiful music while getting to look at some of the most splendid jade from China and interesting marble temples from India). It’s weird that I got to go West to see mementos from the East. But here we have East brought to the West by avid collectors; and the old within the modern world of skyscrapers.

Stitch found and row speed ahead

Sometimes regular life distracts sufficiently from knitting, creeping into my hobby time. And in those times, dropped stitches happen. In this case, it was in the Honeycomb vest. So, I’ve ripped back 5 rows, found the dropped stitch, and have set up stitch markers to remind me when 8 repeats of the stitch have been done so I can count more easily. Luckily, Green Mountain Spinnery cotton comfort is very forgiving of ripping.

I’ll be glad when I can get to the decrease rows for the arms and neck, and hopefully move on to the front of the vest. Next vest pattern I decide to do will be in the round. Mark my words.

Saturday is so short

Here’s a goofy list of things that might be more worthwhile than mowing the lawn (which is what everyone else is up to, according to my ears):

• Prepping a door for painting (apparently not enough of a break in the humidity)
• Walking to the library (planning on doing this in a few minutes)
• Going to a museum
• Baking cookies (there’s a break in the humidity)
• Go to a park — it’s SUNNY
• Photography (the first sunny day in a week)
• Sketching (ditto)
• Knitting (this can be done in the evening)
• Reading a shirt pattern (again — can be done in the evening)
• Go on a mad and crazy road trip
• Cleaning projects (UGH, but necessary)
• Hacking at the evil shrub (yep. did some of this)
  

Some of these are limited by the lack of water pressure today. I’m reluctant to come into contact with potential poison ivy in the evil shrub if I can’t wash off the itch.  I nearly broke the glass coffeepot this morning with the blast of air as I tried to fill it (no worries, I do have a little bottled water for essentials), so I’m reluctant to start washing things.

If I prep the door for painting this AM, maybe I can do a quick bit of lawn mowing to appease the neighbors. (mowed the lawn) Eh, if you had a beautiful, sunny day after a week of thunderstorms, which would you choose?

A sketch for Green

A quick sketch for Project Spectrum in a park

Utilitarianism and Green

The color green was popular, back before my Grandmother removed the paint and refinished the family antiques. (Anyone who watches the Antiques Roadshow knows that’s a no-no, but my attitude is — it wasn’t as though it was “antique” when she first owned it.) I can’t quite figure out if the color green was a fad in the Victorian era, or if people from later eras wanted an inexpensive, tough paint color to use to decorate their houses’ exterior woodwork.

On the streets of Baltimore, there’s a lot of green trim. It goes well with the red/orange brick houses you find throughout the city, so it seems to dress up and soften the brick. This is a great image to keep in mind when selecting colors that go with burnt orange. What do you think?

New Photo of an Old Project

Leaf Lace Shawl

Revisiting an old project can be wonderful. This was my Olympic shawl challenge back in 2006.

Stats:

• 1 skein of Blue Heron Rayon Flake yarn bought at Vulcan’s Rest Fibers in Chesapeake City
• 1 pattern by Evelyn A. Clark [Leaf Lace Shawl]
• 1 month of dropped stitches during the Winter Olympics

Results: lots of compliments, a respect for the slippery nature of rayon lace weight, and something that triggers memories of 2006, when we lived in the old house.

Green Like Ireland

White fence, green fields, blue sky on a changeable spring day

This farm shocked me with its pleasant March green field, after a day of talking with family who were driving into the snows of Wisconsin or were dodging hail the size of golf balls. In March, when the scales between winter and spring can tip either way, I’ll drink in any vista with green that I can get, even if it’s on a cold, raw day with threat of torrential downpours. [This was shot on Sunday, north near Bel Air, MD. And all that came into my brain was snippets of Walt Whitman poetry. Pure joy.]

North

The direction of Project Spectrum is North this month, with the challenge to provide views of the north from where we are, either from home or from the road. So here’s a view of the snow and the gate to the north. The gate matches the theme, since north’s color is green for the challenge.

North = my hometown, my family (even though everyone’s scattered to the west and south), and possibilities.

I have a feeling that PS this year will fuel my wanderlust, make me dog ear travel magazines, and provide visual inspiration more than inspiration for knitting. That’s OK, since life is about a lot more than just knitting. Although today… today I wish I had a few more woolly projects done to wear in this late wintry weather.

“H” Is for “Herbs”

Bees like catmint too

The southern and western sides of the yard yield amazing herb plants — shrubs of rosemary, fresh sage, many different varieties of mint taking over the yard, thyme for omelets, catmint for the cats, and oregano. They’re mixed in with flowers, so it’s a beautiful, decorative accent, as well as providing lots of good scents and good cooking opportunities. The Gardener really loves flower gardening, and I’m really happy that’s the hobby chosen since I enjoy looking at flowers.

Different varieties of mint grow by the back door

“H” is also for “hedge”. I live in a house with a garden that other people might be envious of, if they could see beyond the giant crynoid hedge-o-doom in the front. Everything’s populating that hedge, and I dream about razing the whole thing down to the ground. But unfortunately (or fortunately) the hedge provides an ecosystem that shelters the yard from high winds, the birds from predators, and the butterflies from high winds and rainstorms. I’m a softie, fueled by amazing levels of apathy. I think it’s also keeping the hill/old creek bed from dropping onto the sidewalk. I know for certain it’s hiding a particularly hideous wire fence.