"flying above the clouds"

"Flying above the clouds," says F.
Isn't it a beautiful sight?

high in the sky...so peaceful...looking down on the soft billows below...

Well, actually, it's the latest batch of homebrewing in our kitchen.

Apple wine this time...

with our feet on the ground, and our heads in the clouds.

one thing leads to another

well, there's nothing like this time of year...shorts on at mid-day, but a cozy fire at night

cozy wool socks...

cozy, cozy, cozy...

and out come the knitting needles.

Not that all my other projects are finished, mind you, but...

when someone gives you this:
you need to do something really great with it, yes?

And since I'm hoping to develop a new knitting habit with less "tink"-ing

(a la Iris), I decided to try my idea out on another skein of yarn,

since I do happen to have a bit of a stash.

I'm committed to no tinking on this trial scarf/shawl-let.

Maybe stockinette would have looked nicer?
Showed off the yarn more?

That question will have to remain a question.

A little lace along the edge, and hopefully enough yarn...
and then I'll try it in the shades of blue loveliness!

It feels wonderful to have those needles in hand once more!
And the wool socks feel nice as well. And the fire.
What can I say? I do love cozy.

green is gold

Dill pickles!
one...

two...

three!

Another done deal

The last project that the homeschoolers handwork group

finished before summer vacation

was to make these lovely ladies

(here is one dancing on the table)
The glitch was that I had made one,

from a pattern by Karsten Kastanje,

and it had a baby in a backpack...pretty irresistable to this group.

Since their dolls all "needed" babies in backpacks, and I thought it might be a bit too challenging for their skill level,
I promised to make some babies and mail them over the summer.
Well, September isn't really summer, but

into the mail they have gone.

Phew!

orange

I don't usually gravitate towards the color orange, and my clean laundry pile tends to be a lovely representation of the rose to violet part of the rainbow.
But a friend recently mentioned that perhaps we Americans are
a bit afraid of orange.
There's nothing like that sort of comment to make me start seeing orange everywhere!
Plus it is that time of year.

I do remember well the first piece of new clothing which I chose as a child...
it was a jumpsuit in a very bright green with very bright orange polka-dots.
I wore it until it was a rag.

When a friend asked if I would custom dye 12 yards of silk for curtains,
in a nice golden yellow, I said yes.
But really it needed to be orange. Yikes!
I experimented with color from my natural dyes,
but got either yellows or pinks and the two would not
meet in the middle!
(though I was just told that onion skins plus a handful of rusty nails will do the trick.
I can't wait to try!)
But for this time, I resorted to Country Classics dye
and loved the ease plus the even coverage.

Voila!!

summer winding down...

What can I say? No words for this...

and last night's heavy dew, as the morning warms up...

and may I just repeat myself, in case you missed it the first time...

A Perfect Day

A Perfect Day (the recipe):

Take a batch of perfect weather, as in blue sky + sun + a little breeze,

not too hot and not too cold.

Add to that a walk with a good friend in a gorgeous place...

salt water, woods, red squirrel chatter, good smells of warm pine needles and seaweed..

and follow it up with a visit to MacNab's Tea Room,
where the hand-knit tea cozy is chosen to match the flavor of your tea.

Perhaps you can see that one of us was having green tea,
and the other Smokey Russian Caravan.

We didn't have our tea leaves read on this day,

but that would be an option.

Of course, scones and lemon curd with the tea.

Of Course!

And since my last visit there, they have stocked one room with Rowan yarn, as these women are huge fans of Kaffe Fassett, as anyone in her right mind would be!

I wish I could show you a picture, but maybe you should go and see for yourself!