Oh Hey!

I sometimes do other stuff over here besides talk about vegetables.  It's true!  Sometimes I do stuff like this:

Or sometimes I do stuff like this:

Which turns into this:

I've been holding off on sharing these projects because they were (are) gifts for a dear friend's little girl (who still hasn't made an appearance).  Of course I had to wait until I gifted them before I could share.

The sweater was from this etsy shop, which is now closed.  It's a very nice pattern, but it's written from the bottom up, and I have to say I really prefer top down.  The yarn is Spud & Chloe, which is my new favorite yarn for everything.  It feels like cotton, but knits like wool, which is a big deal for someone with wonky gauge like myself.  Superwash.  Awesome.  And the prettiest colors.

The quilt.  I can't even tell you anything about the fabric for the quilt except that it all came from Purl Soho, where the ladies who waited on me were so helpful and so kind.  And yet I still came out with waaaaay too much binding.  How does that always happen?  What I am going to do with it all?  

Anyway, this was my first Log Cabin quilt and I used this tutorial:

It blew my mind!  Did you know that's how you make a Log Cabin square?!  No?  Neither did I!  It's mildly addictive and I am already planning another Log Cabin quilt for the bedroom.  

It was also my first time tying a quilt, which I really loved, because I used a really lofty batting.  The lovely ladies at Purl told me to just use yarn, like Cascade 220, which I did and which totally felted to bits when I washed the quilt!!  So I had to cut all the ties off and re-do them with embroidery thread, which is was Alicia uses.  It turned out so pretty and exactly the way I imagined it.  I love the way the grey tempers the pastel colors and grounds the girl-iness and bit.  

I actually am working on another quilt right now.  And another baby sweater!  I'll share more of that soon. Bye!

The World is Ripening

In the last year I often have wondered if I'm not a Country Mouse trapped in the body of a City Mouse.  For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to live in The Big City, but now I'm drawn to the rhythms of the natural world, the idea of making more and more by hand, the traditions of cooking like my grandparents.

Having followed the rhythm of our CSA for the last year, I can see the earthly world's natural progression from the crisp green of Spring to the ripeness that is August.  The world is ripening right in front of us, everything giving all its got; one last hurrah before the Autumn chill sets in.

We've been overrun by tomatoes so ripe, that they seem to split and bleed before we can even even cook them.  I've given up trying to plan meals around them and we eat them on toast every morning.  With a little foresight and a few hours I can roast them and prolong their lives for one more week.

Everything around us is dusky, fecund, yielding to the touch.  Red and orange and purple, like these plums. Empress Plums or Italian Plums; my grandparents had a tree in their yard when I was little.  Every year, I buy a pint and every year, I think of my grandfather, splitting these plums for us, warm from the sun.  He would pick pears, too, and sit with his ever-present paring knife, slicing them and feeding us like baby birds.

The poignancy of this is not lost on me; next week, it will be 13 years since he died.  I still miss him, but he returns every September, to remind me of the natural rhythm of the world and the fragility of these last blooms of life.