Smatterings

  • whew…!

    The skeining and the dyeing is finished, for this week.  Tomorrow is organize and pack up for the VT S&W this weekend.  If you are planning on going, don’t forget there is a $1.00 off coupon on there web site.  Or, you can go back to last week sometime ( I think last week, it’s been sort of a blur) and find the link I had at the top of a post.  Another thing not to forget, me.. make sure you stop and say "hi". 

    There hasn’t been time to take pictures of the new yarn and the new colors.  Most of the old ones are still there and new ones added.  Next week.  The new yarn I decided to try is a merino / bamboo / silk blend.  Very soft, very durable and completely washable.  I wanted to see how it would knit up so started a little scarf.  The pattern is an easy to memorize 12 row repeat.  The picture separates the colors more than they are, making it look too busy.  I’ll knit a bit further, it’s a test knit, then decide.

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    The Chicken Corn Soup recipe.  I don’t have one.  Every time is probably a bit different.  I Googled it and there are lots of recipes.  My advice, use them only as guidelines.  This time of year, I don’t use noodles.  The corn is SO good, I add more of it.  I never use canned broth.  Use a chicken.. you need the meat anyway.

    The hummingbirds…. I still have females and some juveniles.  Not many, but a consistent showing. I expect that to stop by next week sometime.  Keep the feeders full, there are stragglers, and they will need them.

    10 responses to “whew…!”

    1. Katie K

      I think the pattern looks really beautiful in that yarn, not busy at all.

    2. Leigh

      The scarf is lovely. But a 12 row pattern that’s easy to memorize? Right, and then there’s me.

    3. Laurie

      Took me 15 repeats to memorize a two row pattern. But I WAS distracted at the time.
      I like the scarf. (The yarn sounds intriguing.)

    4. Kate/Massachusetts

      I like this pattern very much! Is it a pattern available on the Web or in a book? I think it is lovely!
      I live west of Boston and still have a lot of Hummers to the feeder. They are so fun to watch! I think we have several nesting pairs who are quite territorial. One will chase the others away even though I have multiple feeders and plenty for all!

    5. cyndy

      The yarn looks really interesting, and from the photo, it looks like it has a nice body or memory…(I have wondered about the bamboo and memory.)
      Have a very good time this weekend–I wish I could stop and say hi and buy some of your fabulous dyed yarns….
      …hummers are still at my feeders, mostly they look like young ones.

    6. JessaLu

      See you Saturday :o)

    7. Beth S.

      I love the gartery bits. Variegated yarn really sings to me when it’s in a garter-based pattern. 🙂

    8. joyce

      i think it is stunningly beautiful, and i really like the pattern!
      i’m just getting the lay out of all the new england festivals, as i have a child who starts school in connecticut this week. i would LOVE to see your beautiful yarns in person!

    9. jessie

      Trying to catch up on a backlog of blog posts. So:
      Chicken corn soup? I made my first batch ever last month with fresh local corn and my own broth. Fabulous. It had “rivels” in it, which I take is some PA Dutch thing but basically little homemade noodles that were easy and fantastic. I will make more as soon as the weather turns into proper Vermont fall and not Florida summerlike.
      Your yarn colors are amazing. I hope you had fun at VT S & W. I bagged on it this year (too bad, I would love to have seen you and your stuff). I can’t take the September date, October was much more seasonal. And my God, the heat. Not sorry I missed that part! I hope sales were good despite the non-autumnal ambience. I stayed home and painted our new sheep barn. That’s a fiber fest of a different sort, I suppose!

    10. Lee-Fay

      I really like the combination of yarn and pattern. I like multicoloured yarn, and I like knitting in lace patterns, but often the effect of both is lost when combined. I think in your swatch they may be enhanced.

  • walk with me wednesday

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    The early morning clouds sped off to the east and the Atlantic.  By 10 am the sky was clear and as bright a blue as any western sky.  The air was crisp, enough so that I feared I’d be cracking a skim of ice off the dye pot.  Luck held and temps turned back up at 34F.  The frost advisory that had kept me busy picking berries and peppers until dusk last night, was only that.  Whew!

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    I knew that if I walked to the mail box this afternoon that I might be too late to catch the carrier.  I could have driven.  But.. I needed a walk, and it was SO beautiful.  Half way down the hill I heard her car.  She’ll get my mail tomorrow. 

    The light has changed, seems like overnight.  The shadows are deeper, longer, darker.  The sun, in contrast hurts my eyes, it is so bright.

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    There was a book I’d ordered in the mail.  I stopped in the field to open the package and read a bit.  The sun was warm enough for me to take my heavy flannel shirt off and roll it up behind my head.  When was the last time you laid in the grass, not on a blanket, on the grass.  It smells so good.

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    9 responses to “walk with me wednesday”

    1. Diane

      Ah, the weather’s been spectacular! Wish I could bottle up the air, it’s as sweet as the grass.

    2. Pat K

      Thank you for the wonderful virtual walk! And can you send a little of that chilly weather? We’re sick and tired of 90’s here. Amazing to think that you are almost getting frost already.

    3. Marianne

      Grass at the end of summer smells so good !

    4. Manise

      This post made me smile. As a kid I used to walk to other side of the school campus I grew up in to pick up our mail and sometimes along the way I’d sit down in the meadow or under the fig trees taking things in. It’s been a long time since I lay down in the grass drinking in the smells. Will have to make some time for that this week before the rains come. Thanks for the peaceful photos.

    5. cyndy

      Just look at that sky!! You don’t get sky like that everyday–those clouds look like they are taking summer away with them!
      * this post made me smile too! Thanks for the respite!

    6. elizabeth

      I haven’t laid my head on the ground since last Fall, and that was on a bed of pine straw. There’s nothing more comfy or relaxing, especially when the wind is blowing through the pine needles overhead and the world is quiet save for the sounds of the animals going about their business.
      I’m ready to go hiking.

    7. Emily

      What a beautiful day! I wish I really could be walking there too. I love living in the big city, but there are times I long for nature, so thank you for sharing your Wednesday walks here!

    8. Marie

      So, are you going to share the recipe?

    9. Fiberjoy

      I could feel the crisp warmth in your pictures. It was good to go inside each one and pause a bit. Hope your show is a tremendous success!

  • seasonal flavor

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    Every season has it’s flavors.  The end of summer, when the corn is full and the tassels brown, is the time for Chicken Corn Soup.  As a child I remember my Grandmother gathering quart mason jars to take with us to the local church fair.  I don’t know what kind of car she had, but I remember one with running boards (that was before she got the hot red Thunderbird).  We’d bump along the dirt road from the farm to the black top, eventually turning off onto a steep winding hill, heading down to the bottom and the Paddletown Church Chicken Corn Soup Festival.   On the church lawn, not far from the headstones, sat a huge iron kettle of soup, cooking over an open fire.  There may have been other things to eat, chicken maybe, and corn, but what I taste, when I think of those times, is the soup.  Bowls to eat there, and jars filled for later. "Careful" my Grandmother would instruct the server, " don’t screw the lids on tightly ’til the soup cools."  There were games.  I wonder if anyone still runs a three legged race?  Some of the kids would walk in the cemetery.  We all had relatives there.  We’d read out the names, calculate ages, and try to figure out familial relationships.  Funny thing, memory, and what kinds of things are triggers.. a nip in the air, a good ear of corn..the first red leaf..

    My  father once remarked that everyone has their own "ethnic" food.  He’s right.  Bet you can guess what’s for dinner.

    15 responses to “seasonal flavor”

    1. Manise

      What wonderful memories! My memories are triggered similarly. I can also conjer up olfactory ones to go along with them. And vice-versa. You’ve really been dyeing up a storm! Lovely colors! Oh the soup? Care to share the recipe?

    2. Laurie

      Yum! Ditto on the recipe.

    3. Carole

      I love soup and I’ve made quite a bit this summer with vegetables from the CSA. It’s all in the freezer and I know it will be wonderful to eat when the weather turns cold. Thanks for sharing your memories. And your new yarns look gorgeous and fall-like.

    4. Sulafaye

      What beautiful pictures–both the yarn and the memories! Sounds like my hometown.

    5. Kathy

      Your pictures from the last two posts are beautiful. And the soup sounds yummy.

    6. Ann

      Oh those colors make my heart sing.. I’m a true Fall girl. Really nice work, Judy. Oh, and set another place for dinner. ***grin***

    7. Dorothy

      I love those kind of memories. Hopefully I can give some like that to my daughter.
      Chicken Corn Soup? Sounds good.
      Psst, I have an actual walk posted on a Wednesday! Shocking, I know.

    8. Beth S.

      I wish that picture was landscape-oriented so I could set it as my desktop picture and have it take up the whole screen! WOW. Fabulous colors!

    9. moiraeknittoo

      I was like the Queen of three legged races when I was younger. So awesome. And the soup sounds fantastic, but the memories were the ones that made me smile. I too think that the colors of fall are some of my favorites, and those yarns are gorgeous. The little hummingbird that likes my yard just zoomed up to the windows and made eye contact as if to say “so long for another summer! See you next year!” Hello Autumn.

    10. Carol

      What nice memories you have to treasure 🙂 So true what your father said, I never thought of it that way. Your yarn is breathtaking!

    11. Tan

      Can I just buy all those to hang up at my house? Then I won’t feel guilty for not knitting my last purchase yet.

    12. vanessa

      oh my, those colors!

    13. Marianne

      Never had chicken corn soup but it sounds real good !
      Oh the colors that come out of your dye pot ! They are beautiful !

    14. Karen in MN

      The yarn is beautiful, and the soup sounds wonderful. Another awesome post.

    15. Fiberjoy

      You packed a lot into that post: sweet memories, good food, and striking autumn colors.
      My best friend & I always won (Jr hi – hi school, imagine!) We had it down to a science. It helped that we were the same height.
      Yes, people still run the three legged race, field day at school and usually the local SummerFest.

“Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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