Piapie

MGM, She's Grand

She heads off tomorrow.  Much like the Old Peep, this woman is a machine.  Wakes up at 6 AM, makes breakfast AND lunch, and then goes, goes, goes all day long with whatever I needed her to do.  Or whatever she thought I needed her to do, even if I didn't yet know that I needed it.  Halloween costumes would most certainly not have been made and two little girls would have tearfully been shlepped to some store to find wholly unsatisfactory consolation costumes.  Apples and pears would have rotted away in the basement instead of being sauced, dried, compoted.   Our laundry would have been left unfolded, if not unwashed.  And we would have been eating popcorn for dinner except for on Mondays and Thursdays when kind friends brought us meals.  Instead, we ate like kings.  Or I should say queens since we four girls clearly out numbered the one Papi Chulo.

The short of it is that I am so very grateful to this woman who came in and kept our house running for the past two weeks.  She deserves a break.

Orange Sweater

I could salvage a shawl but I couldn't save this sweater.  I tried.  Believe me I would of if I could have.  I've been knitting this sweater for an awfully long time.  I finally had all the pieces done and had seamed most of it together when I realized, because I could finally try it on, that it was waaay too big on me.  And the proportions of the collar compared to the neckline were so far off that there was simply no way to connect the two.  

Sadly it sits there in a pile waiting to be pulled apart, wound back into balls, and made into something new.  I can't bring myself to knit the original pattern again.  I have some ideas.  I have my eye on the Tea Leaves Cardigan.   Maybe for next fall....

Green Shawl

A few days ago I mentioned that I've been picking up my knitting needles quite a bit these past few months.  I have a few things to show for it and a bunch of others in various states of progress.  One of the projects that I actually started and finished quickly was the Kerchief Scarf by Joelle Hoverson.  Originally I thought I would make it for myself as a headscarf for when my hair fell out.  Turns out that it looked ridiculous on me.  It also turns out that it is the perfect size for a shawl for a three year old.  

Add a button hole and a button to keep it on her along with one for decoration and, viola!, you have a little shawl for those brisk autumn days.  Plus I didn't have to rip out that yarn to start something new from scratch.   Big bonus considering what I'll show you tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch

OK, that was fun, revisiting summer which seems like so very long ago but really wasn't.  I like summer and would probably say that it's my favorite season except for the fact that I really think that autumn takes the cake.  

And it is finally truly here.  The leaves are changing colors and littering the sidewalks.  The air is crisp and cool, even on the sunny days.  Sweaters are being pulled out, the furnace turned on, I am scrambling to knit hats for the girls.  And this past weekend we went out for that iconic autumnal outing: the pumpkin patch!

Now we have 5 big pumpkins to carve and 2 mini ones to paint alongside those 200 lbs of apples and pears that are slowly, slowly, slowly cooking up into applesauce.  Oh autumn, how I love it.

Act Like a Tree

This afternoon MonkE and I went for a walk around the neighborhood.   We talked about the trees and collected leaves of different shapes and colors to press at home.   I've been thinking about trees quite a bit lately.  How they endure all the changes of each season, year after year.  Maybe not any stronger or more beautiful for it, but still there, standing tall.  Or maybe leaning a bit, but still there.

I've been thinking about how the roots of trees often go far deeper and extend far wider than we think they do.  

I have admired the changes in the color of the leaves.  We think of trees having green leaves, as if green were the natural color of a leaf.  But the green is only hiding the true colors, the oranges and reds and yellows.   It is now, in the days and weeks before the trees go bare, that they reveal to us their truth.

I have thought about a tree's natural inclination to reach toward the light, to extend outward, to keep growing.

I have wondered about my own ability to act like a tree.   Now I have one of my own for inspiration.

Summer Revisited #5

 

We here live for summers.   Once the rains finally stop, which can be farther into June than I like to admit, the weather turns just about downright perfect.  Warm, sunny, not too hot, low humidity, nice breeze, perfect, perfect, perfect.  Perfect for hiking and thankfully there's plenty of that around here.   A short drive gets you into some lovely scenery, like the Gorge.

 

 

 

We didn't get out for hikes like this every day.  But we got out enough times to know that a) we live in an amazing place and b) getting out is good for us, all of us.  The girls love being out in the woods.  They have good eyes and ears for birds.  Their legs are strong and able to cover some distance.  It grounds them the way it centers us.   It makes us all happy people.  

Sunshine helps too.

Summer Revisited #4

Alongside summer concerts, afternoons at the pool, and camping trips, one of my favorite summer activities is to go berry picking. I am a bit gluttonous about picking and have a history of returning home with far more fruit than is reasonable.  Think "50 lbs. of perishable fresh fruit".  Yeah.  I am one of those pickers.  I can't help it.  Papi Chulo does a lot of head shaking when it's berry season around here.  

It turns out that Funky B is pretty much the same.  I heard her saying things like, "But we didn't look in this tree!" and "But my bucket isn't completely full." and "Oh, this one has a ton of good ones!"  Left to our own devices we'd pick the whole orchards, just to pick.

Someone else sees berries simply for consumption.  Once the stomach is full, the picking is done.  Oddly enough, once the berries get home, she's no longer interested in them either.   That's OK by me.  More for me to make into jam.  This year we'll be drizzling strawberry preserves with cracked black pepper and balsamic vinegar onto ice cream, spreading cherry jam on toast, dipping spoons into spiced blueberry jam, and licking lots of fingers.

Now I need to tackle the 200 lbs of apples and pears in the garage.  You read that right.  Two hundred pounds.  This time though it wasn't me.  Papi Chulo's not allowed to shake his head at me anymore given what he pulled out of the trunk this past weekend.  

Two hundred pounds.   That there is going to be a whole lot of applesauce.  I'm shaking my head, if you couldn't already tell.

Summer Revisited #3

One of my favorite summertime things to do is to pack a picnic dinner and head off to one of the parks for the free summer concerts.  Every night for about six weeks Parks and Recreation hosts a free concert in the neighborhood parks.  It's a great way to explore new-to-us parts of the city.  The music is usually quite good.  And the atmosphere is always delightful.  Warm summer nights, cottonwood tree tufts floating in the evening light, friends sitting around a blanket, good food.  Really, it doesn't get much better than all that.

 

 

Let's not talk about how I always overdo the food prep (making fancier meals for picnics than I do for dinner at home), the chaos of getting out the door, or the overly tired kiddos who were up, once again, after their bedtime.  Those things aren't what I remember about summer concerts, just like I trust the fact that my kids won't remember the times I botched it up as a parent.  Selective memory is a good thing. And that means I am already looking forward to next summer's concerts.

 

 

Summer Revisited #2

Now that I've spent three days on her birthday, I think move on and return to my previously scheduled programming: The Summer Recap!

Early on in the summer we attended a campground wedding.  It was one of those super casual affairs by a creek.  The groom wore shorts and Tevas, the bride a simple white dress, the ringbearer was a dog, dinner was a burrito bar, and there wasn't a high heel in sight.  

Well, the girls heard "wedding" and that means "party" which, of course, requires "party dresses".   I think that people must have thought we were crazy showing up with the girls all dolled up in fancy handmade dresses. 

If there is one thing that I have learned by having young children and a closet full of handmade clothes, it is that I cannot be too precious about them (I mean the clothes;  of course the kids are precious).  All those sweaters and dresses and stinking-cute outfits were made by someone to be worn!   I, for one, don't spend hours knitting a sweater only to have it sit in a drawer.  I am sure that Grammy and the Old Peep are of similar mind.

 

So they stuck their hands in mud and the hems got dirty.  Oh well.  That's what our washer is for.   It was only when I realized that I didn't have a change of clothes and wet dresses would make for a miserable drive that I did the next logical thing. 

 

Finishing the party half naked!  I think their motto might be: if you can't get fancy, get naked.

Birthday Knits for Six

 Someone asked recently if I have been knitting lately.  The answer is "most definitely, yes."  If there was ever a time to keep my hands busy it has been these past six months.  There is something meditative about the repetition of knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, knit, knit, knit,....  When my mind spins or races out of control or leans toward the dark places, knitting soothes it.  Add to that the fact that I find myself sitting around waiting rooms or in the hospital more often than not and I have plenty of excuses to pick up a project or two.  I wouldn't say that I have been prolific but my hands keep getting drawn back to the needles.

Two projects that kept me company while traveling this summer and in the late hours were these two birthday sweaters.  I started with Neighborly:

 

It knit up quickly although I ended up taking the whole thing out and starting again when I realized that I had positioned the collar all wrong (my fault).  The second time it came together even faster and I am happy with the result, especially the big button I found in Arcata, although I am not entirely sure that it serves anything more than a decorative purpose. 

The second sweater is Springtime in Hollis  by Teresa Cole.  It also knit up quickly and I rather enjoyed knitting the bottom half.  An easy stitch that creates a lovely effect.  I chose to make the sleeves on the long side and not put a hood on.

I also made buttons from fabric in the stash, my new favorite handmade detail.    

 Truth be told I am not sure how much wear the vest will get.  I should have considered making it in pink.  But the purple one...oh that falls onto her list of favorite colors and therefore is being much loved.