Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June. – Al Bernstein
June days are simply magical. The light gently wakes me, inviting me to greet the new day. The birds fill the air with their melodies and the low buzzing of the bees join to make the loveliest of harmonies. The lavender is full of velvety purple wands that dance in the breeze. The morning in the garden is my favorite time of the day. And, this morning I was greeted by the first Stella d’Oro daylily – a bittersweet sight because it means the deer will soon be here to snack on the blooms. But that first bloom was a glorious to see!
Triumphing!
Yesterday afternoon I finished the last sleeve of my Marsa Alam and this morning it is enjoying a Spa Treatment and will soon be laying out to dry. Pearl buttons will be sewn on this weekend (thank you all for your input!) Pre-blocking this is perhaps the best fitting sweater I have ever knit! The sleeve/shoulder fit is incredible – and can I just gush about Holst Coast yarn a minute? It might be my favorite yarn ever! The stitches are beautifully even, the ribbing looks nice, the hand of the sweater is incredibly inviting, and it is next-to-skin-soft. And, lets talk about value – I purchased a 500 g/3800 yd cone for about $24. Shipping from Denmark is not bad, and it only added about $10 to the cost of the yarn – and you get the most wonderful updates from Holst and PostNord. (Also, PostNord got the yarn to the USA in less than 24 hours, but it took the USPS more than a week to deliver it to my door…) My Marsa Alam used 324g of yarn – so yes, I have more than enough left-over yarn to use to make a Screen Door, which I cast on last night and flew through 8 repeats of the easy to memorize pattern! Knitting wins are such a good feeling!
Getting Ready!
I have a stack of fabrics that have been patiently waiting for me to begin cutting and assembling them into this quilt. Why that quilt? Genevieve is turning 4 next month and my plan is to make that for her birthday! With my new sewing set up, I think that I can manage to do the machine quilting myself. And while I love the overall stippling effect on the linked quilt, I think that will be a bit beyond my very-beginner abilities. However, I think that concentric circles might be lovely… sort of like the stitching I did for this piece:
Inspired by…
Something I saw on Pinterest last night, which made me go to see the original post on IG. Oh.my.gosh. I have the tamrack pattern – I picked it up in Grainline’s pattern sale earlier this year but had not been inspired to make one, thinking it would be a good fall project. And then I saw the magic that cjoy2 did with her tamrack (also her artwork…) WOW!! It is not bulky, I love the length, and it is incredibly creative – yet simple! She hand-stitched around the butterflies in the most wonderful way! And, her binding around the edges… it is brilliant!
Flattened!
I absolutely LOVE the MBR’s Rose Pants. They are wonderfully easy to make and to wear. I want to make a pair from a light denim – but denim and pleats or gathers seemed, well – bulky in an area I don’t need any extra bulk! So I had been wondering how hard it would be to remove the pleats/gathers from the front… well, wonder no more thanks to this post, which led me to this post. I have enough fabric to make a muslin trial run pair of shorts with a flattened front! Wish me luck!
And, that is all I have to share with you all for this first Friday in June! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!
I am joining with Carole and friends with some sobering things this week. Hopefully, thought-provoking – but sobering none the less.
Thing One –
I just want to be healthy and not feel ugly. – Rosemary Hill, IG post
I have been thinking about some posts on IG, especially this one. And, in perfect timing – the latest West Michigan Woman arrived on my doorstep last weekend and Kim Bode’s words jumped off the page at me. And specifically, her answer to the “When do you feel the most beautiful?” question! My head nodded frequently as I read both Romi’s post and Kim Bode’s interview. Why is this such a struggle for most of us me. The answer might be easy, but the reality is so much harder! I wrote these words from the bottom of the WMW article in my journal: Be yourself. Don’t let anyone dictate what beautiful means to you as a daily reminder to ignore the voices – particularly that hyper-critical inner voice.
Thing Two –
So much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide. – Barack Obama, 65th Anniversary of D-Day
Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I do not have any grandparents who fought in WWII – both of my grandfathers wanted to enlist to fight neither could because of their health. However, I did have a great uncle who fought on Omaha Beach in Normandy – he was seriously wounded but survived and lived well into his 80’s. There are so many images from D-Day, but Marina Amaral’s colorized images are amazing! And this article from USA Today has some amazing facts about D-Day. I was struck by the number of WWII vets still living and I am profoundly thankful to every single one of the 16 million Americans who served.
Thing Three –
The real danger is if we hear enough lies, we no longer recognize the truth at all. – Chernobyl mini series
I finished the final episode of the Chernobyl mini-series to watch. I enjoyed it tremendously, especially when paired with The Chernobyl Podcast that the Two Peter’s (Peter Sagal and Peter Mazin) host. Watching it made me wonder what Chernobyl and Pripyat look like today and I found this drone video footage. And, if you think that Chernobyl is simply about the disaster that happened – you’d be wrong. It is really about what happens when the government lies, and the people believe those lies despite what they can see with their own eyes. It is both shocking and scary how eager the citizens are to believe the lies – but then we have some first hand experience with people not believing what they see in this country too! But long live the scientists – they are truly the heroes/heroines of this story!
I am joining with Carole and friends today to share a few things with you today!
Thing One:
The volume of rain has me singing this song from the Winnie the Pooh movie. Thankfully we have not yet had any of the flooding that some of those in Western PA have. Yesterday my phone received one alert after another with a multitude of weather warmings. Unbelievably, there is more rain in the forecast for today…
Sadly, it does not surprise me that few people have read the Mueller Report. However, I am righteously angry that most of the members of congress have not read it…I have read it – every.single.page. I do not have a law degree and I had no problem understanding it. Yes, there are some parts that have been redacted, but that does not impact the understanding of the report. So, Dear America – be like Justin Amash and read the damned report! (And, if you don’t want to read the report his twitter feed is a virtual CliffsNotes™)
Thing Three:
Finally, a good problem to have: It is always a risk to put things on hold at the library, because if they all become available at once – you have a flood of books to read. That happened to me this week! I have 9 books to read in 21 days, most of which I have been waiting for a very long time, so wish me luck! Lol
The weather forecast seems to be attempting to put the kibosh on a glorious welcome to summer:
But I am not going to let the weather stop me from having a good weekend!
In the plus column – I did indeed get my Charity Shawl completed and blocked! Which means I can ease back into my regularly scheduled knitting – which includes my Marsa Alam and a pair of toe-up socks! I have never knit a pair of socks toe-up so this is an entirely new experience for me. I am not sure how I feel about the process compared to my usual sock knitting method, but I will have a better idea once I have gotten to the heel. I am also a bit concerned about the cast off, but hopefully my typical stretchy bind-off will not fail me!
Thinking about:
Sewing! I finished my Rose muslin yesterday. I had made some alterations to the pattern – I shortened the length and I knew I would need to shorten the rise but I was unsure exactly how much to shorten it. And even though I did not quite shorten it enough, it is still a wearable muslin! I used some fabric I got at IKEA a couple of years ago. My original plan was to sew a cushion for the window seat at the top of our stairs, but that never happened and so I thought it would work well for a muslin and it did! The pattern directions are well written and very clear. I tried the pleat option and it was surprisingly easy! I think the gathered front looks nice as well so I will get some fabric this weekend to make another pair. I think these would work with fun prints, linen, and even a lightweight denim! AND!! They are super comfortable and I predict these will be the Pants of the Summer!
Gearing up for:
The start of Summer Book Bingo! That’s right – any book finishes beginning tomorrow can count for a square! I am ON the “Made into a TV series” square with the first book of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series – A Great Deliverance. I have high hopes for this book as the reviews on Goodreads are stellar! I started it Wednesday night and should easily have it finished this weekend! It is not to late for you to join in as well! Book Bingo makes summer so much more fun!
Inspired by:
PatternScout! I love this idea of remaking things and giving them a new life. Also, I really love her pattern suggestions – especially the Burda Knot Front Blouse! And, I truly love her “Monologue” especially this: “This hobby has given me so much confidence…creatively and about my body.” YES, so much yes!!
Fun, fun, fun:
I am going to harvest some rhubarb today and have plans to make a batch of Rhubarb-Thyme Syrup. This will come in handy as an addition to some beginning-of-summer-inspired cocktails this weekend – I am thinking about something new with gin. Stay tuned – I will share the recipe next week!
That’s all I have for this week – have an amazing Memorial Day Weekend and I will see you all back here next week!
I am happily joining with Carole and friends this week to share some “ah-ha” things in my world this week!
Thing One:
Tuesday was local Primary Election Day in PA and turn out was sad… so sad. However, despite the horrendously poor turn out (we only had 82 voters in our precinct) the numbers were most interesting! The Democrat turn out beat the Republican turn out – in fact it was almost double! But the horrendously poor turn out meant I could spend more time talking with the people who voted! I met the gentleman who was Michael Chabon’s teacher and advisor when he was a student at Pitt! We talked about books and shared some “new to each of us” titles. It was almost the best moment of the day. The only better moment was the gentleman who was born in 1918 who came to vote. He still lives in his own home, he is very ambulatory, but his eyesight is “not what it once was” and he was happy that his son in law (who lives next door to him) drove him to vote. We should all take a page from this amazing 101-and-a-half-year-old man – voting is indeed our right and a privilege and we should exercise that right every single time we can!
Thing Two:
Book Bingo is on – and I “reset” the card twice and ended up with this one – lots of “ah-ha” things on here! And, I think it will work for my “Summer of Classics and New to Me Authors”!
Thing Three:
My final ah-ha moment this week was when I realized yesterday that this weekend is a LONG weekend! Now, I am hoping that Steve will be able to at least leave work early on Friday and our long weekend can be a little longer!
That is all I have for today – did you have any “ah-ha” moments this week?
A normal weekend – that is what I wished for and I’d say that was exactly what I got!
FriYAY Happy Hour made me very happy – we sat outside, and it was so lovely! And, can I just say that my new favorite drink might be a gin martini… that Bombay Sapphire is amazing stuff!
Saturday was full – so full! A trip to Costco, some yard work, and I then I decided to reorganized my “craft room” to accommodate sewing machines being out all.the.time! It took all afternoon and a good chunk of the evening. It just needs a few odds and ends put away, which I hope to finish up today. Fortunately, dinner was super simple! Fresh asparagus and some amazing shrimp we picked up from our Costco trip – Steve grilled all of it and it was just so delicious.
My son sent a picture of the dog he is fostering – Sam (the feet, in case you did not know, lol) and Bowser (on the left) feel completely at home with Shakespeare (who Sam is calling Shake) – or maybe it is Shake that feels completely at home with them. I have my fingers crossed that I will soon have a new grand-dog to love!
Sunday morning, Steve did some more yard work – and really – all the heaving lifting yard work! He moved our fire pit to its new home…which allowed for the patio heater to move to its new place. We just have a few final things to finish up and the summer living areas will be all set. The temps got a bit warm and muggy on Sunday, so we cranked on the AC – which thankfully is now fully operational!
We closed out the weekend with a simple Sunday Happy Hour (inside this time and with AC!) in preparation for the GoT finale… no spoilers here, so I can’t tell you if those eight questions were answered! Sorry!! However, I will say that I was very happy with how the series ended.
My weekend hope that remains unfulfilled was to finish that blasted shawl, but I barely knit a stitch all weekend! However, I am working at the PA election tomorrow, which is a local primary election so sadly, it should not be too busy so I am hopeful to finish it then!
