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Knitting the colors of the September Garden

I went through a period of non-knitting, or more exactly, rather reluctant knitting last month. Mostly we just had houseguests and I was feeling overwhelmed and all too easily slipped into a semi-stupor in the evenings.

That has changed. I am entranced with my current knitting project, a cardigan, purchased as a kit from L'atelier in 2008. The back consists of a simple stripe sequence.

I love the colors and the squence of the stripes in the top photo. They make me happy. This is my variation on the original however. The kit came with the black yarn shown in the second photo and I did not like it at all. I found the black far too demanding a partner with the more muted blues and greens so I ripped it back and banished that yarn. Luckily I had a couple of skeins of the glittery red left over from some ancient project. Of course, this completely changes the spirit of the knitted fabric.

As I look at the photos I see that the black really isn't as bad as my reaction warranted, but I respect my reaction. These colors, with less contrast make me much happier and I look forward to knitting time sitting next to G in the evenings. Hopefully by the time I finish this the weather will have turned a little cooler as well. And the reds make the sweater very autumn-appropriate. Whereas the original colorway was named "April Showers" I'm thinking of naming this something like "September Garden".

August 13, 2011
Cabinets and Flooring and Tiles, Oh My!

Two weeks ago today, I was in Knoxville. It was a quick trip. I left my house at 6 AM Wednesday morning and was back home 37 hours later.

I arrived at my meeting place early and thought I'd get an outfit photo, but no one was around in the parking lot so I perched the camera on the top of the car. Then my phone rang. So much for distance. Just as my phone call ended, my real estate agent pulled up so I sureptitiously scooped my camera into my purse.

We spent the afternoon picking flooring and cabinetry and countertops. Actually we spent the afternoon writing down all the options and talking to the builder, it didn't take me long to pick from the available options at all and I was determined to stick as closely to the standard options as possible. I didn't quite manage that, but I came acceptably close.

I picked a pretty granite called Sapphire Blue for the kitchen countertops, and I opted to use the same granite in the master bathroom. That was an upgrade. I manged to find a cultured marble I liked for the guest baths, but not the master, so I went with the granite.

It quickly became apparent that we were going to have to go to tile showroom to pick the tiles as they only had a couple of options at the model and none of them were acceptable. I had hoped we would be able to do it all Wednesday, but it was not to be as the person we needed to meet at the tile showroom couldn't meet with us until Thursday morning.

I had really wanted to go to my favorite museum on Thursday morning and see an exhibit that was about to close but that was no longer possible. Luckily by the time we got back to the office and I retrieved my car, it was only a little after 4 PM. I figured I had just barely enough time to drive to downtown Knoxville and get into the museum before they closed at 5. I got lost, but I still made it.

I didn't have much time but I managed to see the exhibit I was looking for as well as take a quick turn around, not enough time to slowly absorb and commune with the works, but enough time to savor minute moments. This piece, made of mylar, foam core board, intaglio etching, and graphite by Crystal Wagner, a part of the permanent collection, really captivated me as it seemed to hint at the spirit of the imagination and the boundaries between the "real" and fantasy, reminding me of the magic that can be found when we allow ourselves to dream and transcend the everyday, that it is possible to be both in the world and apart from it.

And then, it was done. The museum was closing. I was on my own again alone in the parking lot. No one would be home yet at my step-daughter's house so I had some time. I thought I would try the camera on the roof of the car trick again. I was not particularly successful. The sun was so bright I couldn't tell when the camera was about to go off. I was so wired I couldn't stand still. Actually I kind of like this photo, it captures the feeling of the entire trip, a little dizzy but fun.

Thursday morning we went to the tile showroom. Once again I knew right away exactly what I wanted. Once again it took longer to write everything down and work out the details than it did to make the actual choices. And a good thing that because I just barely had time to grab a bite of lunch and head back to the airport.

I took photos to show G some of the selections I had made. So far, these photos are my only link to my new home. The first picture shows the cabinets that will be in both the kitchen and the master bathroom. Above the cabinet is the tile that will be used for the kitchen backsplash and the tub surround in the master bath. I thought I had taken a photo of the tile next to the granite as well, but apparently not. Below the cabinet is the master bath flooring. The kitchen floors will be wood.

This second photo shows the tile I chose for the fireplace surround in the living room. This isolated image is the only concrete thing in that living room as it is the one space that remains completely shrouded in my imagination, a space undefined until I can at least see some floor plans and get my mental bearings.

August 10, 2011
The View from the Kitchen Sink

On Saturday, Lisa posted photos of the view out the window from her kitchen sink and I was entranced by her lovely gardens, her flowers, and the connections she made. Of course she was responding to yet other posts extoling the virtues of views from kitchen windows, but I have not yet visited those posts.

I've shown you the view from my kitchen window before, but here is this year's version. It is a little bit overgrown. I've been rather lax about weeding as my mind has already moved forward onto the preparing for what comes next; weeding isn't really on my horizon at the moment. Of course I am cognizant that once I am ready to put this house on the market a massive prepping of the garden will be required. Besides, I like to tell myself that the weeds meet a need, providing shade and shelter to more delicate plants in this summer of unwelcome heat.

Standing at my sink this morning I realized that I will only be gazing on this view a few more months and I shall miss it. I shall miss seeing the deer on the lawn in the evening despite the fact that there have many times when I have run out the front door shooing them away from from some flower or another. I shall miss the early morning parade of the turkeys with their brood of little chicks. The guard turkey always sits up high in the pine at the upper left corner of the photo, and if I wander out the door without having checked on their presence first, he lets out a frantic call and the turkeys scatter quickly, often before I even get the door completely closed behind me. I will miss watching the rabbits and the woodchucks and the cavorting of the chipmunks on the stone walls.

All of this thinking about kitchen windows reminds me that there will be no kitchen window in my new house. If there were I would only get a view of the neighbor's kitchen window a few feet away, and the thought of looking out the window into the eyes of another person standing at their own kitchen sink already makes me shiver just a bit. Perhaps no window is better. I don't quite know how I will adapt to that yet. I do know that when I am standing at that sink my back will be turned to the long open space consisting of the dining room, the sun room and the screened porch. Perhaps I will put a mirror up on the wall above the sink so that I can be simultaneously looking forward and backward. Or is it backward and forward?

August 8, 2011
A Brief Pause

It has only been a week, well, a little over a week and I feel like it has been almost a lifetime since I last posted.

Last week was both full to bursting and quiet all at the same time. My step-son and his wife were visiting and we had a lovely visit both joyous and sad as they realized that it may well be the last time they visit us in the Hudson Valley. And this was sad for us as well, as we reminisced about shared history. Even knowing this the right thing for us now does not make the sadness of preparing to leave our home of 30 years fade away.

Among the good things was being able to spend time with my daughter-in-law, shopping, getting a pedicure, stopping for a mojito and just chatting. These are activities that our visits here or there have rarely seemed to include time for, usually because visits have been too short, too packed with activities, too stressed. We dined out with friends. We also dined in, mostly for very casual meals. No fancy cooking marathons for me on this visit, perhaps I will save those for a future winter visit in our new home.

This simple lunch of smoked salmon rolled around arugula leaves and mascarpone cheese flavored with herbs and scallions was inspired by a recipe in Jody Adam's cookbook In the Hands of a Chef. I didn't have enough arugula to use as a salad we used fresh local spinach and sugar snap peas instead.

I also purchased a few things for myself on our shopping expeditions even as I told myself that I have enough to pack. Luckily the things I did buy have already become mainstays in my summer wardrobe. My new rule is that it gets worn or it goes back; no saving things for "better". I picked up this purple/periwinkle linen tank top on sale at a store in Rhinebeck. It is by a company called Flax, and I really like it as it is very cool and breezy, which has proved to be important this week as the combination of high temperatures and high humidity are pressing in all around.

The top is very simple and I think I can copy it easily. It is a nice length and shape and think it will become a kind of hot-weather basic, and possibly a layering piece if I play with fabrics. I am actually looking forward to replicating this, either when I get settled, or if I come across a tempting piece of linen while I pack, as a brief diversion and respite from summer heat and the trials of sorting, discarding, packing.

In the photo I am wearing the tank with NYDJ straight-leg white jeans, natural espadrilles, and a linen blend scarf which was purchased a few years ago from Banana Republic.

I wore the same outfit again early this week, except that I figured out the scarf looked better wrapped and draped around the neckline of the top, not just dangling down. I felt it needed something at the neck though, something small, and I fished this single blue pearl out of my box of things I rarely wear. Almost perfect.

When it comes to jewelry, I am attracted to statement pieces and the small pieces seem out of scale or not me. As a result it seems I have a box full of pieces that all scream "look at me" and hog all the attention. I am only just beginning to appreciate the subtle joys of those quieter pieces. I see that I could actually benefit from having a few things that can be mixed and worn together in different combinations. This is something I think I need to explore a little further.

July 21, 2011
Ch…Ch…Ch…Changes

I've been not particularly present on this blog the last month or so and that has partly because big changes have been afoot but had not yet been settled enough that I was at liberty to reveal the good news.

An opportunity presented itself and we have seized it with all four hands. Yesterday we signed contracts and committed to building our new home in a PUD (planned unit development) in Knoxville, Tennessee. We hope to be there by the end of the year, with an anticipated closing date, at this point, of mid-December. My mind is whirling with all the things that need to be done, and yet at the same time I am strangely calm, calmer than I have been in a while because I know this is the right decision at the right time.

I'll still be blogging, although I may be a bit erratic at times. I hope to do a bit of sewing, and of course a bit of knitting as well, although I will be taking my new sewing room down and returning it to its previous master-bedroom status soon. Everything I started, thinking I had time, is now in overdrive.

Right now I have family visiting (step-son and his wife) and I am stealing a moment to write this, but I hope you have patience with me while I drag you through even more transitions.

July 13, 2011
Celebrations, Contemplations and Wearing the new Skirt

As intended, I wore my new skirt on Tuesday for my 53rd birthday lunch, creating a new tradition in the process as is the second year I have made and worn a new birthday skirt. Although I had no intention of being repetitious, apparently I wore the same shirt with both skirts. Last year's look was a bit more sophisticated though. Oh well, I am thoroughly enjoying my new skirt, even though G commented that I was going for "peasant chic" when he saw me in the skirt with the flat sandals.

When I made the skirt I had a strong suspicion that it would go well with my birthday present from G, a pair of tourmaline earrings and a bracelet, not matching as they are made by different designers, but very similar in color and feel. The skirt also goes well with these favorite gladiator sandals, which I have had a few years. The coarseness of the fabric complements the raw leather of the sandals, which is good because although I love the sandals I have had trouble pairing them with outfits at times. I rather like the mixture of the pretty, feminine print with the coarser leather, and I am tickled that the colors of the skirt echo the colors of the daylilies I planted last fall.

This year I opted to go to lunch instead of dinner, partly because it makes the day seem more relaxed and I have that option since we are both retired, and partly because G is simply brighter in the afternoon. Once again we went to the Culinary, this time to the American Bounty Room, where we hadn't dined since we had lunch with Marji last fall.

I had the duck confit salad which was incredible, even without the crusted goat cheese, which unfortunately has gluten in the breading, followed by the salmon and smoked scallop roulade, which was lusciously light. The combination of the salmon and the scallops, at once tender and sweet with just a hint of smokiness and deeper flavors was perfectly offset by the lobster butter, and the most delicious artichokes I have ever eaten. They were simultaneously astringent and tart, and full of nutty, earthy artichoke flavor combined with a rich buttery intensity, perhaps from the lobster butter, that almost a symphony of complimentary flavors. I judiciously parceled my artichoke pieces around so that I could savor them slowly. I ended with the banana white chocolate creme brulee, which was just perfect, and only just sweet enough, not as overwhelmingly sweet as I had feared, despite the combination of often too-sweet white chocolate with sugary bananas.

G had the crab cakes to start and ended with the modern baked alaska, which is a lemon sponge cake topped with strawberry gelato and then baked with a meringue topping. I couldn't sample either but he raved about the dessert enough that I am seriously considering making a gluten-free version at home. For his main course he had the grilled smoked pork tenderloin which amazed me because although it had all the tenderness and silky texture that I associate with well prepared pork tenderloin, the flavor was rich and complicated and far more intense than I expected with that cut of meat, having all the flavor of a rich slow-braised, caramelized, fattier cut of pork, except wrapped in the tenderloin package. I would love to know how they did that.

While we were eating I was trying to pay attention to the flavors and enjoy the moment, but I was also thinking about how I would describe the meal, and thinking about all the food and travel blogs where people post photos of the delicious things they have eaten. I found myself thinking "how do they do that?", when of course, I know "how" they do it. They simply take photos. Just as I was thinking this, and thinking that I couldn't really bring myself to interrupt a lovely dining experience and conversation by pulling out my camera and photographing my plate, the food was brought out to a group two tables down from us. As soon as the waiters departed, the entire table stood up and pulled out their cameras and smart-phones and started snapping, playing musical chairs as they moved around the table photographing each other's plates. It seemed like a game and a dance. The flow of the restaurant was unchanged; no one seemed to notice. I probably would not have noticed had not been thinking about that very subject. But I still couldn't do it. Perhaps it is a generational thing like the tables of young people I see at otherwise fancy restaurants, interrupting their meals or their conversations to text.

And there you have it. At 53 I do not feel old although I acknowledge that I am on the tail-end of middle-age. And yet, I am old fashioned and out of date. The habits of the young sometimes seem completely foreign to me. I do not disparage them, I simply recognize that my views are becoming passé. I am not yet ready to give up my standards, nor am I willing to withdraw, but I also realize that everything changes, that time and culture marches on, and that the world will, inevitably, pass me by. I can interact with the world and continue learning, I can remain youthful in spirit, but I cannot become young. No matter how much I grow and change, the building blocks that form my perspective will never be the same as those that form the basis of this brave new world, just as the framework around which I built my life was foreign to the perspective of my own parents and grandparents. As I celebrate my birthday, so I celebrate being able to be a part of an ever-changing world.

July 8, 2011
Last Year’s Print, This Year’s Skirt

Sunday night I decided I needed a skirt. I didn't have any summer skirts in my closet, and it struck me that I should have a new skirt to go out to lunch with my sweetie on Tuesday (today). And so I made one.

Fabric: Anna Maria Horner printed cotton from the "Good Folks" collection. I believe I bought this last year but it may have been the year before.

Pattern: Simplicity 4186, made many times before.

I was pretty amazed at how calmly and methodically I just jumped back into sewing. There was none of the angst that I experienced over the last couple of years, which goes to show that the inner turmoil was more about me and where I was in my life than it was about my sewing skills or lack thereof.

Granted it is a simple skirt. But a year ago even simple things still seemed complicated. I doubted myself and had no faith in the skills I had acquired over years of practice.

The gorey details:

I've made this skirt before, but there are no current versions of it in my closet as they are all too big. It was easy to look at the pattern on my cutting table and discern that I needed to remove roughly six inches from the hips and 8 inches from the waist before cutting. What was surprising was that I didn't dither, simply marking and cutting.

Otherwise the skirt was straightforward. I didn't even look at the instructions. The hem consists of a faced bottom band, the width of which was determined by the amount of length I needed to add to the original pattern. I attached it to the skirt, under-stitched the seam allowance to the facing at the hem to keep the hem crisp and machine sewed the facing in place. Aside from a momentary attack of ziplexia, construction was straightforward.

It came out exactly as I imagined it. It fits and looks nice. It is the skirt I wanted to make, and in that sense I have no real complaints, but I think it is the skirt that was my style last year or the year before and it is not exactly my style now. It is not the skirt I would make today if I were buying the fabric today.

That said I am happy with the outcome. I set out to create something and the thing I created lived up to my expectations of it. I refreshed my acquaintance with a skill-set that had seemed tenuous. And I will wear the skirt and enjoy wearing the skirt. It is comfortable, cool, and pretty. It will definitely be this summer's skirt though, 'cause I don't know if it will stand the test of time. It may well be trumped by future skirts. But for now it is this summer's first skirt, my first sewing project of 2011, and it is good.

July 5, 2011
Purple Rose

I have been working on two knitting projects, simultaneously, quickly abandoning my determination to work on only one project at a time and see each one to completion. But I had a good excuse. I am currently reknitting the purple cabled shell I unraveled back in January, but I found there were times when a relatively mindless project was more suitable. Needless to say, the relatively mindless project on big needles was finished far faster than the lovely cabled shell, which is about half-way to completion.

This little summer shell is knitted in a wonderfully light-weight cotton tape yarn from Lana Grossa that knits up to a bulky gauge without being at all heavy. The yarn itself is rather sheer, much like knitting with a pair of nylons, and it can snag if you have dry cracked cuticles or nails, something I needed to look out for if I felt like knitting after working in the garden.

DETAILS

Pattern: Rosa Modified, available from my LYS, Out of the Loop, in Hopewell Junction NY. The pattern itself is a cap sleeve variation on Rosa which is available as a free download on Ravelry.

Yarn: Taglia from Lana Grossa in color 06.

Needles: size 11 US circular. The sweater is knit in the round with short-row sleeves.

I have to say that I love this sweater. I couldn't wait to wear it, and I have been wearing it happily today while running errands and doing small tasks in the yard. I do have to watch snags a bit, so I would say this is not a sweater to wear with a dangly charm bracelet, but otherwise it is light and comfortable, even in a bit of summer humidity.

In fact, I wish there was more of this yarn in stock in any color other than black, 'cause I would knit another.

July 2, 2011
The View Through The Trees

One of the things that I found truly oppressive to my spirit this spring was just how overgrown the perimeters of the yard had become. I knew they were overgrown, but I hadn't actually thought about it and how much psychic weight all those leaves and vines carried, until I had time to sit back and actually take a look.

Last week we had over a dozen large trees taken out, for the most part trees that we at the bottom of our cliff and which had finally grown up high enough to begin impinging on our view of the Hudson. This week I had the small brush person here cleaning up the woods along the perimeter of the driveway. When I first moved here I could see the rock ledge between my house and the street year round, and I could see the house as I rounded the first bend in my driveway. These views had been obscured by trees and shrubs for years, since G stopped spending many weekends cutting back trees and brush 5 or 6 years ago. No wonder I had started liking the winter view more than the summer view. Now that is about to change.

Here are some before pictures:

And here is the view coming down the hill now, from roughly right behind where the chipper is standing in the above photo:

And here is one end of the large rock outcropping between us and the street:

You can only see a large vague dark shape in the background. The rest of that outcropping is still hidden by brush and small trees. We had only scheduled 2 days of cutting and chipping and needed three, the last day will be the end of July, but already it is a great improvement. Rather than feeling like I am descending into the bowels of the jungle as I approach my driveway, I am filled with lightness and relief.

I will spend some of the weekend redistributing the piles of wood chips more evenly among the trees, and cleaning up some of the small things. But mostly I am still working on the finer points of the front yard, although it is much improved over last year.

June 30, 2011
More Flowers

This small intermingling of pink astilbes and hydrangea with the small blue browallia blossoms strikes me as perfection every time I walk in and out of the house. In fact, I have been known to walk outside to just sit and look at this small shady bed at the base of my front walk whenever I need a calming moment.

Nearby, the lilies are just beginning to bloom:

I meant to move these lilies last fall, as they don't get quite enough sun and reach over far to the side, stretching themselves toward the light, which of course means they are all the more easily trampled into the ground come a summer thunderstorm.

They share the bed with dahlias, which seem to be happy enough with the light and this relatively dry site.

June 22, 2011