Berlin's Whimsy

preparing.

It's beginning to feel like fall here. The warmly tarnished light and cool breezes touch off something in me. The circadian rhythm, perhaps? A knowledge of the changing seasons hearkening back to centuries past when this touching off of preparedness meant survival.

So, that's my long-winded explanation for the knitting phase I'm currently enjoying. I finished this Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap lickety-split and the pattern turns out the cutest little heart warmer! 

I'm currently knitting away on a blanket with the scrumptious Debbie Bliss baby Cashmerino. In only a couple minutes of knitting with this yarn, my texture-loving fingers are in heaven. What is it about this yarn? I realize it reminds me of cream----creamy smooth. It becomes lusciously thick upon knitting up and it's pure bliss to feel.

So, while the zhuccinis continue to become behemoths overnight in my garden and a few leaves drop here and there, I sneak away to knit with my creamy yarn and dream of the coming fall.

Special.

Lately, cloth napkins are the project on my sewing table. We use cloth napkins exclusively. They add a sense of importance to our meals. I enjoy the weightiness of a cloth napkin on my lap--- a reminder that sharing a meal together is a special occasion, no matter how small the meal.  

Making cloth napkins can be as simple as cutting out a square of fabric and finishing its edges. I also like the look of old-fashioned napkins with a special edging.

I am inexperienced in performing these old-fashioned linen treatments, but I'm trying to learn.  

With my thick crochet thread, my tailor's awl, and a crochet hook, my simple white linen napkins are slowly becoming something special...

A little prettier than the norm. 

Sprucing up Patterns.

I spruced up this space a bit. I updated a couple of my 'Resources' on the sidebar, along with their images. In addition, I created pdf files for two knitting patterns that allow for easier printing and saving...

Dishcloth Scrubbie: I still receive many comments about this very simple pattern and tutorial. My own dishcloth scrubbies used for our dishes daily and they are still going strong... 

Stretchy Cotton Infant Hat: Almost two years ago, I posted this pattern and it still is one of my favorite infant baby presents. It is quick and easy to knit and very useful for keeping a little one's head warm. The pattern uses Cascade Fixation yarn. The hat in the photo above was made by alternating every fourth row using two different colors of Cascade Fixation yarn. 

Hooks & Needles

Unpacking and settling... normalizing and prioritizing...re-identifying and acquainting... playing and cleaning... And through it all, hooks and needles form a recognizable pattern for me...

Discussing colors.

On the way home from school, my kids & I discussed color. My kids discussed which color was "best" and why. My son's favorite color is red. He told us why red was the best color: it's a primary color, Christmas color, part of our national flag, a lucky color in some cultures, and it's the color of our blood. My daughter likes blue and she explained why: it's also part of our flag, it can be a Christmas color, it is a primary color----do you see a pattern forming here?----and it's the color of the ocean and the sky. We talked about the special things in life that wear my kids' favorite colors: apples, cherries, and strawberries; blueberries, robin's eggs, and blue birds.  

And I thought about color in nature---how certain colors are ubiquitous (though still beautiful), such as green and gray. By contrast, other colors can startle when found in the muted colors of nature, such as the fragile light blue of a robin's egg against the drab colors of a bird's nest, or the color of the blue jellyfish valella velella when blown ashore on a tan sandy beach.

I received a gift certificate for my favorite local knitting store at Christmas (thanks to my beau) and cashed it in today on color. One of my all-time favorites, a certain shade of light blue: close to robin's egg blue but with a tad more green or the color of a tropical paradise's warm waters... When I saw the yarn, I knew it must come home with me. And when I returned to my car with my children fresh from school, the discussion of color began because of this yarn. 

I now reflect on our discussion of color as I contemplate future painting (of the house variety) and crafting projects (of the knitting variety)...

Finally.

Dare I admit this here, on this blog, supposedly a place of creativity and sharing, that for a couple months now, I have not had my sewing machine anywhere near my house nor my vast collection of cookbooks. My spinning wheel has sat idle and my knitting needles are in a box in my garage along with my yarn stash. I have questioned myself periodically about this-----how these things could have been so very important to my life for so long and then set aside so easily. So willingly. I wondered if my creative muse would ever return----had it been replaced by frantic schedules and heavy responsibilities?

Just like an every-so-often wave on the beach that reaches far past expectations, engulfing in-progress sandcastles and smoothed out beach blankets, I caught glimpses of my past creativity within my new routines but never did it stay-----always it subsided back into the ocean of possibilities. I could not expect it any longer but I waited all the same.

Only within the last few days have my hands felt the need for texture and making. What sparked the change? I don't know. I wish I knew. It certainly is not an overabundance of time. But the need was powerful enough to outweigh my time constraints and responsibilities. Sometimes the soul needs soothing in whatever means necessary.

A dear blogging friend of mine, Margie of Resurrection Fern, and I agreed upon a little creative swap of sorts last spring. We would exchange a skein of our handspun yarn and create whatever we felt inspired to create from the resultant twisted fiber. I received Margie's skein (pictured above) a week ago and was immediately struck with thoughts of the beach. Swirling waves of blue and green, full of life and transition... What does this mean in terms of an end product? I have yet to work that out (yes, Margie, I'm admitting that here and now) but at least I now feel compelled to tackle our project...

Midsummer... Crocheted Linen Bowls

I haven't had the patience to sit at my sewing machine lately, nor the resolve to work with my beloved wool.... And frankly, I'm fairly smitten with crochet right now.

The results are these wonderful little crocheted bowls.

I cannot seem to quit making them!

Therefore, I've listed them in my shop. Please note that they are made to order out of a subtle blue or pink linen yarn and you have the option of choosing your color.

I have a pink one sitting on my dresser and holding all my dearest little trinkets. The dainty and vintage look brings a smile to my face each day.

I like.

The simplicity of a feather brought closer.

The late evening light casting shadows.

   

My own covered rock and the beauty of flax.

Wearing Nature.

I didn't win Margie's giveaway for one of her wonderful crocheted acorn necklaces, so I decided to make one of my own using her helpful tutorial!

I used this hemp yarn from Elann that I had in my stash and a size 2.75MM crochet hook. The hemp is an excellent yarn for crocheting!

What's even better about this necklace? It makes a perfect pouch for flowers! The stem fits through the little hole in the bottom. My daughter had a difficult time choosing between her flower, one of our wooden acorns, or a real acorn. In the end, we decided the necklace is a "nature necklace," to be filled with trinkets of the seasons...

The pouch is just single crochet but the necklace's string is made with a Solomon's Knot, or Lover's Knot----here is a tutorial on youtube.

I am very enamored with this crochet technique and I hope to take on a larger project using this knot. I thought the Solomon's Knot chain looked very nice in conjunction with the nature necklace and it also worked up very quickly. Now I'm off to make one of my own!! Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm Wilting.

I think I've mentioned it before, I don't like the heat. I don't like it when it gets hot. I become grumpy and sweaty. Tag me with a capital 'W' for wimp and I'm completely okay with that----I'll wear it like a crown (as long as it doesn't make me feel any hotter)...

To even dream that I used to man a ranger booth in 100-degree temps and smile so pleasantly as I registered hundreds of campers on their merry way into the great outdoors is beyond my wildest hallucinations now. I don't know how I did it without turning into a man-eating grizzly bear... I think those campers would find a pile of sweat if I were to try it now.

So, you can imagine my dismay at trying to work on some of my wool projects right now.

You see, I was immediately smitten with this book: Knit One, Embellish Too by Cosette Cornelius-Bates and felt compelled to pull out some of my hand-spun wool. Just a simple hat to knit so I could try out this embellishment stuff---that's all I asked! No go, it's just too hot.

Even so, the book is a keeper and so are all of Cozy's designs  (go take a look, though you might need to be a Ravelry member for that link). Or you can visit her blog to view more of her work. Her artwork in yarn is amazing and so inspirational for me----it's embroidery with yarn which combines two of my favorites.

But remind me of this come late September when the temps start to subside. In fact, now that those true summer temperatures have settled in for a good dose of comfort squelching, I'm beginning to dream of a migration to Antarctica-----I'll knit every Empire Penguin their own sweater. Or Canada----is it cool up there?? Just tempt me with a snowball and I'm there!