Pre-Game YOP

I really enjoyed watching the Browns versus the Bengals last Sunday. Kids were over for Bob’s birthday, and we all cheered and cried together.

Today I am on my own, but I made buffalo cauliflower using this recipe. It came out delicious! It’s way better than what we’ve had at restaurants.

I managed to grow one nice sized pod of okra so far, so I sliced it and added it to the mix. Now buffalo fried okra is my new favorite thing!

My Brown’s toque is coming along. I am using the alphabet chart from this pattern, but otherwise making it up as I go along in Cascade 220 sport.

I have been sewing curtains for a client, so no sewing updates today. I am hoping to get back to weaving my tea towels soon!

Choose Joy: A YOP Update (sort of)

A platitude akin to “Live Laugh Love,” “Choose Joy” wasn’t on my radar until my friend Marilee sent me this bracelet.

I thought, “That was sweet, but I probably won’t wear it.” Then, something happened. I kept thinking about it. I put it on. I’ve been wearing it for a few days. I asked myself, “What does it mean to choose joy?”

Last week I was still getting over my illness from the previous week. I could get my work done, but not much else. I felt guilty, and FOMO for the knitting in my project bags. I daydreamed about weaving my tea towels. And could I make a start sewing those cargo pants? I opted to rest instead, and by Friday, armed with my bracelet, I realized Choose Joy sometimes means choosing to nap.

Yesterday, I chose to bake gluten-free maple creme sandwich cookies for Bob. They were a joy to make and to eat. I made the most of my cheat day.

When I was younger, I had a lot of energy. I was that person people asked, “How do you get so much done in a day?” I was a busy person, and I still like to be a busy person. Creativity is therapy for me, especially knitting. But I’m older now, and I don’t have the energy or resilience to be doing all the time. I will have to let some things go. It’s difficult when you want to do all the things.

Part of me wants to make a list and start crossing things off. Rid myself of the mental clutter. Put everything in a spreadsheet and have two columns: joy and no joy. Another part of me wants to wait and see what happens. Let’s wait and see what I choose.

Many thanks to Marilee for this surprising gift. Life is too short not to choose joy.

And really, what’s wrong with Live, Laugh, Love anyway? Sounds good to me.

This has been a Year of Projects (YOP) Update. The group is in its 15th year, but I have only been doing it for a few years. This is a Ravelry based group. You can learn more here.

One Ringy Dingy: Phoning in the YOP

Oh, hi. August has been its usual mixed bag of sweaty days, sleepless nights, garden delights, weeds, home improvements, and delayed crafting plans. I finally succumbed to my annual summer cold. Last week I barely left the couch.

Greenhouse Gardening

I grew a zucchini shaped like a telephone. Like a real, old school telephone. This is the only zucchini I managed to grow so far. I have been pollinating the flowers, but there is normally only one at a time. Next year, two zucchini plants will be required.

I’ve had a handful of tomatoes and enough cucumbers to make a jar of lazy pickles. (Empty pickle jar full of pickle juice plus sliced new cucumbers. Let sit in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Pretty good!)

These are my first Cherokee Purple tomatoes this year, my favorite. Nothing beats a home grown tomato. And there’s a tiny pumpkin on the vine of my volunteer pumpkin plant. 🎃

Sewing

On a “Surprise! You’re off today!” day, I cut out the Eastside Pants pattern pieces. I’m hoping to feel well enough to do some sewing on them this week.

Knitting

I’m still plugging away on my She Makes Waves pullover and Shark Bite socks. It’s looking like I won’t finish them by September 1st, but I’ll keep trying. Next up: Ghost Sweater!

Other Stuff

I found a dying cicada on the garden hose. I gently moved it to a plant and made sure it had water, but I guess it was on its way out already. I came back 24 hours later, and it was dead.

I thought about trying to keep it for art making, but I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. Would it decompose? Ew. So I decided to feed it to my pitcher plant. Audrey 3 is a beauty. She’s one in a million carnivorous plants.

I went to the doctor for my annual physical. After a year of not eating simple carbs and losing 20 pounds, my blood sugar levels are identical to what they were last year. (Cut to me cramming cake into my mouth.) I suppose if I hadn’t changed my diet they could be worse. Other blood levels were improved, like triglycerides, whatever that is. Forever pre-diabetic, that’s me! Keep up the diet and exercise, the doctor says! 🥴

This has been a Year of Projects (YOP) Update. The group is in its 15th year, but I have only been doing it for a few years. This is a Ravelry based group. You can learn more here.

Saturday Art Update

I am continuing with the Essence Of Identity course with Donna Watson. This is a really good course for those looking to find their expression, and not strictly for fiber artists.

I haven’t worked on my self-portrait further. I will let it evolve over the progress of the course. A few things I am learning about myself are:

I like contrast, value, line, and texture.

I am interested in nature, symbolism, and animism.

I prefer sculptural work in organic forms, but sometimes default to 2D work. As an example, right now I’m trying to incorporate a cicada husk into my self-portrait, but it isn’t working. That may be a different piece.

I’m going to experiment with different media on my self-portrait. I am fighting the urge to come up with a “concept” and work from the top down. I want to use this opportunity to generate art from the inside out, if that makes sense. It will be about the process.

You may have noticed I updated my blog moniker to “Welsh Hills Stitcher.” I am also now on Instagram as welshhillsstitcher. I live in an area known as the Welsh Hills. We are in the foothills of Appalachia.

I am working very part time as a seamstress for individual clients. This is a way for me to make a little extra money on the side. It is only meant to supplement my main work, but use a different part of my brain. Anyway, the name evolved from the process of getting back on Instagram and making local connections. I know I confuse people with all my name changes. I like trying names on to see if they fit. I like this one. It feels right.

ScrapHappy Wrap Skirt

Gearing up to sew my cargo pants, I watched an old episode of Great British Sewing Bee. Then I went down a rabbit hole of back episodes — as you do — and remembered my thrift store wool fabric from the not too distant past. I had intended to sew a wrap skirt with it.

Originally, I had intended to draft my own pattern. That clearly isn’t going too well for me. So I had a look at The Fold Line’s old Sewing Bee posts, and found the perfect pattern!

The Perrine Skirt will make a great wool wrap skirt. I will probably sew the shorter version, as that will hit my knee, or something in between short and long. I will sew the gray plaid first, and use the gray solid for any lining or other pieces that can be sewn with coordinating fabric, as I only have about a yard and a half of the plaid.

Once that one is sewn, I will see if I can sew a version using the MacDonald wool plaid kilt that was gifted to me. I’m not sure how to remove the pleat creases in this, and the fabric is lighter weight than the other wool. It will definitely take some creative transforming for this pattern, but hopefully I can make it work.

ScrapHappy is a great group of bloggers creating with scraps. I am inspired every month when I read their posts! Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible to write about. If you would like to join in on the 15th of the month, email Kate at the address on her Contact Me page.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy on occasion.

Kate, Eva, Sue,Lynda,
Birthe,Turid,Tracy,Jan, 
Moira,Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny,Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Ann,Dawn 2,Carol,Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

Wednesday WIPs

Still knitting away on my She Makes Waves pullover.

And knitting the foot of the first Shark Bite sock.

I hope to finish both of these projects by the end of the month!

Misty Mountain YOP

It’s been foggy lately. Cooler weather at last. It feels like autumn! I know it’s false fall, but I will take it. What a mood improver.

Updates

I went back to the gym. Osteoporosis runs in the family, and I don’t want it. I’m working with the free trainer (who is adorable) so I don’t hurt myself. Also exercise should help my braaainz. Bonus: I will be getting out of the house.

Art Class

The point of this class is to excavate and identify yourself as an artist. Some people are having trouble, including me. But I tried listening with my eyelids (a reference to the movie Bull Durham when Susan Sarandon’s character says you should “breathe through your eyelids like the lava lizards of the Galápagos Islands.”) It worked! (It always does.)

I stitched on my self-portrait “Cicada Song” (in progress) and noticed a similarity to a self-portrait from 2010, “The Watcher.”

I also remembered a white chalk on black paper self-portrait from college (late 80s/early 90s), “Night Gardener”. Here’s my visual identity analysis:

I like neutrals (especially black and white) with a pop of color — specifically red, or sometimes blue. (I think it’s interesting I started as a photographer, and used mostly black and white film, because b&w developing in the darkroom was more common.) I like organic, spherical shapes, and generating the work from the center out. My style is sketchy and impressionistic. You can see this transcends the medium. My inherent subject matter is psychological, even when it’s not. Meaning, if it’s a landscape, it’s about my feelings about the landscape.

While I don’t have any plans for a new series of work, I am enjoying learning about myself. I am also healing my relationship with art. She’s a real bitch. Will I spend much time making art in future? I’m unsure. Art for art’s sake feels wasteful. But if it supports my mental health, then maybe.

Knitting

I have finished the colorwork portions of both Shark Bite socks! I am ready to seam them and turn them into socks.

I will be picking back up my mermaid sweater today. I hope to finish it by the end of the month.

I started a Browns hat! This one will be brown with white stripes and orange letters. The next will be orange with brown stripes and white letters. I will let H2 (middle child) have his pick.

Sewing

My plan this month is to make two pairs of cargo pants for fall. I am using the Eastside Pants pattern, and black and gray hemp cotton canvas fabric.

This has been a Year of Projects (YOP) Update. The group is in its 15th year, but I have only been doing it for a few years. This is a Ravelry based group. You can learn more here.

Easy Summer Living

There is Southern Living, and Country Living. Now, get ready for my new guide, Easy Summer Living: Surviving Evil Evil Summer in Nature while it’s Trying to Kill You, by Devil’s Front Porch Productions.

Eat Cold Things

When I first encountered smoothie bowls, I thought it was a joke. Well, the joke was on me. It turns out there is nothing better in the morning than a bowl of ice cream healthy fruit smoothie blended with grains. If you freeze the whole strawberry, you can chuck the entire thing in, greens and all, and count it as a vegetable serving! Throw on some seeds for protein. I like frozen bananas and strawberries blended with cooked steel cut oats and soy yogurt. I slice berries and put them on top along with sunflower seeds.

Read Lightly

I can’t take credit for this one. Marilee has an entire post on Summer Reading Brain. Why on earth did you pick up your favorite historian’s new book on their obscure specialty subject? You know you really just want to read a knitting mystery, or maybe a knitting romance. (Are there knitting romance novels? Please tell me there are.) This would be the perfect time for me to read some horror comedy.

Get Nautical

It’s hotter than a pepper sprout out there. Unfortunately, the only body of water you live near is hovering in the air outside. That’s okay, stay inside in the AC and consume media that takes place on the ocean, near the sea, or even a great lake. My favorite summer nautical flicks are Mystic Pizza and, of course, Jaws. Or sometimes I watch Welsh mystery shows like Broadchurch or Hinterland. I can almost smell that salt air! Be sure to make a nautical themed playlist for yourself. I made one called The Bay Cafe on Spotify. It’s named after the restaurant where I would hang out while waiting for the boats to come in, working at San Diego Harbor as a photographer in my 20s.

I watched Jaws this summer after reading the book. It helped. But then I read The Prayer of the Night Shepherd: book 6 in the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman. I enjoyed it more than books 4 and 5, but less than books 1, 2, and 3. And there wasn’t a coastline to be envisioned. (These books take place on the Welsh borders.) On top of that, I have been binge watching Grantchester. It’s hot in Grantchester in the summer, too, so no relief there. I guess I like stories about vicars in trouble.

Live in Harmony with the Naturehood

Sunburn, heat stroke, poison ivy, bugs, bugs that carry diseases… how can you enjoy nature in summer and live to tell about it?

I’m still working on this one. I was outside for 1 minute yesterday as I opened up the greenhouse windows. I came in with three bug bites on my arm. I had poison ivy for a month this summer. I don’t even know where I picked it up! My only advice is to stay inside and live, and watch the wildlife from the window.

Enjoy the Sportsball!

It’s baseball season (I think)! It might be soccer season. Or did that just end? Evil summer melts my brain and I get the fuzzies. Anyway, try the all-American pastime! Be sure to order your tickets well in advance. You don’t want your local minor ball club to sell out all of their games. You might miss out and then experience the dreaded FOMO! Plus, you can plan ahead, and when it’s game day, you’re so excited! You pack a cooler full of good things. You’re wearing sunscreen and a hat, and sunglasses, and a lightweight overshirt to protect your delicate shoulders from sunburn. Then you get to the ballpark, and… it’s a rain out! But don’t worry, they will exchange your tickets for a future game. There’s no getting out of it now.

I hope you enjoyed my Easy Summer Living Guide. I also hope you didn’t take any of it very seriously, except the smoothie bowl recipe. I don’t joke about smoothie bowls.

At the Columbus Clippers game. Don’t let that sunshine fool you.

Shark It to Me Monday

It took the full week, but I finished the intarsia portion of the shark week sock. Now to decide if I want to start the intarsia section on the second sock, or go ahead and finish this sock. And also if I should block this before I seam it.

If I do that, I may as well start the second sock.

Agriculture Report: It’s a Jungle Out Here

Pond cam!

Tierney and I have adopted Marilee’s blog topic “Agriculture Report”. What can I say? Marilee is a trendsetter!

We have frogs in the pond. The pic above is of the biggest I’ve seen. We have a volunteer yellow tomato growing around the pond, and I’m leaving it because these plants are starting to dwindle. I can always count on a few yellow cherry tomatoes in my salad.

In the greenhouse, we have had a small number of cucumbers. I’m saving them to try to get enough for a jar of pickles. The zucchini fruits but once they are a few inches long, they start to shrivel. I’ve added ground eggshells and nettle compost tea to the soil. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have tomatoes growing, so hopefully we will get a few of those.

In the fall we’re building raised beds in the greenhouse. I’m going to make my own soil for them, and I’m researching blends. I would also like to get a worm farm going for castings, but that may have to wait for another year.

I got some cheap, fake rock garden edging and put in a flower bed along the front of the house. I mulched it today. In the fall I will move some ferns in from the woods. There is already Sweet Woodruff there. I will use the rest of this bed for seasonal, annual flowers. At least I will feel in control of something. Someday I will replace the edging with real rock.

The pollinator garden is full of grass now. In the fall we will put down some cardboard and straw to try to control it. The fleabane and soapwort are still flowering. The pollinators loved the red milkweed, though the flowers are starting to fade now. I have some gorgeous marshmallow growing around the pond. The bees leave it alone. It makes me think about what Dawn said, how our pollinating insects are evolved for our native plants.

Marshmallow

When I was in college, one of my friends was from India. His nickname was Devo, short for his full name which I can’t remember now. We got to talking about plants, and he said he believed that what you need grows well around you. I think about this a lot.

Marshmallow is great for digestive issues. I have added fresh leaves to my tea, in hopes it will eventually reduce my reliance on proton pump inhibitors. The root would probably be more effective, but I don’t like the taste.

I have another native plant I haven’t been able to identify. The wasps and little bees love it. I guess I will let it go to seed. It might be a type of figwort. It’s not all that pretty, but it has little red flowers and the little sweat bees are all over it.

I saw a monarch butterfly today. Usually I only see the viceroy butterflies.

Only eight weeks until fall!