Zeneedle...needleart as life

It's the Time of Year

..when this bunch of garden goodness (tomatoes, onion, garlic, peppers, herbs, etc.)...

...becomes a big pot of Vicki's Roasted Tomato Sauce...

which in turn, becomes this winters delight.  A taste of summer in winter, that's what I like.

Not that I'm wishing summer away (I'm NOT!), but I'd love to know which summer treat gets you through the winter.

Saturday Sky

Because today is Sandy's birthday and because she's a sky watcher...

This was taken last Saturday. Hopefully this Saturday will be just as beautiful. 

To my friends in the path of Irene, please take care! I'll be worried about you all weekend!

I Meme'd Too Soon!

Everyone is saying summer is over, but a friend reminded me there is still plenty of summer to live. You just need to live it, love it and eat up all the days of August. September is usually delightful with beautiful days, lengthening, cooler nights, and enough sun to keep the garden growing and your skin glowing. Do not give up on summer until you must.

I found this mememe a few days ago, via one of the social networks I rarely frequent, but it was knitterly in nature so I thought I’d post it here (and get a blog post out of it).  Work is busting my butt and I'm having trouble formulating words about my knitting (or anything else). Sorry I messed up and posted this before it was done, but who knew feed readers would that quick!? Anywoo....

My Five Knitterly Things

1. My favorite things to knit – shawls and sweaters – My knitting time has been short, as is time to talk about it (via the blog), but Stripe Study and the Mondo are both growing nicely. The way life is going I’ll be showing them off as FOs.

2. My least favorite thing about knitting – Lack of TIME – The things I don’t like to do, I don’t do. It is the process, right?

3. My first finished object – Blue garter stitch baby romper, oh so many, many years ago…for a nephew and really not all that cute.

4. If I could take only one yarn brand to my desert island it would be – Hands down anything The Woolen Rabbit, as Kim’s dye work, and yarn quality, is fabulous. If I had to pick one of hers over another it would be Opulence. However, she has many new yarns and I haven’t had a chance to try them all (as yet).

5. My current knitting obsession is – Stripe Study- I haven't been able talk about my love of this shawl, but I am having a blast knitting it and dreaming up yet more color combinations whilst doing so.

I’d love to hear your 5 Knitterly Things, too. You can post via your blog or right here in the comments.

TTYS!

Soul Garden

The weather has been exceptionally beautiful, with temperatures cooler than normal, which I've found to be comfortable and livable.

When I have a day off I love to walk over to the Soul Garden and gather the days harvest. The Asian eggplants have been fun to watch as they grow and ripen. The red jalapenos (fresno) have added a nice bit of heat and color to our ratatouilles. Some of our plants have produced bumper crops, while other veggies are in short supply.

I'm rather proud of our lovely crop of cipollini onions, which were added at the last minute to the onion patch.  Onions and garlic, both produced a very fine crop this year.

The green beans gave their all, which we enjoyed immensely, but we're still waiting on the scarlet beans. They may do no more than show off their beautiful red flowers.

Millie and the grrls wanted to say "hai"!  Our poor chickengrrls have been picking on each other and molting to beat the band, but they're happy egg producers and for that we are grateful.

The Weekend Run

The whole famdamily gathered together from far and wide and packed as much into a weekend as we could. My three sisters, my brother, Dad, various spouses and a few of my nieces and nephews, are pictured. Two more sisters were not able to join us.

One of my sisters lives in a valley near the Great Salt Lake, which means she has regularly scheduled, fabulous beyond words, sunsets.  It was nice of her to make sure a long and extra beautiful sunset was the apex of our reunion party.

Our last outing was a visit to Silver Lake, which as you may know, is a favorite place of mine.  We walked its shores, enjoyed the views and, because of the late season, a wildflower show (monkshood, bog orchids, elephant heads, wild geraniums, fireweed, columbine, bluebell and the last gasp of the Silver Lake iris).

From this jewel of Utah we made plans for our next big do and said our good-byes until then.

Why does it feel as if summer has slipped right by?

August Break?

Here and there I see the bloggers taking an "August Break".  The problem here is one of distractions. I rarely have my camera at hand because I'm usually too distracted to remember it. All summer long, while on my way to work, I'd say to myself  "if I only had the camera!".  However, with darker mornings the time for picture taking has past.

Every morning I walk, at what some of you might call o'dark thirty, and the sky is now pitch black. Orion sits on the eastern horizon and the light of dawn barely shows by the time I'm back in the house. Soon I'll need another layer of clothing, but let's not project beyond the now.

The other day I sat to start a post, but a Lou Reed song came on the radio and I stopped to sing along. The distraction grew as I had to look for a CD so I could hear more. Writing a blog post was out of the question, as I was distracted by the songs of Lou, with and without, the Velvet Underground. Not to worry, I'm not living in the past, as I was distracted a little later by the Decemberists.

My days are full from dawn until well after dusk. There has been little time for knitting, as distractions run high. Summer has come back to SLC and the sky is blue, the humidity low(er) and no rain is on the horizon. The garden distracts, the job distracts and summer fun distracts and I'm doing my best to enjoy it all.

Saturday Pink Sky

The heat of summer has rarely made a show
it has rained often, more than normal
temperatures have been below normal
humidity has been higher than normal
the garden is still behind in production
a change is in the air
dry weather is on the return
Orion has slowly crept into the pre-dawn sky
crickets have started their nightly chorus
I am not ready for fall

To Shawl or Not to Shawl

My knitting inspiration has been floundering the last couple of months and there has been noticable lack of progress. Maybe it's the season, as summer is about the garden, and I've been reading more, also been beat up by job changes. It's taken some time to get my bearings. I thought shawl knitting would be a good antidote and Kirsten's Cladnonia would be a the perfect project.

The stash is the first place I shop for yarn when a new pattern comes along so the stash was the first place I went. Kim's Lark yarn is soft and I knew it would have a lovely drape for half circle shawl. On hand was a beautiful shade of brown, (Godiva) and another lovely shade, Woodrose. I truly thought they'd play well together, but as it turns out they were to stripey, too "bee" like for my taste. The shades need to blend, move in and out of the same color so the stripes don't jump out at you. At least that's my thought about the shawl. Also, my knitting rather sucked (as I pulling the edge too tightly). The shawl just wasn't working, as none of us were playing well together.

Therefore, I thought I'd make Cladonia in a solid color (Godiva) and use Woodrose for the lace edge but, after starting, I just couldn't visualize the finished product.  Shawl knitting stopped....just ended. My desire to knit another shawl gone.  This was something I hadn't experienced in years. Nothing came along to inspire, no muse came to send me in the right direction, and so, I gave up, just like that, and turned to sweater knitting.  I've been waiting for the next shawl to find me.

When Vicki first talked about Stephen West's Mystery shawl, my ears perked up and I decided, because Vicki was excited, to give it a chance.  Could this be the muse calling to me? I shopped my stash, found two colors I thought would play well together (since my track record sn't so good, this is a crap shoot) and headed to the LYS to find a third. 

I'm using Madelintosh Merino Light (Sequoia, Kale, and Amber Trinket) and I'm excited about the colors (I'm thinking Earth & Sky at sunset!), but once again, Vicki has inspired me with her new shawl. Striped Study just might be the perfect marriage for Woodrose and Godiva.  Why didn't I think of that? What do you think?