Crafting On :: Midsummer Mittens

Elizabeth Zimmerman said it does not pay to make mittens in a hurry, so I'm heading that advice for once. Also, my doctor advised taking good care of myself in the next few weeks, so knitting it is! I really feel so much better than I did a week ago, but there are still moments of feeling weak. Every day, I am more myself and I am making more mittens from Homespun, Handknit: Caps, Socks, Mittens & Gloves.

But, first! The Cyclone Hat is done at last! I don't like to leave projects hanging, so I had to get this one done.  It did feel like a long, Herculean effort, but it's over.  The weather has turned oddly cool this week, so maybe I can test it just a little.  The only part of the hat that I am not pleased with is the transition between rows.  I think I would ignore jogless joins and the like, if I ever made this hat again.  I'm interested to see how it performs in windy weather. 

I started the mitten frenzy with a pair for Laurel.  These are the Family Mittens from Homespun, Handknit.  The hand uses two strands of yarn held as one on big needles, so they are very fast to knit.  They were so fast that I didn't mind making them on double pointed needles.  My usual preference is to knit flat mittens (even with the seam).  They look like they will be pretty warm, as well.

Roan got a pair, too, that were made with the same level of efficiency.  His are just a bit wider, to accommodate his wide hands.  He was born with those wide hands.  I remember the midwives commenting on them.  I often wonder what he will be like as a man someday. . . . Oh, well.  Sentimentality aside, I think these will be great mittens for the two of them.  The yarn is one that likes to felt, so that should be just perfect as the cold weather goes on.  They are both so pleased.

Willow and I are last.  I'll be making the Lambsheep mittens for her, as she loves sheep so.  This has been The Year of the Sheep for her, from baby lambs in Spring to the book Weaving a Rainbow to her little tooth gift a couple weeks ago.  My own mittens are going to be the Sideways Mystery Mittens.   I cut a hole in a pair of mine last Winter when I was collecting holly, so it's time for holly-colored mittens!

For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.

St. John's Things

The quietest party ever, we had a good time last night. It was sunny and hot, then cloudy and cooler, as rain was blowing our way for the night. We enjoyed the luxuries of the home garden--fresh salad, berries, peas, and radishes. And wee little cupcakes. I tried out two recipes, neither of which really pleased me. Just go with your favorite recipe or a mix. Make a lemon glaze and sprinkle on lavender flowers.

We did have a fire, since it's a fire festival, and it was starting to go very nicely just as we all were starting to feel drowsy.  It was certainly the most active (least active) day we'd had in weeks and weeks.  We sat in the grass and admired the clovers and dodged the smoke.  Yes, we did burn bones, as we had saved some for the occasion.  There was no jumping through the flames this time, since it seemed we had already had enough trials in the last little while.  Next year, always next year.  It is fun for me to connect to the past by observing traditions like that.

Now that we are passing the cross-quarter, it feels like it is time to really focus in the weeks that are ahead.  School planning for the new year has to happen, as does Willow's year-end test.  It really feels like we have lost our rhythm, but it is coming back.  I'm able to read aloud at lunchtime again and I think resuming walks is not far off.  It will help to get out the third grade materials and immerse myself in them.  I think I'll do that after I go pick yet another pail of raspberries.  My mind is already turning to Winter and how we might celebrate the Solstice.  That's the way it goes.

Midsummer's Eve

It looks like all our plans are a go!  Today's rain passed us by, mostly, so there may be a fire this evening.  Wishing you the happiest of Midsummer's and Solstices!  I am feeling like I've already jumped through the fire.

Summer Scenes

The Solstice came and went quietly, as we have started to feel better again. We are still moving gently, taking it easy, finding that elusive leisure that so many people talk about when it comes to Summer.  I have had, now, many hours of just sitting and watching the world from the front porch.  I've read so many books, generally back-to-the-land favorites of mine.  They are always my Summer reading, to revisit places that find themselves cut off from the world, ordering food in bulk, and buried in snow drifts.  My favorite titles are: A Place in the Woods by Helen Hoover, We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich, and One Man's Wilderness by Dick Proenneke.  Obviously, I love a good snowstorm.




As we've gone two steps forward and one step back for weeks now, I've been trying to find the good in all of it, my own developmental leaps after illness.  I've had all the emotions, really, and it has been humbling to experience something so full of unpleasant surprises and frequent setbacks.  My recovery is going to continue a bit longer, it seems, which has been really hard for my usual high energy self.

But good things--they are there!  This spider web was such a delight yesterday morning.  There are wonders at every turn, if we are looking for them, and I am trying my best.  The raspberries are at their height, there are peas to pick (I must tell Roan), and I think we will have our first very simple nature school today--our first in over a month!  We'll simple go to see the Snail Place and take in the big view.  It will do us all good.
 


It is my usual routine to scour the roadsides for butterfly weed this time of year.  I like to have a big vase of it for my birthday, or thereabouts.  It's one week away!  We have been able to take some short drives into the country to collect butterfly weed and elderflowers and it was so nice.  We've got some gentle, easy plans for a simple Midsummer meal with a couple friends tomorrow (they're bringing the food!), and I hope it works out.

Small Gains

It feels like we have lost half the month.  In some ways, we have.  We've missed three weeks of school, with the travel and then our long illnesses.  June has flown by and my birthday is just eleven days away.  Midsummer's Eve is just five days away!  Even so, I still feel tentative about saying that all this is behind us.  I am terribly afraid of the same thing or any thing coming back to knock us down again.  We are mostly better, still coughing and blowing noses, but we are mostly up to our regular tasks again. 

That's good, considering there are so many things to do this time of year.  The pressing one, at the moment, is raspberries.  They must be picked every day and Roan is my usual helper.  He was well first, and he also just enjoys it.  I think the fever was good for him, if you believe things like that.  I've noticed developmental leaps after illness other times and there are child development folks who agree.  On the whole, he is more helpful and thoughtful, more settled into being six.  He is enjoying his increasing skills and the trust I give him.

As you can see, it looks like he is picking a walnut tree, instead of berries.  Berries patches, being contrived early successional places, are the perfect haven for things that like to take over.  Like grape vines, and garlic mustard, and so much goldenrod.  It was pretty last year.  It is a mess this year.  Grape vines are not kind to berry brambles, so out they come.  I just rip them out of the way as I pick, though there is a long way to go.  I can see this taking awhile, in addition to simply moving some berries over to our yard.  It seems like the work I did last year was all for nought!

The garden feels like it is getting away from me.  I have been able to do little spurts of hoeing, trying to take it easy, in between the occasional thunderstorm.  Grass still wants to take over the Annex Garden over at the Roland Estate.  The potatoes are big and bushy, but need hilling again.  The tomatoes need pruning, and the whole place needs weeds to go away.  At home, I've put the first broccoli into the freezer and we enjoyed a very pretty head of buttercrunch lettuce.  And the tomatoes need pruning.  It is a theme with me right now.  The vigorous growth that June brings needs a little reining in.

As we face Midsummer at the end of the week, I am hoping to get back to school things.  I've got some stories for St. John's tide planned, along with a shift to more Summery decorations.  We're planning a bonfire for Friday, in hopes that it all works out.  We've been saving old wood for some time, along with cardboard bits that will keep it going.  We're hoping to have a few guests, so I am praying that we are all ready for that.  I'd like to make fairy cakes, too, and some sunny cookies.

I'll admit that I feel nervous making any plans, but we really missed out on May Day and we just need a good celebration right about now.

Pastoral

It's changing here.
I know it.
Everywhere you look
somebody's putting in
a new road,
a new house,
a new business,
a new something-or-another,
and I know we're growing,
we need some of that . . .
but we're changing the beauty out of things.

It's not like
you can't tear down
a mountain.
Anymore, you can
and people do,
more or less?
So what's one mountain,
more or less?
Level off the tops,
we might have something to farm.

I never thought much about progress
until now,
and I certainly never thought of myself
as against it,
but it's turning out I am against it.
And it's not because progress is bad.

It's because progress--
the way we're doing it--
is so ugly.
A mountain is beautiful.

I'm young
I know that,
and probably rash,
but I swear
I hope I die
before the only thing that's left
that takes your breath away
around here
is the smell.

~From Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet :: Jo Carson

Change has felt so hard lately.  It feels like it's all changing--the weather, the way we raise our children, politics, my little town.  Some new businesses are coming in and at least one is causing a bit of a ruckus.  I can see why, honestly.  Time will sort out whether our demographics can support such things.  We've been watching construction at an old gas station, too, where it is rumored another fast food place will be going in.  It feels so strange to think of that quiet corner having bright lights and a drive-thru. 

I've seen the variety of "growth" in Appalachia.  People get desperate around here, and I understand what drives them.  Chain stores and restaurants bring a kind of security that a small business can't match.  I think about Jo Carson and her hometown of Johnson City, TN and what she might think in the six years since her death.  It's so built up there, so cluttered, so sprawling.  That's happened with another quaint historic town, Abingdon, VA.  After years of fighting a Wal-Mart, the county simply allowed one just outside the town limits.  They changed the beauty out of things in the name of money.

I often look out over the farm fields with a feeling of sentimentality.  I wonder how long they will stay that way.  I've already seen some big farms fold and sell the land for subdivisions.  I can feel a shifting as our older generations lose their hold on things.  It is bittersweet and uncertain.

Crafting On

I wish I could report that we have put our illness behind us, but the truth is that all of us are still struggling in some way. Those who were late to the party were not spared, and we have had more than our fill of just about everything.  I try to remember my great grandmother who spent literal years in bed with tuberculosis, crocheting bedspreads to be sold at a craft center.  I think it has helped some to make a few things in the past couple days. 

Here's X the Owl for the children, adapted from Knitting for Children: A Second Book.  We have watched a good bit of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood over the past week, and far more television than is reasonable.  When the children have felt up to it, though, we've gone outside in the yard.

This was Willow's tooth gift.  She lost a tooth in the midst of all this.  I've had this little sheep for some time, tucked away, though the carpet beetles (oh, the evil!) had done a number on him.  I took off his old coat and simply wrapped him in roving and put on a new bell.  She was so pleased!

And here's a new dress for Willow, too.  Simplicity 9829.  I finished it last night as we watched The Waltons.  This pattern was quite simple, but still nice.  I did add some stitching around the edge of the bodice to keep everything looking neat after washing.

And with that, I think I'll slip outside and water the garden.  Last week was cool, but this week is quite sunny and steamy.

For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.

Slowly

We are inching our way back to wellness around here. I am convinced that I willed myself to heal, because there was simply no one else to keep things going.  It has been such a long week, but we are hopeful that things are improving. 
 

At one point, I brought up the children's Christmas tree, which hadn't made an appearance in some time.  Roan loves it so, and we were able to find some ornaments that weren't packed away to decorate it.

Willow made this picture of her feelings.  I think that is how we all feel.

I got a little time to myself to "see the world."  Of course, I like my world to feel small, so I went to see Rich Valley from up at the Snail Place.  I am content with this being all there is.  It was a shame to miss nature school for travel and then illness, but I am looking forward to lots of time outside when we are all up to it.

Oh, how slowly,
Oh, how slowly,
Comes the snail along his track.
Seven days he takes to travel,
Just a little ways and back.

Oh, how slowly, 
Oh, how slowly,
Through the grass, he makes his trail.
Inch by inch, he carries onward,
But he'll get there, Mr. Snail.

~Enki Kindergarten Movement

Whitsunshine

It feels funny to drop out of everyday life, but we've had to just that around here.  We came home, joyfully, to develop strep throat, the whole lot of us.  Bless our hearts, we are generally such healthy people that this is the first time the children or I have had it.  Oh, my, I have never known something like it, despite my varied life experiences.  But, anyway, we are trying to mend ourselves with medicine and lots of rest.  And look--sunshine!  We saw it!  (Though it seems like a lifetime ago now.)

I'm declaring this The Year of The Daisy.  Last year it was roses, so many roses.  I'm hoping this is the year I learn to make a proper daisy chain for a crown.  Our final care-taking trip out to the Old Davis Homeplace was full of daisies and all the lush greenery that June affords.  Nature is truly awake now.

We've ventured out into the yard a little bit.  It is all still waiting there for us.  I was glad to see that we are not dripping with over-ripe raspberries and blueberries.  The weather has been so mild this week--it was near forty this morning.  Next week will bring mid-eighties for the highs, but I feel hopeful that we will be ready for it. 

Early Harvest

We are in a spell of perfect weather right now.  How refreshing it is to feel fifty degrees each morning and a gentle slide from the seventies in the evenings.  It's just warm enough for the children to enjoy a little water play and just cool enough for me to work in the garden without fear of overheating.

We picked black cherries last night.  It was a good year for them, though they are small despite the rain and floods.  Cherry picking is usually a one-time effort for us.  The season is very short--the fruit was falling on us as we picked!  In the last light of the day, in the cool of the long shadows, it was so nice.  These cherries will go to jam, as they nearly always do.  It prolongs the harvest in the most efficient way.

There are other cherry trees besides my grandmother's--the Swing Place and the Settler's Museum.  My hope is to check those trees in the coming days and see what we find.  This next three months are devoted to food collection and preservation on a moment's notice.  It is exciting, frugal, and a little exhausting, but it is a pleasure to see our own stores grow as the Summer goes.

In our times, of course, these kind of efforts are not truly necessary, but they do bring such joy and substance to life.  My thoughts match well with this segment of Victorian Farm.  There is so much fruit just waiting for someone to come and collect it.  The birds have more than their fair share and don't mind a bit.  My own childhood had a lot of berry and cherry picking in it, and I wish the same for our children.  June second is forever in my memory as the day we pick cherries.

The Nicest Word

Our time away has ended and everyone went to sleep last night in their own beds. It was heavenly, in the most humble way.  Laurel stood on the front porch and said, "Mama, I am so glad to be home!" 
 

Life can come rushing back after a trip, as all the old habits fall into place again.  There were the gardens to inspect and admire, the waiting laundry, a supper to be made, new bouquets to put in water, and things to be filed away again.  It was all the same, but it was made new again by simply being gone.

It can be a challenge to write about difficult things with sensitivity, to say that things aren't all roses or golden lamplight.  Some trips or visits are hard; some are bright spots.  We enjoyed time with dear friends, and we endured some real challenges that seem to be ongoing.  It always provides food for thought.  We never stop growing, never stop learning, never lose the chance to improve ourselves.  And yet, no matter how many or few years we have, everyone has a voice at the table at home.

Oh, home.  It is so good.