O, Salem!

My Salem 'tis of thee,
a city by the sea,
of thee I sing.
Land where the "witches" died,
and ships of the merchant kind.
To each October-time,
many Goths it brings.

This morning I woke up to the smell of sea air drifting in through the windows. Quite inspiring. These days, I am all about things ocean and maritime. I hustle home on the train, grab my bike and head over to Rice Beach, often with DH in tow. (Actually, he bikes faster, so its really me that's in tow. But I digress.) We eat our sandwiches, and watch the Fame sail past. I really don't know how I'm going to cope when summer is over. Please just send the straight jacket to McScratches Industries, Po Box 555, Salem.

My GOD it is a great year for tomatoes. I've been spending so much time over there at the garden, it's hard to keep up with my resolution to blog more.






Not exactly sure who this character is, skulking around Palmer Cove...

hello, again.

Can you see the goldfinch in this picture?



Welcome to fancy living. What does that mean, you ask? It means I winter in Facebook and summer in blogger.com

Facebook isn't a really good format for musing about my garden. I need something a little more freestyle, if you will. Hence the blog re-activation.

Is there a word for the garden this year? How about "Stupendous"? People, I'm talking about the first successful crop of pumpkins, after three years of crying trying. I'm talking about tomatoes. Of course, something completely horrible could happen before harvest time, so let's not get too excited...

Summer 2009

There's a chill in the air, and I'm thinking about pumpkins, fresh bread, stews, and apple orchards. But before I go down that path... one last look at summer....

My garden caused me to fall behind on my blogging, and at times my knitting. However, there were many delicious meals prepared this summer using fresh zucchini, basil, eggplants, swiss chard, and other items from my community garden plot. I love hanging out there, amongst the bees and flocks of geese and tiny birds.










Here's my little plot of land:


All summer I labored over a sweater project, which has temporarily stalled, due to some charting issues...



Let's not forget the rainy weekend I spent in NH at my summercamp reunion:






Of course, I've been working on some gift knitting I can't blog about right now, but stay tuned...

Recessionista

From this



To this!

ooo! Oooo!!

So I was just sitting here in my PJs, feeling a little bored, surfing through blogs I like. I haven't looked at this one in a while. I love LOVE this lady's work.

So I scroll down, and discover that some of her work is apparently on display at the Peabody Essex Museum!! Which is about three blocks away! Guess I know what I'm doing today!

I would love to collect some of these pieces, but I don't think she really sells them. Well, maybe if you have to ask, they are out of your budget anyway...

I've seen some prints that she makes for sale on her Etsy shop, and she also sells sculptural jewelry.

Mmmyello

Greetings!

I've been a busy bee of late! I knit two pairs of socks (see "frankensocks" from previous post, plus a newer, better second pair of the same pattern, pictured below)



The socks above were sent away in the mail for a raffle to raise money for my old summer camp. I hope they find a good home! I really wanted to knit a pair of these for the raffle. They would have been perfect. But I've never knit intarsia before, and there wasn't really time to learn. But mark my words, I'm gonna do it. And soon.

Knitting my first two pairs of socks also necessitated having a pair of sock blockers. Since we're in a recession (and I broke the bank on Euroflax!), I decided I'd better make my own. I googled "DIY sock blockers" and came across a simple pattern using vinyl placemats; it was cheap, fast, and effective. I bought a few placemats, so I can make blockers in various sizes now.

I've been hacking away at my Eyelet Chemise. Things are going well, considering I'm usually at crisis this point along in a sweater pattern. I'm truly intrigued by Euroflax and cannot wait to be done, so I can see how it looks washed and dried. The swatch I did is incredibly soft and drapey.



I have to say, though, the Euroflax is tough on the hands. I actually have callouses in certain areas of my fingers from this yarn. I guess this is what happens when I baby my hands for so long with kid silk haze!!

I'm also working on some recessionista-type projects around the house. I bought this sad little bookshelf at a junk shop in Salem, and am busy transforming it into a wall shelf to display my teacup collection. It don't look like much now, but prepare to be dazzled.

Happy July 4th!

a patriotic puss