Tawashi

I made most of these tawashi from Japanese patterns.
The yarn is from Daiso
and is anti-bacterial acrylic
that is specifically made for tawashi.

This is a project in progress, from a Japanese pattern,
for a brooch.
I'm using a size C hook and cotton thread.

new

a new shop is in the works. i don't have any products in there yet but hopefully i'll be offering original paintings and more at spotted towhee

take a look around to see the initial navigation of the site and let me know what you think on the contact page.

Random Stripe Generator

This has to be one of the coolest things
that I have found on the internet,
as a tool for knitters or crocheters.
You plug in the colors of your yarn stash
and then it generates a random stripe pattern.
It is sooooo cool! I love it!
Thank you to Biscuits and Jam who created it.
I want to use it to create a blanket pattern for my leftover yarns.

the latest

This is the latest project on the needles. It's a Japanese pattern, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora. The yarn is left over from another sweater that I made two years ago. It has been quite a few years since I have made a cabled sweater. The bobbles are pretty funny looking.

alpaca

I started this one May 11th and finished today.
I love the yarn, oh so soft and cozy,
and the simple lace pattern.
I liked knitting the yoke on circular needles
so there was less finish sewing needed.
A really nice pattern!
As usual with Rebecca patterns
there is much left for interpretation in the instructions,
but that helps to keep those neurons firing.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I have been working on this felt decoration for a few weeks

and finally finished it this morning!

These are new kirigami and other paper decorations that
my daughter and I made recently.
Oh the fun you can have with paper and scissors!

Ho Ho Ho!

These felt hearts are filled with dark chocolate kisses.
They're for my co-workers.
I need to make eight more tonight.

make

Here is a holiday decoration project that is in progress.
The pattern is from a Japanese book so I am guessing at the instructions.
Each year I like to make a new addition to our festive displays.

I made these stars years ago and place them in a bowl this time of the year.
This lovely bowl was made by my daughter.

I bought a big bunch of Julkarva at Julfest last weekend in Poulsbo. Today I divided it up and tied it onto lots of trees throughout the garden for the critters to enjoy.

My beloved holly is incorporated into the elaborate holiday displays at The Bloedel Reserve.

I just started to pull out the decorations today.
My favorite thing to decorate is the sweater tree.
I'm working on a Japanese felt pattern as a holiday decoration.
More on that later.
I've also been working on Tord Boontje inspired paper decorations.

I absolutely love everything that Tord creates!

Snow!

What is up with this?!

I dug up my dahlia tubers on Sunday just in time!
They are safe and sound in the garage
through this arctic blast.
3" inches of the white stuff so far
and it is still coming down.
I feel sorry for the deciduous trees
that haven't given up their leaves yet,
since they are sorely weighted down
with all of the snow.
My Gunnera is out there awaiting
the temperatures dipping down into the teens,
without any protection.
After years of fretting about protecting them through the winters,
I have decided that they are on their own from now on.
If they can't make it then they don't belong in my garden.
Sometimes you just can't do everything you'd like any longer.
I'm just reaching a point in my life that simplicity has a nice ring.
That especially holds true when thinking about the enormous task
each year of planting, staking, labeling, training, watering, digging up, washing, labeling again and storing the vast dahlia collection.
Each year I ask myself, "how much longer can I keep doing this?"
But I keep doing it.
They are so pretty throughout the summer.
What great cut flowers!
But really!
The work is tremendous!

Okay, I better go check for the mail before it is completely dark outside.
Happy Snow Day y'all!

Finished!

This fits perfectly! Yeay!
Pattern: "Cinnamon" by Kim Hargreaves.
Kind of a weird yarn:
Collezione S. Charles Filati d' Italia "Sahara"
44% Viscose, 20% Linen, 36% Bamboo.
It’s somewhat tweedy.
I’m happy with this one.
I need to re-seam one of the side seams at the bottom since I noticed in the photo that the ribbing doesn’t line up.
Yikes! How did that happen?
I was so excited to get this finished I guess I rushed the last seam.

That’s dahlia “Keith H” in the background.

So Close

I spent the entire day in one spot knitting today. I am so close to finishing a sweater and whenever that happens I go into a ridiculous knitting trance that lasts for a crazy amount of time. The treat today, while in the trance, was tuning in to the Metropolitan Opera's presentation of Puccini's La Rondine on PBS while knitting. This opera has one of my absolute favorite songs ever: Chi il Bel Sogno. There just isn't a more beautiful song! It simply transports you to another place of expansive fields of red poppies and summer heat, even though that is not the locale of the scene in the opera. Okay, time to get back to the knitting. Only seven more rows, of 237 stitches each row, to go and then sewing up the seams. So close to being done with this one. Then on to the next one.

Mushroom Walk

These are some of the most beautiful of the wide array of mushrooms
that I saw today on a walk through The Bloedel Reserve.
I wouldn't dare taste any of them.
The motto of mushroomers is
"When in doubt
Throw it out!"
What a beautiful day today!
Just a delight at this time of the year
to be treated to full sun!
Cheers!

wowahlias

Asahi Choji

Asahi Choji

Mary Eveline

La Bomba

Aren't my girls pretty?

Cornus kousa fruit

words of the week

Here are the words of the week after reading the Sunday New York Times:
schadenfreude
truculent

And the quote of the week is by Cisco Morris when describing a lovely new variety of Panicum (an ornamental grass):
..."so stunning that even squirrels cry when they see it!"

Worksheet

I donated my time to illustrate this worksheet for children who visit the Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful public garden. I hope they like it.

Words

In an article in the Sunday New York Times about Victoria Beckham's burgeoning fashion empire three words were new to me. I love looking up new words. Revealing my ignorance the words of the week are:

Argot
Alacrity
and Suplicant

I also loved a quote by Victoria, "it's exhausting being fabulous"! Can't you just see her saying that?

new dress

Here's a dress that I made recently from IKEA fabric.
When I finished initially it was huge,
so I had to rip out the zipper and then take in several inches
along the center back.
Now it fits perfectly due to the expert pinning of my handy assistant.
Thank you sweetie pie.
Happy summer dress.
Just in time for the heat!

Race Day

Yesterday I thought that I would skip it. I wasn't sure last night. This morning I woke up and looked at the start time on the race notice and decided, well, I paid for it, I signed up for it, but what really made me go for it was a note that mentioned that the first 600 participants receive a race medal. That little token sucked me in. I thought that would be a nice addition to last year's medal on my gym key ring. My hesitation to race today was based on the fact that I hadn't run since Monday. I have been running all year long and it is getting harder to force myself to go to the gym after work now. But I had been training up until recently to get faster, and so I just didn't want all that time in the gym to go for not if I didn't race today. I didn't have great expectations since I thought that I would get winded easily, since I had not run since Monday.

The nice thing about today's race is that they provide a trainer to give a stretch workout before the race. So I warmed up at the workout and then ran around for the next twenty minutes to get loose. Then race time came and I positioned myself near the front of the line, since at the 4th of July run I got bogged down by all the kids and strollers in front of me at the start of the race. The horn sounded and the race was off.

I started passing teenagers and young kids which gave me a sense that maybe I could do well today. Then half way through the race a woman ran right next to me with white hair. I looked at her bib and she was in my same age division. So I pushed it harder. I made some headway in front of her and then she gained on me, then I pushed ahead and then she again surged. I really pushed it in the last 400 meters seeing the finish line ahead but about 10 feet from the finish line she surged ahead of me. I thought to myself that I had tried to stay ahead of her for this race and I wasn't going to let her beat me at the end so I dialed it up for the last 5 feet and beat her at the line by .5 of a second.

I came in first for my age division for the second year in a row for this race. My time was quite a bit faster than last year only because that other woman was neck and neck with me. She pushed me to really give it everything I had. It felt good to come in first after putting it all out there. I would have been so disappointed if I had come up short at the finish line. But it turned out in my favor and I'm glad that I decided to participate today after all. The blue ribbon went up on the wall in my sewing room with the rest of my race ribbons when I got home.

At my age it feels good to accomplish a physical goal, when I have never considered myself to be athletic in the least. Maybe just maybe my genes contributed slightly to make my daughter the state track star that she is. This is the fifth race I have entered in a row where I have come in first in my age division. Time to dance a little jig for this old lady.

Hot!

When it's hot my daughter and I like to paint with mendhi.
There are cooling properties to mendhi as soon as it is applied to your skin.
What a wonderful sensation!
No wonder it is used in some of the hottest countries in the world.
Cheers to summer!