Sewing Notes

So I knew I needed to make a gift bag for Mary’s shawl, and I also had the baby quilt that I finished a while ago kicking around without a gift bag.     It being the last day of a random four day weekend, I decided to tackle that today.   (I had the shawl up on my bed drying and two gift bags done before 10:30.    It was a good morning.)

The top bag was simpler, with a fold over channel for the ribbon.    I experimented a bit with the shawl bag.   It’s a got a folded channel in the middle.   I like that, but I don’t think I like how little I folded over the edge – the inside of the fabric’s going to be pretty visible.    This is did end up being a rather wide bag, so I think that was part of the problem.   If it had been taller, I think I would have sewn down a wider hem for the top.    Food for thought if I try this again.

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Knitting Notes

Pattern: Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss in the Sterling colorway
Needles: Size 4 circs and DPNs

Here’s Mary’s Evenstar shawl, which is blocking in my bedroom as we speak.

I still adore the pattern, and the Gloss yarn is a heavenly to work with.    I really wish I had more excuses to made these bigger projects.   I really enjoy the long term knitting, and they fit in so much more interesting technique.

Garden

So something dug up my Sedona coleus.    The one I buy every year because it’s such a cool orange color.    So I ended up repotting the red one in a slightly smaller pot.  I suppose if I had to lose one, the Sedona was the better one to lose – I do have an orange heuchera, even though it’s not the same shade.

In other news, I finally managed to grab one more bag of mulch and mulch the tail end of the side bed.    It looks so much better out there now.

The tomatoes are going great guns.    I actually switched out the nasturtiums in the middle.  They were looking a little shaded.   I figured the Swiss chard would probably appreciate the shade more as we got into the hot season.

Knitting Notes

If you were only reading my blog, it would seem that I haven’t been knitting for a while.   I actually have been – the Evenstar shawl has been taking up all my time.   But I’ve made one before, so regular updates just didn’t seem necessary.

I actually finished it last week, knowing I’d need to wait for this weekend to block it.     And I found myself at a bit of loose ends.    It took me a couple days to regroup and figure out what I wanted to do next.

So I’m back in stash busting mode.   I found the Hermoine Hearts Ron pattern looking for something to do with my leftover Dalegarn Falk yarn.     I’m probably cutting it close with the yardage – here’s hoping I can complete it, and maybe even not have any left over yarn.

Colonial Pemaquid Maine Historic Site

 

 

 

In our bid to fully use our Maine State Park pass, after our stop at the Botanical Garden on Saturday, we stopped by the Colonial Pemaquid Historic Site, by way of several of the fingers of the Bristol peninsulas.    (If you’ve never been to mid-Coast Maine, the coast line is all peninsulas there.   If you only went along Route 1, you’d think there couldn’t be a lot down there, everything goes by so fast.   You’d be wrong.)

Pemaquid is neat.    It’s the remains of several English forts that attempted to protect a settlement going back to the 1620s, so it’s what passes for pretty old archaeology around here.    (I’ll admit to being a little jaded by watching Time Team.    It is a little strange to think you can walk outside and find Iron Age ruins in England, while our natives didn’t leave much that was tangible.)

In our wanders, we happened open Miss Ashley’s Sub Shack in South Bristol, which had freaking amazing Philly cheese steaks.   (The grill was manned by a Philly native.)    That place is so off the beaten path I doubt I’ll ever be able to send someone there, but I want to – it was that good.

Bonus picture of Pemaquid Point Light.     There was a wedding, so we didn’t get to wander around.

Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, Boothbay, Maine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I Hate to Cook Book – Peg Bracken

This book is from the 60s (genuinely – my mother snagged a copy for me at Goodwill).    My mother had enjoyed it (probably for nostalgia’s sake).     I will confess, I enjoyed it too, but more as a microcosm of a world most definitely gone by.     This is both socially (the implication that you’re cooking because you have a husband and kids) and food-wise (I haven’t seen mention of that many different types of canned goods in many a moon).    It is a genuinely funny book, and probably now a genuine historical document.

Harvest

A little harvest from the garden.    A little disappointing, since I overplanted an entire window box.   I guess I need to give up on that seed packet…

The Valdemar Companion – ed. John Helfers and Denise Little

I have long enjoyed the Valdemar series, so I’ve had this book on my radar for a bit, and managed to snag it from Bookmooch.    I will say, I think I’m glad I didn’t really pay for it.     It’s definitely the kind of thing that was much more useful before the internet came along.   And actually, this was just late enough that there are web resources in the book, which were a hoot.   (Web rings.    I’d totally forgotten about web rings.)

So I’d say, if you find this used, there is a nice little novella, and some interesting interviews, but I bet you could find the information about the world of Velgarth online now, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Spring Wildflowers