Resetting & Restarting

I feel as though I blinked, and it’s June 23.

We have been longing to get out of the house, and we did, and now time seems to be flying by in a new, wild pace. B graduated from his residency program, we celebrated at the beach, we made a day-trip to my in-laws for Father’s Day, we worked a lot, we mowed the lawn, we worked some more, and we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary with a little staycation in town. We stayed at a tiny, historic house just a few minutes up the road and ate takeout and read books together. We had the most FANTASTIC Japanese food I’ve ever had in my life and reconnected sharing a meal.

Perhaps the shifts feel so much more dramatic because there’s still just so little sense of what to anticipate for the future, and it still feels very not normal to live this way. In our state the number of hospitalizations hit a new all-time high today, and this week we experienced a new wave of cancellations for events and special celebrations in the end of summer and beginning of fall. The little griefs get all bottled up and then come out in waves, sometimes, and unexpectedly. We are unable to make plans, and I need plans as a part of my DNA. It’s so hard not to have them.

And yet, I am so attuned right now to the changing seasons and the natural world in a way that I think I never have before. I feel the heat without judgement, just feeling it and not dreading it and being present today. Seeing dragonflies resting on the bricks outside of my house, going on a walk and seeing the flora literally change from week to week as the month unfolds. Lightning bugs every night. Seeing the persistent piles of leftover leaves and sticks on my driveway and feeling a sense of clean, declutter, reset, renew in this space we are in, this new day that we have found. Get rid of everything that didn’t work before that’s taking up physical and emotional space. A new dining table, and this room just works now. There will be sungold tomatoes in our produce box this week. Tomatoes! It’s tomato season. What a blessing to be here. Hostas and lilies and fresh basil and fruit in every drink.

We are less than a month away from completing the 100 Day Challenge, and to no one’s shock I haven’t completed this in the way that I certainly imagined I would, but that is 100% ok and I’m still really happy to be here, to be writing, to be knitting, and sewing, and making a life. Thanks for being here with me and I am happy to be back at my desk at the end of June.

Friday, Friday: 6.12.2020

I am entering this weekend with much clearer eyes and a heart that is filling up. I have heard stories of people who are learning, I’ve seen myself learn, and I know that we will continue to call others into the work of anti-racism and equity in this country. I’m also really overwhelmed with the positive response to the Paeonia shawl - if you were interested in testing you should have received an email from me this week, please let me know if you haven’t or if you have other questions about this design!

This week:

  • I really believed the saying for the first time, “The more creativity you use, the more creativity you have.” I have two other design ideas in my brain I’m excited to work on this weekend.
  • B graduates from his residency program! Parts of this spring have felt very “normal” with his pending graduation because he is continuing on in a fellowship at the same hospital where he did his residency, but we have a virtual ceremony tonight and I’m sure it will all start to feel very real.
  • We scheduled out our lunches and dinners ahead of time and it took so much pressure off our daily schedule. Will be doing this more in the future.
  • We ate homemade pizza bagels (a revelation).
  • I found joy in going outside to check on my newly planted rosemary plant every day.
  • I got back into playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is just truly a gorgeous game.
  • I read up more on how to think intersectionally about gender, farming, environmentalism, and the work I do every day.
  • We said a hard goodbye and a new hello.
  • We went to Costco and didn’t lose our minds.

We will be at a house at the beach for the weekend celebrating B’s graduation and enjoying the sunshine (and hoping to be semi-solitary as we do so). I wish you a weekend of book-reading, learning, knitting, and joy.

Coming Soon: Paeonia Shawl

I took a break from posting last week in solidarity with amplifying Black voices in our community and focusing my feed on sharing resources for white folks interested in educating themselves on systemic oppression, police reform and the validity of protests. In the wake of no arrests still for the murder of Breonna Taylor, and hearing of how the families of former victims called the family of George Floyd saying, “Don’t expect much to change,” and the complete misuse of force across the country and straight from our president towards peaceful protestors, it really didn’t even seem like I should post about anything else for a long time.

I saw a post the other day that reminded me, however, that the work that we are in is a marathon, not a sprint. I continued to knit all last week after reading the morning paper, and while watching movies safe at home, and listening to podcasts. This was good, but just because I am back to talking about knitting today, know that the work is still very much ongoing with me and my community.

What was I knitting all last week? I was knitting what I’m calling the Paeonia Shawl, my first ever knit design. This idea has been rolling around in my mind and heart for years and was sparked into being the first time I saw this yarn in my local yarn store a few months ago. In the wake of those who are putting their actual lives on the line and demonstrating incredible courage in the world, it seems so trite and trivial to call the work of this design as an act of hope or belief in moving past fear, but in me for many ways it was and it has been. I am so excited to share this design with you, reader, and the world.

From my call for testers on IG this morning I think I have all of the folks that I need to test this design, but be on the lookout for the official pattern’s release next month and for more information on this design the closer we get. Thank you to everyone who has responded to this design in such a positive way and for all of the love I’ve felt today, it truly means the world to me.

Friday, Friday 5.29.2020

It’s the last Friday in May, and what a journey it has been. My heart is breaking this week and is simultaneously so angry for the injustice in our country against people of color. I know I have so much work to do as a white woman in the South and moving in white spaces I am seeing just how far so many of my peers have to go also in understanding and combating racism today. It can feel overwhelming at times but it is our burden to carry. Love for our neighbor means action.

This week, I fought a mostly winning battle with the vegetables in my fridge that I’ve been accumulating from weekly pick ups from a local farm and it has spurred me on towards several new-to-me recipes that I have loved: honey-glazed spicy turnips, zucchini fritters, and blistered snap peas, kale and a soft-boiled egg over rice vinegar noodles. I feel as though I am just now understanding how much I love turnips just as turnip season is coming, and balancing this by trying out zucchini recipes just as its season is beginning. We have been consistently keeping a jar of herb-y yogurt sauce in our fridge to spoon on top of fritters, for crudités, and to dollop on top of proteins throughout the week and WOW I am going to deeply lament the end of fresh dill season. I’m also contemplating the acquisition of a dehydrator to extend the life of these glorious herbs and wonder if anyone out there has experience they would like to lend to this effort?

The making this week has been slow and meditative. I am making great progress on my V-Neck boxy sweater and hardly any progress on the new design I am working on, thanks to some brain-scraping work loads induced by squeezing a five-day work week into only four which left only room for rounds and rounds of stockinette. My printed patterns from PDF Plotting arrived this week but aside from being unrolled, have as yet remained untouched. (But admired, longingly, from my desk with much anticipation.) I am also loving briefly, before bed, wandering into Avonlea with Anne of Green Gables now that I have it in paperback rather than attempting to make progress with my iPad. Her adventures and misadventures have consistently brought a smile to my face and have given me dreams of tea time and simplicity and endless blossoms.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you get the rest that you need this weekend, so that you can show up and advocate and act the way that we need right now. But please, take care of yourself first.

FO: Linen Roscoe Dress 5.25.2020

Two things I didn’t expect this week: to completely burn out and stop blogging for five days, and to sew two dresses in one week. We are almost half-way through the 100 Day Project and I honestly can’t really explain why but two, three, four days went by and I couldn’t bring myself to write. I thought, “Why am I even doing this? I’m doing it for me, and to get better, and to move forward.” And I realized that it was OK if I took a little break. Sorry for anyone who may have looked for posts in the past few days and none were to be found.

Pretty much right after finishing my Wren, I started cutting out the pattern pieces for this dress. I read the instructions and despite feeling very advanced, the directions were really simple and all techniques I had done before, so I decided to just go for it and tackle it over the long weekend. This was also a PERFECT example of why when I order or purchase new fabric, I wash it so it’s ready to go, and use PDF plotting to just cut out patterns and go. Cutting out those initial process steps is so awesome for my making and really allows me to just focus on the sewing, which is, of course, the best part.

This is the Roscoe View C and I created it out of Brussels Washer Linen from Freeman’s Creative. Decently structured while still having nice shape, it has a really nice yarn-dyed quality and is a really gorgeous berry color that I think will be awesome for all seasons. It feels much more summer than fall right now, and I’ve seen other versions of this dress in flannel that I think I am definitely going to have to duplicate come September. There’s nothing better than a cozy dress to slip into on a cool autumn morning. My measurements would have suggested I make a size 10 according to the pattern instructions, but based on other reviews and the fact that this fabric is not as flows as say, rayon, I actually decided to size down two sizes to keep the bulk from being too much. I think it worked out well and is still oversized and easy.

All in all, the dress only took me about 5 hours to sew. I had some issues with the neckline and had to end up cutting it out twice, and I decided to do French seams for all of the seams instead of using my white serger thread to finish the insides, so that took a little longer but ultimately was a choice I was really happy with. It looks very finished on the inside and I love it. The final detail I chose was to finish the bottom hem of the ruffle with a decorative embroidery stitch built into my machine, making these sweet little flowers all along the hem. Definitely bumps up the Molly Weasley vibes in the best way. :)

So yes, definitely a flannel version for fall in my future, and I would looove to try this in just a super flowy and fluid rayon or viscose that just is all drape to make something really comfy but also a little more dressy. I am almost tempted to use the black viscose I just ordered from Blackbird Fabrics for that purpose, but I realllly want to make another pair of Winslow culottes this summer, so I’m resisting!

It feels good to be back, and I promise I am also still knitting a ton in the midst of all of this time at my machine. I can’t wait to share more soon.

FO: Wren Dress Take 2! 5.20.2020

Eek! So happy with this new dress and finishing one of my goals for Me Made May this year. I cut the pieces for this dress out probably 2 weeks ago and then just sat with it, unsewn, until Monday when I needed a refresh in my office space. Cleaning everything up and putting away the remnants of other projects helped with my motivation and I finished it up last night. It’s amazing what a little refresh of your physical space will do for your mental space to be able to be productive.

I mentioned in my first post for my sewing goals for May that I had made a Wren dress already but hadn’t blogged it because I needed to make some modifications to be happy with it. This one went much better, mostly because I had made it once already and also because of the fabric. This is an organic cotton knit from Birch Organics that I purchased at Freeman’s Creative a few months ago and it is just really high quality. It feels soft but not too buttery, so I know it will hold up over time, and is really light and nice.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about this project was the finishing on the sleeves and collar with the twin needle. I don’t have a separate bobbin holder for a second thread on my top stitching so my thread kept getting tangled, and tightening and breaking. I do like the finished look of a twin needle, so for the future I think I am going to either look into options for a second holder for that thread, or ways to thread the twin needle to prevent tangles.

This is the view B, and the only modifications that I made were to lengthen the sleeve by about 2.5-3” to make it a mid-length sleeve instead of a short sleeve, and to remove about an inch from the back bodice so that it hit my back at the same angle as the front of the dress. As written, it was hitting lower on my back and I didn’t love it.

I really enjoyed this pattern and can see myself making my version of a little black dress in the future. I may also consider raising the back neckline for a winter version as well, as it kind of has a scoop effect to it as written.

All in all, highly recommend this pattern and happy to have it in my wardrobe. I think it will be a versatile piece for dressier evenings, having friends over (someday) and even some outdoor events this summer (Lord willing). Until then, its a super fancy house dress and that’s just fine.

Homestead Dreams

One of my favorite paintings, “The Neighborhood” by Phoebe Wahl

For many years, my IG bio has read something like this:

“Wild, woolly, and wonderful. Knitter, sewist, crafter, and homestead wannabe.”

It took me a long time before I even could put it out there that I wanted to create a homestead for my family. (You know the feeling?) The idea felt so distant and out of reach at the time when my husband and I were renting a tiny house that we knew we would move from in a year, in a shaded yard unsuitable for growing any sort of food, and with full-time jobs and school commitments. But the desire was so very real and over the years, I’ve had to figure out what it means to homestead in each season of where we live.

Of course, my own journey has been guided and inspired by folks who I have watched on their own paths towards sustainability and building a vibrant home. From our friend whose small suburban house backs up to big woods and who grows tons of food to preserve in a tenth of an acre, to folks learning homestead skills in their tiny apartments in Oakland, and stories of families who just started where they were and didn’t wait for permission or a big parcel of land or a lot of free time. I’m so glad that a spirit of industriousness and do-it-yourself and a love of sustainability and local community manifest themselves in many ways around the world.

Currently, B and I own our home and have lived here for the past 2.5 years. The house is on a really great sized lot, but is sandwiched between a highway to our back, and a thoroughfare on our front. It’s in a spot not too far from downtown but apart from the road noise, walking to the backmost part of our space you wouldn’t quite believe it. We still don’t think that this space is our “forever” home but we are making our home here for the foreseeable future and that has led to a lot of different dreams on my part to learn as much as I can and grow as much as I can while we are here. We’ve done all of the good homeowner things of settling in, painting walls, decluttering closets, and making each space work for us, and have also had the opportunity to do some more involved “homestead” things:

  • We built our first raised bed. Unfortunately, even the sunniest part of our backyard gets only partial sunlight thanks to some 15 foot shrubs that we will need to hire someone to cut down significantly, and our neighbors have a few trees that shade the best parts of our yard from sunlight during the day. I am doing more research in the meantime on low-light vegetables and herbs to grow this fall.
  • I just finished a trio of “mushroom beds” on the shadiest part of our yard behind our home. I purchased sawdust mushroom spawn and used the lasagna method of alternating sawdust, wood bark, and spawn to cultivate shiitake, wine cap, and morel mushrooms. Now all we have to do is wait!
  • We started shopping more locally, visiting the farmer’s market, and canning seasonal fruits and veggies. It’s taught me so much about our food, the changing seasons, and our community.
  • I started dyeing more and more with natural, foraged dyes and kitchen scraps. This has long been a love of mine, but it has been fun to explore it more in our kitchen.
  • We cleared significant brush and started dreaming about what each small space can be. Our side yard? Future home to blueberries, if we’re lucky. The giant shed that needs to be demolished? Perfect spot for a future chicken coop.
  • Learning about sustainable and human animal processing. This hasn’t been done in our home, but B has learned so much about sustainable hunting, fishing, and animal processing in the past few years.

I also consider knitting, mending, sewing, and stitching to absolutely be homestead skills, and also look forward to diving more deeply into soap and candle making and natural housekeeping. While I still dream often of a quiet few acres and the space to spread out and grow, I am learning every day and building my own kind of wannabe homestead all the time, which is more than enough for now.