Update on Sushi Wallets

I finished my Sushi Knitting knit, which I blogged about in May.

My version of the wallets from the Sushi Knitting kit.

I never follow a pattern completely. Improvisation is my middle name. I used the kit to knit one wide striped wallet, and the remaining yarn to make a smaller square one. I used the zipper from the kit in the striped bag. Both are lined in bright green linen. I embroidered the “sushis” onto the bag with the blanket stitch.

I knitted them, then felted them in the washing machine. Blocking is easy with wet, felted wool. The yarn in the kit is made from wool/bamboo, so they’re surprisingly soft. I’ll keep my colored pens and some basic knitting supplies in the wide, striped wallet. The small, ribbon-tied wallet will be used for a little hand bag when I only need a credit card and some cash, and maybe some tissues.

Pick up the kit! They’re a little time intensive, but VERY easy. And fun!

Entranced by a Wood Thrush

It’s that time of year again when I’m serenaded through the open kitchen window as I prepare supper each evening. The flute-like harmonies of the wood thrush sound out from the deep woods around our house, entrancing me each evening. The sound is pure loveliness. These birds thrill me! It is the sound of summer evenings. I float away on the music. Never seen, but much adored, the wood thrush add to the peace in my soul. Their flute-y songs lure me away from the rush of the day, and pull me into their slower, wild world.

There’s a Cecropia moth hangin’ out at my house.

The moth is my last blog was identified by

merrilymarylee

Thanks! I do, indeed, think it was a Cecropia Moth, also referred to as a Wild Saturniid Silk Moth, hangin’ out on my front door last week. The thick moth body had the peculiar line of black dots within larger white dots running along each side. The antennae didn’t seem large enough for a male, and the body was quite swollen… so, I’d guess that it was a female with eggs. Have those eggs been deposited on one of our many maple leaves? My moth had the coloration of a robin, a reddish brown.

We’ve often seen Luna Moths on summer evenings. Their green is almost fluorescent. One evening a Luna Moth landed on the screen of our bedroom window, stretching it’s wings to it’s full 5-6″ width. It was ghostly and alien looking, and we were in awe. The Luna Moth is part of the same family of Saturniid Silk Moths. How amazing that we have these large, elegant beauties sharing our piece of land!

Bill Maher–the best debate I’ve heard in… I don’t know how long!

Okay, for those of you who don’t know Bill Maher, he hosts a show on HBO. For those of you do have HBO, you either hate the guy or you look forward to his show each week. I vacillate between the two… either loving or hating him. Even if you hate his politics, Maher is a comedian first and a politician second; so, you’re bound to crack up at some point and be ready to change the channel at another. (My feminist friends: he falls on the side of sexism.) It doesn’t matter. You just have to watch this week’s show (I watched it tonight, June 15, 8pm EST). However you feel, whatever side you identify with… you just have to watch this episode. The debate on communism is the best I’ve heard since college, but more sophisticated and completely relevant. I won’t tell you how I feel. Just watch it. And tell me what you think. 

It’s the best show Bill Maher has ever produced!

Can you identify this moth?

Can you help identify this moth?

Look at this incredible moth! It’s been hanging out on my front door all week. Don’t worry, I was extremely gentle with it. It’s just so beautiful!

Wild Plants of New Hampshire

If the New Hampshire woodlands were left alone, wild flowers and berries would take over in no time flat. Just in our own woodsy yard, I have to hold back flora just to plant perennial beds. Strawberries and raspberries pop up everywhere, and crawl into my gardens if not held at bay.

I have to create a border in front of my garden, constantly beating back the wild strawberries.

The wild strawberries are now in blossom. Bees love this quickly spreading ground cover.

Strawberries, raspberries, and low bush blueberries all grow wild on our land. I imagine sustaining myself and family on the fruits from our area, an idea that began during my childhood visits to Freedom Acres.

Wild blueberries are beginning to form where little white bell-shaped blossoms recently faded.

When I was young, my Connecticut family vacationed on Pleasant Lake in New London, NH. Each year we made our trek up the hill to Freedom Acres in Wilmot, NH. Two retired Army officers cleared the top of their mountain, built their own home, and used the wild-growing fruits of their land to build a business. Visitors were invited into their home, and through the professional kitchen to witness the making of these jams and jellies. We’d sample the little jars of homemade sweetness. Current and chokecherry were always my favorite.

Freedom Acres, Wilmot, NH, where a business thrived from sales of jams and jellies made from fruit growing wild on their land.

And how about the flowers that grow wild here? Bunches of wild violets pop up every where in my yard, delivering some of the first flowers of the season.

Wild clumps of violets pop-up around our yard.

We find trillium by the dozens in our woods, and on rare occasion a lady’s slipper. We have wild meadow rue, hobble bush verbena, and daisies everywhere, asters, columbine, merrybells. And dozens of other wild flowers that keep butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees common on our hill.

So, here’s to wildness and undeveloped land! We don’t have to tame and conquer every bit of land. Let it grow wild. See what pops up in your yard. These are life’s simple pleasures… right under our feet.

Have you ever tripped on your own cropped pants?

So, have you? I do… regularly. If there’s anyone who understands how this happens, I want to be your friend! For those of you who can not comprehend this, it’s easy. Here’s how it happens…

As my left foot steps up the stairs and I bring my right foot up to step up the next stair, my sandal clad right toes get caught in the hem of my cropped pants… thus, the tripping. Yeeaaaaa. I go face first into the stairway. MmmmHmmm. That’s right. Come on, has this ever happened to you??

Sunday Morning Ritual

The teapot my son brought back from Hong Kong.

Here I am again, celebrating a slow Sunday morning with a little pot of silver needle white tea, browsing fabrics on the internet. My muscles are sore from a deeply satisfying day of gardening yesterday. Rain is watering the perennials I transplanted. The air smells woodsy from the bark Rob and I spread around our yard and through my gardens. We have no lawn. Instead, we spread a fresh delivery of brandy colored bark mulch each Spring in the small yard between our house and the woods.

I mark the seasons as I take time on Sunday mornings to look out my window while counting my blessings. The yellow-green of new leaves has deepened now into rich greens. Color has returned to my northern New England world. Birds abound here, and this morning they’re singing up a storm.

Jane Sassaman's Sweet Potato Vine

eQuilter.com is my Sunday morning companion. I scroll through pages and pages of fabric samples, planning projects and following design trends. The fabrics popular now are amazing to me, cotton prints with bold colors and large, Asian-inspired patterns. See what I mean? Glorious.

And look at this delicious fabric by one of the industry’s leading designers, Kaffe Fassett. Ever day-dream about blue and purple trees?

Kaffe Fassett's Violet Verbena

Then there is the eye-opening collection by Luella Doss entitled Hot Flash. There’s a child that awakens within a woman as she nears menopause, and this fabric speaks to her. I see the doors inviting me into a new stage of my life.

Luella Doss's Hot Flash

See what I mean? It’s like a walk through an art gallery, and I smile the entire time that I’m browsing.

As I pour the last of the tea into my cup, it’s time to write the girls, the best part of my Sunday morning ritual. Each week my dearest friends (who happen to be my husband’s cousins and part of my life since childhood) and their mom (my husband’s aunt and the adored matriarch of our family) and I all email each other. We share the weekly news of our kids, our jobs, victories and struggles, and what makes our hearts sing. This multi-generational sharing between women is the high point of my week. It’s the modern replacement of the woman-speak that used to happen in shared homes, neighborhoods, the river bank. We’re all so spread apart: I’m in New England, Terry is in San Diego, Michele and Linda are in Oregon. Our digital discussions are gold to me. I get the encouragement, modeling, validation, and sister love that I need to begin again on Monday morning.

Such sweetness I find on Sunday mornings. It fills my soul. And yes, I take time to pray and meditate, listening to that still, small voice within me. This is when I center myself on my strong foundation, and fill in the chinks that come from living. How do you fill yourself back up each week? What is your Sunday morning ritual?

Sushi Knitting

Pick Up Sticks! Felted Knit Designs

Just got a kit from my sister-in-law called Sushi Wallet Knit Felting Kit. It’s a kit so fun and simple that I once again thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” The kit to make a wallet/bag is packaged in a sushi container, with little balls of bamboo-wool yarn (I didn’t know that a wool/bamboo blend would felt so easily), directions for knitting or crocheting your wallet, and a zipper for finishing it off. After knitting a simple rectangle in stockinette stitch, stitching up the sides and felting it, little sushi roll-looking disks (also knitted/crocheted and felted) are attached to embellish the bag. A zipper is added, and a sushi disk is used as a pull tab. Adorable! It’s a weekend project. Give it a whirl.

I’m a playoff sports fan.

I’m the kind of sports fan that dedicated sports fans sneer at.

I’m a playoff sports fan.

When there’s so much at stake, when a loss means the end of the season, when a team or a city depends on the winner label to give them enough pride to climb out of the staggering loss of employment, economic downturn, loss of identity… then a win means so much more.

I was initiated into sports ABC’s Wide World of Sports. “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” It’s the human element, the story behind the athlete, behind the team struggles, behind generations of loss… that’s what I love about sports. So, I tune in during the playoffs. Sorry, true sports fans.

It’s not a lack of appreciation for the sport and the athletes. Most sports’ seasons are just too long! There are 162 regular season baseball and basketball games, compared to 16 regular season football games. Ya, I can follow a football season. Every single game matters, so I am there on Sundays and Mondays (and Thursdays…), aptly following the Patriots.

So many sports are about endurance, and that’s a quality to value in and of itself. A long season takes out more than a few athletes, and the team with the healthiest first-string often claims the title. The Celtics were down Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe by the time playoffs began–ouch! But I just can’t stay into it for month after month after month.

Man, the Bruins and Celtics playoff season was a whole lot of fun! Wasn’t it? Heartbreaking in the end, but terrific, intense play. Can’t wait until the Red Sox are in their playoff season. I’ll be there for every game!