Just in time for summer

I've finished crocheting an enormous heavy woolen granny square for the sofa. Just when the sun has decided to ratchet those temps up to the high eighties every day. Typical. Just ask my husband how many Christmas and birthday gifts were given to him half-finished. Embarrassing, really.

I love this afghan, though. It's mostly Lamb's Pride Worsted, and is almost all scraps. I did have to buy a couple of skeins more in the dark brown color that anchors and borders the blanket, but I'll use the scraps someday, some more knitted toys, perhaps? I used a G hook, and the finished size is about 58" square. I was going for 60" square, so pretty close, right? I just couldn't make myself crochet one more round.

I got the idea and the pattern from the Purl Bee.

Just checking in

Well, summer hasn't gotten any less busy, so it's no surprise to me that it's been almost two weeks since I've written here. I present a few (fuzzy) photos to catch up. The progress on my hill-y ripple blanket, started many moons ago. I'm using all Debbie Bliss yarns (Baby Cashmerino, Cashmerino DK mostly) because if you're going to do something that takes this long, you might as well do it right. This will be a really luxurious blanket for our queen-sized bed. As a bonus, it's quite heavy, so it will be nice and cozy in the winter. Here's hoping I can get it finished by then! I've done about 35 rows (each row is two rows of the same color and comes in at about an inch in width, depending on the yarn), and I'm a little over a third of the way done. I'm digging the way the colors are coming together.
Buttermilk batter-fried squash blossoms from a couple of weeks ago. These were phenomenal. We bought a pint of these little gals at the farmers' market for about $3, which seemed expensive at the time, but they were so delicious once I fried them up that I wish I could get them every week. I used a 1:1 buttermilk to regular flour batter and pan fried them in canola oil. A little sprinkle of kosher salt, and yum yum. Not all of them are shown here, because you have to eat them piping hot, don't you know.

And anniversary flowers from my sweet husband. This is our fourth anniversary, so fruit and flowers are the traditional gifts (or, as Wikipedia wants to call them, the "British" gifts). These are huge and beautiful and they smell wonderful. I'll share the (somewhat silly) gift I made for him here tomorrow. Happy Anniversary, Brian! I love you.

Hills and Valleys

I definitely do not need another crafty hobby. But this week these ripple stitch crochet blankets have been calling my name, so I've taken up a crochet hook. I'm adding another blanket to the blogosphere, about a year behind the others. This pattern, number 8 'Soft Waves', from Jan Eaton's 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns book, is pretty soothing. And addictive. I sit and crochet and I'm always excited about getting to the next color.

The hills and valleys in the crochet remind me a little of the hills and valleys of Virginia. The last day for the season of foxhunting was Saturday, and despite a little mix-up about the time of the meet, Joshua and I made it there in time. Maybe only you other riders will know what I'm talking about, but it was one of those 'zen' days on horseback. Without thinking about anything, I melted into a kind of meditation of movement and it was just my huntin' horse and me, up and down hills in harmony with the world, for an indeterminate amount of time.

That's not to say it wasn't an eventful day. One woman's horse fell on the blacktopped road and she broke her arm (better at the end of the season than the beginning), and though we asked the ambulance to come without the siren, it wailed and echoed toward us, scaring each of the assembled horses. After the ambulance it began to sleet a little as we moved back into the woods, and I had that winter fort feeling as the sleet fell (c-c-clickclickclick) on millions of leaves and branches overhead. I don't really know where I'm going here. Here's a photo of springtime hills and mountains taken last April. Doesn't it look a little like the crocheted ripples?

Sometimes when I'm riding out, I remember a little passage that I wrote in my journal the first time I went hunting, about 'things I learned'. I was probably about 14. I wrote, "sometimes it's okay to go galloping full-speed down a hill when there's another hill going up to catch you on the other side". It seems like there always is another hill in this part of the world.

PS: I don't know why my posts have seemed a little morose (and perhaps overly philosophical) lately. I'm hoping spring will bring the happy.

Green week: 4

Today has been rainy and dark, but things will be noticeably greener tomorrow, after this day-long drink. We don't have any daffodils in our yard, but my husband sent me these cut ones today, and I can't wait until they open up on my kitchen windowsill.
I've really enjoyed Shining Egg's Green Week; it has helped me to convince myself that Spring will actually be here in full force one day very soon.

The second photo represents another way of being green--recycling. We're big on that around here. This is a detail of one of two bathroom rugs that I crocheted this week from old t-shirts, using Amanda Jean's tutorial. The acid green stripe in the photo was made from a Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament shirt that I bought during spring break in high school. In the days before the Internet, we used to make a point of buying "good" t-shirts when we were at the beach in North Carolina. Most of these shirts had paintings of sport fish on them. I've had a pile of these worn-out shirts in my basement for the better part of a year, so it feels good to finally do something with them, since I couldn't make myself throw them away. I could probably still tell you which shirt each stripe was made of-- I wish I weren't so sentimental about things that really don't matter.