Month: February 2024

A Love Poem

Karen

I posted this a couple years ago but it feels the best and the most Doc, out of the years of blog archives and Valentine posts. “Solid as granite” is a wonderful thing to have; thank you, honey.

 

My sweetness, my desire
by Marge Piercy

Pumpkin I call you, sweet
and spicy pie. Mango
juicy. Scotch bonnet hot.
Dark chocolate. Espresso.
Fresh squeezed orange
juice thick with pulp.

You come through for
me time after time and
again. Reliable as Old
Faithful. Solid as granite.
You always give me
the gift of laughter.

Whatever I love you try
to love. What threatens me
you stand on guard. We
talk and we talk but it
never wears out. Together
we lay out a feast of love.

 

From Made in Detroit: Poems, 2015

Tuesday Project Roundup: Rainbow Brite Hot Water Bottle

Karen

Well that didn’t take long: I finished the hot water bottle cover in the self-striping yarn and just look at those COLORS:

The details are all linked on the progress post. That free pattern was excellent (it includes two different weights and a calculator for anything else) and the provisional-cast-on-to-kitchener-stitch finishing worked fine.

I love the colors so much I’m currently just leaving it out like another throw pillow.

Maybe I need to get another colorway and knit an actual throw pillow? Those happy stripes are hard to quit.

Drawing Memory Unlocked

Karen
This isn’t the drawing memory. But it’s still cool.

I was clicking through a blog of cool ephemera and saw the image above and something about the perspective and how it floated in space and the general early 90s vibes nudged part of my brain. “Wasn’t there a show on PBS in the early 90s where a guy drew on glass and made a big mural of stuff floating in space with lots of perspective?”  Reader, there was.

Who remembers Commander Mark and The Secret City??? I could only remember his catchphrase–“draw, draw, draw, every single day”–but that and “PBS drawing teacher” was enough to get me to Reddit and from there to YouTube.

Drawing on glass was the COOLEST thing to Young Me:

And the RUSH of serotonin I got when I saw that big mural again! I might need to try making my own weird secret city again.

Coptic Bound Sketchbook

Karen

I tried another notebook with Coptic binding and … my first attempt was actually better. The tension on this one is somehow both too tight at the back cover (where you start) and too loose at the front cover and that throws the covers out of alignment. I’m not sure what happened–other than, you know, being a beginner at something (which is perfectly ok!!)–but I did use thinner thread this time. Maybe that did it?

Regardless, I had a good time making mismatched covers and using contrast endpaper and the book still holds together well enough to be used as the sketchbook for that mark making class on Creativebug.

 

And it’s definitely mark making, not drawing or anything beyond lines and shapes. Which this dilettante approves of! Taking five minutes a day to try out different media and havng an excuse to buy a little watercolor set? Yes please.

Tuesday Project Roundup: I’m A Fungi

Karen

(We can thank Doc for the pun today.)

I made another fleece jacket in this mushroom print from Joann. (I think fleece layers are what I make when I don’t know what to make/ am avoiding piecing a king-size quilt.)

I used the Greenstyle Whistler Jacket pattern but had to fudge the bottom band because the zipper I had on hand was a couple inches too short. I also put in the elastic cuffs as directed but got them too tight,  so I cut them off and did foldover elastic instead. Even for my long arms, there was more than enough sleeve length to lose three inches.

Then I added a chest pocket because the hand pockets are tiny and I wanted to tie in the elastic color. I pulled out the Petite Stitchery jacket pocket pattern piece and used that. Now fleece jacket no. 2051 is sufficiently loud!

Outside, Inside

Karen

It was rainy in the valley last week which meant that Millcreek had fresh snow. It’s still winter, I guess… but the sun is definitely getting stronger.

Inside, I have a cymbidium orchid reblooming for the first time (!). This guy was a gift from Doc’s friends after Mom died so it took five years to do it. I think the trick was putting it in the basement for the last year so it got the cooler temps it apparently needs (yes, I only looked that up today). Only one spike but it’s been fun to watch!

Halfway

Karen

Not only is January FINALLY over, it’s Imbolc today, or the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. And, apparently, the ten darkest weeks of the year are also over:

 

 

Even better? Trader Joe’s has their $2.99 daffodils, another sign of almost-spring: