I just have to tell you about my friend Lauren’s Etsy shop. She is an expert at making imaginative, whimsical crocheted objects and the creator of Yum Yum Yarn. You can buy her creations at the shop and she also offers PDF patterns for us crafty folks. (all less than 5$, wow).
Personally I am a big fan of her crocheted cookies and fancy treats. They look amazing in a cookie jar and I bet little kids would love them. My sister and I always loved pretending to make snacks and have tea parties, but I must say the mass produced plastic “foods” we had to play with weren’t nearly as nice as these soft handmade lovelies. The odd time we used real cookies we made quite a mess pretending that the bears were eating them.
I think these would make a nice present for grandkids at Christmas. If you buy the pattern you could make quite a few of them and put them in stockings or package them in recycled jars. Each of her PDF’s have instructions for a few kinds of cookies so you can make a variety. I’m sure you could get creative and make different coloured centres and use a variety of yarn colours to create different “flavours”. Some of these would be a great project for beginners or for teaching young ones who are just learning how to crochet since they are small and you can finish them fairly quickly. (My grandma definitely influenced my love for textiles.)
She makes other things too; crocheted dolls, cactus and voodoo doll pin cushions and a variety of finger puppets. All simply adorable and carefully made by Lauren. What a sweet treat! I hope she comes out with her own pattern book some day, that would be fantastic.
I found this pattern of growth on a rock in the forest, I think it may be a fungus. I’m not sure if it’s growing in spiral or in a pattern of concentric circles.
Here is a similar pattern in the landscape near Bedford. I noticed this when I was looking at google maps the other day. If you look closely you can see the ripples in the surface of the earth at the centre of the page. I wonder what caused this; is it an impact crater or an ancient mountain?
Today we had another downpour here on the Nova Scotian coast. The weather didn’t stop Chloe and I from going out for a walk in the woods. I love the rain; it intensifies the smell of flowers and earth while temporarily transforming the landscape of the forest. The paths change into rushing streams and the whole wood is doted with puddles and pools. I didn’t take too many photos since it was dark and I was worried about ruining my camera, but I couldn’t resist taking a few.
I made this scarf for my friend Karyn. I used mostly greys for this one, a light grey cable wool and a blue/ grey wool which I dyed myself. The red wool I used as an accent colour is a strong single hand dyed in Uruguay, I picked this lovely shade up at The Loop here in Halifax.
I love Manos del Uruguay wool, it is a single but it’s strong and the colours are always beautiful. The thread varies in thickness a bit and has a really homespun feel to it. This wool is made by a cooperative of craftswomen which help each other keep making a living from their work and allows them to stay in their home towns. I recommend taking a look at the lovely shades they have available.
It’s October already, I can hardly believe it. The red wine grapes are almost ripe and the last few sweet peas are blooming. My little garden is wild and overgrown, it has a lot of indigenous plants, or weeds as most people call them. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, I really love having a goldenrod and Queen Annes lace around.
Our grapevine has crawled up one side of the fence and down the other. It has engulfed and claimed both sides. I’m not sure how the neighbours feel about this (I’m antisocial) but I hope they are enjoying it. There are lots of spiders spinning webs amongst the greenery and little birds visit there too. There were some little brown ones with white spots singing and eyeing up the grapes this afternoon. I wonder if they like them and are waiting until they are just perfect. I don’t mind if they eat some, the rest will be made in to wine or grape jelly.
My garden looks like a green chaos compared to most of the other well manicured back cubes behind the town houses here. The forest is behind us, and I feel it’s reached out and reclaimed the space. The situation reminds me of a poem I’ve always loved by Edna St. Vincent Millay called “Portrait by a neighbour” (you can listen to it here at librivox, If you use firefox just right click and open it in a new tab).
Portrait by a Neighbour
Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you’ll find her
A-sunning in the sun!
It’s long after midnight
Her key’s in the lock,
And you’ll never see her chimney smoke
T’il past ten o’clock!
She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,
She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
And pays you back in cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne’s lace!
