the color of midsummer

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

happy midsummer weekend!

i’ve been knitting my fingers to the bone, but i can’t show you any of it, groooaaan.

well, maybe just one thing

the baby blanket is growing, more than i thought. as i’ve worked on it bit by bit, it hasn’t seemed all that big, but suddenly, when i spread it out, there it is—BIG (not big enough yet, but getting there).
i thought the rows seemed to be getting mighty long, but i wasn’t really paying that much attention; this is something i work on only a little, late at night while we watch the bike races. but it makes me happy . . .

two of my secret projects are out the door now, so i’ll have more time to devote to public knitting. i’ve got to catch up before i have anything to photograph.

fortunately, the garden has much to contribute this week to a post about summer color. everything has doubled in size just since i worked out there last—i can hardly believe it

everyone around here is exclaiming over the bounty of big, colorful flowers we have this year—it’s certainly a feast for the eyes and a nice respite from a generally bad-news sort of year.

a full week of sunny, warm weather after all the rain we had previously has worked wonders out there. we even had a couple of rain showers to mix things up and some cool nights as well; a good variety of weather to suit any plant’s preferences

my beloved bed of greens has filled out with all colors of the rainbow, too.
(well ok, maybe not blue . . )
we are picking some of that golden chard tonight to cook up into david’s curried tofu pasta, because beckie is coming for dinner and knitting (YAY) and she loves that dish.

some of the tomato plants are filling up with fruit—these egg-sized (and bigger) amish paste tomatoes are turning from dark green to a yellowish shade; i expect they’ll be ripe in a couple of weeks.

and holy cow, they’re going to need another haircut on saturday. this is when i need to be especially watchful that they don’t get out of control like last year. it’s easy to say, “oh, i just pruned those last week”, not realizing that they need it even more this week.

every squash plant has a couple or more fingerling zucchini, yummy in omelets, quiches, and pasta. i picked the first ones on sunday to add to the quiche i made and in no time, the plant replaced them with more.

the okra bounced back from being thinned and transplanted really well—each of them has doubled in height and gained several sets of new leaves. i’m excited—last year i got started late with the okra and it didn’t survive this stage.

the eggplant is still sorta sitting there at its original size, but that’s how eggplant is—it takes a while to surge. but i see some new leaves today, so i bet anything it will be twice the size and showing its first flowers. we have a bunny friend again this year and though he seems to have stayed away form the garden for the most part, i see he sampled the weakest eggplant and left the leaves laying right there. they must not suit him; hopefully that will teach him a lesson and he’ll stick to the clover in the back yarn as usual (really truly, he almost always stays away form the garden and grazes in the clover-filled back yard). pictures soon . . .

actually, i do have some summer color of another variety to show you, as long as we are looking at colors

my dear friend sheri berger, owner of everyone’s favorite yarn store, the loopy ewe, has launched her own line of solid series fingering yarns in a whopping 90 colors and wants everyone to know about them.

i picked out this pretty wisteria color for a future project; the yarn base is smooshy, smooth, and beautifully spun and the color is beautiful. i can’t wait to try it out.

and from the natural dye studio in great britain, amanda and phil have sent some tiny sample skeins of their gorgeous luxury yarns in silk, alpaca, and british wool, dyed with all natural dyes.

(above, their line of precious silks)
you may have read about this dye house in clara parkes most recent knitters review, reporting on TNNA.

this is a selection of various weights of dazzle british blue-faced leicester wools, in three weights

and finally, angel, a luxurious blend of alpaca and silk, also offered in three weights.

everything here is so beautiful; i’m hoping to be able to work with one of the laceweight very soon . . .

and i think that’s it for today—hopefully next time, this page will be filled with knitting; have a good, colorful, wonderful summer weekend.

23 thoughts on “the color of midsummer

  1. I personally do not mind if some posts are light on knitting, and heavy on the gardening!!

    I was inspired by your recent post on pruning tomatoes, so I followed the links you posted, and I worked on my plants this week. We ended up with our tomatoes planted a bit too close this year, so I am hoping that the pruning will help keep them healthier and more manageable. (fingers crossed!)

    If you ever find yourself at a loss for blog fodder, I personally would love to see the layout of your garden. It does not have to be photos (although of course that is fun!), but diagrams would be nice too. I daydream that I could be as organized and productive as you are with your garden. Gives me something to strive for!

  2. I can’t believe how lush your garden looks. We haven’t had rain in so long, I can’t remember last time it did. 🙁

  3. I am horribly jealous of your garden! The rabbits chewed through my fence a couple nights ago and feasted on my tomato plants. Really feasted. Finished off one whole plant and ate the lower branches on all the others. At least this time they left the radishes alone!

  4. Bee balm – THAT’S what I meant to buy today at the same time I picked up a new color of echinachea (kind of a beautiful deep orange/pumpkin). Back to the garden center tomorrow!

  5. Your garden look so healthy and green and delicious. I’ve been away too long from mine and I’m sure it full of weeds.

    Gorgeous yarns!!!! Like being in a candy store.

  6. Your garden looks wonderful. I wish my garden looked half as nice as yours does.

    The baby blanket is looking great. I love the colour.

  7. I have purchased from The Natural Dye Studio and will attest to the luxuriousness of their yarn, and the wonderful customer service. Such a joy to do business with them, so it pleases me to no end to see the possibility of something Knitspotty with their wares.

  8. The fingering zucchini looks gorgeous. Do you eat the flowers? In Greece we cook them all sorts of different ways? In omelettes, like you said, but also people tuck a small piece of cheese in the middle – or a mixture of soft cheese and herbs – wrap it tightly in the flower and fry them. This is luscious. We also stuff them with a mixture of rice, spearmint, green onions and dill and lay them out in concentric circles at the bottom of a pan (you have to cover the whole bottom of the pan), lay a plate over them to keep them in place, cover in stock and simmer. Beyond yummy!

  9. What a lovely blanket it is, very nice colours. Your vegetable garden is great and so healthy looking, I have the same colour spinach in my garden as a winter vegetable. The Loopy Ewe yarns are beautiful.

  10. I’m seriously loving that baby blanket. Our three zucchini are taking over the garden by leaps and bounds…and we have volunteer tomatoes from last year. Wonder what they will taste like?

  11. I agree word for word with Lee Cockrum. I love your garden posts as much as the knitting. But Curried Tofu Pasta…mmm, and chance of getting a recipe to go with that? Sounds delish especially with the chard.

  12. Amanda and Phil are awesome and their yarn is gorgeous. I am working on stole in Angel at the moment and it is gorgeous. So glad Natural Dye Studio is being enjoyed in USA

  13. So glad you have got your hands on some of Amanda’s gorgeous Precious silk yarn as well as Angel and the others. Have been using her lovely yarns for over 3 years now and love them. My favourite yarn in the hands of my favourite designer looking forward to seeing that combination!

  14. Seeing that beautiful picture of the coneflower opening your post made me realize that we have been pulling out those plants all spring because I thought they were weeds! oh boy.

  15. kudos to you and David for that garden. And in all my years, I never knew about pruning tomato plants.. (shows you what I know! hah hah)

  16. Anne, I just found your blog and website today and I wonder why/how I did not find it eons ago. What a terrific place(s) to visit. Yarn/knitting/gardening – YUMMMM!

    Speaking of YUM – is there, by chance, a recipe for David’s curried tofu pasta?

    Lindy in AZ

  17. Your garden is beautiful. I’m jealous! It’s so neat to see one of my favorite dyers featured here today. I met Amanda and Phil nearly two years ago at the Knit and Stitch show in London. I have a pair of Dazzle socks, so nice and soft. I can’t bear to open the lace I bought at their booth.

  18. Say hi to Beckie for me! The garden is looking edible :). And those zucchini blossoms look wonderful! One of my favorite things in the world is squash blossom quesadillas…

  19. Sooo glad you’ve mentioned Natural Dye Studio yarns. I love their Angel 4-ply and am delighted to see that they’re getting more exposure here in the US through TNNA. Hopefully they’ll be able to gear production up to (anticipated) demand!

  20. I never got around to planting my veggie patch this year (in my defense, it was a really hectic, stressful Spring) 🙁 I guess I’ll have to just get my garden fix through your blog, Anne!

Comments are closed.