the color is red

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

while i was out in the garden today, i noticed how much red there is right now—sugar production is at an all-time high for growing things, as the last energy of the season is shunted into the fruit of each plant.

in general, red is not my favorite color for knitting yarn—i’m not saying i hate it, it’s just not the first thing i gravitate to (that would be green or gray, haha, right kim?). but i do enjoy seeing it in the outdoors—reds in nature seems better than in yarn and fabric; maybe because of the way they interact with sunlight . . .

september is a wonderful time for vegetables; i dunno what it is about the fall sun and air, but they like it—i’m picking a big basket of tomatoes every two days and the vines are filled with green ones that will turn soon.

and then there are the bowlfuls of cherry tomatoes, too—since we can’t use them all for salad, i’ve been drying them into candy-sized tidbits for snacking (better than candy, i swear).

my porch table, where i let them fully ripen after picking, is loaded down with enough tomatoes to make a big batch of sauce or a batch of ketchup.

hopefully, i’ll have time for that before i leave on friday for miami, but if not, the weather is not all that hot and they should be able to hold for a few extra days while i’m gone (plus, it’s always nice to spend my first day back by puttering around in the kitchen, instead of diving right away into work).

the flowers are somewhat revived from that awful hot spell we had in august, now that the temps have come down and some rain has quenched their thirst. i would grow nasturtiums just for the their leaves; i’m completely smitten by their round, cheerful shapes. and then there are the flowers, on top of that; how lucky can you get?

when not attending to produce, i’ve been digging myself out of a black hole of photography for the last week (i think i mentioned it, but it bears repeating). finally, i think i’m caught up—i think i sorted and edited something close to 2500 photos over the last week, just to get the next few patterns into publication. the price of beauty, eh?

i’ve been trying to catch up on writing patterns, too, so there isn’t a drought while i’m traveling next month.

the knitting i can show you is still a bit thin—i finished one secret project, but i still have one on the needles. i thought it would be ok, though to show you the yarn for it, because i like it WAY too much to hide it.

once again i’m knitting with kollage creamy, this time in the incredibly delicate canopy green colorway. i can’t help but sigh every time i pick it up; i just adore this color and it’s absolutely PERFECT for the project i’m designing. i picked it from an online photo and when it arrived, i was worried that it didn’t have enough color. but once i got some fabric on the needles, i saw it was right after all—it has a lot more color impact when knit up. in fact, any more would be too much.

you won’t see the outcome of this piece for some time, but i’ll be sure to let you know when you can have a look.

i did not finish my big swatch—i will admit that i got distracted. i knit a few more rows and was almost done, when decided to take a look at my charts on the computer. before i knew it, it was two hours later and i had charts all made up for the first three shawl sections. so i have a pattern to get started on, but no finished swatch. i promise i’ll finalize that last section it very soon so you can see the plan. meanwhile, i’m all set to start the real thing whenever i want (maybe tonight?).

the last section is still not as good as i’d like it to be; i might just need to step away and not look at it for a few days. heh.
no matter; i can still start the shawl and work on the hem section whenever i need a break from the knitting (in fact, i should have done this two months ago).

i keep thinking about my next big project, too; i want to get another sweater on the needles soon. much as it would be appropriate, i’m not ready to start the coat; i don’t have a firm idea what design would be most useful or comfortable for me. i think i do have the yarn picked though—i’ll share that another time.

instead, i wandered off to look at yarn and the old, hand-written pattern for my bathrobe sweater (it’s kind of a mess, but it’s all there with lots of detail, thank goodness). once i have a chance to weed through the instructions i wrote nearly twenty years ago and make sense of them for how i work today, i should be able to cast on a sleeve at least, when i get home from my trip.

i finished my second wristlets, this time making it a bit shorter—i like it WAY better than the first one. because it is shorter in length, the lace flares more prettily in relation to the gathering.
since i have enough yarn, i cast on a third one instead of ripping the first one out (i’d have to go pretty far back).

as fall advances, i’m starting to see the colors in the yarn all around me—burnished orange and gold, deep plum, tan . . . i just love the combination in this outback colorway (the yarn is miss babs merino/silk yet lace)

these will come with me to debby’s house for a little knitting tonight with friends. i can’t wait.

19 thoughts on “the color is red

  1. Aren’t nasturtiums happy flowers? They hold their color and bloom for so long and it’s been my experience that the deer won’t eat them – LOL.
    Thank you for always creating links to the wonderful yarns that you work with. While our local stores have some lovely fibers, it’s great to be introduced to so many more possibilities – especially when you can recommend them from your own experience.

  2. How do you find the time! GAH! I’m too scared to go out and see what “red” there is because it means I’ll have to DO something with it all. I feel like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

  3. I think you can also harvest seeds from the nasturtiums once they hit that stage? I read something yesterday where someone used them in a salad or they actually made tartar sauce with them. I know it was an herbalism blog, but the description sounded amazing.

  4. It’s great to see the nasturtiums going great guns even still. And yesterday I had a tiny (brave) sunflower burst open, which made me happy!

    Looking at your tomatoes, I am reminded of how sad I will be when I can’t put a fresh tomato in my sandwich every day at lunch.
    Your tomato harvest is over the top this year!

    Thank you for working so hard on patterns for us all!

  5. As an adendum to the nasturtiums – they have a kind of peppery flavor and really are a yummy taste in salads, not to mention being very pretty!

  6. You are so right about the oven-dried cherry tomatoes! So far I’ve resisted eating the two pans’ worth I made last weekend…

  7. I love nasturtiums in salads. They add a lovely peppery zing to a green salad and match up beautifully with greens of all kinds and mint.

  8. My sad little Mr. Stripey tomato plant that hasn’t done a thing all summer now has 3 tiny tomatoes on it. I think the chances of them turning into ‘real’ tomatoes before we get a frost is not great, but we’ll see. We were going to rip the plants out this weekend, but since it’s made the effort, I sort of feel like we should give it a chance. I am working on a RED sweater 🙂 Maybe you just need to find a shade that speaks to you!

  9. I agree with everything, except your dislike for red. It’s the color I gravitate to first. I’m now making a concerted effort to ignore that section of my LYS. Seriously. How can you not like cheerful red, Anne?

    I have nasturtiums growing everywhere. Love there round green leaves as much as the flowers.

  10. I love lots of color, but there is something magical when you can only perceive the color of something in the shadows.
    Nasturtium flowers and buds are fantastic in salad, they are peppery, like watercress.

  11. Those are some beautiful ‘matoes (as we call them in my family) and I think I know what the secret is. Chunky cream colored yarn. lucious cabling. something David wanted. Ha ha I think I am on to you! Happy knitting. Can’t wait to see it.

  12. So many good things! Those peppers look absolutely delicious – I’d probably be throwing them Into everything, and the kids would be griping :). I also like the way those mitts are turning out!

  13. All that loveliness, and what I honed in on is the “I LOVE YOU” on a post-it in the background of one of your pictures 🙂 You’re a lucky lady.

  14. I love your garden as much as your knitting. I have used your dried tomato regimen for all my extra harvest. I do have a question in regards to the peppers you have turning red. Do you dry these as well or use them fresh? We have a bunch and I am trying to find a way to dry them to use over the winter. Thanks.

  15. I never thought of drying the cherry tomatoes. Of course, ours never stick around long enough to do anything with…chomp…chomp…yup, just like candy! 🙂

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