Slipping Into Summer
Here in this post, I wish I had a finished project for you, but alas there's just been too much going on. Instead, I'm going to share a bit of a life update along with the note that I will return the regular programming (knitting, spinning, quilting- oh my!) in the next week or two.
In the last two week I've a little more than 80 hours in a car/on a train so that I could visit my brothers and help the one brother move halfway across the country. You may cringe if you think about the horrid stiffness and travel fatigue that comes from sitting that long, but despite that I had a wonderful time listening to a spooky sci-fi book with my brother, listening to countless podcasts on mysterious things, and experiencing a vast amount of the country I've never seen before. Spoiler alert, Colorado is gorgeous, as is Illinois, and quite frankly Nebraska.
It helps that I'm hopelessly romantic about long road trips in the summer. There's something about an open road, a far off destination, and all of the possibilities that make it feel somewhat magical. In traveling across the country you can see how other people think of sunsets, how land features sculpt the culture and art, the different styles and diversity of communities, and just the land that people call home. In a way, when we finally got back home, I felt like I was looking at places as if they were brand new. Roads I had been down a hundred times stopped being a blur of the familiar, and I could imagine what someone would think when seeing these places for the very first times.
Like I said, hopelessly romantic.
In that spirit of looking at things with fresh eyes, I decided to pay a visit to my childhood herb garden and start fixing things up. Mint has fully overtaken the vast majority of the garden for years, so there are heaps up thick dead vines. With all the energy of someone that's been able to do very little for days on end I decided that cleaning the vines would be my top priority! That is, until I realized it was someone's home.
In case you thought that was plastic (like I did at first) this is a snake skin. If you're not creeped out by snakes (which I can't blame you if you are) they're actually rather neat creatures. Especially when you consider that they can just slither out of their skin when they get too big for it. With that kind of technology we would never have to deal with stretch marks again!
I cleaned away some of the dead plant matter, but left most of it. I figure that the snake has been doing a better job tending to the garden this year than I have, so I really shouldn't impose. The garden belongs to the snake now, and I'm just glad that they have had the courtesy of treating my lilies so kindly.
Also, since you're all being so generously understanding (I hope) about this not being a finished project post, I thought I would give you a special sneak peak into my project bag for the train trip. I have been working on the latest Caitlin Hunter pattern, Sipila. It is knitting up beautifully (and quickly) and I can't wait to show you more!
But for now I have pictures of the landscape and my gratitude of being able to share something a little more personal this week.
Plus, with all these lovely and inspiring colours, you just know there's going to be some stellar yarn dyeing coming up soon.
But until then-
Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.