Stitching Away

While the temperature and humidity hold on to the end of this Nebraska summer, the morning and evening light comes at a different slant. Some mornings the spider webs are hung with dew. Yesterday a front blew through so this morning feels like autumn. Grandmother Spider is busy repairing her web.

All summer I have been making quilt blocks for our new grandchild. Come December this little one will be sleeping in a crib and have no need for a large Christmas quilt. I am under no immediate deadline to finish and am taking my time. I enjoy thinking about Baby Coconut (temporarily named by her eldest brother and due in mid September) while I stitch away on the blocks. I have completed seventeen of the twenty. I will stitch the last one after Baby Coconut arrives. I need the child's given name for the block with my name and date. Come autumn, after a visit to meet this new babe, I will set the quilt together.

I finished the Petty Harbor socks. The alpaca/wool/nylon yarn makes warm soft socks and worked well with the textured pattern. I often buy a skein of Alpaca Sox yarn from a LYS in Omaha. My sister and I shop the store's end-of-the-year sale together. These socks remind me of a cold December day in a yarn shop with my sister. The summer shawl and a toddler sweater remain on the needles but haven't seen much knitting time lately. Currently I am joining some other women in knitting Mitered Cross blanket squares as a gift to a cancer patient. The construction of the garter stitch square is interesting and makes the knitting go by quickly.

I am reading several books. The Cottonwood Tree by Kathleen Cain, a native Nebraskan combines science, ecology, natural history and Cain's experiences with the trees. Most of it is quite readable. A section or two describing the science of the tree are a little technical but still interesting. The other two books are from the library. Knit Mitts by Kate Atherley is a resource with patterns as well as mathematics needed to design mittens in a range of sizes with various weights of yarn. I am always on the look out for knitting books and found this one on a shelf of new nonfiction. After listening to an episode of "On Being" podcast featuring poet Michael Longley, I requested his Collected Poems via Interlibrary Loan. Listening to his Irish Brogue as he read and talked about poetry led me to search for his work. His poems are beautiful.

I'll link to Kat and the Unravelers today. It is always fun to see what others are reading and stitching or even unraveling.

Local Gem

Why is it I forget to savor the beauty in my own community? I often drive by the Sunken Gardens located near a busy intersection in Lincoln. This garden was built in 1930-1931 on a former neighborhood dump site. The original goal of the rock garden design was to turn the land into a place of beauty. The workers, who were part of a program providing work for the unemployed, earned $6.40 per hour. They planted 416 trees and shrubs. In 2003, the Lincoln Parks Foundation raised 1.7 million dollars for renovations. The work was completed in 2005. Today the garden is planted and tended by volunteers under the direction of Lincoln Parks and Recreation.

A week or so ago on a sunny afternoon I made this local gem my destination. The park consists of three gardens: a perennial garden, an annual garden, and a healing (white) garden. There are also two reflecting pools filled with lilies, a waterfall, and two statues. Let me show you some of the beauty.

A pavilion marks the entrance to the garden. The dome consists of laser cut panels portraying the four seasons in Lincoln. Here is the view looking up from inside.

Colors and textures in the garden are a feast for the senses. The afternoon I visited many others also enjoyed the garden. I saw children looking at koi and butterflies, a woman helping her elderly mother to a bench in the shade, volunteers with hoes and wheelbarrows, and quite a few photographers. A few of them appeared to be university/college students on assignment. The garden holds beauty and space for all.  

Since I am linking with Kat and the Unravelers, I'll also write about knitting and reading. I am enjoying small projects on these hot summer days. I finished the Irish Hiking mittens and cast on some socks using blue yarn from my stash. Of course the yarn is blue. I am slowly chugging through my sock yarn (fingering with nylon) stash - three remaining. I do have several fingering weight skeins without any nylon content set aside for shawls or mitts. Whew.

I read The Girls of the Kingfisher Club, a retelling of the fairy tale about 12 princesses. In this version set in the 1920's, the twelve sisters sneak out of their New York City home to dance the nights away. Think flappers and the Charleston. This book is pure summer fluff that could have used more character development. Still a fairy tale was a good way to read myself to sleep at night. I continue to read Words are My Matter by LeGuin during the daylight. I read a piece or two at a time and then ponder the author's thoughts. 

One housekeeping note: my daughter helped me with settings for this blog so perhaps the commenting feature will work better. Time will tell.

I hope your Wednesday is treating you well. Have you visited any local gems this summer?