Catena Expressions

outdoors and in

I haven't done a good job of documenting my baby daylilies this year. Last year and the year before when I transplanted babies out of the "crib" bed, some plants inadverently were sliced by the shovel. I shared the fans (roots) with friends then sucked in a deep breath and put the plant tops in jars of water. To my delight, the plants rooted. I placed them in pots the following spring and now, look, blooms. I don't intend to move any plants from the "crib" bed til fall so hopefully I won't have to deal with guilt and the resulting more plants. :-)

 

Lots of rain this spring meant I got most of B's curtains finished. I'm on the homestretch now with her bedroom curtains. I bought several Mym magazines from Lacis - this is on page 8 of Seleccion 8. I'm incorporating many beads as I go - there will be 2 identical panels for B's 2 bedroom windows. The plan is she can drink her morning coffee in her bed surrounded by collies and Shaela and gaze at a flower garden.

A final photo of the plants growing in the pots along the south side of the north fence (hence, off the patio). I have marigolds, iris, lilacs, Virgina creeper, nastursiums and daylies as well as these asian lilies. There's a mouse family who lives under the pots so I have to watch Riley - he is either trying to climb over the pots or knocking them over.

B's fleece room curtains

I've been trying to get photos of these for days...this is as good as it gets til they are in B's window and M can use his camera.

The trees are on the outsides, the borders are lacets and dark blue beads with spindle(s) border. The window is about 6' x 5' (give or take) and I wanted to make sure there was plenty of curtain for this window since I goofed on the spinning woman watching her collie and her sheep. Each curtain alone would just about fit in the window.

The original sheep (all except the moving one) are from a photograph in a Lacis Publication. Page 80 (last page) of No. 5 Patterns Filet Lace  from Collection "Reco" Grand Album de Modeles pour Filet Nos 5 & 6. I think Lacis still has copies of this oversize book. The original work has a wolf in a cape smirking at the flock and a shepard's wagon in the background.

This took about 4000 yd of size 10 crochet cotton, a few packages of blue beads and I used a size 6 steel crochet hook. I don't recall how long these actually took - a couple weeks? Maybe?

Summer Solstice

These photos were taken the other day between rainstorms. My camera (M back to work).

Other news:
On the home stretch of 2nd "fleece room" curtain. Took a break yesterday to sort through my fleece closet - and am boxing 17 lbs (the new rambouillet, alpaca, shetland, sheltand/silk/alpaca blend) to send off to be processed. Discovered mildew in the upper outside corner of that closet - must be all the moisture we've had this spring. M just replaced part of my bedroom closet wall (outside corner - his closet is just fine) with cedar. Looks like that's on the schedule for the workroom closet as well. 

Back to working on the edging...then they go into a hot wash and hot dryer to shrink them. We're supposed to be sunny and hot next week - good for taking photos. These curtains will fit into my bedroom windows so I can post photos before they are in B's window. She's seen these curtains in progress as well as the master bedroom charts.

A very sheepish weekend...

After seeing Leslie last Friday, M and I had a memorial service to attend (Anne, this is not the cousin I mentioned last Nov - J was in attendance but is radically changed after her stroke, nearly dying and being in the coma... she's home but not well). On the way to the service, M and I discussed our plans for the weekend - sheep, fleeces (I want a black rambouillet), sheep etc. The last part of the service had the shepherd's psalm (I don't recall the #) with a photo of a flock of sheep in a pasture on the big screen behind the pastor. You will forgive me if I tell you I buried my face in M's shoulder and shook with an inappropriate emotion (laughter rather then tears). The pastoral scene was too close to what we discussed we would do after the service (Estes Park Wool Market).

B and collies (and a cute yorkie) made it up to our house before midnight - driving through vicious thunderstorms.

Early Saturday morning, we headed out and realized "someone" had forgotten to grab the go-cups of coffee off our counter. Nothing for it but to stop at Starbucks for fuel. M went in, I stayed (crocheting on one of B's curtains - the motif one for her office++). M returned with a wicked smile and presented B and I with:

As we drove to Loveland (B in the backseat) we heard a snicker behind us. B had discovered her bear was in sheep's clothing. Therefore, she scored the first fleece of the day.

She also was the first to spot the bighorns in Big Thompson Canyon.

Of course she wondered how to get some of that fleece but we hastily headed back up the canyon before she had a chance to find out.

We should have bought some yak fiber.

We watched some fleece judging, some sheep judging and split 2 rambouillet fleeces - one black and one variegated white, brown, gray and black.

 

Of course, we had to visit Grayce (Plain and Fancy Wool) - I bought 10 skeins (blues, coral, winter suset) and B bought 7 (blues, greens, blacks).

Sunday morning, we wandered over to watch more sheep judging and alpaca obstacle course and sheep herding.

Definitely a fun weekend.

++ And I finished the column of motifs to add to the office curtain in time for B to take the curtain back home. Now I'm back to the curtain I was working on when I met Leslie - just a few more rows to make the curtain rod pocket and this baby goes into the hot water and hot dryer.

2 more windows to go...

quick, post before the t-storm rolls in!!

M and I went up to Estes Park to meet Leslie today. Lots of fun! We hooked in public for a bit - don't we look comfortable and happy?? The peonies in the bottom left of the one photo are from my garden - I thought Leslie needed Colorado peonies for her lodge room. ;-)

Tomorrow, we'll all be wandering around the Wool Market  - if you recognize us, please say "hey!"

between thunderstorms

 I'm crocheting and walking and admiring the gardens...but nothing much exciting is going on. You know how that is. My peonies have really gone to town this spring as have the snow on the mountain. I have daylilies blooming and asian lilies, too.

This is part of a pair of crocheted filet panels for B's fleece room. I may or may not let her see the panels in progress this weekend when she's up for Estes Park Wool Market.

M and I walked Riley and Teddy along the lake this morning (and beat a rain storm back home...whew).

Shaela decided her mother (B) has abandoned her or I've kidnapped her so there's nothing for it but to make the best of a less-then-perfect situation. Shaela is the stereotypical cat (tho I've never had one) - you know, aloof and doesn't like to be snuggled, yada yada yada.  I still haven't been able to photograph her playing with the 3 youngest cats (Jess, Clare de June and Taz)...but when Shaela jumped on to my lap this afternoon I hissed at M, "quick, get the camera so I have proof!!" I really didn't think she'd stay long enough for "proof" but she did and seemed to enjoy it, too. B will probably not forgive us anytime soon.

Curtains in windows

Last week, M and I dashed down to the Springs to pick up the infamous Shaela (B's cat, if you don't recall - the one who thinks Frisko is God's gift and he thinks Shaela is a hellion*) and hang the finished curtains in B's windows. We are experimenting with resizing the photos from the Nikon so bear with us. I don't know how these will look on the blog.

You've seen these before. The spinning woman with collie and sheep - and the rose trellis. M thought he'd try new photos of those.

 The new curtains are below. The first one is an adapted bedspread pattern from an Ondori crochet book (gifted to me in 1979 or so). There are no embellishments in this curtain. I just finished crocheting 7 more motifs to add to this curtain to make it a bit wider so it drapes a bit better.

 

 

The bird above is a 1916 pattern you can find almost anywhere on the net, at Lacis, at antique pattern library. I think it's also in Priscilla Filet (found in antique pattern library). I put small bells in this as well as beads.

Below is one of my favorites. I'm not sure you can pick up the details but if you go to this post, you can at least see it (1st photo) against a blue blanket. There are 3 panels for each curtain - 6 panels per window. There are clear beads in the filet and purple and blue beads in the joinings. You can see we need to work more on resizing. We'll get there.

At the last are wildflowers in B's yard. The white prairie primroses are covering the ground like snowdrifts. Incredible display.

 

* I have photos of Shaela from last May's visit but so far she's been kept busy playing with Jess and Taz at high lopes around the house. Hard to capture blurs and harder when they gallop down to the dark basement. Frisko has been able to nap in peace, however, but I don't think he's changed his opinion.

along the garden paths

We've had a lot of rain in the recent weeks. The gardens are looking fine - I just would like time in the sun!

Here's some recent photos taken on cloudy days. The last close ups are courtesy M. I love his close ups (as well as other photos) but we are having some problem resizing the photos for dial-up. We'll get there. (and thanks for all the compliments re: M's pix in last post - they were passed on)

Walking with Riley

Checking out the neighborhood...as M gets to know his new camera.

Garden Pix

I finished another curtain (this one is small - 18" x 52") but I'll post photos of the curtains actually in B's windows soon.

M's playing with his new Nikon - and resized these photos for the blog. The sunlight after days of rain has made the gardens and the gardener happy.

And of my best buddy who turns 9 on June 2nd. Teddy the mutt turned designer dog - maltese/poodle now maltapoo.

And I couldn't believe it when Ted joined Clair and me the other evening. Ted has cat phobia but wanted to nestle in with me. Obviously Clair wasn't disturbed. After snapping a few proofs for M (who may not have believed this had he not seen the pix), I climbed back into the recliner, rearranged the afghan back over my feet and resumed crocheting.

Note: Ted weighs just over 9 lbs. Clair weighs maybe 5 and has not grown since we adopted her in mid February. Maybe she is actually going to be 3 yrs old next month. Hard to imagine such a tiny full grown cat.