This season's temari crop

  During the dry season in Monteverde, I've stitched quite a few temari. Now "winter" or the rainy season is upon us, so on this sunny morning I  gathered up this season's crop for a group photo.

I've been learning more about reading patterns and learning some new techniques.

The temari above and the following one use continuous paths for part of their stitching. Learning how to read diagrams for these paths has been a bit mind-bending, especially as I found a small error in the Japanese book I used to learn the one above. The yellow flowers with French knots convinced me that I want to do more free embroidery in the future.

I love the way this large quilt style ball came out. It's not what I thought I was going to get but sometimes there are surprises because as you wrap you cover up things. This is the first time I've let the ball itself show through windows of the wrapped threads. There are many possibilities to explore in this style.

I wanted to try putting some beads on temari, so I tried that on this really little one. I think it's an embellishment that has a lot to offer. I think I'll soon have a bead stash as well as a thread stash.

I'm looking forward to learning new techniques and improving ones I've already tried.

Hot but hungry

We just had a week of record high temperatures in Madison. (And no, I'm not used to this from living in Costa Rica because we live in the cool mountains there.) Our drought continues, but this week the temperatures have moderated a bit from unbearably hot to just plain hot. Even with grass and plants drying up, there were welcome signs of life. In a tree branch extending over Lake Monona, an Eastern Kingbird pair raised and fledged their chicks. Some mornings I managed to get out and check them before the heat got too much for me. There were three hungry chicks. Kingbirds are flycatchers and the parents brought a variety of damsel flies and other insects. Both parents were in constant attendance.

Since the nest was without any shade, sometimes one of the parent birds would sit over the chicks with wings slightly extended to provide shade.

 Then it was off to catch more insects.

Summer hot and cold

   Summer weather so far this year in Wisconsin seems to be normal, nice warm days alternating with short periods of very hot weather. (And no rain no matter what.) On a very hot day recently it was fun to see a pile of ice someone had dumped out on the sidewalk.

Looking hot rather than cool is this home painted scooter I spotted in front of the library. I saw the owner riding it later and he has a helmet painted to match. Love it.

Cool ice

  Although it has been a mild winter in Wisconsin so far this year, some ice has formed on the lakes this week. Ice that breaks up and refreezes can make some interesting effects.

 The American Coots migrating south are concentrated into the area where the Yahara River enters Lake Monona.

   And if the natural ice isn't interesting enough, a neighbor makes interesting ice sculptures by freezing dyed water outside in household containers and stacking them in the yard.

Lighting the long night

  Here in the north, the wonderful long days of summer are balanced by lots of darkness in the winter. The winter solstice is the day the sun stops its apparent journey to the north and starts heading south again to bring us longer days. It's no wonder that northern people are so happy get past the longest night of the year. This week we went to the solstice celebration in our local park. There were hundreds of people there by the lake, gathered around a huge bonfire, listening to some lively drumming. It was so dark, I never even saw the drummers.

 There were candles in ice that had been frozen in large buckets and many lanterns carried about on poles. I think most of the lanterns had LEDs in them: pagan ritual meets modern technology.

There was a tree walking around. It's over 9 feet/3 meters tall and two little boys ran up to it and requested permission to hug it. The tree agreed and hugged them back. This is a picture of the tree at a daytime parade on another occasion. (Night-time solstice festivals are difficult to photograph.)

    Having a cheerful green tree inside with lights also reminds us that life goes on, even if most of the trees outside look completely dead.

   Here in the north, we are happy to know that from now on, each day will get a little longer. Meanwhile, we gather around a fireplace and eat high calorie foods to get us through the cold and dark. Happy holidays to you all.

Falling (back) in love with red

  Autumn is a particularly good season to appreciate red. I used to adore the color red. When I was a student, it was my signature color—I had a favorite red shirt and a terrific red felt hat that I wore a lot.

More recently, I have had a problem with red because of its increased pervasiveness in Madison. On any given day a significant percentage of Madisonians dress in Badger red, the UW's official team color. It's a very specific red (PMS 200) and there are official guidelines on how to use it. On football game days, there can be over 80,000 people in the stadium dressed in red—if the opposing team is Ohio State, which also has red as their color. That's just way too many people to be wearing the same color, especially the identical shade of one color.
   And yet...red is a lovely color that can light up the scene.

 Let's not forget that red comes in many varieties.

I can't stay mad at a color forever, so I just knit some red socks. They remind me of raspberry jam, not just because of the color but also the nubbly texture of the lace when not on the foot.

 I'm not ready to buy a bunch of Badger gear, but I do love my new red socks.

Knitty-gritty: I knit my socks with Cadmium Red Inspire yarn by Blissful Knits and Dyeworks of Portland, Oregon. The socks were knit on size 0/2mm needles in my standard toe up pattern, using a 4 row/6 stitch lace pattern sometimes called Stem Stitch. You can find instructions in

More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

Playing with colors: Autumn

I've been stitching a series of temari with autumn colors. Here is a temari with some mini pumpkins. The temari is about 3.25"(8 cm) in diameter. I've seen photos of gigantic temari, but I'm not at all ready to do one that is the size of a big pumpkin!

In this series I've been coming to terms with an aversion to tans and browns. They are really quite a nice colors, not bland and boring as I sometimes have thought. I am drawn to tans that have a bit of yellow in them, adding a hint of honey.

On these balls I've learned how to stitch both interlocking spindles like the ball with the blue background and layered or woven spindles like the one on the cinnamon background.

The more I look, the more I realize there are some wild and wonderful color combinations in the autumnal northern woods. I don't know if it will be possible to capture green and red together in a way that is as lovely as on leaves but it is inspiring to think about.

The nitty-gritty: The stitching instructions for these balls can be found in Japanese Temari by Barbara B. Suess. The color choices are mostly my own.

Remembrance of falls past

Autumn brings back some of my fondest childhood memories such as the aroma of leaves when kicked. This week is more suited to sitting by the fireplace but last week I was riding a bike through golden coins of leaves.

They were so lovely I stopped my bike to kick a little gold.

This week is very blustery and the leaves are quickly coming off the trees. Recently it was very still. Autumn is the season of change.

Water watching: pond strolling edition

I love it when I discover something wonderful in an unexpected place. I didn't expect to find a world class Japanese garden in the relatively small city of Rockford, Illinois which has a population of 152,871 according to the 2010 census. Plus Rockford has been going through some tough times in the last few decades. An article in Wikipedia states:

"Starting as early as the 1990s Rockford has had the ignominious honor of being listed at times as one of America's worst cities by the Rand Mcnally corporation and Money magazine, sometimes being ranked one of the top ten worst cities. This may have been due to the lack of jobs and high number of outdated or closed factories."

   So I was surprised and delighted on a visit last week to Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford.

 

Having been there, I'm not surprised that the Journal of Japanese Gardening that has named them the finest Japanese garden in North America. We visited during fall colors and enjoyed seeing the hill behind the garden in glorious bright colors. The garden is in the style of a 13th century pond strolling garden. There's plenty of room to stroll as the gardens cover 14 acres (5.7 hectares).
   The garden features several waterfalls, two large ponds, and a small river. There are plenty of koi in the ponds to add to the water viewing pleasure.

Even some of the gravel reminded us of water.

If you are in the Midwest and a fan of gardens, I highly recommend going to Rockford.
   

Water watching: frozen edition

OK, I'm not a big fan of cold weather. I've lived most of my life in Wisconsin and show no signs of getting used to cold weather—in fact, quite the contrary.  Last week, however, I had an excellent winter experience and I was even outdoors when it happened. For a very brief time, the lake was frozen enough to be safe and there was not yet snow on it.

The ice was incredibly smooth and the clearest lake ice I've ever seen. We put on our ice skates and special skate covers that Mr. Rududu designed to keep our feet warm. (They really work.)

I loved the reflections but the most wondrous thing was down below us—something I'd never seen before. We were skating where the water is quite shallow, less than a yard/meter. The ice and water were so clear we could see the sand on the bottom. Anywhere there was an object on the lake bottom, such as a rock, there was a 3D "ghost" of bubbles in the same shape above it in the ice. Here are the bubbles over a cement block.

Here are the bubbles a sunken wooden object made up of boards.

 I have no idea why this happened, but it was lovely to look at. (If anyone has an idea, please let me know!) Now it's covered up by snow. I'm so glad I went out to see this.
  Update: I contacted the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin (the people who study lakes) and they sent me the following explanation which I think is fascinating.
Even materials sunken in the water hold gases within the material--especially with something porous like a cinder block.  As the water cools, the object cools and contracts, and the gases are forced out through the material.  The first bubbles are caught under the top layer of ice, then as the ice freezes downward, the next bubbles are frozen underneath the first, etc., creating a layered effect.  Of course, the longer something is submerged, the less gas it holds, however, even the rocks that have been in the lake for years still have gas within them.  This year's freeze conditions resulted in some really clear ice, making the bubble/freeze effect even more defined.

Give away/holiday colors

To help me get in the holiday mood, I'm doing a modest give away. Details are at the end of this post. When it's cold and white outside, it makes me appreciate bright colors, even the classic red and green. This is my treasured Christmas stocking that my mom's cousin knit for me over a half century ago. My favorite gifts were the silly little things my mom put into this and the orange in the toe that tasted better than all other oranges.

Flowers in winter are so welcome.

My holiday decorating is quite simple; it takes about 10 minutes. One thing I do is put these temari ornaments out in a bowl. They're a traditional Japanese craft that I wish I knew how to do.

Give away details: Leave a comment by midnight December 15 and I will randomly select someone to get our limited edition handmade holiday card. Its photo features Mr. Rududu's origami in a small still life. It's a very secular image and I hope, quite cheering. I'm willing to mail it anywhere in the world. Please don't be shy! (And make sure you let me know how I can get in touch with you if you are selected.)

Playing with yarn: autumn colors

It seems autumn always goes past much too quickly.  They don't call it fall for nothing.

One day the hills are clothed in glorious colors and the next day most trees are bare and the predominant color is gray.
  Then it's time, perhaps, to extend autumn by heating up some apple cider and playing with your colors. I find moving my balls around is a great way to explore color ideas. If your stash isn't up to this you can cut out pictures from magazines or catalogs and play with them. Then buy your yarn. (What a concept.)

 Don't forget to add some sunny sky! This is a good idea if you think you don't look good in reds, oranges or brown but do like blue. Or you could add white for those big fluffy clouds.

I'm thinking of making a tam with these colors, using lots of blue. And here's a project I knit long ago that uses some fall colors. (A little purple also snuck in, as it will.)  A small knit purse is a nice project for testing colors if you don't feel like making a hat or mittens.

Aglow

Words can't describe well the beautiful glowing colors of trees in a Wisconsin autumn.

The light seems to come from within the maples.

 

The smell of fallen leaves takes me to childhood memories of jumping in big leaf piles or kicking them along as I walked to school. 

Soon the brilliant explosion of colors is over and trees begin their winter sleep.

Still green

Autumn is suddenly just around the corner. Nights are cooler and the air is crisper. The corn fields are turning brown and all to soon only conifers will be green. We were out in the country the last couple of days; I feel a need to take advantage of the weather while it's nice. We rode our bikes on Short Cut road. It's a quicker way to get from the middle of nowhere to a different middle of nowhere.

We saw a rare green barn. (In Wisconsin they are usually red or white.)

Hiking in the woods, where a few trees are already changing colors, we hunted for wild hickory nuts but the squirrels had already found most of them.

 Summers always seem to go too fast but at least we have good knitting weather to look forward to.