Summer Afternoons

I love summer afternoons. Being perpetually cold-blooded, I especially enjoy the summer heat, and I also love the scent of newly mown grass, the hum of cicadas, and the shimmering sunlight filtered through overhead leaves. 

Although the season seems languid, I've been as busy as the honeybees buzzing over my lavender plants, in my case attending wool shows and knitting conferences, swatching for new designs, working on huge home projects and enjoying the fruits of our gardening labors. 
 

 

 

The lavender shown in the main photo at the top of the post was glorious this year, although waning a little by the time I managed to get my camera out to the garden. My  plant is a piece from a large lavender shrub that grew in my grandmother's garden for at least 50 years before she passed away. I have very fond childhood memories of working by her side in her garden and drying and pressing the flowers we grew there to make collages, cards and other artwork. 

My grandmother's lavender shrub is now in my care and I'm propagating it to spread baby plants around to my siblings and cousins in the hopes that the plants will help the memory of my grandmother's amazing creative gift to live on. 

Although I knit a bit more slowly in summer, I still love it no matter the season. I've been swatching up oodles of new ideas, I've finished knitting the project in Malabrigo Silky Merino shown in my last post, and I'm nearly finished with my crochet jacket (photos one of these days). We've had gorgeous weather this year for the most part and I plan to make the most of the rest of the season. I hope you've been enjoying your summer and stitching some nice things as well. 

I'll be posting soon about the interesting wool shows I've attended in the past year, including my last trip to Taos. Until then, thanks for stopping by my studio today. Peace, blessings and happy stitching to you!

"Summer afternoon—

summer afternoon; 

to me those have always 

been the two most 

beautiful words in 

the English language."

~Henry James

A note on lavender for those who have inquired: In general lavender is not especially long-lived but certain varieties readily self-sow or multiply themselves through a process called layering. The plant shown above is really a descendant of my grandmother's original lavender plant. However, with a vigorous variety such as mine, you often won't be able to easily see where the old plant has died back from the center and new offshoots have come up! I've no idea what variety this plant is but it has survived decades of brutally cold winters in my grandmother's northern home with no fuss or  attention. Lavender in general requires full sun, well-drained soil and warmth but some varieties will tolerate winter given consistent snow cover.