Summer Treats

An indoor "garden" grows...💖

Dear Friend and Fellow Maker,

Some like it hot, or so they say. I however, do not. At least not THIS hot. As much as I love being outside, the heat drives me indoors, to air-conditioned rooms. I’m truly so thankful for the magic of AC!

Summertime, as viewed from the busy Spring months, appears to be a large swath of ease and popsicles. Yet somehow, even in all the vacationing, a summer calendar can fill up rather quickly, leaving me scratching my head as to how I got here to mid-July, with only a month left before school starts back and along with it my part-time job.

Yet even in all the fullness of trips to the beach with husband’s family, and to the mountains to be with my parents (mom is still charming the hospice nurses with her sweet and quirky humor), VBS, and other goings-on, somehow there is also making. A little of this and a little of that and before you know it, something you’ve been knitting for months is being bound off, a pile of hand spun yarns is growing on your desk, and a Tapes-tree has come off the new pipe loom and another, wider, warp is happily being woven with lovely greens and pinks. I’ll share only a peek of this for now, but I’m so enjoying seeing if I can weave this image. So far I “think” it is working.¹

There are also wee knitted items for a wee being coming into the world mid-August², a sweater knitted with Noro yarn has been cast on and a variety of sketches with Bic Pen, one of my favorite drawing tools. I’ve also been working on an illustration project³ here and there, making slow but steady progress in the pencil drawing stage. These will eventually be worked in line and watercolor, but the initial ideas for my next little children’s book, have to done in pencil to allow for all the ways my mind thinks the drawing should be improved. 😁

I often wonder why it is I seem to enjoy so many different ways to make stuff. I don’t really have an answer for that. I’ve taken to thinking of my creative world and studio as a garden. I am a “gardener” who doesn’t want to plant only one kind of flower or tree. I want many different kinds, growing in all stages and all seasons! I am much better off when I don’t spend too much time badgering myself over having planted so much in the garden. It’s best to just keep tending to all the lovely things, seeing what needs attention and which things are lying fallow for the moment.

My indoor summer “garden” grows happily despite the heat out of doors. It is a treat to walk into my studio each day, puttering, planting, weaving and watering, spinning and drawing all the blooms. I’d love to know how YOUR summer “garden” is growing?

With gratitude,

Jennifer

1. One of the issues I sometimes run into, is that of creating a cartoon (the drawing from which one will weave) with shapes that are too small for the sett (how many warp ends there are per inch). I tend to weave at a sett of 9 or 10, my hand spun yarns fitting this really well. So for this new image, which is an illustration from my imagination (I draw a lot of these sorts of things) I may have set myself an impossible task. I’m committed now as I’ve woven about an inch or so and I think it just might work. Stay tuned to see how it evolves! 😍

2. This will be our second grandchild! Another girl, born one year after the first grand-girl! What a treat this will be! 💖

3. This book I’m illustrating is another Genevieve story, like my first one, Genevieve and the Kite. I’ll share more about this as it gets closer to actually being in book form, which could be a while, at the snail’s pace I am going. But hey..snail’s pace is better than no pace at all! 🥰 (and here I go again with all the emoji’s…😵‍💫)