A corn stalk has grown up in one of the front porch flower pots. I know I didn’t plant it there. At first I thought it was a grass, so I let it keep growing to see what it would turn out to look like. It just kept getting taller and taller, and then suddenly an ear of corn appeared.
Maybe a bird with farming aspirations?
Since I wrote about my new attempts at cross stitch yesterday, I thought today I’d share some of my previous work, back when I could see better and without glasses and could use much finer woven cloth.
I know these aren’t my earliest work. I have memories of burnt orange bargello mushrooms hanging in my mom’s kitchen from a needlepoint effort, but these are the ones hanging on the walls in my house.
I was ambitious in 1992, and made this vase of chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms:
This was the spring pattern. There were four seasons to make, but my attention span was attracted to some other sparkly project and I never made the others. Lots of outlining and details that I really enjoyed at the time. I miss the days of 20/20 vision!
This bowl of summer fruit from 1996 that hangs in our hallway also never got its seasonal siblings. Probably because of how long it took to finish this one!
Yesterday I showed you these patterns:
I’ve actually made some of this designer’s pattern from another leaflet. They have hung in four different kitchens I’ve owned (I didn’t take them overseas so they missed some rental locations). They are smaller and more manageable, so it is possible that more of them will get made someday, though maybe on a larger grid. When I catch up on the calendar?
Maybe if I make more of the vegetable designs, I’ll have more luck with the raised beds next year.
The patio knitting continues. I’ve gotten the first sleeve on my caramel sweater done since the pic below was taken and gotten the double points in for the second. The yarn is Roslyn from Cascade, a wool/silk blend. The plan is to duplicate stitch around the bottom in a red design once I’m done with the knitting.
The knitting would go faster if I wasn’t distracted by the garden. This time it started with trying to see how close up I could get with my phone and iPad cameras to various surfaces:
My jeans, the table top, a patio paver, and a slightly blurry zucchini.
Then I went for more zucchini elements. (Honestly, the zucchini and I are absolutely bonded at this point.)
From there I was pretty much crawling around on the lawn and patio trying to get as close to various flowers as the camera focus would allow.
And sharing the scenery with the bees.
Meanwhile, no-longer-a-puppy Maxx kept watch.
Well, when she wasn’t messing up my shots by barging in and trying to eat the bees. That is a lesson soon to be learned.
Yellow Bird Stitches 