Winter in the garden

We had a sunny Saturday in January so I got out and did a bit of clean up and took some pictures of the garden.

Galanthus sp. Snowdrops I have to go look for the tag to see which species or cultivar this one is.

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn'--the hummingbirds love this one. This is the second bloom this winter, the first blossoms lasted a while and then died off with an earlier freeze and now the buds that didn't open then are open now. 

Red foliage of Pseudowintera colorata 'Red Glow'

Blossom of the Chrysosplenium macrophyllum

Red twigs of the Cornus alba 'Elegantissima'

Flower of the Petasites japonicus var. giganteus

Grevillia blossom--another plant I have to try to remember which cultivar I bought. 

Hamamelis 'Arnold's Promise'--witch hazel--very fragrant and loaded with bloom this year

Sarcococca hookeriana --  close up of the tiny flowers above-- another very fragrant winter bloomer, have this in pots that I can move around as well as growing right by the front door where the fragrance seems to get trapped under the door overhang to greet you.

a double purple Helebore

Seed heads of Miscanthus 

Autumn Chenille scarves

Last fall I did not have any Autumn colors in my warm thick chenille scarves for my sale in November. The kidney stone surgery had put a dent in my weaving time in October.

So while I still have the plain weave chenille warp on the loom, it seems a good time to build up some inventory ahead of time this year. 

I ordered a cone of rich brown --and several other colors, of course-- from Mitzi in Idaho, and got some greens from Linda in Woodinville who was selling her weaving yarns to focus on knitting. You can see her projects on Ravelry here. 

And I had  on hand some hand dyed Rayon boucle in Moccasin from Tammy at Yarntopia Treasures in New Mexico.

So it was time to combine some yarns:

rusts and greens
with ribbons and boucles
on the warping board

weaving with olive green weft

     

with  Pompeii weft

I also had added two strands of Sari Silk--which I ended up sorry for doing. One stand behaved well other than being a little thick at times to flow through the heddles and reed without coaxing. The second strand must have twisted from going on the warping board in the opposite direction and it misbehaved so much, I ended up taking it out and replacing it with a strand of chenille.

I used a very slightly darker olive for the third scarf--and what an amazing difference it made- the warp colors were much more intense with the darker olive!

I wore the lighter green one to the garden show last weekend and had some nice compliments on it. It actually looked kind of springy, instead of autumn.
Guaranteed Neck hugs with these: 

              

                     

Go Seahawks!

My son and I were still in Ohio on Jan 11th and were able to watch the Seahawks/ Saints game while there with my cousin whose son had played with the Steelers, Ravens, and Jacksonville so that was fun, though a bit of a nail biter of a game.

Then we flew back home in time to join the festivities leading up to the 49ers game and the Superbowl!!. Go Seahawks!!

I had made some scarves for two of my cousins who were helping me with the funeral plans for my mother.  One had a brown wool winter coat and the other had a camel wool coat.  They have real winter back there! Both of them have reddish tones in their hair. My daughter said a teal color should work. So I went with some brown tones mixed with a teal, and again used three different wefts: a taupe, a brown and a black. . 

 

Again you can see the difference with the exact same warp threads yet how much difference the weft makes. All three scarves on the couch show, left to right, the black weft, the brown, and the taupe.  I also played a bit with the weft and added some plaid-type mixed color horizontal striping for interest instead of having plain vertical warp stripes.

     

Marie chose the taupe weft to go with her camel coat and Marlane picked the one with the brown warp. 

MOM

My father had this painted in Italy
 in 1944 from a photo he had of my mom

from one of my mom's friends

Mom with her parents about 1936

Hungarian chardas music for her 93rd birthday

Wow, it has been a whirlwind the last month.
My mom had a heart attack on Dec 21st, just two days after making the Christmas cookies. She was very alert and strong for another two days, but then peacefully passed away in her sleep Monday Dec 23rd.
My grandson sadly said he was glad he got to make those cookies with her. So mom is finally back in Ohio where she has been wanting to be with all her family who have passed before her. Trying to make all the funeral arrangements over two midweek holidays was a slow process despite having prearrangements made 5 years ago for both the funeral home here and back in Ohio. My son went with me gratefully since he travels frequently and helped me through the airline hassles. We luckily had the funeral in between the two sub zero snow events so family members were able to get there. The current priest had not met my mother, but he gave a wonderful tribute to her as the last of her generation in our families who grew up in that small town. Many of the residents of my generation who knew our families still live there and provided lots of stories about mom and her family. It was good to see so many of my cousins and school friends again and have my son get to meet them and find out things about his grandmother that he never knew.

Local Obituary  Ohio Obituary