one of the nices blues around in the garden at this time of the year - the forget-me-not. years ago I used to take off single blossoms, press and dry them and sprinkle (and glue) them over letters I wrote. nowadays with emails - the flowers are allowed to spread all over the garden!
this is a light blue delphinium that always produces huge flower spires - up to 2.8 m tall! unfortunately it's also prone to fall apart in strong winds - and every year I only "realise" this, when they are tumbling all over the place:((
I don't even know the english name for this tiny plant, but they grow wild on the walls here and have lovely blue flowers.
and now for the fibre part -this is a knitfelted bag from naturally dyed wool I made a few years ago - inspired by Bertra Beach at the foot of Croagh Patrick on the west coast of Mayo. the lower part is the green grass and meadow, followed by the sandy beach and the line of sea weeds etc. at the water line. then the water becomes darker until it's nearly black at the horizon - with some green and turquoise spots, where there is a change in depth. the whole main part is knitted with two threads in "fair isle", to make the bag stronger after felting. of course there isn't only light blue in it, but part of the sea and the sky fit - and the rest can stand for blue and dark blue for tomorrow and monday! I also fixed sanded down glass bits and shells from the beach to it - but even though I still like the way the bag looks - it's not the most practical design! I tend to get stuck in shopping trolleys with it or crack a shell here and there when coming to close to a wall etc.... I have had to exchange or fix several of them - so I don't use the bag as often as I'd like. but it's a good talking piece - when I go to the knitting & stitching show in dublin, people comment on the bag at nearly every stall:)
back to the kitchener stitch on my jacket/coat - I am halfway done, but the long row across the middle part takes ages - and I needed a break! I hope to finish it tonight, so that I can start fixing the rib along one side of the front. I won't have enough spun yarn, so it's back to the wheel for one last spinning and plying session!
6 comments:
Gosh.... you have sooo many flowers in your garden...beautiful.
The pretty little plant you don't know the name of is likely to be Wall speedwell (Veronica arvensis).
I notice that lots of your colour pictures are flowers! We also have many lovely colours in our garden, this is such a wonderful time of year :)
Dorothy - thanks for the name, after writing about it I looked it up on german google and via the latin name on uk google - too lazy to go down to browse the plant books:)) I love going around and keeping a lookout for plants - esp. those, that don't have gigantic bred flowers that jump into my face. I prefer the small hidden gems....
I love your bag and the blues too. Here I have alkanet out (not the real dyeing one I hasten to add)and the blue is very intense.And the bluebells too. :)
thanks, Helen - I love purple, but blue too! and I used to have one single real alkanet plant - but it is rather sensitive and didn't survive even in the polytunnel. it would most likely die in the wet irish winter immediately, so no chance of "growing my own". I am still multiplying my lithospermum erythrorhizon plants - and hope that they will dye purple as well! they do grow well here, though funnily enough they never germinate from seeds, when I collect them. but they do self-seed a little bit!
This bag is so beautiful.
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