Laowai

Last week felt like almost summer. When I looked out the window it was green and sunny but when I went outside – oooh – still chilly.

I finished one sock – discovered this pattern designer who lives in Zurich and of course she has a swan sock pattern.

We found a squirrel in our driveway. He looks so peaceful like he's sleeping – but he's not. 

I think all my planting is done in my garden. Including the green beans.

A few photos from my walk at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Windows are moving along. Here they are after their coating of boiled linseed oil which gives the wood some of it's moisture back. It also smells really nice (bonus).

We took a weekend field trip way down south of the city to a park called Steelworkers Park. It's built on the site of the one-time biggest steel mill in the country. The mill is long gone but these huge concrete walls remain. Barges would pull up beside the walls and cranes would unload iron ore into the concrete holding areas.

Now a section of one wall is used for rock climbing. Bea tried it out and it got a thumbs up – an interesting place.

The park is right on Lake Michigan so we walked a bit and had a picnic. And we saw some artifacts from the steel mill – including this huge bell shaped thing below that I think topped a blast furnace.

Back at home I spent a chunk of my weekend sewing a new pattern – The Lisboa Walking Shorts from Liesl and Co. I used leftover linen from that dress I recently made. I had just enough fabric to make the shorts but I had to skip the back pockets. Then I used a little scrap of Liberty fabric to make a belt tie. They turned out great – comfy but a little dressy since they are black. Looking forward to making another pair.

Now we just need some shorts weather here in the Midwest.