vegetables – KDD & Co

an airy sweater

Mel thinks she’s knitted herself a sweater but Kate has other ideas

Winter’s End

Bonnie Sennot finds inspiration at Winter’s End.

There is a lot going on here behind the scenes (I’ve been writing a book and designing a new collection with our brand new yarn) and I’ve not found myself with much spare time for blog posting . . . but in amongst all the hard work I’ve been enjoying some nice things, such as…

slowdown

By: Kate Davies Designs June 16, 2020June 16, 2020

books, criticism, gardening, landscape, review, stroke, vegetables, walkingbooks, featured, garden, reading, slowness, sustainability30 Comments

Hello! how are you all doing? My migraines have been of the annoyingly recurrent / chronic kind of late, and I’ve been having to take things very easy – especially over the past week or so, during which my vision has been very skewy and I’ve had to limit my screen time. Not being glued…

SHEDS one and two

By: Kate Davies Designs May 26, 2020May 26, 2020

Bruce, gardening, vegetablesbruce, featured, garden, gardening, potatoes, shed, sheds, vegetables38 Comments

Hello, it is I, Bruce. Today I am here to tell you about SHED. If you don’t know the meaning of SHED, I can reveal it is a strange wooden place with a distinctive smell in which humans like to spend a lot of time, particularly at this time of year. Here there are two…

still life with asparagus

By: Kate Davies Designs May 12, 2020May 12, 2020

art, vegetablesAdriaen Coorte, art, asparagus, dutch still life, featured, still life painting, vegetables23 Comments

Adriaen Coorte, Still Life with Asparagus (1697), Rijksmuseum How is your growing season going? After the recent warm spell, our vegetable garden is coming along very nicely now: in addition to reliable potatoes, spinach, kale, broccoli, leeks and onions, this year we’re trying some experimental beans, and just one variety of tomato. This may sound…

tomatoes no more

By: Kate Davies Designs August 14, 2016

Bruce, gardening, vegetablesgardening, vegetables88 Comments

I just wanted to write a quick post to record a few of our gardening successes . . .and failures, this year. Growing vegetables here has many challenges: the soil is waterlogged, acidic, and clay-ey; and this being west-central Scotland, the weather tends to be, more often than not, cold, wet and windy. Last Spring…

in the hills and at home

As anyone round these parts will tell you, it has not (so far) been a vintage Scottish summer. One must make most of the fine weather when it appears, so we headed out for the hills, and enjoyed a lovely day’s walking. A favourite tree Dog on log Falls of Falloch I love the rich…

you say “potato” . . .

By: Kate Davies Designs April 25, 2015April 25, 2015

Bruce, Bruce, food, vegetablesbruce, Bruce post, food, gardening, planting, potatoes, spring, vegetables66 Comments

Hiya! It is I, Bruce. Today I am here to tell you about a delicious and intriguing object: the POTATO. Also known as “tattie” or “spud”, and, often (for some mystifying reason) prefixed with the adjective “humble”, the POTATO is one of my all-time favourite foods. Together with other wondrous food-objects (for example, CHICKEN, SAUSAGES…

The longest day

It is a beautiful time of year, and here in the West of Scotland we have been enjoying some incredible weather. Most days you will find me here . . . . . . knitting away on my current YOKE, looking at this . . . . . . and occasionally these . . .…

Pottering

Tom is away, working in Ireland at the moment. I really miss him, but I am distracting myself by working very hard on my YOKES, and am enjoying pottering in the garden in my spare moments. I cannot use a spade (I have tried, and I just fall over), and we knew there was going…

garden days

By: Kate Davies Designs April 19, 2014April 19, 2014

birds, gardens, landscape, vegetables, West Highland Waygardening, gardens, home, landscape, seasons, sweet peas, vegetables, West Highland Way45 Comments

One of the saddest things I had to do in the months following my stroke was to give up our Edinburgh allotment. I simply did not have the strength and energy to maintain a garden, and since then I have rather missed growing things. Our new home has lots of outdoor space, and happily I…

harvest

By: Kate Davies Designs September 29, 2011September 29, 2011

knitting, design, fairisle, vegetablesdesign, harvest, knitting, mittens, peerie flooers mittens, peppers54 Comments

At last! The mittens are complete! After the testing time they gave me, I am in the end very happy with the finished result. I worked them at a tighter gauge than the peerie flooers hat – the fabric is dense and velvety. Here are the cuffs . . which are cosily lined . .…

domestic incidents

By: Kate Davies Designs July 31, 2011

food, vegetablesbaking, cooking, disaster70 Comments

Tom was out cycling. However many mysterious gels and powders he consumes, he is always ravenous when he gets back. So I decided to “surprise” him with some tasty home baking. I don’t bake very often. Tom poetically described them as “little piles of cat sick”. At least my peppers are doing well.

shetland lace

By: Kate Davies Designs July 19, 2011July 20, 2011

knitting, Shetland, vegetables, writingJamieson and Smith, Kate Davies, knitting, peppers, Rowan, Rowan Magazine 50, Shetland, Shetland Lace, Shetland Lace in a New Light, Shetland Museum and Archives, Shetland Wool Week, Unst Heritage Centre37 Comments

Excitement! Unable to wait for my copy to turn up in the post, I just popped up to John Lewis to pick up the new Rowan Magazine. Rowan (who will soon be bringing out a new laceweight yarn) wanted a substantial piece on the history of lace knitting and this is what I came up…