A recipe for making lavender syrup

I tend to dye yarn with the seasons. My dye kitchen is outside, so I’m well-connected, year round, to what’s happening in the natural world right outside my back door.

It’s one of the things I love the most about this small business, making things, job of mine. I get to be outside and I get to be creatively inspired by what’s growing and blooming or laying fallow or hibernating around me. And I get to share it with you.

A gentle, literary, domestic life, all in a humble tea towel

This is a cotton-linen tea towel you can have made-to-order via Spoonflower in my classic Little Women (but make it knitterly) print, created for me by artist Jennifer Potter. I commissioned this hand-illustrated print from Jennifer just before her illustration career took off (you can see more of her work here).

It’s filled with delicate watercolor illustrations inspired by the classic novel, Little Women, and it has a special knitting focus: baskets of yarn, kittens playing with yarn, handknit mittens.

I use my own tea towel to hold fresh muffins when I sometimes snack outdoors, often with a lavender latte to sip on. As a little bonus, here’s my recipe for making your own lavender syrup (I use a teaspoonful in my latte and it gives it a deliciously floral and woody taste!):

Recipe: Lavender Syrup

• Dissolve 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over low heat.

• Add two tablespoons of culinary lavender buds to the syrup and let it heat, just below simmer, for about 5 minutes. (I get mine here.)

• Take off the heat, and let steep for 45 minutes.

• Strain, let cool, and put in a pretty little bottle to use in coffee and to add a dash of floral taste to sparkling water.

This is the colorway my yarn subscription club members received in the mail last week. The full skein is “Miss Lavender Lewis” and the mini-skein (for club members who also get a mini) is “Macaron.” Both are lightly speckled.