It's finally blog-time

The paradox with blogging is that if I'm going to have anything to write about, I have to go out and do things. If I'm out doing things, I have no time to blog about it. What is a good blogger to do?

Anyway, I wrote about J coming up. Well, as promised, we went blueberry picking.

While none of us should be giving up our day jobs in order to become migrant farm workers, we did okay, hauling in about 12 lbs of blueberries.



OMG, they were delicious. We made blueberry jam




We had blueberry cobbler, and blueberries on cereal in the morning. It was freakin' blueberry heaven. I like blueberries.

Blueberries always make me think of my mother, who loved them. Not surprising that she sould be on my mind, it was this time three years ago, that we found out that she had terminal cancer. Where ever you are, ma, this blueberry's for you!


Kali took a bath:


Morgan watched the birds:


After the blueberry extravaganza, Tim and I took off for camping. We went with the same group we always go with, The Clan That Says AEHH!!, but we chose a different venue. For reason I won't go into on the blog, it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I'm still processing. (no, there aren't any pictures).

However, while on vacation I spun a lot, and taught my friend Maria to spin. It was so much fun watching her working at it, then suddenly getting the hang of drafting. Now, she wants a spinning wheel too!! Another convert! My work there is done. ::smug smile::

On to the most important stuff, the fiber:

One half of the Traveling Vine shawl is DONE and has been moved to a stitch holder.
It is being knit from raw silk that was purchased 2 years ago at Clermont, and hand-dyed by Tina and myself. (really, Tina did all the work, I just watched and bought the chicken wings).

The stitch pattern is from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, by Martha Waterman. This is unblocked (and really a bad photo, but hopefully you can see what it looks like)



The other half has been cast-on.



Over halfway done. This would have been done if not for the Tour De Fleece, of which I did not make my goal; and my sojourn into Farmer's Market Bags.

Speaking of Tour de Fleece, I've been spinning and spinning and spinning my legs off. This is some of it, washed and drying. There is more on the bobbins, waiting to be plied, and more in the bag, waiting to be spun. Oy....that's a lot of fiber to spin this fine. I'm getting tired of looking at blue and green, though.


I'm so excited about this. It's super-soft M-m-m-erino (as Jessalu says).


And I'm really proud of the even-ness of the yarn. When I plied it, unwashed, it hung completely straight and balanced.




Tim has been spinning! Here's his first handspun, super-chunky weight. I'm so excited.


It's so much fun to share something I love to do with someone I love. We spent part of the afternoon spinning together. Me on Asherah, and he on Phaedre.

This is the view of what I came downstairs to see this morning. Ignore the mess, I was focusing on the two spinning wheels and the knitting projects.



And yes, that is another market bag in the lower left corner. It's in shades of blue, and I swear, it's the last one for a while, because I've fallen in love with the Seascape Shawl


and can't wait to get started on it. It's going to be in one of the two hand dyed laceweight yarns that I bought from Tina.

That's the news that's fit to print. Will try to update on Friday (or Monday....you know how it goes.)

Friday Evening

It's Friday, and I'm thrilled. Yes, I know it's been less than a month since we got back from Cape Cod, but we're going away again next week. Every year we camp with a group of friends, who we call "the Clan". Usually we go far away, this year, not so far, but it will be a great time nonetheless.

My friend J. lives in NYC. We've been friends for almost 15 years, from when I used to live in NYC. Well, last year she was lamenting about getting out of the city for a while, and I was lamenting that I didn't have a cat sitter to take care of the girls. Aha!!! I, jokingly, asked if she wanted to come up here. In fact, she did. She had a great time, we had a great time, the cats were pretty happy, since they adore their Auntie J.

This year we have a local cat sitter, but J. still needs to get out of the city. This time, unlike last year, we'll actually get to see her. She's coming up tomorrow. We don't leave 'til Wednesday. This is going to be fun.

Today a client was telling me about a great place to pick blueberries. Really cheap (less than $2.00/lb). Hmmm...might there be great blueberry jam in our future? I wonder if J. wants to go blueberry picking. I know she likes making Jam. She's been here for canning season in the past.

I'm way behind on my Tour de Fleece spinning. I think I took on more than I can spin in the allotted time. Even if I don't get all of it spun up, I will ahve accomplished more spinning in a short amount of time than I have ever spun before, so I will consider it a success. Yes, I'm taking my wheel camping. That's one of the reasons I got the Sonata. Gotta remember to take an extra bobbin and some cheaper fiber with me. I know at least one person who is going to want to take her for a spin.

That's about it for today. I'll try do get a few more posts in before we leave.