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.)