smatterings

..and friends they may thinks it's a movement *

First off, don't worry.  I know that some of you are particularly fond of the llama / sheep banner.  It usually makes it back to the blog each winter and winter always comes around.  For now, I need a change.  Before the summer's out, it will probably change again. 

That little plan of Carole's worked out pretty well yesterday.  Funny thing how 10 minutes became an hour, then more than an hour.  The ice tea disappeared and was replaced with something more interesting.  The little sweater now has two sleeves and all the ends tucked in.  And the spindle, well... another cop is as full as I want it to be.  I'll start spinning the second one today.  All three points from yesterday's post were covered.  It isn't often that things work so well.  I think I'll try it again today.  Maybe it can become a habit, or.. if a lot of you join in.. a movement.

*from Alice's Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie

Somethings are easier shared.

1. Diets, for instance.  Cindy has suggested for about the umpteenth time that we go back to the first week of Atkin's low carb induction.  I hated those weeks.  Few vegetables, little fruit.  The rest was a piece of cake..well.. not cake.  Maybe a dish of olives.  We did it the first time together.   It helped. Misery loves company and we could share recipes.  I'm thinking about it.  Or, maybe we could start at week three?
2. Leslie and I commiserated on out inability to throw things away.  Collectors, we call ourselves.  What we need to do is to phone the junk man.  By the end of last weekend, we had agreed to email pictures of our spaces (filled spaces, lack of spaces) to each other and progress shots.  Who knows.. it is worth a try.
3. Carole mentioned that she was going to allot 10 minutes per day to spinning.  Ha!  There's one I can join happily.  Sounds like it could help with #2.  Thanks, Carole.

It's been a catch up week.  Catch up with office work, house work, and laundry.  The plants (Podo) were  moved outside for the summer.
 

A bit of knitting in the evenings and my 10 minutes or more with my spindles.  A stitch at a time.  Tonight, I'll finish the last sleeve of the Tulip sweater and put that away.  The Japanese Vines scarf grows slowly.

As I write this, it's after 4pm on a gorgeous sunny day. If I pour myself a glass of (no carb) ice tea, take it and my spindle outdoors for 10 minutes or more, I think I can hit a bit of all of the above.  Sounds good to me.

imagine you're a spindler...

..and a box is delivered to your door.  It isn't unexpected.  In fact, you've been waiting for the box.  Anxiously.
You know what is inside the box, but you have no idea what it will look like.  You open the box.  WOW!

It is everything that you hoped it would be, and more.  Now, suppose again you are a spindler.  A box of spindles from one of the very finest spindle makers arrives at your door.  You open the box and as you unpack each spindle you fall in love, over and over, and over again.  What could be better? 

For a day or two they are all mine.  They will sit on my table, a spindler's bouquet. 

Year's ago, in another lifetime, I traveled through Central America buying and selling wonderful textiles.  At first I wanted them all to myself.  Who wouldn't?  But, as time went on I discovered that to own them for a short time, to hold them, admire and discover them was quite enough. 

The spindles are from Ken Ledbetter.  He is, in my opinion, a spindle master.  His spindles look as beautiful as they spin.  They spin forever.  All are signed.  The weight is noted on the underside of the whorl. 

Saturday, they will be for sale.  Stop by the Ball and Skein booth at the Massachusetts Sheep & Wool Festival.  That's Cummington, for you old timers.  Leslie Wind and I will be sharing one of the stalls.  For those of you who know the fair, it is by the grassy area, just down from The Merlin Tree .

creatures of our habitat

My world looks like this.  Everywhere.  Retina searing, high energy, glorious new growth green.  I think it is getting to me.  Life mimics nature, we are creatures of our habitat.  Call it what you will,  I am into this green.

It put some in my Tulip Sweater to liven it up.   I can see why this little knit is so addictive.  It would've / should've been done by now but I've got so many things going.  I pick it up when I don't want to think about the pattern.  Nothing to it.

Then there is my attempt to keep up with Mother Nature.  More green, more.... more!

Just what I needed, another project on the needles, something else on my plate.  I couldn't resist.  I had to see how the "Japanese Vines" scarf by Michelle Molis would knit up in Ball and Skein's new Arbori yarn, colorway, (what else) but Sprout.

what surrounds us

Yesterday, I took my lunch on the deck.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day.  Overhead I heard the call of a hawk.  He'd been flying over, circling for most of the morning.  I could make him out as he passed through the opening in the tree canopy.  The warm days last week set the leaves to popping.  Everyday, it is harder to see through the green forest curtain that will soon surround me.   Not more than a week ago, I could watch the birds wing through the branches on their way to the feeder.   Today, I hear the woodpeckers before I see them.  A bird zips down from overhead.  The repeating buzz of this swooping hummer tells me that he has begun his courting dance.  I know that the crows have offended or stolen from another bird by raucous cries.    If the orioles don't break through the green and cross the yard, I will have missed them this year.   Winter to spring, I know the woods and its creatures in different ways, each season having its own sights and sounds.

There hasn't been much knitting.  Preparing for the Sheep & Wool festivals has taken all my free and not so free time these past few weeks.  It is a good kind of work, this work / play with fiber and color.  Thanks to all of you that stop by and chat, the days spent at my booth are fun and full.  The fairs invigorate and inspire me.  You too.  I know that there has been a lot of chatter about the disappointing behavior that has taken place at Maryland and now New Hampshire.  You can read about it elsewhere.  Please keep in mind, that for what was bad, there was a mountain more that was good.  Like a small town grown into a city,  it has become harder to know everyone.  It is up to us to keep the heart of the fiber community at the center.  Remember, it is WE who made it.  It is OUR TOWN.

NH Sheep & Wool

If you are heading up to the NH Sheep & Wool Festival this week end, please stop by the Ball and Skein booth and say "hi".  I'll be in the Home Arts Building.   It is the first building in through the Blue Gate, on the left.  There is a cookie vendor outside and the booth next to me is the "Tea Guy".  Free tea!  What could be better??  Cookies, tea, and yarn.. hmmm..!

spring things

In a perfect world, on a perfect day, one would sit in the sun knitting and watching the hummers, all afternoon.  So.. I only got in a row or two.  The time that I had was pretty near perfect.

It is a fun knit, so far.  The Tulips Sweater... in Cotton Ease.  It's washable.

So far, only the ruby throated males have shown up.  The females are usually a week or so behind. 

They're Here!!!

At last! 

All day, I've been checking the feeder.   I woke up thinking this was it, that finally, today would be THE day.  Last evening I filled and put out a new hummingbird feeder.  I left the old one out too, just in case they wouldn't feel comfortable with the shiny new feeder.  At 5 pm, it was time to take a break.  With a drink in hand and my new IK magazine, I headed out to sit on the deck.  Almost immediately, the first male of the season buzzed the feeder. 

How about you?  Are your feeders out?  Check the chart. 

Last night was COLD!  I kept the heat off in the house and my heated mattress pad on.  I'll bet these little buggers wish I'd spent my winter knitting them scarves!