skittermagoo!

Spinning some yarns . . . July 19, 2008

So, I’ve been doing a bit of spinning lately, when it’s not too hot in my fiber room — I hate it when the roving sticks to my sweaty hands!  And man, the weather has been scorching here lately . . . my outside thermometer reads 101 right now.

So yeah, spinning.  I’ve been trying to spend at least half an hour a day at the wheel if I can get there at all, and I’m slowly working my way through my fiber stash.

I found this one waaaaay down in the bottom of my fiber closet . . . I think I actually bought it before I bought my wheel!  I bought it at the now-closed Simpatico Yarns, and it was marked “wool”.  Jen tells me that she thinks it may have been hand-dyed by Mary Jane, who owned Simpatico, which makes it kind of special for me — Mary Jane is one of the nicest LYS owners evar.

I quickly found out that this fiber was reeeeally compacted, but managed to open it up and predraft it with some effort.  I’m spinning it in my wonky self-taught semi-worsed way (I also tend to overspin), and it’s gorgeous and surprising.  Parts of it are ending up very vivid and clear with the colors:

While other parts are turning out rather subdued and muddy:

Hard to believe it’s the same fiber!

In gardening news, the canteloupe (ick) is growning at an astonishing rate — I swear it gets bigger by the hour — and is covered in pretty yellow flowers.  We also planted pumpkins last Sunday, and on Thursday I saw the first seed leaves poking out of one of the hills.  So if we’re lucky, we will have home-grown pumpkins for Halloween!

Tomorrow morning at the butt-crack of dawn I leave on a road-trip with my mother to Missouri to see her parents; I’m sure the trip will yield some good stories if nothing else!  Some of you may remember the last time we made this visit back in 2004.  This time we are driving, which should add a new dimension to the whole experience . . . also the lack of internet may drive me to drink. a lot.

What a difference a month makes! July 17, 2008

Since I check my garden at least once a day (sometimes twice), I sometimes don’t notice when things have grown (except for the canteloupe plant, which seems to grow 3 feet a day) . . . but it’s pretty surprising to look at pictures from one month to the next . . .

This is our second raised bed, right around the time we planted it.

And here it is now:

Amazing!! Now if only we would get some actual veggies/fruit out of it, I’d be thrilled — so far we have melon flowers and lots of leaves, but nothing edible.

I guess that’s what I get for planting late, eh?