Two good things

One: The finished skein of "Happy" Real Vermonter wool/alpaca dyed by Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. I was concerned that I'd spun and plied it too tightly, but now that it's washed and relaxed, it's fine. Now, what to knit, what to knit?

Two: A quart of local strawberries came home with me this evening. No picture, but they're beautiful and shiny and sweet as can be. I am so lucky to live here, where farming on a small scale seems to be thriving. There are farmsands on nearly every road, and many of the farming families have been here since oh, forever (or maybe only 200 years or so).

I'm hungry for strawberries right this minute, so I'll leave you with this extra-close view of the extra-good Happy-ness.

Take two bobbins and call me in the morning

Just what the doctor (would have) ordered ... two days spent spinning and reading and sleeping. When I got home on Saturday afternoon, all I wanted to do was ... spin and read and sleep.

I pulled out this pretty roving dyed by Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. It's her "Real Vermonter" blend of 60% Romney/Corriedale and 40% alpaca, all Vermont-grown. The color is called "Happy," which is just exactly how it makes me feel. Mister Reeves and I are getting along famously, and I'm back to spinning as well as I'm used to. This big wheel took a little getting used to!


I have four ounces of fiber, and though I didn't weigh it beforehand, I think I came pretty close to dividing it in half for two bobbins. We'll see how well I did when I finish plying. It's a sturdy, soft yarn that I think will make lovely mittens and a hat. These intense blues didn't photograph well in the late afternoon light, but the finished skein will get a real photo shoot, so you'll see how pretty it is.

~:~

I've been deeply engrossed in two wonderful books in these two days. While I was making yarn, I listened to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This is one of those books I am in danger of telling everybody they must read, but I'll resist.

If you love Barbara Kingsolver, and her writing voice, read it. If you are interested in the slow food movement and eating locally, read it. If you're fond of the people of Appalachia in general and Virginians in particular (my people), read it. If you want to be someone who pays a little more attention to where your food comes from, read it.

It's not political or radical or preachy. It's funny and informative and a delight to read. And a huge bonus: Barbara Kingsolver narrates the audio, along with her husband and a daughter. I'm looking forward to spending some time at the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website, too.

When I needed to lie down, I picked up Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. It seems that everybody has been waiting for this book. They want to know if it's a sequel to Kite Runner -- it isn't. It's set in Kabul, so far, in the second half of the 20th Century, and the central characters are women.

I'm only about two hundred pages in, so I don't know much except that the characters are people I care about, and I'm willing to follow them to the last page. We all know the history surrounding the setting and the time period, so you can assume that this isn't a light and breezy summer read.

I am impressed by Khaled Hosseini's writing voice, as it's so gentle, and things seem to unfold rather than just happen. That's a difficult feat, considering his story has such a strong historical context.

Links to both books are over on the sidebar under "Books" (natch).

I am hoping that this coming week (a short work week, thanks to the vacation day today) will be calmer and easier to navigate. It will be if I make it so. I want to keep spinning by the open window, and listening to wonderful books. I want to spend some time outdoors, and get some pots of flowers for my tiny little deck. I want to drink iced tea from my tall blue glasses. I want cool nights of sleep and dreams. If I make it so...

Sweet Thursday

It's time for my annual wisteria intoxication...

...and creepy-cute inchworm infestation.

I love the leaves as they are now, so glossy and new. The big vines climbing up my staircase will give me a feeling of living in a wisteria room when they finish blooming and leafing. There's a a nice new screen on the door this year, so when I open it the house is filled with wisteria perfume and the buzz of fat bumblebees.

It's Memorial Day weekend again. The year turns so quickly! Our villages are filling up, the roads are crowded, and the migration of the Hamptonites is about to begin.

I have wisteria and indigo yarn and some good books to read.

~:~

Sweet Thursday is a favorite Steinbeck of mine. Must remember to re-read.

Oh, okay...

I'm late to the Seven (or Eight) Random Things Meme party, but since I was tagged by my friend Minh, I'll come anyway. Is all the dip gone?

1. I can tell a book by its cover. Trust me.
2. I am pretty darn near-sighted (20/800 or something scary like that). My need for bifocals as I "mature" makes for interesting times -- it's often just easier to read without my glasses.
3. I am the middle child of five, and I have the complexes to prove it.
4. One of my favorite books when I was that child was More of Milly-Molly-Mandy. And look! My Crafty Sister found a copy and gave it to me for my birthday!
5. Milly-Molly-Mandy says things like this: "Well! It's much too beautiful a morning to stay in bed till breakfast-time. I think I'll get up very, very quietly, so's not to wake Farver and Muvver." I, too, am a complete morning person. I'd much rather be awake at dawn than at midnight.
6. I'm almost always on time, or even early. I can't help it. I get good seats at the movies, though.
7. When I Google my name, I come up with Nellie Bly. It seems we have the same name (no, not "Nellie Bly"). We're not related, but our Scotch-Irish ancestors probably came over in the same wave in the 1700's; her family went west from Philadelphia, and mine headed south to Virginia.
8. I don't really like to make my bed, but I do it anyway, just like Milly-Molly-Mandy.
   

~:~

Oh, is this a knitting blog? Well. I'm still working on the Bambu Tilting Block Scarf. It looks about the same as it did in the picture in my last post, only the scarf is longer and the ball of yarn is smaller.

I counted up my socks-in-progress, arrived at a nice number (six), and then frogged two pairs that I just didn't like. I worked on each of the remaining four for a little while, then cast on two more. I have lots of interesting (to me) sock ideas tilting and whirling around in my brain.

I like randomness.

Home again

The graduation was a whole week ago, and I got home on Tuesday. Time flies. I had fun, clapped and cheered, went shopping, laughed with my family, and got a little sunburned. Maybe I can make up for my bloglessness with some pictures. This is Rachel, on her way.


This is what I have been working on this weekend. The yarn is Blue Moon Bambu, which I got last year on another trip to Chicago. I'd begun a Flower Basket shawl, but it just sat there while I lost interest in the triangle.

So now I'm making a scarf for Dancer Niece, who also has some of this yarn. She's a busy student, and is about as likely to get around to making something as I am to go reverse bungee jumping. Recognize the pattern? I'll seize any opportunity to knit Tilted Block. I want Becca to have something I made, and she will wear this soft, drapey piece well.


Next I give you the delightful prizes I received from Amy Artisan. I was her 800th commenter, you see. Thank you Amy! The yarn is Nashua Handknits Ecologie Cotton in the palest blue color, but which is called "Indigo" anyway.


Here's the yarn I purchased when we visited I'd Rather be Knitting in Long Grove, IL. It's a sweet little yarn shop, with lots of space to browse and lots of wonderful yarns, and it turns out that it's not far from my sister's house. I've never seen Mountain Colors Merino Ribbon before,so I had to have this one in a color called "Yellowstone."


The latest installment of Sundara's Petals Collection has left me speechless. It's called "Dahlia." That's all I can say without getting a little choked up.

There. If I had more energy, I'd tell you about the following:

• How Spring has Sprung.
• My sister, the quilter and blog addict. All I did was point her to Yarnstorm, I swear.
• Hives. If I knew they were coming, I'd have locked the door.
• Bloomington, Illinois. Sweet.

P. S. Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I loved them!

Smiling

Birthdays are funny things. The older I get, the less it really matters how old I am getting, I tell myself. Of course, I am vain enough to look closely in the mirror: are those laugh lines around my eyes, or crow's feet? Do I need to go to the hairdresser, or are those sparkly things in my brown hair not that noticeable yet? And my neck ... not much I can do there except moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. Move along, Jane.

I'm 52. Some days I feel it, but not on my birthday. I have a sweet life, not a perfectly happy one, and not a stress-free one either, but it's good. There are things about it I need to tend, I know, but on my birthday none of that matters. So this past Saturday I showered, coiffed, moisturized, and went to work with a little smile on my face and a bigger one in my heart.

I smiled my way through half the day, and then took my coworkers' birthday wishes with me out the door and to my car, and home. Still smiling, I went off to Sag Harbor, to spend the rest of the day with the "Fab-lious" R's, their mother Judy, and the rest of the crew.

There was, indeed, chocolate cake. Delicious! And a wonderful dinner, and hours and hours of laughter and conversation, and a little running around on the rocky shore at Long Beach in the late afternoon. I came home late, and tired, but still smiling.

Yes, those must be laugh lines, and the sparkles aren't too obvious in the sunshine by the water, and my neck ... well ... two out of three.

:::

I'm off soon to Chicago, sort of. From what I hear, there will be lots of riding in cars. I'll go where my sister tells me to go, in whichever car is heading wherever. Vernon Hills, Bloomington, Kalamazoo, Timbuktu. Smiling.

I'll be back next Tuesday. Maybe by then I'll have figured out what I want to knit with that Lime over Mint yarn, too.