photography

Fiber Play

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Yesterday was a perfect day to spin outside and whatever I left behind was a gift to the birds for their nests.

Grey bulky

I have plans to make a pair of leggings for a friend in South America, where it is almost winter.  She wanted grey.  Amazingly, I don’t have any grey yarn but I had grey roving and I spun it up into a worsted/bulky two ply.  Not my best effort but I have let my spinning wheel languish for far too long.  In order to wind a skein of my new yarn, I had to take a skein of Blue Faced Leicester/Alpaca blend off the bobbins.  It is luscious and I have tons of it.

BFL - Alpaca

I think I bought a pound of BFL roving and I distinctly remember buying the alpaca fleece.  There are several breeders in the area and when I saw an ad for alpaca fleeces I headed out to the address.  To my surprise, it was a chiropractor’s office.  I walked in and approached the receptionist.  As if I was engaged in an elicit trade, I quietly asked if I was in the right place for an alpaca fleece.  Sure enough, she pulled 3 bags full from behind the counter and I paid with my credit card.  I cleaned it and carded it and have been gradually spinning it.  I plied it with the BFL and think I’ll either knit a soft, cushy warm garment from it or use it as weft for a blanket.  After I dye it.  Perhaps with the lichen I have been collecting.

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My braided rug is coming along.  I tore strips from several old sheets and it will make a great rug for one of the bathrooms.  I began with an old table cloth in the middle and it wasn’t the right weight or material.  But it will remain as a reminder.

This little dress is on the needles and the baby has been born. IMG_8952 It’s the Clara dress and is an easy, knit, great for meetings and travel.

Spring is in the air

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The weather has warmed up – a bit too much – and spring is in the air.  Yesterday, the high temperature  was 85 degrees f and the low was 35 f – a whopping 50 degree spread.  What to wear?  Actually, we don’t even notice the cool nights, except we sleep well, or I do anyway.  We’re outside doing all sorts of projects – Tim is working on his cabin; I’ve been trying to figure out what are weeds and what are not; and the boat is ready to launch.

Trees are blooming and  love is in the air (and in the hills).  I see a heart in the trees.

Love is in the air

 

Our first Humming bird returned, Bluebirds are checking out the boxes (including  the Purple Martin house, which is supposed to be used by Purple Martins) and Eastern Phoebes keep trying to build a nest inside our porch.  It’s complicated when the birds refuse to keep to their own neighborhoods.  Goldfinch are wearing their bright yellow feathers and are so colorful.

Goldfinch feeder

 

It’s so nice outside, I haven’t been doing any quilting or weaving.  I still do laundry though and love to dry clothes outdoors on a windy day.  I may find clothing scattered around the lawn, but they smell nice.

Laundry            One of my favorite pictures is my porch swing in the snow.  Here it is in the spring.

swing and laundry

Time to go enjoy another day.

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Birthday bounty

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I am not a material person. Like a lizard (?) I have shed my skin and possessions more than once in my lifetime.

But I recently had a birthday – a big one – and am as pleased as punch with my gifts.

Here they are. To avoid any favoritism, they are listed in order based upon the number of years I have known the giver. My kids are very competitive; each one asked me if they were the first birthday wisher. Yes to the 6:00 am text message and yes to the 8:00 am phone call.

1) A beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, just when I am getting a wee bit tired of winter weather.

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2) A beautiful floral blouse, fits perfectly and looks perky.

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3) An extremely functional, handmade gift for my pepper mill. I have one of the older brass pepper mills, featured on the Frugal Gourmet years ago. It’s so tall and top heavy, it’s lethal around pottery or glassware on the counter because it frequently tips over. No more.

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4) The sky delivered a beautiful sunset and should probably be listed first.

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I see DC

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I’ve spent a lot of time in the car these past several days. I drove to Montpelier, back home, to Washington, DC and will head back to Montpelier for two more days after one night in my own bed. I haven’t had a home cooked meal for a week!

But I ate oysters, and Ethiopian food – hard to find in the Adirondacks. Most importantly, I spent a few days with my daughter.

The weather was beautiful and provided a real zing of Spring. Except for a parking ticket and a nail, which punctured a tire in two places, it was a fabulous trip.

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We rented bikes and rode around the Mall and visited the monuments. Capitol Bikeshare has kiosks around the city and you pick up a bike from one location and return it near your destination. Then we picked up different bikes to head home. What a concept! I downloaded the Spotcycle app, which told me where bike stations were and how many bikes were available there.

We were a few days early for the cherry blossoms on the mall but saw a few trees in full bloom in other parts if the city.

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We headed home to the remnants of winter, with snow on the ground and temperatures below freezing once again.

Visiting the Shire Town

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A business trip brought me to Montpelier, VT, the smallest state Capitol in the US. Although it’s only a short trip over a lake, and around some mountains, I am not in Kansas anymore. This is quintessential New England. A shire town means County Seat and is the term used here. Middle Earth.

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There’s a lovely village green on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where people and canines play frisbee in the snow.

I was very sad to find the New England Culinary Institute closed for break. I was looking forward to dinner there. But I found plenty of alternatives. There is some food I can’t find in the Adirondacks so I try to eat it when when I am out. I found a sweet Thai restaurant, Royal Orchid and had coconut milk soup and potstickers. Yum!

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It’s very hilly and a short walk downtown for a great variety of coffee at Capitol Grounds. Along the way I passed frozen puddles ,

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Colorful hilltop houses

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And a whimsical, mustached bark man.

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Ausable Chasm ice

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The temperature is gradually turning warmer but ice abounds. I had heard the ice jams at Ausable Chasm were at their peak. I may have missed it by a few days, but it was still pretty spectacular. There were both frozen and flowing waterfalls.

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This is the view from the road. These amazing rock formations were purchased and made private in the late 1800’s, even before the Adirondack Park was formed. It is one of the oldest “attractions” in the United States.

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Can you pronounce chasm? I usually mispronounce it and our neighboring town, Schroon Lake. Think school not shroom.

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My first moebius cowl

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To frog or not to frog? That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the…

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What fun and magic to knit a moebius cowl. The ingenuity of knitting a long-did I say long?- beautiful piece of fabric with a twist. The pattern was Sivia Harding’s Harmonia’s Rings

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I enjoyed Cat Bordhi’s video, which showed me how to cast on for the moebius to get one twist in the round. Magic!

I didn’t pay enough attention to the part that describes how to count these double stitches. Instead of casting on 100- 200 doubled stitches, I cast on 240-480 doubled stitches. Don’t ask me how. I thought it took me a while to knit a round. So long, in fact, that I never bothered to count the number of stitches in a round. There were too many.

Because it was worked in the round, with a twist, it was hard to get a sense if what I was working on.

Now I have a beautiful piece of fabric, twice as wide and half as long. The yarn was from Zen Garden. Did I mention I ran out of yarn 2/3 through my bind off. I had some leftover sock yarn, which miraculously matched perfectly. That miracle still occurred within a mistake though.

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So now, I have a beautiful, useful cowl, which only I will know has a moebius twist. If I loop it twice around my head the twist is lost. It feels so smooshy and soft though and can also form a hood.

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Is that enough? Or do I frog? Is this a problem or an opportunity?

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