Thomas in Dan's Vest

I'd just love to knit one of these babies for all of the men in my life. What a great vest! I'm told my older son's students even like this vest and it's hard to impress high school students!

The yarn is a blend of rambouillet, gulf coast native and shetland fibers that I had blended and carded into roving. It's a 2 ply yarn that I spun fairly fine on my antique Canadian production wheel. The rambo and GCN were white, the shetland brown. So why does the yarn show up as gray? Taupe? One of the great mysteries of spinning. I like the color, but have lots of this fiber. (And I mean lots - 2 giant bags to begin with!) I am still spinning this yarn and will be spinning it for awhile longer. I believe the next project I knit from it will be overdyed another color...maybe garnet!



My next vest will be knit for DH in a 3 ply yarn called snow on blueberries. I have enough for fronts and may use millspun for the back. This winter. Yeah, that's it!

Still Giving Thanks

Pink and purple yarn, fleece dyed in Harrisville



Iced cardigan knitted in mohair/wool blend of handspun, wildly autumnal colors!



Charlotte's Web Shawl in blues. Must knit late at night - no interruptions!



Black baby alpaca shawl in fircone pattern.




Blueberry Pie...yum!




Banana muffins with chocolate chips - triple batch!



Broccoli and Bacon Quiche


Sunday night has arrived all too quickly again. I spend today scurrying around trying to make the best of the last day of Thanksgiving break. I cooked like a madwoman, finished 2 yarns and did some knitting on a cardigan that I have almost finished. Started a black baby alpaca scarf for Nicole and a Charlotte's Web shawl for me. I even managed to take pictures of some of these things, as you can see. And it's back to school tomorrow. Yay!

Peace at last

Well, today's heat and back to school activities left me with a sizable headache. My cure? Spinning luscious fiber, of course! A month or so ago, I received a magic box from Morro Fleeceworks, earlier than they had predicted. It was filled with over 6 lbs of a lofty mixture of cormo, alpaca and silk. Yum. The stuff is incredible to spin! I'm tired, need to go to bed, but can hardly stop!

What shall I make from this bounty? Peaceful moments for months ahead and then...to be continued!

Summer is over (if you're a teacher, anyway!)

What a sad way to begin a post! But it's true. So we started the day with fresh veggies, flowers, and a Molly muffin and home fries from Foxxy Roxy's!

Book group will meet tonight where we will discuss our reading of The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger. It was a light, predictable, summer read.

I'm off to the grocery store. This is not a job I usually relish, but today the heat will make the air conditioning seem exotic and wonderful! It's strange to have such heat at this time of year, but we will be back to seasonably cool on Friday and Saturday in time for the weekend. Kayaking, perhaps?

Great American Irish Festival

On a bit of a whim, we decided to attend the abovementioned event. The music was loud and wonderful. We ate some chicken riggies and deep fried Oreos. Wow! And the food was reasonably priced. All in all, a nice way to spend a midsummer's day.



On the way home, we stopped in the town park in Harrisville. For years we have been driving by there and exclaiming how beautiful it is, all nestled there in an island in the midst of the Oswegatchie river. Today was just the day for exploring it. Tiny but lovely, we walked the path, gazed at all angles of the river and enjoyed the cool breeze. All along the path was posted the pages of a children's book called Trout, Trout, Trout. They were fastened to small wooden stakes right at a child's height. Indicators of a literate community always tickle me.

Yesterday we went to the Civil War Reenactment in Massena. Tom always enjoys the battle. Thomas and I wait it out, then head to the river. Noise, smoke, weapons? Nope! There were sailboats on the St. Lawrence and a party boat drove by before we headed home. The day was ended at home with gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Heirloom tomatoes make everything better!

Currently knitting: Twisted Float Shrug with online class by Annie Modesitt, boring brown sock for a gift. I started spinning corespun from a batt I bought from Marilla in coral and peach and glitter. Trouble is, the silk thread I'm spinning around has been known to bleed orange on all it touches! I need to check that out before spinning much more.