beautiful things

Last weekend we went to ArtsFest, a great celebration of the arts that is in its 26th year.

It started with the idea to close off several blocks of a historic downtown street, invite artists to set up displays, and bring everyone out for a nice Spring weekend. It's grown larger every year, and now there are activities all weekend, from the Friday night art walk and ArtsFiesta, a Saturday night concert in the park, and Sunday's event for pets and their owners, ArfFest--love that name!

We went on Saturday and even though it was really crowded, we had a great time browsing (and buying) through all the 140 artists' booths, watching the dancing, and listening to the musicians that were all over the place.

Some were great just to listen to--
















and some welcomed audience participation, especially kids.














We spent most of the afternoon, then came home to tackle a little yard work while the weather was still good. I was out there on Sunday, too, and managed to get a couple pictures.


Enjoy your week.

rain, rain, go . . . oh, whatever

I wish it would quit raining.

We've had enough rain that we could skip every drop for the summer and still be OK. I must admit, though, that it's a good excuse to sit by the window and spin.

The blue yarn is a silk/merino blend two-ply. I have more to spin, but couldn't wait to get this plied and washed to see what it looked like. It is incredibly soft and mooshy and although I forgot to check the wpi's, I judge it somewhere between fingering and DK weight. There's 522 yards there and it will make something someday that I'll love.

This one you saw on the bobbin--a merino and colonial blend batt in gorgeous colors of yellow, deep grape and brown. The yarn turned out kind of wonky, since I started it on a new wheel I bought myself for Christmas (thank you again, self!), then realized one of the 3 bobbins the seller sent from Holland with the wheel (it's an old one) doesn't fit well--too tight, and another doesn't have a small enough whorl. You can spin all you want, but the yarn won't wind on.

I was a little disappointed. I bought the wheel on eBay because I so loved it's small compact size and the configuration. It is a beautiful wheel. The seller said there was only one original bobbin, but 2 more had been made to fit. And that's true. They fit, they just don't work. I'll have to find someone to make me a couple different ones, and it doesn't diminish my love for the wheel.

So anyway, I spun some on that new-old wheel I'd never used before. It is really spun tight. Then I spun some on my Ashford and it's not so tight. The singles were all a little different, so the final yarn's a bit uneven, but it was a good learning experience. And I love the yarn anyway, and have already picked out a pattern for it. It's a DK weight, about 370 yards.

Learning experiences are what I need. I've only been spinning for about 5 years. I had wanted to learn forever, and years ago took lessons from a woman in a neighboring town. She was wonderful, but we finally decided that I would get much more from it if I had my own wheel.

What a dunce I was. She finally gave me a Navajo spindle and sent me on my way. (And a couple years later I took a dyeing course from her, too--still without any spinning wheel or wool to call my own. But my God, what a fun way to spend a beautiful Fall day--running around collecting marigolds and purple onion skins and cooking them up in big cast iron cauldrons over camp fires in her yard. I felt like a Druid and couldn't get enough.)

Finally D gave me the Ashford the Christmas before I quit work, and it came with a huge amount of really bad wool and a how-to-spin DVD. I tried to spin that stuff for a year before I finally signed up for a 2-hr class at a local fiber shop. And started instantly spinning. It just clicked all at once.

So except for the watching Betty, my teacher, and that one 2-hour class, I'm self-taught. And like most crafts, the more you learn the more you realize you don't know anything. I want to spin long-draw. I want to learn more about plying and twist and grist.

I'm studying now. I just scored Mabel Ross' Encyclopedia of Hand Spinning on eBay, and bought a few books on Amazon. And today I started this:

Silk roving that I dyed in peaches, pinks and chocolates last year. I'm going to ply it with a beautiful champagne colored angora I bought at a fiber fair last year (or maybe baby alpaca). A three ply if I can spin the angora fine enough and there's enough silk. Or a two-ply if not.

What fun.

worth it

Today I went outside on my continuing mission to get our yard cleaned up. We had some ice storms this past winter, not as bad as the year before, that left a lot of mess out there. We have about an acre, not much--but it is covered in huge trees. While I would never give them up, and miss the ones we've lost, they do make a big mess.

Some of them are shingle oaks (I don't know what their real name is, but that's what I've heard them called) that don't lose their leaves until Spring. Like me, they try to keep a tight hold on the previous summer and don't let go until they are convinced that the new Spring is finally here. So no matter how much clean-up is done in the Fall, there's always another round in the Spring.

I have a big-boy tool I bought for myself. It's called a Barracuda ~ and man, did I feel strong and independent when I bought something with such a macho name. And it sucks--leaves, I mean. So yesterday I raked leaves into small piles all over the yard, and today I vacuumed them into the grinder in that thing. And my back is killing me ~ but probably not as much as if I would have tried getting all those leaves into big trash bags.

And you know how when you're doing some mindless job your thoughts wander? Your brain goes on auto pilot and wanders freely around in all your memories and random thoughts? I like that sort of quiet thoughtful feeling you get then. So today, I started thinking about the seeds I planted this weekend, and somehow I wandered to the reasons I plant those certain ones every year. Sure, they grow well here, but I feel a much deeper connection to them than just that.

It's people. The people and memories I connect to just those flowers.

My father-in-law was a brusque, plain-spoken man who thought about half the people he met were fools; he did not suffer them gladly, and let them know it. He lived a Hemmingwayesque early life and was rough around the edges, but had fought his way from a poor childhood to a very comfortable life for his family. His soft spot, his family. Inside that gruff exterior was as tender a heart as you're ever likely to meet. I adored him.

And he loved me. Probably because he knew how I felt about his son, but still ~

I never had seen cleome, spider flower, until I knew him. It was his favorite flower. And now one of mine. I think of him every year when it comes up.

Each one of my favorites has a person behind it, I realized, breaking my back outside today. The bachelor buttons and petunias from my childhood home. Memories of summer nights catching fireflies and stopping to smell the petunias and Mother sitting on the porch watching. The bachelor buttons always, every year, next to the giant swing Daddy built for me.

The tulips because of my son, who saw some when he was little and thought they were so pretty. We planted them together when he was three, in front of the picket fence at our old house.

My sweet Nannie, who could have grown a plant from a 2 x 4, is responsible for the coleus in big pots everywhere. And the morning glories.

And wise Grandma gave me the garden plan. Her entire yard a wild profusion of flowers, back and front ~ mine is the same, just not the entire yard, though if left to my druthers I'd have it that way. It has no formal plan, and many of the flowers I grow 'walk' all around the garden. Coming up here one year and showing up there the next. I love them and have never been known to pull one out because it seems in the wrong place.

It's exactly where it is supposed to be.

how sweet it is

Not hard to guess what I've been up to today!

We've had a long, cold, rainy Spring. Not what I'd pick if I was the Goddess of Seasonal Weather. In fact, there's been flooding all around this area and all the lakes in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas are full to capacity. I saw a picture of the bridge at Kimberling City on Table Rock Lake where I lived for several years, and the water is up to almost the bottom of the bridge. I've never seen it like that--with no possible room for a boat to squeeze under.

But today, the weather is glorious and I spent most of the day outside. First weeding and then planting flower seeds. I call it planting, but that's probably not what someone watching me would call it. It looks more like I'm feeding chickens. I've gardened enough years here to know what flowers like the soil and the conditions and really want to grow in my garden. And I just walk out there, pick out a spot and throw seed around. It usually does fine.

That's with tiny seeds. The bigger ones--like the morning glory seeds that are now on the kitchen counter soaking in a little bowl of water--get a little better treatment. I'll take them out by the trellis tomorrow, trowel a little trench in the ground and throw some dirt over them. They're always gorgeous. Nasturiums are treated the same way.

I know--this isn't a nasturium. It's an apple blossom. But I don't have a nasturium picture and the cherry tree was so gorgeous today I had to take a couple pictures. The color is delicate and very fragile looking. If I had any dye on hand, and some wool to use it on, I would be dyeing this color right now. Or else the shell pink of the tulips that are blooming in back.



And during all that rainy weather, I've been busy inside, too. There's been some knitting on this:

Another lace scarf.

I love the colors in this--very pale and washed out. Unlike a lot of hand dyed yarn, this color doesn't fight with the lace pattern. It's 'Spring Frost' from Cherry Tree Hill, one of my favorite colors of theirs.

I'll take a better picture after it's blocked. And find the pattern name, too--I think it's a free one from Interweave Knits.

And during all the inside activity because of the rain, look what I found cleaning out the closet!

This filet crochet that I've been missing for years. Up on a top shelf of the linen closet, hidden away in a little box.

When we lived in the big Victorian where the kids grew up, there were two funny little windows that I wasn't sure what to do with. One was on the lower stair landing overlooking the front porch, and one half-way up the stairs overlooking my neighbor's driveway.

The stairway was dark, and I didn't want to curtain those windows. So I put louvered shutters on the bottom half and made a little valance out of filet crochet for each one.

Several years ago, when I first remembered these and looked for them, I convinced myself that I must have left them in the house. And after looking a couple more times (you can tell how often I clean the linen closet) I just gave up. And kicked myself that I'd spent hours making these and then left them for a stranger that probably threw them away, or at least didn't appreciate them. And now they're back. I'm going to soak them in lemon juice and lay them in the sunshine and find a use for them.

Oh, the one in the middle? I got so enamored of filet lace that I made more stuff, too. The butterfly I converted from a little needlepoint picture I saw. It was attached to a pillow top. And I had more--the open shelves in the kitchen sported a little narrow border of lace, too. I haven't found that. Perhaps if I clean more closets, who knows?

And I recovered these, too. The fabric you can barely see hanging underneath the filet crochet is my first quilt. Made for my dolls, and a very creative piece it is, too.

And finally this--a blanket top made by my first love--Grandma. Why it wasn't finished (or maybe it is--there's a blue binding all around it, but it's a very lightweight cotton) I just don't know. But look at those vintage, true vintage, fabrics (click to make bigger). Vintage like me.

It is crazy. The inordinate amount of joy it gives me that I found this again. Made by Grandma just for me, years ago.

A sweet day, and sweet memories.

Have a great weekend!

What's this? Looks like the Easter Bunny to me. Coming to wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Easter brings back so many memories for me. I think of my sister and myself, dressed in our Easter finery. I have pictures of us that positively shout Easter, the two of us obviously stuffed with Easter Bunny chocolate, standing self-consciously against the backdrop of the rose trellis at the old house we grew up in. The sunshine sometimes weak and watery, hesitating between winter and spring. We have on identical dresses, except for color, and sport the same little purses and hats. We smile the way all children do when they're eager to get on with the day and away from the camera.

I study the pictures and know that right after they were taken we went off to church. Sang hymns celebrating the day, and then came home to grandparents and aunts and uncles and ham, probably with scalloped potatoes and peas. And lots of cousins.

I spend the day more quietly now. No grandparents, and the cousins are far away. Even my sister is gone. My own kids are working in our 24/7 world or else visited last week when they could. But the day is still a cause for happiness and reflection. And considering rebirth and Spring and miracles.

Easter. No matter how you spend it, I wish you a happy one.

new lace

This is Cat's Cradle Long-Ways Scarf from Jackie E-S at HeartStrings Fiber Arts. I've long admired her patterns and finally added some to the store.

I've made a couple of these as gifts, and am finally getting around to making one for myself. I've had a bunch of people ask me about good patterns for beginning lace knitters, and this one always comes to mind. The pattern gives stunning results with minimal effort, is especially good for variegated yarns, and looks great in any weight yarn.

I prefer charts when I'm knitting lace now, but I remember how intimidating they were when I first learned to use them. This pattern is a good introduction to lace because there are no charts--the lace patterns (only two) are simple and repeat over only 3 or 4 stitches across the row, and at least every other row is knit.

All that, plus the pattern includes a basic tutorial on lace blocking.


Here's another one from HeartStrings that's also good for beginners. Only two simple lace pattern rows repeat, and there are instructions for a scarf, headband, fingerless mitts or 'muffatees', lower arm warmers. And the stitch pattern looks equally good from either side--can't beat that. The headband only required about 75 yards, and I've got plans to use up a bunch of my left-over yarn from other projects. My 'waste not, want not' grandma would be proud.

Sock yarns here and lace yarns here. Feel free to enhance your stash.

obsessed like me

icebound

This is the view from my front window. Looks like a black and white photo, but that's actually color. All too familiar around here, especially after the horrible dose we got last year.




This one is a little closer view of the icicles hanging on the redbud tree right outside the window, and it's worse now than when I took these an hour or so ago.

We're supposed to get 3/4" to an inch more before midnight tonight.




So back to the first photo. See the little berm framed by the two trees? It stands out as whiter on the photo. This is the planting area we put in last fall ~ come spring, this will (hopefully) erupt in a riot of color. Perennials, ground cover, a couple shrubs ~ and I'll make it a work in progress through out the summer.

In fact, as I was taking this, I thought how a photo shot from this window would make a good calendar of the changing seasons. I'll try and remember to do that ~ it's added to my endless list of mental notes.


We added that berm because of last year's three ice-storm whammy. Three nights in a row of sitting in the house in the dark and listening to these trees crash and die, along with others equally as beautiful.

There's only one in the picture, but she was part of a duo. Two immense, huge pines that towered over the house. I used to pet them in the summer--they were those soft pines with feathery needles--and in the winter they graced our house with their seasonal scent and soft beauty.

It broke my heart to see them go.

But one of the constants in life is change ~ and I know I'll enjoy digging in the berm, the increased sunlight and the new color right outside the front window.

So anyway, back to today's ice. I had to go out in it. Lots of packages to mail, but mainly a dentist's appointment. I didn't want to go, and came this close to calling and canceling. But it was for some work I've been anxious to get done, so I bundled up and drove clear across town. It took a couple runs at the little hill at the top of our road to get out, but I made it with time to spare.

The dentist didn't.

I finished errands since I was out driving around in an ice storm anyway, and came home to find the message canceling on my answering machine. To be fair, they had called before I left, in fact before I was awake, and I hadn't checked messages before I left the house, since I'm forgetful and the little red light doesn't come on anymore to tell me someone's called.

So I'm home now, and dry again, and I started a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and some bread, and then I sat down at my new spinning wheel.

Isn't she gorgeous? And a little bit of a challenge until I changed the drive band and did some more oiling; then we got along fine. She's a rare one I got on eBay for my Christmas present to myself. And there's a name for her, which I can't remember right now, but I'll be glad to look it up if you're interested.

This is what I spun today. It's looking uneven, but the colors and the roving are beautiful, and I'm sorry I can't remember where I got it. It's Merino and Colonial, I think, and fun to spin. But it's uneven because I've been trying to learn to do long-draw, and I can't get my yarn to come out very evenly. And being me, it didn't occur to me until after I was done and not extremely happy with the yarn ~ probably best not to try a new technique with a new wheel. I do challenge myself sometimes.

I've only been spinning for a few years, and I regret that I took so long to learn something I've been wanting to do as long as I can remember. Think how much better I'd be by now.

But the joy is still there, and that's all that matters. Doing something you love so much, that time slips away and you're off somewhere in your own world, with only the soft flutterings of the wheel and your most private thoughts.

Is there something you really, REALLY, have been wanting to do for a long time?

Start today.

and stay warm!

catch up

I'm adding lots of new stuff to the store today, but had to take a little break to get a drink and view a couple of the blogs I read.

I was going to post pictures of my disappointing needles, recently won on eBay, but that will have to wait until later. I just read something astounding and want to share.

Did you know that consumers saved more than 19 BILLION dollars on eBay last year? Well, I didn't either, but you can read about it here.

Ya'll know I sell on eBay, so I try to keep up with what's happening there. And I buy lots of stuff there--things I know I'll never find in stores, like my very favorite knitting needles that are no longer made. But I was just blown away to discover that you and I have been saving so much--and I'd like to give us a little online pat-on-the-back for being such good shoppers!

Meanwhile, I started a lace project out of some wonderful Cherry Tree Hill Cascade silk yarn, in the Spring Frost colorway. I'll post a couple pictures soon (along with those knitting needles)--
but first, I have to untangle the mess that my Bungee made of it this afternoon. (That's Bungee in the picture--sorry about the Children of the Corn eyes--helping me take down the Christmas tree.)

When I went out to the kitchen on my little break, I found a bread crumb trail of thin yarn. It led to Bungee, who was running around the house with my newly cast-on lace in his mouth. This explains why all my yarn is stored in a room with a closed door that has a scratched away patch of carpet in front of it. (He doesn't bother other closed doors on closets, etc.,--only the room where he knows there is yarn. He is a devil.)

Somehow, in what must be a talent only a yarn-obsessed cat possesses, Bungee managed to pull my stowed away project out of the ornate grid on the front of the cabinet where I hide it every night. It's not fair.

My cat is smarter than I am.

belated

Grandson #1 with his Never-Go-Anywhere-Without-Him pal Cisco. Decked out for Christmas.

May I be the last to wish you a Happy New Year!

And apologies on being MIA on the blogfront! I rarely get a cold or any kind of bug. But about once a decade some virus hits me and makes up for lost time. This was my year.

I think I told you that my grandsons always spend the week after Christmas at my house before they have to go back to school. Apparently all the holiday bustle and after-Christmas Chuckie Cheesing and ice-skating weakened my usually hearty immune system. Right after they left, the BIG BUG jumped into the void, and I've been a fixture on the couch for a week and a half. Periodically trying to do a little knitting, or raising myself to do a few errands, only to end up wiped out and back to square one. I could barely force myself to move, let alone blog about our Christmas grandeur or the fun with the boys.

So here are some pictures I've been saving to blog about--with severely abbreviated comments and my best wishes for the new year.



My two kids, and the proudest achievements of my life. As different as night and day--but both wonderful, both so beautiful and perfect to me. I am in awe of the adults they have become, and am humbled and so ever grateful that they were granted to me.













A small part of the merry-makers. And yes, I do leave dishes until the next day. Christmas here is all about Christmas Eve (thank you, Daddy), when presents are opened and the party begun after a traditional oyster stew dinner.

(We enjoy adult beverages, as you can see.) In fact, when a brand new, unopened bottle of wine was dropped on the ceramic tile floor of my kitchen, I was the only one with the presence of mind to remember 'Glass!' and keep others from licking it up.

Missing here are the hysterical pictures of my daughter and my niece, her cousin, the same age except for a month. One year when they were small little girls, they decided to bedeck each other in Christmas bows after presents were opened. It has become a tradition. (If you look closely at the picture of my daughter and her brother above, you can see a green ribbon that she put over his head, trying to involve him in the festivities. He refuses to take part in the 'wearing of the bows on your head' ceremony.) The pictures were entirely too blurry to see what was happening, because I was laughing too hard.

Also missing is the picture of the socks I finished that night. As an illustration of a 'picture is worth a thousand words', they clearly demonstrate my new rule about why you don't kitchener stitch toes if you can't remember how many glasses of wine you've had.

Hope your Christmas was as joyous, and that your new year is filled with blessings.