Not the real date

It's actually August 12th. Where have I been? I'm not entirely sure, but I can tell you these pictures were taken during our july 4th visit to my parent's in new orleans. My father has the most marvelous little garden in the patio or is it a court yard? behind their house. I love the tropical plants we could never hope to grow in Maryland. And I love the grill work pieces he has "salvaged" from all over the city.

I have in fact been to Nola twice this summer to look after my parents. the time seems to be here to do that. I'm not sure how to handle the fact that i don't live there and can never really do the lion's share of taking care of them. Something for my adorable brother and i to work out, i suppose. But it's hard.

Speaking of adorable little brothers and such, we did enjoy getting out and about with him. he really is the best uncle my kids could have and i love him fiercely.

The French quarter never gets old, even after all these years,

nor do powdered sugar fights at the Cafe du Monde.

They're not kidding about the live music, either. They really do play it on the streets.

I'll not try to give you an entire summer re-cap. Boring, yes? Mostly, we've been at the pool. my big boy reached the divisional diving meet and dove amazingly. He placed second, qualifying him for the All Star meet. Very big for him, indeed.

My lovely mermaid had a great season swimming, learned that she can achieve her goals if she works hard, and had a great time swimming and playing with her friends.And I danced:) Here with my friend Maripat.

I've been spinning and knitting steadily throughout, and hopefully, will be back to share pictures with you soon.

My favorite sounds and sights of summer, and other knitting

First, we have the Mermaid, doing one of the things she does best: carrying our big fat orange cat around. Trudge is highly satisfactory in this regard, and even seems to enjoy it. She is all painted up for a Glenwood Tiger Swim meet, themed Dinosaurs from the Future. The full outfit involved a green and black swim cap, a painted part hat, goggles and a fierce expression. One of my favorite things about this child is that, while knocking on the door of the Saturday "A" meets, she is not swimming in them herself - yet. She wakes up early Saturday mornings and spends hours in the heat, just to cheer her teammates on. Now that's "Tiger style"! more on this later.

Another thing i love about summer, besides warmth, sunshine, and plenty of watermelon, are the hours i spend sitting by the pool knitting, while my children play happily. They are aquatic creatures, so they never get bored or cranky at the pool. in fact, if they are difficult, i try to get them to the pool as fast as i can so they can stop being that way. the boy craves impact, as a fundamental need, and he gets it safely by diving and cannonballing off the diving board endlessly.

Each year, i design and knit myself a summer top. This year's version is being knit in a double strand of laceweight Dance, dyed by me. This is a drapey, light silk noil yarn and is available from Gryphon at her shop.

A close up of the lace pattern, unblocked.

And here is the back. I'm now thinking of making the neckline a scoop, with a drawstring, for feminity, so the neckline may meed some re-knitting.

I have also been spinning. I bought a copy of lexi Boeger's gorgeous Intertwined at MDSW and have devoured it, over and over. I bought this beautiful batt from Steph of Loop



(this is only a piece of it, as i'd not been able to keep myself from spinning it long enough to photogragh it)

I've been working on learning cocoons, and "knotty little slubs", and practicing core-spinning, too.

This yarn is for a hat for a dear friend, who has done many wonderful things in the community for our kids. In fact, i signed my girlie up for brownies when i heard she was going to lead the troop, because i believe she benefits from just being in the same room as Molly. Our girls have been good friends since kindergarden, and while they will be going to different school next year, I hope they stay friends forever.

Molly is a simple but elegant kind of girl, so this hat will definitely push the fashion envelope for her, but I believe she is up to the challenge.

In addition to maintaining my own little corner of etsy.com and sending yarns to Gryphon for her shop and the LoopyEwe, I have a few new things in the works taht will actually get my name out there some. Hopefully, i will have news for you next week after we return from our trip to New Orleans to see my family. Or to be honest, to bring the children for a grandparent viewing.

In order to get ready for these opportunities, I have become a child labour employer. Here is one lovely young person, a long time friend of the Mermaid's, who winds skeins for me on my Ball and Skein. She has a particularly nice way of twisting the skeins so they stay together when soaking. Here she is completeing a Seasock skein.

And, finally, some more great images of our summer. The boy, walking his dog. Now 7, he can just handle her (did I mention she's alot of dog?) so he walked her with me around our neighborhood. he was tired, and wanted to go home. But she was so happy! And i thought she was my dog. Apparently, nothing can make her happier that prancing down the street with her boy. When she tried to pull a big root out of the ground to carry as a stick, he pulled out for her. then she was a REALLY happy dog walking with her boy with a giant stick with the dirt still attached.

All painted up and getting psyched up with his buddy for a swim meet at home. Can you tell what our colors are?

The mermaid with her fellow mermaids.

And finally, even the pool can't always cure the summertime grumps.

(even if Dad did say it was ok!)

The Sweetest Thing

Life is, as usual, going about 300 miles a minute. But I couldn't let our big day go unmarked. Our mermaid has closed the door to elementary school and is about to open another to her next exciting adventure. At the promotion ceremony, each child prepared and read about on etheir favorite memories of their years at her school. For the record, this school is a wonderful place to spend one's childhood and sends each child off with love and a great set of skills for wrangling with the big wide world. I have loved every year of my children's time there and am eternally grateful to the staff for all they have invested in my babies.

Here is my girlie reading her favorite memory: of her 5th grade teacher, and year, and of a cool field trip they took to the Solar decathlon, a bunch of innovative solar and otherwise green homes displayed on the National Mall.

Oh, and here she is in the dress she didn't wear, the special one that i had dry cleaned for the occasion, that had been passed down through several families we know well. The first owner of the dress graduated from college last weekend. It's beautiful on her, and she looks like Cinderella off to the ball. I learned something, though. I can trust her. The dress she chose was more comfortable, more flattering, and more appropriate to the situation. Score one for the mermaid! We did compromise on the hair, however.

On to the spinning! i have despite all appearances to the contrary, been spinning and doing other fibery things. This skein is a two ply merino sport? weight yarn that i spun from merino roving hand painted by me. MD Sheep and Wool weekend i'd attended a birthday party for my very lovely friend Shari. A ladies cocktail party with delicious food and excellent company. Perhaps it didn't help my developing sinus infection, but it was so worth it. For her present, I'd invented a colorway in turquoises and browns and named it Albuquerque after her (hopefully, she and her family will never move back there!)

How self serving a gift of hand spun is! So much fun to make! This is the fabulous Shari, looking at me like she's going to punch me if I take another picture, and her equally fabulous husband Mike, trying not to look too annoyed.

Their son graduated today too. Along with their buddy Andy, they have been the Three Musketeers (the goofy version).

And finally, a preview of things to come. I've been busily scouring fleeces and dyeing locks. Some of which i've stolen for my own spinning. But i plan to put a bunch in my etsy store. Very soon. They are photographed, but they got a bit squished in storage and I'm not sure I like the photos. So, we'll see. These luscious locks are from the bfl fleece i bought from Mia at MDSW. So soft and curly!

Some I will card into Crazy batts, because they are so much fun to make, but I also wanted to offer uncarded locks for your textured spinning. They are especially fun to corespin (ravelry link) with I think. All for now!

Introductions

I want to introduce a new yarn I'm carrying over here at Dragonfly Fibers (that'll be my new name as soon as my new logo is complete, etc.) This is a heavy figering to sport-weight soybean yarn with a smooth texture and plenty of drape. Very much like silk and bamboo and, of course, marvelously soft. Ot tangles a bit during the dyeing process, so I'll have to add some extra ties but otherwise, it's delightful to work with. Being a beach bum wannabe, I'm loving this color!

Our next introduction is my new almost middle schooler! The mermaid is finishing up at her elementary school (sniff) with a bang. Here she is doing her best Benny Goodman.

Have a great week!

Gone So Long

I have written quite a few posts in my head since the last one, but somehow never got to the keyboard. Rather than bore you with the gory details, I've included a few of the titles for these imaginary blog posts:

Maryland Sheep and Wool festival:the good (meeting all the wonderful people at the Cloverhill Booth), the not so good (my sinus infection) and the ugly (did i mention my little incident with the dumpster?)

If you look closely, you can see the warping board that I bought, thinking it was a loom, and the gorgeous antique wheel I bought at the auction. Dubbed "Mad Milly" by her previous owner, it was an impulse buy. I'll show you better pictures later.

My Life is a Country Song, all I need is a pick-up truck (TOUGH WEEK! )

Good night, sweet Max. I miss you.

My Florence Nightingale Act, or the Fourth time since February that I have been in the hospital with someone close to me; the good news is that everyone is out and recovering. My dad gets home today.

I did get lots of knitting done, including this fab hat from my first art yarn. Cool, yea?

Save Nola, and other excellent t-shirt graphics, or May in New Orleans is a beautiful place to be.

There may be no lovelier place on this earth to walk than Audubon Park.

Course, they can't grow peonies in New Orleans, and it was GREAT to get home.

In other news, I have processed some bfl from my MDSW haul. Technically, it was Mia's haul, as she was the one who found it. mia is one very generous soul, however and when she heard that i'd been looking for a bfl fleece, she let me buy it from her. Thanks, Mia! Mia also turned out to be a terrible enabler and helped me part with all of my grocery money on the way to my car. Photo's soon, I promise:)


This is a Moonlight batt. The bfl locks run throught the carder once with a little buff-colored alpaca I had on hand. Minimally processed, so the little tightly-curled lockes are still crimped and easily drafted for just a touch of texture. I couldn't resist it, so I grabbed the spindle on the way out to the pool(they're used to me by now).

So lustrous, it gleams (is that really a verb?)

Did I mention the pool? One more imaginary post title:
Summer Swim Team Sign-ups!

Trudgie says, "Go Glenwood Tigers!"

A week and a day

Here at Dragonfly headquarters, we are busily getting ready for that magical weekend every year when a bazillion knitters, spinners, and sheep lovers gather at the Howard County Fairgrounds for what may be the biggest Sheep and Wool festival in the country. The muggles look on quizzically perhaps even contemptuously, but that's okay. We know a good thing, don't we?
I have been dyeing cashmere silk laceweight, and merino lace yarn in two weights. Also merino-seacell sock yarn, and merino and bfl roving. Yum!

And locks! I am trying a new thing. I love to process raw fleece. Something about watching the dirty stinky pile of fluff become sweet clean locks and then fabulous textured (or not, depending on the sheep!) yarn just makes me happy. I'm dyeing CVM and Alpaca and maybe some Cheviot locks for the Cloverhill booth. So, come squeeze them, they may want to come home with you.

And if you are at the fest on Sunday morning, please come by and see me at the Cloverhill booth in the main barn spots D2 and D3 (that's on the right as you come in the front door). I will be working the booth from 8 am to 1 pm and I'd love to see you!

Spinning with Jacey

Part two of my fabulous fiber Sunday involved peeling myself away from the spin-in at Steph's, just as food was coming out, of course. Late as usual. very late, as usual. I called from the road to Spinster to ler Jacey know I'd be late and commenced to follow my sketchy directions from google. ("Google maps is better than Mapquest", he said. This may be fine if you have some familiarity with the area:)

I'm good at directions for some reason, and only faltered when I couldn't id the street I was supposed to turn on. I would like to blame it on the directions, but really, i was just late. I arrived at the cutest, sweetest, coziest yarn shop i've ever been inside. And there was Ms. Insubordiknit herself, waiting for me. Here I was worrying that she'd hold up the other students when i was the only one! Jacey was incredibly gracious and we got started right away, as soon as I'd run to the Safeway in the next block and back. all in all, we got started just shy of an hour late, and still managed to pack 4 hours of instruction into our three hour PRIVATE LESSON.

Again, I had my camera in the car, but did not spare the time to run and get it, although I did threaten to do so when Jacey pulled out the eyeballs. I must say, they are even cooler up close! And the batts for the Vitreous Humor yarn. Very yummy, and very "innardy". I will tell you, itis no surprise to me that the high priestess of Eyeball is even lovlier that you think she will be,AND so real and "in the moment". I had a marvelous time, spinning and hanging out, and learned so many cool things. Not just excellent arty spinning techniques, although there was plenty of that. I have already noticed my spinning has improved. This class was my first spinning class ever you know.

I learned to spin thick and thin, corespinning (the coolest!), cocoons, and beehives! I also learned how to carry along a thread or lace weight, although i must admit that I struggled the most with the technique she almost didn't want to waste time teaching, because it is SO EASY. Oh well, though I apparently was a genius at thick and thin and core spinning. Ok, maybe genius is a bit grandiose, but I like it. I also learned how to spin objects into your yarn, either threaded onto a carry along or onto roving itself. Brilliant!

Although i forgot my camera, you're in luck. Go to the Countdown blog and read the post about Insubordiknit. Oh, and her kids really are that beautiful. i got to meet her family when they came to pick her up. And the boy child, who really does look like an angel with Rock and Roll hair, skeined my crazy skein. We will not mention the fact that she made three, maybe 4 skeins of yarn in the time it took me to make this one!