through the loops
PED in need of a mate . . .
Pattern: Made it up as I went along – toe up – short row heel
Yarn: Lorna’s Shepherds Sock
Needles: Knitpicks Options US #0
Fabulous foot model: DD#2 – whose feet are really, really long – 9 1/2’s baby!
What do you think – do they need a pom-pom?
Gotta go, DH is waiting for me on the golf course.
Rather than the standard eight legs, DD#1’s new sea critter has nine. Therefore, we have named him Nonapus. He seems to have an insatiable appetite for handspun yarn.
DD#1 designed this little softie herself. I helped a bit with the pattern making. She did all of the sewing.
I finished spinning and plying my Pigeon Roof Studio‘s "Drift" roving. I love this colorway!! I was hoping to make socks out of the resulting yarn, but it is a little too heavy. I’m making a small project bag instead.
I’m working on getting my spinning a bit finer. My new Spindlewood is really helping. I’ve also taught myself how to draft properly as I spin and that is making a huge difference. The yarn I am spinning for my shawl for the Spun Stitches KAL is coming along nicely. Perhaps I’ll have something to show in the next few days.
Christy tagged me for the Seven Random Things About Me me-me.
I’m a pretty dull gal, so it hasn’t been easy coming up with interesting random things, but here goes:
1. I love to do cartwheels, always have since I was a little kid. I used to do them through the house and drive my mom crazy. Now I still can’t resist whenever I see an open field of grass, or that wet strip of sand just where the beach meets the waves. My girls love it when I do cartwheels. It cracks them up.
2. There are a lot of twins in the family. DD#1 & #2 aren’t the only ones. My sister has twin daughters who are two years younger than mine and my dad is a twin. Two of my cousins also have twins. My girls are identical which are not the kind that are inherited, but my dad is a fraternal twin. I knew I was having twins weeks before the doctor figured it out. He thought I was crazy when I mentioned it, but I knew my body well enough to know that the second pregnancy was really different than the first.
3. DH’s family is from India, although he was born in Pittsburgh. His heritage explains why my children look Italian despite my Northern European roots. When we are all sitting together on the beach, I am the one with the big hat, the umbrella and the SPF 55 while the rest of them just get browner and more beautiful by the minute.
4. I’ve had a hole in one. This is pretty funny since I am a really bad golfer. Many dedicated golfers play their whole lives without ever getting one. This fact is fun to bring up at DH’s corporate parties where I earn brownie points with the "big boys".
5. In college I learned to blow glass. It is a wonderfully physical process. There is the heat of those blazing furnaces and the constant spinning of the blowpipe. I never got very good at it. I only successfully completed two or three projects. I’d love to get the chance to try it again someday.
6. I can’t sing. People beg me to stop whenever I do. I’ve always wished I had a great voice. I’d sing like Ella Fitzgerald in smoky night clubs until the wee hours. My children are all blessed with lovely voices. I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through them.
7. One thing that I haven’t yet done, but would love to try is Masonry. I want to build a backyard fireplace. I envision myself sitting outside by the fire, late at night, looking at the stars and sipping wine.
I’m not going to tag anyone, because I think just about everyone has done this me-me. If you haven’t and you want to, then tag-you’re it!
The photos that accompany this post are of my pa
rent’s home and garden. On Monday the moving van will take away the last of their furniture. It has been and emotional and grueling process packing up our history. I feel lucky to have grown up surrounded by so much beauty. There are so many happy memories in this house.
My parents are both avid gardeners. My father spent years devoted to his hobby of Rhododendron hybridizing, and my mom still hybridizes daylilies when she has the time. As an adult, every time I would go to visit them in all but the foulest weather, I would find them in the garden when I arrived.
Sometimes in life we are lucky enough to find something that is beautiful in both form and function. It is this merging of art and craft that delights me. Sadly it is something that is often missing in the world in which we live. Perhaps it is what draws so many of us to traditional crafts like knitting and spinning.
After returning from MDS&W, I couldn’t stop thinking about the spindle I didn’t buy. I had purchased a few spindles already that Saturday, and by the time I got to the booth with the Spindlewoods it was hard to justify one, let alone two more. So I picked out a sweet 1/2 oz. mini spindle and went on my way. Days went by and I couldn’t stop thinking about how nice that second one would have been. Something with a little more weight, but not so heavy that I couldn’t easily spin lace on it.
"Why not send an e-mail to the good folks at Spindlewood?", I thought. Perhaps they have a few laying around that they’d like to sell. When I received a return e-mail from Steve, I realized that not only was I dealing with a talented artisan who cares deeply about making spindles that his customers will adore, but also that here was a man who is such a sweet, kind person that he makes you feel like you are having a friend customize a spindle just for you. Along with his chatty e-mails he sent photos of whorls for me to choose from. In the end, the package that arrived in the mail today contained my dream spindle. Spinning on this glorious object makes the desire to buy a wheel a little less urgent. It spins forever, yet I am able to spin a very fine, thread-like single.
This my friends is the perfect spindle. And Steve? Well lets just say that it is meeting people like Steve that makes me glad that I am a knitter and a spinner.