The Woolen Rabbit

Lucky Week

Today is July 7, 2007 and is considered to be a very lucky day, however, last week was my lucky week for sure!

Over the year I have been participating in Lynne's special swap and have had a very nice time getting to know new people.  The best part of this swap is that you know ahead of time who you are swapping with, so you get to make new friends :-)

This time around the theme was a Garden Party theme and my swap partner was Sue.  My package arrived this week and was full of garden goodies.  Starting off is this garden journal, which will get a lot of use for next years garden.  I love the idea of keeping a garden journal.

Of course there were lots of yummy goodies and some very nice teas, along with a great smelling bar of soap, which pictured here are all tucked in a pretty planting tin.

And the yarn.......some very soft Frog Tree cotton along with some peaches and cream cotton, that my youngest daughter quickly snagged for her very first crochet project.  The blues will be used for some soft cushy wash cloths I think, to go with some new soaps that I am considering trying......and rounding up the package were some nice flower seeds, some great candles and some pretty flower plates.

Thank you Sue!!!

Friday's Flower..........Peach Iris

Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacred
flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages.
Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved
women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to
take the souls of women to the Elysian fields.
-   Hana No Monogatari: The Stories of Flowers

Have you ever seen such a stunning Iris? My middle daughter, Ashley spends her summers working as a gardener and always carries her camera with her.  These little lovelies are from a garden in Maine that she tends to every week.   I never realized that Irises came in such a beautiful array of colors.......who knew?

So how's your summer going?  Mine has been crazy busy!  Working at home during the summer is always a challenge for me.  The girls are home from school and college, the phone never stops ringing and the interruptions could make a sane person crazy.  The first few weeks of summer are always an adjustment finding a new routine that works for all of us.  Hopefully next week will find us back in a comfortable groove again.

This week also brought a wonderful swap package, a really nice surprise prize winning gift, a trip up north to visit with a friend who sent me home with something special and hopefully I am going to wrap up the week with a finished object and a locally made meal.

I was going to try and cram it all in this post, but as my daughter would say........that is way too much information (TMI), so instead, I am going to try and be diligent and post just a little bit each day.  :-)

As a footnote, thank you all for your kind words of support for our community here.  Thankfully they caught the man who did this.  His callous comments to the media were just unbelievable.  The only word I can use to describe this man is evil..........just evil.  Hopefully he will stay behind bars for the rest of his life.

It was not just another day........

I was originally going to write a long post about cashmere early this morning, but the events of this day kind of put fiber and posting on the back burner.  I will write a little about the cashmere and a little more about our day.

Cashmere.......it's a wonderful experience.  Last week as I took some time to visit with my big lendrum girl, I pulled these 3 different balls of cashmere roving out of the basket.  Each one of these were purchased from different vendors and each one was very different than the next.

The skein to the far right was purchased at NH Sheep and Wool and let me tell you, I so wish I had grabbed one of this vendor's cards as it was by far the best cashmere I have ever spun.  For any of you out there who have spun cashmere, you know just how short those fibers can be.  I'm talking less than an inch.  If there is another method of spinning it other than inchworming along, it is beyond my capability.  This roving however was so wonderfully prepared that it made the spinning pure joy.  If any of you out there know who the man was that was selling little bags of cashmere for 12.00 an ounce, give me a shout :-)

The white cashmere was purchased at Rhinebeck from Galina and this too was a pleasant roving to spin.  Not quite as smooth as the one to the right and a bit ramy smelling, but still nice.

The last skein to the left was also in roving form, but not quite as nice to spin, which surprised me given where it came from.  A lot more neps, very ramy smelling and a bit coarser, which of course was still pretty soft considering it is cashmere.  Hopefully a long soak in a bubble bath will cure the ramminess :-)

I have a bit more of the white so while I am spinning on my big girl, I will be contemplating what to do with these lovely cashmere skeins :-)

....................... and now the sad part of the day.  Last week I saw a commercial on tv that kind of stuck with me today.  I don't remember what the advertisement was for, but each person in this commercial casually makes a comment similar to " In 2 hours I am going to be in a car accident" or "on my way to work, I will be killed by someone who runs a red light, etc."

Earlier today, 3 people were shot in our little town.  2 of them are dead and one is in critical condition.  This all happened about a mile from my house in the store that my daughter's ex-husband was the assistant manager of until just 2 weeks ago.  The only thing that we do know is that the manager, who was also a friend to Stacey and Dan was one of the men killed.  This happened shortly before the store opened.  This man, has a wife and 2 small children and today was just another day........but then again it was not. 

In spite of state troopers, police, sheriffs and helicopters searching, the shooter was not apprehended and is still at large.  Everyone in the village was asked to stay in their homes with the doors locked while they searched for this man.  As I sat in my house, on the unusually quiet street, listening to the drone of the helicopter most of the day, I thought about that commercial and just how fragile life is. 
So if you think of it in your quiet time this evening, please say a prayer for the families of these people and an extra prayer that they find this man who caused such havoc in the lives of good people.