The Woolen Rabbit

Friday's Flower........Sunflowers

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;
~William Blake

As summer's end is drawing near, my last Friday Flower is one of my favorites......the Sunflower.

The first picture was a picture I took last year when we were visiting the Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH.  Not only are sunflowers beautiful to look at, but the seeds that they present when they are spent are gifts to the birds and squirrels as they prepare for winter.

Every year that I plant a garden, I always plant a bunch of colorful sunflower seeds. At the end of the summer I am rewarded with these beautiful happy faces.....hmmm....makes me think of one of my favorite REM songs....Shiny Happy People, but I digress...that happens as you get older I am told...

My favorite of all the sunflowers that I plant is the enormous Mammoth Sunflower, but unfortunately due to my late planting this year, they are only just starting to open their eyes.  The dried sunflowers at the top of this post are Mammoth Sunflowers.

I love everything about this particular type of sunflower.  The flowers are HUGE and the seeds are plentiful, giving the birds that I so enjoy all summer a little extra to munch on before their long journey south.

As the summer comes to a close, there are things that I enjoyed and things I wish I had more time to indulge in, but of course there is always next year to dream about, right?  The upcoming season is my most favorite season of all......and this labor day weekend will be spent with some neighboring fiber friends on Saturday and a special visit from a blogger who has come home from overseas on Sunday. 

Enjoy your labor day weekend!!!

The Sisterhood of Bees

Honey bees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also require it's social companionship and support.  Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die.
~The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men

This one paragraph sums up exactly what my fiber sisters and blogging is all about for me.   The friends I have come to meet in the blogging world have become as important to me as some of my long time friends.  We have all connected with each other through our love of fiber, but we have also become a sisterhood of friends over the years as well.....like bees in a colony.  Some of us are worker bees and some of us are queens, but our community itself is one that supports each of us in a unique way.   It's a place I like to call home :-)

This summer has been a summer of bees and honey for me.  I just finished my book, "The Secret Lives of Bees" and it was just the right book for me to read this summer.  I loved every single page....so much so, that I teased my husband about becoming a bee keeper.

It has also been the summer of the Bee Shawl, which is high on my list of to do's this Autumn.  A few weeks ago, a woman contacted me to do a custom order of laceweight yarn in the same colorway as my Tupelo Honey sock yarn.  Of all the color palettes there are, these golden colors are my favorite, so it was easy to take this order on.  I loved this yarn so much so, that I dyed up enough for myself to make the stole and I will sell the remaining few skeins as I purchased enough to play with.  I'm thinking this lace merino may become a staple here....I like it VERY much!

Before I can play in the honeypot however, I need to finish Ashley's vest.  The back is finished and I have moved onto the front.  I am not touching another knitting project until this is finished as I know, once I put it down, I may never pick it back up again.  I am just not really feeling the love...but Ash loves it, so onward we go!   Hopefully it will be finished this weekend.

Friday's Flower......Astillbee

Contemplate in the morning.
Pull weeds in the afternoon.
The joys and labor of a single day
Are part of a whole journey.
Deng Ming~Dao

Have a great weekend!

Glory Bee!

There was a time in my life (before knit addiction) that I was an avid reader, always having my nose in a book, but these days not as much.  I do however try to spend a little time each night before going to bed reading, if even for 15 minutes.  This month, the book I have been reading is "The Secret Life of Bees".  Interesting that this was the book I chose for summer reading, and also the summer of the Bee Shawl, which I hope to work on this fall.  I have found a new appreciation for Bees........and Beekeepers.

Early in the summer I was a bit worried that I did not have enough Bee activity in my garden, which of course is not a good thing.  However, as the summer has progressed, my squash flowers have become havens for the Bees.  Many mornings I find a Bee sleeping in almost every flower.

I do have some garden quandaries however that I am hoping that some of you more experienced gardeners can help me with.  This garden patch has been a learning experience for me.  Having only used raised beds in the past, I find that a patch has a few more challenges.  I'm not sure why, but it has.

Squash....As you can see, I have beautiful winter squash plants with tons and tons of big yellow bee filled flowers, but yet, I am not getting many squash fruit (vegetable) from these flowers.  I think maybe 10 altogether.  With all the flowers and bees, why so few squash?

Basil....we had quite a few good harvests from the basil plants, but over the last week, they have become discolored and less hardy looking.  Could this be from the cooler temps...or is is due to something else?

Red Onion......this was a very new to me thing to plant and I guess I didn't thin out the seedlings enough....I had no clue how to grow onions, but next year, I will know better as these onions will not get big enough for much :(

Bugs.....uggh!  Anytime I have a garden, I plant Mammoth Sunflowers, both beautiful and a source of seeds for the neighborhood birds, but this year we have visitors on the leaves.  Does anyone know what these are?  Usually with this cluster of bugs on a leaf, I will find a big black ant as well.  I don't know if the ant is eating or nurturing the bugs........either way, I don't want them...uggh!

Tomatoes..... No problem, other than our cooler than usual temps.....yikes, with they ever turn red??  I know there is no help for these other than a couple of good hot days :-)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions :-).  On another note, I had quite a few people ask me if I were getting out of the dyeing business and I want to assure you that I am not :-)  I will be dyeing full steam up until Fryeburg Fair and then I plan to take a few months off to recharge before vending at Spa.  Everything that I have will be available now in both the wool/nylon blend and my normal merino/nylon blend up until the fair, then I will shut down for a little spell to spend some time working on the homestead and playing with these things...

Balance and Seasons

The other day when I was getting ready to go to the fiber revival, I pulled out my wheels deciding which grrl should go with me.  Given that my little Lendrum was still folded in her bag from my last trip to Newburyport, I figured I would just take the easy way out and bring her again.

As I was looking at the wheels, it dawned on me that I had not actually spun for quite some time.  I also realized with the fall like weather we have been having that Autumn is right around the corner and I NEED a new favorite vest, as my old one is getting a bit worn. With that in mind, I picked up my Robin and started spinning the lovely mohair/border leicester blend that I have been working on for ........drum roll please...........2 YEARS.  Holy crap!  Get that vest done already woman!

As I spun this bobbin, I thought about my life over the last few years and why I don't seem to have the down time that I used to.  My conclusion is....I create my own stress by trying to do it all, which of course we all know unless you are wonder woman (which I am not), many things start to fall by the wayside. For me these past few years, it has been my spinning and weaving. (both loom and basket).

It's a fine line.........I love to work with dyes and create colors and I love working at festivals where I get to chat about what I love most......color and fiber.  On the other hand, the sad reality is, I have to work to make a living, which cuts into my creative time , so I find that I am spending my free time working on yarns so other people can be creative.

During the hours I sat spinning, I thought about it.  I go thru creative cycles when I create for myself, which I enjoy and then I go thru cycles when I create for others so that they can enjoy.........and really it is balanced.  I am just realizing that the pendulum needs to swing in the create for myself end for a little spell, so it can once again sit balanced again in the middle.

One of the things I really do need to get off my plate is Ashley's vest.  Ashley saw this pattern on my desk one day and declared that she MUST have one.  So for her birthday, I ordered the yarn that the vest in the pattern was made with and there it as sat until she reminded me 2 days ago that she would be leaving in one short month, so I tackled the task of getting it done.  I have to admit it truly has been a task.  The yarn, Tahki Donegal Tweed, reminds me very much in texture of Black Water Abby yarn........a bit scratchy and hard on the hands.  Remember.....a Woolen Rabbit is used to working with fine angora type blends so this yarn is a real challenge to stay committed to, as those soft little hussies whispering in the corner are very hard to ignore.

Once I get thru the fair season, I think I will take a short break and get comfortable with my wheels and loom and put the dyepots away for a spell.  One of the songs I loved best as a young teen was Turn, Turn, Turn............those words, "To everything there is a season" still resonate in my head to this day.  It has taken me a long time on my life path to understand balance as I am a jump in the deep end kind of person....but I am learning, slowly, but surely. :-)

Revival......A Collage of Photos

Birthdays, anniversaries, memorials, festivals...
Measure our progress on the path.
Den Ming Dao~

Today's mark on my path was a festival.  Cheryl and Julia's fiber revival was held today in the small town of Newbury, Mass at the Spencer Pierce Farm....and it was every bit as enjoyable as I knew it would be.

Some of you know that I am from the Newburyport area and going back home (as it will forever be my home) is always bittersweet.  Some of my fondest memories are held there as well as some of my saddest.  No matter the occasion however, I am always happy to go back and visit.
Pour a glass of wine and pull up a chair and let me share my day with you :-)

As I drove down the lane, this is the first thing I was greeted with.....A sign like this, there was no doubt it would be a good day!  (Blogless Sharon...soon to be blogging Sharon is actually taking one of these girls home...she's a lucky dog, lucky dog.....lucky dog..)

Further down the path........the old and beautiful trees that lined the country road.....just beautiful on this Autumn like day

and friends.......two of my favorites.....

and of course fiber, the reason we all get together.......is this batt of Julia's not beautiful?  Did I spin........no, it was too windy.  Did I knit.........Um no.., too busy talking to friends :-)

and babies.........how can you not just love this little face?  I was so very happy to meet little Lily, her dad Scott and extra happy to see her Mum again :-)

As the day was getting late, a bit chilly and the sun was starting to wane, I walked back down the lane to my car..... happy that I decided to make the trek down.  Good friends and a day of fiber in a place I call home.........what could be better than that?

Friday's Flower..........Orchids

Okay.......well maybe not a flower in the sense of what we know to be a flower, but these Orchid Mitts rank right up there as a thing of beauty.  I test knit this pattern for Anne last week.  They would have been finished sooner, but my workload in my real job was heavy this week.

Pattern:  Orchid Mitts
Yarn:  My hand~dyed merino/silk blend (I plan to carry this later in the fall)
Needles:  Knitpicks size 2.5mm (pattern calls for US 2's, but I knit loose)

Perhaps not as Sexy as Anne's...heehee, (my model is 12).

These lovely mitts made their debut in my slow, but growing garden.  While the rest of the country has suffered crazy hot temps, the weather up here in Northern New England has been quite cool, especially at night.  Hmmm........I'm seeing fried green tomatoes in our furure....<grin>

A beautiful, fun pattern.........thanks Anne!

Can you guess what it is?

Today I was supposed to visit with a group of good fiber friends at a small gathering, but due to, well.........I won't bother getting into it, I was not able to attend.  However, I did manage to spend some time in the afternoon in spirit with the girls, working on a small fiber project.

Can you guess what it is?  It does not have a toe, it is not made of superwash or nylon, but rather merino and silk......and it is a very enjoyable project.
(Yes Terry, there is some scrumptious iced green tea in that pot....see I was with you in spirit...:-) )
 

Friday's Flower........Park Princess Dahlia

The purpose of life is to discover your gift.
The meaning of life is to give it away.
David Viscott

Today's flower is the Park Princess Dahlia.  Are they not lovely?  Some of you know that my middle daughter, Ashley is a gardener.  When she was a little girl, we used to chuckle at what a tree hugger she was.......not much as changed as she has grown, as you can see.

One of the places where Ashley gardens is a place called Eastman Hill in Lovell, Maine.  The homesite and the gardens are just gorgeous.  Here are a few more pictures of some of the lovely flowers that Ashley tends to here.

Stampin.....yikes!
Ok.......now that I have shared some beauty with you, I will share something not so beautiful....LOL.  My first attempt at stamping something.  It's a bit crooked, eh?

Did you know that there is another whole world of obsessed people like us knitters?  It's Stampers.  Holy Moses, I had no idea there were so many different things out there that had to do with a small rubber stamp.

I started on a quest to find some stamps that I could do custom for some soap boxes and inadvertently opened up that Pandora box.  Take a look here, here and here.....

Slam..........I am shutting that box's door fast!!!!

Ring Around The Rosie

Was this not a gorgeous weekend?  For us up here in New England, Sunday was spectacular.  The weather of course was perfect for dyeing..........nice, dry and warm.  After the heat from last week, it surely was a welcome relief!

This weekend was a full one for me.  It's hard to believe that I am really starting to think ahead for Fryeburg Fair already, but I am.  In between dyeing like a mad woman, soapmaking like a fool, I finished the first Lady Blue Sock and will quickly cast on for the second one and that will probably be the end of my personal knitting for a spell.  There's a loom to be warped, more fiber to be dyed.....and........and........  Some days I feel like I am going around in circles, but it is a good kind of busy :-)

I promised my middle daughter Ashley that I would finish her vest for her to take back to Plymouth in the fall......and then it will be fair knitting.  Well, maybe I will plan a simple stockinette pattern (hmmm....a new favorite handspun vest for me perhaps), just for those evenings when I don't want to have to think about knitting, but rather just sit and knit :-)

I see I am not alone in thinking ahead to autumn fairs.  Look what came in the mail Saturday.......a booklet for the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair.  Now you may think it is strange that I would be getting a catalog for a show that happens in Utah, right?  Nope.....Carole, Terry and I are taking a trip out to visit those Utah Grrls!  It will be so fun to see Margene and Anne again and meet the great group of fiber grrls that we frequently read about on Margene's blog :-).

I am so looking forward to this trip.  I skipped most of the spring fiber events as I was saving up for a little something (more later this week), so this will be a fun trip!