The Tea Party

It has taken me days to recuperate, but the tea party was a success! One of the little girls, Montse, shortly after receiving her crown said "This is the best party ever!" Happy words. We had fun, I as much as the young ones. Four of the girls put on an amazing play based on the Bible book of Job, of all things, complete with costumes, during which none removed their recently acquired crowns. They were very nervous but did an excellent job and they did it at the beginning of the party and so were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Which was one of the hottest days so we stayed indoors in the air conditioned living room. We ate roasted marshmallow cupcakes(chocolate cupcakes topped with marshmallow fluff and placed under the broiler until almost burnt- you know- like roasting marshmallows for real) and had iced tea and played pictionary and 'pass the poison' (a non-chair version of musical chairs, or 'hot potato') (the 'poison' was a black furry bean bag) and as each person got eliminated they got a prize.

By the time we got to the group photo everyone was full of goodies and ready to go home. I don't think any of the parents got a good photo but this one cracked me up, so I am including it.

During the week I worked on spinning Free Fall # 115 as thinly as possible. When I had two bobbins spun, each with one half of the roving on it I plied them together and was able to get over 600 yards from 4 oz.

The colors are so pretty, once again the challenge will be to find something wonderful to knit with it.

I am now awaiting the third and last (sigh) of the spring Roving Art rovings. I can hardly wait to see what Martie has come up with this time. I know that it will be wonderful.

Now for some knitting time. Ciao.

Preparing for a tea party

Last week, pondering on what to do for 14 little ones to make a tea party special, I came across a photo in Interweave Knits of knitted and embellished crowns. That's it! But lo and behold the magazine did not include the pattern, it was to be downloaded. Fearful that it would no longer be available, as the magazine was the summer 2006 issue, I went to the online store at shop.interweave.com/knitting and found it. These are the Make -Believe Crowns designed by Nicholette Hoyer. Started to knit using bits and pieces of leftover Kureyon and Silk Garden from Noro and made a variety of sizes. Found some sequins in star shapes and butterfly shapes as well as different sizes of round sequins and had so much fun decorating these crowns that I am sure I have had more fun than they will! My goal is to get one good photo of the group and some individual shots if they will stay still long enough.

Here are my samples from Melissa Leapman's Celtic Cables class. Have yet to finish the larger white sample, but, you know, I've been busy!

Finally one photo of the finished Free Fall 125 yarn which made me think of the geraniums Bill planted not long ago. Now to come up with something wonderful to make with it. It feels so good, I know the knitting experience will be wonderful. Off to finish tea party preparations. Ciao.

some shapshots from life

My friend Dilania has the touch when it comes to gardening. Visiting her home in Picayune, Mississippi is always a real treat. She is constantly updating her potted plants just outside the kitchen door which is the one we all use to enter the house. I was struck by the colors in this one. I am sure I should know the name of it, I will have to ask next time I visit.

Here is another view of the 'Mary Cassatt' shawl. Tracy is a recent bride and wears the perfect colors to show this off to its best advantage. I knit the 'Rose Ribbons' shawl from Evelyn A. Clark's 'Knitting Lace Triangles', published by Fiber Trends, http://www.fibertrends.com/.

I added one more repeat of the leaf pattern before the edging as I had enough of the handspun to do so, and it helped to make the shawl a more wearable size. This shawl was so much fun to knit, especially with the handspun, and seeing how the colors came up as I knit made it exciting and probably made me finish it faster than I otherwise would have.

Here is the Free Fall # 125 singles on the bobbin. This is also from Martie at Taos Sunflower: http://www.taossunflower.com/. I am awaiting delivery of another couple of rovings in her Free Fall series, the next ones will be greens and golds, yummy! I managed to spin the second bobbin of singles yesterday and in the afternoon I plied them together. I was able to get around 470 yards out of 3.7 oz. of this Falkland fiber. Quite pleased. Photo next time as the skein is still drying.

And last, a snapshot of what I call my nest. Here is where I spin and knit and read and watch tv and plan and dream. When I am not using my feet for spinning I can put them up on my queen size ottoman to my left, which also serves as a great catch-all for anything and everything. Our room at my mother-in-law's is about eleven ft. x twenty-two ft. and it serves as office, bedroom, sitting room, closet, craft room. It epitomizes the expression 'studio apartment' except that we share the kitchen and bath of the main house. Keeping things organized is a constant challenge, and I sometimes spend much more time than I wish to hunting for things, yet it all works somehow.

BTW the Melissa Leapman Celtic Cables class was wonderful and I will try to get a better photo to show my class samples. She is a lot of fun and I learned a lot!

Until next time then.

spinning and a few rambles...

This is how my package of Art Roving looked when I opened it. Isn't it lovely! I had to take a photo right away. You can see the painting that inspired the colors. The roving is a Blue Face Leicester fiber and is a dream to spin. I believe I 'overthought' the spinning and split the roving into too many pieces to get a strong stripe of each color. Instead, as the next photo shows I got more of a blending of all the colors with a few areas of solid color. The proof will be in the knitting. BTW the bright roving on the right of the photo above is a superwash merino and Seacell blend that is so silky and lovely to spin. I have the skein hanging to dry otherwise I would add a photo of it too.

This photo shows how marvelously the artiste captured the feeling of the painting in her colors. I was able to get almost five hundred yards from the four ounces of roving, which is a first for me. I wanted to get more of a lace weight and I am getting closer. Each skein teaches me more. It seems to be how I learn: try something. Try something again. Ahh.. that is why that happens. What would happen if...? And then I read everything I can get my hands on to see what I can learn and how I can improve. When I have such lovely fibers to work with the learning process is just pure joy. I wonder what an ordinary housewife who had to do her own spinning hundreds of years ago would think of the fibers available today. Probably think she was in hog heaven!

I threw this old photo in for fun. This motley crew includes mother, grandmother, siblings and a friend who seems to have an enormous crush on my older brother, not unusual. It was many years before I came to realize this wasn't really our castle. We were living in Madrid, Spain at the time and our parents would bring us out to this lovely spot, a, for all practical purposes, abandoned castle. We had the run of the place. All four towers were accessible, even the dungeons, complete with chains, too tempting for the boys. Oh, but what fun!! Can you imagine the effect having such a playground had on an impressionable young girl? I will leave you to it. The castle is now a tapestry museum and certain parts of the castle are now closed off to the public, but for four years it was ours! For those who love to travel this is the castle at Manzanares El Real, about thirty kilometers outside of Madrid and makes an interesting side trip on your way to Segovia.

Until next time.