Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Holding Back


It's hard to hold back the urge to start planning the veggie garden. What I mean is, starting to till the soil. Well it's just not warm enough here in our climate. We still have snow on the ground, but it is disappearing rapidly. I had to stop at my gardening mentors business ,www.Local 98856.com. Her name is Tess and the first thing she said to me was, "Are you getting excited about gardening?" I said I'm really trying to hold back those feelings, because I know it's way to early. I have started my Walla Walla Sweets and the green onions from seed, and they are coming up, but these need to be started this early if you want them ready in May to plant. Soon, in about a month I will start Tomato seeds, and so on. I just purchased another blue bird house, because after my large family of Blue Birds we had last summer, I thought I'd better be prepared. This just gives me the goose bumps thinking about it. I have to remind myself about all the extra work I'll have when the time comes. So I should just do what I need to do now, and not jump the gun and get to excited. I have weaving to do, knitting to finish, books to read and so on. I've been trying to walk no less than three miles a day, and hope to add more on as the days get warmer, the ole body just doesn't want to move to fast in the cold. Thanks for letting me talk this out with you, I think it's helped me to think before I leap into gardening to soon.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

What's up for this week



Well,tomorrow is "Spinners Monday" This happens at my house on the second Monday of the month. We get from three people to eight, I never know because I try to make it a non stress thing, so come if you can. I make a pot of soup, and this month its Black Bean. Most that come will add something to the table, Sandra's bring a salad. I'm making an old Weight Watchers recipe, Coconut Rice Pudding for desert. We have a great time. I'll have something to show, this sweater vest I knit from my home spun. This is some wool mixed with shredded denim blended in. An old friend of mine use to have a carding mill, and she would take Romney lamb's wool and mix interesting things together. This is the third project that I've spun this mix, each a different color.
this is a natural grey, with blue, white and bits of other colors that came with the shredded denim.
I find that it looks a little masculine looking at these pictures, I guess I'll have to try it on and see.


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Some Catching Up To Do



Well I hope the lights don't go out in the middle of this, like last time.

We have had an unusual winter as far as weather goes. It's been rather warm, but we have had some snow and our share of rain, and this picture I took was on a day after a snow shower the night before. This picture was taken at the top of a pass called Loup-Loup, our only fast route to the east of here. This is the norm for us usually to have cold sunny days. It snowed just a skiff last night, just enough to make things look clean and fresh. Well I haven't been totally idle since New years, I've been spinning on a fleece I purchased a few years ago, at the Whidbey Island Weavers and Spinners Spin In. this is from a Jacob sheep, which is considered a rare breed of sheep. They are multi colored animals, so I had separated the colors after washing the fleece, then carded it on my drum carder. I had to think hard, but I believe this was a lambs fleece, because their wasn't much of it. So this is what I ended up with. I was very nice to spin and it's soft and springy. I'm not sure what I'll do with it , so we shall see. I'm just about finished with a sweater vest, that is made of my hand spun, and I'll have pictures of that soon. I'm also threading my loom for a wool blanket, and that will take some time before that's done. Just after the first of the year I took the quilt that I finished last year about this time, to be quilted by a long arm quilting specialist. I'm not sure when I'll get it back, maybe by fall of this year. Hope everyone is getting geared up for the coming spring, I'm organizing my seed, deciding what more to get, and getting my caledare out and deciding when will be a good time to start some indoors.