peat

Here is my latest handspun yarn. It was spun from (yet another) Pigeonroof Studios roving, in color "peat." It's 80% merino, 20% tussah silk. I have to admit that I started spinning this about a year ago and then got wrapped up in teaching and taking care of Levi, and it got ignored. Well, with all this goat frenzy as well as wanting something to enter in the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival, I finished the spinning over the past few days.

It is navajo plied, which is a method of getting a 3-ply yarn from a single strand of singles yarn, and I did this to preserve each individual color of the roving. So, instead of ending up with all the colors plied and blended together (resulting in a tweedy yarn), I got a yarn that will give a more stripey effect when I knit with it. I'm really happy with how it turned out and now have 3 skeins of yarn to enter in next week's wool festival!

Speaking of the goat frenzy, it seems that there are at least 3 other people, if not more, with way more votes than me. That's okay, we'll be patient until the day when we finally have some fiber animals of our own. I am grateful to all my family and friends who solicited votes for me. I'm especially grateful to my siblings, who got involved in this quite passionately. I didn't know that they understood my passions and interests as well as they apparently do...and I feel very lucky to have such supportive people in my life!

angora goats

Please vote for my essay in the amazing goat giveaway from Hudson Valley Fiber Farms. This would be a dream come true for all of us! All you have to do is click on the star below my essay and your vote will be counted for me. There are almost 50 entries, but it's worth a shot! The winner will be announced on October 2nd.

ocean

Part of the fun of watching Levi grow up is seeing his reaction to new things. If his interests as a 7-month old were any indication of what he would grow to love, this baby would be a botanist. Every grass spike and flower we show him is met with such interest...pursed lips, outstretched hand, close inspection.

But water is a different story. We've tried to acquaint Levi with water in the form of bathtubs, lakes, and most recently the ocean, and he's never really loved it. He now tolerates baths, but only with me, and only for a short while. We couldn't wait to show him the ocean...and on a recent trip to visit family in Newport we stopped to dip his little toes in. To say the least, he was not immediately thrilled with it...but I think he'll come around eventually!

alders and acorns

When Adam showed me this beautiful bowl that he turned out of red alder wood, the first words out of my mouth were "I love it. Is it for me?" He laughed and told me that I could have any bowl I want. This one is just so simple and beautiful. I love the little foot it rests on and the colors in the wood. And it is the perfect size for me to fill with little treasures...

So I finally made my felt acorns! It might seem like felt acorns would be better suited for an oak bowl, but I've never been a huge fan of oak...so alder will have to do!

6 months

I can't believe that my sweet baby boy is 6 months old today. The older I get, the faster time seems to go, and it seems inconceivable that a half-a-year has passed since Levi was born. I already miss little things he used to do, but then every day there is something new to love. Happy half-birthday, dear Levi.

may mittens

Elizabeth Zimmerman says that you should always knit mittens in May. If you knit them in the winter-time, you are rushed because you want to wear them so badly, and you might end up with imperfect mittens. In May, you take your time so they always end up just right. I have to say that I totally agree with this advice - while knitting these mitered mittens (from The Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman), I ripped out an entire mitten just because I wasn't happy with the way the colors played out. Would I have done that in January? Hmmm...

I used Noro Silk Garden color 255, and Kathryn Ivy's thumb gusset modifications. The yarn is one that I never ever would have chosen if I saw it in person. I ordered it online and was disappointed with it when I received it. Luckily, I love these mittens, so the yarn ended up not being a huge mistake. I did, however, only use partial skeins so I could avoid the colors in the yarn that I really hated. I do love the turquoise and rust colored stripes, and how they work with all the shades of green.

I just love this pattern, and think the yarn was a perfect match for it. The only bad thing about making mittens in May is that now I have to wait so many months and months before I can wear them!

spring food

The wild leeks are pretty much done for the year. They are starting to look trampled and some have little flower spikes. Last spring I didn't get to enjoy them a whole lot as my morning sickness wouldn't really allow it. But this year we put them in nearly any recipe that called for leeks, onions, or garlic. We made wild leek pizza, wild leek pasta, and best of all potato and wild leek soup. The soup was so delicious that I made it twice, using this simple recipe, but using two bunches of wild leeks (whole leeks, greens and all) instead of the regular leeks.

Also on our spring menu is mass quantities of rhubarb. I am sad to say that I have never lived in any place long enough to justify planting rhubarb, but our wonderful neighbors have kindly kept us stocked with all the rhubarb we want. Every spring, I look forward to this recipe, and I end up making it dozens of times until I am thoroughly sick of it. Last May I still had frozen strawberries that I picked the year before, but this year I don't...so I have been omitting the strawberries and using 3 cups of rhubarb instead of 2.

Unfortunately this year we have not been lucky enough to go foraging for copious amounts of my favorite spring food, but today Adam found these two gigantic morels underneath our back porch. How morels ended up under our porch, I have no idea...but we will be sure to enjoy them sauteed in butter tonight.