Who-who?

Guess who's come back to our woods? The little ones are starting to fledge, so if I listen carefully when I'm outside at night, I can hear the insistent query of "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee?" Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.

Victory Garden

One Wasabi Pea on a bed of lettuce. I'm extremely pleased with it, even if I'm winding up a little bit late. For the Snow White, Rose Red knit-along, here's the first of Urdda's socks. As Freyalyn suggests, maybe I'll just concentrate on finishing the second sock so I have one less project to worry about before TdF starts. 

Tour de Fleece

Tour de Fleece is just around the corner, so I'm going to give it a try this year under the banner of Team Tale Spinners. I'm warming up slowly with Florenz, but I have a couple empty spindles to take up the slack when he gets a full tummy of mulberry silk. The other possibility, though the amount is rather daunting, is the gorgeous merino/camel/tussah blend I got--also from Corgi Hill Farm. For now, though, my master plan is to spin this stuff and find a truly amazing scarf pattern to use it with. Pictures forthcoming... but I swear it's getting really hard to wait for Tour de Fleece. My fingers keep twitching toward the silk, but I'm trying. Really, I am. Really. Promise.

When It Rains, It Pours

Certainly true today. Not only did we have a cloudburst, but the post office had three parcels for me today. I'm so spoiled.. And very lucky.
1. Package No. 1: My Dragonfly Workshop spindle. It's so amazingly nifty it needed a name, so I've dubbed it Florenz after Florenz Ziegfeld. Bloodwood whorl and holly shaft, weighing in at just about 1.5 oz. Mrs. Dragonfly left her test leaders on it and, I kid you not, they're literally fine enough to be used as sewing thread. I can't emphasize this enough: The Dragonfly Workshop is utterly and absolutely awesome. (Florenz is wearing a penny for scale and has a nice little tuft of BFL/silk fluff from Corgi Hill Farm.)

2. Package No. 2: Fiber. From Corgi Hill. I want to wrap myself in it and snuggle. *siiiiiigh* Totally spoiled. Yup. Merino/camel/tussah. *siiiiiiigh* And it makes me think of Rachael's "Modo vernant omnia" because it's green like chrysoprase.
3. And last, but certainly not least, Package No. 3: A book. Emma, I hope you didn't punish your husband too severely for forgetting the package was under the papers on his desk! It arrived safely and I'm planning to start reading it tonight. 
As a slight sidenote, the Folklore and Fairy Tales sisters have mentioned Raymond Feist on several occasions; his novel Faerietale was among the titles they talked about, and much to my annoyance, the library didn't have a copy. One of them (Emma, you're a peach) very kindly offered to send me her very own copy, and here it is after an epic journey from under a pile of papers on a desk in Canada. This is my first attempt at reading Raymond Feist. I totally blame my Fairy Tale sisters for my deliquency at the library... and for the length of my "Books I Must Read" list.


And, on yet another detour, Erin, I hope you and your new husband will be very happy together. Felicitations, congratulations, and many celebratory sparkling-cider-bubbly toasts on the occasion of your nuptials. 

Fireflies and other omens

While I was driving to work yesterday morning, I saw a chipmunk go tearing across the road with its little tail held high. I took it to be a good sign--I'm always looking for some sort of good omen before I actually arrive at work. I'm not really sure what a chipmunk might mean, but the day wasn't bad.

This morning, I saw a kingfisher zoom across the yard in the direction of the river. I'm not working today, but the presence of the kingfisher does indeed seem like a good sign. Combined with the arrival of fireflies who entertain us with their little bio-luminescent bums, the summer should be off to a marvelous start.

I've got fiber coming in the mail. More Corgi Hill fiber, to be exact. AnneMarie had a sale a little while ago and was kind enough to hold on to some of the merino/camel/silk for me. If I can, I'll spin it into lace or fingering weight yarn for a scarf or shawl. The fiber is a mix of greens and white that she called "Leeks", so I'll have to find a pattern that's appropriately earthy. Any suggestions, my knitterly friends? Or should I wait until the yarn is spun before I solicit ideas... hm... 

I've got a couple spindles on the way, too. One is coming all the way from the Isle of Wight, from the IST workshop, and the other is coming from Mr. Dragonfly, who was kind enough to do another custom job for me: a square bloodwood whorl with a holly shaft. I think I need a bigger jar, but this should be it for a while. My collection is extensive enough to have a lot of bases covered: the Corgi Hill Werefox batts are still going, then there's the Ashland Bay merino/tencel blend, and then there's Sally's BFL. And, gasp, there's one spindle that's quite nekkid, but not for lack of anything to spin since my fiber basket overfloweth.

Knitting has been a slow process since I started slaying zombies for Umbrella Corp. I have two pairs of socks in progress--a pair of very pink Wasabi Peas and a pair of green, leafy Midsummer Night's Dreams with Liberty's Yarns' Kaguya and Pagewood Farm's Denali--and I'm almost finished with my sweater vest. I'm a little stumped on how and where to put the Umbrella logo, especially since the chart I've got is so huge. It needs to be smaller and a little more discreet, I think, so I guess it's back to the drawing board for that part of it. In the meantime, though, I'll work on picking up stitches around the armholes--it's easier to do if you slip the first stitch of every row, but you have to be careful to adjust the number to make the 2x2 ribbing work.