Smatterings

  • Connecticut Sheep & Wool

    It is going to be a gorgeous, warm spring day!!  Perfect for a Sheep & Wool Festival.  If you see your way to Tolland today, stop by and say "hi".  I'll be in the Gold Building.  That's the one with the food, lamb stew all day.  BTW, it is their 100th birthday!!  Imagine.  You think you are a fiberholic??  Yep, we're part of a long line of fiber folk.  One way or another.

    Here's a link to the website:
    http://www.ctsheep.org/100th_annual_sheep_and_wool_festival

    Directions are near the bottom of the page. 

    Time to go….

    6 responses to “Connecticut Sheep & Wool”

    1. Carrie

      OMG, it’s festival season already?!

    2. Barbara-Kay

      Best wishes for a successful festival!

    3. gayle

      Woohoo! Festival season!
      Best of luck & sell lots! Lucky you to be near the lamb…
      Will you be at NH S&W?

    4. Manise

      So good to see you today!

    5. Laurie

      It was a great day! Glad you were there.

    6. JessaLu

      I’m sorry I missed CT this year – I’ll be there next year, though!
      See you in Mass! xoxo

  • ten minutes (for Tuesday)

    Have you noticed how beautiful the light is?  The sun is high, mornings begin earlier and the days extend into what were the evening hours.  I love it!  Like a magnet, the light draws me out of doors.  Even before I grab a cup of coffee, I head out onto the deck to feel the air.  This morning, like the cats, I headed out time after time, in spite of the 20F temps and a too thin nightgown. It was glorious.  Ice out was yesterday, sometime around 4 pm.  Poof!  It happened so quickly that I wonder if the ice is still just below the surface. 

    What does this have to do with ten minutes…

    P1060202

    Portable projects. I find myself walking around, checking things out, spindle in hand.  It adds up. 

    P1060222  

    Sammy's good, he circles around under my spindle and rarely touches it, even with his tail. He's a spinner's cat and well practiced.

    P1060200

    P1060218 I continue to be distracted. I pass the shop and have to stop.  There is something about stone.  Seems that there is always time for one more button.

    13 responses to “ten minutes (for Tuesday)”

    1. Kathy

      Are the buttons coming to CT??

    2. Carole

      I’m loving the light in the morning. We actually drive to work in daylight now!

    3. margene

      Morning is my favorite time of day…starting at 4:00am. Love the spindle. I need to spindle spin more frequently and keep my practice up.

    4. cyndy

      yep!
      everything looks so good!
      esp. those buttons! …distraction agrees with you 😉

    5. elizabeth

      That fiber is incredible! You need to tell us what it is!

    6. Jean

      What a pretty spindle! Your cat must be so well trained, It’s hard to even get a photo outside of my projects, the kitties are so curious and have to examine everything. I must agree with your button statement, there’s always a few minutes for exceptional buttons to discover.

    7. Manise

      I want to see the buttons too! As well as the spindle AND that gorgeous fiber! I’ve been spindling over the last few days on one of my Ledbetters. No cat though – just a nosy dog.

    8. Laurie

      Spindler’s cat. Love that. Dif’rent button size is cool.
      I like the earth smells and the bird tweets. I like the workability of the soil. I think we are hardwired for dirt.

    9. Cathy

      Nice buttons! How thick are they??

    10. gayle

      You always have the prettiest spindles…
      And that fiber is sooooo pretty. And the buttons, too.
      I pulled grassroots out of my flower beds yesterday – trying to work gently so as not to disturb anything coming up. I had been craving playing-in-dirt!

    11. Diane

      I don’t recognize that beautiful spindle from your earlier postings. Is that a Ledbetter?
      Your cat is better behaved than mine. She laid on the floor under my spindle last night and gave it a swat every time it came near. I could have used the help, but she insisted on hitting it “S”-wise and I was spinning “Z”-wise. Must teach her the difference.

    12. JessaLu

      oooo pretty buttons…

    13. Robin

      Love the stone buttons and the spindle!!

  • waiting for ice out

    Back up north..

    While the rest of you are busy smelling the spring flowers, the folks in the Kingdom are collecting and boiling the last of the sap this weekend.  Just one more time and my neighbors tell me that they'll have matched last year's production.  A bit to my south, the float has been placed and the last of the bets on ice out at Joe's Pond are in. No bets are taken after April 1st. because, well.. you never know.  A day or two ago, I figured I might at least tie with Joe's Pond, but today, after seeing the pictures just posted, I'll have ice out first.  The edges of my pond have started to soften this afternoon.  Who'd want to be THE coldest, not me.  Not really.

    P1060195  

    When the sun is out and I see green tips poking up through last year's garden debris, I want to rake the gardens.  It is hard to figure, will they suffer during the cold nights or during the sure to come again colder days?  I've settled for raking the garden closest to the south side of the house.  That will have to do.  The berry patch got a real good clean up this morning.  C used the blade on the weed wacker to cut a new path through the center ot the blackberries.  The patch has grown so large that it is nearly impossible to pick the middle. Then we cut out all of last year's stems and hauled them off to be burned.  Perfect day, cold enough to have a coat on as thorn protection and warm enough to want to be out working in the field.

    The February Lady Sweater is finished.  In spite of the stripiness, I like her.  Pictures will come.  I've been swatching for another sweater.  I dyed some All Wool in a dk in the Abalone colorway.  I toned it down even a bit more than usual as I wanted to play with the palest of blue tones.  I still haven't come up with a pattern.  I've got several sweater patterns picked apart, trying to see what works.  I'm thinking cardigan, would love to do a top down again, but probably a raglan.  I love the little frilly edge.  Any ideas?

    P1060191

    2 responses to “waiting for ice out”

    1. Cindy D

      Dang it’s cold up there! I just spent the afternoon cleaning out my driveway garden and trimming my rosebushes.
      What pattern are you playing with using the ruffle?

    2. diane

      Really like that shade of blue!

“Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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