Smatterings

  • more tools in my belt

    If your mind is open to learning, there is always something new to try.  Life is wonderful that way. 

    I have long wanted to play more with silk.  Spin, dye, card, blend, the whole enchilada.  Everything I’ve spun up to this point has been smooth, silky, that which comes to mind when I think about silk.  This week has been about adding more tools to my tool belt. 

    I bought a ball of silk roving that is FULL of noils.  Let’s call it TEXTURE.

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    See them?  If you found that your silk looked like that would you think good thoughts or would you want to trash it?  I decided to play.  I spun a few tests on my spindle.  This one is a Powell.  The first test was a small sample of 2 ply pure silk, the second a carded blend using the oh so present, seemingly never ending supply of Bess.

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    then some more…  I like it.

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    Here’s a close up of the plying ball.  It has been mentioned on a number of sites recently.  Rita Buchanan teaches spindle plying using this technique.  Carol and Cindy have shown great shots of it.  If you want to try it and need more information, check out the tutorial  at Spinning Spider Jenny.

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    Next up… COLOR!

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    18 responses to “more tools in my belt”

    1. margene

      Frankly my dear, I love the texture! The color is fabu, too!

    2. marie in florida

      just came over from Margene’s.
      wow! silk, makes me drool…
      just added another blog to my daily reads.

    3. Carole

      I’ve bought silk but it’s still in the fiber drawer. I’m afraid of screwing it up. 🙂

    4. elizabeth

      Those colors are beautiful! I’ve not dyed silk, but I love spinning it.

    5. Diane E

      Wow, always something new to see and learn at Smatterings!

    6. Angie

      Gorgeous, Happy Early Birthday!

    7. cyndy

      The texture is great!! So interesting and full of character…and you really have no fear…to just jump in with ALL that COLOR!
      Oh, and if Birthday wishes are in order~ “HBD!”

    8. Manise

      Laurie and I were just talking about silk “noils”. Something I’ve yet to try.

    9. Carol

      Wow! That last shot really surprised me. The silk must feel so nice to work with!

    10. Marcy

      Lovelove noil-y silk. Nice spinning! So much more interesting than than boring smooth stuff. 😀

    11. Romi

      I came over from Margene’s blog to wish you a happy birthday!

    12. Marianne

      Happy Birthday Judy !

    13. Theresa

      Happy Birthday!

    14. claudia

      Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great day.

    15. Beth S.

      Pink and coppery-brown… that’s my not-so-secret weakness. I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
      And I like the rusticity (? is that a word?) of the silk. It gives the yarn a lot of tactile interest. I bet it will knit up like something that Rowan would charge a lot of money for. 😉

    16. vanessa

      very cool silk, and happy birthday!

    17. Sylvia

      Is it noil or are those neps? I like the texture a lot, especially blended.

    18. Paula

      It’s all looking awfully nice, Judy. The silk hanging to dry has a very familar appearance. That’s how mine looks, too, nice color but the roving itself looks kinda flat and snaky when wet. But when you run it through your hands to wind it into a bundle, it does change in a good way! Bravo to everyone who likes the noils! I was really beginning to fear that the silk was Inferior Stuff after last week’s eBay tempest. Lovely job, there!

  • walk with me wednesday

    Most of my current projects are things that a keeping me indoors.  Not so good.  It was catching up with me.  Time to take a walk, check to see if the vernal pools were beginning to receed, or still growing, and find out who was out and about. 

    There were a couple firsts for the season.  Streams, though still racing and full, had once again returned to the confines of their banks.  The water striders, Aquarius Remigis were out, skimming about in the eddies.  Flying cross the path in front of me, were bright blue Celastrina butterflies, little flying flowers.  They become innocuous, camouflaged when stationary, so much so that I missed every shot.   

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    9 responses to “walk with me wednesday”

    1. Manise

      I was out and about today- did notice skunk cabbage now making an appearance behind my house in the wetland. Did some garden clean up and found my Virginia bluebells coming up and made a horrible discovery of a mole that ate from end of my bed to the other during the winter- the casualties were hosta, daylilies, astilibe. I need to ammend my beds with crushed mussel shells and other scratchy stuff these creatures hate to dig through. Also rearing their ugly, miserable heads were a cloud of black flies that liked my sweaty head- ick. But the sun was very nice and warm and it was a good day digging in the dirt.

    2. Carole

      Love your photos today. I was outside this evening setting up Civil War tents. Fun stuff.

    3. cyndy

      Your water shots are mesmerizing….

    4. Laurie

      I remember the spring woods from my home. Lovely. Where do I get crushed mussel shells? It’s the voles that do it (vegetarians) not the moles. I don’t think it got quite nasty enough this winter to kill ’em in enough quantity. I see holes everywhere.

    5. Lisa

      Last weekend, my daughter was invited to a birthday party at the Norman Bird Sanctuary (If you haven’t been here, it’s a beautiful area). It was great walking through the woods and seeing all the signs of spring.

    6. margene

      Spring is coming slowly to your neck of the woods…but come it does. Beautiful.

    7. Anne

      It is good to get outside to clear one’s head. We have high hopes to play hookey this afternoon and go up into one of the canyons for a ride.
      Happy birthday BTW!

    8. elizabeth

      I love your water pictures! I took some while we were camping last weekend but they didn’t turn out nearly as nice as yours!

    9. Cheryl

      Judy, those pictures of the water are stunning! I could get lost in them.
      It was wonderful to see you again yesterday too!

  • they are coming

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    As of 4/22/07.  See that one little blue spot all the way up in New Hampshire?  Get those feeders out.  The Hummingbirds have traveled a LONG way to get here. 

    • There were a few spring firsts this weekend.  Friday night, the peepers started singing.  Nothing, NOTHING, says spring to me like the sound of the peepers.  I made sure to put a screen in the bedroom window before I went to bed.  That is a song to serenade me to sleep.  One spring, some friends that live in the city came to visit.  They remarked that the country was far too noisy for them.  How could anyone possibly sleep with all the racket going on.  (See Marcy, here’s another example…There IS an ass for every seat.)
    • Saturday, the black flies came out in force.  I got my first bite of the season.  As Cyndy pointed out, I should not call them bastards..they are the bitches.  True.  Also true that they need this blood meal to reproduce.  There is some salt to rub into a wound.
    • The male cardinal changed his song.  Was he calling his lady or letting all know that he was fully in charge of this territory.   Wish I knew.  I can see the happy couple in the spruce as I write.

       

    24 responses to “they are coming”

    1. Julie

      I noticed the peepers myself for the first time this weekend. Thanks for the reminder to get the hummer feeder out! I always forget until I see them whizzing around my sweet peas but they arrive long before I’ve got blooming sweet peas. I keep thinking I’ll get around to learning some of the more common bird songs but I haven’t yet. I heard someone different in my yard this morning but I’ve got no clue who- only that he’s different from my usual crew.

    2. Carol

      Thanks for the reminder, I lost track with the storm and all. More bits of BL were washed this weekend as well.

    3. Carole

      I couldn’t agree more about the peepers being the first REAL sign of spring. We’ve had them for a couple of weeks now but I never get tired of their song.

    4. Manise

      A few peepers started to sing before vacation and returned to a chorus over the weekend. I also love to sleep with my windows open so I can be lulled to sleep by them and wake up to the cachyphony of spring birds.
      I usually see my hummers when my foxglove and bee-balm blooms. Last year one buzzed me in the face several times- noisy little buggers. Looking forward to the return of the Baltimore Orioles- I’ve had a couple nesting in my yard 2 years in a row. I love their “lilty” song. Need to hang out pieces of red yarn so I can spot their nest better.

    5. Cathy

      Since I don’t have peepers here (and loved them at the farm) and don’t have hummers here (and ditto) and don’t have Scissortail Flycatchers… my first signs of spring are the return of the swallows and the Western Kingbirds. And the kingfishers. Tho I have a grackle building a nest of waste yarn in my ash tree. That’s a first.

    6. Cara

      I’m not sure what kind of birds we have around here (besides the pigeons) but they were CRAZY this weekend! They didn’t stop for a second. It was almost midnight last night and they were still singing.

    7. Carrie

      This year our winter was so funky that the hummers never actually left. They seem to have survived that brief snow okay.

    8. PJ

      Awesome…I’m right at this moment trying to capture a finch that is making trip with his beak full for his nest! Spring is starting 🙂

    9. Tamara

      I can’t believe I forgot to tell you, but we saw our first hummers the day before Easter. There might have been scouts before then, but those were the first we saw. They’re out there now every day, doing their “red baron imitations”. 😉

    10. cyndy

      …the warblers are moving in, so the hummers cannot be far behind!

    11. jessie

      I’m just getting ready to hang my new feeder right now! I saw a tip online for hanging a feeder on an unbended coat hanger, with one of the “arms” bent out horizontal. Apparently the wire is just the right size for hummingbird feet, and it encourages them to perch so you can get a longer look.

    12. Carol

      I love birdsongs! My favorite “noise” in the whole world!

    13. elizabeth

      I’m afraid it’s going to be a bad year for insects. We spent the weekend in the woods and I saw more ticks than I’ve ever seen, even on longer trips in the heat of summer! Gnats and flies were out too, but thankfully, no mosquitos yet.
      As soon as I have time for another hobby, I’m taking up bird watching.

    14. elizabeth

      Actually, I already do a lot of bird watching, I just don’t know what I’m looking at or listening to!

    15. Marianne

      Didn’t know what kind of creatures peepers were, but now I know (blush) Sorry, I’m a foreigner 🙂 And I agree, nothing as good as a loud frog concert to fall asleep at.

    16. Marcy

      An ass for every seat. So good.
      Sadly, I can´t hear peepers from my house. Love peepers!

    17. lynne s of Oz

      Is spring continuing to spring? Must be so exciting…
      I’ll be learning about all sorts of new birds, but not hummers. I’ll be living near Cathy/catena.

    18. Laurie

      I can’t wait to be driving down the road in the early evening, at dusk, and hear the faint sounds. I’ll roll down my window (push the damn button, actually) and listen and smile.
      I’m planting salvia on the deck for the hummers again this year. We had more last year than ever with salvias in residence.

    19. Marie

      I think hummingbirds eat blackflies, don’t they? 🙂

    20. Melanie

      Yes, our peepers kicked in about two nights ago. How something so small can be so loud remains a mystery, but a very pleasant one.

    21. Dorothy B

      My niece thinks I am crazy because I won’t let her kill spiders. She hates them, truthfully I’m not big on them either, but they eat mosquitos, blackflies and no-see-ums so they can live. Outside though, inside they are fair game.
      Our peepers started singing the other night so I have hope that the frosts won’t last much longer.

    22. Fiberjoy

      While out for the early morning walk in the rain and listening to the chorus of birdsong, I suddenly realized that blending into the music was a peeper’s loud call. Waking up before dawn to birdsong blending makes for a cheerful start to the day. 🙂

    23. Wanda

      While out for the early morning walk in the rain and listening to the chorus of birdsong, I suddenly realized that blending into the music was a peeper’s loud call. Waking up before dawn to birdsong blending makes for a cheerful start to the day. 🙂

    24. Wanda

      Sorry for the double posting! It hadn’t appeared to go through the first time.

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

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