What a lovely day!

I had a few hours free this afternoon, what with The Mister rehearsing for yet ANOTHER play (he's a machine, that boy, I swear), so I decided to take Miss Thing down to the river for a little one-on-one spinning time. There is a very nice spot right down the road from us, Alliance Park - it's directly on the Merrimac River at the juncture with the Powow River and it's a very pretty spot.


















I usually take my knitting with me, but the day was so nice I decided to take Miss Thing on a little field trip, and spend a couple of hours and see how it went.

I went very well!



















I sat quietly, happily spinning and watching the assorted birds and boats traveling up and down the river for about two hours. The sun was warm, the breeze was light, and Miss Thing was reasonably cooperative.



















Isn't this pretty? I'm having a little trouble getting the color accurate, but it's fairly close, if a little flat compared to the real thing. It's the second color in the Evie project that Heather dyed up special for me - a superwash wool in a combination of yellow, peach, and rose. Lovely!

Birdwatching this weekend included a few Blue Herons, a Kingfisher, and what we're pretty sure was a Green Heron. No raptors however. :-(

Yarngasm

So maybe you've heard about the JCA warehouse sale going on this week. Today was the last day of the sale and I had debated all week the wisdom of going. I mean; Jo Sharp, Adrienne Vittadini, Reynolds... that's alotta temptation for a girl like me. So when I finally decided this morning that I was goin' in, I asked The Mister to go with me - you know, husband as hall monitor and voice of reason?

umm... yeah... right....

What I forgot in all the excitement is that The Mister is The Number One Yarn Enabler of all time. You remember - he's the guy who said "it's not yarn... it's unlimited potential". So when we walked in and he immediately commandeered a shopping cart, I knew I was in over my head.

We spent about an hour filling the cart, debating the merits of different blends, the likelihood that a particular color would suite, whether the gauge listed could be bent to my will...

And in the end, I came home with this (Booger helpfully stood in for a sense of scale)...




















That's an industrial garbage bag full of yarn.

Dumped out, it turned into this...














Oooooo!

Okay, from left to right we have: 3 bags of Adrienne Vittadini Mia 100% wool, two bags of Reynolds Ole-Ole (one in shades of turquoise, the other in shades of purple), a bag of Adrienne Vittadini Gabriella linen/silk blend in chocolate brown, a bag of Adrienne Vittadini Celia 100% silk in peach, and 4 bags of Jo Sharp Silk Road wool/silk blend in dark olive, hand-chosen by the mister for a Cambridge Jacket.

...zowie...

I did go in with a budget, I'll have you know, and I went just $40 over, which we decided was an acceptable "margin of error". And it's all The Mister's fault anyways, since he just had to have the Silk Road. Nothing else would do.

Before you ask, the answer is yes, I will rent him out for a small fee for all your fiber shopping needs. ;-)

Now to get it all listed in my Ravelry stash... then figure out where the hell to store it all...

heh

Harvest

September has got to be my favorite month. The sun is still warm, the days can be quite hot, and the evenings are delightfully cool so I get to leave the windows open a lot more often! The tourists are fewer and further between and the Portsmouth Farmer's Market is really in full swing. Saturday morning Kath and I ran up there in the drizzle and here is approx $30 worth of splendiforous BOUNTY!



















OMG there's corn and heirloom tomatoes and salad green and chard and leeks and crazy cucumbers and tiny white turnips and apples and, and, and,... just zowie. Awesome.

I've also gotten more spinning done now that it's not so humid that I can't draw the darn fiber. I finished, plied, and sun-dried the green portion of Evie's yarn. I think this photo is a fair representation as far as the color goes (although it's still a tab bluer than the yarn)...
























Just a reminder, this was 4 oz of Superwash Merino dyed specially for me by Heather of Sereknity in a "spring leaves" green. I think she got it absolutely right, don't you? That's exactly what new leaves look like with the sun shining through them. Perfect!

And my spinning is none too shabby either, eh? I got the weight I wanted and plenty of yardage - 158 yards total in a nice DK weight. It even appears to be nicely balanced (for the most part).

huh.

Julia should be proud - was it only a year ago that I brought her my spindle and begged for guidance? ;-)