CreativeExile

"Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we'll write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time." --Napoleon Bonaparte, on his way into exile.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

So much to learn...

Quite a week. We started off with our playgroup's visit to a local sheep farm to see the lambs. Emily, sheep farmer/shearer/woolgatherer/felter extraordinaire, noted right away that Tess is bound to be a farmer. See the double fence keeping this ram in?


Future Farmer of America Posted by Hello

See how he's pawing at it? He's dying to give Tess a good head butt, despite the fact that she's offering a (forsythia) branch of peace. She ran after every lamb and sheep, even the big ones, once we got into the pasture (the ram, known as Big Fella, stayed behind his double fence) while all the other playgroup kids clung to their mothers' legs. That's my girl! Not shy at all. And the bleating was deafening. I had no idea sheep were so loud.

Actually, the week started off with my forgetting to send my mom any kind of card or gift for Mother's Day. Out of the 4 of us siblings, I'm usually the only one that remembers (okay, my brother Ken also scrambles to remember...the other two? Forget it.)

Now, as an only child, my Dear Husband doesn't understand the fuss. "Just call her and apologize!" Ah, no, honey. Not unless I want a 3-hour lecture about the ungratefulness of all her children. I called Sunday morning and wished her a happy Mother's Day (she was in church) and left it at that.

When I didn't hear from her Sunday, I got nervous. Monday morning I called around the cow town she lives in (the streets roll up tight at 4:59 p.m.) and found a florist, open at 8:30 a.m. (the one benefit of cow towns - they may close up early, but they are open early). I knew it would be far cheaper to talk to a florist directly than to use the internet. Plus, I had something specific and silly for the card ("If I only had a brain..." trust me, my mom would be ever-so-slightly humored by that) and I wanted it written right (handwriting is nice, too). I was promised delivery Monday afternoon "after the truck gets here; we are cleaned out," the florist told me. She also reassured me I was not the first to call that morning.

When I hadn't heard from mom as of yesterday, I bit the bullet and called first thing this morning. She was in pretty good spirits but did give me a brief lecture (and sent me an email, which I hadn't read yet this morning: "Next year start a week ahead of the event and you won't run into the delay of delivery. Besides it's nice for me to get a memento before the event. Even a card would be nice ahead of time." The shortest of lectures I could hope for. E read it and was highly offended, but I took it in stride).


This is not all *my* stash!!! Posted by Hello

My mom told me she had received an email from The Gathering Basket, a yarn shop in Chelsea, which sent out a notice a few weeks ago that they would be closing their doors "after three short years." Sad, especially considering I had received an email a week before the notice, talking about their spring classes. At the time of the first notice they were only offering 20% off their inventory. As of yesterday, they started offering 40% off. I headed over there today around 2:00 p.m.

Not everything pictured above was purchased today. The green bag at the upper left was the cool bag from Japan (I took a better picture of the silk yarn my Secret Pal #2 sent along, and replaced the photo at the top of my previous entry. Natural light makes all the difference...)

At the upper right is a book I've been wanting for a long, long time - The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. Below it are three skeins of Rowan's Summer Tweed in Blueberry - I only need one skein of it to make the Kaffe Fassett afghan (patterned pictured with Summer Tweed) in the Rowan Magazine #37 (bought a couple of weeks ago at Flying Sheep), but I'm sure I'll find use for the "extra" two skeins.

I have been obsessed with making this afghan ever since I saw it in Magazine #37. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson after The Afghan (made for my inlaws "for Christmas," gifted on Valentine's Day), but I like the idea of getting bits of Summer Tweed here & there as only 1 or 2 skeins of each color are needed (except for the background color, of which you need 5).

The blue Suede and Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook are for mom (see, I do treat her nice, all year round). The strips of wool felt, originally for rug hooking, are for these adorable dolls. I've had Salley's book a while, but wool felt is usually expensive, so I was happy to find small strips for $1 each (they were consignment items, and so not on sale, but the price still couldn't be beat).

Finally, to the left of my Summer Tweed, is a little tool I used to discover (I think) that my Japanese silk yarn is worsted weight...interesting. I got 9-10 wraps around this little tool, so I will have to rethink what I'd like to make with it. Still gotta figure out how much I have...!

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