The first blooms of the season are always the darlings - we wait and wait, then ooh and ah. The later blooms? Well, not so much. They sort of run together.

These are the yellow dwarf asiatics, in the same bed as the orange and pale orange previously mentioned. Did I run right out when the first one opened to take it's picture?Maybe not. But they do look good together, don't you think? The Stella D'Oro's have started.

And oh, yes. Knitting. There is some of that happening. These were my five additions to the Dulaan or Bust party.(Ok, so you can't really see the navy blue hat in the right hand corner since the reds took over the picture, but it is there. Promise!)

I got some catalpa seeds from my BIL's vineyard. The trees there are decades old, but exactly how old is unknown. The vineyard site is more than a hundred years old, but has not been in continuous use as a vineyard for the whole time , or even most of that time . (Prohibition, anyone?) I was a little surprised to see catalpas this far north (Hudson Valley) but this variety does seem to manage. I left the seed pods in the garage over the winter and then started them in a pot. The variety I'm acquainted with was quick growing and huge leaved. The leaves were late to sprout in the spring and withered at the first hint of cold. The parent trees to these sprouts seem to have these characteristics as well, although the seed pods were narrower and thicker than I remember from my childhood. Unlike the dwarf asiatics, these Tango lilies (asiatic hybrids) are not quite so far along, and are quite a bit larger plants, although the flowers are pretty much the same size. And, last but not least, we have the beginnings of a pot of scarlet verbena. I have a hanging pot that got quite carried away last summer, until neglect from being gone several weeks did it in. Maybe this summer will be better.

The garden in the front is starting to bloom. The Stella D'Oros will be just a few days more... But the dwarf asiatics are taking off in orange and
pale orange.

There has been a bunch of spinning going on chez nous I've doubled the number of Beast skeins - about half of it is finished.
I also started working on Hyrna again. When last seen, I had just gotten about this far: When I discovered that I didn't have enough handspun to finish it. There was enough variation in the skeins that I didn't like the way it was turning out. I ripped all of it back into little balls. Having now purchased a ginormous skein of Henry's Attic alpaca laceweight from Woodland Woolworks, I divided it into four smaller balls of approximately 1200 yards each. I'm now back to the point I was at when I started ripping - finished with the chart A section, complete with expansion as discussed with beadlizard previously. We'll see if I can get any farther.

Cute cat, eh? If you look closely, that's MY shawl he's so carefully curled up on. AND again. Different shawl, same Tiger. Humph.
We had a break in the weather and I got a bit of baking done, for the first time in weeks. I dragged out an old recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip cookies, which we used to eat all the time and then, I suppose, we got burnt out on them.
These cookie fiends devoured half a batch the first day, and then, yes, half a batch the second day. When she reached for the last cookie in the box the first day, K turned and looked at me seriously and said, "Mom! These are Dangerous Cookies!" So, herewith, I present Dangerous Cookies. You have been warned.

Dangerous Cookies (my variation of the Banana Chocolate Chips, from The 47 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World)

1 c butter
1/2 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp maple extract
3 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c mashed ripe banana
1 c pecan pieces
2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together dry ingredients, set aside. Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and extract; mix well. Blend in bananas. Slowly add dry ingredients; blend well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets with parchment paper (or greased), about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 or 13 minutes. Cool. Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

My feet hurt!

6 hours of walking around the local amusement part on Friday with the 6th grade class trip and my feet still hurt. 3 12-year old boys take a lot of keeping up with.

And while we're on the subject of 12 year olds - what ARE their parents thinking? Who sends their kids with $35 to spend and no instructions on how to spend it? I was feeling extravagant giving mine $20 and expecting him to learn to make good choices about buying his lunch. (He can spend as much as he likes/needs, but I expect the change back. The thing that always surprises me is, I get some!) These kids had their lunch provided AND $35 to just "spend". One of them asked me "Can we go shopping? I love to go look at the shops and waste money." What sort of a life lesson is that? _grrr_

A very happy birthday indeed - my day began with breakfast prepared by K, wandered through small moments of pleasure in good wishes extended by family and friends (both online and off), included dinner prepared by J and K and ended with cake prepared by J and S.
Punctuated by flowers...
Presents...
Spinning (see any previous picture of spinning with pale Beast - it looks just the same and I'm about halfway through now), and Cake:Blackout cake with ganache icing. J swore it had to weigh 5 pounds, but as you can see, he exaggerates. We only make this once a decade, but it was my turn to get it this time. S complained (a tiny bit) over having to put the almond slices on, but he managed to steel himself to do it.

And a friend gave me a miniature rose. I think I'm going to try planting this one in the garden - the Tiger cat insists on trying to eat them no matter where I put them in the house.

Thanks for all the good wishes!

School is Finished! I turned in the last paper yesterday - now I just wait for the grades. (wait, wait)

The books list has taken a big jump in the past few weeks. I found an author I'd read one or two of has written a bunch more books - beach reading, trashy romance thrillers, and just what I needed after poring over technical software journals for hours. I will just mention that she has a wicked sense of humor and if you need a good belly laugh, try Open Season, Mr. Perfect, To Die For, or Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Saturday spinning this week was actually at spinning guild - the first time I've been there in six months. There must have been almost sixty people there this month. I don't know if that's been typical (see above), but it was nice to see. If it is typical, we're definitely outgrowing our space. The topic of the month was bring your kids: let's learn to spindle spin and to knit on knitting looms (those handheld overgrown knitting spools). I don't know how the knitting looms went - I hung out with the spindlers. This is the last spindleful of the blue to be done.
The red has been done long since (and been banging around the house as you can see by the poor tubes). I'm still undecided about whether I'm going to ply them together or whether I should ply each of them with a third color. Decisions, decisions. Any suggestions?

Intentional Cooking (I may need a ruling from Carolyn on this - does it count if what you're making has no nutritionally redeeming value?)

A couple of recipes I picked up from the GS camping weekend - Yummy!

M & M Pretzels

1 bag Square Pretzels (woven pattern) (Bulk Foods)
1 Bag of M & M’s
1-2 lbs. Dark, White, or Milk Chocolate wafers (Bulk Foods)

Put square pretzels on cookie sheet and then add chocolate wafers on top. Bake in oven at 200’ for 5 minutes. Take out of oven and put M & M’s on top. Refrigerate or put in cool area. Ready to package or eat.


Muddy Buddies


1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
9 cups wheat, rice, corn, or favorite chex cereal
1 ½ cup confectionary sugar

Pour cereals into large bowl, set aside.

In 1 quart microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Microwave on HIGH 1 minute or until smooth. Stir mixture and add vanilla.

Pour chocolate mixture over cereals, stirring until all pieces are evenly coated. Pour cereal mixture into a large resealable bag or bowl with lid and add confectionary sugar. Seal securely and shake until all pieces are well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

Truth
A Conversation with S:

S: You said I could have a smoothie!
Z: Do I always tell the truth?
S: Yes! You have to!!!
Z: I do? Really?
S: Of course you do. You're a mom. You have to tell the truth until we grow up and move out!
Z: Um... Right. Let's go get your smoothie.

When they move out, I suppose the FibFest can begin.

School is down to the last two weeks of the quarter and I've a 10 page research paper due on Monday. See you all on the other side!

ps. There are three hatchlings at the Falconcam!

It has been mentioned once or twice in blogland that spinning makes for dull blogging. I can't deny it. Here's bobbin 3 of the dark Beast and Bobbin 5 of the pale Beast. Look rather like earlier bobbins, eh?
I'll not get much spinning done this weekend - I'm off to the woods with the Girl Scouts. End of year camping trip - and they're going white water rafting. I'm going to be staying back in camp to cook a hot lunch and take those not interested in rafting off on a hike. Any rafting trip that involves wet suits probably involves needing something warm afterwards, or at least we have so decided. Fortunately the weather is cooperating - the current forecast involves sunshine for at least five days.

The bleeding-hearts from last year are making an appearance again. I wasn't entirely sure about where I put them - too much sun, I was afraid. They seem to have survived their sunburn. By the time the sun gets really hot again, they should get some shade from the apple trees. Those leaves are mere unfurling leaf buds at the moment. I have made some progress on the girls - sleeves and bodices, a suggestion of the hair, filling in a few holes here and there.

I got the blue silk wound off the spindle this week, and onto the tube. And yesterday, I went with the girls in the Girl Scout troop to the Susan B. Anthony house. We got a brief tour and lecture on Susan B.'s life and work. I found it extremely fascinating that different aspects of her life and time struck different girls harder than others. Some of them fastened onto the ideas about dress reform, some were concerned with the right to vote. A couple of girls were unhappy with the idea that if they had worked, their money wouldn't have been their own. One was harping on the concept that women didn't get paid as much as men for the same job. Whoops - guess we're not done with that one yet.

I did get some spinning done while we had the discussions. The girls were given a discussion assignment in small groups. They were all leaning forward, busy working; I was leaning back, busy spinning. The group leader came around, watched me for a moment, then grinned and said "you aren't going to do the work for them?" I just laughed and said that they were bright girls. They didn't need more than a nudge from me to get off and running.
The grape hyacinths are up and going, without even a nudge from me. They're just opening up, and from a distance (i.e. from the kitchen window) they're just a faint blue cloud.

This spring is obviously going to be just like a high school English paper: write a five paragraph paper contrasting and comparing... The purple crocuses were first off the mark and are a little past it now, but the yellow ones and the tulips are enjoying the sun. Giant crocus and miniature tulips...
Definitely a lift to the spirits.

And then there were two skeins of Beast...
I got a lot of spinning done yesterday.

The weather has been ... different. It's been snowing, but the ground has been too warmed up to really have it stick for long periods. It's been sleeting. It's been slushing. It's been doing a weird combination of snowing combined with rain (large fat flakes of snow drifting down between pelting rain drops). It's been raining snow - huge clumps of snow pelting down with the force of rain. That was all yesterday.

Today it's raining. Just rain, nothing bizarre. The forecast is rain for the next few days, then warming up, sunny and bright, just in time for Saturday. What's up with that? Doesn't the weather know the proper order - sunny and bright all week when few can get out to enjoy it, then rain all weekend?

The falconcam in Rochester is back up and running again, at a new address. There was a new female falcon spotted in Rochester this winter, but when Mariah showed up from wherever she winters over, she chased the new gal off. Mariah and Kaver have 4 eggs this year and brooding is happening. Kaver apparently didn't think much of the weather yesterday and was willing to ignore his mate's opinion of the weather and of him.

One thing I did get some work done on while entertaining guests was my spindle. This is tussah silk, dyed blue by someone in my spinning guild. I think of it as denim blue - it has that multitudes of blues one finds in blue jeans. I have three spindlefuls waiting for plying, and about that much more to spin. I did finish the fourth bobbinful of pale beast while we watched the new Pink Panther movie. I don't think of myself as a Steve Allen fan, but I have enjoyed several of his movies. This was one of them.

The garden was sending up crocuses - they popped out of the ground, opened up in a shy way, then the weather turned colder and snowed. Two inches of snow was enough to mash some of them down, but they are doing their best to open up and spread a little cheer.
The purple ones were quickest off the mark, so they suffered the most damage in being squished, but some of the others are still just fine.

I still have company (different company) but a little bit of spinning is happening. Looks just like the last spinning, but I swear it's different.
And I dug out a stitchery project that has been on hold long enough. This is Catch the Wind, a Butternut Road pattern (Told in a Garden). I started it before we left Oregon, 3 years ago in January. It got packed up and left in storage for a while, then didn't get gotten back to because I was in the middle of other things. I knew I hadn't had all the colors I needed for it. I finally went and bought the rest. This represents the colors I did have (29 colors). I had to buy 17 colors more. MLI always has been noted for her wonderfully shaded pieces.
Addendum: The lace pattern was one of the ones from Barbara Walker II - I'll get the exact name when I don't have company (particularly a 5 yo nephew full of bounce) to distract me...

A while back I posted some pictures of the lace I was sending my mother to complete a project she was working on. Herewith is the picture of the finished item, lace at the bottom.

Well, this is the big weekend. The final practice was tonight, the grandparentses are all four here, the tickets are bought and the play is eagerly awaited. Tomorrow they will play selected scenes for groups of elementary school kids and then for their own school. Tomorrow night is Opening Night. Then comes the Saturday Matinee, followed by Closing Night, then the Cast Party Sunday morning is Tear Down. 10 weeks of practice, costuming, learning to apply make-up, set building, practicing with mikes, stage crew learning how to be stage crew, lighting crew ditto... All boils down three days, zillions of cheering relatives, 79 cow- and farmgirls and 20-something cow- and farmboys singing Oklahoma in tune on cue...

Needless to say there has been much housecleaning and the requisite homework happening here and not much else. Certainly no spinning. See you next week.

This... is a closeup (with flash) of this...
which is the beginnings of a beadlizard cabled rib scarf. I don't often knit two of the same thing, but it's a fun knit and the last time I did was a couple of years ago.

This is...

several things, actually. On the left is ... not an abandoned project, but shall we say - in hiatus. Silk and beautiful, but in hiatus. On the right we have the third pale beast bobbin. In the middle is the soon-to-be-dark beast bobbin, and supporting it all is a Ewesful Kate. Pine, I think, and just finished with wax. I use the Wood Beams on it every now and then. It's tensioned with fishing line and an Ashford spinning wheel spring, which I need a new one of since I sprung this one. It still works, it just looks funky.
Side view shows the sheep cut out - there's one on either side.
And here we have the fourth pale beast bobbin, in progress.

There has been no cooking of note at this house for some time (otherwise I promise I would have noted it). I'm about ready to make mushroom parmesan soup again. Other than that...

I seem to be full of ellipses today. Sorry about that. At least I promise not to sprinkle them through my writing like parmesan cheese over pizza.

It's a beautiful day - sunny, 42 degrees F, light dusting of snow on the ground, which will undoubtedly be gone by tomorrow with the rain and 60 degrees F we're expecting. The end of last week was rainy and 50 degrees F, yesterday was cloudy and 22 degrees F. Good weather for catching colds and we're passing one around.

Q&A

Grace asked some questions about my spinning:
1. How do I like my moosie? Very much. I particularly like it for spinning merino/silk. The moosie is smallish, but dense for its size. The silk content in the fiber makes the singles able to support quite a bit of weight for the cross section. The denseness of the whorl lends itself to spinning fast and for a long time. I've 2 oz of the merino silk my sister gave me for Christmas. I will be spinning it for a very long time.

2. Do I use a tensioned kate? Yes, I have a Ewesful Kate that I got some years ago from Jude Pilote. I have not been able to determine if she's still making them.

3. The blending I'm using? This is Beast. My understanding is that Beast was the odds and ends leftovers of roving from Brown Sheep. This would fit in with what I know about Brown Sheep yarn content. I had understood that Beast wasn't being made any more, but more of it seems to be showing up, so now I don't know. The various greys seem to be of a type - sort of Romney-ish - open crimp, doesn't felt too much. The dark black strikes me as being mohair - shiny, not much crimp, strong, and the longest fiber. The all white bits are shorter, easily felted (somewhat felted in places), and crimpy - I don't think merino, not exactly like the Targhee I've spun before, but something along those lines. This makes for a varied spinning experience. The grey stuff does a lovely long-draw. The black bits are ok on a long-draw. The white tends to be clumpy - sometimes it drafts long draw, sometimes it doesn't, and almost always ties a little knot here and there. I'm going with the "neps are character" theme here and not stressing too much except where the little knot winds up seriously impacting the cross section of the singles. I'd rather it didn't snap on me.
4. Am I going to overdye this? I think so. I'm not in the market for another grey shawl at the moment, so if it's going to be a shawl, I'll dye it. If it isn't - if I make a vest or something, I might leave it grey. I definitely love the depth of shade possible when overdyeing the greys like these.
This picture is of the three-ply yarn I just finished:
And this picture is the horseshoe lace trim on the Wool Peddlar's Shawl I'm finishing up. This was a previous batch of white/grey/black wool (not Beast, a mixed shade Corriedale fleece), overdyed with cherry.

Some spinning has taken place this week - dark and pale bobbins are done - to be closely followed by number 3.
The moosie has made progress with the merino/silk (mostly while waiting at music lessons)
But by far the greatest amount of time has been taken up by the costume for K. Oklahoma is the play this year, and she needed a calico dress. (never mind the cat, who was only doing her best to help, obviously). The dress is done, the blouse (not pictured) is done, and I can go back to spinning. And knitting. And whatevering, before class starts on Monday.
Housework, perhaps? Nah. We still have 3 weeks before the hordes arrive to observe their darling grandchild.

It's funny how you can jog along in a little rut and then suddenly pick your head up and go "hey - when did that happen". I find that this happens to me particularly with books. Being the bibliophile that I am, I have enough books that I can get in a rut of just re-reading the things I have with occasional jaunts to the library for supplementary material. Increasing those jaunts was the purpose of tackling the 50 book challenge - I'm not allowed to count the books I've read before. Consequently, the only books I expose to public view are the new ones. This accounts for the long period of time between additions to that list, NOT I assure you any lack of reading going on chez nous.

However, being in that rut means that I get hit with that jolt referred to above. A couple of days ago, I was at the bookstore and suddenly realized that on of my favorite SF authors, Spider Robinson, has escaped from my radar long enough that not only has he written a bunch of Callahan books I haven't read, it was long ago that they aren't on the current shelves and I'm going to have to order them. abebooks is my friend.

That was one jolt. The next was stumbling across the books by Michelle Sagara, Cast in Shadow and Cast in Courtlight. Very good reading - the first was a little difficult to get into, but worth pursuing. Blurb on the cover mentions her 14 or 15 prior books. Hmmm... never run across her before. In double checking her name at Amazon before I updated the Books Read list, I find that not only does Michelle Sagara pop up, but Michelle Sagara West does as well. Why does that ring bells? A search on Michelle West gives me the answer. Hunter's Oath, Hunter's Death - favorites on my shelves. The Sun Sword series - I started reading those and then got annoyed because it was going to be a multi book series with divagations in all directions. I bought and read the first two, set the third aside to wait for the whole series, and lost track of them. It turns out there are six altogether now, and probably well worth waiting for. I suppose that acquiring 3 more hefty books just before starting a new class is not the best idea in the world.

Whiteout

What is there about owning a white car that makes one want to drive in a whiteout with no headlights on? Of the 22 cars I passed on my way home from work, 7 had no headlights on. Six were white. Of the 15 cars I passed that had their headlights on - one was white.

Come on, people - unlike that polar bear, you don't even have a little black nose to show in the swirl of white!

What does one do with a bump of dark beast? Add two bumps of pale beast...

Spin...
Spin some more...

And yet some more to go - then three ply and see how much you get.

Thanks for the kind words about the blue-to-red with pink and purple thrown in. I don't know exactly what I'm doing with it yet. I'm thinking rectangular shawl, possibly in a waffle pattern. I want to preserve the color run from one end to the other.