Not the best photo (how much more yellow can it get?) of the Gotland samples (from RiverBend Farm) I am carding on my new fine cloth Clemes and Clemes drumcarder (on the kitchen table so I can watch the clock easily). I have to be careful not to overdo my shoulder but oh! How delicious is this fiber. I'm thinking about knitting a white vest with the grays as accent - and looking at Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting book for inspiration.
I'm also spinning Cherry Blossom Shetland fleece from Shet-Tu Sheep Farm which is located just south of me. This photo is my study where I spin and read blogs, spin some more, read more blogs...and look at the dark snow clouds. I'd like this 2-ply fingering yarn to be used for a crochet stitch sampler - using my first and still favorite stitch dictionary Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary. I am on my 3rd copy of this dictionary - the price seems to double every decade but I always decide it's well worth it. The 3rd copy was around $30.
I also received around 10 lbs of Shetland roving from Wooly Knob Mill. I sent the unspun bit of China's (River Bend Farm) off to be processed and now I can sit down spin that up. This is the white fleece I am using for the 2nd part of the 15' Shetland knitting stitches sampler. I got a bit burned out knitting samplers but am ready to begin again.
I also worked on some finished crocheted curtains and added borders etc but it's too dark to photograph them to show you.
And thanks to PJ and Mary B. I have plenty of new books to read.
PJ told me about Peter R. Decker's Old Fences, New Neighbors then generously sent it up to me. It's wonderful. If you want to know how it is in the New West as the ranches are subdivided and what old timers are dealing with - this is the book for you. Decker lived on the south Western Slope near Mount Sneffels. I love this book. Thanks PJ!
Mary told me about the book she was reading by Craig Childs - House of Rain which she thought she liked the best. I have and love his Stone Desert but thanks to Mary I sought out more Craig Childs books:
House of Rain Tracking a Vanished Civilization across the American Southwest
Finders Keepers A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession
the Soul of Nowhere
The Animal Dialogues Uncommon encounters in the wild
The Secret Knowledge of Water There are Two Easy Ways to Die in the Desert: Thirst and Drowning which I am reading now. I have to resist underlining passages though. This is a favorite:
"An ecologist working in this desert once looked straight at me and with a quiet voice told me to be careful. 'I don't know what it is about the place,' she said, ' but there are hoodooes out there.' She started telling me stories I did not want to hear."
And I nodded and resisted highlighting that passage.
I also got sidetracked into buying Art Wolfe's photography book called Colorado. I love Wolfe. I have a panoramic photo of the San Juans in autumn he took hanging over the study closet where I can look up from spinning and see it. I used to watch his TV show on photography. My favorite photo in this book is on page 89 - of Rattlesnake Canyon taken from Black Ridge (Colorado National Monument area of Grand Junction/ Fruita). You can see the arches from his vantage point but in the mid 80s I was lucky enough to ride up the (at the time privately owned) canyon to lunch right under those arches then rode an old Ute Trail up to the place Wolfe took his photo. I haven't seen another photo of that area in a long time tho once I bought a postcard of the arches at the Colorado National Monument's visitors center. I lost that postcard long ago.
While I was shopping at thrift books I got sidetracked back into Sharon Butala's books - the Girl in Saskatoon - A meditation on Friendship. Memory and Murder and Country of the Heart
Some of these books have yet to arrive - which is fine by me. It gives me something to look forward to.
And I'm off to feed the poodells, watch the sky and crochet on a cowl to match a Plain and Fancy yarn (turquoise and raspberry colorway) crocheted hat I finished yesterday. I decided I needed a new hat to match my turquoise fleece jacket and burgandy vest.
Catching up on my blog reading, and nice to find you in the middle of starting new projects and finishing up others ;o)
OH that C&C carder!! swoon! tempted from here, to throw some silk on top of that Gotland !!
Posted by: cyndy | 11/11/2012 at 05:35 PM