There she is.  In all her glory.  It seems that this is the only way to be “connected” in this little tucked in location on the side of a mountain.  While I am not completely interested in having this big old eye sore directly next to our beloved garden, it really isn’t that big of a deal.  It allows us our Friday night movie, this blog, and the ability to answer a whole lot of questions.  You know like, whats the biggest number in the world?  Whats the strongest rock?  Whats the strongest metal?  Real manly questions.  And while there were surely aspects of not being connected I missed, I must say over all it was, so much easier.  It just wasn’t an option.  And my oh my, you would be an outright liar if you said this here clicking around the keyboard wasn’t addicting.    With that said, it was a welcome break and we are back.

But in the meantime…

Five years ago, I knit my first non-scarf item.  Of course, of course it was a baby surprise.  I took a class on it at my then local knit shop with Miles on my lap.  I picked a worsted weight cotton and casted on so very tightly.  Sweaty with frustration and nervousness amongst the older wise knitters in the class, it took me the whole two hours to knit two whole rows and then my yarn broke. The owner took pity on my teary eyes and pretended the yarn was defective and gave me a skein of forgiving wool with some serious give to it.  The little sweater has since been munched on by moths and has lots of little knots tied in, but truly it was the start of something so good for me.  Shortly after, a friend (check out her amazing blog it really is sooo good!) picked up on my desire to learn this craft and spent countless hours with me fixing my mistakes and taming my frustrations.  A few chenille teddy bears later and I felt like a knitter.  It was a start.

And now a few boys later and armfuls of knitted goods at our side I am picking up another fiber craft.

Spinning!

I borrowed this wheel from my neighbor.  It is a Schact and it is beatiful.  I am so very grateful for her trust and generosity.  It has recieved a lot of attention and I am pleased to say things are moving along nicely.  I took a class at our local sheep and wool festival and have managed to find time almost every night, even just the smallest amount to sit in front of the wheel and treadle or spin.  There is nothing quite like a warm fire, a cold beer and a whirling wheel.  Oh except maybe a package in the mail containing a full pound of the shiniest white roving imaginable begging to be spun up and dyed.  I have plum bark simmering atop the woodstove this very moment.  I am hopeful for some rich pinks for the pink lover among us is in need of some mittens.

It seems the counting part of knitting is what is throwing my foggy baby brain off, so spinning seems to be just the thing to get me motivated.  But before I end this here post, I want to remind any readers that may be thinking it looks like I have it all together, that I have a toilet that I plunge to flush and am ok with that, have only one pair of pants that fit me otherwise I wear tights and pretend I dont care they are indeed not pants, and recently took my oldest son to the doctors for what I thought was an ear infection, and it turns out his ear was only… er… dirty.  So, there you have it.

Dirty but cute.