Living Books

Anyone who thinks little ones don't learn from what they read should check out my daughter's blog and see what my very creative 2 year old grandson was inspired to do from a book I bought for his older brother. If you have small children, take heart, they also learn good things from books!

New Knitting Technique...

...at least for me. A friend of mine who owns YarnCircle ,a local fiber shop was working on an entrelac sample a week or so ago when I was in for a visit. Like Martha, I had always been intrigued by the look of entrelac, but just thought it not quite worth the effort. After watching her knit for a few minutes, I felt this was doable, so I came home and started a piece of my own. A couple of days later, while browsing the subject on a google search I came across Garterlac on a Dave's blog and thought it also looked like something fun, but easier than traditional entrelac. Last night I sat down with some Cotton Tots I had left over from a baby blanket I made for my youngest grandson, Joseph, and made this. The technique is much simpler, and the yarns variegated stripes work up very nicely. Needless to say, there will be more Garterlac in my knitting future. FUN!

Break's Over

Since my last post, we had Spring Break and my hard drive crashed, deleting lots of stuff I didn't realize I really needed til it was gone! But, we're back and I'm back on line, so all is well now. Speaking of Spring Break...Highs 30s and Low 11, cold, windy, gray, snowy...sounds great doesn't it. I stayed home most of the week reading, knitting and spinning. Not bad all the way round, at least in my book.
At the beginning of the semester, when we began our Fiber to Fabric unit, I purchased some raw wool so the kids could experience the washing process. When they opened the bag, wrinkled noses, disgusted sounds, etc. ensued. Well, right before break they had the pleasure of cleaning the smelly mess. They were absolutely hilarious. The guys were worse than the girls: "I'm not touching that stuff!" was heard from more than one student. Needless to say, they had no option and every student had to get their hands into it. They discovered that like most things we dread, after they're finished, we discover that they weren't so bad after all. The wool is now all cleaned and they have hand carded it as well. Some of it was spun so they could get a feel for the difference between hand carded and commercially carded roving. We have begun our first weavings on cardboard looms this week. Their mug rugs will give them an intro to the process before they move to a 2 harness loom and either placemats or purses. I think the kids are getting a lot out of this class. They will at least remember what theyv'e done!

Baby, Its Cold Out There

Although spring is officially here, we awoke this morning to winter. The thermometer on our porch registered a chilly 20 degrees. I don't have a problem with the cold, but all our plants surely will. Both our apples and blueberries have/had? a bumper crop of blooms this year, as did the plum, peach and apple trees in our courtyard at school. A couple of weeks ago when we drove through upstate SC the orchards were a sea of pink. I fear that there will be major damage to the fruit crops since temps ar due to drop into the lower teens this weekend. In addition to the fruit, the mast crop is in danger as well. A lot of the oak and hickory trees in our area are also in bloom and will probably not produce well as a result of this cold snap. That doesn't bid well for the squirrel, turkey and black bear who are highly dependent on mast crops. We have just had an immigration of squirrel in the last couple of years because mast was abundant. It had been several decades since our area had seen such a large squirrel population. We have lived in our house for 32 years and last year was the first year we had a squirrel in our yard. If the mast doesn't make it I'm afraid they will move out again. I just hope that the trees at the higher elevations can still produce enough to feed our wildlife, since they haven't started blooming yet.

Flying Flowers

They're back...the flying flowers, that is. I saw my first of the season

yesterday floating in the breeze over the creek by our house. Butterflies are one of the most amazing of God's creations. It is difficult to comprehend, even with my scientific background, how the lowly caterpillar can transform to become the beautiful ethereal creature that is a butterfly. Even more incomprehensible is that this fragile little thing whose paper-thin wings are coated with scales that come off at the slightest touch can survive long enough to keep the species intact. I have a rather large butterfly bush at the corner of my front porch that, when in bloom, is gilded with these tiger swallowtails as well as fritillaries, pipevine swallowtails, an occasional monarch, viceroys and hummingbird moths.