yarn along: handspun and roughin' it

Hip, hip, hooray! It's yarn along day!

This week I've been knitting up some handspun yarn that I bought over the weekend at the maple syrup festival. It's thick and thin in shades of lavender and periwinkle. I've never knitted with handspun before, so I couldn't wait to get this yarn on the needles. Garter stitch shows off the texture and colors well, so I'm making a simple headband.

Another skein of handspun made it home with me, too. It's blue and gray and more uniformly spun. I can't wait to try it out!

This week I'm reading another of Liesl's "roughin' it" recommendations, Settled in the Wild by Susan Hand Shetterly, which is a collection of short essays about the author's experiences in nature. She rehabilitated wild birds for 10 years, and the book contains, among other anecdotes, her recollection of raising a raven like a pet. Her writing reminds me of Annie Dillard's and Terry Tempest Williams'. She uses simple yet precise language and includes imagery I won't soon forget, such as her description of getting her boots stuck deep in marsh mud and having to return home sock footed and streaked with dirt. I'd love to have her along on a stroll through the woods.

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What are you making and reading this week?