gray and pink

  

I'm loving these colors together lately and am still fawning over the yarn I got at the festival last weekend. It's handspun from WindSong Fibers Farm. I'm thinking I should make something striped--maybe a cowl or shawlette. Any ideas for a little more than 300 yards of light worsted-weight yarn?

sugarbush

  

  

We braved the mud over the weekend to get our maple syrup fix. The Maple Syrup Festival did not disappoint. I drank maple syrup tea, which they make by ladling out hot sap from the evaporator and steeping black tea in it. And I stuffed myself with waffles covered in fresh syrup and topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It's such a decadent breakfast, but I'm already dreaming of re-creating it at home.

After filling up on a sweet, syrupy meal we rambled around the festival. Or I should say, others in our group rambled around. Me? I made a beeline to the handspun yarn booth, where I spent all my festival time gawking over yarn and talking to Kate, the shepherdess, spinner, dyer, and knitter in charge of the whole operation.

I came away with a couple of handspun skeins, a year's supply of syrup, and the smell of woodsmoke on my clothes. It was a good day.

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I hope you all had a good weekend too!

P.S. If you're near the Southern Indiana area, you've got another chance to visit the festival this weekend.

before the thaw

Like so many other places, we've been hit with snow and ice and snow again. Snow doesn't usually stay on the ground for long in Kentucky, but this winter we've had it for weeks, long enough to get sick of it. Oh yes, I've had my fill of snow. I've also had my fill of being cooped up in the house. Jude and I kept ourselves as entertained as we could with piles of books and toys, and of course I've been squeezing in some knitting (a Milo for next fall). I've been keeping warm in the kitchen and filling our bellies with potato soup and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows, the perfect things to help us through the gray winter days.

Things have been thawing out over the past few days. The snow and ice disappeared, and the ground turned to squelchy mud. We've been out for walks and done some porch sitting with bare arms. We've actually seen our neighbors! Everyone seems so happy to be out. Jude is enjoying his newfound mobility and finding ways to maneuver where he wants to go. He started pointing at things this week and saying what we interpret to be, "What's that?" I'm excited to get outdoors and explore with him.

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I am looking forward to the Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival this weekend. I'm excited to eat waffles with lots of syrup and drink maple syrup tea! Check it out if you're in the area. It's my favorite festival of the year.

finding time

Hello there. I'm glad you found your way here. Last month I felt ready to take on some freelance work, and I've been lucky to have steady work since then, but I haven't quite figured out a rhythm to fit in everything I want to do each day. I need more time, always.

The clock is ticking now for sure. It's nap time, so time feels more finite than ever. I try to stretch it out, or at least use it wisely, by slowing myself down with tea and a few stitches knitted. I'm sipping on a cup of genmaicha, which is green tea with toasted rice. That toasted flavor comes through in the brewed tea and tastes warm and cozy. Today I'm working on a newly cast on Milo vest for Jude that I hope will fit him this spring. It's a risky thing, knitting for a baby to wear something now. It's very possible that he's growing faster than I can knit!

At night before bed I've been reading a few pages of The Living by Annie Dillard. It's a novel set in the Pacific Northwest in the late nineteenth century. I've read plenty of Dillard's essays, but never any of her fiction. This novel features the stunning descriptions of the natural world that I've come to expect, but I find the narrative hard to get into so far. I haven't made up my mind about this one yet.

I'm off now to work or knit or clean or cook. Oh, I need more time!

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I'm participating in Ginny's yarn along today.