homegrown and handmade

  Some of my handspun. 

Very high tech fiber-drying apparatuses, huh?

 

I fought with the seeming frivolity of posting today. When I get really busy and consumed with projects or duties or just daily life, I often find pausing to take photos or write blogs tedious. I'm like, "Let's just get on with it! No time to pause for photos!" 

And many times, that is true and quite agreeable. I certainly find it harder to stay focused when I'm stopping to find my camera and snap photos. 

But yesterday, while swirling around in my busyness, I remembered why it is that I pause to take photos. I love to look back through our Shutterfly albums or read back through this blog and see all that we did as a family. I love to see our adventures, our journeys, our projects, our trips, our endeavors. 

So I paused long enough to grab my camera several times yesterday and this morning. And, admittedly, I hesitated. But, come one, these are the moments. 

So what has kept me so exceptionally busy?

Well, remember that interior door that I decided to paint? The one I mentioned back in this post? Yes, well that turned into painting all of our trim white. Then we decided to paint the walls. But first the ceilings, because nothing has been painted for eight years and you could tell. Then my mother-in-law gave us a very nice monetary gift to be used for a "home improvement" project! So then we decided we were going to replace our forest green counter top (yay!) and paint the cabinets. 

You know how home improvement projects escalate.

But also on top of all of that, I've been trying to wash as much as my alpaca fiber as possible, which is an all-day process. It's not an all-day project in the sense that I'm constantly consumed and attentive to it, but, rather, one that is drawn out and requires attention frequently. 

I've also been spinning and knitting and we've been picking and freezing cherries like crazy. And now my herbs? Well, they need picked and dried so we can enjoy them throughout the next year when we no longer have the fresh ones. 

Do I sound like I'm complaining? Oh, I'm not. All of these things are quite up my alley of interests. (Well, except painting ceilings.) And it has felt quite good to be so involved in the things that get my heart ticking. 

By the way, I'm joining in on the Yarn Along over at Ginny's blog, Small Things. 

outside play

It has been so gray, dreary, cold, and rainy here for way too long. When I woke up yesterday morning, the sun was actually out and the sky was blue and I was so, so happy. I'm telling you all, I do not tolerate gray days very well. Which is completely ironic since I live in Western Pennsylvania, which happens to be one of the least sunny places  in the United States. Really now. Go figure. 

Anyway, the sun was out yesterday when I woke up, and I immediately felt so much more energized and ready to go about my day. I had herbs, veggies, and flowers that I wanted to plant, and I had a big pile of my handspun yarn that needed heat-treated and hung out to dry. 

I managed to get all of the yarn simmered and pulled out of the pot and hung outside to dry. I'm not kidding when I say that a mere ten minutes after I hung out the skeins, Lily yelled into the house that it was thundering. I thought she was mistaken, but then the wind started to blow and the rain started to pour from the sky. Thankfully, Lily's warning gave me time to grab the skeins and put them on the back porch. 

It was a short-lived rain. It probably only lasted less than an hour, and then the sun did come out again and remained out the rest of the day. I can live with that. And while it rained, we ran to our neighbor's nursery and picked up a few hanging baskets and flowers. We also stopped and picked up a couple of fleeces that a neighbor was giving to me since she was literally just going to throw them away. (Gasp.) I have no idea what type of sheep she has; she didn't know either. Her son had bought them for her at an auction. However, I'll clean the wool and play around with it and see what it's like.

It ended up being a pretty productive day. The yarn dried. I got all of the plants into the raised beds. I prettied up our landscaping with some flowers. And I enjoyed doing all of these things while replenishing my vitamin D levels.

up north and other things

We spontaneously threw all plans out the window on Sunday after coming out from church to absolutely stunning weather. Instead of raking and seeding our yard, we packed up a quick dinner, put on our hiking clothes, and headed an hour north to the mountains. After hiking for a couple of hours we enjoyed sausages, grilled potatoes and brussel sprouts, and fresh veggies and hummus beside the creek. I even snuck in a few rounds of knitting while waiting for the charcoal to heat up.

I was able to wash a small batch of alpaca fiber yesterday, and I plan on doing another one today. Then will come the most tedious part of combing the fiber into rolags. One day I really, really hope to save enough money to purchase a carder because that would make this so much faster. But until then, I focus on slowing my mind down enough that I can enjoy the process of combing it by hand. It is a wonderful process.

I am also really excited that we are nearing the end of our official school year. We should finish up mid-May which really isn't so far away. The kids are busy this week preparing their project fair boards for next week's event. We have evidences of their topics tucked away everywhere in our home right now. Sprouting onion bulbs, jars of plants plucked from the forest floor, rocks on EVERY flat surface of our home, and index cards and markers on the kitchen table, kitchen counter, and coffee table. My type A personality is trying to remain calm among all of these extra things laying around the house.

I finished my sweater and am currently blocking it. Sadly it grew a lot after I soaked it. Grrrr. But honestly, I wasn't too too surprised as I know these kind of sad affairs happen to most knitters from time to time. I threw it in the dryer (stop cringing) hoping to shrink it a bit, and it worked, but it still looks a bit big to me. I have it blocking right now, but I'm anxious for it to dry so I can try it on.

Have a wonderful, blessed day!