May

May has come and almost gone and I’ve yet to make a blog post. Oh dear.

Lots has been going on in my world beyond the usual dyeing, knitting, spinning, and weaving.

I have a new little niece, Sabine. She is absolutely the most beautiful little baby girl I’ve ever seen and I’m so in love with her. Unfortunately, she lives across the continent in San Francisco, but her parents (my sister in law and her husband) have been wonderful enough to set up a photo/video blog where we have been able to watch her grow, as well as watch them grow into the role of parents. Having been the only couple on both sides of the family with children, being an aunt and uncle is a new experience that we are loving every moment of, albeit from afar.

before planting- the chives and irises are in good shape!

Our little garden is growing happily, and we now have baby carrots, lettuce, radishes, broccoli and peas shooting up alongside basil, rosemary and chives. On Friday, our four little chicks are due to arrive. Having a vegetable garden and raising chickens is a life-long dream that we finally made a reality this year, and I must say that I’ve been greatly inspired to finally do it by a book that I originally heard about on the CraftSanity Podcast. Made From Scratch, a book by Jenna Woginrich (who also happens to live in Vermont), is a truly inspiring story about a woman in her twenties who dreamed of homesteading and instead of just dreaming, she jumped in. Her whole message is that regardless of whether you live in a house in the country or rent an apartment in the city, there are things that you can do today to start living your dream. And she’s right.

Jenna is also responsible for my acting upon another life-long dream of mine, and also one of my husband’s. For years, I’ve wanted to learn to play irish fiddle, and my husband has wanted to learn the banjo. After reading Jenna’s book, and with my 30th birthday looming in the not-too-distant future, I decided that it was time to do it. I ordered the instruments, a couple of books and CDs, and signed up for lessons. We’re plunking away, slowly getting better and better. It has been wonderful and we still can’t figure out why we didn’t do it sooner!

making progress!

I’ve also been knitting away on a pair of socks from Cookie A’s new book, Sock Innovation. It just happens to be my new favorite sock book! The socks I’m knitting, Sunshine, were supposed to be a mother’s day gift but they weren’t finished, so she got a half-finished pair of socks nicely wrapped in a box. Being my mom, she didn’t mind, but she is looking forward to receiving the finished pair sooner than later!

Now to the business- I’m planning a fiberphile update early next week. I’m adding some new luxury lace weight yarns on a trial basis (alpaca/silk/cashmere anyone?) and will have large batches of the most popular colorways and bases so that (hopefully) everyone who wants a particular color has a decent shot at it. Yarns available for reserve will be posted in the flickr set starting Friday and going through the weekend. For more information about reserving yarns, you can read the Reserves FAQ.

So, that’s it. I’d like to get back to shorter, more frequent posts. We’ll see how I do!