Productive Saturday

So yesterday was productive. I finished a knitting project, inspected my hive and planted some tomato plants. Today, I get to help install another package of bees. 

I'm beginning a torrid affair with Fair Isle knitting. I love the play of color on a project. This particular project was from a kit I purchased from the Feral Knitter.  Called the Foggy Cove Tam, it is a mix of blues, grays and browns that result in beutiful combination. My picture turned out pretty good too.

.

Spring brings new beginnings

Last week was the first day of Spring. As you can see, it has been six years since I have written a blog entry and last weekend I made the commitment to start writing again. I have missed sharing my thoughts in this venue. I have come to love facebook, but I'm finding that I desire a greater opportunity to share my wishes, thoughts and hopes for my life and my world. 

This spring, I'm finding myself most excited about the opportunity to become a beekeeper. The journey has started. I have purchased some quality equipment from Brushy Mountain Bee Supply. I've built and painted the hive box and built frames with wax foundation. My friend Suzy, a great beekeeper has shared her thoughts and helped me build my first frame. I went to bee school. It was sponsored by the Durham Beekeepers Association and was held every Monday evening at Sarah Duke Gardens. Now I'm waiting for my package of bees that I've ordered from Big Oak Bee Farm in Raleigh.

Some other new beginnings for me to report. Over the winter, I have started to fall in love with stranded knitting; more specifically Fair Isle knitting. I did a few tams for holiday gifts and they turned out great. I've taken on another, more complicated tam with close to 11 different colors. I've signed up for a fair isle sweater design class in Berkely, CA in late summer. I'm sure I will be sharing more thoughts and pictures over the next few months. 

Socks

Knitting socks is one of my favorite things to do. Over the holidays, I gave away five pairs of socks that I had knitted over the last year. I only managed to snag one picture. All the others I gave away prior to the digital camera. At this point, I've only been knitting the basic sock pattern. My new year's resolution is to try some knew patterns.

 

Some more product

When I started spinning, I focused on the intention of creating the thread of my life. Within six months, I changed jobs and started the process of enrolling back into graduate school. Along about Samhain of 2005, my thread was beginning to need more shape and I decided to spin with the intention of building a home for myself. Spellworking is part of a witch's work and for me the focus I place on that intention shifts things within me and around me.

 

Here is an angora (rabbit)/wool blend that I spun last year about the time I started focusing my intent on building a home.  

Current spinning project

A little over 2 years ago, while I was teaching at the Vermont Witchcamp, I was sitting watching some goats. They seemed to be telling me "to sit and listen." I kept listening, but they simply didn't say much to me. I also kept thinking about the fact that I have so many different interests that it seems like I need to find the one thread that is my life. Upon arriving at home, I talked with my friend, "Lizard," who said, spin mohair; the hair from an angora goat. So I bought a drop spindle and roving and started playing. Needless to say, my yarn was thick and chunky and it was "hard work" to spin. However, at some point, I got it. After a year of playing with the drop spindle I brought my Kromski Spinning Wheel and began spinning.

 

That was last September and I love my spinning wheel and I still spin on my drop spindle. I get all my roving and spinning supplies from Morgaine at Carolina Home Spun. My current project is from her Three Bags Full collection of roving. The color is Lapis Lazuli and it is a blend of merino, rambouillet, with some tussah silk, and white tencel. My goal is to make a vest out of it, or if there is enough my first sweater.