Pictureless post

There's nothing like eating the food grown by one's own hands. I just ate some cabbage from the garden, and baked tofu seasoned with herbs from the garden. It was awesome! I was worried that the cabbage wouldn't be too good, because the bugs had been going at it for so long. But the largest of the four cabbages was firm and ready to harvest. I washed the leaves really well, and washed it again. I cooked it with a drop of olive oil, sea, salt, garlic and fresh onions from the garden. The tofu was sliced and seasoned with Oldbay seasoning, freshly ground black pepper, fresh onions, lemon thyme, lemon basil, sage and baked in a pan lined with a tiny bit of olive oil. All herbs and onions grown by me. The taste...incredible. I'm a happy gardener.

The Busy Bee

I've been busy with crafting...squeezing in time when I can...here and there. In dyeing news: Here's some fiber that I recently over-dyed. I dyed this merino/angora/silk top a couple years ago, but there was too much white still showing through since the dye had not penetrated the fiber completely. The fiber was too compacted, I realized later, and that's why my dyeing attempt wasn't successful. I overdyed it again with similar colors, using dyes I got from Lie.ttle Barn, while at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. They were only $2.95! You know me...always looking for that bargain. It turned out much better this time. What do you think? Since I had so much dye stock remaining, I decided to dye a laceweight skein, as well as some short stapled polypay fleece I got from a shepherdess in Michigan. In knitting news: I finished the pink shawl I was knitting out of my handdyed, handspun cheviot singles. Here it is blocking simply. I didn't want to block too heavily since it's a thin singles yarn. So, just wet the shawl lightly and hung it over the rail in the back yard. I love it. Many years ago, I spun a yarn from mohair and angora - one ply of each. Then, years later, I knitted some glovelets. One night, I lost the right glovelet. I was so bummed! Now, a few years later, I discovered that I had some of the same yarn left over. I guessed that it would be enough to make another glovelet. So, yesterday I knitted another, during my commute to and from work. I was literally sweating the whole time because I wasn't sure if there would actually be enough yarn. What you see hanging from the top of the glovelet is all the yarn left! Five inches! Whew! Talk about cutting it close! I also had a piece of scrap left over from the first time which I can use to sew it up. I was so happy that I had judged my yardage correctly that I immediately started another pair with some alpaca/angora yarn that was also spun years ago. Notice I an using straight needles to knit these glovelets. I haven't used straight needles in years! I pulled these well used, vintage needles from my needle stash. Notice they are made in France! In spinning news: I am participating in Tour de Fleece, a spinning gathering of sorts on Ravelry.com where spinners set spinning goals and try to achieve them during the Tour de France. I am spinning cotton for Team I Spin Cotton, and silk noil for Team Support spindlers. Here are my efforts: Cotton: Silk noil: Silk noil