Lace Weight

It really should say "cobweb" weight, but I figured if I did that and didn't put a picture of Kate at the top I wouldn't have many folks looking on ;-).  This is really neat though, so I hope you scroll down.

You'll have to click to biggify.  Do you see the web?

Do you see how it's anchored at the bottom?

That one strand of web is strong enough to bend that pretty good size mint blossom around!  

And it worked.  Sorry, fly, but that spider worked hard to catch you :-/.

And here he/she is.  Wouldn't it be neat to be able to tuck into a flower like that?  Maybe not that exact petal ;-).

A welcome sign of fall!

And we got a little rain :-D.

More Cute Babies

They are cute...if you just look closely and give them a chance ;-).  The writing spiders are hatching!

I can find 6 tiny webs in this picture.

The spider sacks from last year's spiders.

Already working hard on their webs.  This on is about the size of a dime.

And catching bugs!

All Creatures Great And Small

I am frantically trying to get everything ready for the Kentucky Wool Festival this weekend, so I'm  obviously sadly not doing any knitting, but I am listening to some good books while I work.

I'm quite sure I'll not have a Yarn Along post this week, so I thought I'd let these yard spiders cover for me Wednesday, but then I found out that today marks the 100th birthday of everyone's favorite author, James Herriot.

Just like every day should be your birthday or anniversary or Thanksgiving or Christmas..., Monday can just as well be a Yarn Along day, especially if you have a good book (or a whole wonderful series) to share.

There's a part of me that still can't believe we made it to fall.  Whew, what a summer.

All Creatures Great and Small.  Very small.  Although we did have some amazing writing spiders  last month who were taking down grasshoppers big enough that I told Tilly she'd better watch her step out there!

Yarn Along - The Daniel Scarf

When my mother passed away this winter I inherited her weaving loom, a (now) vintage Leclerc table loom and floor stand.  I don't remember her weaving with it, but she had a good collection of weaving books and some leftover yarn, so she must have made a good run at it at some point.

Daniel's 2015 fleece went to A Yarn Well Spun last year and she had a run of yarn spun from it.  I picked up a couple undyed skeins at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May and as the Tour rolled around, I decided to combine it with the loom and put both to good use.

The finished scarf.

Before fulling/blocking - you know, my favorite part ;-).  

Notice how you can see each individual strand?  How almost rough it looks?  Woven cloth is not finished until it's been "fulled".  Fulling is done (at least here) in the washing machine and involves hot(tish) water, soap and a few seconds of machine agitation.

Notice how much softer and fuzzier and comfy it looks now?  The yarn all melded together?  You should be able to click to biggify.  Isn't that fun?

Some mandatory blocking (where you size it and even out any uneven spots) pictures.  I used the house porch this time, but I'm going to move back to the Wool House porch next time because the table height is more comfortable up there.  

And yes, it's a simple, straight, rectangular woven scarf (as opposed to,say, a fancy, curvy lace shawl), but any time I put wool and a measuring stick together, you know there are going to be pins involved. Lots of pins.  An insane amount of pins.  I LOVE to block :-).

The cats are all pretty much self blocking these days.  No pins required.

My latest favorite spider, doing a little spinning and weaving above the red bench.  You'll need to biggify to see her.  She's quite pretty.

After several (!) disappointing book downloads, I was luckily reminded that you can never go wrong with a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book, so enjoyed my weaving listening to the latest from Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni.  

I had a pleasant surprise in the mailbox over the weekend, too. Shepherds and Shepherding by Jonathon Brown.  It's packed full of historical shepherding information and pictures and I'm thoroughly enjoying that as well.

Joining in with Ginny...

Walk With Me Wednesday

I could actually do a Wednesday Yarn Along post.  I finished the second sleeve.  I'm going to try to get it blocked today, but a. I really should be doing other things to get ready for this weekend and b. I'm not sure it will dry.   We sure needed the rain, but at this point, couldn't the rest of the week's forecast have waited until after the festival?  

Still, if it's going to be cold and damp (which is actually perfect for a fall wool festival) it would be nice to have a long sleeve wool sweater to wear in the evenings (we are there until 10:00 p.m. :-o).  Plus, it's technically advertising, right?  I usually say the sweaters are there for inspiration...but if it's for advertisement then I'm practically required to get it blocked. 

Enjoy taking a walk with Hank, Tilly and Kate :-). 

Spiders have been light this year.

The bees are happy with all the fall flowers.

Liddy likes flowers, too :-).

Our walk out back inspired the sheep to come out.  

I guess it was a good advertisement ;-).

A Different Kind Of Camp

If you are only here for the cute lambie pics, scroll quickly to the bottom. If you'd like to see something really cool, read on.

We finally got some rain yesterday afternoon.  Yes, after months of too much rain, we were now starting to get too dry and the temps have been more like July than May :-(.  Liddy, Kate, Tilly, the cats and I rode out the storm on the back porch.  When it was over, we headed back out to "play".  I went to the lavender garden to pull weeds while the dirt was soft.

As I picked around, checking each plant for signs of growth after a winter that was too cold and too wet for most lavender, I was happy to find only 10 plants needed to be replaced.  I noticed one of the dead ones had a strange seed head or something stuck in it.  I looked closer.

Tiny tiny tiny seeds of something...  Wait, I know what this is!  I ran to the house to grab my camera.

After years of carefully watching these egg sacks, I was finally getting to see one hatch out!  I've been dying to see this!

Little baby writing spiders !!!

Hundreds, maybe a thousand.  So tiny, less than the head of a pin.

Welcome to the garden, everyone :-D.

A Liddle something to bring your heart rate back down ;-).

Rain Respite

I know cloudy, dreary days bring most people down, but I don't mind them one bit. I also love when the sun peeks out for a few minutes too though ;-).  

A rainbow cloud for Linda :-).

The purple butterfly bush in the background deserves a big round of applause.  That poor thing barely made it through last winter only to have Baaxter try to gobble up every tiny shoot as it tried to recover in the spring.  It now has a protective fence around it.

Not many spiders left, but this one sure picked a pretty location.  There are still two spiders left on the garage and lots and lots of egg sacks for next year :-).

A few blooms down, but plenty still to come.  I love that the bricks look like they've been there forever.

Ewen, McTeagle - a giant among Jacobs :-).

Heading back in.  Love the sun spots and freshly washed look of the barn lot.

And a slight turn to the right out of the direct sun.  I think that is actually Renny standing next to Hank.  The Spud pictures came a few minutes later.