I am only bringing ONE project with me (aside from design swatching for a trip to Green Mountain Spinnery, which doesn’t count!) Can you guess which one of my WIP’s it will be?? Here’s a hint!

And these pictures, well, they really have absolutely nothing to do with this post, but we have been having some really AMAZING skies here lately, and I just wanted to share!

I’ll try to squeeze in one last minute post before I go, but just in case - a huge THANK YOU to my 3Day supporters, you all ROCK!!!

It’s high time I did a check in on my 2007 goals. Being goal driven, I get a lot of pleasure out of establishing, working towards, and eventually reaching my goals (or just scrapping them entirely and starting from scratch!), so indulge me here while I recap. If you’ve been a reader for awhile, this will be a little trip down memory lane for you, and if you are a newer reader, this may serve as a good introduction (welcome!)

This has been a very interesting year so far (and a very good one!), but things are taking a bit of a different direction than I thought they might at the beginning of the year. Things happen for a reason, so I’m going with the flow and making adjustments!

With that in mind - let’s take a look at where I’m at and see if I need to do any revamping!

**Ok folks, this little “Goals Check In” turned into one mammoth write up, much more for my own documentation and edification than you probably care to read, and since I can’t figure out how to do that lovely little “read more” tag to spare those of you who may not want to read through such long-winded ramblings, I’ve bumped this over to my “Purling Plans” tab - check it out there at your own risk!**

“…If we allow ourselves contemplative time in nature - whether it’s gardening, going for a walk with the dog, or being in the heart of the southern Utah wilderness - then we can hear the voice of our conscience. If we listen to that voice, it asks us to be conscious. And if we become conscious, we choose to live lives of consequence.”

- Terry Tempest Williams

I believe that almost everything happens for a reason. I’m not at all religious, but I absolutely do believe that life sometimes steps in and lends a hand, either affirming something that I already know, or revealing something that I hadn’t yet considered. Whether that equates to my subconscious at work or some great karmic plan, I may never know. But I do know that things have a way of working out the way that they’re “supposed” to, and if a thing is meant to be, well then, be it the universe or karma or maybe just general good vibes, it’s seems to work toward that end. Does that mean that everything works out the way that I want it to? Of course not. It just means that sometimes I assign meaning to seemingly random events, those which seem too coincidental to be meaningless - both those happy and positive events, and those “learning experiences” that we all have along the way. And that when I’m paying attention, these seemingly random events help me to work things out in my head, take comfort or draw conclusions, and sometimes after enough time and thought, make decisions and changes. An entirely unexpected situation sometimes presents itself, and though it might not be exactly what I was looking or hoping for, there might be a very good reason for it and it might be just the thing that I needed.

In the last few weeks there have been a quite a handful of these little thought-provoking events. And being that Tad and I have been in a period of re-evaluation over the last, well really over the last few years, I feel encouraged in this area. Our values and priorities have changed a great deal and continue to evolve as we educate ourselves about our impact on the world around us and make choices to influence and hopefully to lessen that impact. Just recently there have been many discussions with friends and with Tad about the direction that we’re headed. There was a particularly fortuitious meeting, which also turned into correspondences about the future and options regarding land and farming. There have been articles and blog entries which have spurred the thought process. And I found this write-up in my email box - which wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t subscribe to the email you know, but still (I do hope that they find an appropriate solution). It does seem that a lot of occurences are affirming the direction that we’re headed and the steps that we are taking to that end. In any case, we are paying attention, and thinking. And taking comfort, and talking and formulating plans. Change is inevitable. Not necessarily fast-moving change, unless one of those fall out of the sky things were to happen. Certainly though - change in perspective, change in focus, and incrementally and over time, change in lifestyle. It starts here, with the two of us, our priorities, our commitment, and our attitudes.

My compass…. I got this at a time of big change in our lives (Tad’s & mine); It represents different things to me (click to go to the notes), but among others it’s a reminder of what’s truly important in my life. And because of the time when it was drawn, the time that it was inked and all that has transpired since, it reminds me that re-evaluation is a good thing. We are not the same people that we once were, or that we will be 10 years from now. It’s all about having the courage to make changes on a both a large and small scale to build a meaningful life.

Hop on over to my 3Day section for details!

1. Into Indie movies? Go check out Tad’s review of Once. It was terrific. Loved it & the music too.
2. While we’re on the music topic - great shows, coming our way. There are rumors that Cloud Cult may also make their way southeast this fall - now that would be amazing.

• Okkervil River
• Tegan & Sara
• Stars
• The Avetts (again! SO sad they went to ticketmaster though. damn.)
• Ani (if we can manage a road trip to Knoxville!)

3. More Spinning! This is a practice skein of tussah silk from the Flock Bronsanas, plied with some more Bonkers Merino Tencel…. I’m in love, again. Shooting for shawl-worthy laceweight. And can you believe it, this one’s under-plied! Guess I’ve been feeling a bit more mellow

4. Reworking (Bobble Blue - removed the buttons and ribbing and trying diffent edgings - no good pics to share yet):
5. Still working with the Fire/Sunset handspun - just cast on for real, I think. I’ll keep you posted! It’s very strange for me to have so many projects actively in the works at once. You know what that means, it will take me forever to finish them!
6. Dying to get out & go hiking. Especially after seeing where Elizabeth’s at this weekend. Damn. We’ll have to settle for a 60 mile walk on pavement for now.
7. Which reminds me - Contest!! (yes, didn’t I bring this up weeks ago? Well the time has come my friends - I’ve got prizes & lots to talk about. Check back at my 3Day page in a day or two for details.) We did 10 miles yesterday (plus an hour of yoga for me!)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

I’m working on a post with a quick update on the general goings-on around here, in list format; I think that this topic warrants a separate post however.

It seems a little odd, and perhaps a bit hypocritical, to precede the upcoming post with this link, BUT.  I didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle.  It is important and on my mind very much as well, though Heather expresses it much better than I could. There are some things in my consumerist nature that I have a difficult time reconciling (shows! movies! fiber! contest!) So I’ll just say that Tad and I find our priorities changing over time (somewhat drastically in the past three years), and we’re trying to make more conscious decisions about WHAT we’re supporting when we’re doing these things that we enjoy.  There’s lots that we feel good about, but lots more that we can be doing.  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it all and just don’t know where to start, but talking about it, reading about it, thinking about it - it adds fuel to the fire.

Food for thought - I hope you check out her post, it’s non-judgemental and very worthwhile.

The beautiful colors of our most recent CSA haul, garden picks & coffee roast.

Blue:

Purple:

Light Yellow:

Red:

And, of course, Green:

Courtesy of Dogwood Farms. Yummmmmm!

Brown (Fresh-roasted-in-the-backyard FTO coffee - I wish you could smell this!!):

And a Veggie Smile - picked from our own garden! Tad gaffled them all up in his shirt to bring them inside and it looked like a big grin The green tomatoes came down while we were trying desperately to prop up the crazy tomato plants before a storm this week. I had NO idea that they were going to get to be like 8 feet tall - is that supposed to happen??

Happy weekend everyone - Enjoy!

It’s funny how a little thing can make your day, huh?

Heather of HeatherKnits and Hege of Pine Cone Lodge both nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger

Man, it’s just a little pink button, right? But here I am, getting all silly and smiley over the darn thing! Heather’s totally right, it’s a matter of time before it makes it’s way around the knit-blog-o-sphere, but it made me smile nontheless! And it is so fun to see what blogs other people enjoy - just when you think you have found them all!

I guess the reason that it tickles me so much is that I did not anticipate how rewarding this ambiguous sort of relationship with my blog, the interwebs and the knit community would be. I didn’t really think too much about “readers” when I started blogging. I was doing it really for myself, to document my projects and fiber exploits; and because I’ve always enjoyed writing, it seemed like it might be fun. I didn’t have plans to keep up with it very regularly, or really any specific plans for it at all.

Somehow, it became this thing that I look forward to doing. I look forward to writing. I look forward to time spent reading other blogs - learning from and admiring other people’s projects. I look forward to hearing from other knitters in the comments and via email. I subscribe to a ton of blogs, some I read quite regularly, some only once in awhile and all of which I enjoy immensely; but I never considered that there might be a few people who would subscribe to & read my blog too, and that’s so fun.

I’ve met some amazing people, and that’s really just the coolest thing. Because I blog, there are a lot of GREAT people I’ve come in contact with that I would never have had the opportunity to meet in my daily life. I have had so much helpful support and advice on my projects and first design, some incredibly generous folks that I don’t even know have donated to my 3Day walk, and I’ve learned a ton - not just about knitting, either - I even learned why all those damn cucumber flowers weren’t making any fruit! All things that wouldn’t be possible without this little corner of the internets. Very cool. Way cooler than I ever thought having a blog could be.

Anyway, back at you Heather (truly, she is one Rockin’ Girl Blogger - Check her out. Master sock knitter extraodinaire, Spinner, World Traveler, All around cool chick) And Hege (Who is so incredibly kind, helpful and talented - have you seen her colorwork? Really, she’s amazing, and I so enjoy corresponding with her. Rock On Hege - you can totally say it!!)

And here are 5 other people that are Rockin’ Girl Bloggers in my book (actually folks, it’s really hard to pick just 5 - there are so many great ones out there, just check out my blogroll to the left. Believe me, with enough hours in the day you could multiply that number forever & ever. These are just 5 that I really enjoy and have gotten to know just a bit)

• Dawn - I think she’s my long lost sister or something. She’s an amazing spinner, she’s doing swatches for Melissa Leapman, and has had an essay published in a book by Annie Modesitt (which really, I need to get my hands on & read already!!)

• Ruth - Because without her, I wouldn’t have joined the design workshop and all the fun things that have followed. She’s a great knitter and a great writer. You need to read the adventures of Florence if you haven’t already.

• Mel of Remarkable Cow - Because she was my wonderful SP at one point (truly wonderful!), and is just an all-around really sweet person.

• Mel of Girl Eats Soup - Because she shares my name, love for knitting, and garden fumblings

(Who knew there were so many knitters named Mel! Mel, meet Mel - I think you are both in the same state too!)

• Jacque - Because she doesn’t know me, but she took a chunk of time out to help me out and give me some good advice from her experience. And she’s got some great designs! She rocks! Ooops - she’s already taken.

So here’s yet another!

• Susan - Because she is just terribly friendly and fun, a wealth of knowledge on plants, and a great knitter!

Seriously, there are SO many great girl bloggers out there - again, check out the blogroll for more!  Well, that was fun

And, by the way, Some pics of practice with the handspun!

Click for big! I’ve been swatching a bit with my handspun - I’m thinking a little airy shoulder wrap… Brioche stitch in the round with paired left-slanting decreases and increases. It creates a nice curved hem, which for some strange reason I didn’t anticipate - but really like. In fact, I was about ready to ditch this until I took it outside and started playing with it. Now I think it may have some potential… Reversible, a little extra warmth in the AC…. hmmmm. What do you think?

I never thought it possible. I spun, plied and blocked almost 4 oz. of roving in one week. In the grand scheme of things, that’s probably not much, but it’s all relative. For me, this is a huge accomplishment. It’s amazing what total brain overload can produce when combined with the power of procrastination!

The fiber is Bonkers 50%/50% Tencel/Merino purchased from Maryland Sheep & Wool this spring. I could go on & on about these colors - I just love ‘em! They make me happy

Loves:

• The feel of this fiber - The merino/tencel blend was so soft and yummy
• Pre-drafting - it’s my new best friend.
• Navajo plying - what fun!

Not so much:

• It’s totally overplied (and probably overspun, too. Good learning experience. I still love it though!)

Once I learn more about twist/grist/ etc. etc. I can provide more gory details, but for now, you just get more pics!!

As I was plying my way back through the yarn, I noticed that the bobbin went from predominantly reddish/orange-ish with small sections of yellow, to very predominantly yellow with very tiny sections or red or orange. I can tell exactly where in the drafting process I started to pay attention to the order or size of the color variations - trying to control (to some extent) when the color changes occurred to make sure I wasn’t getting repeats that were too long (or repeating too quickly) I was hoping for more variegation, but not actively working toward that end for the whole process. The resulting skein could be used strategically for a project that would show off the transition of colors, but it really wasn’t my intent.

I was still thinking about socks, but if my maths are right (you know that’s always up in the air where I’m concerned), I have just shy of 200 yards of sock weight yarn (Is that it, really?? I have no concept yet of how many ounces should spin up to what ply & weight of yarn) So, socks would probably need to be anklets, if that. I’ll give some thought to it. Any suggestions? I have not yet made anything (other than swatches) with my handspun and I’m determined to remedy that problem with this yarn!

*Edited to Add:

Lookie!! Traci from Bonkers left me a comment - I can get more! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

A few of you have noticed (and kindly reported) our website issues here at PurlingPlans & Tadandmel over the last few days (weeks, months….) Thanks for your patience and all should now be well! On the recommendation of a friend, we’ve switched from the intensely problematic Globat to ICDSoft, whose support over the last few days has been nothing short of stellar.  Both sites now seem to be working great (better than ever, in fact!) Color us impressed! Good riddance Globat! Go ICD Soft!

Oh, and if you have trouble getting to the site now (same address, same station) - it could be a caching issue (imagine my frustration as my husband pulls up my website effortlessly on his computer, and I got only errors - thank goodness he’s a smartie and got me sorted out!) If you are getting errors too instead of the real site, click this link to for instructions on how to clear your cache.

Of course, you would only be able to see this post in bloglines or another reader if you were getting the error; otherwise you’d just be seeing the error. Well, here’s hoping it helps some of you!

Thanks for sticking with us through the change. I’ve enjoyed blogging and interacting with readers and other bloggers more than I ever imagined that I would, so I’m very glad to have a better solution that makes reading easier for all of you  and makes posting & managing the site easier too!