Busy Hands

It's been a cool and rainy week. The garden is looking happy though because it likes the rain although I'll bet if it were a tad warmer, it would even be happier. The potatoes are finally growing. The leeks have decided they will survive and the garlic looks amazing! I'm a tad worried about the tomatoes though. I wonder if they soil is a bit too rich for them. They are growing quickly and very green. The first tomato flower was seen yesterday! The pumpkins look happy and I bet if whatever is eating the zucchini and cucumbers would stop, they'd be happy too!

I finished the first sock. It's very colourful, but it fits nicely. I always worry about the fit because using the standard sock pattern, using shoe size, a sock will be just a tad too small for me. Seems that I need to do a few extra rows because most sock designers must have short, stumpy toes. Now that I've figured out the change, it's all good but I still worry about although I know it's unnecessary. This one sure is bright! I've got 5 more balls in the same colour. One more is needed for this one's mate but the price was way too good to resist.

I was visiting a friend on Monday. We had a lovely time. She has just gotten a huge 60 in., incredibly solid Finnish loom. It's very pretty but she's just getting it set up now. We were talking about it, weaving and spinning. Her husband wandered in and we ended up talking about spindles, weights and details. After a bit, we went in for tea and a short while later, he popped in and handed me a spindle, which he gave me. After a few more questions and comments he left and came back a few minutes later with a second spindle. The first, larger one he said weighs 1.2 oz and the second about half that. They spin beautifully and are pretty to boot. What a wonderful and thoughtful gift that day. I had to actually force myself to set them aside and get back to spinning on my wheel. I really do love my spinning wheels.

Speaking of the wheel. On the Kromski right now is more sampling. This time it's East Friesian Milk sheep fibre. It seems to spin up nicely. I was going for a yarn which wasn't too skinny because it's easier to knit up a sample with fatter yarn than thinner. Sigh, I conveniently ignored my glasses and well, did you know that blurry yarn looks fatter than it is? I guess it's all in the air right now because the little point and shoot is starting to finally show it's age and it's auto focus is not always horribly accurate. Some of the pictures are like my close up vision!

So I'm starting to research new cameras now. Boy there is a lot to choose from. It's been a while since I thought about real photography. When I was younger it was a huge interest of mine, including having my own darkroom. The nice thing about digital photography is that you don't need a darkroom set up. On the other hand, that sure was a lot of fun!