it’s a june tune

and right on cue, the roses bloomed.
this morning, i woke to the sound of the door knocker at 6:45, jumped up in a panic, RAN to the door, and saw someone just leaving the front of our house to go across the street to ask for money (i know this man, he’s a regular; he won’t take food or clothes—only money for “food” and “clothes”. but usually, he comes by at a decent hour . . .). i dragged myself to the kitchen to make the coffee, noted the gray sky and the rain, glanced out the back window, and presto!!

how is it that nature knows just what we need? yesterday they were tiny, tight buds that looked like they would bloom in maybe a week—today, glory!
tomorrow they will be a shower of petals in the green grass, and new blooms will take their place.

ahh—and not only that, but i know i have only a regular, decent day’s work ahead of me today. which means this evening i have time to knit. last night in class i made much headway on this adorable dress

it looks like an upside-down tulip, no?? i am SO in love with this. the classic silk yarn continues to keep me captivated. and guess what? no knots yet, in either project.
(although, if you will allow me, i was just upstairs winding some schaefer anne into balls, after having just sent off a nice note of thanks for the high yarn quality, and i found a knot in each skein. can you spell arrrgghhh??)

the problem with knitting for 2-year-old girl is that she is not going to stay this size forever. i could make something for her every, single week if she did!
the other thing is, she’s all the way down there in texas, for heavens sake (sorry christine!), so she will almost certainly grow out of them before i ever get to see her in ’em. and, if i had a munchkin of my own, right here, i wouldn’t have time for all this! (i know, quit whining . . .)

last night i was at the yarn shop for classes, and the yarn for one of my skirts had arrived. gotta bust a move on that project now!! i’m pretty excited, and the warm weather is here, so the climate for it is perfect. also, a shipment of schaefer anne had come in, but i abstained. instead, i pointed debbie toward it and she promptly bought the ones i would have gotten. phew. debbie, that was your good deed for the week . . .

and then i cme home and plied the alpaca and romney together into yarn (which took a LOT longer than i expected; there must be quite a bit of yardage there . . .

now here’s a good example of how compact the alpaca spins up, due to its flatter scales. on the bobbins, it appeared that there was quite a bit less alpaca singles than the wool, and that once i plied them i would have wool left over to ply with itself. but not so! instead i had more alpaca yardage, so i did the reverse. and here’s a closeup of the alpaca-only yarn

well, as close as i can get with this camera anyway. see the fuzzy softness—and it feels just the way it looks, too.
i will leave this on the bobbin for a few days to set the twist. that is a little like setting your hair on rollers; you are teaching the yarn to take a shape (fiber can be very cooperative that way!).
then i will give it a good soak in hot, hot water and soap, and hang it to dry.

i expect the yarn to change some in the process, from being sort of limp and wiry to becoming bouncy and shiny (due to the removal of dirt and residual grease). we have a technical term for that change—poofing; the yarn poofs up after washing.
(i know—why is it that technical terminology is SO far removed from what something actually is or does??)