Old world walk.

 It has been a while since I wrote, no real reason just very busy and with the kids back in school I am hoping to get more time to write.  I thought I would post some pictures of what we have been doing.  In the above photo, are my kids walking with a friend's kids or in the cases of those specs in the distance, running ahead.  We spent a lovely day at Old World Wisconsin. 

 This is a kettle pond and very low due to the drought.

 One of the farmstead on the site.  We had perfect weather for being outside all day.

 At the German heritage are they had activities for the kids. Wearing wooden shoes...

 Sweeping the porch... um playing Harry Potter and mowing the lawn.

I love old barns.

welcome to the studio

I was help out at the Pike River Rendezvous explaining the artifacts that had been recovered from the Resique Tavern site, which is at the same place as the Rendezvous.  The tent next to us had this beauty for sale.  I hemmed and hawed about it all day, then decided to buy it.  I was driving my Saturn, but the lady told me it fit in the back of their car... Yep you guessed it.  I am hot, sun-burnt in fact, and standing there with the man who sold it to me, no way to get it in my car and it is threatening to storm. Neither of us have any tools with us to take it off the stand.  Disaster!  When suddenly, a very nice total stranger said "if you are not going far, it will fit in my mini-van. I'll follow you."  I live about an hour from where we are standing, but a dear friend lives only a mile or so and I saw her at the Rendezvous.  So we load it up and take it to her house, but she is not home! luckily her porch was, so we unload it as the rain starts.  I call my parents, who only live about 20 minutes away.  Dad is at a woodworking conference in the next state and won't be home until late.  I call another friend - it was her wedding I was making dresses for - and she is home.  She and her husband race to rescue me.  It won't fit in her new car either!  They have not moved their tool bag into the new car, so her husband drives back across town to get them.  We manage to get it disassembled and into my car, then go back to their house to relax, wait out the storm, and eat some yummy homemade chocolate hazelnut ice cream.  When we got there I realized that not only did she drop everything when I called she did so in the middle of her dinner!  They say a real friend helps you hide the body, in my world a real friend drops everything to help you, even when the help you need is completely due to your own poor planning.  

Yarn along - long pink days

Linking up with Ginny at Small Things for the Yarn along, check it out.

 I am crocheting this blanket for my husband's cousin's baby.  Baby A is born and beautiful and growing faster than this blanket.  The blanket is about 16 inches square right now.  It is soft and pretty but tiresome and I have so many other projects! (That I would rather, and in some cases really need to be working on instead.) I am reading The Race by Clive Cluster, I enjoy his books this is a historical fiction set at the beginning of manned flight.  His normal stuff is a bit faster paced action save the world science fiction, maritime science.  I am also reading about spinning and weaving.

 Here is the skirt for Butterfly that I was working on the last time I yarn along-ed.  I will be entering it into the fair challenge. Oh and I really do not like tutu yarn, it took about 7 hours to pull all the fluffy stuff to the right side of the skirt! Butterfly thinks it is beautiful though and that is what matters.

My Amazing Father made these Oak, Walnut, and Maple crochet hooks.  These are prototypes he is planning on going in to business selling his wood-crafting work. They are sitting on a wool scarf I knit, 3strands at a time for extra warmth, for my cousin for Christmas.

Knitting and Crocheting along to see what is in everyone else's workbaskets. ~ Julia

Understitching and life lessons.

I normally craft as fast as possible and with a deadline, I am very good at it. I have been really enjoying spinning, to the point of not working on other things that have deadlines in order to spin, but when someone asks what the yarn I am making is for I feel a little panicky. FOR? um it is not FOR anything, I made it. 

I was just working on the 1840 dress for Badger, I estimated to have it finished in two days tops. I noticed the instructions were 'out of order' and overly complicated and started to look for why they were building the dress in this manner. I was stunned by the simplicity of the final product and the benefit to the dress all the "wasted extra steps" add. I started to understitch the back and was suddenly filled with the calm that spinning brings to me.

So there it is.  Self realization does not have to look like much, the bottom have of the photo is the inside of the bodice of her dress the top half is my ironing board cover, which is actually pink and clearly in need of cleaning.

I hope you work on something today that brings you piece and calm. ~ Julia  (Joy too!)

Yarn Along - sweater skirt

Joining with the Yarn Along at Small Things, Thanks for hosting Ginny!

 I am knitting a skirt for Butterfly as a fair challenge. We were given the fuffy yarn there - it is called Tutu by Berroco - and have to use it in something, either knit of crochet that shows it to good advantage and uses most of the two balls! So we will see.

I am crocheting actually two baby blankets using the same pattern (two day blanket) but two completely different yarns.  I ran out of yarn on the other and am waiting for the order to come in.  I find the traditional baby yarn one above to take longer and not look quite a nice.  Both are very soft and washable.

I am reading Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert.  I am most of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it. It is about a lawyer who decided to change her life, slowing down and enjoying it, she now sells herb in a small shop in a small town.  It is a murder mystery as well.  I just happened to notice the puny tittle while walking past the stacks in the library.  So glad I got the second in the series at the same time.  I recently read The Urban Homestead, it was a great inspiration all about starting now and not waiting until you have your farm or the 'perfect' plot of land.  

Though I would include a shot of the finished throw that I was working on last time I join the yarn along.  I hope you projects are going well! ~ Julia

Fair projects

This is what I entered.  The boys did very well and Mouse is now an apprentice on the competition team that Beaver is on.  I had to leave everyone home to bring it all home, next year I am may need a truck... the boys both do train sections and this year a few people did not show up so to run the train we had to bring in our sections from previous years.  Three trips to bring it all there only one to get it home.  The dress is the one I made for the steampunk themed wedding.  Fair is done! time to start preparing for the one I grew up at, the family has been camping at that one since I was two the whole extended family would stop by and my Grandma and her sister would park their trailers and it would be a week long family gathering.  They are both gone now, and the family in that sense has moved further away but Mom & I still do it.  

wheel and treats

just when I feel like me schedule will allow me to begin posting again, my laptop stops working and my husband is too busy to fix it! So computer access these days requires wriggling through a que of four children, who all play nicely and cooperate while using the computer.  Um, yeah I'll read a book or spin like a mad fiend instead.  The upside I have gotten a lot of spinning, reading, crocheting, and knitting done. Downside, I am generally checking my email after the person who sent it has called to ask why I am not answering!

So here are some pictures of what I have been doing.

The first skein.

my favorite seat in the house

Shiny new wheel, now with footprints.

The back is that fun merino that Donna of Ester's place gave me. The front is a roving I bought from Fine Line.

This has tiny pink beads strung on it.

A white my MIL bought me mixed with the leftover wool that came with my wheel.

Finished throw.

Yarn cave. Who would not want a yarn cave?!

Some of the pretties.

Same spot different yarn.

Yes, I do have yarn hanging from everywhere. The white is from the wool I bought at Sheep and Wool, very dirty.  I figured out what I was doing wrong in scouring. I have hard water and should be using detergent not soap.

This the wool the wheel came with, and the first skein.

Pretty roving I picked up at Fiddlehead Yarns.

I hope you have had a creative and productive few weeks! ~ Julia