Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...some progress on all fronts. I started spinning a new fiber. This is Walk In The Forest, a Wensleydale fiber that I bought at the Taos Wool Festival in 2016. I finished the singles and vowed that I wouldn't spin Wensleydale again. It was hard on my hands and not an enjoyable spin. I do loved the colors, though. I will ply it to finished it off. In between spinning sessions, I worked on some cross stitch and some of mom's paperwork. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Pearl Orchid (cross stitch) Re-stitched the area that I had to pull out last week. Dreaming Cleo (cross stitch) Working on the hair and headpiece Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Updated the Word document listing the blocks and the reasons behind them. Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Knit a few pattern repeats to see whether I want to continue on the project. So far, the answer is yes. No Work This Week: ...

 ...trying to get out to photograph more that just our yard. There is an almond tree across the street from the local elementary school. It is gorgeous when is sets all of its blossoms. The only problem is that the tree is very efficient in moving from blossoms to fruit (nuts?). Most years, I don't get a chance to take photos. This years I caught it before it completely moved to setting fruit. and another view: A daffodil has emerged in our front yard. And the rosemary is blooming.

 ...in which I revive my sourdough bread skills. I've been feeding my sourdough starter for several months (years?). I had to put it all away when we did the remodel. I had locate everything and replace a lot of my supplies because they aged out. Yesterday, I started a new loaf and immediately ran into problems. Muscle memory had not yet returned and I measured something incorrectly. I tried adjusting the remaining ingredients and crossed my fingers. Fortunately, I had enough started where I could start another loaf, this time measuring correctly. The recipe that I use instructs you to refrigerate the unbaked loaves for 12-20 hours. I refrigerated the two loaves overnight. This morning I baked them both. So far so good. After they cooled, we cut into them. The incorrect recipe came out a little dense, but it tasted good. The correct recipe turned out great and had a wonderful taste! Yum! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Pearl Orchid (cross stitch)...

 ...and Eye Candy Friday. I finished spinning the Tour de Fleece 2023 Handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 2/7/2024 Finished 2/15/2024 Merino-Bamboo-Silk (4 oz.) from Greenwood Fiberworks 208.3 yds. chain-ply, 13 WPI Things are starting to bloom in the backyard. These are from our flowering plum tree:

 ...new year, new attempt to get back to normal. Finished: 1/4 Hip To Be Square quilt (quilting) 1/13 Opal Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Merino-Stellina (4.0 oz) from Greenwood Fiberworks 95.8 yds. chain-ply, 8 WPI 1/20 Winged Dreams (cross stitch) 1/23 Frost Flower mini (cross stitch) 1/27 Less Salmon More Run Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Merino-Silk-Yak (4.0 oz) from Seattle Sky Dyeworks 204.2 yds. chain-ply, 13 WPI Books: The Beach Quilt, Holly Chamberlain Key Lime Garden Inn, Annie Cabot A Captiva Wedding, Annie Cabot Captiva Memories, Annie Cabot Captiva Nights, Annie Cabot Captiva Ever After, Annie Cabot Captiva Hearts, Annie Cabot Captiva Hideaway, Annie Cabot Return to Captiva, Annie Cabot Last Night, Luanne Rice Sanibel Dreams, Hope Holloway Sanibel Treasures, Hope Holloway Sanibel Mornings, Hope Holloway Sanibel Sisters, Hope Holloway Sanibel Tides, Hope Holloway Sanibel Sunsets, Hope Hol...

 ...and I'm back home again. While I was away, I finished the singles for Tour de Fleece 2023 Handspun: I'll ply this now that I have access to my Lendrum wheel. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Pearl Orchid (cross stitch) Working on center motif Tour de Fleece 2023 Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started 2/7/2024. Ready to ply. No Work This Week: Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mermaid’s Lagoon Socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Ocean Ripples Wrap (knitting) [ Ravelry ]  Singularity Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ]  Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)  Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) UFOs/Hibernation: Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint) Illusion Cube Blanket (knitting) [ Ravelry ]

 ...blog and run. This mornings sky from mom's house:

 ...and I'm away from home again. Someday all of mom's estate things will be done and i can stop coming here so often. Being away means that I am limited to what I can work on. I brought a couple of things, including this mini cross stitch project: I also brought my Kiwi 3 spinning wheel. I hope to be able to start on a new bump of fiber while I'm here. I finished the binder project, but I'm not posting a photo -- a photo of a full binder isn't going to reflect the contents.  The binder contains formatted and printed versions of my month and year-end blog recaps.  Consider it a hard-copy backup of the blog pages. Anyway, I was 3 years behind, so I'm now caught up through the end of 2023. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Pearl Orchid (cross stitch) Started 1/31/2024 Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) Rethinking the layout for the sampler. No Work This Week: Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) M...

 ...and trying to keep the momentum going. This is Sherbet Handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up Specs: Started 1/28/2024 Finished 2/3/2024 Merino-Bamboo-Silk (4.0 oz) from Greenwood Fiberworks 243.75 yds. chain-ply, 14 WPI

 ...blog and run. The Husband planted violas in our courtyard. This pot is next to my studio door.

 ...I took a photo of it and got side-tracked on the way to Blogger. I started a new spinning project. I finished the singles yesterday, after I took this photo. This is Sherbet [ Ravelry ] WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Ocean Ripples Wrap (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Added a few rows Pearl Orchid (cross stitch) Started 1/31/2024 Project Binder (documentation) Finished formatting recaps in FrameMaker and created PDF. Sherbet handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started 1/28/2024 Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) Gathering potential items for the sampler. No Work This Week: Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mermaid’s Lagoon Socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Singularity Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) UFOs/Hibernation: Bear Paw potter...