Maybe I've lost focus here. The frog was damn cute. But let's face facts. This isn't Marlin Perkins' Animal Kingdom. This is a knitting blog. This is knitting. This is Marla's back:
The front is coming up to the end of the first repeat. Rather than knitting, I have been spending time being brainwashed educated in the topic of spinning. Poor Marla has been languishing, and is doing some of the piteous crying we all can hear from neglected WIPs. If I personify my knitting a bit here, TELL me that you are totally innocent and never do that to your WIPs.
I have two projects I want to start. I have yarn for both in the mini-stash. Elizabeth bag is calling out for a chance at a useful life. The other potential WIP is Leaf Lace shawl, by Fibertrends, in wonderful Judy yarn. I know better than to put this to a vote. You would tell me to live up to the Summer of Lace button on my sidebar and start the shawl. Tough group, this.
The weather has finally made gardening possible. I'm planting next year's pictures performers. My husband chased a deer out of our front yard this morning, THEN told me to get the camera. I'll just flash a flower that was tall enough to survive the large rodent's appetite:
This pretty lady is Clematis 'Candida languinosa' from White Flower Farm in Connecticut. It's in a temporary spot, which has become a permanent home. Twining fifteen feet up a Cornus kousa dogwood, the two have formed an unexpected and harmonious relationship. You can see the dogwood flowers* on the left.
I need to look at some of Cassie's wheel links today. Just in case a wheel jumps into my bags at Rhinebeck, I need to be prepared.
Mamacate phrased it a different way: "Well, actually I think that ship may have already sailed..."
*Dogwood flowers are not true flowers. They are modified leaf bracts.
Rhinebeck??? HA! Too far away.
Posted by: claudia | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 09:49 AM
Two words: "Portable Joy."
Just that phrase alone makes me feel like I need one.
Posted by: Lee Ann | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 10:05 AM
Laurie..I am now owned by three wheels, so I do have some experience on the subject! The first was bought "cold"...I knew nothing about spinning, but husband liked the turnings on a Kromski Minstrel! I also now have a wonderful Kromski Symphony, which is a big, saxony wheel that spins like a dream. However, the one I would recommend (and Judith MacKenzie McCuin apparently agrees that it is the most versatile wheel out there) is the Lendrum Double Treadle. If you get the complete package, it comes with a huge plying head as well as a lace flyer. I don't use the lace flyer, can't live without the plying head. The Lendrum is solid maple, very clean lines....looks great in the living room. It also folds very quickly if you need to get it out of the way or into the car for a class or group. It spins like butter and is simply constructed so that replacement parts are easy to find at the hardware store. If you are planning to go to Rhinebeck, Gord Lendrum will be there at someone's booth and you can both try it and buy it that day. (If you order, you will wait!) Get the Woodland Woolworks spinning catalogue...the best discussion of wheel types I've ever seen.
Posted by: Marcia | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 11:04 AM
just what I need - another excuse to do what you do. We buy spindles on the same day...wouldn't it be (fun? crazy? odd? planned?) great if we wound up buying wheels at the same time.
(I hope that you gave your husband a look and then explained the situation in terms of pictre-taking.... :) )
Posted by: Kristen | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 11:23 AM
Love that clematis. Mine aren't open yet. It's pouring here. POURING. Don't know what the weekend holds in store, but the weeds sure are thriving.
Posted by: Norma | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 11:32 AM
In your defense, it is not yet summer, technically. I say knit what you want. :)
Posted by: Andrea | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 11:40 AM
Better check those wheel links. You'll need them :)
Pretty knitting and very pretty flowers.
Posted by: Risa | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 12:43 PM
Don't worry about the knitting focus, the picture of the toad on the peony is gorgeous!
Posted by: DeanB | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 03:26 PM
I thought about responding to your comment on Cassie's page, but instead hopped over here; you've got till August 14th-ish to set a date for a weekend wheel meet-up..... :-)
Posted by: Kristen | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 08:56 PM
Marla is sooo cute.
Posted by: Colleen | Saturday, June 18, 2005 at 08:27 AM