The prodigal camera returneth!

LOOK! I'm visual again!
Kill the fatted calf, my camera turned up in one of the side pockets of my computer bag. I was so glad to see it!

I still can't show you a picture of the shawl I'm working on because it's a secret, but I COULD take a picture of it if I wanted to.

The kids were great in the Spinning and Dying class today -- and that's saying a LOT for middle school kids. They enjoyed petting Andy (although he didn't share their enthusiasm) and listened attentively to the history of spinning and passed around all my fiber samples. Later, one of my helpers said she was impressed with my lecture and how I held their attention. That's the kind of positive feedback I could use every day!

Ally finds out tomorrow whether she got one of the big parts in the high school production of South Pacific. Keep your fingers crossed for her. She's only a sophomore and it's unlikely that she'll get a big part, but she'd really like to play "Bloody Mary," the native trading woman who has a comic role but really good songs. Ally's been singing "Bali Hai" around the house ever since she learned that this year's play is "South Pacific." I hope she's not crushed if she doesn't get the part. I'm nervous for her.

DH gets home tonight! Hurray!

Canon may be getting some more of my business...

Look, ma, no pictures. This is not because I don't want to show pictures, but rather because I am unable to show pictures. My camera has been AWOL since the Morehead trip. I've searched the car and all my bags with a fine toothed comb and still it hasn't turned up. I loved that little thing. I'm still hoping it will show up somewhere unexpected.

So, we will struggle on without visual aids. Actually, I don't have much to show at the moment anyway. I'm making a shawl for the Friendship Spinners gift exchange and I don't want to show it just in case one of the group stumbles across my blog.

I'm looking forward to the retreat at Shakertown in a couple of weeks. In addition to a fiber-related gift exchange, they also have a more structured exchange. Last year, it was hats. I made a felted hat (my specialty) and received a lovely toque-type hat made of alpaca with the words "Friendship Spinners" worked into it. The weavers in the group exchanged woven bath towels -- but, not being a weaver, I didn't participate in that one. This year, the structured exchange is shawls, so both knitters and weavers can participate in one exchange.

My DH is still on the road. He's been in St. Louis since Thursday and should be back very late Monday night. It seems like we've been all girls here for a long time.

Tomorrow I go to R.A. Jones Middle School for the Art Links Adopt-a-School program. I'm showing the kids spinning and then we're kool-aid dying some yarn. In December, another member of the Weaver's Guild will come with her loom and show them how to weave their yarn into a colorful rug for their classrooms.

Ally is making some medieval food for extra credit in her history class. She found a recipe online for what was called a cherry tart. It uses cherries, ricotta cheese, some spices and chopped up "ROSE PETALS." It was a great excuse to buy some roses at the grocery. I can't imagine that the rose petals are going to add much taste, but the recipe specifically called for them and we added them. It smells good anyway and it's about to come out of the oven.

That's all for now. Happy Thanksgiving if I don't post before then.
(picture snagged from the Internet)

On the road again

No pictures today. I'm in the charming town of Morehead, Ky for the high school choral festival held at Morehead College. Ally's been working hard today learning music for the performance tomorrow, but for me its actually more of a vacation. All I have to do is supply transportation when the kids get out of their music classes, read, knit and watch T.V. Yippee!

God bless WI-FI and the Internet. When I was here last year I pretty much exhausted the tourism possibilities for Morehead, so today I've been online a substantial part of the day. So far I've answered all my email and bought a cashmere sweater on eBay. Life is good.

Depression reigns and we all got wet

I'm making slow progress on the moebius lace scarf. It's proving more difficult than I had thought. Although the lace pattern is very simple, the qivuit is not smooth and it's so light -- like a spider's web -- that any mistakes are VERY difficult to correct. I've finally adopted a policy of simply moving on. As long as I don't have any gaping holes (and I do mean gaping) I'm just going to call it lace. It's my interpretation of the pattern ... Ha! Qivuit deserves better, but I'd rather complete it imperfectly than never complete it at all.

Another rather depressing project is staring me in the face: my handspun socks. I made the yarn from the wool Elizabeth Ashford sent me plied with camel down. My color sense is completely colorblind. While the yarn itself looks O.K., when knitted up and seen at a distance the whole color scheme turns to mud. What spinning demon made me ply teal blue with cinnamon brown?

To make it worse, I used up all my camel on the two skeins I made and those two skeins are not going to be nearly enough for the socks. To remedy this problem, I decided to put in heels and toes of solid two-ply teal wool. Turns out that the "toes" are going to have to stretch all the way to the instep. Ah, the joys of "winging it" when you start a project. I really ought to know better. Well, I'll be spending my free time in the next few days spinning more teal yarn.