>Well, I have not managed to learn how to make a photo collage. Everything technical is such a steep learning curve for me!

The garden is looking quite nice….the peonies have just opened, along with the pinks and cranes’ bills and Siberian iris, while the bleeding hearts are fading. My weld is huge and just about to bloom so I’m looking forward to some dyeing! Hopefully I can rejuvenate my indigo vat and get some wild lime green like I saw at Vicki Fraser’s studio two years ago!

My catalog for ATB7 arrived in the mail just before Chris’ graduation. What a wonderful surprise to find part of Buddha’s face on the cover! I’m very honored!

Wedding plans abound, Convergence is just around the corner, I’ve got homework from my Pre-Columbian workshop with Susan Martin Maffei, and three tapestries in various degrees of completion (one that is still in the design stage). My knitted kimono is almost done! It’s sewn together and the knitted band is about 1/2 done. I’d like to wear it to the wedding shower in mid-June….next weekend! Yikes! I’m partially done with a silk kimono style vest that tempted me at the MD Sheep and Wool. It’s a kit from Just Our Yarn. The only downer for me right now is that somehow I’ve caught a summer cold that’s been making the rounds here.

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Can you believe the Saturday crowd at MDS&W this year? It’s downright scary! There are so many spinners now, we could really make a difference in the world if we organized!

Holy smokes! It’s been six weeks since I’ve posted here. I think my little hour glass of sand has all leaked out…..

My younger son the physicist has graduated, I’ve been to The Maryland Sheep and Wool, seen the “Blue” exhibition at the Textile Museum in DC, had a much needed visit with my parents in VA, and spent almost a week away celebrating Memorial Weekend by sailing around Eastern Long Island Sound. Maybe I should try to do a photo collage…..

>There are times when I am decidedly anti-social. I’ve been underground for a couple of weeks now, due to some extremely emotional things in my life which I’m just not willing to write about here. When things are weighing heavily on my mind yet I don’t feel I can write about them, it’s hard to write about anything! So I’ve been underground.

One of the things I find therapeutic for anxiety is spinning! I haven’t spun in over a year, but during the past week I’ve been glued to my wheel. I had bought some silk top from Carol Weymar in two beautiful colorways. I neglected to take a photo of the fiber before I started spinning the green/blue/brown top. The interesting thing is I was attracted to this colorway because it was so watery: blues and greens with only a hint of copper/browns here and there. Yet the finished yarn is decidedly earthy, not watery. I still like it….alot. My skein is just shy of 400 yds. and I’m hoping it will make a very pretty (and small) Swallowtail shawl. I spun this entirely worsted and made a 2-ply.

I began spinning the second colorway yesterday. I finished the second bobbin today. There is only about an ounce on each bobbin, so it’s not a great deal of spinning. This time I spun from the fold and used a modified long draw. I am letting the second bobbin set and will refrain from plying until tomorrow. I can’t wait to see if the yarn is loftier than my worsted skein, and I can’t wait to see what happens to the color. I love all the bright pinks and corals mixed with blues and purples, but I don’t know if I could really wear this colorway! I wonder if it will mute a great deal when it’s plied.

My younger son turned 22 last week, and I went to spend the weekend with him in Rochester (NY). The highlight of our time together was a tour of the laser lab that he arranged for us. The University of Rochester has the largest laser in the world. That must be a little known fact. It was an incredibly impressive machine, but since photography was not allowed I cannot show you just how impressive. They are using this laser to work on fusion, and I hope they figure it out soon! Meanwhile I’ll include a shot of my son’s much smaller laser lab where he works when he’s not in class. It looks quite disorganized although he assures me this is how all labs look!