Sneak Peek

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things.....
...and these are just some of the things I'll have at our Countryside Studio Tour this weekend and next, December 4, 5, 6 & 11, 12, 13.


Cocktail knives and forks


Winestoppers


Fanciful ornaments


Kirsten models a new shawl with collar in a new colorway, 'Bluebell'




New nuno felted scarves


Felt squares for crafting




some of the felt pieces look like watercolors.


A hoodie baby blanket out of the softest cotton ever (I know, ugly baby)


Holiday 'This is It' yarn. One skein makes a beautiful scarf, just in time for the holiday parties.


'Minuet', my new lace yarn with a whopping 2480 yards in an 8 oz. skein!


New colorway, 'Morning Mist', inspired by the view across the road from us, the sun rising over the foggy field below.


I really like the way this Retro-Active Cabled Scarf turned out. It is mostly moss stitch, with a cable right down the middle, a slit on both ends to pull the spade shaped ends through. A great scarf to try out four types of stitch patterns.


It's really long too, about 80".


Miss Crossbeak checks out the stars. Add a star to your holidays. I've painted quite a few, ready for any room inside or on a building outside.

Straw Into Gold

I've been dying like mad lately, getting ready for my last tours of the year. Phew! I throw a huge pile of colorful yarn in a pile upstairs in my studio and.......


it turns into this! I can hardly believe my good fortune! It's like Rumplestilskin and the miller's daughter spinning straw into gold. Except this is turning 300 yard skeins into 100 yards skeins. (boring!)


And my good luck comes in the form of Super Duper Extra Special Fast and Impressive... the Amazing Abi. She comes in stealthily, quietly goes out to the studio and sets the skeiner in motion for hours at a time. Six months ago I put up an ad in our local post office..."Boring work in a colorful studio. Make your own hours. Call......."


I had four responses but hired Abi because she said she liked boring work. She is a lifesaver. My least favorite job is skeining. I'm too ADD for it. I listen to music while skeining and after ony 10 minutes I say, "OK, one more song and I can quit." I don't have stick-to-it-tive-ness. But I did do it for 20 years, hand turning the skeiner sometimes over 10,000 times in a few days. I now have an electric one which makes the job a bit easier (not less boring tho).
On this Thanksgiving Eve, I just want to say that I am thankful to Abi for letting me do the things I really like doing, like dying more yarn that needs to be skeined.

Peachtree Ride

Yesterday was yet another lovely day in the neighborhood so I hopped on my bike for a quick ride to Peachtree Road. Luckily I grabbed my camera because the light was changing, getting low and making those long shadows that come at 8:30 in the summer but now start at about 4:00 this time of year. The peach trees are pruned and look like they have arms and a torso with very big hair.

The orchards create a tapestry of texture and subtle color.


I'm not sure what sort of trees these are, they were too far away for me to discern. But they had the most soothing colors, soft oranges, peaches and tangerines (perfect for an orchard!).


Kingsbury Orchard is 102 years old, run by the great-great grandson of the original Mr. Kingsbury. They've developed their own white peach, Kingsbury Pride, a delectable, juicy white peach.


Little baby peachtrees, all staked out for the winter ahead.


I hope yesterday wasn't the last warm day, although I'm grateful for every one we've had this late in the year. It just doesn't seem like next week is Thanksgiving with this nice weather. I'm thankful for being able to ride my bike just around the corner to Peachtree Road, with expansive views, Sugarloaf Mountain in the background and white peaches in my freezer!

I Think I Love My Windows

Boy oh boy...Do I have the cleanest windows ever?! Like they're not even there! Cuz they're not. Thanks to Obama's weatherproofing incentive program (what a great idea!) we got the windows of our dreams for the sunroom. I loved how the old windows looked (true mullions, very sunroomy looking) but not how they performed. They were so drafty we caulked them shut so in the summer I baked in that room. Yeah, we're some of the few folks who don't have air conditioning. About 10 years ago we replaced all the windows in our house but the quote for the sunroom was as much as the entire house so we opted not to do them then. A few weeks ago we special ordered the nine sunroom windows, five basement windows and a storm door for the front door. The weather couldn't have been nicer for Window Replacement Day. We got the old windows (my husband likes to say "winders") off and the hardest part of this entire job was taking off the copper weatherstripping that was put on probably in 1930. Every inch was a tack refusing to come out so the copper had to be cut around each tack, pulled off and the tack pounded further into the wood.


I do encourage anyone to do this themselves. Replacement windows are rather easy to put in. As long as they're not up too high. The most dangerous part of this job was getting poked by the holly bush outside. My hands did take a beating with that copper stripping though.


I LOVE windows that open and close, open and close. These windows open with a crank and I really do like going in every day and cranking them open and closed, with a big smile on my face.


Caluked, painted and ready for winter. Bring it on!

If I Were a Chicken....

.... I'd rather lay a skinny egg than a fat one!


Yep, my hens are FINALLY laying. They heard my talking about how lame they were and how I was spending all this money on feed for them and they would just take, take, take. While my son and I were cleaning out the coop yesterday I said "If they don't start laying soon, their ass is grass, (what does that mean, really?!). Well, I guess I scared them cuz when I went out today, their were 2 eggs! Yippee! Lay on ladies! thx