Happy dancing all around! The shawl is finished. Blocked and folded away,ready to be worn as soon as it gets cool out. Although I don't ever think that will happen. *sigh*More tomorrow.

Looks like some yarn to me! I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt with a drop spindle. It made about 44 yards of a worsted weight and I can use it when I make another one of Kristin Nicholas' pair of socks or gloves. Just enough to use as an accent color.I am working on some more in a blue-grey color that should make about twice as much. I do enjoy the spinning though. Once I get going it's very relaxing and mesmerizing to watch the spindle go 'round and 'round.

This isn't a very good picture (it's hard to get a decent picture when you are sitting in the passenger seat and driving by) but it's the loveliest field of sunflowers. And not the gigantic kind, which to me are rather creepy, but the medium,rather managable sized kind.
As we drove by, a family had stopped and was taking a photo of the wife and kids in front of them. Should be a good shot.

It's just been to hot to cook so don't have any photos of any food. Lots of watermelon. Yum. And loads and loads of iced tea. On the plus side I am almost finished with the shawl...wooohooooo! Oly 14 more hexagons and then I have to figure out where I can pin it down to block it.

I can hardly wait for the weather to change so I can wear it. But that's obviously not going to happen for awhile. Especially since they are saying it's going to be 95* here on Saturday. I am NOT going out! I'm sure that I'm not the only one either.

Not the greatest pictures but you get the idea. This is my first spinning. I just used some roving that I got at my lys and so far it's going pretty well. I'm not convinced that it's right but it looks like yarn so I assume that it is correct.

Unfortunately I just found out that the Central Ohio Weaver's Guild was meeting down the street at the local park today. (www.cowg.org). Too bad I didn't know that before or I would've gone down. :(

Certainly easier than driving to Columbus.

Still so hot. I'm over the halfway mark on my swirl shawl so that's looking up. It's a good thing that I have some new dvd's to keep me occupied while knitting. Season 3 of Numbers and Newsradio. When they sell them in a package ...3 seasons for $14.99 it's hard to pass them up. So I have been enjoying those. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that show.
Bought some more roving today. One of the local farmers' markets had a woman there who made felted bowls, animals, etc... and was selling some lovely undyed wool roving for about 1 ounce for $5.00. Got about 2 oz. worth and she was pretty generous. Filled a gallon-size Ziploc bag to the top so that should keep me busy for awile. One of our Quaker parrots (Rufus) really loves the drop spindle. I say "it's time to spin" and he comes running down from the top of his cage and goes up and down with the spindle. When I am finished he is so tired. But he will bob up and down as long as I keep spinning. I'd hate to see what he'd do with a spinning wheel!

The shawl is growing! It is almost addictive to watch it with each hexagon. Plus, it's just too freakin' hot to do anything else.

Be back soon.

Whew! It's HOT. Like so many other places I'm sure. I have been "hiding'' out in the house the last few days and just haven't left for anything. Been busy watching season 3 of Numbers and Michael Palin (he was my favorite of the Monty Python-ers...so cute) Pole to Pole. It's always nice to armchair travel.

On the upside, I've gotten alot of knitting done. This is the swirl shawl but it has grown exponentially.

The colors aren't true but you can see the general idea.
It's actually much longer now. I'm just starting the third row. There are 5 rows so it will be a nice sized shawl. The hexagons are addictive and I keep knitting so I can see what it looks like.

It's been too hot to turn on the stove or the oven so these are a few things that I made the other day.




These are breakfast sandwiches. English muffins with tofu eggs, Teese brand cheddar cheese and the apple-sage sausage that I made. A little yellow mustard and they are great to heat up and grab to run out the door.

The plate is scrambled tofu with vegetables, hash browns and whole-grain toast with the best watermelon jam that I found at a farmers' market.Both the recipes are from a great cookbook by Alicia Simpson called "Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food" and I haven't made one thing from it that hasn't been fabulous. A good cookbook to own for a nice overview of vegan cooking. Nothing too hard to find, ingredient-wise and nice, concise instructions.
This is just a pizza that I threw together with some flatbread that I had. Marinated, roasted portobella mushrooms, onion, home-grown tomatoes (which I am sorry to say will probably be the last of those since my tomato plant has developed some kind of nasty blight :( ...so sad) and fresh basil and mozzarella Daiya "cheese".

I wasn't too sure about the Daiya cheese when I first bought it. I think it's because I haven't had cheese in so long that the "fat mouth feel " (thank you Chef Amanda!) kind of made me queasy. But if I am not heavy-handed with it I find it to be quite tasty sprinkled on things.

I have also been making my own frozen soy lattes lately with Starbucks Via coffee. I wasn't sure
if I would like it as much as my 'bucks but it is fabulous!! I also use coffee soymilk and wowza! I'm impressed. And saving money so that's a plus.

Well, off to refill my iced tea and knit a few more hexagons. Take care and stay cool.