In my dreams...

Oh what a beautiful day it was today! The sun was bright, the sky was blue, and the humidity at bay. A splendid day all around! It was the kind of day I could only dream about in NY... Knitting on the porch in the peace and quiet, spinning--which took an exciting turn today, and weaving on a totally make-shift backstrap loom. Besides, I finally got my patio table set up; it had been in pieces beside the kitchen entry since I arrived in late April. The patio is missing, of course, but that too shall be attended to in the near future.

The knitting which brought me such bliss this morning is the rainbow yarn I spun up last winter. I'm finally getting around to knitting it up into a spectrum of a scarf.

Now that the color transitions are starting to manifest themselves, it's a pretty exciting knit. Constantly thinking of Judy Garland when I work on this! -- for some reason.

So what, you may ask, could make my spinning suddenly more exciting than ever? Walking! I started walking with my spindle. And it's just fabulous! The "mongrel top" I bought at the NH Sheep and Wool festival this spring is what I'm spindling at the moment, and early this afternoon I embarked on foot for a bit of exercise with wool in hand. For one thing, it doubles the pleasure of spinning knowing I'm getting some--much needed--exercise, and it doubles the pleasure of walking knowing I'm getting something productive done! Yippee!

This yarn is for a new winter hat which I will much need come November or December.

For some time I've enjoyed pictures of some awesome Andean pebble weaving on a few of the Ravelry forums. The exquisite beauty of the fabrics lured me into obtaining a copy of Laverne Waddington's book "Andean Pebble Weave"--which I downloaded as an eBook. It's a treasure of a book, very clearly written with instructions starting at square zero. So this afternoon I trekked out back and found some right-sized branches from fallen limbs and fashioned myself a primitive backstrap loom. Following Laverne's wonderful instructions I proceeded to wind a warp and get weaving. Oooh, it's satisfying. I think something to do with the fact that the loom is simple and can be constructed with readily found material strikes a deep chord within. I haven't woven much yet, and I've already made a few mistakes! But, hey, that's what learning's for!

No, it's not a good quality photo. When I get a bit more woven I'll take a close-up of the weaving.

ETA: The small table pictured above is not my patio table, it's a small cast-aluminum outdoor cafe table and chairs. My patio table...