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Yesterday I joined my knitting friends over at Maggie's for an afternoon of knowledge sharing and enabling each other's crafting addictions. Maggie taught Bristol & I crochet:
and I taught them embroidery:
Lynn taught Karen punchneedle technique:
Maria (who's trying to finish 12 knitting stash projects before Rhinebeck!) provided the locally made gelato:
And Chase, Jackson, Hobbes* and Cocoa Bean* provided fur and company (*not pictured):
Yesterday Mr. Cleaver & I fufilled my yearning for homefries at the Miss Portland Diner, spent the afternoon at Crescent Beach State Park, and went to a friends for a barbecue for dinner (where the barbecue caught on fire, so we ended up broiling some steaks inside instead). All in all a perfect summer day.
Rust-Colored Llama from Botanical Shades
Purple Llama from Botanical Shades
Natural Turquoise from Enchanted Knoll Farms
I probably won't spin everyday, but I'm in a good grove and I'm loving the turquoise fiber, so I'll try to keep this roll going. And at the rate I'm going, I'll have used up all my fiber by Rhinebeck, so I can pick up a bunch more guilt-free!
Camping is in my blood. My brother and dad both reached the rank Eagle Scout and as a kid we when car camping all the time in all the state and national parks up and down California. I've always lover camping, but since I started college I've been camping a total of once. So this summer the mister and I decided that we would go camping for our big vacation.
Problem being that aside from the sleeping bag my mother mailed me, we had zero camping equipment. So in the past few months Mr .Cleaver and I have stockpiling camping equipment thanks to a number of gift cards we had received for LL Bean.
While we've made a reservation for a site for a number of days in August, we wanted to take our new gear for a test run first. So this weekend we took a one-night jaunt to the campground at Bradbury Mountain State Park. I brought along the camera to document our test run:
(Didn't think I'd skip my Tour de Fleece responsibilities did you?)
I won't say the box was completely full when we started on the fire, but it was pretty close - but in my defense the wood was kinda damp
I earned this s'more!
Sweet dreams - and then we realized that sleeping pads would be a good idea :)
Yesterday I had my first blogger meet-up with Amy of stash, knit, repeat (also the "Fit to Flatter" series). She was in town visiting some family and we met up at Knit Wit to checkout the new Quince & Co. yarn line, which is made in Southern Maine.
It was great meeting Amy in person and I definitely felt like I was hanging with the cool kids when Amy was recognized about 3 minutes after coming into the shop. It was even more cool when Pam Allen herself popped in to drop over another load of yarn.
The range of colors in this line is fantastic - there are so many variations of each color - 3 or so yellows a half dozen blues, it's a color lover's dream. Amy came out with two sweater's worth, while I restrained myself to 5 skeins of the Chickadee in Delft and Carrie's Yellow (I'm totally in a yellow phase right now). And this yarn is so new, it doesn't even have dye lots yet, because there's only been one!
In other news, I've had my first harvest from my garden - this little head of broccoli. It's been so warm, that it accelerated the growth process and I had to cut it before it bloomed. I actually dreamed about it the day before - I was so worried about the broccoli going to seed. It was ready to go on Thursday, so I chopped it off and ate it raw with some ranch dressing. Don't worry I shared some with Mr. Cleaver.
p.s : I must admit, whenever I work with the broccoli in my garden, I find myself singing the Dana Carvey broccoli song (it starts at the 2:00 minute mark).
Every year in the fiber community there's a little competition/challenge called "Tour de Fleece," the basic gist of which is to spin every day of the Tour de France.
I hadn't given it much (read, any) thought, until about a week ago, when Bristol and Maggie snookered me into playing along. I started 3 days late (so 'll go for a few extra days at the end of the Tour), but I've been going strong with my little spindle, diligently spinning each day.
My starting point (July 3):
Earlier this evening (July 14) :
It's a little hard to tell, but the spindle is much fuller -- I promise!!
I've lost one of four basil plants and a sunflower seed never came up (nor its replacement), but other than that it's looking pretty good. Check it out!
What a wonderfully busy weekend! Between Mr. Cleaver and the country - we spent our whole weekend in celebration. Not that I'm complaining :)
After a leisurely morning on the 3rd, involving the farmer's market and the bakery and a new fishing pole for Mr. Cleaver, we lazed away the afternoon ( I finished my dress) and headed out to eat around 4. We grabbed a meal and some bird watching at The Good Table (our favorite) and then drove down Highway 77 to Prout's Neck for a trek around the Cliff Walk.
The cliff walk is one of those hidden gems that I'm sure everyone knows about, but I didn't until about two weeks ago and Mr. Cleaver didn't know about it until I took him there this weekend, so maybe it is secret. In any case, to take the cliff walk find the house above, right next to the Black Point Inn, and find the small stone path that cuts across the grass. This will take you out to the Cliff Walk.
The Cliff Walk is stunning. There are rocky crags, pink sand beaches, and a beach entirely of smooth round rocks that rattle when the waves recede.
The walk takes between 45 minutes to an hour. Afterward we stopped at the Black Point Inn for cocktails. The bar was busy so they sent us down to the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn (too bad, right? :) ), where we sat and sipped and watched the sun set.
Mr. Cleaver declared the birthday a success. On the way back to town we stopped by the side of the road to snap a few more shots of the sunset.
For the Fourth, I spent the morning baking a belated birthday cake for the Mister, which we had delayed because we knew it would take a while to make this much cake! Though it did mean I had our tiny oven running for a few hours on the hottest day of year thus far!
After all the baking I finally got to put on my new dress!
[Dress: Vogue 8184; Modifications: made band from contrasting color, skipped boning, added in-seam pockets, added horsehair band to hem]
All snazzed up, we headed our to my Mother-In-Law's for a cookout with the family. Mr. Cleaver's older brother offered some hints and tackle for the new pole.
Once we were stuffed to the gills, Mr. Cleaver and I joined half of Portland for the Portland Symphony Orchestra pops concert/fireworks show. The addition of PSO to the festivities was a great touch!
I hope every one else had an enjoyable weekend too!
A big happy birthday to my greatest catch!
