Paris

Photos speak louder than words. Enjoy.

   

   

   

   

Back to Wool

The Black Sheep Gathering has come and gone once again, leaving a bit of fiber frenzy in its wake. My mom was in town for the weekend and we got to visit the fiber festival a couple of times, leaving with a reasonable amount of yarn and fiber and a set of matching sweatshirts. I couldn't resist the price on this handspun wool from SPORFARM in the "Sunflower" colorway.

The scent of wool got me wooldrunk and I suddenly was struck with a desire to spin yarn, so much so that I would have blindly dropped my checkbook into the first spinning wheel booth I found! Thankfully, rather than spending hundreds of dollars on a brand new spinning wheel, Kathy came to the rescue and lent me her unused wheel, complete with a how-to book and a variety of fiber to play with.

I am really excited about the wheel, especially since this morning I found the "brake band" and was able to actually make yarn. Whee!! The yellow stuff shown in this photo is the yarn I spun, while the beautifully uniform teal yarn was already on the bobbin.

I'm glad to have something new to work with because lately I have been working on a project that is not incredibly exciting, something that I would rather nap with than work on ... the Lizard Ridge blanket is almost done, only one and a half balls of Noro Kureyon to go before I knit the border with a contrasting yarn.

Another highlight of the weekend was a hike to view some interesting rock formations; here are the knitters in the wild, wearing our matching Black Sheep Gathering sweatshirts (and a little sweat from the climb, perhaps):

Mom, Kathy, Me

Ice Age

Yesterday I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in my sunny back yard. First, I made a mojito, refreshing and minty...

And then I began my project, which has been "on ice" for about a week. One Drop Yoyos recently had a photography contest, and I was the judge. In looking at the creative ideas submitted by each contestant, I found a photo of a yoyo encased in a block of ice, and decided to see what I could do with this concept... Here are the best results for your viewing pleasure!

My favorite

Splashing out

Yoyo melon

Red bubble

My new desktop background

The Bears and the Bees

Let me tell you about the bears and the bees...

Well, once upon a time, there was a bear. He lived in the forest! One day he was walking west, like bears do, and he came to a paved road running through his forest. He was pondering this road when he noticed a sound coming along the road toward him. He looked up the road and saw a quiet electric car gliding along, with a person and a camera hanging out the window!

"Oh bother," the bear thought. "This cannot be good. What shall I do? ... Think, think, think." He decided putting distance between him and this car would be a good idea, so he began rambling along the road away from the car. He was content with this approach until he noticed the car... getting closer... and closer still! "Oh bother!" he thought again, and turned and ran back into the forest!

The bear, still wanting to go west, like bears do, realized he had never crossed the road, and had ran back into the forest the way he had come. "Oh bother," he said to himself. "Think, think, think." The bear decided to walk along the road a ways, hidden from site, and once he had gone far enough he would try the crossing again. Several minutes passed. He poked his tan bear-nose out of the underbrush along the side of the road and looked both ways. Spotted again! The car had parked in the shade and the people were having a picnic! He pulled his bear nose back into the underbrush and ran away like a scaredy-cat (or a scaredy-bear)! Much to his delight, he never saw that car again.

The bees did not have such an exciting day. They saw the people, and the car, and heard the clickclickclick of the camera shutter; but they were much too busy to be bothered. They just bumbled along, visiting every wildflower, without a moment's rest...

   
And that is the story of the bears and the bees. David and I had a lovely day, unexpectedly finding ourselves in the Willamette National Forest with a camera, some chips and salsa, and not a care in the world.

Bubblicious!

I've lately been obsessed with photographing an object that creates an optical illusion, and appears to be a glass bubble. Here is the original photo that got me started on this track...

I found myself unable to stop, and continued to find settings that would make this bubble "pop"...




A trick of the lens, really what we are seeing is the rim of a glass that is perfectly aligned with the camera's viewpoint. I'll probably spend a few more hours (at least) playing with the amazing refractions and reflections that one can find in a glass before I get bored and move on to something else, like bees and flowers and ... bears.

Here is my current desktop background, a distorted image of tulips and poppies through the glass.