This is a ravelry heavy post.For those unfamiliar, ravelry.com is a social site designed for knitters, but also home to those who spin, crochet, weave, felt and whatFIBERever. It's free so if any of those creative things interest you, join - and then friend me. I'm sorry you won't all (or maybe any) understand the specifics of this post, but i do hope you can still enjoy the nature and meaning within. 

Here's the thing about ravelry ... I browse handspuns from my friends of Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners, delighting in color & texture - even their projects that make me giddy! I search for a pattern, narrowing criteria for my needs - but often finding a new interesting pattern as the images pop up between clicks and refreshing of the search page. Even though i am not actively knitting or spinning i feel the inspiration working. I can leave the computer full of plans and ideas, maybe with printed patterns, notes for a spinning technique. 

Once in awhile i stay too long. I know what you are thinking, "not possible! you would never stay on the computer too long - especially not on a site with literally thousands of potential projects and incalculable variations to such projects!! no.way." But i do ... sometimes.

A new year another great adventure, who's with me?

A lot of change is looming on my horizon. Some days i really don't want to be happy about it, but i am. I am excited. Don't misunderstand me, though - there is a mountain of work included and i want to rise to the occasion. 

Maybe i will even discover a new color along the way ... hold on ...

(:

I have been a productive knitter lately.  Some are items for sale, some are gifts, some are just because ...  I do enjoy knitting, the whole process of starting with an idea or pattern, yarn and sticks making knots and loops until something magical happens and *poof* a finished product (hahahahaha, it's always that easy, right?)

I dream of spinning ... frustrated with my art & my being right now ... spinning will return, it always does.  

For now? on with knitting!

Join me at Grinny Possum sometime - for a class, special project or just to knit!

SIFAF2011 was a fantastic weekend ... lots of sunshine and fibery fun!  No drama to report - but also no huge finds ... tho i do have a few peeks coming later.

My current dilemma is what to do with these 2 skeins of handspun:

yes, i do realize yarn can live and be very happy at my house without a goal in mind ... but these 2 yarns long to be together!  A corespun red with a lovely sheen playing over its bumps and hives and a firework burst of blue et al ... approximately 25 yards of each, so a hat would be possible. but i really make a lot of hats.  Not that this one wouldn't be fantastic!  But i am looking for another idea ... not even a specific pattern, per se, but a structural idea.  The result could be "next to skin" because of the smooth and loft involved here.  SO, please share your ideas, thoughts, random words of knit and spin love - whatever you have!

I thought of making this a contest, but i really just want to hear ideas for now.  HOWEVER, we may make this a regular segment and regular contest of sorts - so ponder that, too :)

Most who are even aware of this blog are aware that we homeschool.  I have a list of about 147 reasons we choose homeschool, but it boils down to: i like being a mom.  As a trained (stop laughing) teacher I have worked with literally hundreds of children in some capacity and many many adults (as well as dozens in between!) and i never tire of that gleam in the eyes when someone "gets it".  I especially adore it in the eyes of my own girlie :)

We have an adventure almost daily.  Sometimes it involves getting in a vehicle and driving to a place, sometimes it is within our yard or the park and somedays it is only confined by our imaginations as we read a book or craft a raft that might take us far beyond the bathtub drain.

When i was around 12 years old i read a quote in a quote book that went something like this: "Never tell a child something is impossible for he may have been born to this world for just that purpose".  I've tried to live by that basic idea since.  The two things i was known for as a preschool teacher was 1) students who sat in a circle when i asked them to and b) outlandish creative ideas that could get terribly messy.  (oh, and blue milk, but that is another post.)  Kind of a "live with the rules, but enjoy the fringe, too" sort of method.

Our homeschool and home life are far from perfect on so many levels.  But there is not one day with my creative, sweet, sometimes too smart and sly girlie that i would trade for any other reality.  I don't feel like i'm "rediscovering the world thru her eyes" as some would say.  For me it is a whole new world and i enjoy watching her explore and discover on her own. 

"To live" certainly is an awfully big adventure - i enjoy it all and pray i give my girlie a good dose of curiosity so she will keep adventuring, always.