We Had An Earthquake!

This is news! Arkansas had an earthquake yesterday! 2.5 only, but we are a long way from the West Coast. Yes, I know there is a fault line in eastern Arkansas, but that's a long distance from here. This is a baby praying mantis on the screen door on the porch. He is only about an inch long, although he looks bigger here.

This is a long story. Some years ago I did a commissioned batch of spun bison. It came straight from the field. It was AWFUL to process, and fairly easy to spin. I was not impressed-until I took it off the blocker, and POOF! it bloomed into the loveliest wool ever! I always said I would buy some of my own, and never did. This Spring I did order some. The lady said they did not have any field fiber, but did have some prepared fiber for spinning. It was expensive, but I did buy a little bit. I thought, "Great. I don't have to process it." It was not what I wanted. It was short fibers, and pill-y. I mean little balls like sweater pills all over it. So I thought, "I'll combine it with alpaca, and they will blend into this lovely fiber-y goodness." No, that didn't happen either. I spun this a coupla days ago, and I only did a little batch of just under 2 ozs. It spun into 140 yds. It is nice, but........ I finally got a box of field fiber, and it is more what I remember from the original commission. And it smells like wood smoke. There are some long hairy pieces in there that are sorted out, and some of the soft stuff has longer hairs in it. But I am happy. I will have to wash it-bison do wallow in mud.

I also finished the MIA scarf. Yes, it is the chevron pattern. I had some ugly sock yarn that combined with a lovely multi colored single ply. I actually call it "In The Garden".

We had a brief respite from the stifling heat and humidity. We had rain, also. We can just say our gratitude prayers every time we get rain from now on. It is going into the HOT part of the summer. We are expected to be near 98 degrees this week, and higher next.

Most of the flowers have peaked. Right now it is so wonderful to sit on the porch in the morning or afternoon and listen to the finches chirpling away in the sunflowers. They are quite happy eating away whatever seeds are there. I did spy an indigo bunting on some of the seed heads yesterday.

I am chipping away on the UFO pile. Yeah! I am sewing on my new quilt top. I am also listening to a good book on tape, Night of the Jaguar. I find I can listen to books while I sew or spin. So now I am "reading" more than I was before.

Have a good rest of the week.