First Yarn

As promised a picture of my first ball of yarn. Most likely I’ll keep it as a reminder of the beginnings of my spinning career. I hope that pretty soon this yarn will look totally ridiculous and that progress is made. Last night was spent treadling very slowly and there was more success. Now I have to wonder if there is enough twist. Was knitting that difficult at first? I believe so, I seem to remember worrying about even tension. I could not knit uneven if I tried nowadays, just as people say that after mastering spinning one can’t produce an uneven yarn. But, for now, I’m only producing what I call art yarn. I’m seeing the silver lining. But without further ado, I present you with my first yarn:

The yarn is pretty kinky in many spots, but hey, do better.

It’s our anniversary, 33 years. 33!!! It all started in San Francisco, in the county jail. Sounds better than the real story. We were both working there and an inmate introduced us. Stephen was already a lawyer then and I was doing my psyc internship with NCSL, the Northern California Service League. I should stop here before I start drowning in memories and nostalgia sets in.

Usually I’m a fan of nostalgia, but not lately. With the massive heart attack much changed. I have no words for the changes yet, but everything feels different since then. I’m wondering if Stephen notices the changes. Remembering feels different, less relevant.

One highlight of the day was a trip to the farm. An email offering basil by the pound had me drooling, or perhaps more swooning. Next to marjoram, basil might be my favorite aroma. One had to cut the basil oneself and bending over was not good for my back. Of course I had to get lots to make into little basil pies to freeze and use in winter. All I did was mix basil with olive oil and use the vitamix to get a basil paste. Here is part of their basil patch:

 

and the kale patch on the way to the stand:

 

The kale will be turned into kale chips with the dehydrator. So why did I only buy one bunch? Now I’ll have to go to the Saturday market after all. We arrived at the farm with 2 big bags, one was going to be for basil, the other for whatever else tempted me. We left with 5 bags full. One particular surprise was fennel. I love fennel fritters. And the price? $1 each, and they were huge. We ended up with lots of basil, kale, fennel, lettuce, arugula, beets, onions, red and yellow, zucchini, turnips, radishes, chard, and whatever I forget right now.

I’m hoping to make the fennel fritters in the next few days and take pictures for you and share the recipe. I’m new to food pictures and hope I can do the recipe justice.

The zucchinis will be spiralized and used instead of noodles with pesto or a raw tomato sauce. We are already getting tomatoes in our garden, but probably not enough yet to make sauce with. I’m still using them in salads only.

And then to top it all, a package arrived. Finally received my Amish swift, a beauty. And just in time as I was contemplating starting yet another project. Don’t judge, let me explain first. I’m part of a shawl mystery KAL. KAL being a knit along, the mystery part is that I have no idea how the final product will look like. Why would I do this as there are many patterns out there I would love to try? Because I can’t say no to anything. Saw it on ravelry and just had to join. The problem is that the new clues come out every Friday and I have been long done knitting that. Now I’m in waiting mode. Of course, there are lots of other started projects, but we will not talk about them today. My browsing found this beautiful shawl in yarn I happen to have and with needles that are new to me. My new signature needles. And I have them in the right size and length. How fortuitous is that? I was meant to knit this, right?

Have a look here and see why I fell in love. And I got to use my new swift to wind the yarn. Could life be any better? Here is where I start getting worried. Life is so good, it can only get worse. I’m obviously not one on the cheery side of life. Always looking for trouble and finding it.

Before I sign off here I would like to post a picture of the two of us (Stephen and yours truly) from a long time ago in Italy on a ferry. I’m unclear about the details of the trip, but know that Denise Anton took the picture. Our dog then: Athena. Our future: wide open, anything was possible then. Lots of great and horrific times since then.

 

Happy anniversary Stephen, to us!