First, let me say on this lovely July 1st, “Bunny, bunny. Rabbit, rabbit.”
I’ve got a memory of a dear old work buddy, Ann, who insisted on saying “bunny, bunny; rabbit, rabbit” on the first day of every month before you got out of bed. Insisted that doing so would bring the speaker good luck.
Well I don’t know about you, but I need all the good luck I can wrap my grubby fists around. I have a jewelry show coming up, very little time, and lots of designs I’d lilke to bring to fruition, including some really fun pieces I designed specifically for fellow fiber fiends. More on that on another post.
My life has been very full lately (which is how I like it, of course) and here are a few things I’ve been doing…
Picking Olallieberries with BugBug!
At Swanton Berry Farm
After 2 days of 96+ heat in our little Eichler home with no A/C, a trip to the Swanton Berry Farm on the Pacific coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz was a most welcome respite! We went with some dear friends and new friends. Now I’ve never been berry-picking before, so this was a specially fun treat. According to our friends, this year’s crop wasn’t like previous years, but to me, it was a nice way to be outside in nice, cool 63 degree weather, and just steadily searching for the ripe berries hidden under the leaves had a rather zen-like sensibility to it. Plus, I got to hang with the Bug.
Wikipedia tells us “The olallieberry (pronounced oh-la-leh, sometimes spelled ollalieberry, olallaberry, olalliberry, ollalaberry or ollaliberry) is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry (raspberry and dewberry, respectively).”
The black ones are the ripe ones.
Before oxidizingWith crushed eggshells to oxidize...
Finished!
Finished!
The gemmy labradorite in this necklace has the most outrageous shiller! Yikes! I wish I could capture it. They’re from a strand I’ve been loathe to cut into. I have a hard time cutting strands to begin with. It seems that I love to just pick them up and wrap them around my wrist, or neck, or just hold them up and admire them. Once I cut into the wire that holds them, they’re to be used. Although, I suppose they get turned into luscious jewels, there’s something about rich ripe raw strands that makes me feel a bit like a pirate…
Another little thing on my list of stuff I’ve got going on is my “Something Rum Raisin” Cardigan:
So I just finished the 2nd (last) row of increases in the ribbing. Actually, I just did so for the second time. You see, I suffered a minor setback of sorts after I noticed that the increases in the ribbing really showed up, even though I did my favorite “nearly impossible to see,” knitting into the row below increase. (Forgive me, but at 12:30 am I was simply not lucid enough to think of taking a picture of this unhappy situation.) So, I took a deep breath and calmly (aren’t you proud of me, dear friends? I was calm.) ripped back about 8 rows of ribbing (okay, I realize 8 rows is nothing, but I despise ripping anything!!) and then contemplated what kind of increases would look best. After staring and staring at this project, I had a sudden brainstorm. It occurred to me that Wendy Bernard was an Elizabeth Zimmerman fan of sorts, and that the M1s in this sweater were probably EZ style, so I changed them all to that, and wowie what a difference. You can still see a little of a line there (see my arrow), but many of the ones on Ravelry have the same line, or worse.
You can still see a little of the increase on the business side...
Have about 7 inches of the body left to go. With any luck, I’ll get the body done and the sleeves started over the holiday weekend!
Happy Independence Day to All!!
