farm visit

Today I went on a walking tour of Angelic Organics, an organic farm/CSA out in Calendonia.  What a neat place.  We walked through the fields sampling the veggies as we walked along.  We tried sage, thyme, oregano, broccoli, kale, beets, and cilantro – yummy.  One of their cover crops that they plant is a pea plant.  While no peas grow on the plant, you can eat the leaves.  That was so tasty.  It tasted like peas, but it had a lovely texture.  I’m going back in a few weeks to take a cheese making class.

On the way home, look what I saw:

Yea!

sounds

So, I figured out this morning that the mysterious bagpipes are coming from the neighbors living across the street.  I can’t believe that I never noticed this before.  They have a pipers’ band bumper sticker on the back of their vehicle.  I guess I noticed it today because they parked out on the street instead of back by their garage.  And I have seen guys wearing kilts walking in there…  It all makes sense.

The other oddity about these neighbors is that they don’t seem to have furnitre in the front living room.

(Note: they don’t play them all that often, so I’m really not complaining – it’s just interesting)

List Update: September

Things to knit this fall:

1. Black scarf for dad – purchased yarn; found pattern
2. Socks for brother – almost halfway done with the 2nd sock
3. Cupcake for niece
4. Felted oven mitt for mother and sister- purchased yarn
5. 3-4 scarves and/or hats for Carpenter’s Place – Done!
6. Red scarf for Red Scarf Project– Done!
7. Korknisses for Christmas
8. Penguin for nephew – purchased yarn
9. Mermaid for niece

Yarn

What a dreary, dreary weekend!  It rained non-stop from Friday night until now.  I had hoped to go to an art fair this weekend and perhaps to pick some raspberries.   Alas, the weather did not cooperate.

Instead, I knit a lot.  Friday night I finished knitting the first of two Leaflet Mitts. The pattern takes some thinking, but it’s pretty easy as long as you’re not trying to have a conversation at the same time.  I knit it while watching The Mayor of Casterbridge with Ciaran Hinds based on the Thomas Hardy novel.  I thought the movie was great.  Here’s the first mitt:

Yesterday morning I spent knitting the beginning of the second mitt before my friend, Michelle, came over.  We went for some Swedish pancakes (Yum!) and then watched Pretty in Pink (which she hadn’t seen before).  She suggested a nice pattern for a scarf that I thought would be great for the Red Scarf Project.  I started working on it yesterday and made some great progress on it.  Here is all I knit yesterday:

I finished knitting the scarf while doing laundry today:

Oh, the things one can accomplish when the weather sucks.

Little Lambs

Yesterday my friend, Mary, and I went up to Jefferson, Wisconsin to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  Holy fiber, Batman.  Sooo much fun.  I really tried to be a good girl and not go crazy with fiber acquisition; however, I did find the temptation too great.

I bought yarn to make a couple oven mitts, a pair of mittens & scarf (with matching cabled pattern), and, alas, more sock yarn.  Actually, I didn’t buy myself sock yarn.  I bought Mary a skein of sock yarn and she bought one for me which we’ll give to eachother for Christmas.  So, I didn’t buy myself any sock yarn.  I am a good girl.  Really.

There were some really interesting varieties of sheep there:

My mother was a sheep and my father was a dalmation.

What’s going on with my peripheral vision here?  Guys, I can’t see.  Seriously, guys.

Four day old lamb!

Last weekend on Labor Day, friend Carolin and I went canoe on the Kishwaukee River.  What a gorgeous day.

Today I went to the Sugar River Forest Preserve in the northwest corner of the county for a hike.  It was quite nice, but some of the trails have you walking around the perimeter of the campsites, which isn’t the most scenic.