As a child growing up in Alaska, Spring, also known as Break-Up, was my favorite season. It was so full of hope and promise. When the sun was back bringing with it endless energy and the world was filling with beautiful colors again as everything bloomed. I still love spring. It was fun this last spring to see what beautiful colors popped up over night in our new yard. It was like a new surprise every morning. But Autumn time in Utah is starting to win my heart over. THE COLORS. My pictures just don't do it justice. I am in awe of God's magnificent creation.
The boys and I chauffeured for Maeve's field trip to Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon this last week. It was a beautiful place and the weather was fantastic. It was great to just be present without an agenda. We couldn't keep up with the class on the hike so we just played around after the guided nature walk around the lake, in which I learned that beavers are really, really important. Even if they keep flooding the homes up there.
On Saturday we braved a nasty rain storm to visit the Blue Moon Ranch alpaca open barn days. Holy moly alpacas are adorable. I am not an animal lover and I wanted to take one home with me. Except the one below with the leash. He was pretty much the terror of the herd. Chasing the others around and yelling at them. We were in the fields when it really started to rain and all the alpacas turned and ran for the barn immediately. Smart animals.
If I wanted to take one home with me, this little girl, who wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, wanted to to take the whole herd. She said we could trade in our lawn mower for them. She stayed out in the rain with the animals the entire time I was in the shop picking out my first bag of alpaca roving to spin. Maeve can't wait to come back next year and see her friends. I've been a little scared of spinning alpaca because people have warned me it is difficult to spin well but I am going to give it a try.
The Knitmore Girls do a Summer of Lace and Beads Knit-a-long. In the 5.5 years that I've been knitting I have never once had a desire to add beads to my knitting. But hearing little snippets about their KAL planted a seed and when I was looking for a shawl to where to a wedding next month I just became obsessed with adding beads. My friend emailed asking that everyone wear something teal or purple to the wedding, inspired by peacock feathers. It is a small wedding and she wanted everyone coordinating in the wedding photos. I just bought a black dress and thought a shawl would go well with it.
I chose Susanna C's Annis shawl pattern, replacing the nupps with beads, because lots of people said it was a fairly quick knit. But after this busy week it may need to knit itself to be finished in time. I totally miss calculated with the bead count and had to go back to the bead store today to buy more size 6 seed beads. Oops. I am half way done with the lace section. It is malabrigo silkpaca lace weight yarn (70% alpaca, 30% silk). In the teal feather colorway. I am super excited to wear it.
Starting to read Divergent didn't help the busy week. What an addicting book. I can't say I really liked it but I also couldn't put it down. Did you read it? What faction would you have joined? Initially I probably would have said Amity (peaceful) but I'm having second thoughts after starting the second book. I know that if I had joined Dauntless (brave) mice, falling into an outhouse, and falling from a tall building would have been in my fear simulation/ladder thing. Bleh. I'd never survive.
Joining with Nicole, Ginny, and Andrea.Labels: alpaca, beads, Children, lace, shawl, shawls, wool, Yarn
