Birthday Fiber to Yarn

The lovely merino/silk fiber I received for my birthday has been spun into the finest yarn I have spun yet at 18 wpi. It is so pretty with the silk adding a luster and strength to the wool -altogether pleasing. (No, I am not positive what I will knit with it yet but will just admire it in the bowl for now as Fiber Art.)

This is what has been keeping me busy for the last two days....Bill thought just a few hours....well, six to be exact and six more again yesterday...I am feeling muscles I forgot I owned! I also forgot to take a before picture, sorry, just imagine solid undergrowth with potato vines-15 per tree and 30 feet long each! It is so satisfying to me to do yard work-to conquer a tangled jungle and reveal the beauty and form of a palm tree, well there just aren't words enough to frame the thrill. We would cut down and trim and pull and then fill the tractor bucket with a load of brush and Bill would drive it to the burn pile out back. It is still too dry to burn but following the next wet day we are going to have a whopper of a bonfire! Marshmallows anyone? This is all that remains of a 30' pordocarpus tree-it was a beauty but planted in the wrong spot-it grew into the driveway and blocked the view to our spectacular magnolia tree. The bushes all around the trunk are azaleas that have grown horizontally because of the dense tree in their midst-they were probably circling the pretty little evergreen tree but the vision the long-ago gardener desired has come and gone! We still have to remove the trunk and then drastically cut back all the azaleas. I had wanted to wait until after they bloom (in March) but I can't bear to see them like this. One amazing fact of southern gardening is that the bounce-back factor is accelerated here so that if we cut them way back now next year they will be completely recovered and blooming! By the way, warm temps are back and we worked the 2 days in 80 degrees of sunshine.........we like the way the temps bounce back, too!

Here is a little pair of baby socks from the leftover yarn I died for the 'Sock Lessons' skeins. I have enough yarn to make another pair-they are toe-up and I can make a pair in an evening, especially if football is on!