Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Father's Day!

This is one of my favorite photographs of Dan and Kenny taken on Father's Day when Kenny was five years old. Dan was on duty but had stopped by the house in his patrol car to see Kenny. Kenny ran outside, climbed into his Dad's lap and demanded I "take a picture for his room". I did and here it is.

The corn in our garden was ready to harvest so Kenny and I picked all the ears, stripped off the husks, blanched it for two minutes and sealed it all in plastic bags. All told, we have nearly 80 ears packed away. We have time for one more corn harvest before winter so we planted more corn.

The tomato plants are also producing at full peak. I picked nearly 30 tomatoes this morning and plan to simmer them into tomato sauce. We are also enjoying fresh tomatoes slices as well.

I am also pleased with the towels I am weaving. It took a while to work out the pattern. I had some trouble with the warp because it involves color changes to make the stripes. I had originally wound off for a plain white warp then changed my mind and decided to add color to the original warp. This meant that I had to remember to skip heddles when I threaded them to leave room to add the colored warp threads. It took me nearly three weeks to finally get it right. I then had to program the computer to lift the warp in the proper sequence and remind me what colors I needed in the bobbins. I started out with one boat shuttle but quickly acquired three more so that I didn't have to keep changing bobbins. The first towel went quite slow and has errors in spacing and color changes. The second towel went much faster. The third towel (pictured above) seems to be coming together better than I anticipated and is the first towel I was willing to photograph and post in the blog. Weaving seems more difficult to me than knitting, but I realize I am still in the beginning of the learning curve. And I have to admit that the last towel has actually been fun.

I also finished plying the wool I have been spinning and have now wound it into center pull balls. Last month, I purchased a wonderful shawl pattern from Anne Hanson at Knitspot called "The Morning Glory Wrap". I think that this yarn will work well for that project.

11 comments:

Danielle said...

I love the yarn and that daddy 'n me picture is adorable!

knitspot anne said...

wow; i haven't had garden-fresh corn in years! my mouth is watering . . .

Home's Jewels said...

Wow - our planting season just began a couple weeks ago and you are already harvesting. My son planted corn for the first time.

I love the pic of dad/son in the police car - very cute!

Sharon said...

what beautiful handspun, and knitting, (and of course family pictures!)

JulieLoves2Knit said...

OMG - I won't have veggies to harvest for at least another month - well maybe lettuce - but corn? Mines only about 3 inches high yet!
Graduation - yea! Sort of bitter sweet isn't it?

Yarnhog said...

How did I not know that you also weave? I think your days must have more than the 24 hours the rest of us have, because you seem to do everything! My first thought when I saw that picture was, "What did that little kid do to get in trouble with the cops?" What cuties--both of them!

Anonymous said...

I agree with yarnhog - how do you get so much done in a day?! Amazing all of the things that you are up to.

I'm guessing that your garden is in Fresno, because as far as I know the farmer's phrase for growing corn around here (WA) is "Knee high by Fourth of July!" We are much farther behind in the season, and I am really looking forward to some garden-fresh sliced tomatoes!

Beautiful handspun!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful garden.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Regarding Mexico, my kids were struck with how the families had nothing and yet they were happy. My hope is that my kids are building character while they are building houses for others. This is their 3rd or 4th trip and maybe their last for this particular mission.

Punkin at Needle to Needle

Anonymous said...

Martha Stewart move aside - I'm lost for words at your multi-task prowess.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Your garden is fabulous! Here in Oregon my tomatoes are barely even blooming! I am envious!

Mel said...

You are a woman of vast and varying talents! Wow!