UFO's and a Long Awaited Post

Well, maybe not such a long awaited post. My tiny handful of followers has likely given up on me. I have spent a goodly chunk of blogging time on Facebook, of late, rather than collecting myself to post here, which takes more thought and more work. Lazy lazy lazy.

I have not been idle, either. Last weekend, P and I accompanied a colleague to the newly dubbed "secret spot" to hunt for abalone. Actually J dove and P and I tidepooled, beach combed and shouted encouragement. J got a big'un--9.75 inches and split it with us. We also gathered mussels and that Sunday, ate a feast of mussel chowder and lightly cooked abalone, which was simply pounded, sliced thin and cooked in puro olive oil for about 30 seconds a side. It was perfect!

I have also been dyeing: saffron, mustard flowers, camellia blossoms, walnut husks and pieris flowers, all to interesting effect. I have full intentions of posting pictures, but I fall so far behind that catching up becomes too cumbersome to contemplate. I have accumulated dyestuffs, but have lost some things as well because I didn't get to them in time. I am mordanting yarn as I type this to make ready for the onions skins, dock root, red alder bark, avocado skins and eucalyptus leaves that are waiting. There are more things, as well, but they have slipped my mind.

Then there is the knitting: I have been excavating my stash and trying to finish projects since work has been slow to utter tedium. (make hay, etc. We can get busy in a heartbeat there.) This year so far, I have finished 2 pairs of socks (my first), done most of a scarf and most of a shawl. I have also started pulling out UFO's, with despair. Many require presence of mind to get going and large uninterrupted chunks of time have been few lately. I have things I WANT to work on, but I can't find some major component or other, so I am doing what I can with what I have. It's a bit of an unsatisfying way to craft, but I keep hoping I will find things as I go along and catch up.

This is a sad little post, in a way--rather as fragmented as my activities right now--fitting things here and there--but it's whaat I can handle as I peel away the layers, so to speak.

Alum water is boiling...off to mordant!