April Showers

Another rainy Saturday in Chicagoland. I had planned to spend today out in my yarn, doing some spring cleanup, but it's raining. So I'm not. Spring, however, is finally here! I'm finally starting to see sprouts of bulbs, and the shrubs around my house are starting to leaf out. My magnolia tree went from this late in the afternoon on Tuesday:

to this early Thursday morning - that morning light was amazing. I would take one of it for you today, because it's really starting to bloom, but my camera battery just croaked, and besides, it's raining. So, you'll have to wait to see the tree in all its glory - and it is glorious :-)

You'll also have to wait to see my latest spinning - 545 yards of sport weight (approx. 16 wpi for you spinners out there), merino/Tencel blend from Gypsy Girl Creations. I have started on the Somerset roving I got at the Lorna's Laces Mill End Sale, and I'm spinning it thicker. PatsyZ, my teacher, suggested that I always have two projects going at the same time - of different weights - thus avoiding what happens to some spinners: They work so hard to spin a fine thread, that they can never go back to thicker and/or lumpy/bumpy novelty yarns. Makes sense to me, and it's going WAY faster than the Gypsy Girl stuff did.

I'm almost two weeks caffeine-free, and I actually can say that I feel better than I have in quite awhile. I never felt any different the last time I gave up pop, but I definitely do this time. I was sleepy and fuzzy for about a week - and it was 10 days before I actually could say I felt pretty good. But I do feel good, and I'm really really sleeping again, which for some women of a certain age becomes a problem. You might want to keep that in mind ;-)

April is just zooming by - on Thursday I will be heading back to Missouri for The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling knitting retreat. I am really looking forward to it, and wish we had more things going on in Illinois like it. Speaking of Illinois, I encourage you to check out the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair website. This will be the second year for the fair and they are offering memberships, which are very reasonable - it's easy peasy to sign up! As my late mom used to say: "If you don't patronize your your local merchants, pretty soon you won't have any." So go and take a look, and if you can, support this local event :-)

My spinning wheel is calling me!

p.s. I slept through the earthquake, unlike in California where they terrified me. I must have thought it was a train passing by :-D