Oh my gosh, finally, a FO (finished object)

Ok, I know I haven't really been knitting and all the spinning I've been doing has been getting made into scarves for my reenactment unit and the shawl that I'm knitting but haven't gotten a picture of. Well, I finally finished something! This is Jonathan's jester hat. He picked out the pattern and the yarn while on an excursion to a yarn store earlier this year and requested it for a ski hat. It's a bit dark for me, but the yarn is a soft mix of merino and mohair. I added the bells because I know that he likes to make an entrance and be the center of attention. It will be a holiday/birthday present as that yarn wasn't cheap! lol

New family members

Meet our two newest sheep. I definitely have a growing collection of sheep statues (and lets not even talk about my fleece stash). These guys were so cute that I just had to have them, but I did wait until they were on deep discounted sale! My dearest hubby named them last night. The boy is "Ramsey" and the girl is "Eunice". I thought they were prefect names! DH has been working on expanding the gardens for me as our plants were getting crowded. My son brought some "Rip Rap" sized stones from the quarry in the last post for the edges of the gardens, and he gets an employee discount! I thought they would look nice on the perimeter of the garden and it is nice to have a reminder of him when I look at the garden. We've only done half of the front yard, we are planning on doing the other side as soon as we get more rocks from our "supplier". heheI did move my friend the Gator from the crowded garden to the new area. Of course, I'm from Florida and a U of F Gator so it's a perfect garden addition, even in Maryland.

Slow week in Fiberland

I haven't been doing much fiber. In fact, I haven't been doing much lately. I have a desk full of spindles that need to be photographed, and 3 bins of yarn on the floor in the office that need to be photographed and listed but I just haven't felt up to doing much. I have been having a challenging gut time. I was lucky to get an appointment with head of GI at Johns Hopkins, to find out that the former diagnosis of Crohn's Disease was probably wrong, and that I have IBS instead. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I'm hopeful through the new meds and new diet that I can get to feeling a bit better. It's a whole different way of eating and dealing with attacks. I'm tired of having my abdomen rule my life these past couple of years. The Doctor tells me that stress is a trigger so I'm supposed to try to keep stress to a minimum.
But on to neat things, this morning our son Jonathan took us to his "office" to show us what projects he'd been working on. He works at the 3rd largest Quarry in North America and does pretty much any and everything, welding, hydralics, fixing and working every piece of machinery, and generally enjoying using his mind, his hands and his skills. None of the area is public and although he can take us to see it, the mine has to be closed down in order to go there. We always enjoy when he can invite us to take a trip there, now our jeep is now happily covered in mud and dirt from four wheeling on the rocky roads even though we weren't able to go down into the hole.
This quarry has been mined since the 1850's and is over 3 miles long and 600+ feet deep and they're not done yet! And, it's in the middle of a giant metropolitan area that has grown up around it. He often calls me from inside the hole or up on the giant belts that take the rock from the crusher to the screener as he's walking up checking to make sure it's working properly (when it's off, of course!) He faults or credits me with taking him and his sister up into the gold mining area in Colorado all the time when they were little (we lived outside Denver) to climb around on tailing piles and to look around at the equipment that was there. We'd peer into the chained up grates over the mine entrances and talk about the history of the region, the Railroads, the technology, and the people that pioneered the expansion of the Nation, as well as the Natural Beauty of the area. He then took Mark and I out to breakfast and we had a great time talking about everything under the sun. What a great morning!

Everything is just Sew-Sew

I had a few weeks of intense sewing lately. DH was on a business trip and I took the time to finish off this tea dress that I had cut out a couple of months ago, it has matching undersleeves of the same fabric as the middle of the bodice so that it looks like you're wearing a blouse and a jacket. I wore it to my living history volunteer work at the Museum and it was not as hot as some of the "up to the neck" dresses that are more correct actually for working as a spinner. I'm still spinning that big bag
of black fleece that I started in April. I'm also knitting a shawl from it and weaving several scarves to donate for support of the Living History teaching of our Reenactment Unit. After finishing the tea dress, I got busy on working through some work dresses that I can wear without hoops when the weather and conditions aren't really nice and I wouldn't want to wear a tea dress or a day dress. I got these three dresses finished for work wear. The green one is homespun fabric, and it was my first experience at working with plads and trying to match them. I'm getting better at doing piping, all three of them have piping around the neck and sleeves and the two that have cuffs are piped around the cuffs. I also am working on two blouses of solid color to wear with a couple of skirts I have made. I've been doing more research and reading into what is "period correct" as some of the suttlers in the Gettysburg region don't always have period correct fabric in their clothing. I try to improve on my own knoledge and impression each time I start another project. Happy 4 th of July everyone!