Let the Journey begin

Last night was the second official meeting of the Journey to a Shawl group at Sip N Knit and the first I was able to attend. Journey to a Shawl was an adventure I heard about through Maple and Cary. If you would like to learn more about the Journey click here. Originally I was going to make the shawl from yarn I purchased some time ago and I have even started that shawl as mentioned in a previous post. But the more I thought about what this is suppose to be...a journey, trying something new, expanding ourselves together...I decided that I should at least try the spinning part of the journey. So last night I took along my spinning wheel instead of my knitting. When I purchased my wheel Alisa threw in the roving and spinning you see at the base of the wheel. It is a beautiful shade of purple which is one of my favorite colors as attested to by the blue purple tiles and purples walls in the background of the picture. She had spun everything you see and decided it wasn't the hobby for her. My plans are to finish spinning the roving and then using my spinning and whatever I need of Alisa's to knit the shawl. This is definitely not lace weight yarn so I am also studying some shawl patterns to get the general idea and then I will come up with something I hope will work with the yarn I have.
On other subjects, I have 3 cotton plants doing really well and 3 others I am hopeful will make it. I lost a couple of them within the first days of being moved outside and yesterday my husband accidentally uprooted one while he was weeding. Luckily it was one of the questionable ones although my last red one that was still hanging in there. He quickly replanted it but the odds are not in it's favor.

Summer vacation has begun for the kids and boredom is looming for them. I need to get the chores list done for them as well as the summer olympic games. And for anyone who is curious about the summer olympics, this is a boredom chaser we started 2 summers ago. Each year we come up with silly games/contests the kids do during the day and then record their progress. Hubby and I try to make sure we note the events recorded through out the week and praise the progress. I will even do up award certificates at the end of summer. Amazingly, each child usually receives the same number of awards. Previous years events have included # of free throws made out of 100, best golf score using the miniature golf course we created in the back yard using empty frosting cups, number of puzzle pieces placed, pages and books read, etc. It is a fun way to get the kids to keep in practice with their sports, keep them reading or just stop boredom.

Off to check on the garden and cotton and then spend some time studying the shawl patterns.