Dreams in Fiber: Cruising On Ahead Back in Time With Flair

Summer is officially here; gardens are growing, birthday parties were thrown, little man is officially done with his ball season (though a handful of his team are still practicing and will continue to do so during the off-season), and little miss made it through her first recital. It's been a big couple of weeks.

Little man had his last tournament and trophy ceremony in late June and was pleased that he could add another trophy to his growing collection. His last game was a late one - starting after his usual games would have already concluded - and though they lost, he had the best hit of the night for his team. This particular one actually. Good thing I moved so my camera could focus on the fence and not him... ;)

Little miss was very excited for her performance. Her dance was towards the end of the second act and since the show didn't start until 7pm, it was a late night for her. My original thought was to take her backstage, find a spot for her things, and have her come and watch the first half with us and I would then take her backstage at intermission, but once she got there, she decided to stay backstage for the duration. She had such a good time and danced well - I'm glad she had such a positive first experience :) This is the only picture I got of her that night and it's rather blurry, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Given little miss' success at dance, I thought it would be fun to make her a tutu to tool around in. We headed to the fabric store and she picked out her various shades of tulle and I started cutting and assembling. I think it got away from me a little bit.

Even Grandpa H couldn't resist the pull of the pink glitter....

I did have enough left over to make a small tutu; I didn't think I needed to try to cram it into little miss' as hers was gigantic already. So, I cut the remaining strips in half and made a First Birthday tutu for my niece H.

It's been hot and I have pattern deadlines so I have been doing the responsible thing and ignored them completely, indulged my Muse, and created potholder after potholder and added one more hanging pot holder to the mix. I lost count of how many potholders I've made recently - I know I've given a handful away before I have photographed them. Here's 4 of them though. Normally I don't make the same thing over and over but evidently that doesn't apply to potholders or plant holders. I am just riding this wave as long as I can and perhaps I can squeak out a few more for the Holidays.

Mother Nature has smiled on us these past few days and has given us a bit of a reprieve from the heat. In honor of this gift, I decided to take the minions back to Living History Farms yesterday so we could enjoy the nice weather. I have posted photos of LHF before, so I tried to take different pictures than I had in the past. I'll post some pictures from our day though there are more in my Flickr set.

These were taken in the main town.

Stranded mitten pattern, anyone?

We were able to hit the Blacksmith Shop this time.

A quick tractor ride took us to the 3/4 mi trek through the woods visiting the 1700 Ioway Indians to the 1900 Horse Powered Farm. The Ioway Indians section had a Bison hide that they were working on and the bit of the fiber still hanging on to part of it did not go unnoticed. I left it alone though!

Next up on the tour is the 1850 Pioneer Farm. The minions got to see how big the little calf, Babe, was, and I met some saucy animals. I wonder what they do with their sheep fleece...