Fabulous Birthday Surprise!

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July 4th was definitely a busy day...

Lisa surprised me with a fabu birthday gift - a handcrafted silk knitting bag. Isn't it gorgeous? I just LOVE it!!!! She selected some beautiful purple silk fabric and embellished it with purple beads. The bag is fully lined...with lots of extras on the inside.













On the other side (above right), there are "sleeves" stitched in for storing various implements - dpns, crochet hooks, etc. It's absolutely fabulous!!! She even added a "stiffening" piece to the bottom of the bag to help it hold it's shape.

While walking my dog, I wandered past Yvonne's house and stopped to say "Hi". She'd just finished the baby blanket she'd been knitting for her daughter. I had seen it "in progress" a week or so ago, but now it was done - she's such a fast knitter! It's absolutely gorgeous! Yvonne is definitely the "Queen of the Mitered Square"!

During the walk, I found my first "woolly bear" of the season as well as a near perfect "Lazy Susan". I just love all the "signs" of summer!











I also noticed that the thistles are really coming out. I just love how they look - each one is slightly different. Some have a single "tutu" of lavender around the middle while others have two rings of lavender. Still others, a different variety of thistle, are perfectly round.











No matter how the thistles are adorned, the bees REALLY love them - check out the video below!



On the spinning front, I FINALLY managed to finish spinning the second ounce of Shetland on my drop spindle. I finished last evening while waiting for the July 4th Fireworks to begin. Wahoo! (photo on left). I also managed to take some photos of the fireworks...I LOVE the blurred effect! (photo on right).











I even managed to capture a movie of some of them...check out the video below. (I took a video of the "Grand Finale", but the file wastoo large to be hosted...so I had to post one of the smaller videos.)




Tonight, I spun in Centreville at the library...Reggie and I were the only ones from the group that showed up. As a result, I was very productive and have nearly finished with the first bobbin of the combed Targhee (from Sweetgrass Wool) for my Holden Shawl! I do miss seeing what everyone else is spinning and chatting about the pros and cons of the various processing methods, but sometimes it's nice to just sit and spin.