Round up!

I have a bunch of bits and pieces today.

First is a picture of a recent family gathering.

My brother Ben, and his wife Deb, were in town.  From the left is my father Paul, my grandmother Do (pronounced like doe), hubby Roger, Deb, and Ben.  We had lunch at our favorite joint, the Bay Wolf in Oakland.

I apologize for the craptastically back-lit picture.  Better pictures of Ben and Deb are at their farm blog, Eggs & Tea.  They live on the big island (Hawaii) and raise organic eggs and tea.

Deb is a great addition to the family.  She is my favorite sister-in-law (okay, she is my only sister-in-law, but still, she's my favorite).  She is into origami.  They came over for dinner and this is what she made.

The foil wrapper from a tiny chocolate bar (the size of a quarter) became an origami flower.  She just sat there are folded like she was doodling (origamoodle?).  I wish they were closer so I could learn more from her.

The Mail is Good

Yesterday I came home to find a package in my mail box.   And, it had my name on it.  Best of all it contained a fiberish gift!  Yay!  The bestest kind of mail.

There is 4 oz of a merino tencel blend in a saffron color (my favorite color!), a set of knitting coasters (who doesn't want that?), and some tiny skull stitch markers (Day of the Dead knitting everyday!).

Thank you Ronni!  What a great gift.  All I knew was that she asked for my address because she had something to send to me.  I promptly forgot about it, so it was like a bit of Christmas in June.  Love that!  If anyone else needs my address . . .

Big Bag Goes Green
Hakucho made a version of my Big Bag pattern from plastic shopping bags.  It is the latest entry in my You Did It gallery.  In this post she shows you how she prepared the bags for knitting and in this post she shows a smaller version of the bag.  Check it out.  It is a great idea. 

Speaking of Photo Galleries
I created a new one for my handspun yarn.  I gave it the oh so clever name of Spinning.  It is in my side bar near my FO galleries.  So far it is just my early (pre-blog) handspun. 

I went through a long phase when I wanted to play with all kinds of techniques.  I put no limits on myself.  It was very free and fun.  When you don't have a particular project or colorway in mind, anything is possible.  You will see novelty yarn, glitter, sequins, and beads along side yarn spun from naturally dyed roving.  Most of it was sold, so it was a lot of fun to go through the pictures.  It was like seeing old friends.

It is about time I created a spinning gallery.  You would think that a blog titled Maia Spins would have more spinning in it.

Here is a montage to tempt you. 

Click for big (as always with my pictures) or go straight to the Spinning gallery for more information.

Comments

[Adrienne]

That yarn is BEAUTIFUL!!!

[jackie]

Your spinning gallery is too lovely for words! And it is always nice to receive fiber in the mail!

[Rita]

The fibre is lovely, sometimes I just want to keep it and not spin it up. I love your spinning gallery too, wonderful spinning as always.

[LaurieM]

I have an intimate knowledge of some of the yarn in your spinning montage. :-) I enjoyed picking them out of the collection, sort of like finding your kid in the class photo: they're all so cute, but your own are special.

[Lisa]

Oh my! I love those coasters! Do you think she would fess up where she found them? Could you ask her? Pretty please?

Your gallery is just beautiful! Drool!

[Ronni]

I like the spinning gallery. Like LaurieM, I spotted a familiar yarn, thanks again for that skein of Flourite. You have lots of pretty yarns in there. I'm so impressed by people who experiment like that. I'm almost always just playing around.

I'm glad the mail was good. That sunny yellow sang your name at me the second I saw it when I was rummaging through my stash, so naturally some of it had to go to you. I hope it spins sweetly for you.