summer blahs......

In the Phoenix area we now have had over 30 straight days of triple digit heat. It is very hot and it is so hard to ignore. My typical way of dealing with this every summer is to just ignore it, sort of blocking it out psychologically but this year, wow, there is just no way! Right now it is 106 which means it will probably go up to around 112 or 113 today. Also it is humid and we never used to have humidity.

It was SO nice in Taos. I guess I did not blog about that. It was so green and refreshing and full of flowers. What a beautiful place. I definitely am going to go back and spend a good week or or more there. If I could swing it, I would be going back for the wool festival in October, but I don't think I can...... the problem is you have to really fly into Albuquerque and then drive a few hours up to Taos, but we'll see. Definitely next year.......
I thought I'd show some of the photos from Taos and how pretty it is. Some of these are from the grounds of the Old Taos Guesthouse, a B & B where we stayed....

Here is the front entrance of the guesthouse and the really cool back gate which led to where our rooms were, and also a shot of some flower gardens somewhere in Taos. There were so many flowers everywhere and at night, it cooled down to 50 degrees and was just so beautiful.....




We visited LaLana wools. I posted about it on the One Planet Blog. What an amazing amazing store. And the people are just so nice. I can't believe the owner really. I have to say that their yarns and patterns (to me) are really the top of any I have ever seen ANYWHERE. Their designs are just stunning. I can't think of another word. They have an "almost wholesale" program so in the next month we will be getting in some of their yarns and kits, which I can't wait for......... I need to pick out something to make for myself, if only I would get more motivated to knit... We have a few other special things we are going to be working on with LaLana and it is really exciting...... I wish I had the time and space to learn more about natural dyeing because I just find it fascinating and it goes so well with my love of plants and food and all......

Here is a photo of my mom and my sister Jodi in front of La Lana. We were celebrating their respective birthdays, big years for both of them.......



I have to get my motivation back to start knitting. I want to knit. My projects are all organized. I know what I have to finish first and what comes next, but I just can't seem to motivate. I haven't been spinning either, and it is the same story. I want to do it, but I just don't. I could blame it on the triple digit heat or my period I suppose!! What a bad PMS month by the way. A few of you I have emailed about it. There have to be some solutions to this......

I am still enjoying my organic boxes. And the one great thing I have done is stay on my organic diet so that is good. Look at this weird item that came in my box this week. They are called Royal Trumpet Mushrooms....




At first I wasn't sure what to do with it, but then I just treated them like any other mushrooms. I ended up making a fantastic omelette. I just sauteed these sliced up with organic red onions in a bit of olive oil for awhile. I added some chopped fresh dill and a bit of feta cheese. Then I whipped up some organic eggs (which really do taste better by the way) and scrambled it all. It was really incredible to be honest..

This weeks box was not too exotic. I received a beautiful cantaloupe and some more red simka plums. The one thing I have noticed really tastes better than conventional produce are the salad greens. I have been enjoying the red leaf lettuce and baby arugala. I have some sweet onions and zucchini and I am not sure yet what I'll do with those. Zucchini is not one of my most favorite vegetables I have to say, but I am wiling to try. So I think actually I am going to make some pasta tonight that I saw advertised at Trader Joes. It is their new lemon zest papperadelle (not sure I spelled that right) and I will just saute some of these veggies and mix them with the pasta........

If anyone has ideas for how they love zucchinis and sweet onions prepared, let me know. Or if you have a recipe or recipe site you love. I do look at epicurious.com and cookinglight.com. I like epicurious but some of the recipes are a bit fattening and I am trying really hard to keep things low fat or good fat is more like it! It is funny, so many people email me about the food posts, but you don't leave comments for me here! I'd love some comments friends..... I am glad some others like to eat green as well.....

I hope there will be more knitting posts soon. We are starting a new One Planet Knitters group. It is for people who are on the affiliate program and anyone who wants to make a new project to show off on their blog, gets an added little bonus, so join up if you want......! So anyhow, I have to pick out what project I want to do...... it is hard to decide! I want to do more sweaters but the reality is I don't wear a ton of sweaters but if I can find a light weight one, maybe..... I am waiting for a few new things to come in.......!





Happy weekend!

Yes I have been busy and tired

I feel like I don't post much anymore. I am SUPER TIRED and I feel I say that all the time. And wow, I have awful PMS right now. I am also trying to figure out the benefits of this new blogger. So far....I see labels that I can put by each post. So is that like categories for the posts? Well mine are mostly the same so how boring that will be......

I have been knitting. I cast on some of the Lanas Puras Melosa in the fingering weight for some socks and I love it . I figure I should knit with some of our own yarn instead of that encore stuff I am using for baby blankets now!:) This yarn is a spun single and I love the colors. It is really soft. I am knitting with fingering weight opal and when I compare the two it is amazing. I love Opal too but it feels scratchy scratchy by comparison. Of course it is machine washable and so that superwash treatment makes a difference......

Here is a photo of the colorway I am using, called Sangria.... It basically has a light pink, a coral and a mahogony color. It is just gorgeous......



Here is my gauge swatch.....




I have spent many hours researching various yarns and mills around the world. Quite interesting. Today I received this package in the mail of these lovely yarns that have been dyed naturally with walnuts, teas, cochineal and other things. I tried to take a photo and let's see how they show up! The colors to me are simply lovely, very soft . I just ordered some more organic yarn that is dyed with natural dyestuffs by another company and I can't wait to see the samples... I need to win the lottery though more than anything....

From left to right here, we have walnut, something from the rose family, tea, cochineal and thena plant that is a species of the acacia tree. Cochineal as you might know, comes from insects. The tea coloring is from several varieties of tea. The thing is so far this yarn is available only in a bulky wool, although the spin of the wool is gorgeous (see this boucle and then there is another unusual one). Soon there will be regular bulky wool. When they add the lace weight in these colors, then maybe we'll get it. Maybe its me or maybe it is just our online place but I don't see that much bulky being sold so far.. I think though it is because I am used to the ETSY world and duh, I live in the desert!


We are having a little contest this month at One Planet. I haven't put it on the blog yet but maybe I will, we'll see...

I have to say the photo thing works better on this new blogger... It will be interesting to see what else is new...........or improved........