Dear Diary...

It's been too long since I've written.  The days are flying by.  Leaves are changing on the piney ridge getting ready for the explosion of color around my birthday.  The weather is off and on lately.  Luke and I have been staying pretty close to home this last week of freedom from summer school.  I still get up early as I'm used to bombing out of here at seven.  Loving the freedom to do chores in my jammies, sew, spin, play with wool and watch the news.  I've had the dye pots bubbling again, working on a chartreuse mohair/wool run that I'm trying to duplicate from a couple of years ago.  Next to impossible but Kim keeps nagging me about it.  So many variables like the different animals the fiber comes from, amounts of dye I used, what colors, the mordant, etc.  I'll see what I can do.  The other run is some old black wool fleeces I found and am overdyeing them dark purple.  Love to see the porous tips take on the color and any silvery strands become purple.  The black just gets blacker.  I'm blending the black/purple wool with Shetland that comes from Freeville via Carol Schwartzott, my talented designer friend.  She brought several fleeces with her to the Bouckville Festival, with a long staple and nicely picked.  I have one bubbling on

the stove now.  I could hardly fit the whole fleece in my giant pot.  Annie is coming to pick up Lukie on Monday.  Woe is me.  I sure love having him around but he is ready to go home.  School is starting in Maine on the 28th.  I'm lucky I got to keep him as long as I did. What a sturdy, wonderful, talented boy.   I was so sorry the farmer's market was rained out this morning.  He loves the market.  We drove over to Hamilton but I just didn't have it in me to haul all my stuff out in the rain.  Soap and wool don't do well in the drizzle and dampness.  I was eager to put out my latest tote, a paisley bag with a luscious linen lining from my friend Sally Newhart who has the upscale slipcover business in New Orleans.  Not to worry, it will be scooped up somewhere along the line this fall.  Lukie got a hair trimming from some lovely ladies in Hamilton and visited the Broad Street Gallery with me.  I love that place.  I handed in my paperwork and will start teaching knitting for beginners there this fall.  I will use the same curriculum map as I did years ago with kindergarten students - cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, cast off, using the German or Continental Method.  That way there is no right or left handedness to worry about.  Kathy Herold is very enthusiastic about introducing more fiber art to the gallery program and wants me to spin on my wheel when I'm doing my gallery work shift once a month.  Sounds like fun to me.