We had a tiny sprinkling of rain and the frogs and toads came out again. It doesn’t seem as if we have as many as last year, even with our wet spring.
Frogs
Assembly Line
One of my readers requested a video of how I make my masks assembly line style. I have tried hard to capture the process. I also decided to use the opportunity to learn new video making software, so it was particularly painful, but I learned so many new things. I used Adobe Premier Pro; I have a long way to go, but for a first project I hope it came out useful. I have added captions and voice over. Although I must disclose that trying to do clean voice over when there are others in the house is not possible. My dear family tried very hard to be quiet for the ten minutes or so that I needed to record, then my dog came and had a good solid scratch and shake behind me. Sigh. The original pattern is not mine, but is from Cook Children’s website and is available here. It is my go-to mask pattern for making many masks. The video on my mask assembly line is available here. The fabric is called “Sunshine Garden” design number #17191 by Darlene Zimmerman for robertkaufman.com. I found it in the 1920s reproductions section of my local quilting store.
Kayaking
I like to take the kids kayaking at one of the small local lakes. This last trip we saw all sorts of different wildlife! Great Egrets, great blue herons, lesser blue herons, diamond back water snakes sunning themselves on logs, and a leech. Attached to the bottom of the boat. Very interesting trip. We have started taking our dog Griffin too. He sits in my eldest’s kayak and falls out once per trip, then lays quietly the rest of the trip. The handles on his life vest make it much easier to get him back in the kayak! Still, he seems to enjoy the outing.
Feathers growing back
My chickens look like they stuck their heads into a prickly pear, but that is just the muff and beard feathers growing back in!
More alpaca yarn
I now have spun and plied three colors of alpaca yarn. The Lazy Kate I made for plying also works well to hold a spindle full of plied yarn as I transfer the yarn to my niddy noddy. I did give the Lazy Kate a clear coat, but needed to use it before putting on a second coat. I modified my niddy noddy as well. The 18 inch center pipe made a 3 foot circumference skein, which is the maximum size my yarn swift can handle, which makes me uncomfortable. So I cut down the center tube to 12 inches so I get a two foot circumference. I also took off the end caps as they really aren’t necessary to hold the yarn in place on the arms, since the arms are so long. Really all the end caps were doing was making a nice cozy environment for mold. Ew.
I have to say, if I read this post a year ago I would have had to look up most of the terms. I’m learning!
