A Gnome

This year is flying by!!! What have I been doing?    

After Mom died (thirteen years ago yesterday!) I brought her two hutches home with me, plus all the contents that the family didn't want. My plan was to hold them for some time for any of my nieces. I've thoroughly enjoyed hosting them and they are beautiful antiques but it's time for me to have other things in my house... None of my nieces want them... But I was surprised to hear my brother wanted them!!! So I spent the month of January documenting the contents, surveying my siblings to what they wanted, and packing and shipping stuff off to the Beloved Brother (BB); I have another box packed up for my sister. I still have a few boxes of things to settle in... but the house no longer looks like a garage sale, and we have a couple of large areas that need some small furniture and some art.

My gnome is on the far left like my politics

That and for some reason I'm unable to say no to anything. I'm in a drawing class. I'm in a German class. I'm in training to walk along Hadrian's wall. I hosted a weave in. I'm working at a conference. Then to top it all off, I spent 4 days being miserable after a vaccine.  And I signed up for a half day Gnome Knitting class, taught by Sara from Never Not Gnoming at A Pop of Color in Morgan Hill. 

Six of the nine of us from my Monday knit group were in attendance; the picture has four of our gnomes plus a tiny gnome the teacher made. The class was great! The class logistics were super and there were even snacks! We had a great time. I'm deciding if I need gnomes on my Christmas tree this year (if so I better start knitting them!)

Z subdues a gnaughty gnome

My gnome may or may not have been left where it was able to cause trouble... No worries, Z caught it and subdued it. 

Not much else has been happening fiber wise. I've completed a carrot towel but it's still on the loom... It's very cute. I've been spinning a little, and still working on my cashmere cardigan. I've also bought a small printing press but haven't tested it yet (I need to carve a new block).

Foodwise, it's all about keeping the freezer full, mostly soups... Tomorrow, for Valentines Day, I'll be making lemon souffles for dessert; dinner is still undecided!  I'll be back to cooking more interesting things shortly.

The drawing class has been interesting. I drew a section of Hadrian's wall from a photo (this still needs work).  In drawing it, I noticed how wide it was at the top (you could tell in the photo); wikipedia tells me it was about 8' across (2.5M?). The stones weren't as regular as in my drawing, but they definitely looked hewn and not just randomly gathered.  Those clever Romans! I'm not sure if I would have made these observations without trying to draw it. 

Drawing in pencil of a section of Hadrian's wall