Pictures from the National Botanic Garden

Last week I was in Washington DC and I took the time to go over to the National Botanic Garden with my new camera.  I am particularly proud of this butterfly on the orange zinnia.

Fiber Weekend

I spent quite a bit of this weekend at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Fair.  It helped that the fair has moved to the Lake County Fairgrounds which have moved to a new location which is very close to my house.

Saturday, I took two classes from Franklin Habit on lace knitting.  Between Franklin and studying Diane Thornton's video on Left Handed Knitting, I think I have finally mastered making flat lace fabric with all of the decreases and increases slanting the right direction.  On Sunday morning, I volunteered as a greeter and I finished wrapping all but one of my Temari balls.  I also went shopping and bought beautiful yarn, wooden tools, and yarn bowls.

The fibers in the bowl at the top are from Knitting Notions, Wolf Creek Wools, Socks that Rock, and Mountain Colors.  They are a combination of sock and lace weight yarns in wool and silk combinations. This beautiful yarn bowl is full of sock yarn from Happy Hands Yarn and Fiber.  It is part of a package of 24 colorways in a Toe Candy Sock Kit.  They looked like a lot of fun to knit and wear.  I have to decide whether I want two socks that match or two different socks -- two different ones might be fun.  The lovely bowl was from The Fold's booth.


I also bought some beautiful wooden tools including a sock darning egg and a nostepinne.  My mother had a lot of sewing tools, some of them may have come from her grandmother.  They included tools for pressing things including a sleeve board, a point presser, a tailer's ham and a clapper.  I missed them the other day when I was trying to alter the sleeves on a karate gi to fit my daughter but I don't do enough sewing or alterations to collect my own set of pressing tools.

Back from vacation

We are back from our vacation to Greenville, SC.  The kids competed at the USA NKF National Karate Tournament, my husband spent his first year as a Judge.  I took pictures with my new Nikon camera and explored Greenville and some of the surrounding area.

Specifically, I visited the Biltmore Estate with its huge house, beautiful gardens and winery.  After the tour of the house, I wandered in the gardens until I thought I would melt and then went and tasted wine.  Down in the wine cellar, it was very cool.  I bought a rose, a dry Reisling, and a very good Tempranillo to take back.   I also went to Ashville where I visited the Grove Park Inn, and Thomas Wolfe's house.  The Grover Park Inn was in the middle of an exterior rennovation so no pictures there but you can see Thomas Wolfe's house below.  I also wandered around Asheville and visited three yarn stores, three book stores and saw many quilts.  My main purchase was an autographed copy of Erica Wilson's Embroidery Book and the wine I brought home from the Biltmore.