Friday, June 22, 2007

Friday Flowers, Friday Fibers

What a glorious Friday this is! Sunny, breezy, low humidity and some decent rain fall for the past two nights...now this is what June in Michigan is supposed to be like!

Kim over at The Woolen Rabbit has started something she calls Fridays Flowers. I love the idea, because at this time of year, I am in my gardens constantly snapping photos! I will put a button and link in my sidebar as soon as I can get blogger to cooperate with me ;( In the meantime, here is my first offering for Fridays Flowers:

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This is the Sally Holmes rose, which I adore! The color is just right with the first of my Asiatic lilies. And see the rain drops on the petals? Ahhh, bliss!

But at Serenity Farms, it is just as much about fibers as it is flowers, and so I am going to start my own theme of Fridays Fibers - LOL! The lavender has exploded and this morning, early, was a day of harvest. This is done (hopefully) when the florets just begin to open and on a cool, dry morning such as this one. They will be bundled and hung to dry upside down in a cool, somewhat dark place to preserve the fragrant oils and the color of the flowers.

Here is a small token of the Provence lavender in all its glory, along with some of my "Comfort Wool" ~ Serenity Farms Corriedale rovings:

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The smokey grey is called "Warm Campfire" and is a blend from my grey, black and brown sheep. It is just amazing to spin and cuddle with! The antique ivory white comes from the fleeces of Amanda, Abby, Charlotte, Caitlyn and Autry and is called "Vanilla Dream" (was going to call it Whipped Cream, but saw another farm with fiber of this name) All of the fiber that went into these rovings are from fleeces that I sold, but I always like to keep about a pound from each sheeps fleece for myself to experiment with and check for quality. This is the result for this year, processed at Zeilingers Mill and I could not be happier with both of them!

Notice the little sample skein of white? I spun that yesterday and will be swatching as a possibility for my Mystery Stole 3 yarn, as well as my second shawl for my Journey To A Shawl project.

Finally, this roving is also doing duty as a prize for the winner of our first prize drawing for Journey To A Shawl. You will have to visit the Journey blog to find out who the lucky winner is (grin)

I am leaving today to spend the weekend at a very special place with some extra special friends. No tv, no radio, no computer...just spinning, knitting, eating well, swimming, walking....and wonderful friend time. I plan to remember my camera and share some photos when I return...hope everyone else has a grand weekend! See you Monday!

3 comments:

Carissa said...

Enjoy your special weekend! I know how much you always enjoy it, and I'm sure that you need it more than usual this year! I always enjoy seeing your flowers. It makes me long for the day when we have a house of our own, hopefully in the next few years, but it will be in God's time!

Alpaca Granny said...

So glad that you told me how to take care of my lavendar. Thanks.

Nana Sadie said...

FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE! That lavender shot is worth it's weight in gold!!! I have a couple of lavender sachets from your lovely Sockret Angel package and I cherish them...they are in my knitting bags (not just for protection, lavender is my favorite scent in the world)
Especially FRENCH lavender!
I hope your weekend was wonderful!
(((hugs)))