A coffee shop kind of day

Two updates in a single week is just about unheard of here at the Might Could Blog, but I'm trying to be better about giving updates on my progress. And I actually have made some progress since Tuesday. I've been working away on some new journals for the shop and for the farmer's market (erm, hopefully ...), and I'm very pleased with how they're coming out. The first batch will be finished tomorrow and ready for their glamour shots. I tried something a little different for surface design: a mix of doodling with pigment pens, staining with acrylic paints, and embroidery. We'll see how it looks when the books are completely assembled.

I got a little bit of unexpected bookbinding help today from a remarkably capable eight-year old who I met while sewing book sections at my favorite local coffee shop and eatery, The Paperback Cafe. She approached me shortly after I arrived. I think she couldn't resist the giant block of beeswax and stack of book sections. She didn't visit for very long before she moved onto another table, but a little later she was back, and full of questions. Within an hour, she was sewing book sections together almost entirely by herself. Her tension was pretty good, she loved "boning" over the sections before we added another, and she couldn't stop fondling the beeswax. I think, perhaps, another bookbinder has been born. Hopefully I'll see her at the workshops I'll be teaching at the public library this summer, and I can instill a little more love for bookbinding in her.

After my impromptu lesson, I headed over to Saybrook Yarns for their Thursday Night Knitters group. Everyone was casting on for a baby surprise jacket (which I'm working up in my own handspun). I met a lot of lovely women, got to give a few lessons on decoding the pattern directions, and met another spinner.

I should take a moment to express my love for Elizabeth Zimmermann. I certainly didn't learn to knit by reading her books, but now that I've discovered them, I'm hopelessly in love. I'm already in the throes of planning two zimmermann-esque sweater, one for myself with some lovely black silky wool, and pink farmhouse yarns silk blend I have in my stash, and one for Z. I'm thinking beaverslide dry goods worsted for his. It seems like exactly the right kind of yarn for a manly-man sweater. Oh Elizabeth, you make my heart go a-flutter!

I'm still moving forward on the spinning front, too. My new favorite yarn is might could spun in azure, which I dyed myself. I think it was a really successful yarn. It's still thick-and-thin, but that was somewhat intentional.



I love how the greens, yellows, and blues compliment one another. I will be doing some more dyeing in this colorway in the future.

I've got some lovely and fine heathered yarn on my bobbins right now. I plan on finishing a hank tomorrow, so it, too, will be going for glamour shots. And of course, it will be deserving of its very own blog post.