Free to be berried

With the discovery of an excess of wild blackberries in the backyard and wild wineberries (raspberries) up the block, my natural instinct this July 4th was...to take the kids to pick more than 4 lbs of blueberries of course.  Fortunately, Kayla has committed to making a blueberry pie to take to camp tomorrow and we can all just eat berries to our hearts' content.  We might need Josie to come visit very soon to help, though, since she's the family's champion berry eater.

So we're into summer.  Feivel is spending a lot of his time at the pool, hanging out with friends or swimming.  He did have a second swim meet last week and finished 2nd in his race.  He was very proud and we were too.  The younger two boys meanwhile have finally really learned how to swim; Sachy can do all four main strokes, and Gilad can do a crawl complete with side-breathing.  Adele is making herself comfortable in the main pool now that she's tall enough to go halfway into the shallower area, and last week I even managed to ignore the kids long enough to swim about 8 laps.  The really exciting part for Sachy...he can jump off the diving board comfortably!

Kayla is loving archeology camp again.  Just one more week and she turns 16 and transitions from LIT (leader-in-training) to full counselor.  She's just doing really, really well there.  Tirtze's having success working at Aish's Montessori preschool camp too, her first real paid job.

I went ahead and made Dinosaur Train pillowcases for the 2 little kids, breaking out the sewing machine.  I realized it's a slippery slope in my life.  I started knitting and that led to spinning.  Spinning led to weaving.  Weaving led back to sewing, where all my fiber obsessions started.  And now here I am perusing sewing pattern websites again.  Adele is pushing me to sew her a sunbonnet this week.  But the pillowcases are really cute just because Shiny Pteranodon and Buddy Pteranodon the T. rex are so awfully cute:

I've finished some dyeing, some spinning, and am working on a huge spinning project meanwhile.

Dorset wool from a rescue farm nearby, mordanted in copper and dyed with bindweed

Ribbon lace scarf pattern from Knitty worked in commercial alpaca yarn

First finished plied skein of Black Welsh Mountain wool, eventually for a weaving project

I think I better leave anything else for another day.  At the moment, Adele is asleep on the sofa where I sit to spin, but sooner or later she will wake up and want Mommy.  I have errands to run, too, but both big girls fell asleep for naps even before Adele did.  Enjoy any fireworks tonight.