My indoor/outdoor thermometer says its 43C outside and "only" 34 inside. I swear I'm actually getting used to this. It's supposed to change overnight and be back in the 20's tomorrow but this heat's gone on so long I feel like I should be wearing desert robes or something different than a singlet (tank top) and shorts. I have to wear shoes or my feet swell so that I can't move them but I'm in my cool Lands End mesh shoes. I'm trying to remember to drink a lot too. I am doing the evaporative cooling on the cheap trick, by doing wash and hanging it around the house to dry. I continue to hear stories about how cold it is in the US and the snow in London and wish that our respective temperatures could be moderated somehow
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At right is the most recent pair of socks, these from Regia Bamboo. In searcing for a link it seems I am the only person in a English-speaking location who got a ball band that said "Bambu" and not "Bamboo". Strange. The yarn is light and lustrous, but tends to split a little too easily. The next sock is already cast on and is a Sockotta cotton in black and purple.




Below is a present given to me by LN and if you can't tell, it's a Peruvian clay spindle. Since I only know how to spin with a spindle that has a hook, and all I had to hand to spin was silk, I didn't do a very convincing job at demonstrationg how it worked. If you look carefully, the clay ball in the middle has incised markings. I wonderful thing to add to my textile bits and pieces. I like collecting these oddments, from bone crochet hooks to pieces of needle lace or filet crochet.





At right is the latest to come off plying and is the Targhee from Susan's Spinning Bunny in the the Clematis Vine colorway. Targhee is bouncy and not as slippery as what I have been spinning lately, so it is more uneven than I would have liked. It hasn't been washed yet but I imagine it will bloom some in the water. I plan socks for it and of course I didn't clount how many meters I had, but I can do that when it gets wound onto the ball winder.


Aside from today's photographic extravaganza, I can describe our black berry picking adventure yesterday. The mountains around Canberra are a) planted in plantation pines and b) full of wild blackberries. Very early in the AM M and I went to our usual spot to find that the forest service had blocked the road (to dirt bike riders) with numerous fallen logs and other associated debris. I made it over the obstacle path and we picked in our usual places. Lots of berries but small ones so not much to show for a bit over an hour's hot labor. On the way back over the logs, I fell, full length. It has made me sore and stiff today, both the fall and the contortions from berry-picking. When we left, I drove down the road a bit and found another patch with berries on flat ground and easy access so I expect we will try there next week, or even this week if it does cool down.