Quote for the Day:
" A glass pitcher, a wicker basket, a tunic of coarse cotton cloth.
Their beauty is inseparable from their function. Handicrafts belong to a
world existing before the separation of the useful and the beautiful."
~Octavio Paz
When I get the chance, I like to spend some time on the third Saturday of every month with a group here in Grafton called LEFA (Loose Ends Fiber Addicts). It is a gathering of people, all women at this point, who are interested in crafts and hobbies that use "fiber", ie, crocheting, knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting, etc.
It is a loosely organized group in that there are no "officers" and no "dues",though we do have a Facebook page! You can visit it here: LEFA
We meet in the banquet hall of one of the local churches and basically exchange ideas, information and fun stories! :) We all bring something to work on while visiting, and if you have a completed project to share, you bring that, too! I usually bring something to hand quilt on, but others may be crocheting or knitting, and there are a couple of ladies that bring their portable spinning wheels!
In the last picture, Susan is seen using a hand-operated carding machine. I don't know all of the correct nomenclature, but basically she feeds washed wool into the machine while turning the crank and it cards the wool into batts that she can then spin into yarn. Today she was carding alpaca wool from alpacas that one of the other ladies raises!
On a different note, I wanted to share a recipe for crockpot pumpkin oatmeal that Susana and I came up with when they were visiting.
Crockpot Pumpkin Oatmeal
2 cups milk
2 cups water
2 cups steel cut oatmeal
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon EACH of nutmeg, cloves & allpsice
Grease crockpot THOROUGHLY! Place all ingredients into crockpot and stir till mixed. Cook on low for 7-8 hours.
That's it!
We had leftovers so I put it in the fridge and have been heating up individual servings since Wednesday morning, when we originally served it.
I had to add a bit of sugar to it just before eating, but my sister added maple syrup as her sweetener! :) Get creative with it! It is DELICIOUS!!!
Loretta
