Where to start…….many exciting things have been happening.
The boys got ducks. They’ve wanted ducks so much that they’ve been pretending the hens are ducks.
They’re Magpie ducks, a rare breed. We’re hoping at least one is a girl. If they were all girls, that would also be fine as they are reportedly great egg layers.
I’ve been swatching my hemp for a bast fibre sampler smock.
And, perhaps most exciting for me, I’ve had an article published in Ply Magazine
Look at that amazing list of contributors, and me! I’m still working my head around it all.
I’d like to celebrate with a giveaway of a recent favorite skein of handspun. It’s 170 yards of mixed up fun……merino, mohair, cashmere, several types of silk etc.
I know some folks aren’t knitters……if you’re local or visiting the island this summer, I’d happily include a knitting lesson. Otherwise, if you’re a patient non-knitter, I will knit it into a hat or cowl.
Leave me a comment to enter. I’d love to hear what excitement summer is bringing you. If you follow, leave a second comment telling me how and it will double your luck. I’ll draw a winner in a few weeks.
(one of my secret weaknesses is a love of random drawings and contests)
Cob Cottage Craft 
Gorgeous yarn. Congratulations on getting published!
I’ve never seen ducks like that. I’ll be looking forward to hearing all updates and adventures.
Linda
NanaMamah on Rav
Thank you for helping me correct my incompetence! I greatly appreciate it. Good luck!
What a gorgeous skein of yarn. I love your blog and reading about your lovely magpie ducks. I always loved magpies and your ducks are so very pretty. Are they as cheeky as the magpie birds are?
They’re pretty cheeky and they love it when we feed them garden peas. They get very excited and run about quacking madly. As a side affect, the boys are now excited to eat peas too.
Thanks for the compliments.
that’s such exciting news!
i’ve always wanted ducks…
that yarn is really lovely. the colours are beautiful and the blend looks interesting.
this summer i’m leaving the chickens in the care of neighbors and working on a research team. we’re studying microbiology and ground chemistry in a sand aquifer. i’m hoping in the off hours i’ll have time to knit. my goal is to finish the back and one sleeve on the sweater i’m working on right now.
This type of ducks can reportedly coexist happily with chickens in a coop. We haven’t tried yet…..I’m barely preventing the boys from moving them into the house. We hope they’ll eventually move to the pond.
Hoping your sand aquifer is near a beach and you’ll have relaxing evenings to knit! Good luck!
Congratulations on your published article!!
My year-round adventures are just beginning — I just moved into a rental apartment, the main floor of a shabby, unloved little 1940s house, in a small Southern Ontario city. The big bonus: there’s a one-acre remnant of old pear orchard in behind, and I have permission to do whatever I want with it! Of course, I have city bylaws to keep in mind (can’t have the sheep and hens I wanted — hmph!), but I can garden, garden, GARDEN to my heart’s content. Wish me luck!
PS: I know just the penniless university student I’d gift that gorgeous homespun to, if I were the lucky winner!
Thanks!
Oh an old pear orchard sounds wonderful…..will there be any pears? Maybe you could sneak in some angora bunnies…..
Best of luck!
Congratulations on your published article!
Not much is going on this summer here in SF.
I have never try handspun yet, thank you for the chance to win!
Thanks, and good luck!
Simply heart stopping yarn! And I’m enjoying your blog. AND biggest of all, congrats on getting published such an awesome magazine!
What a lovely compliment! Thanks and best luck!
I figured out to follow you by clicking on a button the lower right corner of my iPad screen so now I will get an email as you update your blog 🙂
Congratulations on being published! Those are lovely ducks. I’m a city dude, but a couple towns over from where Mom lives there’s a small preseve where we can see ducks, geese, herons, pelicans and occasionally, though not for a few years, swans. I live in SF CA and this weekend has been busy with our Pride celebrations. I am a knitter, and that yarn is beautiful, full of my favorite colors. Thanks for the giveaway. KittenWhiplash on Rav.
I haven’t seen a pelican in years! I don’t think they make it this far north.
Thanks and good luck!
I follow your blog through blogger.
I love ducks! Please keep us up-to-date on any egg laying! 🙂
This summer has been pretty quiet so far. Just enjoying our newest pup, Pasha! She just turned five months a few days ago and she’s so adorable. 🙂
–Purlescence from Ravelry
Oh a puppy! What kind?
I hope to be posting beautiful duck egg pictures by summers end…..fingers crossed.
Congratulations on seeing your name in print!!!! How fun! I just took a quick tour of your blog and had to giggle about the dishcloth post….I just got back from the pond where I was working a dishcloth while the rest of the crew swam! 🙂
Sounds like a great summer day!
Thanks and good luck!
Following your blog through email (I think?…..it said I’d be notified of new posts)
Beautiful yarn. Just a quiet summer here.
Quiet can be just lovely! Good luck!
What a gorgeous skein! I am trying to relax a bit this summer and am knitting plain vanilla socks whenever I get a free second.
I am a huge fan of plain vanilla socks! Are you a toe up or top down?
Good luck!
congratulations on being published! my summer adventures of sitting around baseball fields allow me time to knit & watch, although sometimes I watch more than I knit! kmhs on Ravelry
Knitting at baseball games sounds so perfectly summery!
Best luck!
I also follow via email notification, just signed up!
I am on a vacation/family reunion in Alaska at my brother’s house. It’s our first time here, and it is beautiful!
I’ve been dreaming of Alaska for years, hope your time there is amazing and good luck!
The yarn is beautiful! This summer my daughter and I are learning to knit. Her idea and her first attempt at anything crafty. Can’t wait to get started.
What fun! My boys like to practice with my knitting but don’t quite get it yet. Best luck!
I plan on learning some new knitting/crochet techniques this summer as well as enjoying the nice weather.
I’ve just started doing my socks with magic loop, it feels so great to try new things! I’d love to hear what new techniques are on your list. Good luck!
I love the look of that yarn! I hope to get through some pretty projects this summer while watching softball and going tot the beach!
Sounds like great summer knitting activities! Do you have favorite project types? Good luck!
I follow by email!
My summer is being spent at home, gardening and sewing! The grandkids keep it exciting!
Sounds like a good summer! Best luck!
My summer excitement is meeting my new Great Nephew he was born on 6/26 summer baby just like his Auntie. So I will be busy making him some sweaters to keep him warm in the fall. The yarn is just beautiful.
Congratulations on your new Great Nephew. Baby sweaters are such fun! Thanks and best luck!
Just signed up to follow your blog via e-mail too.
Congrats on getting published ! 🙂
I love that yarn, it really is a bunch of mixed up fun, which is how my summer is !
Having my 7 year old grand daughter lots, and doing lots of fun crafts and things. I taught her to spool knit the last 2 years, and this summer it’s time to learn with two knitting needles, she is going to be very excited when I give her her own needles and let her pick out yarn from my stash.
Thanks and best luck!
You are giving your granddaughter the best gift!
That yarn is gorgeous! Love the color combination. This summer, after I teach some art camps, I going canyoneering in Utah with my family.
Hi! Thanks for the compliment!
Canyoneering sounds like serious adventure, how daring! Maybe art camps are serious adventure too?
Congratulations on getting published! Your handspun is lovely! I was going to get chickens when I lived in Ohio, but the village would not give me permission. But here in Phoenix, AZ several of my neighbors have them. I had ducks as a kid and absolutely loved taking care of them. Your boys will have tons of fond memories!
Since Summer in Phoenix is so hot I try to stay inside as much as possible. So I am going through my belongings and getting rid of the stuff I no longer need. That way I have more room for my creative pursuits. I am excited about tubing down the Salt River with my friends and some liquid refreshments. Ah, cooling waters.
Thanks for the compliment. River tubing sounds delightful……so does a big stuff sort really. I’m getting a bit overdue for one of those myself, cupboard doors beginning to bulge ominously….
Best luck!
Congratulations! how exciting.
The yarn is gorgeous. I crochet and know the basic knit stitch. This summer a lot of my family is meeting at our east coast for a week. I have a new grandson which makes it more exciting.
I peeked at your blog and now need to carve out some time to try some of your tutorials. I think my sewing skills are similar to you knitting but I’d love to learn some more skills! Congrats on your new grandson!
Camping! Not this weekend but the next two, the S.O. and I are going on 3-day camping trips; hopefully they are as quiet and isolated as I’m anticipating. 🙂
And I now follow on bloglovin. I saw your sheep pictures, and that alone made me want to follow you. 🙂
Thanks! There will be more sheep for sure…
Best luck and I hope your camping is lovely!
Beautiful yarn. I live in the MO Ozarks so our summer includes kayaking on our local rivers.
no major excitement here! I think i’ll focus on trying to do lots of sewing (as well as schlepping my toddler and baby around to their various social activities!)
Gorgeous yarn! And congrats on being published!!!
I’m enjoying the break from my kids bein in school. It’s nice to sleep in and not have our time regimented!
I love the long days of summer light. I really miss the sunshine in the winter.
I’ve signed up to follow your blog. I like its range of focus and that your posts are short, sweet, and to the point. Plus I am a fiber lover (do I really need to say that?). Congrats on having an article published.
Beautiful ducks!!! Wow! I’ve never seen anything like them before! In a few days vwe are traveling to Europe for a tour and afterwards we will visit with my French relatives of whom I haven’t seen in 40 years!!! Eeeeep!! We are stoked!!
I am following you via Bloglovin’!! Absolutely love the yarn you chose… Beautiful colours and textures!!
Congratulations on your published article. My nephew raised a duck from a baby duck for about 5 years then they got a puppy and had to let the duck go a the river where there were more ducks..
Love the ducks!!!
How exciting to be published,congratulations. I had the pleasure of celebrating my 25 wedding anniversary with my husband. We went on a two week trip and had a blast.
We’re planning our annual extended weekend camping trip soon; it’s the only time of year we see certain friends. Congratulations on your publication!
I now also follow you on WordPress (and if you like giveaways, maybe you should check out my usually-weekly blog listing http://www.asimplehomestead.com/othergiveaways/ )
What beautiful ducks–and gorgeous yarn! Congratulations on the publication of your article. I am so glad someone else finds dishcloths to be valuable portable projects. Reminds me, time for more–but not from handspun!!
You summer is sounding very exciting so far! I was just at the coast dropping my son off at his great grandparents in Chilliwack and that yarn reminds me so much of the ocean…it is beautiful.
Love your blog, and gorgeous ducks! Hope you’ve got an egg layer in the bunch. Your handspun is lovely. Congrats on the article!
Congratulations on getting in to Ply- so exciting! I can’t have any farm animals here in suburbia, & I have parrots anyway. My summer excitement is spinning that doesn’t look like a rank newbie did it- so much fun! I know the perfect coal pattern for that yarn, too… 😉
Congratulations on your Ply win! I can’t have any cool farm animals here in suburbia, but I have parrots, anyway. My summer adventure is spinning, that doesn’t look like a rank newbie did it! I’m also working on my 1st adult-sized sweater. I know the perfect cowl pattern for that yarn, too…😉
Sorry if I posted twice
congratulations on your publication! Gorgeous handspun!!
Congrats on the article and the ducks! =) Summer for me has mostly meant getting in some much needed relaxation – and finally finding time to get back to my knitting! As a PhD student, summer is the time to catch up on non-academic life!
Summer is bring for me canning season and cool nights to knit on the swing