Settling in for Olympics and Ravellenic Games

Today I am just back from visiting a friend in Grinnell, and from more shopping than we had anticipated we would do.  :-)   We visited 3 quilt shops--more about those projects later--and several shops in the Amanas, including the Amana Woolen Mill, where I picked up these wonderful spindles.  (Doesn't that one with the dark wood look a bit like the black sheep of the wool spindle family?)

This woolen mill is the last of the 7 mills that existed when the Amanas were the Amana Colonies, of the communal Community of True Inspiration and each village  had a mill,  kitchen etc.  Things have changed a great deal since the 'Great Change" in the late 1930s, but this mill continues.  On my way, I mentioned that I was also a weaver and they noted that I can buy cotton and wood by the pound from them.  I'll have to think about  a trip back there it check that out in more detail.

But now that the Olympics are in full swing, it's time for me to settle into some serious knitting and crocheting for the Ravellenic Games--while ideas for art quilts are dancing around in my head.  At some point I'm going to have to take some time to sketch ideas in the sketch book, lest I lose track of them.