judyb-alpaca-and-fiber: 'shrooms and Lace

Two weekends ago, I went morel mushroom hunting. This is an annual trip that Mary Jo and Joel offer as a service item each year at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse that I attend. We did not find morels--well, Karen did find two very small morels! But what we did find were plenty of gyromita montana--more commonly known as snow mushrooms or "fake morels." They are called snow mushrooms because they are often found at the edge of snow--the first mushrooms to appear in the spring.

They are edible--prepared the same way I would morels--sliced up and sauteed in butter and garlic! What do they taste like? Mushrooms! A friend of mine at work asked about their taste, and I said they sort of taste like butter and garlic! He asked, "Then why bother?"

Several answers to that question. First, because it's great fun to be out in the woods, noticing the first wildflowers (we saw trillium), being outside of the office!, finding food like a gatherer! Smelling the mushrooms sauteeing!

I used my mushrooms in an omelet and froze some for use in soups and spaghetti sauces later!

Now that we've had some warmer weather, the morels should be out! I need to enter those woods again!

And today I signed up to participate in the "Seasons of Lace." It's a "KAL"--or knit-along, where the participants will all share progress, pictures, information about the lace items they are knitting as the summer progresses. There are chances to win prizes, but the most interesting part for me is to see what other knitters are doing--their projects, their successes, failures, problems, the yarn they use, etc.

My first project will be the Candle Flame shawl (offered on Knit Picks). I bought yarn for this last year--or was it two years ago--using alpaca (Shimmer--that I bought in the Turquoise Spendor). I didn't get very far before I

frogged the whole thing. But now, I've learned about using a "lifeline"--running a line of "other" yarn or thread through the knitting. So often, it takes me some time to get the feel of a lace pattern--or I drop a stitch that I can't recover. When you rip out (frog!) lace, it can be quite difficult! But if you put in a lifeline every few rows until you catch on to the pattern it's supposed to reduce that frogging.