Quiet Respite for the Good, Little Silkworms

Well, we're all snuggled up and tucked in now. The little silkworms have completed their spinning stage. I have exactly 100 cocoons!

Left: After having chosen a favorite paper roll  in which to spin, these little silkworms are in the process of building their cocoons. Right: The lovely, white cocoons once the outer fuzz is removed. These characters should be hatching forth in the days ahead.

Except for one lone wolf who appears to have a tremendous appetite and little interest in the handy-dandy toilet paper rolls that are so conveniently beside him!

I do think he's a smart lad because, as I took this photo - with the evil intent of making fun of him on this blog and saying mean things like, "Looks like you're just going to be a worm for life!" -  he gave me this pose...

,,,where he's making a little poo.

O.K. Think of me what you will for even playing at this entire experiment but I say,  "Glass Houses to you."

If you think I'm odd I understand. It's like I'm forcing everybody to give too much thought to where milk comes from. Besides, you know you love silk, which very interestingly  happens to rhyme with milk. (Coincidence? I think not.)

Aw, aren't they just as white as they can be?

And, now we wait.

I love waiting. I love waiting, and weekends with cold snaps of crisp, wintery weather when everybody says, "Time to hunker down and make soup!" And I say, "Time to persue something fiddley!"

So, while we're waiting for the great silkworm transformation, and for somebody to make soup,  I'm going to try my hand at what initially might appear to be something fiddley but, which  in all actuality is a fantastically aerobic workout for the fingers. (No, the new running shoes haven't gotten much use as of yet but, you have to admit from the first picture above I've certainly made excellent use of the shoe box.)

For your intermission amusement I'm going to create lace out of little, cottony craft puffs merrily tinkling with jingle bell embellishments for the festive holiday season ahead. And, I'm going to use only the items in the below photograph:

Above: plastic Aero tatting shuttle, pale yellow craft fluffs, little, tin jingle bells, small coin spindle.

First, using the coin spindle I shall twist the "fluffs" into fine, tight thread. (So far it's a bit like a crazy car chase isn't it?)

I'll then load the shuttle bobbin and commence to tatting (and cussing because it's fiddley and I only just obtained my first-ever shuttle last Saturday so I'm still knotting up a bit, though I do get the overall concept, which is half the battle...right?)

And why speak further? It simply goes without saying that these are indeed, most exciting times for The TREADLER.