Rare Finds

Both fibery and fungal.
 
Odd Couple Interests
 Many of you know that Thaddeus likes to forage for wild mushrooms and has a handful of different edible mushrooms he can identify without question as to their non-poisonous qualities.

I, on the other hand, am usually not a big fan of mushrooms.

There are, however a couple of mushrooms he finds that I do like. In the Spring he gets morels and in the late Summer, he finds my favorite mushroom of all.

Known as "Hen of the Woods", or "Rams Head", or maitake by the Japanese, the Latin name for this mushroom is Grifola Frondosa.

The flavor of this delicacy is a subtle woody flavor and it has a firmer texture than most mushrooms, and even when cooked for a while, it still maintains a snap to it. So far, Thaddeus has made a very rich beef stew with them and sauteed them in with some breakfast potatoes. Both of them were incredible dishes.  

The Other Rare Find
There are some very talented independent yarn dyers that I've run into in my years of knitting, but I've absolutely fallen in love with John (Dye Guy) from the Fibre Garden's dye jobs.

I met up with John and his sister and niece in Edmonton a couple of weeks ago to pick up my latest acquisition from him.

The top one is Paca Toes sock yarn in the colourway "Coal and Ash". The middle one is probably my favorite, it's Lace Time in the colourway "Black Pine" and the bottom one is more Lace Time yarn in the colourway "Chameleon. They feel as luscious as they look. So two rare finds in my recent past.  

Current Knitting
 None...not even on my travel sock. Work has been a bit nuts.