Ways to Avoid a Major Project!

 O.K.-I now have the sleeves and body all on one needle.  A whole lot of stitches on there!  Now I begin my yoke and my colorwork.  For some reason I am busy doing other things.  It is an avoidance thing, I think.

First the other night I was so tired, and all I could knit was one teeny-weeny sock for my Christmas tree.

Also other people in my house had both comfy chairs.

Then yesterday I went to Eureka Springs for a mini workshop by Beth Brown-Reinsel.  I learned a Swedish technique called Tvaandsstickning.  I apologize that I don't know how to put those little marks above the a's.  We call it Twined Knitting.  It is a technique about 400 years old, and it makes a firm, warm, and inelastic fabric.  Beth showed us a beautiful jacket found in Sweden on one of her trips.  The sleeves were knitted in twined knitting, dyed after knitting, fulled, and taken to the tailor to finish.  The tailor then sewed the sleeves to a fabric that was made from a felted material and embroidered.  There was a cotton lining. It was very heavy, and I assume very warm.

We all were concentrating so hard with the beginning of the workshop.   It is a bit fiddly to learn how to manipulate the stitches.  Once that part got into my head, I finally developed a rhythm of sorts.  I know if one practises a lot, there would definitely be an easy rhythm to flipping the threads front and back and in the twining process.

 We had potluck!  Lots of good food and desserts!

 And lots of visiting going on.  That was fun too!

 And my finished cuff!  Not in the least bit perfect, but finished.  I did get the instructions from Beth to make a pair of fingerless mitts using a cuff like this, and another pattern for a pair of gloves. 

I took Beth and another friend downtown to do a little bit of snooping in shops.  We had a nice walk and saw some really beautiful things!  Then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

I am still spinning on the pretty blue yarn.  Nearly there, but another week of work probably before plying.

I found a great sale today online-I will apologize now to my LYS-for some sock yarn.  It was Regia for 2.95 per ball.  Then they had a great discount at the end.  When it came to shipping it was only 30 cents more to ship Priority.  So for 16.95 I got yarn for two pairs of socks!  Yeah!  A great bargain!
Another Christmas gift under my belt!

It was so warm on Monday that I went out to the front flower bed to dig out more grass.  It was nearly 75 degrees!  I ended up putting on a pair of shorts.  Then Monday night we had a little rain, and a cool front.  Still warmer than it should be this time of year.  But the really cold front is coming next week.  Highs in the 40's.  Sigh!

CJE and AE are having their annual party on Saturday.  This is a big event for our tribe.  I have some Bison sausages that I will cook.  It will be good to see folks again.  I didn't go to Mirkwood for the usual events, and I haven't seen most of these folks since last year.

So all avoidance aside, I should be able to start knitting the yoke this afternoon.  I want to spin a little more, and then I will sit down to that.

 

Happy Birthday

Today is my younger brother's birthday.  As morbid as this seems, all three of us have outlived our parents' ages when they died.  That used to be a goal, but now I am way past and don't think about it.  I never hear from my brother any more.  He has been mad at me for some time.  But every year I send him an email wishing him Happy Birthday.  He used to always get a chocolate cake.  He doesn't eat sweets, so I never understood the chocolate cake thing. 

Yesterday was Solstice.  Normally I have a simple ritual with candles and I like to cook something special.  Yesterday I had a hairdresser's appointment for a hair cut.  Then I swung by CJE and AE's house.  CJE and I wrapped gifts until we were starving.  Then she drove us to a nearby town to a wonderful new restaurant.  It is run by some Mennonites in town, and the building frame was a really old, old barn from Michigan.  The food was great!

We were seated at a small table by a window, so both of us had a chance to knit while we waited for our meal.  We celebrated with a shared dessert-a brownie with ice cream and chocolate drizzle.  Sigh!

So then we decided to go to a local antique/junk store.  Driving there I saw a sign for the Wildlife Safari drive through place.  So off we go to find that place.  The sun was shining so brightly and gave the illusion of warmth.  We saw tons of animals that I have never gotten a chance to see in real life.  It is approximately 5 miles of driving slowly through different groups of animals. The emus like to run in front of the car.  So imagine the Ozark hills and high plateaus with Serengeti animals.  There was one really cute hippo playing with a big black rubber feeding bowl.  He was tossing it around, rolling it, and pushing it with his nose.  I tried not to think of the big cats in big cages.  They had huge, tall platforms for them to climb on, and there was one tiger way up on his throne.  I thought that surely he could just give one big jump and be out of there.  Oh-there are white American bison everywhere.  Some were really blondish yellow looking, but not albinos.  They were everywhere.  Some of the big guys had really muddy faces that I guess was from wallowing. 

Returning back to our starting point, CJE parked so we could go to the petting part.  They have several Pygmy goats that were expecting any minute, and a tiny donkey that looked pregnant.  So that pen was locked.  We went into the kangaroo section.  I have never petted a kangaroo before.  They have the softest fur that I can't describe as anything but downy.  There were a lot of babies there too.   There were bunnies, chickens, ducks, peacocks, and one big huge turkey.  One chicken followed us around, and a staff member told me he follows her all the time.  She just calls him Red.  We stopped on the highway leaving to see a couple of young camels.  They were expecting a gift (food) and one just made rude noises when we didn't give them anything.  Further down the highway was a huge pasture with yaks, long-horned cattle, and those African cattle with the weird horns. 

Of course our fiber eyes were only thinking of what we could do with all that fiber we were seeing.  CJE is wanting some of the white bison fur. 

So returning home from my day out, my two fur kids were very unkind.  They were "starving", and did I notice I was gone all day.  I had told them I wouldn't be gone long when I left. 

So today we still have a few clouds, and occasional sun.  From this day forward the days will be longer until June 21.  This always works for me until March.  Then I want it to be warm.  I usually tire of winter about the end of January.  February is a short month, and I suffer through.  But by March I am so over winter. 

I am nearing the end of the red scarf.  It will then be time to start the Fair Isle vest.  I haven't been knitting as much as normally.  I am spinning some luscious Polworth roving.  It spins so fast.  I love this fiber.

CJE bought me a beautiful calendar from Quilting Arts.  There is a most wonderful iguana on the front piece.  I love all the embellishments.  It makes me want to get in the sewing room.  I have neglected my sewing for too long.  So.....why am I not in there right now?

Happy Happy Whatever You Believe In!  I am one of the few who loves Christmas, but mostly because of the Solstice thing.  We are now on the side of more light! 

The Year of Christmas Disasters

Mom-The birds are driving me nuts!

I finished a beautiful afghan for R and H for their Christmas present.  It was something that would remind him of my grandmother, which he knew and loved.  I finished it, and I washed it.  When I laid it out to block it, two nice size holes appeared right near the middle where the yarn gave way.  SIGH!  A disaster.  Yes, I did repair it.  Even if it doesn't look too awful, I just can't in good faith give them a gift that may fall apart again when they wash it.  So I just grabbed a quilt from the pile, wrote an apology note and explained the situation, added all the embroidered pillowcases I had left from my "hope chest", and shipped it off. If they still want the afghan, they can have it with full warning that it may not last long.  SIGH! 

So after Noodles and I watched the birds for a while, I knit this little elephant.  Isn't she cute?  A little wonky, but still cute.  The wool was from something I had frogged, and I even made her a little scarf to wear.

I am getting geared down for hibernation.  I took on a massive project for someone to knit a traditional Fair Isle vest.  We finally picked the six colors last weekend, and I ordered one skein of the yarn to knit a swatch.  If the swatch is right and accepted, then that will be my winter challenge.  I am insane for doing this, but it will be a challenge for the wintry months when I can't get out to do much.

We have had a lot of rain this month, and only that one little snowfall.  The weather is fluctuating up and down, and we even had thunder and lightening last night.  I just can't get too excited about all this.

Somehow a bad person picked up a cookie from me and tried to scam some money.  The difference in this phishing is it was a fake email from a yarn company in Washington.  It was something about my paypal account did not go through, and could I go to this link and check the account, etc.  So I deleted it and went to the real website.  I checked my account since I knew I had not made any orders.  I emailed them to let them know that someone picked up their website info, etc.  I guess knitters are fair game to bad people now.

AE and CJE had their annual Wild Foods Party.  It seemed much calmer and not as wild as in the past.  My friend GO drove us to the party, and we left early.  There were lots of people leaving, and he noted that people are getting older and tamer.  I guess it is good to not be so feral as some of us have been in the past.  It seemed that there was not as much drinking as I have seen this group do in the 20+ years I have known them.

My brother sent me a link to a video my niece, Shelley King, did for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.  She is a singer/songwriter in Austin, so it was good to see her do something like this. 

I expect my neighbors will leave after Christmas to get away for the winter.  It will be nice to just let Patty go out on her own for as long as she wants.  When I do now, she heads straight to their thrown-away food in the woods.  Then she gets sick and that is not so pleasant. 

Well, I guess that catches us up on news.  Sixteen and one-half days until the New Year.  Isn't that hard to believe?  This year has gone fast.  It is hard to believe Christmas is only a week away.  Well, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

At Least The Sun Is Shining!

The weather is so weird! Now this week has been milder weather with a lot of sunshine. Then next week we are going back to frigid weather again! Sigh! I know it is boring to keep on harping about the weather.

I have finished the quilt top. I want to get a backing together and send this off to the quilter to finish the quilting. So the wedding quilt is a little bit late. I don't think they will mind.

That has been my whole focus this week has been the quilt. I did go outside and work at picking up more trash in the side yard. The former owners just dumped their trash on the ravine side, and they had a burn pile there also. Last winter I did not pick up much, but I am making an effort to pick up more this year. It is an endless job, since a lot of it is piled upon one another. Just as one pile is unearthed, picked up, and taken away, there is another mess underneath it. Really what is needed is to shovel it out, but where do I put it? I did hire someone to do that with the most obvious metal and upper layer when I first moved in. The local dump is very, very expensive.

I did finish that skein of yarn to finish my handspun sweater. I am back to that again. I am on the waist shaping stage, and have to keep up with that with the cable pattern.

I went to Thursday night knitting last night. Darn! My LYS, HandHeld, has roving now. Shoot! I had to buy one, but gosh! did I really need another thing to spin? I have a lifetime supply as it is. I have a pile that I started of "play" fiber that I want to get to soon. If I can motivate myself, I will have some really pretty yarn by Spring.

Patty just came home last night from the hospital. She has been undergoing heartworm treatment. Evidently she was negative for mature adult worms when she got rescued last February, but there were eggs or larvae that matured in the time I have had her. She tested positive on her yearly checkup. I have been giving her the monthly treatments, but that only kills eggs or larvae. Now I have to watch her like a hawk for the next two weeks for any symptoms that might occur from the treatment. She also is on an antibiotic for the bacteria that come with heartworms, and baby aspirin for thinning her blood. There is always a chance that a dead worm segment can morph into a blockage in a blood vessel, and, like a clot, can kill her. She seems to be pretty much back to her normal happy self since she is no longer contained in a cage. She was pretty depressed when I picked her up yesterday, but she seems to be really perky this morning.

There is a young adolescent male cat hanging around here lately. Noodles is beside himself trying to defend his territory with a bum leg. He is the aggressive one, not the interloper. The little guy is very friendly, and does not look malnourished or abandoned. He sure does need a trip to a vet to take care of the wandering gene that goes with that part of his anatomy. He needs to stay home.

The days are getting longer, and it is more light out when there is sunshine. It is the time of the year I start getting antsy for warmer weather. I did order some seeds last week. I am getting ready. I have plans of how I want to do the yard this year. I removed the fencing that took forever to put up, but it is useless. It just made the mowing harder last summer. I can't get the posts out yet. I will have to wait for more of a thaw.

Oh-I did finish the gray socks, and I am still working on the pink socks. But as you notice, I am not knitting very much.

That's it, I guess. Try to stay warm and toasty until the real warm-up comes. These teaser days are a killer for me. But I try to get out in the sun when I can get the sun. Next week I go back to hibernation stage.

Have a good weekend. More later.

Hibernation!

Thanks to my friends that seem to be worried that I have gone underground and have not been out to visit anyone. I have decided maybe hibernation is the correct thing this winter. I DO NOT LIKE COLD anymore. I began hallucinating about where a nice beach would be and wouldn't it be wonderful to just lie in the sun and be WARM. My husband used to tell me that I was a lizard in the wintertime. I would find a nice sheltered place out of the wind to sit in the sun every winter. I found myself standing in front of the french doors in the sun a lot-when there was sun. The cloudy, gloomy days are dreadful. Noodles has been very helpful. He helped me lay this scarf flat to dry. He sits in my lap while I am knitting. He snuggles under the covers at night. He stays close by to get any chance of shared heat.

I really haven't been doing a lot of knitting. Unfinished projects just languish in the piles. I pick them up and work a row or two if I am sitting still. But for the most part I have been sewing on a new quilt top. I made these blocks, and now I am sewing the blocks together. I think there are two more rows to finish. I first sew the row, then sew it to the bigger sewed rows. I have to lay things out to check colors, patterns, etc.

I have been reading a lot, too. I finished two books last week. I am telling you-hibernation. Limited activity.

There was a spurt of energy this past weekend. There was a brief warm-up, and I worked out in the backyard both days. I needed the sun, I needed the exercise, and Patty and Noodles needed company.

I know bears sometimes come out during the warm-ups and maybe eat a few roots. I think that's the idea. Go out in the warm-ups and get a little work done. Then when it is cold again-hibernate some more.

I like this photo of Patty. It sums it up. I had thrown a pile of clothes on the floor while I was in the bathroom. I came out and there was Patty. Is there anything better than Mom's dirty clothes, a sunny spot, and a toy mouse nearby?

So thanks again. I am fine. I am just staying close to home and I don't go out much. But this will pass, as it does every winter. It just seems that each winter that passes becomes the one I hate the most.