Knitting myself well

A blur of a week, what with trying to breathe past virus and the daily workout of coughing up my lungs. Significant improvement to my abs must result, as everything hurts enough.

A great week for mindless knitting to finish up projects however. Let it never be said that I do not make good use of my time, in whatever condition I find myself.

The down side of course is that as I begin to feel better, I have attacks of 'startitis' that are so frequent that more blurring takes place.  I began the Orkney Pi shawl in Zephyr wool & silk lace weight. In fact, I began it several times and may have to begin it again because I think the first round is a bit wonky and I don't want to knit thousands upon thousands of yards and millions of stitches only to see that the first dozen are wrong.  It's a ruddy trial to begin a circular shawl with ten tiny wee stitches on three needles that just won't behave.  Once I'm past the beginning it knits up beautifully.

I'm nearly done the Hemlock Ring blanket in blue mohair that I began in August.  I think I know who it will go to, but we'll have to give it a bath and make certain it 'works' before I announce the recipient.

Once I'm upright more of each day I'll finish the arm warmers, blend yarn with borrowed wool combs to spin for the socks that will go with them.  For now it continues to be sofa time in my household, so I can stay as close to the wood stove as possible without roasting body bits. It isn't as if I mind knitting time on this order, I only mind the virus and coughing all night. Hopefully the latter will be done soon.

Post-election blahs

Wouldn't you know it, all that exposure to electors made me sick! Not from them being electors of course, but because many of them were generously sharing viruses. My theory about a virus is that it won't leave me alone until I share it with you. 

The election itself was probably enough to make me sick. In the poll I worked the turn-out was, in a word, pathetic. Less than 50%. Either nobody cares that we have a democracy or as I also heard during the day, that people whose families have lived in the same place since before Confederation refused to vote if it required them to show picture ID. I mean really, people. What's the big deal? We show picture ID in lots of other contexts. Apparently elderly rural folk find this requirement beyond obnoxious. But while others in the poll knew these folks, I didn't. In an urban or any large poll you wouldn't know the people. A requirement for identification (and there were dozens upon dozens of options) hardly seems a good reason to stay home. I think what I find so appalling about the voter turn-out, whatever the reason for it is that in so many places in the world people pay with their lives to vote and we can't get our butts off the sofa to go do this? Sad, very, very sad.

And then there was the outcome. Not a surprise but a great disappointment to me. My wish (okay, fantasy) was for a NDP/Green party coalition to run the country, not a increased mandate (albeit still a minority one) for wacko Tories who don't get the urgency of environmental issues, and in fact deny there are issues at all. I was very impressed by the moxie of the Green Party leader. One of these days Canada will elect someone with vision. Meanwhile I promise not to hold my breath until that happens.

I took a jaunt to Wolfville on Friday to look for likely properties. I'd hoped to stay overnight in the valley but felt too rotten to inflict myself on dear friends, and didn't want to share my virus there. I prefer to share anonymously so you (whoever you are) can't track it back to me.  How very nice of me, eh?

One of the highlights of my day trip though was a view of a house that meets all my criteria in terms of cuteness, breathing space, location, size, studio and office space, but fails to meet the price range I'm working with by a mere $100K. Ah well, can't have everything I suppose--but it's good stuff to be dreaming on even so.

The other thing that was a spectacular first for me was apple picking. How is it I have lived 10 years in Nova Scotia and have never before been in an orchard to pick apples? We found a U-pick place where they had Northern Spy apples as well as the usual Cortland, Gravenstein, Macintosh, Ida Red, and Russet varieties. I now have 10 pounds of handpicked Northern Spys in my pantry and as soon as I share my virus with someone and it leaves me alone, I'll make something deliciously apple-y.

Finished the chocolate lama/mohair sweater coat and it is wonderful, everything I hoped it would be. I think there may be enough sunshine today to take some photos. The next spinning project: beige lama/mohair will make a good lap blankie. I have a pattern for one that uses a variety of gansey patterns. That might be fun. Need to track the pattern down so I can figure out how I need to spin the fibre for this. 

We had hard frost overnight so that's done in the geraniums I forgot to take in last night. Ah well, I felt too rotten to bother with them and believed the weather channel that the temperature wouldn't drop below freezing.

My only activity in the last 36 hours has been to throw logs into the wood stove to try to get warm. The ambient temperature is fine, but the virus tells me that I'm still cold. No amount of wool sweater layers seems to make a difference either. Some part of me believes that if I keep knitting sweaters I'll be warmer this winter. While that works once I'm up and dressed in same, it doesn't do a thing to get me out of bed on a morning when the house is cold. I still have the oil furnace thermostat set really low as it isn't winter, but I might have to reconsider for the duration of the virus.

In my quest to share my virus anonymously I believe I'll head to 'China-Tire' for a replacement wheel for my wheel barrow--one that can't go flat. Wish me luck?

Joblet

I have a joblet to do, as a poll clerk for Elections Canada. Who knew this was such a complex task that it required a 3 hour training session and a 100 page manual? 

It will also require considerable stamina. I must arrive at the polling station location, a rural fire hall, at 7:45 am and remain there until the ballots are counted, probably by 9:30 pm. To en-sure this, I will be called by someone at 6:15 (how nice is that?).  

I am required to bring sufficient food and water to get me through the entire day. I may have call-of-nature breaks but every time either I or the DRO are  away from the table, voting will stop until we are back. I have a long list of tasks, hence the 100 page manual. The only thing I don't have is the big responsibility and I'm grateful for that. For example I may not touch a ballot at any point in the process. That's the DRO's job. Thankfully I have plenty of other papers and forms to touch or I might have a problem with that (big grin!). 

I have already voted so I don't have to concern myself with my basic civic duty on the day, only the advanced version, aka poll clerk, which will make me the stunning amount of $167.00 which works out to what? $11-12 per hour? What I will say is that it is interesting to understand this part of the electoral process, and I expect to be a very, very tired old fart when it is done.

Okay, I have a 'thing' about....

...ripping out knitting projects. In the last few weeks I've ripped out three projects to keep myself on track with knitting everything twice. So far so good, eh?

...pens. As a writer I can never (never!) have too many nice, good, fancy, or expensive? pens. Same goes for notebooks, printer paper and watercolour paper.  Oh, and mechanical pencils (what's with that?)

...garlic. It's autumn. Winter isn't far away. One can never! have too much good garlic to approach a winter's worth of cooking and soup making.

...good olive oil. If I have several litres of the tasty stuff I'm rich, well olive oil, garlic, onions and chili flakes.

...blankies. I've been cold in winter, as a child and latterly as a younger adult. I have more blankies now than anyone requires, just in case.

...food in the freezer, even if it isn't edible. There's comfort in having a full freezer, even if it is mostly frozen compost now.  If push came to shove, I'd still be able to eat, I just wouldn't enjoy it all that much.

...the pantry. It should always contain plenty of canned tomatoes, tuna, beans and tetra packs of broth.

...having plenty of toilet paper on hand. Nothing worse than being too poor to have tp when you need it, that and tissues for one's runny nose.

...the fibre stash.  One can never have a stash of spinning fibre or knitting yarn too vast. I never know when inspiration will strike and in winter it can be days until the yarn store opens or the post-person delivers your project order.

...the wood pile and kindling.  Can you spell warm?

...hunkering down. As soon as the weather cools I knit sweaters, socks, hats and count my wealth in terms of all of the above.  Looking good this year, in spite of not having a job.

You know you're onto something, when...

It has taken about a month but with my +T3/-T4 experiment well underway I'm finally back to my project work.  Hurray! And oh, what a project this is proving to be: book, workbook(s), web site(s) and workshops. Everything I wrote this morning gave me another five items for my 'to do' list. The good news is, this is fun; okay, my idea of fun. And to have the brain engaged at long last as well as the motivation and energy to do the work--I'm positively dancing with glee.

Once I've had a run to the grocery store and a cup of tea afterwards, it's back to the desk(s) (laptop desk and desk-desk) to continue my progress today. Yowza, get outta her way!

Dyefest 2008...the first

Since the 60's or 70's I have been interested in natural dye materials and the beautiful colours they produce on wool and silk. My experience until now has been with onion skins (of which I have plenty as I usually go through 35 to 50 pounds of onions in a winter). Over the summer friend Pia and I bought a box of more exotic dye materials I'd only previously read about, never worked with. Our treasure box included alkanet, cochineal, tumeric, indigo solution, cutch, and logwood, plus a quantity of mordant chemicals. We were like kids in a a very big candy store.

Pia and her husband Soren set up a terrific dye workshop in the bottom of the barn. We had two gas rings, one was a turkey deep fryer in a previous life and I think the other was perhaps a sauna heater. There were four dye pots of various sizes to work with, at least a dozen plastic buckets; water from a long hose meant we didn't have to haul water to the barn from elsewhere. Given the number of dye pots we ran over the course of the event, a count I place at 16 give or take a few and not counting soaking baths or mordanting baths. My count is based partly on the amount of yarn and fibre I brought home and partly on memory of the number of cochineal, logwood and alkanet baths we had trying to exhaust the dye. Pia still has several buckets of usable dye liquor to work with, but we were exhausted and had to end the festivities so we could get back to the rest of our responsiblities and lives. Oh, but it was so much fun!

I now have the house festooned with brightly coloured skeins and fibre, while I wait none too patiently for it all to dry. Today anything that is still damp can go outdoors to finish drying, and I suppose I should get the dyepots out of the car and into the garage for storage. Though really I hate the thought of putting them away. I have so many more ideas of things to try, but as I now don't have any skeins left to dye, I have my work cut out for me this winter to get a lot of spinning done for the May 09 dyefest. Then again I could 'cheat' and order in a quantity of undyed yarn?

Perhaps now that my initial excitement has been worked through I can actually plan projects to dye as Pia did. All I wanted this time was colour, any colour, because it was all so exhilarating.

I do have 8 x 113 gm skeins of worsted weight merino dyed in the brightest cochineal we got (a vest perhaps?); 6 x 50 gm skeins of mohair for a shawl in another version of cochineal that was more purpleish and one skein of Polwar

th sock yarn dyed a soft lavender from the alkanet bath. I also dunked my Polwarth shawl into the purpleish cochineal bath and it is a lovely colour now.

So, there I sat in the lawn chair I had the sense to bring, crunching up alkanet roots into small flakes.  Then I ground the cochineal bugs to a fine powder in a blender for two different approaches, the bright and the purpleish.  Both were soaked overnight in jars to bring out the most colour possible from this rather expensive material ($45 for 225 gms of bugs!). Our entire treasure box, clearly, was a fabulous gift at $50 split between us.

The learning curve for this neophyte natural dyer was big, very big. I don't think I could have had more fun and I'm sure I haven't since my dear friend Kate Waterhouse (1899-1995) introduced me to natural dyeing from local plants (on the prairies) in the early 70's. The sense of wonder and magic she shared has stayed with me. I remember coming into her house and poking my nose into pots simmering on the stove, never sure whether it was a dyepot or dinner! We read then about things like cochineal and indigo but these materials were completely out of reach to us and we could only dream over the pictures or descriptions we read. I know that Kate was with me in gleeful spirit during the dye

fest and I thought often of how much she would have loved this experience.
Pia and I, once we had a dyepot ready and filled with fibre or yarn, would take turns poking it with tongs just to glory in the colour and watch it take-up into the fibre. I think we spent the entire time with great big silly grins on our faces. I don't think fun and delight gets any

better than that. 

And here's the help...aren't they lovely?

Beginning a Journey

For a number of years I have been living with a hypothyroid condition, as well as the jolly Addison's that manifested in 2001. Is there a relationship between years of untreated hypothyroidism and collapsed adrenals? All too likely it seems.

I have been taking Synthroid for the hypothyroid situation for a decade, but never really felt well, better definitely than before medication, but not what you'd call either energetic or happy. I have little enthusiasm except for knitting which requires very little movement or thinking. My approach has been if that's all I could do, at least I'd do it very well. And so I have.

But, what of energy, enthusiasm, clear, focused thinking and sustained work? Dream on girl--that seemed long out of reach and the best I could do was accept the situation and make the best of that too. Resignation has become my middle name (I don't actually have a middle name so I can use whatever I like as the situation warrants). When faced with something I believe cannot be changed, I do what every relatively sane person does--try to live with it and get on with whatever is left. After the Addison's diagnosis my world became significantly smaller as I learned to accept massive weight gain (50 to 60 pounds) and much less energy without any capacity for sustained work or movement (such as gardening or beach walking).

Recently help and encouragement from friend Pia has given me new hope in an area where I believed nothing whatever could be done. Synthroid you see is only one of 4 thyroid hormone components of a healthy thyroid. In the 70's the T4 hormone was isolated, synthesized and became the accepted treatment for hypothroidism. Thinking was that as long as we had T4 in our systems enough T3 would be converted in the body to provide the essential amount of that.  Before the 70's everyone with hypothyroidism was treated with desiccated thyroid from pigs and this contained T1, T2, T3 and T4. Enter the miracle of chemistry which believes that one component could stand in for the lot and if those of us taking T4 alone didn't feel well, continued to gain weight, have trouble concentrating, focusing, getting out of brain fog or being capable or motivated for any sort of physical activity, well--that was our personal moral failing and nothing to do with treatment protocol. 

Resources for thyroid information include The Thyroid Solution by Ridha Arem and this website.

I am now on the second day of a very low, introductory dose of T3. I cannot truly believe how I feel and don't yet trust it (why would I, given my history?). I feel awake. I want to move, I can focus my thoughts, I'm not lethargic, uncaring, or dull.  Who is that I wonder? And what can she do with her life now?

Today, the answer is, not that much. The weather is rotten with the remnants of tropical storm Hanna saturating the air and giving periods of deluge besides. There is little light, it feels like dusk, that's how dark it is. But it's the weather--not how I feel--that limits what I do with this day. Wind and driven rain, and my newly delivered firewood, uncovered as yet, is getting a thorough soaking. Damnation.

Hey, if my eyes are that open, I could give that microscopic silk another go--assuming I can actually sit still long enough! Actually I want to see about finishing a vest I began last winter which would be perfect as the weather cools into autumn. I only have a bit of the collar and trim left to do, but in worry that I'd not have enough yarn I put it aside. I've recently had a new idea to deal with not enough dyed handspun yarn so now I have the confidence to finish it.

Knitting with paper clips?

I have a quantity of very fine silk. Think fine sewing thread. The last use for this silk (oh, so many years ago) was in an 8 harness silk satin that I wove 55 inches wide at 90 threads to the warp inch and about 60 to the weft inch. The fabric was beyond glorious but of course without a market for this elegant stuff I had to cut it up and then painted on it; for a few years I sold it as small paintings until a gallery owner told me that nobody cared what I painted on. Sigh.

So I have had a few dozen of these massive cones of silk waiting for a project or two worthy of them. In my current knitting follies I am attempting to knit lace with this yarn. I'm knitting on needles about the diameter of paper clips, 1.75 mm, working on a sample from Sharon Miller's book, Heirloom Knitting. To say this is a challenge would be significant understatement; maybe not on the order of threading a loom at 90 threads to the inch, but challenge enough even so. I made a mistake on the first attempted yarn over and dropped a stitch so now must go in quest of a very very fine crochet hook to resolve that issue--if I can. Yes, thanks, I already know how nuts this is, no need to share that with me, I'll take it as given, shall I?

Will I ever make anything beyond a lace sampler? No idea. I have a serious stubborn streak where fibre challenges are concerned and a pathetic desire for bragging rights in this area as well.  So I may well persevere in spite of all the clear indications of folly, at least until my eyesight gives up.

On needles of much more sensible diameters (4 mm; 5.5 mm and 6 mm) I'm making excellent progress on the Rhinebeck sweater, the lama/mohair jacket and a mohair version of the Hemlock Ring Blanket; so perhaps the silk lace idea is comic relief?

Late summer thoughts

I have two sweaters on the needles which is sure indication that my hard-wired thinking about fall has kicked in as a result of several cooler nights. I'm grateful for the coolness because it is more pleasant to knit wool or mohair when I'm not suffocating in the heat and humidity. I've already mentioned the lama/mohair jacket which is coming along nicely. Thursday I began the 'Rhinebeck' sweater from A Fine Fleece in a superwash/bamboo blend, in a deep red-bronze colour. Yummy yarn and an easy pattern to knit. Pictures to follow as soon as there is a bit of sunlight. Which reminds me I need to set up a photo shoot place indoors soon for woolie projects and other things.

I'm having a lazy morning after several challenging and sleepless nights. Not sure what had me awake but I resolved many of the world's problems in the course of these hours, if only I could remember what I came up with. The entire week had a rotten smell to it, waking and attempting to sleep. Need some tweaking in my meds no doubt and I have a plan, perhaps even a 'cunning plan'.

Another cunning plan is underway to make not quite enough lama/mohair into a finished sweater. I searched the stash and found fleece that is dark and has a longish staple. I will spin that into a singles and then ply it with the last of the lama so I have enough yarn for sleeves. I think that will look okay. I'm loving the texture of the knitting for this piece, but it is most definitely a fall jacket. In fact I suspect it will be warm enough for winter camping in the high Arctic, but happily won't be required for that as I have no current plans to take me to the frozen north.

Since we're discussing my list of cunning plans I have one as well for a 50 year old sweater I own. It was made for me by my Oma van Veen when I was twelve and doesn't quite fit anymore. So here's the plan. I'm going to unravel the sleeves and use the yarn to knit panels between the front and back to attempt to convert this to a vest. I've always loved the colour of this sweater and refused to throw it away simply because it no longer fits all that nicely. The yarn is still beautiful after all these years. I think I now have sufficient knitting skill to pull this idea off; if not I'll unravel the whole thing and do something else with the yarn. Wish me luck.

I seem to have sweaters on the brain at the end of August (it happens every year). It isn't cool enough for sweaters and probably won't be for a month or more if we're lucky and have a nice autumn on the East Coast.

Yesterday was a sad day for CBC radio 2 fans when we heard the last of our favourite programs and program hosts. Disc Drive has been the sound track of my life for 23 years and Jurgen Gothe has entertained me with his witty rants and quips for all that time. Whatever CBC comes up with, they won't be able to match JG for content or audience loyalty, I'd bet on that. The Last Show yesterday was a lovely nostalgia piece that made it a tear-jerker finale for me. Those of us for whom CBC is the sound track of our studio/working lives take these things very hard. I wish I could believe CBC programming knew what it was doing, alienating such a loyal following of listeners in a misguided attempt to attract newer ones. I doubt it will give them joy and then there will be new calls to dismantle the Corp. Great work and vision guys, I'm impressed (not!).

Of All Things...

It is my son's birthday today. Thirty eight years ago he came into the world, ass-backwards and has pretty much, to my great delight, lived up to his entry potential. He has a wicked wit, lighting fast comebacks and is so creative and such a fine writer I'm envious and proud at the same time.

Happy Birthday G. Mommy is proud of you, always! I'm drinking a margarita in your honour today, hope to share a pitcher with you soon and be impressed by your cookery skills: I'm so looking forward to that.

The process

This is what I like.  I have an idea for a project, in this case, a sweater.  I have a fibre stash so I go stash diving to find something likely to make a sweater.  I start spinning a lama/mohair blend, do a swatch (yes, occasionally I do have some kind of fit and actually swatch).  I settle on a gauge and go back to the wheel and spin masses more yarn, ply it and knit.  In a month or six weeks I will have a sweater, made absolutely from scratch (well maybe not, I have this fibre as roving, not raw fleece); but for the sake of my argument I'll say from scratch.  It takes a while to spin enough yarn for a good size sweater but I'm making excellent progress.  Have the back knit and the yarn spun for the front so far; a couple more bobbins and I should have the yarn for the sleeves spun up.

No, it is not cheaper and certainly not faster.  But it is great fun and immensely satisfying to someone endlessly fascinated by what she can do with fibre. And I never stop dreaming of the next thing and the one after that...gotta try that; wonder what that will do; can I make that work at this grist or that gauge. 

Next project: excavate the stash and find the Border Leicester fleece I bought last summer to see what I need to do to it in preparation for the natural dyefest planned for next month.  I need a good think about what I want to make with this fibre as it is very yummy to spin; what I decide to make may influence the colour I'd like to dye it or not.  I now have half of what I need to do basic alum mordanting; tomorrow I need to find cream of tartar somewhere, hopefully at the grocery store.

Some nights I can't sleep for all the projects dancing in my head.  Go figure....

We may have a problem...not!

This morning I got a copy of A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd.  I have now had a quick flip through this beautiful book and I want to make everything in it.  Not only that, but I want to start right this minute, allocating fibre stash to projects and deciding what will be dyed with natural materials and what will get the Magic Carpet Dye for colour.  Then I want to spend the next three months spinning that up and getting going.  I want to do this without the least bit of personal restraint or consideration of things like meals and showers.  I want to dive in and play and play and play until I have everything knit up and wearable. Oh for heavens sake, how am I going to do that?

It isn't as though I don't have a rather extensive WIP (work in progress) knitting queue mounded on the end of my sofa already and in several baskets besides. I wonder how many socks I have on the go? Six? Eight? More?  Shawls? Only 5, not to worry. Nor am I lax in terms of spinning queue--I'm currently working on a dark lama/mohair blend for a sweater which I've begun to knit; laceweight mohair for shawl(s); qiviut laceweight for a scarf or small shawl; sock yarn; and Gotland for my first gansey.

Okay I see the problem.  I need several more lives and need to be able to live them concurrently. What? that's not possible? Why-ever not? Somebody should get on that--and hurry will you.

Just because I stopped weaving (oh, so many years ago) doesn't mean I've in anyway lost my passion for fibre. And weaving, you're on my list for when I, umm, retire.

I can't possibly wear, or use all of this stuff I'm making myself so being on my friends list may prove quite beneficial.  You can start a wish list in the comments, but I can't promise anything by a specific date--I'm much too fickle a spinner and knitter for any such thing. You've figured that out by now I suppose?

Three months and counting

Oh the joy of paid unemployment! I'm having the best summer in five years, even though the weather has been too humid for me to get outdoors much, or move more than my knitting needles some days. Summer is a great time to knit socks, preferably with an oscillating fan nearby slowly moving air across my person. I don't even have to be upright to knit socks--bonus!

There is a bit of work being done of course. Not enough, but some. We'll ramp that up in the next few weeks and get the book draft done. I also have a web site draft and a couple of workshops in draft.  Stay tuned for that!

Wednesday I had an energy audit done on the house by a guy from Sustainable Housing. I knew I had a lovely wind tunnel effect going and that air leakage was so pronounced I did wonder if there were actual walls behind the wallpaper in winter.  Now I have proof!  Apparently I have all the energy efficiency of a tarpaper shack with paper windows.

So this perhaps explains why I spin wool and knit sweaters, shawls and socks at the rate I do--I need them to keep something approaching warm for at least 8 months of the year.  That said, I'd not be happy in a warmer climate as I do enjoy wearing wool sweaters and socks.  My biggest complaint about the air leakage and lack of any insulation is that it costs so much money to pretend to be heating the house.  I don't mind the thermostat set at 16C, but I'd prefer not to pay (or require help to pay) a king's ransom for heating oil to achieve that stupendous amount of warmth.  And the costs are rising at phenomenal rates: in 2000 I paid 54¢ a litre for heating oil; now it is in the $1.10 range (I'm afraid to call and ask for the official cost, and the tank is near empty).

Now I do have a wood stove, a very pretty and efficient blue Pacific Energy, and without it I'd be really cold.  This heating source works best when I'm home during the day so I can keep it going and I sit in the room where the stove is located.

My mind is on winter heating as a result of the energy audit, but today we've got a pleasant summer day, big fluffy clouds, a bit of a breeze and about 25C.  Too bad there was no way to store up summer heat for winter use.  

And just in case you thought that cobwebs had no earthly use (except for spiders of course) I can report that they do show air movement rather well as pointed out by the energy audit guy. That made me chuckle.  Good thing he wasn't looking at dust bunny drift, that might have been embarrassing.

Hemlock Do-Over

I decided that since I like the yarn so much, that once I ripped out 80% of the throw, I might as well pop it back on the needles, albeit larger ones this time and try the thing again. This is in progress and looking better, less bunched up around the pattern and slightly more stretchy. Does this mean we have an actual 'throw' in the making? Stay tuned, I just don't know at this point.



Today I received a surprise (thanks Jane!) of a pretty deep orange organic cotton yarn and Brittany birch needles on which to knit it. I believe this is destined to be an orange cat with perhaps a little white on the paws. If it turns out I have to knit it twice (see previous posts) the yarn will take it and not complain. Nor will I because the entire cat project (including whiskers!) will be significantly fewer than the 550 plus stitches of the recently frogged throw.

I'm still enjoying knitting the Hemlock pattern and for sure I'm better at it than I was in the first go-round. Oh, but what I'll do for practice. Maybe some day I'll be good at reading patterns and then following instructions; I'm certainly acquiring a reasonable facility with knitting.

The sky is falling...

Yes, it is. More than usual this humid summer. It has been falling (in the kitchen) for some years, but this summer it is a positive snow storm of falling sky. And this year the 'texture' that some folks I know like, is more on the floor than on the ceiling. Living in interesting times....

Hemlock, schmemlock

It never fails, I have to knit everything twice. Not because I'm so enthusiastic that I can't wait to start a pattern again as soon as I finish it. No, that at least would be understandable. I knit everything twice because I don't read the directions properly or through, the first time.

So that poor Hemlock Ring throw turned into a doily. A rather pretty and bumpy doily, I will give it that, but it ain't no where near being a throw. I tried blocking it. Hah! No way was this going to block to anything except doily size.

I resigned myself to taking it apart and using the yarn for something else because I now don't have enough yarn to do the thing properly on bigger needles. What to do, oh, what to do? No more yarn in the required colour is available.

I immediately went stash diving to find something else I could knit the pattern in. Success--I have a mohair that is knitting up nicely, on much bigger needles and so we're doing the thing again. Since the pattern is great fun, I'm not too upset about this. The mohair had an unfortunate time in the dye bath so isn't dyed consistently. I fancy this will not be a problem for me with a throw, but you never really know until the thing is done. So there's a possibility that I'll have to do it another time or two to get it right. Do I get bang for my yarn dollars or what?

Make-over follies, part the second

They're going to take away my girl-card, any second, I just know it.

How do I explain that while I was being primped, soothed with warm towels and slathered in potions and lotions, greased and parafined (hands & feet); my hair being done for two hours in something called multi-dimensional low lights, that I found it simply and utterly comical? Monty Python does make-over? 

I was asked several times: aren't you excited?  Well, no, not really. I'll own up to being somewhat concerned however, say about my sanity.  I rather felt like I was indulging a group of young children. You know, you're visiting their house and they want to play barbie, so being a tolerant and reasonably kind person you agree, but then spend most of the time wondering how you fell down the rabbit hole into barbieland.

Another way to describe the experience (which wasn't a bad experience by any stretch, just odd in my world) is that I spent the afternoon (four hours!) on a Star Ship which landed on a planet where all the 'aliens' are passionate about creating beauty or some geriatric version of it in my case, with the most amazing potions you can imagine.  And then, like the fiction it is, you look exactly the same to yourself but everyone else, perhaps knowing what this has cost, or because they are part of the mass delusion on this particular planet, says your 'new look' is beautiful.

As I said in the earlier post, I'm grateful for the gift I won, but overall I found it the most odd and comical experience.  And didn't I want any make-up, to renew my blush and lip gloss (renew what? I never wear make-up so do not have this blush or lip gloss thing).

So yes, I spent the afternoon down the rabbit hole on an alien planet.  The women there were very very nice and good at what they do.  I'm a lost cause, my girl-card will be revoked and that will the end of it.  It's okay, I'm resigned, think I can live with that much more readily than the alternative. For I'm not sure how often I can dance down the rabbit hole, no matter how nice the denizens of that planet.

I do, it should be said, have a blue streak in my hair and my grey now has 'definition'.  Oh well, I couldn't come away completely unscathed, or maybe it was the time travel I attempted that got me the blue streak.  We'll never know...so much for this particular folly!  The REVEAL! (in progress--wait for it)

Okay, now I need a martini!

Face-plant in the yarn/fibre stash

Oh, but I have a bad case of startitis--I have so many projects started that they are weighing down one side of my sofa and the better part of the ottoman.  Earlier UFO's (unfinished objects) have been removed to bags and baskets in another room.

I'd like to say this is a result of a great many brilliant project ideas but in fact I'm merely fickle. A new yarn or pattern comes to my attention and I'm off to try it this very minute  My current love is a Hemlock Ring Throw which I'm knitting in a merino/bamboo blend that is utterly dreamy in the hands and looks wonderful besides.  Of course I've been clipping along with this and have knit myself into a problem with the pattern--but that's not unusual for me.  

On the sock needles I have a yummy merino/alpaca blend in a colour called Wicked Witch--a great thrill to knit when I'm out and about (aka waiting in the doctor's office) for not only do I have five sharp pointy sticks in my hands but I'm thinking wicked witch thoughts to go with the yarn colours.  Be very afraid of this old lady!

Do you suppose it is time to take a bit of an inventory of fibre projects and perhaps even prioritize them?  I have qiviut I'm spinning and also a beautiful kid mohair, both being spun as a lace-weight (approx 880 yards per 100 grams).  It takes forever to spin up a bobbin at this weight, but that also means I'm getting a lot of bang for the buck.  Same goes for knitting everything twice (because I foul it up one or more times); how's that for economical? I've also plied some of the mohair with a strand of fine silk and knit a small test swatch to see what it looks like.  I'll now throw both a bit of yarn and the swatches (there are several) into a dye bath to see what I get.  Dye bath colour will be as deep a turquoise as I can make since I'm currently fascinated by a jewel tone turquoise and want it somewhere in my life!

Book project and web site development are moving along at a reasonable pace.  No wandering or coffee shop trips have been indulged in this week though I'm about ready for both as I'm feeling rather house-bound this morning.  Perhaps a beach walk is in order, as I've not had one for quite some time.  I'd better check the tide clock and see where the tide is then.  Good, the tide is on its way out.  Think I'm off to the beach for an hour's walkies and I'll take my walking poles and get a decent workout too.

The first of the broad beans were available at the market garden where I buy my summer veggies and I'm looking forward to having them for supper. These are an expensive treat, but oh so good.  Oh and the first raspberries were also available, now that's heaven.  I've given up trying to grow anything in my yard except a few herbs in pots because I would have to do so much to amend and build soil that it seems a rather pointless effort.  I may change my mind next year, but this year I'm buying from local producers again.

Make-over follies, part the first

Today I met with the Team who will conduct the make-over I won.  I am a very uninformed participant in this as in the past twenty years (okay, forty if you must know) I have only had haircuts and once or twice in my life I had perms and only once have I ever indulged in coloured hair.  So I am pretty much a 'salon virgin'.  

How will these earnest young women deal with someone who doesn't know what a facial is; who's never had a manicure or make-up done professionally? Being made up for tv appearances doesn't count, that's only enough war paint to prove you are an animate being rather than cadaver material.  I'm not sure they think that they've got a live one as it stands now.  But they gently fondled my hair so they could make recommendations on what they'd like to do to it.  I was next the subject of a skin analysis (big magnifier, bright light) by someone with a very soft touch.  The general tone of the experience was very reassuring, but so far I'm probably not responding as someone excited by the opportunities I'm being given (sorry about that).  I'm pretty unsure about this and whether I'll like it; worried I'll break out in a rash or come away either with something in the hair department too geeky to endure or so nice I'll have to mortgage my future to be able to afford it regularly.

Then there is the cranky feminist part of me that wonders why on earth I'd participate in something so obviously decadent and pointless.  I don't have a good response to this except to cite my curiosity to see what it is all about.  And for the record I'm not unappreciative of the fact that this is a generous gift.

They Rock, and then some!

Today I said farewell to an amazing group of women I've been working with for the last ten weeks as Cindy and I facilitated the PLA Portfolio program.  This has been a truly awesome experience from which I have learned so much.  It was a privilege to co-lead a process where the women reflected on their life experience and learned to recognize that they have the resiliency, courage and strengths to do whatever they choose to do next.  

Watching these women change as they grew stronger and more self assured--I'm not sure I can describe that adequately though I can say that being able to help in anyway gives me the most satisfaction of anything I do.  This is probably my 7th group at least and while every group is different in terms of individuals and the dynamics created in that group--I think that I've rarely witnessed such changes.  I've certainly never seen a more caring and supportive group of women.

So here I sit trying to capture how I feel in words, and all I can do is blubber in weepiness--you guys got to me, you really, really did and I'm going to miss you more than I can say.  I know I'll get updates on what you're doing, but it won't be the same as seeing you for three hours every week and hearing first hand what you're up to and the triumphs you're achieving as you build the lives you so richly deserve for yourselves and your families.

You rock!  Every one of you!  'Sisters are doing it for themselves...'