“I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls off a string.” — L.M. Montgomery
20 days until the inauguration…5 months until my 50th birthday…5 months until my children graduate (on the same day, thank you) from their respective colleges….
So much to look forward to this year, yes?
I have every intention of purchasing that camera battery this week. EveryIntention. Really.
In the meantime, here’s that cowl I mentioned last post. Grape purple Manos del Uraguay, in a feather and fan pattern.
It’s hard to see, isn’t it. Maybe this is better.
That’s a silly hairdo I have going on, but it’s New Year’s Day, I’m on call for work, and I’m just trying to lay low. No expectations, no plans, just take the day as it comes. Note I might better spend some time weaving in the ends of this cowl.
My brother. I adore the guy. I made him some wool/cashmere blend fingerless gloves for Christmas, in a simple 4×4 rib. No, no pictures. There was no time for photography. I barely had time to wrap and send them. Anyway, he has these gloves. And today calls me and says, “they’re great, I love them, can I have a pair in black?”
You haven’t seen my cat in a while. He’s here.
He seems to enjoy sleeping around my fiber.
Speaking of which, let’s end this New Year’s post with a little unintended humor, shall we?
I respect his military experience, and have great empathy for the effects his years of captivity have no doubt had on his life. But I can’t respect the politician. Nope. And now it looks like the strain of it all is really wearing him down.
Lots of knitting is being done. I remain sans camera battery, however. I need to buy one before Rhinebeck. I’ll get pictures up here before long, I promise.
Rhinebeck!!!! Just over a week, and I’ll be there. It’s that thought that gets me through the week. Yeah. I’m on call again.
Maybe the title should read, “Purl’s list of greed”, or “How to piss away $500 in one afternoon.” Either way, it would be accurate.
I am going to spread out the greed over two events, I think. The Finger Lakes Sheep and Wool Festival is in Hemlock on September 20 and 21st. I have already coerced a coworker into going with me to that one. I am thrilled at this prospect, because A) it sort of looks like I have a friend, and B) I can buy a Bossie and maybe the Golding I lust after, thereby relieving the stress of finding them at Rhinebeck, along with everything else I want.
(I want, I want, I want…to breathe in the autumn air…to see the leaves on a sunny afternoon…to wander around and pet soft, gentle creatures…to inhale the scent of the sheep barns (my mother, if she’s reading this, will likely being muttering, “that smells like sheep shit!” I can’t help it; I love the smell, shit or not)…to get totally overwhelmed by color and sensation…and go home feeling simultaneously satisfied and wishing the day had lasted just a bit longer…to spend the evening pawing through my treasures, knowing they’ll bring me a whole year of happiness.)
Oh, yes, and the other rationale for spreading out the greed is that my mother will be none the wiser about the spindles I pick up at Hemlock. She already thinks I’m nuts; no sense in worsening that sentiment.
Here’s the spindle from Tom Golding that I’d like to purchase.
I looked at it several times last year, but for some reason chose a plain ring spindle with an ebony whorl. Don’t get me wrong; I love the spindle I have.
But I love the new tree spindle, too, and must have it.
Bosworth spindles are another breed. I put myself on the waiting list for a Moosie. I love, love, love the idea of a Moosie. The antlers of moose that are either shed (do they shed their antlers?) or found on deceased animals found in the wild are carved into spindles. I believe the Bosworth’s when they assure me that no creatures whatsoever are harmed in their endeavor. Rather, a naturally occurring thing of beauty is recycled into a useful tool. I like to think the spirit of the moose lives on. Anyway, this special spindle takes a long time to manifest itself. First they have to wait for the right season to find the antlers to begin with. Then it takes Jonathon a good bit of time to fashion the material into well balanced spindles. So, my expected date of shipment is somewhere around May of 2009, which is really nice, as that is my birthday month, and I can rationalize nearly any purchase then.
My daughter returns to Oswego on Tuesday, so today we’re spending the day together, and I can’t wait. We’re going to American Eagle so she can find some (more) jeans for school. We’re going to Verizon so she can check out the new cell phones, because her contract is up for renewal. We’re going to Sephora so we can play with all the goodies. Then we’re going to see the sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and then we’re going to California Rollin for a sushi dinner.
Things I’ve finished since I posted last:
1) a washcloth.
Things I’m working on, still.
1) Blue/green Noro silk garden light clapotis. (Dear lord, will it ever end?)
Things I started:
1) My so-called scarf
2) Assorted Solstice gifts which cannot be shared.
I still don’t have picture taking ability, due to my prematurely dead camera battery. Photos taken with Photo Booth are okay for spontaneous LOOK AT THIS! sort of things, but not for sharing such subtleties as stitch definition, etc.
I just spun a few more yards of lush green corridale/romney blend. To see the fiber, look at my title bar up on top. (It’s not really a lush green fairy cave, you see. It’s wool!) Anyway, my singles are getting a little more even, and the drafting business is becoming clearer (I think).
This helps.
I hope embedding YouTube videos gives credit where credit is due. That is most certainly NOT me doing that drafting. It is someone who knows what they’re doing. I just happen to be able to click with this clip, in that it makes sense to me and my hands.
I got my time off for Rhinebeck! It’s still three months away, but with my vacation time now written in stone, I feel like I can really start thinking again about it. I’ve started a wish list.
a Bosworth spindle, most likely a midi
That Golding spindle that looks like tree branches inside the whorl, with an owl sitting on the branch
Fiber. Duh.
Enough yarn for a sweater, pattern as yet unchosen.
At least a look at the Socks That Rock, although I may not stand in line for something I can order, unencumbered, off the internet. I like the stuff, just maybe not enough to get into groupie mode.
If I could find the jasmine tea I bought a few years ago at Rhinebeck, that would be lovely.
I think I’ll skip the chocolate dipped potato chips this year.
The little girl who grew up across the street from me when I was married also grew up, I guess. She is a few years younger than my daughter (23). Evidently she had a baby and is living with her mother. Friday night her baby, just a year old last Tuesday, accidently drowned in their swimming pool.
She was a sweet girl back when I knew her, and her mother was a really good mom. We all had pools back then, but we managed to escape the horrible tragedy that she’s now living through. I can’t begin to imagine her pain. You have your baby’s birthday party on Tuesday, and the following Tuesday is the baby’s funeral. I can’t wrap my mind around it, and I’m a distant observer. I feel so horribly for them all.
It’s humid. Life in western New York often resembles life in the bottom of a simmering tea pot. Constant moist, bubbling, heat. It’s so humid the a/c can’t even cut the water out of the air. Combine this with my own internal combustion system (thank you, middle age, and thank YOU, menopause), and I am a sticky, whiny mess. I heard Primrose Oil helped. With the internal combustion. Not the weather.
I have this desire to reread the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. It started last night at the bookstore when I was looking at the pile of ridiculously attractive vampire novels set up by the back door. I was going to buy the first in the series, until I realized they were geared towards the high school set. Now I’m all about exploring different genres of fiction, but I can’t bring myself to purchase books geared towards teens. It’s bad enough I still sneak peaks at Glamour magazine now and then. (I finally gave up on looking at Seventeen magazine when I was in my 30’s.)
So anyway, I’ve got a taste for vampires today. One of my favorite classes in college (first run through, in the ’70’s), was a Gothic Lit class, where we read Interview With A Vampire. It had just been published. I’ll never forget the professor. Anne something or other. She had long, black, witchy hair with gray streaks and floated around campus in a black academic robe that she wore like a vampire’s cloak. But damn, she was cool. She talked about vampires and angels (she was way ahead of her time) like they were real creatures who walked around with us every day.
She was so authoritative. ”Angels do not ‘graduate’,” she told us. ”It’s not like a promotion from angel to archangel. When you’re an angel, you’re an angel, you stay in your class. You don’t move up. And when we die, we don’t become angels. We become dead.” Oh, she was a hoot. I can’t believe they gave out grades for that class.
Look at this. Nearly noon and I’ve done nothing but drink coffee and spin.
The receipt says 8/18/07. The warranty says the battery is not covered.
Isn’t that convenient…
Which just means I have no way of adding my usual high quality photographs to the blog. I’m fairly certain the difference will be negligible. But that doesn’t mean I’m not pissed off. What the hell? They should make it clear at the outset that the actual cost of the camera will be retail plus the additional yearly cost of a replacement battery. I know. $29.00 is not likely to break my bank. It’s just the point of it that bothers me.
My pond scarf is morphing into some kind of hippy bag. This was after I was planning a trip to the lake to find a piece of driftwood to make it into a wallhanging. Now I’m thinking it’s just a mess and I should toss it in the closet.
I got some Apple Pie sock yarn (Apple Laine) from Spirit Works yesterday. After I cleaned and sorted and exhausted myself with housework, a little treat at the yarn store seemed like a good idea. You can’t see the colors, but they’re bluish-purples and golds.
It’s HOT here. I’m thinking that either an afternoon in an air conditioned coffee shop with my knitting, or a trip to the museum, are in order. Another idea is a trek out to the Apple store to get a laptop sleeve for my Macbook. Or I could stay home in the a/c and knit one.
God, my life is boring. I really need my camera back to ‘pretty’ things up and make me believe (and you) that I am not really so boring, after all.
My days of struggling with Vista are over. And none too soon. (See high velocity trajectory of PC through glass window.)
I love this little guy. (Wouldn’t Mac be a male?) He’s fast and efficient and knows exactly what I’m telling him to do.
There will be no comment on the Macbook user who could not figure out how to right click on a Mac for nearly two weeks, however. (Please note I did figure it out, eventually.)
And the software. Yum. I got this totally free software called FreeMind that is stunning in that it maps out your thoughts in outline/bubble form. So it seems as though I make sense…at least on paper.
(If I had the skills to show you a screenshot, I would.) Maybe this will do, instead.
Note that I have all the skills necessary to show you this utterly useless wonder.
The garden is OUT OF CONTROL.
I need to find some stakes today, and get those tomato plants standing up, before they rot.
The herbs are going wild, too.
I’ve been spinning my favorite color of green.
And knitting a new Clapotis in Noro Silk Garden Lite.
Quite inadvertently, the stitch markers match the yarn.
I am now a Reiki II practitioner, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The class was held last weekend — Friday evening, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. Reiki is something I can use both at work, and at home.
Work. Yeah. Still the same. The agency, and more specifically, the hospice, is undergoing multiple management changes all at once, so it’s not an especially peaceful time. But this too shall pass.
The boyfriend is all moved in. Things are going well. We generally get along quite well. Sometimes he reminds me of my grandfather, though. My grandpa used to yell from the living room, “Helen? Where are you?” like he was some sort of lost lamb without her sitting next to him. The boyfriend does this, too. This generally drives me insane, until I remember my grandfather, and then it seems like this is the natural order of things. So I go with the flow.
In terms of animals, things are much the same. Harrison P. Cat, Little Man, and That Goddamned Cat (synonyms for the same creature) is fine. He is involved in the same activities as always.
We had a couple of visitors a few weeks ago. Both times we are woken up by soft flapping of leathery wings and the muffled ‘thump’ of body hitting wall, presumably while their radar system failed them.
They were both escorted outside peacefully. But not before at least one photograph was taken.
Green. The word says Life. Spring. New. Grass. Buds. Flowers. Trees.
And kale.
Big, leafy, cheap, and so-nutritious-it’s-almost-illegal, kale.
My daughter (the above mentioned Liana) has been extolling the virtues of kale for some weeks now. Evidently a college friend has turned her onto making smoothies out of vegetables.
I know. YUCK.
But get this. It’s not that bad. It’s actually good. And if you check out this nutritional calculation website, maybe you’d like to try it, too.
Liana’s Green Drink
Take one handful of kale leaves
Take another handful of spinach leaves
Wash them. Put them in the blender.
Add some water (I cheat. I add Arizona Diet Green tea. It’s really, really good.)
Whirl around.
Throw in 1/2 of an apple, skin and all. Seeds if you don’t mind them.
Ditto with 1/2 a pear, or whatever you’d like.
(I added 1/4 of an avocado here, too).
Throw in some flax seed. And some oat bran.
Toss in 3 ice cubes.
Blend. Blend. Blend. Until you get this thick green thing substance that smells like the stuff you wipe off the bottom of the lawn mower.
Then drink it. And feel good. Because there’s your vegetables/fruits for the day. That’s it. You’re done!
The drink and the girl –
Other reasons I like green
Gardening.
Yup. We even put up Tiki lights on the patio.
Cool, huh?
Knitting is socks. STR, Tlinkit, Waving lace pattern. Just ready to start the heel now.
Got to run. It’s Memorial Day, there’s a parade, and I’m told my son’s name is being put up on a veteran’s plaque of some kind at the town hall. He’s a veteran now. But he’s alive, and home. We’re so lucky. Many are not. Remember them today, okay?
I have jumped on the Socks That Rock bandwagon, you see. So far, every year at Rhinebeck I have missed the booth that sells STR (The Fold). So I had no idea what I was missing.
But at the Flower City Knitting group last earlier this month, I saw some real, live, in the flesh, STR. Oh. My. Gorgeous. So I dashed off to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website and grabbed me some Raven Clan medium weight sock yarn in Tlingit and then I ran to Village Yarn and bought me two sets of Addi circulars in Size 1’s, and then I ran home and started some socks.
I did a plain stockinette sock cuff nearly 6″ in length before I realized it was a waste of beautiful yarn. And it was boring as hell. So I frogged, and dug out my Favorite Socks book and settled on The Waving Lace socks. Never mind that I’ve never done socks on two circs before, and I’m not quite sure how to manage the gusset with this technique — I’ll figure it out. Right?
Right.
Today’s my 49th birthday. The weeks leading up to it have sucked, and in a big way. But the actual day…maybe not so bad. I took the day off from work, and I’m heading out to the yarn stores soon, and maybe Eastview for some shoes (The Walking Company!), then I have a facial scheduled for 4 PM, and dinner with the boyfriend at Dinosaur after that.
Two more days of work, then it’s a long holiday weekend for us folks in the US. My daughter’s helping me pick out flowers and tomato plants on Saturday, and (sweet girl) is buying me garden tools and gloves for my birthday, so we’ll be doing some serious planting this weekend.
It’s freezing here. Like 46 degrees. Saturday I went to the boyfriend’s graduation from SUNY Brockport and sat in the pouring, freezing rain for an hour and a half. Which I’d gladly do again to see him graduate; my point is simply the weather around here has SUCKED.
But it’s supposed to be a nice Memorial Day weekend, in the 70’s and sunny.
And Happy Mother’s Day, too, to all who participate.
I visited my mother this weekend, and gifted her with the Montego Bay scarf she wanted to knit for herself last year, but had to frog numerous times.
I beaded her a necklace to wear with it. The furnace glass bead in the center is the exact same color as the yarn (Handmaiden Sea Silk in periwinkle) and reminds me of a star fish or some other ocean creature, so there you have it.
My brother’s Noro striped scarf is finished. He was deeply into the Grey Goose by the time we arrived at his house, and he knew perfectly well that his picture would end up on my blog, so this is the reaction I got to my photography attempt.
And that’s all.
I’m on call AGAIN this week, so if there’s a post, it will most likely be filed under ‘bitching and moaning’.
***Edited to add. For some reason I cannot fathom, my brother hated the idea of his actual face on my blog. So I doctored him up. But you saw him first…here.
Monday AM. A time to grieve the loss of free time. Usually. In this case, this morning, it is a time to say ZOWEEE! thank gourds I am done with that crap.
Yeah. On call again. OVER! Yes!
I took a small project with me each day last week. Not that I got to work on any of it, but I felt better having it with me.
Mitt Envy. (For the pattern, go here and click on the PDF file.) Made in lovely Koigu KPPM, in a colorway supportive of my apparent new interest in all things related to ponds and algae (P52657).
As pleased as I am that my week of on call is over, it IS still, after all, Monday AM.
Posted by purlsoffastring 
Posted by purlsoffastring 
Yeah. 
Posted by purlsoffastring 
