SouthBork

More navelgazing

2011-07-31T10:33:00.004-04:00

The other day, while getting dressed for work - dress shirt, dress pants, tie, etc, Keith mentioned that he wished his uniform was a pair of shorts, polo shirt and tennis shoes. Who wouldn't wish for that with the high heat and humidity we've been having?

I laughed and said I got to wear my pajamas all day to work.

He said that some people had pride in their appearance.

Touche.

Of course, it doesn't really apply here, does it? I dye yarn and fiber in my kitchen. Why in the world would I get dressed, even in blue jeans, to do that? It's hot and messy, and my ancient, threadbare flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top work just fine.

But his joke got me to thinking. There are more mornings than I care to think about when I do roll out of bed, slap on a pair of jeans, and head out. Do I need to really worry about my appearance if I'm going to Wal-Mart at 8 am to buy more birdseed? The grocery store or post office? Maybe it does.

I do have my excuses. It's been so hot and humid that makeup will slide right off my face. The interior of the car when parked in a lot reaches temperatures that would melt a T-1000 Terminator into a puddle from which it couldn't regenerate, and what will that do to my mascara?

Ok, so I don't want to wear makeup during July in the Deep South. Am I that confident in my own appearance, or am I just lazy?

Lazy. For one thing, a whole face takes some time to apply, and when you're trying to beat the heat, each minute counts.

But what about at other times? Times when I can't beat the heat because it's later in the day?

I think what has happened is that working alone in my dye lair has changed my perspective. When I used to have a "real" job, working outside the home and seeing clients all day long, I did have to put forward a neat appearance, which included makeup.

Now I may go days without seeing anyone other than Keith in real life, and the pets don't mind my old flannel pjs. Why should they? I can stop working for a minute if someone needs laptime, and I don't have to worry about cat or dog hairs all over my legs.

What it has made me realize is that I do need to be more mindful when I'm going out to meet friends. Is my outfit adding unneeded pounds to my butt? A little concealer wouldn't hurt as between the constant lack of sleep and probable allergies I have permanent dark circles. (Actually, they eased up while I was out of town. I'm starting to realize the bad air in Atlanta affects me more that I ever thought.)

And most importantly:

I'll have to start looking into mirrors again. :)

Navelgazing about aging

2011-07-29T20:09:00.003-04:00

I recently had a birthday, which I may have mentioned before now, and while it didn't end in a 5 or 0, it's getting awfully close to one of those milestone zeroes. While it's just a number, and it's better than the alternative and whole bunch of other platitudes, it's getting awfully close to one of those big ones that ends with a zero. I'd be lying if I said I'd not been thinking about it and some of the implications.

With that as backstory, we were visiting with a friend, and Keith took lots and lots of pictures, as this friend has beehives, and I've loved bees since I was young. Having my own beehives is one of those fantasies I have, along with the organic farm where everything is perfect and I don't have to ever sweat.

I loaded the pictures onto the computer and found I couldn't look at them. It wasn't me in those pictures! It was my mother!

I've avoided cameras for much of my life. When I was young and thin, I tended to look goofy and gawky. There was a while in college and my young adult life when it seemed I took decent pictures and actually looked good in them, but in my 30's my weight started creeping up, peaking at another number I'd rather never mention, and I started some major camera avoidance. Yes, I later learned some of the weight was due to the hypothyroidism, but knowing that doesn't make me look any better.

Thus, I avoid cameras much as one would avoid the plague. I submitted, most unwillingly, to family photos when there was no way I could possibly escape them. Other than that, few pictures of me exist at this age.

Until now. There they were, a whole helluva lot of them, of me looking at bees. Well, it was supposed to be me, and it sort of looked like me, but the woman really looked like my mom! It was unsettling, to say the least. That's not the worst of it. Keith took so many of them with my back to the camera, which would be unflattering even to Kim Kardashian. Trust me on this.

This is a vanity that I'm pretty sure many other women have faced. We've all heard that saying about telling young men to check out how their future mother in law looks as that's how their wife will look one day. When we're young, we don't think that will ever happen. We know everything we'll ever need to know when we're young, and we know for sure that we'll never look like that. Middle aged and a little too well padded.

I'll never look like my 25 year old self again. I know that. That doesn't stop me from fooling myself by avoiding mirrors that I look younger than I am or wondering about plastic surgery in Brazil. I'd probably even bare my neck to a vampire if a bite could stop aging. (Yeah, there is that whole drinking human blood to survive, but I'll worry about that if I get bitten.)

What can I do about it? I can keep avoiding having my picture taken. That's an easy form of self delusion, and I've got some experience. I can get back to the gym, lifting weights, doing cardio and going to yoga. Exercise is a sort of fountain of youth. Not a very fun or easy one, but it does work.

And those pictures of my ass? One of them is going on the fridge so I have to look at it every time I reach in there at mealtime or for a snack.

Moonbeams!

2011-07-10T10:20:00.009-04:00

Towards the end of 2009 I received word that I would be the recipient of a prize of 1 round of Moonbeams, a wonderful fiber club from Moonwood Farm.

Moonbeams are amazingly beautiful. They are batts made from alpacas raised in Alabama and other fibers that usually include silk, Angelina, Firestar, rayon of bamboo and milk protein fiber.

They are labor intensive gems for the dyer, but delightful for spinners.

I oohed and ahhed over them every month, but didn't spin them because I just figured I'd really mess them up. After all, I'm a sporadic spinner.

As I've decided to spin along with all the Tour de Fleece spinning without officially taking part of any of the groups on Ravelry, I decided to start spinning my Moonbeams.

This gorgeous purple fiber is the Dark Crystal Moonbeams from August 2010. Each package of Moonbeams comes as 6 mini batts, so I spun 3 on one bobbin and 3 on another so that I could easily ply them together. What you see in these pictures is my two ply yarn that I plied together last night.

I'm afraid my photos don't really do justice to the Mermaid Moonbeams from April 2010.

They look a little grey in the photos, but they have brown, turquoise, blue, and pink in them.

Once again I spun them so that I could make a 2 ply yarn with them. I confess that I spun the second bobbin much too late in the evening last night (spinning it between 9:30 and 11:15, taking a break for a very late dinner about 10), and I discovered that I was alarmingly overtwisting the single. I ended up with some tight little coils in the yarn.
Plying the two together today helped some, but not enough. The yarn itself is overtwisted, but as I keep telling Keith over and over, it's all about practice. I need to keep spinning, and I'll keep improving.

Sure, my Mermaid yarn isn't as nice as the Dark Crystal, but I also understand why it isn't and what I'll need to do next time.

After all, mistakes are an opportunity to learn.

Have a great Sunday (or try to). Here we have 90%+ humidity with temperatures that will be above 90F. I expect some rain this afternoon. Going outside is like stepping into a steambath.

Is it too early to start counting down the days until September 1? I realize that the days will still be hot then, but at least the nights will start to cool down a little. I don't 75F is much of a low, but it makes a great high temperature!

These are the unspun Mermaid batts. Aren't they gorgeous?

More pictures about pooled knitting

2011-07-08T07:24:00.012-04:00

I'm thinking that pooled knitting is a lot like turning the heels on socks. You look at the directions and think WTF? However, when you get started they start to make sense.

Of course, that may only be me, but I don't think so.

Anyway, for those of you who need another illustration of this, I started another one as an example to take the guild last night, and I took lots of pictures this time.

The very first picture shows the yarn stretched out and making sure that it will pool the way I need it to.

The second picture shows that after I wound it into a ball, I pulled out several paint repeats and put knitter's safety pins where the rows end/start. You may ask, how did you make them stay? Easy, I put them through the plies of the yarn.

Gladys, who inspired all this, uses a backwards e-loop cast on to get started. I rarely use this cast on, but I did for my samples. I discovered something very interesting when I started swatching, but I didn't take pictures of it at the time.

What I will do is do another cast on and show you my discovery. It's so simple you'll smack yourself on the forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

In all honesty, I'm sure I'm not the first knitter to notice it either, I just haven't searched around to see where else it might be on the interwebs.

Picture number 4, the blurry one, shows my first attempt at matching up colors and getting gauge. As you can very easily see, gauge was off that time.

I tinked that first row and reknit it, using my cunning discovery, and as you can see in the final picture, I got it right that time.

Full disclosure time. I got it right in two tries on this one because the first one was so (and still is) very fiddly. I think this one will work without needing two different sized needles for gauge.

For the record, this colorway is one I dyed, but this was a test or seconds skein. As you can see in the first picture, the yarn didn't dye very evenly with those dye concentrations. I put it aside, thinking I'd probably overdye it at some point. However, with the vivid colors, I thought it'd make a great, easy to see, example of pooled knitting. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to knit it up to have as a show sample for when someone asks what does "pooling" on the label mean?

It's Friday! Have a great weekend! I'll be back with spinning pictures.

On Klingons and spinning

2011-07-07T08:55:00.004-04:00

Yes, reading that you would think I've been drinking or have totally lost my mind.

What actually occurred is we went to dinner with a neighbor, and somehow the conversation veered into religion. Our neighbor said their congregation invited other faiths to come in and talk about their beliefs.

I think that sort of thing is wonderful, because communication is key in any good relationship, and that includes groups as well as individuals.

Yes, I'm getting to it. He mentioned that jihad as we see it in the news isn't really what jihad is. Me, and I'll admit to knowing very little about Islam, said, "That reminds me of a Klingon saying. The greatest battle is the battle within."

Our neighbor said yes, and Keith rolled his eyes because his wife is linking things to Star Trek again.

Anyway, it's the whole battle within that leads to spinning.

I don't spin nearly enough to be really good at it. I'm a sporadic spinner at best as it interferes with knitting time.

However, I've signed up for some spinning classes in August, and I need to improve my skills before I take them. I also need to be able to spend long hours in front of the wheel without my legs falling off.

Thus, I decided to unofficially join Tour de Fleece.

While I don't have mountains of fibers, what I have is more than molehills. I joined a fiber club awhile back, and anytime I've spent some time spinning, I inevitably buy more fiber. It doesn't help that I've got friends who dye incredible stuff.

I kicked off TDF with that black yarn you see with the red, grey, yellow and green flecks. It's name - Resistance Is Futile. Nothing like a Borg inspired yarn for a Star Trek KAL to kick things off!

They were spun and Navajo plied for a self striping yarn.

The two pastel bobbins were actually some fiber I purchased from Three Rivers Farm at the last SAFF. It's a blend of 75% BFL and 25% silk. I'd spun 3 of the 4 ounces, so I spun the last ounce and Navajo plied them to keep the colors separated.

Last night I started on some Moonbeams from Moonwood Farm. Moonbeams are batts from her own alpacas mixed with other fibers such as bamboo, milk protein and the sparkly stuff.

The colorway is Dark Crystal, and as you can see it's an amazing deep purple. (Did the opening for Smoke on the Water pop into your head? I can never say the words "Deep Purple" without hearing that riff playing.)

I'm still spinning too fast and overtwisting my yarn, but even if I only do a little each day, I'll improve.

The best part is it takes less brainpower than knitting does, and after I've been on my feel all day dyeing yarn, I find that I can spin. I can't always knit, but spinning is very meditative.

Pooling knits

2011-07-04T12:42:00.002-04:00

Last summer, one of the members of the Atlanta Knitting Guild brought in a scarf she had knitted in which the colors pooled into vertical columns. Can I say amazing and beautiful?

She had read about pooled knitting on Ravelry and found Gladys We, one of the yarn floozies. Gladys has explored using handpainted yarns to their full pooling potential and sharing that knowledge with masochistic knitters everywhere.

Masochistic, you ask? Yes.

I've been working with one of the skeins I dyed. I love the colorway, Mood Ring. I had dyed a skein of Knit Picks Bare, the silk and merino blend, which I had purchased before I had started Fiber Charmer and could get yarn from wholesalers. Besides, I figured I'd keep this for myself as I didn't think that Knit Picks would really be a good source for undyed fiber.

So, some of the knitty gritty about why I think this is good for masochists.

1. There's swatching. Lots and lots of swatching. When I'm working at the LYS, I advise people to swatch. You can learn a lot from swatching. That said, I rarely swatch. I knit a lot of toe up, plain stockinette socks, and I never swatch for those. I know there are times when I should swatch, and I have done it, but I've also discovered, as Yarn Harlot herself has mentioned, that swatches lie.

With pooled knitting, you have to swatch. There is no way around it. Swatch and rip, swatch and rip, swatch and rip, eye the bourbon and switch to spinning.

Actually, that's the only reason I think it's good for masochists. Once you get past that, get your gauge and your needles, it's smooth sailing.

Well, I assume it is once you get all that. What I've discovered is that this skein, wound by Knit Picks mill, is shorter than the skeins I wind. I'm talking about a smaller circumference and not the yardage of the skein. I've been getting 37 -38 stitches as my magic number, but when I start knitting, my colors travel. I can correct that by examining every single row and then determining if I need to switch needle sizes yet again.

Honestly, that's way too much work for me. This one is getting frogged, and this yarn that I bought and dyed for myself is going back into the bin. I'll see what I've got in inventory and start again.

I hope that you have a happy 4th! I won't be working on pooled knits today, so I plan to enjoy mine!

Hah! You've heard this before

2011-06-27T20:06:00.002-04:00

But I'm really going to make an effort to blog regularly again. I used to blog at least every Sunday morning. Remember those days?

Now I've been using Sunday mornings to update Fiber Charmer's etsy shop. I don't always succeed, as I think I updated sometime Sunday afternoon.

While I know running your own business takes a lot of time, I didn't realize just how much time it does consume. Add to that a kitty with idiopathic cystitis and multiple trips to the vet, and the time zips by before you know it.

I think earlier this year I mentioned my going gluten-free because gluten aggravates Hashimoto's. All went pretty well until Maryland Sheep and Wool. I started eating bread again. Yummy, delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I'm not being facetious. Try giving them up and see just how wonderful they taste when you start eating them again. A few weeks later, I was at the Carolina Fiber Fest, eating sandwiches again. I was thinking, hmm, I don't feel any different.

It was too early. I've been feeling so tired all the time, and I know it's the gluten. I've got to start all over again to clear it all out of my system. That sucks, because I feel tired all the time now. However, I also know that I can do it (again), and that I'll feel energetic, like a "normal" person.

Anyway, I'll end here. I might get too whiny, and really, who wants to read that? Look for me next Sunday, if not before, and I'll get back on track with Sunday pictures again.

Wow, time goes by so quickly!

2011-03-06T09:41:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry for the lack of blogging. I knew it had been awhile, but I didn't realize it had been so long.

I've been busy, and I foresee getting busier in the near future.

I'm on the board of the Atlanta Knitting Guild, and I didn't realize just how much work there is in volunteering. I said that to Keith, and he said that's why it's called volunteer work, not volunteer fun.

Hmm.

One of the things that has bothered me most about being an adult is why do work and fun seem to be so mutually exclusive? Isn't there a way to meld them together?

And despite the work, I've actually been enjoying what I've been doing for the AKG. In fact, this upcoming Friday night, there will be a Stitch and Bitch at the American Craft Council show, and I've put in a fair amount of work with the local stores to get sponsors for it. We'll be teaching brand spanking new knitters some of the basics. It's from 5-8, March 11. Admission to the show is only $5 after 5. If you bring your knitting, you can get in for free.

Yvonne Monet of Dave-FM will be joining us too. I think that it's going to be a lot of fun.

I've also been working on Fiber Charmer. Just a day or two ago I realized just how little time I have before Stitches South. I think I'm about to panic! I've got so much yarn to skein and dye, and so little time! I foresee not doing much of anything that isn't fiber related for the next little bit. First Stitches, then Maryland Sheep and Wool where I'm working for Gale, then Carolina Fiber Fest. I need to turn into a dyeing machine and get some more product stockpiled. I had considered being lazy today, but I see that's not possible.

In other parts of my life, I've been thinking that I/we need to grow more of our own food. Gas prices are only going to make grocery shopping even more painful, so I thought about what do we really eat. Yes, last year's cucumber canning experiment led to way too many cucumbers going into the compost pile. I sat down with some seed catalogs and spent some time mentally reviewing what I buy week after week. This year lettuce is on the top of the list. Tomatoes, carrots, celery, these are veggies we eat all the time.

I just had Arborguard come out and trim an oak tree that was shading about the only part of the yard that's suitable for gardening. Limbs were also growing onto our power lines, so now the lights won't flicker when it's windy. I've got to figure out when I can schedule double digging new garden beds into all the dye time I need to do in the next few weeks. I don't want to wait too late to get the garden going. Gas prices here are anywhere from $3.32 - $3.69 for regular! $5 for a head of California grown organic lettuce can't be too far behind. It's a much better plan to grow my own lettuce, right?

I think I've hit the highlights. If you're a knitter who is reading this, think about joining the Atlanta Knitting Guild. When I originally joined the guild, I did so in order to increase my knowledge of knitting. Now that I'm in charge of the programs, I certainly see the challenge of booking interesting people, but I also see an opportunity to bring my desire for more knitting knowledge into a reality. I think the past couple of years have had more of the programming that I enjoy, and I'm hoping that I can continue to keep the programs entertaining as well as educational. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that while the Internet and YouTube can provide all sorts of supplementary knitting help, there is nothing like taking a class in real life. The little tidbits of information that you pick up from the accumulated knowledge of the teacher and the other students will give you aha moments that you can't get from watch videos. I'm excited about some of the program ideas that have come my way, as well as some great workshop suggestions too.

We'll have Karin Skacel joining us in June, and we've got an exciting teacher planned for this fall. (No spoilers, but I will mention that she has a pattern in the winter issue of Knitters Magazine, which unfortunately is not on their website yet.)

Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon!

Shopping for a cause

2011-01-16T09:59:00.002-05:00

A new thrift store has opened in Avondale Estates! If you're local, and you've been to Avondale Estates, you know it has several thrift and consignment stores already. As I love shopping at thrift stores, I was quite happy to have a new one open there, especially since it has a totally awesome goal.

Second Life benefits animals shelters. Local animal shelters, including my absolute favorite, Lifeline Animal Project. I've sung the praises of Lifeline more than one time here on my blog, so I won't bore you with that again. What I will say is that if you need some gently worn brand name clothing, you may want to check out Second Life. If you have some items to donate, they are a not-for-profit, so you can get a receipt for tax deductions.

Stepping off soapbox now.

Yesterday was the first day I'd left the house since last Sunday. I'm not sure, only because who really pays attention, but I may not have left the house since the Friday before that Sunday. I got prepared for being snowed in, truly thinking that we'd be able to get out sometime on Wednesday. Ha! I was very foolish. The snow persisted as did the cold temperatures, and while the DOT cleared the highways (finally), many of the surface streets in our area got some sanding or nothing at all. The major one got sanded (some), while those on residential streets that lead nowhere were SOL.

It really got me to thinking about how dependent on government people are to take care of them. I got outside and cleared the road in front of my house. One of my neighbors came outside and helped. Honestly, I didn't want people sliding in the ice and into our mailbox or cars. I even cleared out part of an area for a neighbor to park. It wasn't that heinous a job, and I got to thinking that if everyone went outside and did a little bit how quickly things could have returned to normal. Apparently, with the exception of the one neighbor, I'm the only one who thinks like that.

Anyway, I got out and ran a couple of errands yesterday. None of them involved going to a grocery store until last night's beer run, but I did drive by a few. Earlier in the day you couldn't pay me enough to join in that madness! The Farmer's Market had a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. I think I can wait another day or two to restock!

The one thing I can't wait to get is a new dryer. Ours died several weeks ago, and last Sunday I spent some quality time sitting at a laundromat drying wet clothes. Tomorrow we'll go buy one, and then I'll spend way too much time getting the laundry caught back up. Something about saying all that makes me feel like a 1950's housewife! Heck, it's been way too cold to even think about a clothesline! The clothes would freeze out there.

Snowpocalypse 2011

2011-01-13T09:37:00.010-05:00

Yes, that's what our clever newspeople have dubbed this snow and ice event. (Too bad sarcasm doesn't translate well to the written word.)

So, for your amusement at our discomfort, here are some pictures.

The street is on the morning of Day 4 of being iced in.

A close-up of the ice on my butterfly bush.

The doghouses showing how deep the snow is. Sassy was and has been inside the house with us the whole time. The snow and ice has freaked her out. I had to shovel a path to a mulched area so she could do her business.

The ruler shows the snow depth to be almost 5".

This is a picture from Sunday night when it all started.

We haven't had mail delivery or trash pick up all week. I hear the grocery stores are running low on supplies. This has been a good trial run in preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse!

eta: I keep editting this dang post, and blogger keeps moving my stuff around so the captions don't match the pictures. After 4 attempts to line them up, I'm quitting!

Hello 2011!

2011-01-08T16:55:00.003-05:00

This past month zipped by so quickly. Part of that was because I got my annual cold/flu thing and spent part of the month napping, coughing or thinking about napping while the virus worked its magic. As for the other part, I quite honestly don't know where it went. We don't do much for the holidays, so that's not what ate up the time.

Anyway, 2010 was a year full of firsts for me. I started Fiber Charmer. I became a board member of the Atlanta Knitting Guild. I volunteered for both SAFF and SEFAA and had a good time volunteering. I learned how to can and canned a lot of relish from the cucumbers that we great. I learned that I had too many cucumber and tomato plants.

I'm not one for making New Year's Resolutions. It's so easy to think of all those things I want to change and then not do a one of them. I had a bit of madness, perhaps it was last year, and posted some resolutions.

So, these aren't really resolutions. They're tweaks to plans I already have.

I'm going to be a better vegetable gardener. With gas prices predicted to rise to $4 a gallon this year, grocery costs will be rising too. I've been making an effort to buy more locally grown produce, and in conjunction with this effort, I'm planning to be more effective with the foodstuffs that I grow here. Last year our beans died on the vine. The bean plants both mildewed and dried to a crisp with the extreme heat and humidity we had. While I still have some of that packet of seeds, I'll plant them earlier this year and see if I can beat some of those problems. The carrots never did much of anything, nor did the radishes. The cucumbers and tomatoes went totally crazy, growing over anything in their way and producing massive amounts of veggies.

Very soon, after the freak snows and the remaining remnants of the cold go away, I'll double dig another garden bed and get started earlier this year. I've been thinking about what I buy, and if I only grow lettuce, tomatoes, and some squashes, I'll be able to take a decent slice out of our grocery bill. Heck, if the county would let me have 3 chickens I wouldn't have to buy organic eggs anymore either. However, I know that's not going to happen.

Also in 2011 I'm going to learn how to pill a cat by myself. Right now it takes two of us to pill a cat, and I've been thinking that I should be able to handle 10-15 pounds of biting, hissing, angry kitty myself. I guess my plan of attack here is to learn how to quickly roll kitty burritos using groggy snoozy cats, a large towels and massive amounts of cat treats until they decide it's not so bad, at which point I can substitute whatever Rx they need for the treats. I figure I'm already scarred enough that what's one or two more scars, and as long as I don't need stitches, I'll be ok.

I'm sure there are others I need to be thinking about. The usual lose weight, exercise more one. The not letting my roots get so bad that I look like a redheaded skunk with the grey streak. That's one of the many things I'd love to get stem cells for. I want the hair I had as a child back. Thick, wavy and red instead of not as thick and mouse brown/grey with memories of red. OK, yes, I want stem cells to rejuvenate my skin, burn fat, and give me more energy that I could possibly need, but I guess my chances of that happening are about as good as winning one of the $300M+ lotteries!

I see I digress. The first seed catalogs have arrived in today's mail, so I'll be dreaming of fresh baby lettuce while watching the snow this weekend.

Belated Happy New Years!

Let's try this again

2010-12-12T09:41:00.007-05:00

The pictures. Will blogger cooperate and let me prove that I'd been knitting my tuchus off?

Why yes, it did. Right now on the screen where I'm typing this post, it looks like I'll be able to comment beside each picture. We all know that once it gets published, who knows how it will turn out.

The blue dress and wrap are what I made for the Atlanta Knitting
Guild's annual bear presentation to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. The dress is made from Caron's Simply Soft with some Fun Fur added in to the hemline. The wrap is Fun Fur. I had them both in my stash, and it gave me a way to use them.

Next, we have some items I made for a swap amongst knitters who knit items for cats in shelters. I'll confess that I haven't knitted any cat blankets for donation yet. As I've mentioned
before, there are so many worthy charities out there, and I just
don't have time to knit for every single one of them. I do make an effort to knit for the local ones.

That said, the swap was to include a handknitted gift for the knitter and her cats. As you can see, the ones I knitted did pass Grey's seal of approval. Once again I was able to use stash yarn. The gal for whom I was knitting mentioned that purple was one of her favorite colors, and I had several skeins, whole and partial, of Plymouth Galway in my stash.

Thank you, Ravelry. I perused my target's favorites and found a hat that I would enjoy knitting. It is the Lotus hat, and the details can be found on my Ravelry projects page.

The mouse pattern was a free one that I found. I bought a mega sized container of fresh catnip to stuff the mousie after I felted it.

I had to take several pictures of the mouse since I thought it was

so cute. The one for my swap partner does have eyes that I embroidered.

Next you'll see a hat I knitted from more of the Simply Soft that was in my stash. This was for admission to a knit party I was attending. All the hats were donated to local charities, either Chemoflage or to the Atlanta Knitting Guild for distribution.

The Atlanta Knitting Guild also supports the Atlanta Women's Day

Shelter, so any hats that may not be soft enough for chemo patients will find good use.

Next, you will see 5 blind mice. My sister in law has started fostering kittens. I'm afraid that I encouraged her onto the slippery slope of cat rescue, and now they have 3 cats and

currently 2 fosters. I thought the least I could do was take her some cat toys. (Honestly, if she were more of a drinker, I'd take her bottle of her favorite beverage, because rescuing animals can be as challenging as it can be rewarding.)

Here is a hat that I have since finished. I can't remember if I've taken pictures yet as the battery died on the camera, and I need to recharge it. More stash yarn.

This final picture is a sock sample I knitted from my very own Chris Sock Yarn in the colorway Butterfly Bush. This is one of the yarns painted to pool if knitted in the proper way.

Have a great Sunday! We're having our high temperature right now. High winds and falling temperatures are on our agenda today. Possibly some snow flurries too. Thank goodness we have food, so let's just hope the power doesn't go out.

Falling off the face of the earth

2010-12-05T08:51:00.003-05:00

No, that's not what happened to me.

I've been knitting like a fiend, but blogger is being difficult this morning and acting like it's loading pictures, but it's taking sooooooo looooong. (I'm probably blaming blogger for something that is actually AT&T's fault. We pay for fast DSL, but since my neighborhood isn't one the ritzy zip codes, we get crappy DSL. I'm thinking of switching to cable for the faster internet, and because I just plain hate AT&T. Damn you, Bellsouth, for merging with AT&T!)

Rant over, but I miss real customer service.

Since I have no pictoral proof of my knitting, I'll just mention that I've been quite busy.

I decided to start researching Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and see if I can get some real answers. Don't get me wrong. I think my doctor is wonderful. However, modern medicine has a tendency to treat symptoms, and when one has an autoimmune disorder, you start wondering about what causes it. After all, treating symptoms leads to a cascade effect of adding new medicines for each new symptom, and frankly, that's not something I want to do. Why not see if I can get a handle on what caused the Hashimoto's in the first place and treat it?

Thus, I've been reading Why do I still have Thyroid Symptoms when my Lab Tests are Normal. One of the very first and biggest things is that Hashimoto's patients are gluten intolerant. This is not negotiable. I've got to give up gluten. Hmm, I live on wheat. Breakfast toast for those days when I'm in a hurry. Wraps with tuna or turkey and veg for lunch. Brownies for dessert.

Starting the day after Thanksgiving, I've given up gluten. Ok, I've cheated a time or two. After all, I could not resist the chocolate cake with the gooey chocolate frosting at knitting guild last week. I did finish a few leftovers of squash casserole.

I feel better. I feel lighter in my midsection. I immediately lost several pounds. I mean I lost 3 pounds in 3 days.

I did gluten free, dairy free and sugar free about 15 years ago. I felt great, but it's very difficult to eat that way. I slowly caved and started eating normally again, and the weight crept up. I went in search of the books I'd used back then and started also following the guidelines in Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. I know some people don't think this makes a lick of sense or even works, but I know it made a difference for me. However, it says for my blood type, no grains at all.

Let's face it. That just plain sucks. This is the time of year when a bowl of warm porridge is awfully nice in the morning. On the flip side, I'm prone to migraines if I don't eat enough protein (meat), and it's wonderful to have a book that says go eat that lean beef. Don't mind if I do.

Needless to say, I've been spending so much time in the kitchen doing food prep. I've purchased foods I've never tried before, and I've cooked couple of them so far this week. Buffalo is actually pretty good. I've got Jerusalem artichokes waiting to be cleaned, boiled and mashed later this week. I try to eat cultured vegetables with every meal. I discovered that dinosaur kale is a little bitter, but it improves.

However, all this food focus eats up (no pun intended) a lot of time. Cooking fresh meals 3 times a day, well, let's say I was so happy to get Chinese food last night. No more egg rolls or fried egg roll wrapper chips for me, but there are items on the menu I can enjoy. I just won't eat very much rice.

I will attempt to get the pictures of all the knitting posted too. I've done a bunch of small projects. I'll give it another try later today.

Catch up time

2010-10-31T11:35:00.003-04:00

I apologize for my long absence. As you know, I went to SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) last weekend.

Much earlier this year, way back in the spring, I decided that if I went to SAFF this year that I would take a class. I've been to SAFF two times previously, but as I only knitted at the time, I actually found it kind of boring. Yes, I said it. Boring. As in I finished seeing what I wanted to see in about 3 hours, and I was done. When Keith and I went back in 2007, we had just put Pixel to sleep several days earlier, and Brownie had died the previous month, so we checked out a day early and headed back home.

Fast forward back to the present. During the past 3 years I've increased my fibery knowledge, and much of that is due to hanging around with Gale. She does things like buy a fleece and process it herself. This means she takes the wool fresh from shearing, cleans it, dyes it, cards or combs it and then spins it. A gal's bound to learn a thing or two hanging around someone who does all that.

I've also started dyeing yarns. This has changed the way I look at other people's yarns and rovings. Part of this is also due to Gale. While she can sometimes exasperate me with all the follow up questions as to why I like a certain handpainted roving (sorry, Gale), her relentless questioning and search has caused me to look at yarns and ask myself the same question. Do I like the color, and is that all I like about it? Is the technique different? Is it something that I might want to try myself? Or is it so labor intensive that I will buy from the master? (There is a woman on etsy who does the most incredible handpainted self-striping yarns. My mind staggers at the work that goes into them. As I've taken classes and dyed yarns myself, I know that if she's asking $47 for her yarn, that she's put way more work than that into it. I want to give the Chicken Goddess a shout out for pointing her out to me.)

Sorry for the long digression. Back to the point is that I looked for a class and found one that I wanted to take. It was with Lynne Vogel, one of the Twisted Sisters. Hmm, famous author and teacher meant the class would fill quite quickly. I decided to become a member of SAFF and get the early sign-up.

SAFF is run by volunteers, so I soon thought that since I'd paid for both Keith and I to be members that we should work a volunteer shift. We'd done it once before, years ago, when I joined the Georgia Mineral Society. We'd had fun working the desk, and I knew we could have some fun at SAFF.

I'm going to admit that SAFF was a blast. I had a great time. Lynne is a fantastic teacher, and I encourage you to take a class from her if you have the opportunity. I consider myself at best an intermediate beginner spinner, and this class taught me some very interesting techniques to try.

As for manning the workshops desk, I have to say that Crystal and Nancie were a delight. They stayed cheerful, which is mostly easy to do as many fiber people are good natured, and when faced with a challenge, did so with ease. I would certainly volunteer again. However, I paid for a booth for SAFF 2011, so I won't be able to volunteer. Crystal has asked if she can still have Keith for a few hours, and I said that we'd give him a say. :)

Near the end of our time working, Nancie said the volunteer for the "How to pick a fleece class" was unable to work. Needless to say, I jumped on that. Robin, the teacher, ended up not using me much at all. I had to bounce a few people who wanted to sit in and hadn't paid, and I got to put my hands on some lovely fleeces. Yes, there was one that I didn't buy, and now I wish I had.

Some friends fared better than I did and purchased blue ribbon winning fleeces before the judging had occurred. I was with Steve when he saw his fleece had won. I can only imagine the rush you would feel when your choice is justified so fully by the judges. Gale had also purchased a fleece, and it too had won a blue ribbon.

That's probably enough about SAFF for one day. I do have some pictures, but my hands are slightly frozen. It got down to 60F in the house last night. I was just running the a/c two or three days ago, and I'm not ready to turn on the heat. Let's not forget that I live in The South, and by this afternoon temps will be back in the upper 70's. In the meantime, I suffer from cold fingers, so I'll end here and go sit in the sun for a few minutes.

I haven't disappeared

2010-10-27T10:01:00.001-04:00

I've been busy!

I'll update in the next day or two with tales of SAFF and some pictures of spinning and knitting.

The further misadventures of Lily

2010-10-07T08:55:00.004-04:00

(or why I was cleaning pooped on linens late last night)

I know I've mentioned before that it's rare for both of us to be gone from the house during the day at the same time. It's even more rare for us to be gone for long periods of time at the same time. I'm usually at home or popping in and out when I run errands. Keith gets to do a lot of telecommuting, so our pets have gotten really used to someone being around.

Yesterday was one of those rare days when events conspire against our kitties. My schedule was rearranged (I had an appointment thrust upon me because Keith couldn't go), and my dye day turned into a run here and there with maybe a quick trip home to check the mail.

It's a little after noontime, and Keith is ironing his clothes for work. The linen closet door is standing open a cat's width, but no one had seemed too interested in it. It's stuffed pretty full, and quite honestly, there's not much space for a cat in it. Keith put the iron and ironing board up, shut the closet door and left. It was about 1:20 p.m.

I had to leave also, and I left about 1:30. I did run back home and was there for about 45 minutes before I left again to get some catfood and meet up with some friends for knitting. I didn't see Lily or Monster at the time, but I wasn't worried about either one of them. After all, cats like to find their hiding places and snooze, and I knew they were inside, which was my concern.

So, Keith left around 1:20, and I left about 3:30. Everything seemed calm and normal.

I didn't get back home until about 7:50. I came in and fed the critters. After all, my dinner can wait, but theirs can't. No sign of Lily, but that can be normal. She eats elevated from the others, and her plate had food when I left. I figured she just wasn't hungry.

About 8:15 when I'm walking down the hallway, I hear thumping from inside the linen closet. I open the door, and Lily is out like a shot! Then I notice the smell. Ugh! There's poop somewhere in there.

First things first. Lily needs dinner, and she needs it now. I'm still eating my dinner, so I just leave the closet door open. While I'm chasing Lily off the kitchen table time and time again, I notice she's got cling-ons. One thing about Lily. She is single-minded and determined. She will wear you down. I must have chased her off the kitchen table and countertops more times than I want to think about before she and I reached a compromise. OK, I caved and let her finally sit on a table that she wanted to be on.

Finally I'm ready to tackle the linen closet. I figured that poop wasn't going anywhere, and I could take the time to eat my dinner and digest it. I find that she had a kitty cave on a shelf, and she must have panic-pooped when she realized she couldn't get out of the closet. We've accidentally shut her in the closet before, but we've been home and could rescue her more quickly. I'll admit to always checking the closet, and Keith usually does too, but this time...

I washed one load last night, and I've got a few things that don't look like they have poop on them, but they were in the vicinity.

Did Lily learn her lesson after all this? Hell no! I was in my yarn closet looking for something, and I turn around when I hear rustling. There is Lily trying to get on top of all my yarn bins and behind the winter coats for a new hiding place! Needless to say, I pulled her out with a hearty "Lily Dammit!", put her into the hallway and shut the door to the room. After all, sheets can be washed with hot water and bleach, but wool yarns can't.

Sunday pictures are running late this week

2010-10-04T08:51:00.004-04:00

This is a side view, followed by a top view, of a hat I just finished. Next is the wrap sweater that I also just finished this week.

I've had a case of finishitis, so I also finished a stoma cover that was waiting for one strap and a fun fur scarf I was knitting to list on etsy.

I do have a couple of more photos, but blogger doesn't like them for some reason. I'll see if I can upload them later.

I'm back!

2010-09-26T09:34:00.006-04:00

These past few weeks have been unusually busy for me. My to-do lists seems to have mushroomed from doing laundry, buying groceries and dyeing some yarn into long lists of must be done sooner rather than later.

I'll make an effort to keep this post shortish since there are no pictures at the moment, and you probably don't want to read the entire short story of my errands, chores and adventures of the past couple of weeks.

Let's hit the highlights, shall we?

I went with Gale of Gale's Art to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. I went with Gale last year to both this show and Rhinebeck, and I'd been planning only on going to Rhinebeck this year. However, and if I'm repeating myself, I do apologize, this year the Dalai Lama will be here in Atlanta on the same weekend as Rhinebeck. His Holiness or a major fiber event. Needless to say, an opportunity to hear him in person won.

When I called Gale with the news, I asked if I could go with her to Wisconsin again this year. I took a look at the class schedule and signed up for two classes.

People who have worked with me know that I've got a strange brain. We all have different ways that we learn, and while seeing a demonstration of something does help, I can read a book and learn how to do whatever it is I'm trying. However, if I then have the chance to take a class from someone who really knows their stuff, I'll take the class.

The first class I took was how to dye self-striping sock yarn. I think I've mentioned before that what I was most curious about was the math involved. I know how to dye self-striping sock yarn, as I'd read it in a book, but Nancy has methods for determining how long each painted portion needs to be in order to make your stripe so many rows high. Her class was for the hobbyist dyer who only needs a skein or two, not a production dyer, yet I did learn the math part.

The second class I took was soapmaking. This is something I've had an interest in for a very long time, but I now have a much more urgent reason. Lush has discontinued their I Should Coco soap, which I dearly love. Honestly, as much as I love it, I don't buy much of it. At $40 a pound it's a special treat. It's also a softer soap, melting away into a puddle of dried coconut in my shower way too quickly.

The thing that has always held me back about trying soapmaking on my own is the lye. The book I have from the mid 1990's made me feel about as comfortable handling lye as I would handling the nuclear waste from Chernobyl. Lye was my personal stumbling block. There were also all these things that could go wrong with your soap.

I've now handled lye and even survived having a few droplets land on skin. I'm ready for soapmaking here at home now, sometime between the yarn dyeing and that batch of plum jam that I really want to make.

However, a rather odd thing happened in the soap class. The class was full, having had 12 people sign up. Only 10 showed up. When it came time to divide into teams, I found myself alone. In my youth I would have been so upset that no one liked me. As a more mature adult, I did puzzle about it for a minute. Is there some "otherness" about me? I pushed that aside when I let it fully sink in. I wouldn't have any partners to mess with. I actually prefer working alone. I knew in theory how to make soap, and now I could learn how, just like I would at home, alone where I could think and not have to answer any questions. However, one attendee had brought a friend who went and signed up, and she became my partner. I can't remember her name, but she actually was quite good to work with. She was intelligent, understood the processes, and it was great to have someone else to share stirring the soap while it underwent the thickening process. One batch of our soap turned out great, and it's still curing. The other batch did not turn out, and I threw it away after consulting a couple of books. It seems that when she measured out the water for it, she measured by volume and not weight. I'll fully share the responsibility about that as I saw her measuring the water, and I wondered about it, but not enough to grab the teacher and ask. I learned from reading that this is a common mistake among new soapmakers, and it does explain why the second batch didn't behave quite as it should.

All in all, I had a great time. I'll have to write about the food a little later this week.

World's are colliding!

2010-09-05T08:56:00.004-04:00

I'm sure some of you recognize that quote.

This weekend is Dragon*Con. We had thought about going to the parade yesterday, but one of us (not me) has issues with the time/space continuum. Apparently the time when an event starts is really the time you think about leaving the house. We're meeting someone for dinner at 7 translates into we may leave the house by 7.

This time I can't lay all the blame on the vagaries of one's personal relationship to linear time. I was rather wishy-washy about it too. While I wanted to go see the spectacle that is the Dragon*Con parade, especially as I know people who were in it, and I've never seen it except for excerpts on TV, I was reluctant to be in such a crowd.

Anyway, by the time we were ready to go, we'd miss at least half of it, if not more. This led to an interesting conversation we had on the way to the Decatur Book Festival, which we attended earlier than we'd expected. I can't repeat the conversation verbatim, so this is how I remembered it.

I said, "Well, we can go next year." (I'm talking about the parade only here.)

Keith: "We could get a hotel room."

Me: "We'll have to book early."

Keith said, "Maybe we'll go to Dragon*con."

I replied, "Tickets are $100 each."

Keith: "So?"

OK, this is when I pick my jaw off the floor of the car and look around furtively for the aliens who have flipped Keith's brain and are laughing their asses off at me. We go on down the Decatur Book Festival.

Among all the authors there is a young man, Nick Valentino, who has written a Steampunk adventure novel, Thomas Riley. Keith has been hearing about Steampunk lately, as I'll be dyeing a Steampunk themed yarn for the Phat Fiber Sampler Box in October. We talked to Nick for a little while, and I asked him why was he there at the book festival instead of Dragon*Con. He said he was dividing his time between the two. That's understandable. His publisher had a booth there, and new authors, like new dyers, need to promote their wares. For the record, I did buy his book. I haven't started reading it yet, but it's gotten good reviews.

Later at home, I broached the subject of Dragon*Con and asked Keith if he would want to dress in costume for it. His answer was "Yes, Steampunk."

I'm still looking for those aliens. I know they whisked him away in the night and messed with his brain.

Cook's Warehouse, have I said I love you?

2010-08-29T10:24:00.004-04:00

We took another class yesterday at The Cook's Warehouse. Their classes are so much fun, although grating carrots isn't the most fun I've ever had.

We took Pickling and Brining: Not Your Grandma's Pickle Pantry. After taking the class on canning earlier this summer, when I saw this class, I knew I had to take it.

We were to meet at The Cook's Warehouse in order to carpool down to the Morningside Market and get some of our ingredients. I'd never been there, although I'd driven by on a Saturday or two and thought about stopping. We'd received an email on Friday reminding us to bring cash and a cooler if we wanted to buy anything. I was planning to meet Beth afterwards, so I decided that I wouldn't worry about getting any cash. No credit cards accepted, so I was safe from spending.

Ha! Two vendors of things that could sit out in the car for a couple of hours did take credit cards. I got some locally made granola from Pure Bliss Organics, and a grab bag of soap ends from Hazelbrand Handmade. I haven't tried the granola yet, but I did open up the grab bag and smell all the soap pieces. Those only reminded me of how much I'm looking forward to my soap making class in a few weeks.

There are cooking demonstrations by local chefs also on Saturdays. We watched Chef Gary L. Mennie prepare Roasted pears with speck ham, blue cheese and arugula. Thank goodness they handed out the recipe! Although I'm not a fan of prosciutto, I thought it was delicious, and quite honestly, I'm sure I could find another meat that I'd like better. Maybe a more common ham.

Of course, I couldn't be at the Morningside Market without seeing people I know. One of the women in the class was someone I recognized from when I was working at the local yarn store. I also recognized another woman I knew from there, but as I couldn't remember her name, I let her pass me by. As I was buying the granola, I heard, "Is that Eve under that hat?" from Kim of Knitch. Funny that everyone I knew down there was knitting related!

After getting a danish and latte from Alon's, I was fortified to go back to The Cook's Warehouse and start the class in earnest. (As an aside, almost everyone in the class had ventured to Alon's at some point during our field trip.)

Before we go back to Cook's Warehouse, I should tell you a little more about the market. There are local farmers, bakers and soap makers there. Grass fed, feed range beef and pork are available. How cool is it to be able to talk to the person growing your food? I found the market to be one of those simple and wonderful pleasures. Fresh food and an overcast morning that was a few degrees cooler than it's been lately, along with a delightful danish and great coffee made it very enjoyable.

Anyway, this class was an accelerated version of brining. We honestly didn't have enough time for everything to be brined as long as it should be, but there was a corned beef that had been brining for 5 days and was pressure cooked during class. My mouth is watering thinking about it even now. The aromas being carried upon the steam shooting from the pressure cooker were sublime. I do love savory foods.

However, we do have the recipes, and I understand about brining now. It's one of those techniques I'd actually never thought about until I took the canning class, and to be honest, it was the word pickling in the class title that caught my attention.

One of my favorite quotes, which I'm sure I've shared with you before, is from Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael. "Nothing learned is ever quite wasted." You can read this quote it The Raven in the Foregate as I don't know which page it's on.

Have a great Sunday!

Alas, no photos!

2010-08-22T10:07:00.003-04:00

I've been busy this past week, but not doing much that was photo-worthy.

I've been dyeing yarn. I filled in for a friend at the knit store where I used to work. I didn't do a bit of canning, although I think I'll be doing some more this next week.

I did do a lot of admin stuff for Fiber Charmer - looking for wholesalers of undyed yarn, ordering business checks, printing and labeling yarn.

Hopefully sometime next week I'll have lovely pictures of homemade plum jam to share. I love plum jam, but it's hard to find at the grocery store nowadays. However, there are mountains of plums at the Dekalb Farmers Market, and I plan to purchase a hill or two.

I did find an induction burner on sale at Tuesday Morning this past week. Woo hoo! Now I'll only have to contend with 2 of the eyes going on the stovetop. Hey, with this extreme heat, I'll be thrilled to have one less gas eye burning!

I finally ordered the fancy-schmancy and really expensive Oster clippers to use on the longhaired kitties off ebay a few days ago. Thankfully I was able to get them for about 1/2 of what they sell for at Sally's Beauty Supplies. I discussed it with Keith, and since they are less than the last time we had the kitties shaved by the mobile groomer, I went ahead and got them. I'm a little nervous about shaving them ourselves, but I have someone who come train us, so that's all good.

Oh, that reminds me! I had to bathe Monster the other day. She has long hair, and she's too fat to groom her rear end. She had poopy dingleberries, so I decided to put her into the bath tub and wash her.

Let me tell you that it is a great idea to wear a mask when bathing an angry, poopy cat. I'll preface this by saying don't piss the cat off by trying to clean out her ears, then decide that it would be a good idea to bathe her. She lashed that poop water covered tail like a whip, all the while yowling like she was being killed. Needless to say, I took a shower once I let her out of the tub!

I guess I did have some misadventures this week. I hope I've provided you with a funny visual and a laugh! Have a great week. You can think of me sweating in a hot kitchen while I'm canning plum jam.

Canning and dyeing

2010-08-15T08:13:00.002-04:00

Here you see most of the jars of tomatoes I put up this past week. One jar didn't seal, so it's not pictured here. It's in the fridge, about to become some more tomatoe soup. I also had packed a jar full, then noticed that it had a big chip in the top. I wasn't sure where the chip was, so I threw it all out.

The greatest thing about this recipe is that it allows you to can by the jar, so if all I have is enough tomatoes for 2 jars, that's all I need to do. I love having a recipe that doesn't start with

"8 pounds of tomatoes."

I had/have a lot of cucumbers, so I put up more jalapeno-cucumber relish.

I was running low on some of my dye supplies, so I was unpacking the box and stepped away for just a moment. As you can see, Inspector Lily took it upon herself to check the contents for me.

My friend Shari recently suggested that I start compiling all the pictures of Lily for a book, entitled "Lily, Dammit!" I've posted a lot of pictures of her getting into things, and it does seem like a good idea. However, I've got too much on my plate right now, including a bunch of merino sliver and whole 'nother fleece that is at least cleaned, but needs carding or combing.

I'm thinking that Keith needs to learn how to card, comb or spin.

This past week I've been doing some immersion/kettle dyeing, and I've gotten some colors I really like. I'm not sure yet where I'll be selling them.

I'd been working on some ideas for my first knitwear designs, and I'm finding that it's more challenging that I anticipated. Of course, things won't work out as you expected when you change them in the middle. I've just kept knitting. I'll see how this hat turns out. I already see two changes so far I'd like to make, and even though I'm not wild about this one is knitting up, I'll have something I can donate this fall.

Have a great day! It's drizzly, humid and muggy here, but it's cloudy and under 90F, so I'm happy, really happy.

Tomatoes everywhere!

2010-08-03T11:01:00.002-04:00

My poor garden has taken such a beating with this oppressive heat! Who am I kidding? We've all taken a beating from this heat.

Between the heat and the humidity, my bean vines dried to a crisp before blooming all over with mildew. The cucumber vines grew mildew first, then turned into a gooey, prickly mess. Several of the tomatoes grew with such abandon their supports totally collapsed. I went out earlyish this morning to start pruning away the dead, mildewed and collapsed. I'll tell you, I don't like this heat at all.

I recently decided that instead of giving all my lovely yard waste to the county, that I would start a new compost area in the backyard. We're going to need to augment the soil like crazy after last year's new drain field was installed. As I was taking the bags to far back corner, I found myself thinking about this past year's weather. Our backyard is still a mess. I would have happily worked out there all winter long if it hadn't rained from September through March or April. I don't remember a winter that wet! It rained just about every 24-48 for a good 6 months. I think our sump pump ran practically non-stop during that time.

I don't like the heat. I'm one of those people outside working in a t-shirt when it's 50-60 degrees outside. I'm sweating when it hits 65, and by 68, I'm ready to come inside and call it a day. Our lows have barely gotten below 75 in weeks, and while the yard looks like hell, it also feels like hell working out there.

I'll admit that I'm glad it's August. That means fall and cooler weather aren't that far away. I'm about ready to start my countdown the fall equinox again. I just hope it doesn't rain like crazy all fall and winter.

As for the garden, I'm not ready to give up on it. I plan to start planting things again as it cools down. Until then, I can go out for a little while early in the morning, maybe 5 a.m. when Sassy wakes me up, and finish getting it cleaned up and ready to go.

Peter Frampton and Steve Miller

2010-07-31T09:26:00.003-04:00

We saw them last night. It was funny as we had the same seats as we had at Phish, just 1 section over.

We were running on Keith time, so we missed about 30 minutes of the Frampton. He was the opener, and honestly, I wish it had been the other way around. Not to diss Steve Miller, but I just like Peter Frampton more.

You may remember that I was amused by being the way oldest person at the Phish show. We were on the younger side of the crowd last night. It was definitely an older crowd that looked how I pictured the Chastain crowd. You know, lots of tans, bleached hair, gold jewelry, etc. At one point Keith looked around and said, "there are a lot of tanned people here." I replied, "yeah, if I were a dermatologist, I'd be thinking cha-ching."

Just in front of us was a man who may have been about our age, but with his tan and facial lines (he was kind of wrinkly), it was hard to tell. (Honestly, he looked older than us to me, but it could have been the mileage from sun damage.) He was there with a slip of a girl, young enough to be his daughter, and a couple of her friends. There's something pitiful and sad about someone trying to act younger than their age. I sat there, looking at his skin, which seemed fragile to me with it's lines and tan. It looked thin, once again bringing to mind his future need for a dermatologist. I wondered about his relationship with the girl for a minute or two. I felt sorry for him, trying to recapture his lost youth that way. I know, I'm horrible, but people watching can be fun. After all, I know I look odd, sitting there smirking while knitting away on a toe up sock, which looks like a very large willie warmer until the heel is turned!

The other big difference I noticed was the concert odors. Phish smelled the way a concert should - weed, alcohol and vomit. Last night's smelled like the occasional cigarette, whiff of aftershave drifting in the breeze, and somebody nearby farting. Ugh! I'll take skunk weed over farting anyday!

I will admit that I did enjoy it. I've been wearing earplugs to shows for the past few years. I've already got enough hearing loss from the concerts of my youth. What I've discovered about earplugs is they block a lot of the crowd noise and distortion, and I can actually hear the music. I hadn't been planning on going to last night's show. Keith got the tickets at the last minute, and I was racing around, looking for my earplugs. He said we could stop off at Home Depot and buy more, but luckily I found them. This time I'll remember to put them away in the first place I searched for them instead of some random drawer.

Oh, should I mention the music? Those guys can make a guitar wail and sing. Frampton did a cover of Black Hole Sun that was great. While he was playing and singing during Do You Feel Like I Do, Keith said he sounded like Stephen Hawking. Of course, remember that it's us, we decided that he needed to say "Boom shakalakalakalaka..." Hell, just watch what we wanted him to say.

Frampton still has his voice and can sing. The same can't be said about Steve Miller. He's had a little too much fun over the years, and you can hear it in his voice. He had another singer along who sang about half the show, but that was fine. They did some great covers of blues songs. He did ask for donations for his music school, which seems to be a real life school of rock. He even had one of the kids along on the tour who got to jam with the band. The kid, whose name escapes me, looked like he was having the time of his life.

A good time was had by us both. We got out of the house, which is actually quite good as I could stay inside while knitting, dyeing and spinning with movies going all the time and be happy. That would drive Keith crazy!

Now, if he can get tickets for Greenday!

Bye bye Fishy

2010-07-26T07:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we lost our giant goldfish. I wish I could say he'd lived a long life, and I suppose he lived a much longer one than many goldfish did, but I still think it was all too short.

I spent a lot of time researching goldfish and their diseases online yesterday, and I learned just how ignorant we were as fish caretakers. I didn't know just how scientific you had to be about everything, testing the water for just the right chemical balance. I know now, but I so wish I hadn't learned about too high nitrate levels the hard way.

The other thing I noticed yesterday and didn't read because I was hoping all the while for a good outcome was an article about euthanizing your fish! I'm wondering what the emergency vet would think about my coming in with the mini tank and gasping fish.

We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to save our fish. Yes, he probably only cost us about 20 cents when I bought him a couple of years ago. You wouldn't know that by the amount of money and time we spent trying to fix the problem. On Saturday we saw him sitting on the bottom of the tank gasping, so Keith ran out and bought a new aerator. We changed part of the water. He seemed to perk up some, but by yesterday morning, he was looking really bad. That's when Keith started searching goldfish diseases online while I went out to buy a second tank so we could move him while we found what was wrong with the first tank. I also bought that water test kit and discovered what the problem was. We moved him to a smaller tank, changed more water, treated it, tested it again. I went back to Petsmart to get something to treat the nitrate levels to help bring them down because we were afraid that changing out all the water would kill him if the nitrate levels didn't.

It's a very strange feeling to be in the parking lot of the petstore when your phone rings, and you're thinking it must be the news that your fish has died.

Unfortunately, our attempts to save him were futile. I'm sorry he suffered from our ignorance. With all the research I've done on cats and dogs, I never really thought to do much on fish. It seems I was much mistaken there.

Perhaps it seems silly to mourn a fish, but he'd been part of our lives for several years now. He'd gotten so big that we had started looking at larger tanks so he could continue to grow. He seemed to be thriving.

Keith had to measure and weigh him last night. We'd gotten him as a tiny little comet, and he'd grown to be almost 9" long and weighed 8.25 ounces!

The tank is in our front room. It's one of the first things we see when we come into the house. I keep looking at the empy tank. I plan to empy it out, start with fresh water, let it cycle with the plants and the good bacteria, then get another fish or two, along with a fancy water testing kit. In the meantime, I'm going to keep missing our fish.

Letting you know I'm still around

2010-07-18T09:56:00.003-04:00

I've been busy the past few weeks, and obviously not blogging!

I posted over on Fiber Charmer what I've been up to, so I won't repeat it all here. I'd like to think once cucumber and tomato season is over, things will calm down, but I kind of doubt it. I've got stuff planned for this fall that I want to learn how to do, and before Gale headed out to Convergence, she told me to watch two videos she had about scouring fleeces, fiber prep and how to dye them. I haven't had a friend give me homework like this before!

So, I'm still around, just enjoying learning so many skills that our pioneer women ancestors knew.

My aunt hooked me up with a pickle bucket from a deli near her house, so I'll be liming cucumbers to make my first ever batch of pickles sometime this week, as well as taking a look at the pressure canner and seeing what parts need to be replaced before I start canning tomatoes.

I must admit, I'm loving it!

Phish and Mr. Peabody's WABAC Machine

2010-07-07T10:15:00.003-04:00

An overly long blog entry in which I'll take you into my youth and back into the present, which is now the past.

Keith had gotten tickets to one of the Phish shows here over the weekend. He knows more about Phish than I do, and he had heard some of their music. What I knew about Phish is this - they were a jam band like the Grateful Dead. People followed them around like they used to with the Dead. Also, Trey Anastasio was redheaded like me, and he'd been on the cover of some of Keith's guitar magazines.

Keith asked me if I'd go with him to the show, and I said yes, because I knew he wanted to go. I can always take knitting with me.

Now let's get into that WABAC machine and take a little side trip to my past. We were teenagers back in the 1970's and very early 80's. In fact, I've got a birthday coming up soon, and I'm starting to see 50 looming way too close. I started going to concerts when I was 12 or 13, and boy, back in the day, were they wild! A haze of pot smoke filled the air. Lots of open containers of all sorts of alcohol. I remember one time drinking Boone's Farm slushies that we'd made. I never smoked too much pot myself because I grew up in a family of cigarette smokers, and I just can't stand smoking. I did, however, love the smell of burning pot, so I always breathed deeply at all those shows.

Ronald Reagan came along, with the whole just say no to drugs campaign. I remember going to some shows at the Omni (when it still existed) and finding that security was like the Gestapo. This was in the late 80's, as I remembered we'd brought our own liquor to the AC/DC concert sometime in 85 or 86, so this was after that.

We go to very few shows nowadays. Rarely does anyone come through that we want to see. Tickets are ridiculously expensive. I've got a bit of tinnitus, which I'm sure is the result of some of those very loud shows of my youth.

Let's get back to the recent past. Yes, I'm going to Phish. I'll admit that I sort of hoped he'd be able to find a buddy to go with him instead, but I went. I've got my earplugs (I don't need to lose any more hearing) and my knitting. What non-knitters don't always understand is that knitting allows us to be more patient and actually pay attention to what's going on around us instead of us thinking when in the world will this be over?

Entering Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for Phish was very strange. I felt like I'd entered the WABAC machine and landed in a concert from my youth. All of the shows we attend are geared more towards our age group. (Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, even Billy Idol) Here we were the oldest. Way old. All these kids in wild clothing reminded both of us how shows used to be.

After we got drinks and started looking for our seats, we passed through clouds of pot smoke. Here was a concert that really was like the ones we used to go to! Lots of pot, lots of liquor, everyone was dancing (except for me. I sat down and knitted on a sock. Too hot to dance for 3 or 4 hours. After all, I'm seeing 50 on the horizon, and I need to get my well upholstered butt to the gym.) Keith did get into the dancing. He's in better shape than I am (right now).

During intermission, while Keith went to replenish our drinks, I had one kid ask me if I was enjoying the show. I think my knitting distressed him. I said yes, it was great. (It was. I was enjoying it.) I had another come sit next to me and ask about my knitting. Then I got to hear about his grandmother's needlework. (Ugh, but he was cute.) Now, while I know I'm old enough to be their mom, I was unprepared for the cute gal who introduced herself, thinking that I had brought my adult son to the show. I told Keith when he got back, and he asked, "how did she know you were old enough to be his mom?"

Isn't that just the sweetest thing for him to ask? All I have to do is look in the mirror and see the effects of gravity and time, but he always tells me I don't look as old as my age. While at dinner last night with another couple (who I later found out were a good 17 years younger than us), they said that when you're 20, everyone over 20 looks equally old. Not sure I'm buying that.

I guess we were the "cool parents" at the Phish show. Keith said that he kept getting into conversations with the guys. They approached him, but he's a very approachable person.

I do find I'm having a little bit of a problem with it. As I mentioned, I've got a birthday soon. I won't be 50 this year, but it's getting awfully damn close. I normally hang around people my own age, and it was a little shocking to discover that I do seem older. I can normally pass for a few years younger amongst my crowd, but I wasn't with my crowd that night.

In all honestly, I'm pretty content with my age. What I'm not content with can be changed by actually going to the gym and exercising instead of just thinking about it. As the saying goes, you're only as old as you feel, and I feel pretty young. It's just that damn mirror that says otherwise.

Oops!

2010-07-01T08:39:00.004-04:00

We absolutely, positively need to check the garden daily for cucumbers. As you can see, if we skip a day, we end up with some monsters! Today I'll pick up a quart of jalapenos, and tomorrow I'll make up some cucumber jalapeno relish. Yum!

this is pretty fun.

2010-06-27T11:40:00.002-04:00

visited 6 states (2.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World

I've also been to Tibet, but it's not listed separately from China. I've had a layover in England, and we landed in Milan to go to Switzerland, but neither felt like visiting to me.

visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I've had a layover in Hawaii, but I don't think that really counts as visiting.

I didn't know it'd been so long since I posted!

2010-06-27T09:05:00.004-04:00

I think I've mentioned before that when real life gets busy, blogging falls by the wayside. I'm sorry about that.

After taking that canning class, I find I've done things like buy extra peaches at the Farmer's Market to make some peach preserves.

Our cucumber plants produced enough for me to make these 14 jars of cucumber relish. Yes, I chopped by hand (with some help from Keith) 8 cups of cucumbers. I usually don't mind chopping veggies by hand when I'm cooking, but this was a little too much as there were also multiple cups of peppers, onions and celery to chop.

I'm definitely pulling out the food processor next time!

What I've found is regardless of how hot it is outside (and we've had days the thermometer has hit 97.5 F), it's never too hot to nap beside steaming hot jars set out to cool.

You can see our 14 jars of relish. I can't wait to open one up, but they have to sit for a bit and let the flavors blend.

And we made the discovery that apparently Lily patrols the kitchen counters when we're not around to chase her off them.

I couldn't find her before going to bed the night we made blueberry-lime jam. The important part was that she wasn't in the bedroom because she rarely sleeps all night.

It never occurred to me to look in the giant pot that I had washed and left to dry on the stove top.

I was more than a little surprised by this! (And darn! Now I need to wrestle with washing the pot again!)

Lots of meal prep and canning

2010-06-13T10:10:00.003-04:00

While taking the canning class at The Cook's Warehouse last weekend, I spied this cute little book. How could you not want to eat such cute food?

I asked Keith what his co-workers would think if he brought a bento box lunch like that to work. Would they tease him, or would they be jealous? We decided they would do both.

Thus, I have purchased some mini cookie cutters, reusable silicone

baking cups, sushi rice and nori over the past few days. I'll need to get some egg molds and nori cutters that will make the little faces, and I'll start making some bento boxes for us both.

I also got 2 1/2 pounds of peaches today. I've got the urge to make some preserves. I do have a lot of prep work to do, and it's not all for the preserves. Many of the bento meals include small amounts of meat, so I've got shrimp to shell and repack, as well as ground meat to measure into 1/4 pound increments and freeze. Then I'll get to do the peaches.

The hat that's pictured above is the second one of the Bobble and Cable hats that I've done. This one is probably for me. I was surprised when I compared it to the first one that I did. The two purples are very nearly the same color, and the hat pictures look nearly identical. (If you're on Ravelry, go look at the two hats side by side in my projects.)

That's all the excitement around here for today. I will mention that as the temperatures creep into the upper 90's today that I've started dreaming about a cave or decommissioned missile silo home again. Believe me, if I ever won the lottery, I'd probably have both types of homes!

A busy weekend

2010-06-10T07:40:00.003-04:00

I needed to get a little distance before I wrote about this past weekend.

Last Friday, while Georgia Power contractors were replacing meters in our neighborhood, one of them asked me about dog that he thought looked starved and abandoned. He told me there was no power going to the house when he replaced the meter.

He told me about it because he thought I looked like someone who cared about animals and would do something about it. He was right.

I knew exactly which house he was talking about. We'd been wondering just a day or two before if the people had moved, leaving a lot of junk behind them.

I got on the phone and called one of the neighbors who lived closer to it. (I'm not that close.) He said he thought they had moved out except that one of the teenagers was still living there, or so he thought. I decided to go see the dog for myself. I rang the doorbell, and when no one answered, I walked to the side to look over the fence.

Yes, the dog was there. As you can see, he was very thin and shaggy looking. I came home, called my vet and looked for a rescue who could help him. However, it's late on a Friday afternoon, and my vet's office is the only one I can reach. I get information on how to feed him so that he won't get sick, then I head back over with a small amount of dogfood, a water bowl and a bottle of water.

He's quite hungry. I'll admit that I've been intimidated by this dog in the past. He barked wildly at anyone passing on the street, many times looking like he would leap right over the fence. Needless to say, I certainly didn't want to get too close to him, but I also needed to feed him. I put the dish on top of some junk in the backyard, and he grabbed it to carry it off and eat.

I went back with a slightly larger portion a few hours later. Keith suggested I try a paper plate since the dog had run off with the container I'd used. Well, the paper plate was a bad idea. The dog grabbed it, sending dogfood flying all over the place. The next time I fed him, I used a disposable plastic sandwich container. This time the dog took it gently from my hand. That's how I fed him for the next few meals. I took him the food in a sandwich container, and he took it from my hand.

On Saturday morning I spoke to a different rescue group who were adopting animals at Petsmart. The woman in charge there told me to contact animal control. My county's animal control is actively working with rescues, and she told me that several of the officers would do what they could to help get a purebred German Shepherd rescued. Honestly, I felt very uncomfortable contacting them. I'm sure it's because in the past going to the pound meant the animal would probably be euthanized, but I decided to call.

I had a very interesting chat with the a.c. officer who called me back. She did go put an abandonment notice on the house, and I continued to feed the dog. This was Saturday afternoon and Sunday. On Monday morning I started contacting people again. I found a rescue group who could pay for his vetting, but they needed a foster home. I knew I couldn't be his foster home, and the rescue basically agreed with me. He would need someone who was more familiar and comfortable with German Shepherds. Our April, who passed away in 1999 or 2000 was part German Shepherd, but she was a petite 45 - 50 pounds. This guy is a full sized one, and he'd be like letting a pony into the house, not to mention both of us were unsure of how we would be around him. I'm working on getting him a foster home, contacting some other people and groups, and I go over to feed him.

He's gone. The notice from Animal Control is gone, the dog's gone, and some of the junk is gone. I come home, call a friend who does lab rescue, and she agrees that the owner probably picked him up, but she says call Animal Control just in case. It wasn't them. So, after leaving the dog for probably two weeks, according to some of the other neighbors, they got him when they were about to get cited for negligence.

I know in the past the dog had been cared for, so part of me hopes that this was just a bad time for them, and now they'll care for him again. What I'm afraid of is that they'll just abandon him somewhere else. There's nothing I can do about that.

I wish I'd known about him earlier. Apparently this had been going on for awhile, and when they moved out, I think the dog had been in bad enough shape that he wasn't barking anymore. The folks I spoke to across the street didn't know he was still there as no one had heard him barking in some time.

Well, I did my best, and I know that I can't save them all, but that doesn't stop me from feeling sad about the whole situation.

This is why you double dig

2010-05-30T08:26:00.002-04:00

We've never had vegetables that looked this good before. While Keith had thought I was out of my mind for wanting to do all the hard work of double digging the bed, the other day he was saying that we've never had tomatoes that looked this healthy and thick. All the hard work paid off, or it will once some of those tomatoes start ripening. I saw the first fruit yesterday, and I'm looking forward to eating it soon.

Yarn and gardening

2010-05-27T08:34:00.004-04:00

I updated FiberCharmer with so-so pictures of new yarns today. In case you want to go peruse them.
For those of you who don't knit, I've got some kitty pictures today. The weather here has gotten downright hot, complete with humidity, and that has an exhausting effect on kitties, as well as giving some of them bad fur days.

Hmm, I'm not sure why the photo of Hopalong checking out the yarn has turned sideways. It doesn't look like that on my computer. Oh well, take some anti-vertigo meds and don't look at it too long.

Grey found that liriope makes a wonderful, cushy, cool bed for the long haired kitty who is in dire need of a lion cut. Until then, she searches out cool spots, both inside and outside. Inf fact, we can hardly use our bathroom sink as that's been her bed of choice the past few weeks. I have to move her every time I want to brush my teeth. I've given up about the handwashing and just do that in the kitchen.

Lily finds that knocking everything off the top of Keith's dresser and snoozing there, fairly close to the ceiling fan, is the way to go. Well, that is until everything has been knocked off. As soon as Keith finds other homes for all the bits of paper, etc, she decides it's time to find someplace new to try.

Don't let the sweet, angelic face fool you. She's a cunning, plotting cat who would excel at world domination, given half a chance. It's just plotting her next move can be tiring.

In the garden we have more carrots sprouting (finally). The tomatoes are all blooming like mad, so we should see tiny fruit pretty soon. The beans are climbing the trellis now. I've got to get another planter going in order to grow lettuce. I ordered some lettuce that can tolerate warmer weather from Cook's Garden, and I'm eager to see if they really can grow well down here in the Deep South.

It must be time for pictures

2010-05-23T13:07:00.002-04:00

I dyed several skeins at a time here.

The two brown and pink ones are very interesting to me. I used the same color dyes, but I used different fibers, different dye methods and different percentages of the dyes.

Here you see Mama and Hopalong snoozing together on the bench. Mama is the feral kitty who got me started on the whole TNR mission. After all these years she rarely lets me get close to her. I think about bringing Hopalong inside since he's turned out to be such a lovebug, but I think Mama likes him too much for me to do that to her.

The hat is a shop sample. It's the Bobbles and Cables Hat from 60 Quick Knits. That book has some great and fun projects in it. I plan to knit one of these up for me soon.

Radish update

2010-05-22T10:15:00.002-04:00

As of yesterday, all eight of the radish seeds I'd planted had sprouted. I'm still waiting on the carrots, but I think they have a longer germination time. I'm also wondering if I accidentally planted them too deeply. I'll give them a few more days, then I'll replant them.

I know eight radishes doesn't like much, and it isn't. However, since they grow so quickly you can plant more all season. Also there's only one person in the household who really likes them, so eight at a time is plenty of them. I'd hate to have thirty be ready at one time as many of them would go bad.

I have knitted a great hat in the past few days, and I've got pictures to upload. I think I will need to purchase a model head from ebay. Keith took pictures of the hat on my head. I was having a bad hair day, having napped with wet hair earlier. I was also wearing one of those old, disreputable T-shirts, so all in all it's not a good picture. The photographer has skills, but the model wasn't ready for a photoshoot.

I've also got more yarn to photograph that I dyed yesterday, so I'll post those here tomorrow too.

Waiting for sprouts

2010-05-17T09:47:00.003-04:00

One thing about gardening is waiting for the seedlings to pop up. I realize it takes a few days, but I'm sure I'll be outside looking for carrot and radish sprouts several times daily.

I won't bore you with more pictures of my bins filled with dirt, but I did go outside and look. No sprouts yet, but it's only been about 24 hours.

In the meantime, I found this at the Farmer's Market, and I just had to buy it. It's pretty good.

And some knitting

2010-05-16T08:36:00.003-04:00

I haven't done very much knitting this week. I've spent the past 3 days skeining the nearly 20 kilos of sock yarn that I bought on Wednesday. That was a bit tiring, but I had to get it all (or as much as possible) done while I had the skeiner that I'd borrowed. Believe me, a skeiner is on my to get list!

However, I did get a little time here and there. First of all is a sock that I've started with some of the yarn I dyed. I've got to get a better camera! The colors here are close, but there's a luminosity to it in real life that I can't seem to capture.

Anyway, I took photos of the front and the back so you can see how it's knitting up.

Next you can see that I've almost finished turning the heel on Keith's second sock of this pair.

The last picture is the progress that I'm making on my wrap sweater. I've finished the first sleeve, and I've started on the second. I can see that this sweater will need some major blocking to keep the stockinette from rolling so much.

I've been a little worried that I may run out of yarn before I get to the edging around the neck and front, but I discovered that Sublime's Extra Fine Merino DK is very similar (if not the same yarn) as the Zara. They probably come from the same mill. That was a huge relief as I can get the Sublime at Needle Nook if I need more yarn.

The square foot garden

2010-05-16T08:24:00.004-04:00

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. I know, I've been promising pictures, but I've been actually kind of busy and haven't had the time.

This first is of our compost bin. I have no idea when we last emptied it out, but I know it's been several years ago.

In the next picture you see the black gold that is compost.

Here is our garden bed that has been double dug. See how lovely our Georgia red clay soil is?

The first load of compost shows the contrast between the soil and compost much better.

The final picture is after the entire composter has been emptied out.

I didn't take any pictures of when we added the other soil amendments to it, but we added 3 bags of composted chicken manure, a bag of vermiculite, some sulfur and fertilizer.

I'll add pictures of the happy plants after I go take some.

Self watering container garden

2010-05-16T08:09:00.004-04:00

Remember those two blue bins from my post the other day? Today I put them together, and now they're just waiting for me to water them and plant them. I got the idea about making them from this article in Mother Earth News.

Here's the exterior bin. It has a hole to let excess water out, and you can check the water level that way on dryer days. This is a great example of measure twice, cut once. I thought I had the two containers put together correctly, so I measured and cut the upper hole. Then when I put them together, I discovered that I hadn't pushed the inner container all the way down! Yikes! At least the first (and wrong) hole is too high instead of being too low.

The inner container has a larger hole for the funnel and several smaller drainage holes.

Next you see the two containers put together with the funnel in place and waiting for the soil.

Finally, you see the containers with the soil, along with my supervisor, Monster.

I've got to water the container to let the soil settle, then I get to plant radishes and carrots!

ETA - It's 10:41 a.m., and I've planted it with carrots and radishes. Grow, babies, grow!

Dyeing blog

2010-05-14T09:55:00.002-04:00

I decided to start another blog dedicated just to the adventures of dyeing. That way you won't have to wade through me babbling about the garden or kitties if you're just wanting to know what's going on with the yarn.

http://fibercharmer.blogspot.com/

It's kind of bare bones right now. I've got to find the right graphic artist to help me get it all purty, but I'm in a yarnwinding state right now!

Here's why I haven't been blogging.

2010-05-09T12:11:00.004-04:00

These blue bins are the beginning of a container garden for growing radishes and carrots for now, beets for later.

Six tomatoes, four cucumbers and sixteen beans in our square foot gardening experiment.

And finally, some dyeing experiments.

More birding news

2010-05-08T11:13:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I find small masses of feathers in my yard. It looks as if a bird has exploded, leaving nothing behind but its feathers.

I've usually blamed cats. It makes sense the pets and resident ferals might want a little fresh meat. I'm not happy about it, and I make sure the cats stay well fed. I hope full tummies make it less likely that they will hunt and kill birds.

Today, I found that I was probably mistaken about what causes the leftover feather piles.

I had stepped outside to feed the two feral/stray cats, and I noticed something odd in the street. It was a bird, about the size of a crow, but most definitely not a crow. It was one of the smaller raptors that I see sometimes, but I've never seen one closely enough to identify it. I usually see them backlit against the sky, streaking across at a speed that makes it impossible for me to identify them.

It was quite busy ripping into something, so I was able to step back into the house and yell for Keith to get out of bed immediately and look out the window. I went for the camera.

He was able to see it, but when I went back to the door, the bird had turned my way. Great. I knew my camera wasn't strong enough to get a picture through the screen door from as far away as I was, so I decided to take a chance and go outside. It let me get out the door, then it took off with something dangling from its talons.

I went to my trusty Roger Tory Peterson bird identification book and found that I'd seen a peregrine falcon. Then I checked the range map for it. After looking at that, I checked the copywrite of my book. 1980. Bird populations have changed a lot since 1980. I think it's time to order a new bird id book.

After that, I just had to go outside and see what it had been eating. There in the road was what looked like a feather explosion. Now I know I can no longer blame the cats for them, and I have evidence that the raptors do circle around our house, checking out who is visiting the bird feeders. It's been an interesting morning.

I'm exhausted!

2010-04-28T19:24:00.002-04:00

This is what happens when I read gardening books and magazines. Like most people, I get spring fever.

It's especially bad this year after all the months of nonstop rain (with some snow tossed in there too), and I've got it bad.

Since we've got classic Georgia red clay and only a few flat, sunny areas in our yard in which to plant, I decided that after Keith cleared out an area for me to use, that I would follow the advice of those books and magazines and double dig the garden area.

I'll admit, here and now, that I'm a middle aged woman who could lose a few pounds. Double digging sounds like good exercise, right?

Ok, what in the world was I thinking? It's darn hard work. On Monday morning, I did about half the garden area. Yesterday I hurt quite a bit, but by later in the afternoon, I decided to move some flagstone and hoe up weeds, thinking it would be less labor intensive than all that digging. Today Keith got up with me, and we finished digging out the bed, then added the compost, sulfur, vermiculite and organic vegetable fertilizer. Funnily enough, I don't feel as sore as I thought I would be, but I'm still too stiff to attempt yoga.

Anyway, that's why I've not been blogging as much, and I'm also apologizing for not keeping up with comments better. I probably won't be here much over the next few days either as tomorrow I get to add more granite sand and level it out for the shed foundation. I'm sure I'm the one who will get to paint the plywood floor before installation too. I've got some sort of vining weed from the mint family that is taking over my long neglected from flower beds, so once I'm finished with the parts of the shed that I can do, I've got tons of weeding to do.

One good thing about all these gardening magazines is that I've found a nontoxic recipe to kill poison ivy. I'll give it a try and report back.

I do have pictures of much of this too. They're still on the camera right now. I'll get to them soon. I'll be back as I can!

Stitches Swag!

2010-04-25T09:44:00.004-04:00

Here are my goodies from Stitches South. As you can see, I actually did have some self control.

First up, the blue and burgundy are for a vest for Keith. He likes vests during the winter, and I decided that I needed to knit one for him. The yarn is Vintage by Berroco. It's a blend of acrylic, wool, and nylon. It feels very soft and is machine washable.

I had been thinking about his vest for awhile now, and I'd looked at a very nice superwash merino from Plymouth Yarn that Needle Nook carries. While it had a great price and looks like a really wonderful yarn, many of the colors are more solid. The Vintage ones are more heathery with bits of the burgundy in the blue and blue in the burgundy.

I found the yarn at Webs' booth, and they give you a discount if you spend a certain amount. The Vintage is a moderately priced yarn, so I went and picked up enough in this heathery green to make a vest for myself too.

While strolling along, Alma and I were enticed by some of the amazing weaving of Neal the Weaver. She let us gush about her weaving, and she said that while she'd sell them, that she was really there to sell yarn. Well, we were already fondling her lovely hand-dyed silk yarns. She had Tussah silk and a smoother, spun silk, and it is quite interesting to see how they dye up differently. What you see is the Tussah silk that I got. It's much more orange and brighter in real life. Of course what you see on your monitor will vary.

I also stopped by The Sanguine Gryphon. Her yarns, especially Bugga, are some of those that are nearly impossible to get. I bought some last year that is still hibernating in a yarn bin, but honestly, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a bit more. It's not all Bugga. I purchase an Eidos and Skinny bugga too.

I was at Stitches both Friday and Saturday. It was great to be able to see people I've not seen in some time. I had two friends mention that I've not been blogging lately. Oops!

I have been busy with Keith. Today we're off to get the fertilizer, vermiculite and some sulfur for the garden. I may have mentioned that my soil was more towards the neutral to alkaline that I would have ever dreamed it was. As veggies actually prefer it a bit more acid, I'll add the sulfur to slightly lower the pH. This should be interesting. I've never done this type of gardening before where I test the soil and add nutrients accordingly. With the canning class early this summer, I'm quite looking forward to growing some of our own food. I doubt we'll replace the farmer's market, but to be able to supplement our diet with homegrown will be great. I'd prefer to keep it all organic, so after menu planning for this week, I'll be calculating amounts and finding what the best organic sources are for soil building.

I do have more photos, but blogger was so very slow that I'll have to add them later. Have a great Sunday!

I know!

2010-04-23T19:44:00.004-04:00

I've been a bad blogger. It seems when I get really busy in real life, the blog just falls by the wayside.

Keith was home on staycation last week, and we installed a foundation for a shed. That took a lot of work over 3 days. We had to rent a truck, get lots of gravel (2500 lbs!), unload the gravel, build a frame with landscape timbers, and finally move all the gravel. We couldn't drive and unload the truck close to the shed site because we can't drive over the septic field, especially since it's not even a year old! I think it took Keith 23 wheelbarrow loads to move it all. (I did help shovel, and I took one small load up, but he did the bulk of it. I did, however, drill holes and hammer enormous nails into the timbers.)

I'll post pictures of all that later.

Yesterday we emptied out the composter (and I have no idea when the last time we did that was) and moved 3 wheelbarrow loads to the front where we're planning to plant some veggies and a few flowers. I tested the soil and discovered it needs just about everything. That means a trip to Home Depot to pick up fertilizer and vermiculite to lighten up the clay soil. The compost will help, but I think it will need more than that. I'll post a few pictures of that too.

I went to Stitches South today and was pretty controlled about buying yarn. Being a former yarn shop employee and helping Gale with fiber festivals this past year has really helped me in the self control department. It has to be knock me off my feet gorgeous for random yarn purchases. There were some nice yarns, but other than some Berroco Vintage for a vest for Keith, I only purchased a few from Sanguine Gryphon and Neal the Weaver. The best part was going with friends and seeing others there that I've not seen in awhile.

I'm off to do more laundry. The dryer took some time off, and now it's working again.

Oh! My aching legs!

2010-04-13T09:30:00.005-04:00

I've learned two things don't go well together - spinning for the first time in several months and deciding to start Couch to 5K.

That means you'll get shin splints within the very first 2 minutes of walking.

However, the Moonbeams are just gorgeous.

Keith is on staycation this week, so the future holds more physical torture for me. He's doing C25K also, and he's in better shape than I am. He's got a longer stride, so I'm having jog a few steps every here and there just to keep up with him when we're walking.

Our future holds building a shed this week. It's been in pieces in our basement since just before the monsoons started last September. Today will involve gravel, lots of it, for a shed foundation.

Before the day is over, I may be wishing that I was dating House just so I could snag a Vicodin or two. I'll have to settle for Tylenol and a hot soak with Epson salts.

I hope I'll be able to spin that last Moonbeam tonight. I'm looking forward to plying them together and using my lazy Kate for the first time.

ETA: I do have better pictures of the spun Moonbeams. They're still in my camera, so I'll post them later today, Keith willing. (He can be a harsh taskmaster when he's on a mission.) Hey, I'll post pics of the shed too.

Pollen, rain and weeds! Oh my!

2010-04-11T09:19:00.003-04:00

Need I say more?

Finished Citron

2010-04-02T21:58:00.003-04:00

Here is the finished Citron. I haven't blocked it yet, so it's more ruffly than it will be in the future. It's so lightweight and soft, the perfect type of shawl to toss into your purse when going to the movies this summer. (I haven't been to a movie since last summer when we saw Terminator Salvation, so hopefully something interesting will come along.)

This other item is the beginning of a top down, wrap sweater. That's the neckline you see there. I'm using Zara by Filature di Crosa, and I'm loving it. It's a tightly spun merino wool, so it's very soft and has a squooshy feel to it. I'm so glad that I got this when it was on sale, but now I'm wishing I'd gotten more.

I'm about 2 rounds from the heel on Keith's second Malabrigo/Prairie sock. I need to sit down and get that done so I can get those socks finished.

In other news, the sun is finally out! We've had several days so far with no rain, and I'm looking forward to getting a bit more yardwork done tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend!

Of women, cephalopods and space monsters

2010-04-02T08:08:00.010-04:00

On Tuesday while I was perusing the various message boards over on Ravelry, I came upon a thread about a rather offensive video game. Yes, of course I had to go read it and see what had upset this woman so very much. The video game was about rape, and I would have stopped reading it except for the discussion had sequed into some observations about Japanese culture.

I'm the first to admit that I don't know much about Japanese culture as there are other cultures that interest me more, so I read a bit more, and that is when a side topic of certain types of Japanese pornography appeared.

Apparently there is a subgenre that is of women being ravished by tentacle monsters. Yes, you read that correctly. To illustrate the point, one of the Ravelers linked to a picture from 1820 that demonstrates this. Before you go look, let me say that it's probably not safe for work, definitely not safe for your kids, and that what has been seen cannot be unseen. I've piqued your curiousity now, haven't I? Here it is.

Let's take a minute and talk about it, shall we? My first reaction was a mixture of "ewww!" and laughing. Yeah right, that's what women dream. Who wouldn't want to get it on with an octopus instead of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn? As for Keith's reaction when I showed it to him, well, I got another laugh out of that. The look on his face was so funny to me. It was mostly disgust. However, he did say the octopus looked like an alien, and that's when the thought hit me. If you look at science fiction, there seems to be a tradition of tentacled aliens. Let's look at a few of them after you indulge me while I ramble.

Why are cephalopods used as aliens so much? If you've read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I think they are amazing creatures. Not in the "I want to take one to bed" sort of way, but in a "wow, how do they do that?" way. The various members of this class of creatures can do so much that astounds humans. They are quite intelligent. (Which can be astounding enough considering what we encounter going about our daily lives. Imagine if the DMV were run by cephalopods.) This intelligence allows them to reason to some extent. Their skin changes colors to indicate emotions or to allow it to camoflage itself. I do love in one of the documentaries how a smaller male cuttlefish changes its color to look like a female and is able to mate with her right under the nose of a larger, more agressive male. You must admit that is very cunning.

However, it's their appearance that makes us use them for aliens. They are so unlike us. The soft body that can seem to change size. The tentacles which are very versatile and tactile. They look so darn different and otherworldly, and when trying to imagine an alien species as unlike us as possible, they probably just come to mind. I read somewhere that the reason there are so many other bipedal aliens in the Star Trek universe had more to do with the constraints of having to use human actors than anything else. (This was explained in an episode of The Next Generation where Picard, a Romulan, Cardassian and Klingon discover that all species have a common ancestor way back when. The name of the episode escapes me now. I'll do some research once I've had some coffee.)

Anyway, back to the space monsters.

The first one that popped into my mind is actually only described and never shown in their natural state. We'll blame lack of special effects for that since they are in Star Trek: The Original Series. The episode is By Any Other Name. If you read through you will find a reference to when Spock mindmelds with Kelinda and sees a creature with hundreds of tentacles. It's really too bad they didn't have the technology to do the special effects. Imagine a cuttlefish piloting a spaceship.

Next is the baby Agent J delivers in Men In Black. If you've seen the movie, you might remember seeing J being tossed around by tentacles coming from the car as mama space monster gives birth. Soon thereafter we see J holding a cute little octopuslike creature that smiles at him and then barfs on him.

Actually, as I thought about this and more aliens popped into mind, I recalled as a child reading over and over again the Classic Comic's version of The War of the Worlds. In this version the aliens were gray tentacled creatures who have a head shape that remind me of The Brain. I was glad when they died instead of wondering if I could date one of them.

Another example where this time a man falls in love with one is Galaxy Quest. Tony Shalhoub's character falls in love with Laliari, and during one of their makeout sessions we see her tentacles surrounding him. (I've looked all over and haven't yet found a picture of the Thermians in their natural state, so go buy this movie and watch it. It's wonderful and fun.) I'm wondering if maybe this is what Japanese men really want, but instead sublimate their octopoidal fantasies and project them onto women instead. But, I digress. Let's go back and look at more fictional tentacled space monsters.

I'm sure there are more, but of the ones I can remember, I left my favorites for last. Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons. In one episode it turns out that Kang is Maggie's father! I'll admit that the conception scene would never make it into a Japanese porno as Kang uses an insemination ray on Marge and never actually touches her.

And finally, he's not a space squid, but a demented lobster monster. Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama does have some squidlike features. Once again, go buy Futurama and watch it. Zoidberg is much more concerned with looking for food although they do go to his home planet when he contracts a case of Pon Farr, although that's not what they called it.

Anyway, perhaps I won't find myself thinking of sci-fi cephalopods in the back of my mind as I go about my daily routine tomorrow, although scrubbing out the dog houses and planting a few new plants does give one's mind plenty of room to roam the cosmos.

Have I induced nightmares? Well, if you dream you're about to be ravished by an octopus tonight, you can remind it just how damn good calimari is and dream yourself up a heaping mound of delicately fried rings instead.

Pleasant dreams.

More dyeing and some knitting

2010-03-28T11:03:00.004-04:00

We'll start with the knitting as I don't feel like wrestling with Blogger to get the pictures into an order that I find pleasing. I'll work and work, and Blogger will still format my blog as it sees fit.

Thus, the first photo you see is the Citron. I've finished with section 8, and I'm now working on the ruffle. Each row of the ruffle has 829 stitches. I have less than 8290 stitches left to knit. Sounds kind of horrifying, doesn't it?

Next we have Keith's second sock in progress. I decided to show it next to the first sock so you wouldn't think I was just recycling pictures. I thought about that when I planned to take a picture of sock 2 and I realized that sock 2 by itself looks no different from sock 1 sitting alone.

Next you will see my efforts at dyeing yarns. I'm learning that it never turns out the way you think it will. The two blue yarns are
using up leftover dyes from the day The Chicken Goddess came over and dyed up some lace yarn.

Her yarn didn't turn out at all as she thought it would either. The green yarn is my attempt to try what she had, using more acid as fixative. It didn't work as expected either.

I'm gaining a whole new respect for dyers who are able to get results they can repeat. I've not even tried to repeat anything yet,

but I'm taking lots of notes (and some pictures when I remember).

Once again we have a gray, misty day here in Georgia. It's rained so much these past 6 months I feel like I'm living in Seattle without the benefits of being in Seattle.

Hopefully it is sunny where ever you may be.

Experimenting with dye

2010-03-27T10:24:00.002-04:00

I've been experimenting with the acid dyes to see how they work in real life situations. Such as how long does it really take turquoise to be absorbed? (Ages and ages) Will this technique I've thought about work? The first photo is Mr. Chubbers inspecting a skein of sock yarn that I dyes with leftover yarn from sampling. I like the color, but it didn't go penetrate the skein. One side dyed more darkly than the other.

Picture 2 is the results of something I wondered about, so I tried it
out on some leftover Galway Worsted in white. There's only about
75 grams of yarn there. Possible enough for a small hat or some wristlets.

The two greens are using up leftover dyes again on Lamb's Pride Bulky in white. I think I'll take better pictures of the darker one and sell it on etsy. I'm personally not wild about the color, but I'm sure someone will like it. I do like the lighter one, and I'm planning to see if I can reverse engineer it. (Anyone from Area 51 out there willing to come help?)

I've got others that I've not taken photos of yet. I'll get them up soon.

So much fun!

2010-03-21T09:17:00.002-04:00

I went to a drag show last night that was a fundraiser for the Dixie Bowling League and American Cancer Society.

I'd never been to one before last night. It wasn't from lack of wanting to go. More from lack of friends who'd go with me, and not enough nerve to head out to one by myself. Especially as back in the day (the 80's) most of the clubs were in the types of neighborhoods where it wouldn't be safe for me to head out by myself. So not entirely lack of nerves. There was some good sense involved too.

However, I've always wanted to go, especially after watching Tim Curry over and over in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and watching La Cage aux Folles. When a friend said that a coworker would be in this show, and it was for charity, I leapt at the chance.

I had a blast. We got there early, as we had been instructed to do, so we were on the second row, right in front of the stage. Although I had brought my knitting, as did Hali, it was too dark to knit and almost too loud to talk while we were waiting. When I'd looked up the club online before leaving, I saw that it was in the location formerly known as The Chamber. The Chamber had been a leather and fetish club, so I must admit that I didn't know what to expect. Would we stand out like the suburbanites we were? Fish way out of water? I'll admit to a certain amount of relief to see we weren't the only ones there. In fact, I was now almost disappointed that the crowd looked so normal.

Soon enough the show started, opening with Sister Chlamydia and some naughty nuns singing about fellatio while a pregnant, smoking nun ran around collecting donations.

I spent the next 2 hours mostly laughing while occasionally wishing I'd thought to bring ear plugs to soften up the piercing music of all those wailing divas whose music they used. While I know the music I prefer would not do drag well at all, sometimes the music that does is a little annoying. I'll know better for their next fundraiser, because I'm going (as long as I can get some of my friends to go. I probably shouldn't be roaming around that area alone at night either.)

Afterwards we looked for dinner. One must remember when leaving suburbia that people actually go to restaurants after 8:00 p.m. In suburbia, even on a Saturday night, you can go into a restaurant after 8:30 and get a table most of the time. Of course, as I've mentioned before, we rarely go out on Saturday nights anyway. Why mess with mobs when you can go out on a different night? We tried 2 restaurants before deciding to just get pizza. It's too bad really, as I had wanted to go someplace a little fancier with incredible food, but lets' face it - pizza is always good.

Hmm, a post with no pictures. I'll post some later. I've got some I need to take still to share with you. I'm almost finished with my Citron shawl. I've started on section 8 (giggle). Section 8 always makes me think of Klinger, and who could be more appropriate to think about after a drag show?

A picture or two

2010-03-20T14:55:00.002-04:00

These are pictures of a redtailed hawk that landed in our backyard earlier this week.

Knitting pictures coming soon.

Returning soon

2010-03-18T13:06:00.001-04:00

I know I've not been blogging. I've kept busy, and I promise I'll be back soon.

With pictures!

Yard work

2010-03-07T19:38:00.004-05:00

Today, while it was relatively warm and partly sunny, I looked at the mess that is our yard and decided to do a little work. Plants are starting to bud, and leaves are getting ready to burst forth with that bright, new green of spring. It was definitely time to tackle.....The Rose.

We have a rosebush that we got when Keith's dad was selling his house. It was a stubby little bit of a plant in a pot. I hastily planted it in the mulched area of my front yard, thinking I could move it later if need be.

The rose flourished there. It grew at an exponential rate. If it had been Audrey, I would have heard it yelling "feed me" all day and all night.

If Sauron grew roses, he would have this plant. Each stem is densely covered with thick, extremely sharp, curved thorns. Each is like a tiny scimitar waiting to rip unsuspecting flesh.

If you needed a terrible hedge to surround your moat, this rose would be it. Branches sprout willy-nilly, bending, twisting, curving, growing with groping tips, some as long as 8 feet or more.

In the summer, it's a lovely sight. It's covered with tiny, pale pink roses. Unfortunately, they don't have much fragrance. In late fall and winter, it has red-pink rosehips.

This massive, brambly menace needed to be pruned most desperately. There are small trees growing in the middle of it where I can't reach. It is taking over everything that grows near it, and for the past couple of years I've not dared to weed around it as it seems thorny runners out too.

Today, however, while the branches were bare, I laid shears to its bark, and pruned it. I probably pruned at least half of it away. I was able to get to the small trees that grew inside it and cut them down. I filled two yard waste bags with what I can only describe as hazardous waste, as thorny as that rose is. In fact, I could see thorns ripping through one of the bags. My gloves got caught on thorns. My jacket got snagged by thorns. My thumb was pierced by a thorn, and it's slightly swollen and red.

The rose is by no means under control. I could probably go prune another bag of branches off it, and it would still be able to snare an orc. I'll admit this rose always makes me think of the scene in The Return of The King when Frodo and Sam are just inside Mordor and find themselves ensnared in brambles with gripping, tearing thorns.

I do plan to make it up with the rose. Its roots are slightly exposed, as it looks like some small animal has been digging around them. I will make an offering of fresh soil and some mulch, then I'll quickly leap back before those groping branches and talon-like thorns can rip my flesh from my bones.

And maybe someday, when I have a medieval castle to call my own, I'll take this rose with me and plant it as a deterrent to Jehovah's Witnesses.

I so love Ravelry

2010-03-07T09:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that I would have to sit down and figure out the increases for a larger Citron. This morning, whilst drinking my coffee, I had an idea. Why not look at the pattern on Ravelry? Perhaps the designer has given us the information all neatly written out for a larger shawl. Lo and behold, it was there! Thank goodness I don't have to figure all that out. Now, back to knitting.

Forgive my lack of posting

2010-03-06T10:14:00.004-05:00

I've been busy this week.

I've started working with my acid dyes.

I discovered I'm going to need a bigger sink.

And I've been knitting on the Citron Shawl. I've finished all the repeats the pattern called for, and now I'm working on some extra repeats to make a larger shawl.

One of my knitting buddies figured out the extra repeats, but when I examined them, I saw she spaced them evenly across the row. If you know me well at all, you know I've got a touch of OCD. Yes, I've got to sit down and figure out the spacing so that it is like the pattern. I'm not looking forward to it, although I don't think it will be very difficult. It will just take a little fiddling with the numbers to make it work out.

Hopalong hasn't been to the vet yet, and that's not due to lack of trying. He seems to be healing up nicely, and he demands lots of petting every time we go outside. He has even been rubbing on Sassy, which has confused her some. You can see it in her face, "why is this cat doing this to me?"

Cowkitty has shown up a few times to get a meal, but he's not here regularly. Hopefully things will settle back down in feral world, but I've seen another new to me cat twice last week. I'll keep the trap ready for another spay/neuter/rabies vax adventure.

Have a great Saturday. We still have sun, which is the longest we've gone without clouds and rain since September. This is day 3 now.

Ah, Hopalong, the elusive

2010-02-28T18:26:00.003-05:00

unless there's petting to be had.

It's official. Neither of us thinks he'll get into the trap, but that poor kitty is so desparate for petting that we think we can get him into a top loading carrier. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We want to get him to the vet before the next round of snow.

Yes, more snow. I watched the weather this morning. Our normal high for this time of year is 60F. I think it stayed 10 degrees cooler than that all of today. Yet, we're in line for more snow on Tuesday. I really don't know how all those northeners stand it. Oh yeah, they don't, which is why Atlanta's population keeps growing, as does the urban sprawl.

I've been knitting away on my Citron Shawl. I'm about midway through section number 4, and now it's starting to give me hints of what the next sections will be like (as in many, many stitches to knit.)

I also dyed some yarn today using some leftovers from starting my dye book on Friday. I see I have much experimentation to do, and I'm going to have to order more yarn. I'm afraid this is going to be very addicting. Already I have more ideas swirling in my head, and I don't have the yarn to try them all out!

Pictures later this week, maybe tomorrow, maybe tonight if I can get myself outside before total darkness.

Also, I've got a virtual friend who is starting to do some TNR at her workplace. Here's a link to her blog if you want to read about how she's doing. Massachusetts is not at all like Georgia, and I never thought the south would be more progressive than a northern state, but in TNR, we are! Woohoo! However, what is easy for me is not so easy for her as she doesn't have all the facilities and support systems that I have access to. So, check out her blog and see what she's facing there.

Still trying

2010-02-23T14:30:00.004-05:00

I've taken the trap up as I don't think Hopalong is going to fall for getting into it again.

I've tried regular catfood. I tried Boar's Head low sodium deli turkey. Food keeps disappearing, and I think the birds are flying or hopping into the trap to eat it.

Time to try something new. I've got one of those cardboard carriers from the vet's office. As you may know, cats find boxes irresistable. I've put the carrier outside near where Hopalong likes to lurk. I put a small towel in the bottom of it, then sprinkled dried catnip all around. I'm thinking that he might get a little stoned from the 'nip, then look for someplace to sleep it off. If I'm lucky, I may be able to catch him napping in the box.

Otherwise, I'll have to go to the Carlos Museum, find a statue of Bastet, and sacrifice a can of tuna to beg for her help.

As for knitting, I finished section 1 of Citron last night. I'll have to take a picture later. I'd plead laziness, but...well, it's true. I've got other things to do, and I just don't feel like going outside to take that single picture right now. Maybe tomorrow, especially if I've finished section 2.

Hopalong is still free

2010-02-22T20:53:00.002-05:00

He's a cunning cat. He's avoided the trap all day long. I even put some of his regular food by the open trap door to see if he could be enticed by the delicious smoked oysters.

I looked out to check just a few minutes ago, and Cowkitty was heading towards the trap. Thus, this day of trapping is over. I had to close the trap and put out some regulare food for Cowkitty as I didn't want to trap him again.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Trapper mode enabled

2010-02-22T10:00:00.004-05:00

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I've got two feral/stray cats in my care. Mamacat, who's most definitely a feral cat, even though she now is quite talkative and seems to like my company from a safe distance, and Hopalong, whom I'm now starting to think is a stray. Hopalong has in the past week or two gotten to the point where he demands head and chin scratches as part of his meal routine.

Sometime in late December another male cat showed up. He's a big, black and white cat, one of those that reminds you of Holstein cows. In the throes of originality, I dubbed him Cowkitty. I see him sporadically, but he has been spraying near our house.

Sunday a week ago, I saw Mama and Hopalong for their meals, and all was well. On Monday afternoon, when I spotted Hopalong across the street, I could see that he was walking a little funny. When he got close, I saw a large wound, most likely a burst abscess, on his right hip. He held his tail at an odd angle too.

Great. He'd been attacked by Cowkitty, and now he needed veterinary care.

I spent Monday afternoon trying to see if he'd get close enough that I could snatch him up and put him into a cat carrier. Ok, probably not the smartest plan, but I knew he was up on his rabies vax, and I thought I could do this pretty quickly. Note to self, don't try that sort of think while Keith is home. He had to tell me just how dumb that idea was and not to try it.

So, out came my trusty kitty trap. I baited it and put it outside. I honestly can't remember if I pulled it out Monday late afternoon, but it sat outside for most of Tuesday. No luck.

I baited it and put it out again Wednesday. Hopalong looked at it warily, and never got near it. However, around 3:00 when I checked it again, there was Cowkitty. (I'd been checking pretty regularly. The neighbors, if they were looking, would be wondering why I looked like a jack-in-the-box, popping out the front door every 15-20 minutes.) Cowkitty wasn't the one I had planned to trap, but on Thursday he got a trip to Lifeline Animal Project's clinic for neutering and his rabies vax.

When I released Cowkitty on Friday afternoon, he was out of that trap so fast, he looked like a furry blur. I looked out the front door about 30 minutes later, and he was back to have a little snack. I'd fed and watered him while he was in the trap, but he seemed to excel in knocking everything upside down.

I still haven't gotten Hopalong trapped and to the vet yet. I didn't try over the weekend, mostly due to working hours at the vet's office. He seems to be healing pretty well, but I'd still like to get him in and have him checked. The trap will be spending some quality time outside today. I think instead of sardines, I'll have to try something else. Maybe smoked clams?

In knitting news, I did finish a hat over the weekend. I'd taken a class to learn how to knit entrelac in the round. I used plain, boring, solid colored yarn that I had in stash. I was so tired of working with that red yarn. I needed another color for the top of the hat, and of the colors I had, green seemed best. Thus, I present the Strawberry Entrelac Hat.

Citron's beginning

2010-02-21T09:20:00.002-05:00

Citron's beginning
Originally uploaded by everbork

I'm playing around with how I add pictures today. I've not used all my space in blogger yet, but in anticipation of someday needing other options, I'm trying some out.

I know you won't recognize Citron, even you other knitters out there, because I'm only on row 12, and it looks a little like a sock toe right now. In the future, it will be a monster with 800+ stitches on a row. I'm not looking forward to that part. Someone else who is knitting it mentioned it took her 35 minutes to complete 1 row the other night. As I approach that, I'll bear in mind just how great it's going to look, and how nice to wear. One needs positive thinking as she starts an 800+ stitch row.

I will have to cut this entry short. Hubby is making breakfast, and I just heard a timer go off. He expects me to be at the table on time! As it's bacon and biscuits, I want to be on time too.

Cheyenne River Sioux

2010-02-18T09:18:00.001-05:00

This is directly from their website:

PRESS RELEASE
February 10, 2010 CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE CONTINUES TO ACCEPT DONATIONS OF FUNDS AND SUPLIES TO ADDRESS THE DISASTER CRISIS Donations to the cCheyenne River Sioux Tribe can be made as follows: For donations contact one of the following listed below:

WEB: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/0oFFsK8c/Cheyenn-River-Sioux-Tribe/

MAIL: Benita Clark, Tribal Treasurer, P.O. Box 590, Eagle Butte, SD 57625, make checks payable to the "Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe CRST 2010 Disaster."

WIRE: United Bkrs Bloomington ABA# 091 001 322; Beneficiary Bank or Beneficiary: Account# 250 3373, State Bank of Eagle Butte; Beneficiary of Final Credit: Account Holder@UBB Customers Bank; Account Holder: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe CRST 2010 Disaster, Routing #:091409351, Account #: 103173

PHONE CALLS regarding donations: Contact Benita Clark, Tribal Treasurer, Finances, Incident Command Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (605) 964-4426, (605) 200-1013 (cell)

Sincerely,
Joseph Brings Plenty, Sr.
CRST Tribal Chairman

Of da Vinci and Portman

2010-02-13T10:57:00.002-05:00

I think I mentioned I planned to visit the High Museum with Gale earlier in the week.

I'll confess that I've only been to the High once or twice. I know Keith and I went to see an exhibit of Kandinsky years ago, and perhaps we went soon after it opened. Although I enjoyed the Kandinsky, and I don't think that exhibit disappointed, I remember having a feeling of being shorted otherwise. The High Museum seemed to be much ado about very little.

Thus, exhibits have come and gone, and I've not been to see any of them.

I knew some of da Vinci's work was here, but I'd not planned to go. However, when Gale called to invite me, I thought that it would be fun.

Not really knowing how long it would take or what the crowds might be like, I purchased tickets online for 11:00 a.m. When we arrived on what turned out to be a particularly windy and cold day, we saw busloads of students ahead of us.

Needless to say, the da Vinci exhibit was quite crowded. I'm glad that students are being taken on field trips to see art, especially as I think it's one of the areas that keeps getting cut in public schools. Not having kids, I don't really know.

However, the exhibit had only about 12 pieces of his works, and for the most part, they were all very small. Some were quite fascinating, and I could have spent more time perusing them, but that's difficult in a crowd.

There is also an exhibit by John Portman, the architect, that quite frankly I had no interest in seeing and most likely would have skipped if I were by myseff. Thank goodness Gale wanted to see it, as it turned out to be quite interesting.

You may have heard of him. He's designed quite a few buildings that decorate the Atlanta skyline, but he also paints. On display were some of his architectural models, along with preliminary sketches, and in the more recent ones, computer renderings. There were also very many of his abstract paintings and some sculptures of stainless steel.

His abstract paintings are what I found so interesting. His buildings are much more linear, especially his second home. His paintings were very organic. Layers of acrylic paints built up on some to interesting textural effects. Lots of curving lines in every single one of them.

I find myself thinking I may have to go back, at a later time in the day after all the field trippers have gone back to school, and look more closely. There were other galleries through which we strolled where I would like to linger and ponder what I'm seeing.

Southern snow

2010-02-13T10:17:00.003-05:00

Yes, the city is paralyzed, and we like it that way.

I had wondered if the weather predications were correct, but sometime shortly after 1:00 p.m., it started snowing.

Lily finds snow fascinating. She tries to catch it. She watches it intently. I had to let her go outside to investigate it up close. I did get worried as she disappeared for some time, but she reappeared, almost totally dry and snow free, so I can only wonder where she went to watch the snow.

We have a Japanese maple in the front yard that looked so lovely with the snow coating it. It made me think of Nimloth, the White Tree of Gondor, and how it may have looked when in full bloom during Aragorn's reign.

The other pictures were taken at various times just to show the depth of the snow. Snow is rare down here, and I enjoy it for a little while.

This morning when I rose, the first thing I did was look outside. In the early morning light, against a crystal clear blue sky, the trees across the street had an almost golden glow.

My little point and shoot, while a most convenient camera to carry, was unable to truly capture the light correctly. There are many pine trees in our neighborhood, and the golden tint of the sun on the snow with the hint of the deep green on the pine needles was breathtaking. I made Keith look out the window before I let him go back to sleep.

I've been attempting to take pictures of the birds. I love the way cardinals look against all the stark white of the snow, but they were being cunning and not allowing me to take any really good shots.

I had to take this one from inside.

None of my pictures have faithfully captured the colors of this morning. The sky is a crystalline blue, not the pale, overheated blue of summer or the intensely deep blue you see out west, but a rich, sky blue, entirely cloudless.

The snow is currently falling from the tree limbs, glistening like diamonds in the fresh sunlight. It looks like another snow storm, this time of silvery glitter in the clear light. The snow beneath the trees is no longer smooth, but is now pockmarked into craters, some large, some small, as snow falls from the limbs in both clumps and shimmering separate flakes.

I've waxed poetic long enough. I'd say enjoy the snow, but all too soon it's going to be a slushy, muddy mess with our cars covered with sand and salt. Ugh.

Snuggles with Penelope

2010-02-11T18:44:00.002-05:00

Sounds racy, doesn't it?

I love pet supply stores that have store animals. I always loved Cheshire Pet Supply when they were still in business, and partly because they had a wonderful cat at the Toco Hills location. I was sad to see them close.

Where I go now has a great cat named Penelope. If I see her, I always talk to her and pet her. She's looking for a forever home, and I would adopt her in a heartbeat if I had space for her.

Just recently I wrote about how much I missed Scooter, and one thing I missed so much was that he was such a snuggly cat. He loved to cuddle, and I loved it too.

Today when I went to pick up catfood, Penelope saw me and meowed at me from behind the canned catfood on the shelf. She was definitely not in a place where anyone could pet her. She went back to the counter where the cash register is, and when I got close enough to pet her, she just climbed right onto my shoulder. Most of her was on my shoulder while she purred like crazy and rubbed her head all over my face. After a few minutes, I carried her to the sofa where I could sit down and pet her.

I know it sounds silly, but the other cats don't cuddle like that. It was very nice to be with a kitty who was mega snuggly. To get all new age-y here, it's almost like she knew I needed some kitty snuggles.

And let's be honest, having such a great cat at the shop makes me want to spend my money there and keep them in business.

Recurrent conversations

2010-02-11T12:59:00.003-05:00

I know couples often have their own languages, signals and usually a defined sense of who has what job in the household, even if those jobs are bizarre, mundane or just plain yucky.

Over the years, somehow it's evolved that I get to scoop the litterbox and take out trash. Part of this is because of the way my brain is wired. I remember what day is trash pickup, recycling or yard waste. Keith does not. I'm always a little amazed if he takes the trash out.

Another thing that I remember is what's on TV most weeknights. I know I've written before about how we don't have cable, so I won't go into that here. And I'll be honest, most nights I can find something to watch that entertains me while I knit, even if it turns out to be Mystery of the Mega Flood for the 3rd or 4th time. (I love Nova.)

Thus, because I can remember odd details, and Keith has a strange relationship with time, he can't or won't keep track of what shows come on which nights. What I'm about to share are short conversations that we've had almost every weeknight of every week since September.

Monday: Keith, "Is the Mentalist on tonight?"
Me, "No, Castle's on tonight."
Keith, "When is the Mentalist on?"
Me, "Thursday"
Keith, "The guy who plays Castle really is ruggedly handsome. I wish I was."
Me, now looking up from my knitting to look at my husband, "Yes, he is, but you are too."

Tuesday: Keith, "What's on tonight?"
Me, "NCIS or Nova, then NCIS LA."
Keith, "What about the Mentalist?"
Me, "Not tonight. You normally watch the News Hour at 10 on Tuesdays while I go surf the web."
Keith, "Oh. I don't think I'll watch that tonight." or "Oh yeah, thanks."

Wednesday: Keith, "Is your beloved Mentalist on tonight?"
Me, "No, CSI New York is on at 10."
Keith, "What are you watching now?"
Me, "Human Target."
Keith, "When's the Mentalist on?"
Me, "Tomorrow night."

And yes, he'll ask me about it tonight too.

I'm not sure why we go through this each week. Yes, I think Simon Baker is just adorable. I like watching it, and what's funnier is that Keith doesn't even watch it that much. Perhaps part of it is that as we've been together so long, I've gotten much more likely to yell at him if he comes into wherever I'm watching tv during the last 5 minutes of the show and starts talking or plucking his guitar. Or, much more likely, he thinks the woman who plays Van Pelt on the show is good looking (she's a redhead), and he wants to watch her.

Whatever it is, this conversation is something we've had for so long, and this week I started thinking about it when he wandered in to ask me what I was watching and to bring him up to date on the plot after asking if the Mentalist was on.

He's just lucky he's so ruggedly handsome that I'll put up with all this. :)

Hunting owl?

2010-02-08T10:54:00.004-05:00

Last night, just outside our kitchen door, we heard some very strange noises.

They definitely weren't human. I listened, trying to decide if it was a coyote, but it also sounded like something we had heard years ago. An owl, happily trying to hoot around a mouthful of prey.

Now I'm worried about my two feral cats who hang around. If it's really the owl, which I've been pretty sure is a large one (we think it's a Barred Owl), what was it getting near my kitchen door? One of my ferals? The neighbor's ankle biter of a dog? Or some poor possum making its rounds to see if there is any catfood left over?

I will say that if you ever do hear an owl trying to talk with its mouth full, it's a pretty funny sound. I'm not sure I can find anything like it online, but I haven't looked. I don't really have time to look for that today, what with trying to run all my errands before the next rain event starts. I hate slogging through rain to grocery shop. That's less than fun.

However, and I know some of you may have a few minutes to spare, see if you can find a barred owl calling with a full beak. Link it so we can all listen to it.

See, Mondays can be fun. :)

ETA - I found one that sounds similar! Go listen here!

Second edit - I found an owl cam! How cool is this? I really need to quit looking up owl info and get moving.

Insanity comes in many forms

2010-02-07T09:12:00.005-05:00

This week, it came the form of size 11 seed beads. I've included a picture of this small beaded piece by a pen to let you get some perspective on just how small size 11 seed beads are.

I've had beading madness for years now. It all started when I was in elementary school. I joke about my age, but I was in the first grade very soon after the Summer of Love (1968), and my bead obsession manifested itself sometime around then.

It all started with "love bead" necklaces that my friends and I made. These were simple strands of seed beads and bugle beads interspersed on a strand of elastic. Very easy to make. You take the strand of elastic, make sure it will go over your head and string the beads, alternating between seed and bugles. I wish I could remember how old I was when I made those, but it's really not important. Just take my word that the obsession with beads began quite early.

Not that it's always manifested itself. The beading madness will go dormant, sometimes for years, before roaring back into full obsession. It's in full swing now, with wild and wonderful ideas popping into my head, leaving me wondering just how in world to get them to work.

There are other forms of madness too. Sometimes they involve Malabrigo lace yarn, 2 skeins of it, and a simple shawl pattern called Citron. True, that pattern only calls for one Malabrigo, but the one I've seen knitted up has extra repeats of the pattern, and that's the size I must knit.

Shirley is teaching a class at Needle Nook that I just had to take. Knitting entrelac in the round. This bright red item on the left is the beginning rounds of a hat using this technique. I find using a solid yarn for entrelac is sooooooo boring. Next time, it's most definitely something that self stripes.

The sun has appeared, giving me a chance to get some pictures of finished socks.

The sock with blue heel and toes is the first of a pair for Keith. It's knitted from Malabrigo sock yarn for heels and toes, and Yarnsmith's Prairie for the main color. He picked out the Prairie when we went to SAFF a few years ago. This was before I figured out just how much yarn it takes to knit socks for him. Luckily, the Malabrigo was in my stash, and it matches quite well. The picture shows the blue as brighter than it really is, at least on my monitor.

These other socks are mine, Watermelon colorway from Miss Babs, purchased at the same SAFF. This is one of the times where I liked the yarn in the skein much better than knitted up. In the skein it looked much pinker, but the green mutes out the pink once it's knitted. I did like the yarn itself very much.

If you look closely on the right, you can see my little piece of beadweaving. I had put it on the bench while I was digging out my camera, so you have another chance for some perspective on its size.

Today is the Super Bowl, for those who keep track of such things. I'll admit that I don't, and I've just realized I've no idea who the Saints are playing today. What I really care about is that it's sunny, that I've got graph paper to get some of these beading ideas out of my head, and whether I'll bead or knit today.

OMG! Can you believe there's not a single cat picture in the bunch today?

On a soapbox again.

2010-02-03T10:49:00.002-05:00

I saw this on one of the knitting charities I'm involved with, and I wanted to post it here.

Our native peoples get less press about their situation, and right now it's pretty dire. I'm only posting part of the message here as I'm waiting to get permission to post the parts with phone numbers, etc.

Cambridge – Native American Caucus students at the Harvard Kennedy School are taking action in response to the inadequate national response to the crisis on Indian reservations in the Dakotas due to severe ice storms and freezing temperatures. Last weekend, a powerful snow and ice storm ripped through the region, felling power lines, and cutting off power and water to thousands of South Dakotans, many of them on the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservations. When full power and water will be restored remains in question.
The ice storms cut off electricity in an area about the size of Connecticut . With no electricity, no heat, no running water, and a wind chill below zero, a crisis is mounting. The Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has declared a state of emergency for his community and is calling for immediate assistance.
The tribes are working hard to bring families in out of the cold into shelters. The South Dakota National Guard, the State’s Department of Public Safety as well as the Army Corps of Engineers have come to the reservation and supplied some emergency generators. Help also is coming in the Red Cross and other tribes. But even with this assistance these tribes, among the poorest communities in the United States , are not able to meet the overwhelming needs of their communities.
Outside the frozen plains of the Dakotas , this human crisis has received little attention. The Native American Caucus student organization at Harvard Kennedy School would be grateful to American citizens to give the spotlight to their fellow Native American citizens. They are in great need of your help and aid. The American People need to be aware of this emergency situation.
To assist the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Tribes, contact Stacy LaCompte at Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place at (605) 280-8588.
MEDICAL NEEDS: Dialysis Patients/Glucose Strips/Financial Support for Hotels
The dialysis patients have all been evacuated three hours away to Rapid City , SD. They are staying in hotels for at least a week and half, probably longer. Financial contributions are needed to help the families pay for their hotel expenses and food. An account has been set up at Wells Fargo to help with these expenses. You can contribute at any Wells Fargo or send to the Rapid City branch. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_ec833f00-0a3...

Gloomy weather, gloomy thoughts

2010-02-02T13:19:00.002-05:00

Some days I really miss Scooter. I knew him his entire life. From the night I knew Pixel had gotten in the family way until that awful day this past summer when we took him for his final vet visit. I was on my feet a lot yesterday, and my back is feeling a little achy, and Scooter used to come nap on my stomach every time I took a nap. When I was sore like this, his weight and warmth felt so good. He would stay there, purring like crazy until we both drifted into sleep. He was the best cat ever.

Don't get me wrong. I love the kitties that live with us now, but Scooter was very special.

A quick check in

2010-02-01T09:02:00.004-05:00

I'm still around, just not blogging.

I don't have much to share. Housework (yuck), yoga, rain, the vet for Lily, the eyedoctor for me...

Well, that's a tale I've been composing my head. I just need to sit down and share it with you.

In the meantime, pity me as our digital camera is going crazy. We think it's dying a slow and pink death. Many of the pictures have a pink tinge and may look blurred or wavy. Remember this sock pic? At the time, I thought it was me moving the camera. Apparently not, as it's doing this while on the tripod now. While it does look really cool, it's not what I'm looking for when posting items on ebay.

Yes, I've spent a part of the weekend thinking of witty text to go with some of those things couples accumulate over the years. Why yes, who doesn't need another salad bowl? And in a pattern that doesn't reflect my kitchen, lifestyle or taste? Thank you ever so much. Well, you know how it is. Wedding gifts that have taken up space for 20+ years. Maybe it's time to let them go and make $5 in the process. Overcoming packratitis can be fun. I'm also going through some of my yarn, and let me tell you, writing text for yarn is ever so much easier. I've only got one listed so far, but that is only the beginning. And no, I don't think you'll see any Wollmeise or numma numma listed from me.

More gallivantin' around

2010-01-25T09:08:00.002-05:00

Some of you may already read Chicken Goddess's blog, which is actually not active right now as she's moved mostly to Ravelry. If you are familiar with it, you know that she likes Shahrukh Khan an awful lot. I read her blog ages ago where she posted a lot of pictures of Bollywood hunks, including some really great ones of SRK, and she invited me to come watch some of his movies at her house.

Back in December I spent a very happy afternoon there. We had watched Singh is Kinng (slapstick and love story, plus a dance she and her hubby call the Desecration of Karnak) before moving on to Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is very long, and during intermission I checked my phone, only to realize that I was about to miss a staff meeting. Yikes! Thus, for over six weeks I've been waiting to find out just what happens to Suri/Raj and Taani. Finally, last week I was able to see the end of it, and well, I had to stay and watch another movie too, Veer-Zaara. I had a great time, but the movies are very long, and I always feel like I have to dash out of her house and back to the reality. I think every time I've been there Keith says, "I didn't think you'd be gone so long." (Honestly, that makes me feel the tiniest bit guilty that I came home and fed him leftovers, but then again, they were fresh leftovers. Or maybe we had frozen pizza that night.)

Over the weekend I had taken yoga classes from two other instructors as I had missed both of the classes I usually attend. At some point I overstretched my foot, and let me tell you, when the ball of your foot hurts and the pain extends into your big toe, you don't feel like doing anything except wishing you had a reflexologist on call. Which sucks because I've not been to yoga in about a week now, and I'm getting into it.

Anyway, I've hardly seen Daphne since early December, so we met up for coffee at Alcove Coffee. We've usually been meeting at Mighty Joe's, but I'd heard they had closed. I've linked the website anyway, as I've also heard they are reopening. I think I just need to drive there and find out for myself. Mighty Joe's is actually much more knitter friendly than Alcove, but it's nice too.

As we haven't had much of a chance to visit, you know how it is. The morning zipped away, and it was lunchtime before I knew it.

So, there are my couple of weeks of running around having fun. I won't bore you with the time spent cleaning bathrooms or going to the vet or doing laundry.

I have finished my February Lady Sweater. I think I bound off the second sleeve during Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. I'm almost finished with Keith's first sock of the pair. I'm within an inch or so of the cuff edge. If the day is dry enough, I'll rush out and take pictures before the next onslaught of rain. We received 2.5" of rain within about 8 hours yesterday. Our sump pump has been running almost nonstop. Thankfully I think we get to dry out for a day or two before the next system moves into the region. I sure hope so. It hasn't been dry since September, and our yard looks just horrible.

I've been gallivantin' around

2010-01-24T10:36:00.003-05:00

That's why I've been slack and not written for a whole 2 weeks!

I do wish I had pictures for this post, but we've had rain it seems every other day, and my stone bench hasn't been dry in some time. Or, I've not been around to take pictures as I've been running around.

What has filled all my time, you may ask? Well, the holidays are over, and I've been catching up with friends. I've pulled my calendar in order to share my past two weeks with you.

One of the things about living where I do is the DeKalb Farmers Market. Gale seldom goes there, even though I don't think she lives that far away, but we all have our shopping radius. (Shopping radius - the distance we'll go to buy bananas.) Whenever we think about moving, I think where in the world would I go grocery shopping? I do a large amount of my shopping there as it's got just about everything I could want at great prices. I had a friend who lived out towards Athens, and she was in a group of women who took turns driving into town to buy groceries from there. Heck, I'd be, forget the group. I'd still drive there even if I lived an hour away - I'd just plan better than I do. As it is, I've started meal planning, and I think it's making a positive impact on my grocery spending.

Sorry for the advert for the Farmer's Market. Needless to say, I love it, as does Gale, but she doesn't go there often. What we do now, when she gets the urge to go, is meet for lunch at their cafeteria and shop together. That way we can visit and get a necessary chore done at the same time. I will often pack a cooler, and that way I can go to the regular grocery store and the health food store for my frozen waffles, and before you know it, the day is sped by.

Hmm. Maybe my other gallivantin' should be saved for later today or tomorrow. I have tales about most of it, but I'm sure you're missing pictures and don't want to read a lot this morning. I'll just mention the other lunch from the same week.

I recently had a college friend track me down, and it turns out she lives in Peachtree City. She's been asking me if I were going to our college reunion, and honestly, I'm not planning on it. What I said was, how about if I drive down that way and we go to lunch instead? And I did.

Mind you, Peachtree City doesn't look that far away on a map. I should have known better, but I didn't realize just how far away it was until I mapped it out online. Oops. Lesson learned. Check mileage before opening mouth. However, I'd said I'd go, and there was a knit shop down there I'd never been to, so I decided to skip yoga and head on out.

Very good thing I skipped yoga. There I was, zipping around the south end of the perimeter (I-285 for those of you who aren't familiar with Atlanta) when I received a phone call from another gal I was needed to catch up with. I had on my headset, so I wasn't holding my phone, but she called as I was approaching the turnoff of I-85 south. Let me tell you, even if I weren't yakking away on the phone, I probably would have missed the turn. It's a little odd. However, I was talking on the phone, looking for my exit, when all of a sudden I noticed I was approaching I-20 west. Huh?

For those who don't know, the perimeter is a highway that circles the entire city of Atlanta in the suburbs. When I first moved here, one of the Braves players missed the game because he drove around the perimeter for several hours trying to figure out how in the world to get to the stadium. I've lived in Atlanta for nearly 30 years, so I should know better, but I'm almost never down on that side of the perimeter. Remember that shopping radius I mentioned? Most of us are familiar with only the part of the perimeter that we use on a regular basis.

Anyway, I passed the I-20 exits, laughing to Chicken Goddess about what an idiot I am, while I found an exit and turned around. The trip down to Peachtree City was about 25-30 miles longer than it should have been, and even though I left an hour earlier than I had planned, I only arrived about 20 minutes early.

Nancy (blogless) is someone I'd not seen since college. We had a nice visit, and she showed me around Peachtree City. She drove me through some of the fancyschmancy subdivisions, saying that if anyone asked me, I could say I'd seen "such'n'such". I laughed and said that my friends would be asking me if I went to Sugarfoot's instead. This was one of the times when I realized just what a gulf there seems to be between knitters and non-knitters. To be honest, I could care less about the expensive subdivisions. I'd rather live somewhere I can have chickens run loose. I did care a lot about checking out the local yarn store. However, I had fun catching up and talking to someone who wasn't a knitter because I spend so much time around knitters, crafters and artists that it's illuminating to visit with someone who isn't.

And I think I'll end here. That's a glimpse into how I spent January 11 - January 14, 2010.

If it ever dries out, I've got lots of knitting pictures to take and post.

Life goes on

2010-01-10T11:42:00.002-05:00

As do the knitting and the chores. First you see my February Lady Sweater in progress. I'm working along on the sleeve. You may remember that I was running out of yarn, and that my yarn is from October 2005. I was able to find some that were fairly close, and the new yarn is what I'm using for the sleeve. One thing about Malabrigo and other handpainted/kettledyed yarns is that they pattern one way when you knit back and forth, and a different way when you knit in the round. While the colors match pretty well, I think the swirling of knitting in the round may make the difference in dye lots a bit more noticeable. Oh well, that's what I get for changing my mind about what to use the yarn for, then changing the size. When I'm helping people purchase yarn for a project, some get a little upset that I gently insist they purchase an extra ball. Honestly, this is why I suggest that. Purchase what you think you will need, then a little bit more. It's truly better to have extra than to run short.

As for running short, I think these socks for Keith will be just fine since I'm using the Malabrigo for the heels, toes and part of the cuff. They're coming along nicely. I think the Yarnsmith yarn he chose is really quite nice to knit, and I like the way the color is swirling around the foot.

And finally, there are always chores to be done around any house, and laundry is no exception. However, there's nothing like warm, fresh from the dryer laundry to wear a cat out. Here are some pictures of Lily helping Keith put up his T-shirts. She found the endeavor to be quite exhausting, so she had to take a nap. Keith left her there to sleep, and there she stayed until midway through the night when she decided that sleeping between the two humans was warmer, more comfortable, and she could wake Keith up for a little petting.

In the last picture you can see her lip is swelling again. We went to the vet again yesterday, and he's happy with the improvement, but she'll need a few more shots of the super strong antibiotic. The vet was out (!), so we'll take her back early next week when the order comes in.

Finally defrosting

2010-01-09T15:45:00.002-05:00

Yes, the temperature here has gotten above freezing. I had to let Mr. Chubbers go outside since he just knew it was pleasant. After all, the sun is shining and looks warm. Needless to say, he was only out a few minutes. I do feel sorry for kitties who look out the windows and think the weather is perfect since it's sunny. They go out and their little ears and paws get all cold.

The good news is that the snow and ice are melting. I'm glad that I won't bust my butt sliding down my stairs now. Driving can be done once again, and I won't have to wonder if I'll be able to open the car door.

I have learned that I will need to knit at least one pair of fingerless gloves for myself and a hat for Keith. We both need more socks too. Also, letting the cats sleep in the bed with us really does keep me warmer as they lean on me. I may be pinned to the bed and immobilized for hours, but at least I'm warm.

In the meantime, a little something to share. One of the feral kitties came by after the snow stopped.

Thoughts on charity knitting

2010-01-08T09:56:00.002-05:00

The other day I was visiting with a friend who knits a little, and she said something about how great it was that I and other people knitted for charity. She said that she should do something like that, but she never thought about it.

This offhand remark got me to thinking about why do I knit for charity. Those who know me very well sometimes say things to me like I think too much, but this has been weighing on my mind for a few days.

I can't speak for all those who knit for charity. I speak only for myself, and here's what I think:

Ever since humans started thinking, we started wondering just why we were put here on this planet. Since I was a biology major in college, and that's what my degree is in, it does color my thinking. We're animals, and our purpose here to live and replace ourselves. A nice, quick scientific answer, and an answer we're not happy with because we have big, juicy, pulpy brains. Brains that make us think there's got to be more than that to our existence.

Most people want to feel important and to be immortalized someway. We, thank goodness, can't all be Donald Trump, full of self-importance, naming buildings after ourselves. What I, and many other knitters have found, is that we can more effectively make a difference in other people's lives doing something that we love, and we don't need to have our names tossed about while doing so.

When I knit a stoma cover for Grady Hospital, I can make a small, positive difference in the life of one person. I don't knit my name into it. I don't even get a thank you letter from the hospital, and that kind of recognition isn't important to me. For me, stoma cover knitting is knitting in its most meditative form. I make simple garter stitch squares with I-cord ties. They don't require much thought, and they let me enjoy my craft in its simplest, easiest form. It's a bonus that something I can enjoy so much can be a gift to someone in need.

It's also charity that stays in the larger community of the Atlanta Metro area. I've noticed over the past few years that my charitable donations have been changing focus from the large national and international charities to those can make a difference where I live. Let's take Lifeline Animal Project. I have used their services, the low cost spay and neuter for ferals several times over the past few years. They have been working with local animal control to provide spay and neuter for animals that have been or can be adopted. I can make a donation to them and have an affect in the county where I live. They can use that donation to provide free spay/neuter for a low income person who wants to keep their pet and needs that basic veterinary care.

I'm not saying any of this to be preachy or offensive to anyone. I just, like I said, got started thinking on why I knit for charity, and I thought I'd share my thoughts. Besides, as any of you hardcore knitters know, you soon run out of family to give all those hats and such to, but that doesn't stop you from knitting. Knitting is a part of you, who you are. A lifestyle habit that can actually change the world for one other person. Wow, when you stop to think about it, that's pretty amazing that this craft can do that.

As for me, when I started knitting stoma covers earlier this year, it was actually because the knitting group I'm in decided not to exchange holiday gifts, but to knit for a charity instead. I have a stash of cotton yarn that I'm not using, and this gave me a way to use a little of it. I personally didn't expect to enjoy doing them so much. They are very fast, a great break from keeping track of increases, decreases, lace knitting, charts, etc. I'm honestly not sure how many I've knitted since that first one. I'm around #10, but I'm finding the more I knit them, the less I care about the quantity. The important part is that they are a very much needed item, and I can provide them. What will happen when I run out of my stash of cotton yarn. Well, I have a lot of wool, and I really should be knitting for that other charity I decided to donate my time and yarn to. I have sent them a few items this fall, but I know it's not nearly enough. However, another great thing about knitting is if several knitters send just a few items each, it has a cumulative effect that can truly make a difference. Just look at Yarn Harlot and Doctors without Borders if you need a example.

Have a great day and weekend. It did snow here last night. Just enough to look quite unattractive with a dusting of snow showing grass and twigs poking up blackly all over the place. Yuck.

I won't tempt the Fates

2010-01-03T18:56:00.002-05:00

I know better than that, but both of us are finally feeling better. Honestly, this is not the way we had planned to spend his week of vacation. Yes, Keith took vacation. Coughing, sleeping and complaining was not what we thought we would be doing.

That said, I have watched some movies, done much reading and just a little knitting. It's been too cold today to go outside and take pictures, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow, at which point I will have finished turning the heel, and the sock will look more like a sock and less like a willie warmer.

I did lose some weight too. Not too much, but some that I had gained back over the past month. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll be up for some yoga again this week.

The ones who will have the toughest transition to our feeling better? The cats, of course. We've been perfect, feverish heaters for the little devils, and now that we're up and moving again, how can they warm their feet? Keith woke the other night when Lily put her head into his hand for petting. It is terrible that the humans don't continue to pet while they sleep, but Lily just woke him up. She's been velcroed to Keith most of this week, and I know she won't like having her slave up and moving again.

Feeling human is in sight

2010-01-02T16:56:00.003-05:00

Hmm, after all the sci-fi of the past few days, maybe I'd feel better if I were a shape shifting alien. I could have shifted away from whatever virus has been attacking me.

I noticed that while I'm still tired, my appetite is coming back, and now I want some Mexican food or maybe a pizza. I've noticed I'm not hungry for something like a big salad, but instead something carby with melted cheese.

I've felt well enough to knit again today while watching Nova's What Darwin Never Knew. I've gotten to the heel of Keith's sock, and I had to set it aside as I want to try Priscilla Wild's short row heel. Now that I'm not mesmerized by scientists searching through the genetic code for switches that turn genes on and off I'll be able to concentrate on a a new heel.

Sometimes I do wonder if I'd been able to better concentrate in my youth would I have gone on to be in a laboratory, poring over DNA sequences? Or would I have dumped the biology for astrophysics and spent my nights looking at blurry points of light millions of light years away? Who knows? I'll bet in an alternative universe there is another me who does exactly that.

Maybe I need to go in search of dinner and leave the wanderings of a hungry brain here before they get into stranger territory.

Belatedly, have a Happy New Year!

ETA - I've gone back to the PGR heel that I normally do. Here I was, doing exactly what I tell other knitters not to do, working on blue yarn so dark it looked black. Using US size 1.5 needles to try out a new heel in the not so great light of the bedroom. After several rows, and realizing one of the first ones just wasn't right, I frogged back and restarted with my standard short row heel. You know, if you do yarnovers and purl 3 through the back enough times, it's actually pretty easy and mindless. This heel should be especially strong as it has a lot of Grey's fur knitted into it. I can barely pry her out of my lap.

New Year Mayhem

2009-12-31T21:23:00.004-05:00

At least that's what I'm planning.

Alas, Keith does not share quite the same love I have for old sci-fi movies, but also he's felt so yucky that all he's done is lay around and look pitiful. Lily is taking full advantage of this, using him to lean on and get all her fluffy fur groomed just so.

However, Keith has felt well enough to now leave the bedroom, which gave me a chance last night to watch...drumroll please....

The Thing from Another World

Ah yes, I have quite an affection for these old movies. However, I do revel in all the gory of John Carpenter's The Thing, and that's on the agenda for tonight.

So, for me no champagne and kisses at midnight to usher in the new year, although there will probably be fireworks set off by the neighbors.

I'll also admit to wanting a marathon of the Original War of the Worlds (in which the townspeople say, "there are scientists fishing at the lake" or some such nonsense. Today you wouldn't just go grab a random scientist for an alien encounter, but I suppose back then you could. After all, have you ever really stopped to think about the Professor on Gilligan's Island? He knows something about everything, and I mean everything.)

Oops, I lost track there, didn't I? Anyway, a progression of War of the Worlds, then Independence Day, which has a lot of scenes taken right from the WotW and updated, then the newest one, which has some great special effects.

As for now, I'm entering the wayback machine to 1982, when Kurt Russell was still really hot, and watching a shapeshifting alien kick some ass.

Happy New Years!

Angelic visitation

2009-12-30T17:48:00.003-05:00

An angel visited us yesterday in the form of Daphne bearing 8 servings of wonton soup, and I meant to mention this earlier. Everyone needs a friend like Daphne who will petsit and deliver Chinese soup when you are ill. Thank you again, Daphne!

Laundry avoidance

2009-12-30T16:38:00.003-05:00

Honestly, it can't be avoided any longer. It really doesn't matter that almost every hand towel is in the dirty clothes. (and for the life of me, I can't figure that one out, unless Keith has been using them to dry off Lily since rain doesn't deter her from going outside.) No, I've only got one pair of handknit socks left that are clean, so laundry must be done. Or at least a load of socks.

Actually, our hamper, which isn't very large, is full. I just dumped all the sheets and blankets from the bed onto the floor the other day. I didn't have the strength to do anything with them after I changed them, so Monster has been happily sleeping on them. I'm just glad we have an older model washer that can handle more fiber than these new fangled ones with all the computer parts can, as there's gonna be some cat hair on 'em now.

We did pull ourselves out of the house to go to WalMart, because we really had to. A prescription was ready, and someone had to go get it. I'm thinking it was a bad idea to take Keith along since he was grumpy the whole time. (While I, of course, was having the time of my life buying toothpaste and birdseed.)

Things I have accomplished over the past 24 hours. I read The Return of the King almost cover to cover. I'm including the appendices at the end of the book, as I like reading more of the history of Aragorn and Arwen. I knitted about 6 rounds on the sweater sleeve. I've slept.

I'm pretty sure this is a cold. It's moving up from my chest and into my sinuses. I don't expect to be able to think clearly for a few more days as the lack of oxygen fogs my mind. And let me tell you, Keith is no fun to be sick with. He doesn't want to watch movies. He just wants to lay around and look really miserable. He's had more sinus issues than I have, so I guess I can understand it. However, it'd be nice if he wanted to watch something with killer rabbits or giant, radioactive bugs with me. He may want to just stare at the ceiling, but I find I'm too restless to do that. Oh well, I'd best go check the laundry now and dream of giant ants attacking Los Angeles later.

A pat on the back

2009-12-29T09:42:00.002-05:00

I normally don't do this sort of thing, but I want to brag just a little. A couple of weeks ago I got a message from a friend looking to adopt 2 kittens. His family had just lost their beloved dog, and he had decided to get kittens for Christmas. He asked me where to get them, and I was able to direct him to my two favorite local shelters, Furkids and AtlantaPets. I was quite happy to receive a message telling me thanks, that he had adopted 2 kittens from Furkids. They are littermates from a feral mom. I'm glad to have had a small part in helping them all find each other.

Ok, so maybe that really isn't bragging, but I'm a still partially sleep deprived, not yet caffeinated, possibly H1N1 carrying knitter who is still wondering in the back of her mind just what movie will fill another long day of just lying about the house.

H1N1?

2009-12-29T09:09:00.003-05:00

It has been suggested that we may have H1N1, which we may. If you'd like, go here and check out what CDC says about it.

However, we're not moving around a whole lot. I did have to brave the grocery store to make sure we had some things to eat that didn't involve me doing any prep work. Poor Keith is so wiped out that he's useless, and while I feel somewhat crappy and enervated, unfortunately I'm the better feeling of the two of us, which means I had to go to the store.

I'm really thinking now that I may just order 6 or 10 portions of won ton soup from our favorite Chinese restaurant so we'll have something edible. You know you feel kind of crappy when mac and cheese doesn't taste that good.

I did get a fairly decent night's sleep last night, which is a big win for me. Keith still had some insomnia, but he thinks his low-grade fever has broken. Well, that's what I thought a couple of days ago too.

My biggest concerns today are what in the world am I going to watch now and will any of the critters get sick? While we don't have any pet pigs to share our illness with, I'm wondering if cats or dogs can get it? As to the what will I watch, I did watch all 4+ hours of the extended version of the Return of the King yesterday. Poor Keith lay on the couch the whole time in a state of semi somnolence with Lily by his side. However, as he had been in the bed for much of the time since Saturday night, I didn't feel sorry for him.

I did accomplish a bit of knitting. I've finished stoma cover #10 except for weaving in the ends and started #11. It was the perfect kind of knitting to do while watching Aragorn summon the oathbreaking dead to fulfil their oath. Or to watch Barad-dur fall when the Ring was destroyed. Back to the stoma cover knitting. It still seems that I haven't made a dent in that cotton yarn. I didn't think I had that much, but apparently I do. Darn dishcloth cotton going on sale for less that $1 a ball. What was I thinking?

Well, I must be off to brew some coffee and get ready for another long day of laying around the house. Thus I'll be able to bore you with more tales of the recovery, and perhaps of my total inability to tackle a New York Times crossword puzzle for the days of Thursday-Sunday. Keith, quite nicely, told me that being ill does mess with your brain. That was very sweet of him. I will admit that it's strange how events from 2000 seem like ages ago now, and to work a puzzle that was published during that time is like a bizarre little time capsule.

ETA - Maybe I should watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It's a nice long film at nearly 3 hours.

Never tempt the Fates!

2009-12-28T09:29:00.003-05:00

They have a wicked sense of humor. After another night of tossing, turning, wondering do I have a fever now, does Keith have a fever, won't he stop moving, talking, and why won't Lily settle down, I finally got maybe 3 hours of sleep. I'm really wishing we had a guestroom with a spare bed as I would have taken Mr. Chubbers and his soothing purring in there to see if I could get some sleep. Maybe a hotel....especially since Keith is in a mega cover-pulling rampage. Of course, when the maybe fever kicks in, my own personal furnace could heat the whole room.

Anyway, I woke up feeling worse than I did all day yesterday. Most likely it was having another night of no sleep that did it, but my throat hurt all the way into my ears. I'm hungry, but too tired to fix anything. Keith has hardly budged from the bed since he got into it on Saturday night, so I know he won't be cooking anything. I think I'll brave the grocery store for some more chicken broth, bland frozen dinners (mac & cheese!), and a cough syrup with an extra drowsy, 12 hour formula. If that doesn't work, I think we have one of those ballpeen hammers in the basement! Ah, the secrets of life that I've learned from Bugs Bunny.

The worst thing about all this? Not a bit of knitting yesterday. Not one single stitch. In fact, when I was up, I was mostly playing Spider Solitaire or Pathwords. Maybe I can pry Keith from the bed long enough to watch The Return of the King. He hogged the bed all day yesterday. I think it's my turn now.

P.S. I once again tried the "What Would Clint Do" and downed a jigger of whiskey last night. While it might work if you're having surgery during the Civil War (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) or having a fake nun pull an arrow out of your shoulder (Two Mules for Sister Sara), but I think I'll use the cough syrup tonight.

An empty lap and both hands

2009-12-27T17:36:00.003-05:00

Yes, Miss Grey has left my lap (thank goodness!), and I have use of both hands again. I know I make remarks about aging now and again, and I definitely feel my age when I've got that heavy cat sleeping in my lap. I have to cross my legs for us both to be comfortable, but by the time she gets up (or I push her off my lap), my legs are numb and my hip joint hurts. I'm hoping yoga will help some of this. What it can't help is that Grey is just a large kitty.

I'm feeling better today. I must have been running a very low grade fever. I just couldn't get warm last night. I finally took a hot bath, and I had to keep adding lots of hot water to it, then I climbed into bed early. Neither of us slept well last night, as hubby is feeling crappy too. He tossed and turned all night. I tossed and turned some. Everytime I was awake and trying to get more comfortable, he'd ask me if I was awake too. Unfortunately I was, every single time. However, I got really overheated last night, and cooked out most of the germs. I feel much better today. He's been in bed most of the day. I sure hope he can sleep tonight. I've got to work tomorrow, and I'd like to sleep. I plan to get him to try to sweat out the illness tonight, whether he likes it or not.

As you can see from the earlier post, I've finished the body part of the February Lady Sweater. I started on the first arm yesterday. The knitting didn't go quite as quickly as I would have liked. I'm not sure if I had my recent rant here about Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, but in the past I've complained about the liberties he took with the story. I'm re-reading the Lord of the Rings, and for some reason felt compelled to watch the movies again. (Viggo Mortensen). What I noticed is that he does say during the credits that the movies were "based on the LOTR". I suppose saying that gives him the freedom to turn Faramir into a real ass. What he did to Faramir bugs the crap out of me. However, for all that he got wrong, he did get some stuff very right (Viggo Mortensen). I've watched the Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, but it may be a few days before I get to watch The Return of the King. Keith said the movies were loud and depressing, and he was grumpy that I was hogging the bedroom watching them. As we are not tied to having to keep up with anybody, we only have 1 large color TV, an old console of undetermined years that we got when his dad moved several years ago. Thus, only one decent place to watch movies (the 13" tv in the kitchen is not made for large scale battle scenes, but works well for animation).

Wow, have I digressed! Anyway, the knitting was slow as I had to watch the movies, and I'm not an accomplished enough knitter to knit lace without looking at it. Heck, I'm barely accomplished enough to knit garter stitch without looking at it. Many times last night my knitting was forgotten as I watched the movie. Still and all, I'm on the first sleeve, and I'm happy about that.

Also, I'm knitting right along on the next pair of socks for Keith. He had been very reluctant to wear the handknit socks, mostly because he thought wool would be too hot. This wet and chilly late autumn has changed his tune, so I've been alternating between my sweater and his socks, dividing my knitting time to make progress on both.

Time for me to go. I hear some leftover Chinese food calling my name, and as I've not eaten much today, I'm rather hungry. I do plan to get better again about blogging. Only one more family get together, and I don't have to cook anything for this one!

pics only.

2009-12-27T17:18:00.001-05:00

Kneading cat in lap. Can't type with only one hand.

The month is speeding by.

2009-12-26T14:43:00.002-05:00

Just a fast update. Lily's biopsy came back that it wasn't a cancer. We're using really strong antibiotics to see if it will shrink the lump, and they have. I'll probably take her back in sometime next week for a followup.

I've picked up a chest cold somewhere. At least I think that's what it is. My nose isn't stuffy, but my throat tickles like crazy. I'm going to take a nap in a few minutes. I'd been debating about watching a movie, but sleep sounds much better.

I'm almost finished with the body of the February Lady Sweater. I only have a couple of more rows before binding off. Sleeves will seem like a walk in the park.

I promise there will be pictures in the near future. Right now I'm wondering if I can lure a cat or two onto the bed to keep me warm while I snooze. The other item on my mind is do I have an cough syrup, or should I just take a slug of whiskey to soothe my throat? I'm leaning towards the whiskey.

It's happened.

2009-12-14T07:48:00.003-05:00

The event that I both feared and longed for has happened. Keith has started wearing his handknit socks.

You know what this means, don't you? I have to start knitting more socks for him. He even suggested I use larger yarn so that it doesn't take so long. After all, he has size 12-13 feet, so it does take some time with sock yarn to whip up a pair of socks.

I wound yarn for his next pair yesterday. After all, he likes wearing them, and he's really a great husband. I'll get started in the next few days on them. Since I found out after I purchased the yarn just how much it takes to make a pair for him, these will be knit in Prairie by Yarn Smiths with toes, heels and probably part of the cuff in Malabrigo Sock Yarn.

I'll post pictures after I take some.

P.S. I finished stoma cover #8 today. I'm starting to make a dent in all the cotton yarn.

I finally uploaded a few pictures.

2009-12-06T09:33:00.007-05:00

These pictures start a few weeks ago, so I've put them in some semblence of chronical order.

You may remember, if I blogged about it, that I thought I had searched in vain for a second bobbin of singles. I finally found the fiber, unspun, of course. The finished second bobbin is the one on the far right. I had divided the fiber before I spun it, in an attempt to spin two bobbins of the same weight. Didn't happen. I have

much to learn, and probably not nearly enough time to learn all I'd want. Honestly, I'd have to be immortal to learn all I'd like to learn.

Can you imagine? Becoming a vampire so you'd have time to study all that you would like? I could take astronomy classes, learn Hindi (for watching Bollywood movies) - I'm digressing.

This next picture you see, depending on how blogger decides to edit my post, is the yarn on the swift. I think it must be the single as you can see loopy, tightly twisted areas. My finished yarn was actually quite nicely balanced.

You remember that we're waiting on pins and needles waiting for the results of Lily's biopsy. In the meantime, let me share a picture of Lily sleeping on top of the curio cabinet in the kitchen. She found our round baking pan to be the best spot ever for about a week. I don't think I can even begin to tell you how we have worked to disuade her from getting on the curio cabinet. Luckily for us, she just found one of Scooter's cat beds, and that has become her choice for napping.

This past week Gale and I drove to Gastonia, NC, to go to Mary Jo's, a huge fabric and notions store that is 32,000 square feet large. Can you say total sensory overload? It was amazing, but as I told Gale, next time I need a list. I went with plans only to check the place out (yeah, right), and I, of course, made some purchases. That said, I got an awful lot and didn't spend much at all. Off the top of my head I'm not sure how much fabric I did get - I'm thinking about 5 yards total, as well as zippers, buttons, and a pressing tool. It's not a tailor's ham, it's the round one that fits into sleeves. I should have just gone on and gotten the tailor's ham too. Drumroll please......I only spent about $55. Some of the fabrics I purchased were Amy Butler, and they were between 35% to 40% off what I could buy them locally.

Never fear. I will continue to purchase locally, as this was an all day excursion, spent mostly in Gale's mini SUV. Mary Jo's has seemed like an urban legend. A place whispered about in quilting classes, so I had to see it for myself. Wow! Just wow!

Now for a little knitting. This bright orange project is stoma cover #7, knit from Cotton Classic, using US size 6 needles. This is one of the formerly amigurumi yarns, but I know someone will just love this vivid orange. I actually enjoy a good eye-searing lime or purple yarn too. (Maybe not wear except as a hat or mittens, but I do love 'em.)

Last, but certainly not least, is my February Lady Sweater in progress.

This morning, while waking up and thinking I needed to wind the next

ball of yarn, I realized that I am going to run out of yarn. Yes. I am going to be short.

This wonderful Malabrigo Merino Worsted has been marinating in my stash since 2005. It's from the very first shipment of Malabrigo that Needle Nook ever received. I'd purchased it with a project in mind that I've never gotten around to knitting, and when I decided to make this sweater instead, I had enough.

And herein lies my error. I had enough for the size I thought I needed to make, but after working on in for some time, I realized I needed to make a larger size. I charged right ahead, making that huge mistake of not rechecking my yardage. As the end of ball 3 looms in the near future, I only have 2 balls left to finish knitting the body and the 2 sleeves.

Can I take a minute to point out to less experienced knitters that we all screw up? We all make the silliest mistakes with our projects. This is why I tell people to buy that extra ball of yarn when I'm working. It's just for this reason.

Now, I'm not sure just one more ball of yarn is going to fix this for me. What I will do is continue to knit. I can finish the body, and in the meantime I can start looking for the same color of Malabrigo and see if I can find a reasonable match. I know it won't be the same. Malabrigo kettle dyes their yarn in batches of 10. However, since it is kettle dyed, and there are inconsistencies in color, I should be able to find something I can use. If not - well, I'm sure I can think of something.

Now, it's time to go enjoy this frigid morning. It's the first hard frost of the season. Poor Sassy is outside as I didn't want to stay out there and wait while she searched for a place to do her doggy business. (Sometimes it takes a really long time to find the perfect poop spot, and I figured I could blog instead of spending 15-20 minutes outside waiting while she sniffs every square inch of the yard. She does have one of those insulated doghouses, and she waits in it while watching the back door. You can see her nose sticking just out of the doorway flap. She also starts her special "let me in" bark which I haven't heard yet, so maybe there is a lot of squirrel chasing going on right now. Whatever, it's time for her to come back in, warm up and have some breakfast.) Enjoy your Sunday!

No snow today

2009-12-05T19:36:00.002-05:00

and I'm just as glad. It's been quite cold all day long. It was so wonderful to get home from work, put on flannel pj's and handknit wool socks. My poor feet had been chilly all day long, but wrapping them in the comfort of soft, cozy wool was just a delight. I've got to start knitting socks again.

I have been totally seduced by Malabrigo Worsted Merino, which is what I'm using for my February Lady Sweater. I've been knitting it a little tightly to get gauge, and the resulting fabric is a spongy, incredibly soft, cushion. I've had some difficulty knitting it as Princess Plumy finds Malabrigo a treat for paws. I have to keep an eagle eye on her to stop her from kneading my sweater every chance she gets. I know it's so soft that it will probably pill, but it doesn't need any preliminary cat pulls before I ever get to wear it. (I have a vision that someday I'll accidently leave it on the bed, and I'll never be able to get near it again. It will be claimed by someone with sharp claws who's not afraid to use 'em.)

I do need pictures to share, and weather permitting, I'll get a few tomorrow.

Wintry mix

2009-12-04T19:12:00.003-05:00

There's a chance for some wintry weather (snow) during the next 24 hours.

Snow can be very interesting down here in the South. For us natives it can be a fun holiday. Schools and businesses shut down. Roads are closed. As long as the power stays on, it's a free day off.

The transplants from the north like to scoff at us. A dusting of snow. How ridiculous that the entire city or region shuts down. They know how to drive in snow!

Truthfully, why bother? What's wrong with having an extra day off to relax and enjoy? The quiet is so amazing with the planes grounded, and the roads closed. And the misguided folks who feel they must go out and drive find that although we've gotten better prepared for snowy days with salt and ice, so many of the secondary roads just have to wait until it melts. As for us, we hang out with hot tea or chocolate, watching the flakes fall and the birds swarm the feeders.

As for the wintry weather, it's probably going to be just a little too warm for snow, so it will be that wet cold that penetrates you to your very bones. However, the grocery store shelves will soon be empty of bread and milk (which always sells out whenever snow threatens. Personally, I'd rather stock up on nachos, pizza and a bracing alcoholic beverage instead.) I'm sure I'll enjoy the snow as it falls and melts. Perhaps you can too.

A mixed day.

2009-12-02T20:46:00.002-05:00

Miss Lily made her third trip to the vet over the past 18 months for her swollen lip today. This time, finally, there was something the vet could see. She has a mass growing in her lower lip. Poor thing had a punch biopsy with the sample being sent to the lab. The vet called me about an hour after we had dropped her off to tell us the news. Keith was able to pick her up about an hour after that. Apparently she needed a whole lot of lap time when she got back home.

I don't know about Keith, but I'll be on those pins and needles until we hear the results of the biopsy. We're hoping for something benign. I'd hate to think that Lily has more hardship in her life. She showed up here as a stray who decided we were where she wanted to live, and she's Keith's baby.

On to fun news. I purchased some bookmarks from Moonwood Farm, who was raising funds for one of her sick alpacas. Purchase of the bookmarks entered me into a drawing to win a prize. Honestly, I didn't for a minute think I'd win anything, so I was flabbergasted to find a notification that I'd won second prize! Woohoo! I'll receive membership in her Moonbeams club. I'll have to oil up the wheel and get a-spinnin'.

As for now, I need to find someplace better to sit. Princess Plumeria is in my lap, looking happily catatonic after kneading on me, but my leg is falling asleep. (She's a big kitty. Not fat, but big. And she's convinced that I can't sit anywhere in the house without her in my lap to hold me to the chair. She's the reason that I'll need hip replacement surgery in the future.)

Hibernation

2009-12-01T22:04:00.003-05:00

I wish I'd been hibernating. Snug in bed, snoozing happily under a pile of blankets and cats. Sounds like bliss.

Hubby mentioned tonight that I haven't blogged in a long time. True. We've been busy, and nothing I've done lately is really blogworthy. Should I bore you with tales of clearing out the stuff we've accumulated over the years? Why do we save some of the things we do? I've made 2 trips to Goodwill over the past 2 weeks. I've got another small load to drop off. It feels great to drop off clothes I'll never wear again someplace where others can use them. Let's face it - it's highly improbable that I'll ever be a size 4 again. Even if I were to achieve that admirable tiny size, I'm too old for short shorts. I find nothing is more sad than a woman dressing inappropriately for her age. We all know it's usually some pathetic older woman trying to recapture her youth by dressing like she's a teenager. When I was a teenager, I dressed in what would be described nowadays as grunge. However, it was the 70's and years before grunge. I suppose a middle aged Southern woman in a flannel shirt, jeans and cowboy boots nowadays in certain parts of the country would just be normal, so actually I can dress like my teenage self if I want to. I'd just have to make sure I wasn't in the Atlanta metro area and head out into the areas where people actually still are native Southerners. Or maybe Texans.

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't blog while waiting for a Benadryl to put me to sleep. It seems to have an interesting effect.

Yes, Benadryl. Contact dermatitis again. Considering it's on one ankle and the opposite shoulder, I'm thinking that once again a feline vector is involved. Amazingly, this time I either didn't get much exposure, or I was much more swift in addressing the issue. After only 36 - 48 hours since I noticed it, it's almost all gone.

There has been knitting. I've got to load pictures from my camera to the computer and onto the blog. I'm sure that will happen sometime this week. Not sure when. I'm partway through my 7th stoma cover for donation to Grady Hospital. I've got quite a stash of cotton, much of which I purchased either just after reading Mason Dixon Knitting and thinking I needed to make a lot of dishrags. The rest of the cotton was from my attempts at amigurumi. I think amigurumi is very interesting, but it's hard on the hands to crochet at the necessary gauge. Thus, I have cotton just sitting around, taking up space from future sock yarns. This way I can use up the cotton and do some community service. And we all know that space won't stay empty for long.

I'd best go and see if I can get some sleep. Lily's going to the vet yet again for her swollen lip. I do hope they can give us an answer this time.

Feels like winter!

2009-11-22T16:19:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I do wonder just what it is I love about living in the South. (Hint: it's the geography.)

Today is a few degrees warmer that it would be in dead winter, but it feels like a winter's day. It's cold and rainy. These cold, rainy days can be so bonechilling. It makes me really glad that this isn't medieval England, and I'm not in some stony home wearing 15 layers of clothing and still not being able to warm my hands.

I've been doing all sorts of research online today. Business names, suppliers, etc. Emailing the accountant. I'm going to stop being a lazy bum (although it's really fun) and start dyeing yarns. I do have ideas of colorways I want to make up. I'll give it a go and see what happens. Worst comes to worst, I'll know I'm really awful at it and need to go back to bookkeeping. Best case scenario, I become the next Wollmeise! :) (If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. Great price.) I guess I shouldn't be self-deprecating as who knows what the universe has in store for us. I could really be the next Wollmeise, watching knitters swarm my shop like ...hmm, all analogies going that way aren't perhaps the ones I should be using. I tell you, I'm a little warped.

There has still been knitting on the February Lady Sweater. I'd take a picture, but it doesn't look much different from last week. Just a little longer. I'll be getting to the lacy part pretty soon, and then it should be good picture fodder again.

I suppose I'd better go figure out what we're having for dinner tonight. I'd planned to make something in the crockpot, but we napped, and now it's too late for that. I'll make it on Tuesday, when hopefully the leftovers from whatever I make tonight are all gone.

Arborist number 2

2009-11-19T10:07:00.002-05:00

The second arborist has come and gone, and he told me almost the exact same things arborist number 1 did. I still can't describe the relief. Sure, who wouldn't be thrilled to not have to spend thousands of dollars to have trees removed, but to me, it's more than the money. I really like having trees in the backyard. In the summer time, when it's hot, and I'm trudging up to the composter, I can feel the difference in temperature the instant I get under the trees. Hmm, I'd better remember to check for ticks though. Ticks are a small price to pay to keep my cats, squirrels, woodpeckers, owls and all the other birds who visit happy.

I do have a small something to share. I had ordered some Feliway, the cat pheromone that helps to calm kitties. Keith knew I had ordered it as I mentioned it to him. The box arrived, and I left it unopened on the cedar trunk near the door. When Keith noticed it, he asked, "What's in the box? Yarn?" I think I may be getting a little predictable!

Happy news from an arborist

2009-11-17T21:46:00.003-05:00

Several months ago, you may remember, we had to dig up most of our backyard to have a new drain field installed.

Some of the trees had a lot of their roots damaged and dug up during the installation, and I've been worried about them. I had called the county extension service and spoken to a master gardener volunteer who told me that the roots wouldn't regrow, and I should just have all the trees removed.

I called a tree company that we had used before and been quite happy with what I'd been told at the time, but this time when I got an estimate, it was from one of the salesmen, and he wants to take down nine (9!) trees from the backyard.

Ok, they're not the best trees. They are pine trees and sweet gums, but they form part of the squirrel superhighway from the far reaches of the backyard and all the neighbors' yards to our roof, from which a squirrel can easily reach the birdfeeders via the large ligustrum with only a few feet of cat gauntlet to run. Yeah, I doubt that sentence is grammatically correct, but I'm leaving it as is.

I've been dreading taking down all the trees. Sure, it's expensive. As in OMG! You want me to pay what?! More importantly though, I have memories in those trees. The redheaded woodpeckers that hollowed out a nest cavity in the old dead tree, and finally left after the tree fell. They lived there for several years. It was so cool. We both loved to watch them.

There was the night I knew we'd have to put our husky Ripper to sleep. He was so uncomfortable. He had lost so much weight that I could carry him from outside to his bed inside and back again several times that night. I sat outside with him, listening to him breathing and trying to comfort him while an owl hooted in the trees above us. It was such a sad, difficult night, but there was also the wonder of hearing that owl keeping watch with me.

Then there was one night when we heard an owl very close by making the strangest sounds we'd ever heard an owl make. It sounded like a very happy owl trying to hoot around a mouthful of rodent, and it was almost just outside the window.

I've procrastinated calling other tree services since I was afraid what they would say, but I forced myself to call 2 more yesterday.

The first arborist came today and tramped around my hellishly messy backyard (we've not done anything to it since the drainfield was installed as we've been waiting for any treework to be completed and for the weather to cooperate for longer than 24 hours. It's rained so much that the red clay sticks like crazy to your shoes. But, I digress.) After looking around, quizzing me about when the work was done, he said, none of them look like they need to come down right now. If they were in danger of coming down, we would have seen some dieback, and he didn't see any evidence of that. A couple need to be trimmed, and several need to be checked again in the spring when they start to leaf out again.

That was the best news I've heard in some time. I do have 1 more arborist/tree service coming to take a look, but now I'm actually ready to go do some work in my backyard. It won't be all torn up again, and I'll be able to make some headway back there. It will be a very Zen experience as I go pick up all those rocks that now litter the surface. (Or it may just be utterly maddening.)

To keep this a little fibery, I did ply my singles the other night. The yarn is balanced now, but I don't think it's plied that well. Gale suggested I run it through the wheel again and add more twist to the plying. I'm thinking about it while the yarn rests. I've got to take pictures and post them soon.

As for now, it feels like midnight since it's been dark for hours already. I think bed and a book are calling to me.

Sorry that I misinformed you

2009-11-15T09:46:00.002-05:00

I really and truly thought I'd be back to blogging more regularly this past week, and before I knew it, a whole week had gone by.

At least I've got some pictures for you today.

Miss Grey has been a velcro kitty today. A quick word about Grey, a.k.a. Princess Plumeria. She is a large kitty. Not fat, but large. She's larger than either of her parents were. Her mama was a somewhat petite, but fierce, stray kitty that we named Fluffy Meow.

Her daddy was a feral male we named Howler as he was always running around yowling. This was back in the days before I'd ever heard of TNR, and while I fed Howler, I didn't know what to do about getting him neutered. Unfortunately, the life of a feral can be harsh, and he disappeared one day. I did find a home with my cousins for Fluffy and one of her kittens, and Grey and Monster stayed with us.

Anyway, Grey is a large, nicely proportioned kitty, who still thinks that she's the tiny thing that would fit so nicely in my lap. My legs usually fall asleep, and I'm wondering if the hip pain I experience has less to do with my age and more to do with Grey and Scooter sitting on me so much over the years. In his prime, Scooter was a fat kitty, weighing in around 13 pounds. I'm not sure I want to know what Grey weighs.

Truthfully, I'm surprised I've been at the computer this long without Grey trying to sneak her way into my lap.

Without further ado, knitting from these past few weeks. This week I did finish the first sock from my Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn. I started it months ago. It was my sitting at traffic lights, waiting in long lines sock. I took it out as I was getting panicky about some knitting math I'd done on the next object, the February Lady Sweater. Sometimes it really is better just to trust the pattern and not do the math that might freak you out.

The February Lady Sweater is the orangy thing you see somewhere on the page. I've learned no amount of my editing will convice blogger to format the page in the same layout as I see whilst typing it.

Next is a skirt for a bear for the Atlanta Knitting Guild. This is a challenge bear that I accepted with some donated yarn in coordinating colors. Ugh! The yarn is so gross. Kind of a scratchy acrylic. I'm doing my best with it. I did the skirt with no pattern, just adapting it from hat construction. I was a little dismayed to put it on her to find the waistband was under her armpits, so I've included a picture of the undressed bear. She doesn't have the easiest figure to dress. I'm still debating about what to knit next. Last night I cast on for a cardigan (no pattern again), but my half assed math was off. I also tried a poncho that I ripped out. I'm taking the lazy way out and searching the AKG website for a pattern to use.

Finally, I spent part of Tuesday looking all over for a bobbin of yarn so that I could ply the two bobbins together. After much searching, I realized that I had never actually spun the second bobbin. D'oh! Tuesday night I sat and spun that second bobbin, and I'll ply them together in the next few days. I forgot to take pictures this morning while taking the knitting pictures, so I'll take them and add them later in their own entry.

Hurricane Ida wasn't too terribly bad here in my immediate area, but other parts of metro Atlanta flooded again. The ground is still pretty saturated, and it didn't take too long for water to start backing up again. Our sump pump was going almost constantly starting sometime Tuesday during the day, and we are still hearing it sporadically even today.

I must go now. Keith thinks Mr. Chubbers has a tick, and my beloved isn't very good at removing them. I suppose I'm a jack of odd trades, master of few.

More regular blogging to start again

2009-11-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

I was looking through my entries for the past few months. Wow! I've really been sliding in the blogging department.

Part of it is was travelling with Gale for the shows in Wisconsin and Rhinebeck. Shows and travel are tiring, and while Gale was wonderful and let me use her computer, I felt a little funny about monopolizing it. If and when I do that again, I hope to have my own netbook so I can download pictures and blog from the road.

As for pictures, believe it or not, I don't think I took a one at Rhinebeck, so I wouldn't have had any to share anyway.

When I got back home, I had a couple of weeks to clean house before the Artist's Way Group met here yesterday.

A couple of weeks for cleaning, you ask. Well, if you have looked at my blog description, which includes generally avoiding housework, you may get the idea. Ever since all the rain in September, the ground is still pretty saturated around here. White kitchen floor, red Georgia clay, and pets, as well as humans, doesn't add up to anything good. Also, I had to dust. I will confess, I'm horribly lazy when it comes to housework. Why should I waste time dusting when I could be knitting? Thus, there was dust. Fine, powdery, Georgia red clay dust mostly brought in on Sassy, who likes to dig out wallows in the back yard. Actually, every dog we've had enjoys digging a nice wallow in the dirt. You get a dirt covered dog running around inside, and I guess you see my point. Anyway, it's all clean now, and all I have to do is maintain it. Or win the lottery and get a cleaning service to go with the larger house.

We've got a late season hurricane headed our way, complete with flood watches and torrential rain. I'll get outside today and snap a couple of knitting in progress pictures before the rains start again. We just had the wettest October on record (or was it the second wettest?). This fall we've had is also a record maker. While the fall colors have been just gorgeous, I'm not ready for another round of rain.

Well, I must be off to do something actually blog-worthy. My spinning wheel started whispering my name yesterday. It also said "resistance is futile". Apparently, I must obey. (Boy, Keith sure wishes I would obey his whispers to do more housework.)