This Is Hard

Me, who has something to say about everything and anything, is speechless. How did this happen? Blogging is not easy I tell you.

First there is life that constantly gets in the way. Life that is not interesting enough to blog about. Do you really want to hear how not dealing with the garden in fall makes triple the work in spring now? Go and have the last laugh, yes, I’m paying for taking it easy back then.

You want to hear about my frustration of not being able to control myself? I don’t get it. I want to control everything and everyone that comes into my life, yet I fail with myself.

The list goes on and on and if I were a good writer I would give three examples. But I’m not and I don’t care. No need to undress myself any further in public.

Since this blog is very much fiber focused I should tell you lots of news since I have been knitting. One of the loveliest knits around is the Derecho by Laura Aylor. Though it’s big and work, it flew off the needles, so much so, I was very tempted and still am of making another one. I got over it though. Here is a picture in the making of it. Unfortunately we either had gray days or I was busy in the yard and forgot to take pictures. But this one gives a pretty good idea of what it is about: stripes.

Derecho

Instead I bought a new pattern: Hitchhiker by Martina Behm. This was a pattern I was never, ever going to make since everybody and their aunt had made it. I’m a late-bloomer, there is a reason why. Unfortunately I only have the yarn to show for now. I used a Miss Babs Yowza skein, color Berlin, and knit away until I ran out of yarn. Since I am a loose knitter I only got 41 points. What can that mean?

Here’s a picture of the yarn with a picture of the actual object following in the next days when sun allows. I thought I was making this for myself but wanted to have a look at it on another person, usually Stephen at our house. He looked so handsome in it, it will be his.

Yowza - BerlinI’m working on socks, lots of socks. Pictures at a later date, too.

Oh, almost forgot the best part in my life. Though I counted on it solving all my life’s problems, it came close, but no proverbial cigar, perhaps a cigarillo. We went to Ikea to get my yarn shelves. Three of them. You know the ones, shelves with cubicles. I now have a 4 by 4 and a couple of 2 by 4s. The problem is the yarn keeps on falling off the shelves since I pack it all in plastic because of the possibility of dreaded moths. And I must have moths. An item I had not looked at for almost 8 years or more had holes. Who else but moths. But no sign of them, well, except for the holes.

The next purchase was little plastic tubs from Costco that fit into the cubicles. To be honest, to see that much yarn out scared me a little. I’m sure I’ll get over it, but it does incentivize me to use what I have. Of course I will never show that room but to other yarn addicts. And you all keep mum here, ok?! Otherwise I’ll never show you the pictures.

I’m part of a fiber guild in our area and host a knit night on Thursday evenings. That’s a happy making event for me. I’m enjoying it, anticipating it, even with the aftermath of clean-up which I delegate to Stephen. I could say lots about Stephen, and it would all be good. He is superman, so perhaps a knitted cape would be in order. But he is superman with lots of home made socks. That counts.

The fiber guild gets together one Saturday a month for spinning and other joys. Well, I started hosting the other Saturdays for now. I’m sitting around here knitting and spinning most days and it is a joy to get a break from Netflix streaming. Actual conversations I can participate in.

 

Success

Yes, success is mine, almost. Of course I’ll weave in the ends and block. Yes, this year. I think.

I’m over the guilt joy of bringing back lots of yarn from Stitches West. There actually is less yarn and more clothing. Well, only if cowls qualify. Surprising myself, I started using Plucky Knitter yarn first. Not surprising myself, I made yet another Zuzu’s Petals cowl/shawlette. Eventually one might get tired of this pattern, though I don’t see why.

Zuzu's Petals
Zuzu’s Petals

Reminder: this is neither blocked nor the ends woven in. A super-fast knit that uses very little yarn. Did I mention this is my fourth?!

Another easy and very fast knit was the Benton cowl. It was the yarn I could not keep my hands off that made me do it. The Miss Babs Sojourn: cashmere and silk. Yes, I know, expensive, but try keeping from knitting with it. That’s the sign of an exquisite yarn, one you have to transform into something wearable to keep on feeling it.

Benton made with MIss Babs Sojourn
Benton made with MIss Babs Sojourn

So what it’s not blocked or ends woven in either. Does not need blocking. The ends woven in? More so.

Other news on the yarn front? Yes. I would like to order three rounds of yarn from three different places. Resistance is futile? We’ll see.

I would like to make another shawl but have not found the pattern yet. Something stripy. With the plucky knitter yarn. I should have gotten more of one color. Don’t have enough for a large Derecho. Enough in yardage but not in the right colors. I could work around that issue, right?

Did I Learn Anything?

Day 2 at Stitches West

I was in training for weeks to be ready to get up for my Stitches class. Why they start classes at 8:30 am is beyond me. But when the day arrived I was so excited I woke up voluntarily in time.

Most important lesson was learned yesterday, at home. Just because I learned how to do something does not mean I should. What was I thinking? With renewed enthusiasm after my Stitches Saami Mitten making class with Beth Brown-Reinsel, I tackled Liana’s Deathflake Mitten.

I started by unraveling what I had because I had learned about yarn dominance. Who would have ever guessed there is yarn dominance. Stranded knitting is knitting with two or more colors where you carry the yarn along in the back of your work. As you go back and forth between the colors one has to make a decision: place the yarn you are about to knit above or below the yarn you just knit with. Confused yet?

Guess which is the dominant yarn? The one that gets placed above the one you just knitted with? Guess again. Right, it is the yarn you carry from below. Since the yarn that goes above has a shorter distance to travel, it creates a smaller stitch. The other yarn from below creates a slightly bigger stitch, therefore becomes more dominant and visible in the pattern.

In the pattern of the Deathflake mitten I believe I’ll make the white the dominant yarn.

We also learned the braided cast on. With enthusiasm I incorporated that trick into my mitten. Since the mitten only asks for white and black yarn I picked another color, red, and knit away. Except, I don’t like it. In my usual fashion instead of immediately frogging, I’m knitting on. I’m not sure what I’m waiting for. That I’ll get used to it? That it’ll start looking better? Right now the balance is out of whack. It hurts more to frog than looking at that braid. Until that balance changes I’ll keep on knitting.

Another trick I learned is a herringbone braid. Yes, I will also incorporate this into the mitten. Perhaps adding insult to injury will make it all right and balance out.

When learning to work with 3 stranded colors in a row, one really starts to appreciate 2 stranded knitting. The latter I found very difficult until the 3 stranded.

Mittens are mostly knit in the round. What helps in stranded knitting is turning the work inside out and knitting on the inside. That gives a better tension to the strand that is carried around the corner from one needle to the other.

Really, this was a most amazing and outstanding class. I never did get a mitten done, but I do have a picture to show you. This is a class picture of all the started mittens.

Saami MItten Class at Stitches
Saami Mitten Class at Stitches

I’ll document here the rest of my purchases at Stitches. Starting where I left off yesterday, the rest of the Plucky Knitter loot.

Plucky Knitter - One Hit Wonder
Plucky Knitter – One Hit Wonder
Plucky Feet - Table Setting
Plucky Feet – Table Setting

Every knitter should have a ball of Kauni once in their life. This was my time and not surprisingly I picked the rainbow color. Not sure what to make with it yet. Though I’m a firm believer that if I buy it, the idea will come.

Kauni - Rainbow
Kauni – Rainbow

How beautiful this yarn knits up and I have photos to prove it.

At the Kauni booth at Stitches
At the Mannings booth at Stitches

 

Another example of knitting with Kauni at the Mannings booth
Another example of knitting with Kauni at the Mannings booth

As I am a knitting Mama, I could not neglect my knitting daughter. I sure wish the knitting bug would bite her like it did me. Then we could be a mother-daughter team at Stitches. To be an enabler I selected two skeins of heavy weight yarn. Unless otherwise instructed, this is what my daughter knits with right now.

Malabrigo - Rios for Liana
Malabrigo – Rios for Liana

What is left to show you is the fiber. A spinner needs to increase her fiber stash, don’t you think?

I had a very nice chat at Greenwood Fiberworks. What attracted me at first was the prominently placed fiber with bling. It was downhill for my credit card and me from there.

Greenwood Fiberworks - Merino with Stellina
Greenwood Fiberworks – Merino with Stellina
Greenwood Fiberworks - BFL with Tussah Silk
Greenwood Fiberworks – BFL with Tussah Silk

 

Greenwood Fiberworks - Merino Batt
Greenwood Fiberworks – Merino Batt

I also picked up a couple of grab bags from Abstract Fibers.

Abstract Fibers Grab Bag
Abstract Fibers Grab Bag

Enough photos for today. Yes, there are more. NO! No more loot. Isn’t this enough? Just photos of yarn not bought and left behind for other.

Have  knitting day!

Houston, We Have Yarn!

Day 1 Part 1 (picture heavy, so will divide the post into two)

If you want the short version of my trip to Stitches West 2014, I present you with the photo below, and it’s all the story you need. My purchases, my class project. Admire and move on with your day. But, you want detail? Sure, we can do detail.

Stitches West Loot
Stitches West Loot

How does one start describing Stitches West to one not in the know? A yarn palooza? Outside Lands for knitters? Cosmic exultations in the 6th dimension to the 9th degree?One shouldn’t try. It’s an experience that should be mandatory for every knitter. I will tell you over and over: you had to be there.

The consumer side of this event is huge. How huge? You had to be there. When it comes to clothing, give me a package of black t-shirts, a pair of black sweats or blue jeans, and I have my wardrobe for the year. But I make up for that in yarn. Forget black, bring on the cOlorS.

The yarn fumes surrounded me and I started walking floating through the marketplace. My credit cards just floated right along to their machines and swiped themselves, I hardly noticed (until the receipts started showing up in my email at night). In exchange, these wonderful fiber people gave me the most gorgeous yarns. You had to be there.

Shopping was at least half of my experience and the introduction to Stitches. Thursday afternoon/evening, from 5 pm to 8 pm, there was the market preview. I stood with hundreds waiting for the doors to open. I’ve never taken part in a national shopping holiday where folks gets crushed and trampled on, so this is as close as I imagine ever getting to such an experience. People, almost only women, hooting and hollering and being happy. A celebratory and anticipatory atmosphere. You had to be there.

There were some, and you know who you are, who immediately made a beeline to the Plucky booth. To see that, you had to be there. Whoosh, they were gone. I took my chances and strolled the road less traveled, counting on friends to leave me some Plucky yarn.

I had a method: up and down the aisles like I do at grocery stores. I do grocery stores without a shopping list. I learned. With a shopping list, I run from one side of the store to the other, zigzagging along because there is no plan on the list. Eggs, at the left of the store, broccoli, way back to the right, lettuce, same place, cheese, somewhere in the back, and on and on. So I did my walking without a list. Up and down.

Well, that lasted all of two booths or 10 seconds when I spotted something in another aisle and then another and another and so on. Because, unlike in a grocery store, you can actually see what’s in the other aisles. I finally reached some of my favorite yarn and fiber people: Dragonfly Fibers.

This is where I made my first purchase and received my first gift: a project bag! I love everything about their yarns. Including all their luscious colors. One problem: I kept on picking the same colorways in the different weight yarns. I did force myself to pick different colors — not too different; I do have favorites.

Yarns at Dragonfly Fibers Booth At Stitches West 2014
Yarns at Dragonfly Fibers Booth At Stitches West 2014
Dragonfly Fibers Booth at Stitches West 2014
Dragonfly Fibers Booth at Stitches West 2014
Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock - Bad Moon Rising
Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock – Bad Moon Rising
Traveller - Spooky
Dragonfly Fibers Traveller – Spooky
Dragon Sock - Van Gogh's Sunflowers
Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers
Damsel - African Daisy
Dragonfly Fibers Damsel – African Daisy

I will never tire of sock yarn. But I do recognize a need to branch out as you can see in the above yarns. Some of them are downright fat yarns. That has a lot to do with a recent pattern discovery: Zuzu’s Petals. You come back here and you’ll find out what I’m talking about.

I meandered on. The next booth stopping me dead in my tracks, and not for the last time that and the following day, was Miss Babs. No lasso needed, I just threw myself into their booth. And I was not the only one; part of the Nevada City gang had already arrived.

MIss Babs Booth - With Eva
MIss Babs Booth – With Eva

Here, the same problem: most yarn I picked up was the same colorway. I’m attracted to any color with the word zombie in it. Doesn’t matter what colors you actually see, but if it has the word zombie, it must be yarn my kids would like, right?! I’m counting on it, anyway.

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Zombie Prom – Yummy 2 ply

Then I get weak when I see the color Berlin.

Yowza - Berlin
Yowza – Berlin

Color: Biker Chick? Why not!

Biker Chick - Northumbria
Biker Chick – Northumbria

And throw some of that masquerade color in; it’s almost Mardi Gras.

Masquerade - Yummy 2 ply
Masquerade – Yummy 2 ply

And oh, how soft can yarn get? For some reason, and with powers I’m not familiar with, a skein took hold of me and would not let go. I tried, believe me. Color was a minor consideration here. Can you say cashmere with silk? I might not knit this up but just wear it around my neck as a skein. Or use it for a pet?! The color, you ask? Celebration, and celebrate I will with it. I have a feeling that many of us succumbed to that particular yarn and am wondering how many will show up with it on knit night.

Miss Babs Sojourn - Celebration (cashmere and silk)
Miss Babs Sojourn – Celebration (cashmere and silk)

Making sure I would have a few colors to choose from, I headed to Plucky. And found the three colors I was looking for and two more. What can I say: this is Stitches. You had to be there.

Primo Fingering from Plucky Knitter in the colors: Lonesome Highway - Tip Toe - Whatta Punk
Plucky Knitter Primo Finger

Lonesome Highway has to be one of my favorites. I love how it affects other colors, and it is so many colors itself: gray (and that’s gray with an a and not an e), purple, blue, black shadows. Whatta Punk, hmm, OK, let’s admit it, I’m also a sucker for any yarn that has the word punk in it. The neon green, you had to be there.

This almost completes my first shopping day. Not bad for 3 hours work, eh? The pictures are getting too many and loading this post probably takes you forever. Let me finish here and give you some more photos and stories in another post.

Binge Spinning

Last Tuesday I bought eight ounces of fiber at our guild meeting, immediately went home and started spinning. I’m a binge kind of person. Just never knew it would be spinning. Food, stash acquisition, even drinking at times, but spinning?

The fiber is 50/50 merino and silk. There were some lessons in that fiber. It was the silk that started going static on me, or was it the merino? The fiber spread out and opened like a flower while drafting and spinning. Attaching itself to anything I wore. I wonder if that messed with my washing machine? Another story. Every piece of clothing I wore was covered in fine fiber I was hoping our washing machine would take care of.

What to do? I could spray the fiber with water but thought differently. I got a big sheet of paper and put that on my lap, it worked. I tried spinning fine, but since I’m still a beginner, my fine is not as thin as I thought. But I might be down to sport weight. Of course this makes me wonder about spinning fingering weight. Perhaps another spinning lesson would help. If I spin any finer I feel like I’m making thread. I’ll keep at it and one day will turn another spinning corner.

Not sure if this is true, but there might be a sweet spot of fiber weight. I hate the sweet spot phrase but it seems so appropriate here. Every time I reached that sweet spot, the fiber shone and seemed absolutely perfect. It would take lots of tries to see if I am on to something. Could be there are lots of sweet spots in a fiber and could be that changes with the spinner. I’m too old to experiment with that, considering all the variables, and would rather use my time in other ways.

For now, see what I accomplished:

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Finally the color is cooperating somewhat. Imagine a little more pastel. I did overspin, a recommendation. I did another experiment with this fiber. I spun the singles counter clockwise. I’ve read in several places now that this might be advantageous to continental knitters. I did ply clockwise.

The same fiber in another color is spun the regular way, the singles clockwise and I will ply counter clockwise. Then I will knit exactly the same cowl and report back if there is a difference that someone like me would even notice. I don’t doubt there might be a difference, but honestly, I’ll never be expert enough or German enough to be that OCD. But there might be a surprise in this experiment.

Here is the other color:

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The cowl uses very little yarn and is called Zuzu’s Petals, a design by Carina Spencer. Apparently I like her designs because when I looked I noticed I had others by her.

No pictures of the plied yarn yet. And it will all have to wait until Wednesday. The next couple of days are booked and I’ll write about those upcoming adventures later in the week.

One adventure I did not have plans to go on was dealing with the washing machine today. It’s not spinning anymore. Is there a message?

As usual I tried fixing it but the problem is tools. There are several screws in the back that need to come off, but I don’t have the right little allen wrenches. I put the blame on my son who loves to use my tools but with time that particular tool drawer is missing lots of useful pieces. It’s a magic drawer to begin with. One can put an infinite amount of tools in it and no matter what, there is always room for one more. At one point I noticed that some drawer overflow has landed in the cabinet below. But let’s ignore that. It took me a few hours to clean and organize this magical drawer because though it holds a lot, it does not stay organized.

Back to the non-spinning washer, I imagine some belt problem. But I’m not about to fix that. I will actually call someone. Even though the garage is an embarrassing mess, I don’t have a repair in me at this point. When our newish fridge gave up a few months ago I called a few appliance repair folks from the phone book and the one I liked most immediately asked if this fridge was in an unheated garage (check), and told me to wait out the cold weather. And he was right, the fridge turned back on when it got warmer, apparently a fridge can get colder but not deal with temps colder and warm up. This guy saved us lots of money and this is the guy who’ll get a phone call about the washing machine.

Our heater might be acting up, too. But we just changed the filter and we hope to get lucky. As long as the heater turns on and off, no matter what noises it makes while doing so, nobody will touch it. This modern living is not as easy at times as we think.

My health is somewhat deteriorating. I’ve had shortness of breath for a while. Yes, I should have gone seen a doctor with the heart issues I have, but what can one say to a person that starts knitting faster hoping not to run out of yarn that way. You see?

I’ve had a mild cold or allergies since December. Constantly sneezing, coughing, tickly throat, definitely feels like allergies. But I also have breathing problems while walking uphill. OK, OK, I always have breathing problems while going uphill, but this is more severe. Almost asthma like or heart attack like. I used to have asthma, could it have come back? Or is it a pulmonary embolism? My mind is going in many directions with that, but a lack of enough air can do this to you.

Finally, I made an appointment with my doctor for Tuesday. Usually, following a lifelong pattern, I will show no symptoms then and will feel better than ever. Will keep you posted.

 

Finally: Rain!

Waking up to the excitement of rain this morning. It will do little to help the horrible drought we’re in, but it is a drop or two in the bucket, and California will take every drop it can get. It did not keep us from taking a two mile walk, but we ended up soaking wet and were glad to get into a warm house.

In my future today is spinning. I started last night and could not get to sleep because I did not get enough spinning in. At the Foothill Fibers Guild Meeting last night Lisa Souza gave a presentation and we all succumbed to the fiber fumes she brought along and I ended up with two 4 ounce bundles of fiber made of 50/50 bombyx silk/fine merino in the colors petroglyph and water gardens. And here I was going to show restraint until Stitches. Really?!

As promised I will show you the Steve West shawl, but, and this is a huge but, there is no way I can take an appropriate picture in this rain or the dark house, so you’ll have to settle for an awful blocking picture. But even with the colorful distraction of the mats you might get the idea.

I just found out the Tibetan monks are in town for their yearly visit. One of their projects is a sand mandala they then destroy to show the transitory nature of material life. The last part of this sentence is plagiarized. I’m always in awe that these folks take so much time to create these exquisite paintings knowing they will not last.

Yesterday when I was contemplating destroying/unraveling the shawl I saw a similarity. Except I did not know beforehand I might destroy the shawl, and it took me way more time to knit this shawl than it takes the monks to do the mandala. And there would have been a totally different message in my destruction. So perhaps I’ll quit the comparison.

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While I’m doing photos, let me show you a small shawl I made for my friend’s 96th birthday:

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I will only show half of what I bought last night because one of the colors did not photograph well at all. That’s a shame because it is most unusual and my favorite one.

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And that’s it for today. Some cooking and lots of spinning and Netflix waiting for me.

One more photo. Did I ever show you my Schacht Matchless? If I did, well, it’s well worth another look.

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Whatever Happened?

Do you ever go to a blog and then see that the last entry was a month, a year, a decade ago? Then wonder what happened to that person? Did they die or just made a switch to facebook or some other social network? I fantasize about them, give them their unique stories depending on the mood I’m in. But honestly? They probably only got caught up in their lives, like me.

Why has it been over a month? Well, the holidays always play a trick on me. They go by way too fast. I always remember my childhood when the days until Christmas took forever. Feeling and shaking the boxes under the tree, just knowing the day will never come. Nowadays that day comes way too fast. Probably how my grandmother felt trying to get the presents together.

This Christmas was kind of cool as Hanukkah came so early, I got to relax and not worry. I leisurely knit on anything and everything I felt like, no pressure.

Then the days between the years arrived. That’s what my grandmother called the time between Christmas and New Year. Always a strange state of mind for me. Sort of like being a lame duck president, this time is the lame duck time of year. No way one can get last minute stuff done one had high hopes for at the beginning of the year. And no need to start anything new, since there is time. It’s that time of year when I get hopelessly confused about what day of the week it is, too.

I eventually just give up and wait for New Year’s Eve. That carries lots of baggage for me. For no reason whatsoever I feel that night should be significant. I try to ignore it every year and then panic and make last minute plans. Having become a little smarter with age I made some plans ahead of time. I invited a couple of friends that feel the same about this strange evening. We had a meal together and then played board games. Board game is more correct. We played ‘Dominion.’ Yes, still my favorite game.

January has been speeding along, but I don’t mind because I’m going to Stitches West. I even signed up for a class: Saami Mittens. Let’s hope the yarn fumes are not so overwhelming and I’ll survive the experience financially intact.

I have been knitting Steve West’s shawl called Bolting. I used 4 skeins of fingering weight yarn from Blue Ridge Yarns called Transitions. That’s 1200 yards in case you didn’t know. At the end one row took as long as a TV show, about 40 minutes and more of Netflix streaming. I’m sure there are way over 800 stitches to the row. And I even made the shawl bigger as I noticed I have some extra yarn to play with. Not such a great idea. It’s blocking right now, but you have to wait until tomorrow when I get to upload the pictures. This is written on the iPad which doesn’t allow me any fancy maneuvers.

Nothing happened to me except life carrying me along.  Looking for my next big project is my biggest challenge at the moment, so life is good.

Promise Fulfilled

Last night heralded in a new season. Gone are semi warm days, lights are finally making lots of sense. And now I’ll admit to loving all the little christmassy lights everywhere in December. Forget all the consumer hoopla, but give me your lights. Just the thought of January and February with the colorful lights all being gone and the dreariness. No, will not go there now, but instead fully embrace the garish decorations.

Before going to bed I took some pictures as points of reference for the morning, just in case it would be needed.

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Yes I know, not very impressive. So let’s catapult forward to this morning:

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Same tree, more snow. I love the quiet, the reverence nature forces on us. Taking deep belly breaths. Yes….

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I love the do not disturb sign nature has hung out, but I also love to see a sign of my existence by disregarding the sign. Others are no better and soon there are footprints and hoof prints and paw prints and tire prints and….

This is a day to learn navajo plying or chain plying as some call it. At least I think they’re both the same. It’s a bit difficult to work on two skills at the same time. I’m getting used to the wheel, but have so much left to get accustomed to. Which whorl to use, getting the right tension, treadle and foot rhythm, drafting, on and on. And then there are plying skills. Of course that assumes I had the skill to make singles to begin with. But ever impatient I’m forging, or rather, forcing my way toward yarn.

A new spinning wheel would seem sufficient to most as a project. But we’re talking about a Gemini at work here. I signed up for level one of the masters knitting program with The Knitting Guild Association.

Impatiently waiting for my chosen yarn to arrive to knit my projects with. Did I say this is only level 1? This might never go any further than level one because level two requires putting your seaming skills to the test. If I’ve never said it before, rest assured there is nothing more hateful in life than seaming, for me. There is a physical aversion that is so strong that I can show you parts of a finished cardigan, at least finished in that all knitted parts are done, that still sits in a basket because I’m avoiding seaming. It’s that bad alright. Oh, it has been resting there for years. 8?

On to navajo ply in a winter wonderland.

There’s Something in the Air

While in southern parts of this Earth people are celebrating the warmth of summer, we’re heading into snow. It could not have been any more obvious today. Shopping for oil for my spinning wheel, my brand new Schacht Matchless spinning wheel, yes, you’ve read right, I took the plunge a few days ago, more on that later, back to the store: there was this special atmosphere, almost christmassy, holiday like. Every store was crowded and everyone was getting ready for the big one tonight. Everyone was acknowledging one another instead of the typical everyday stupor people are in, running around without noticing a thing. We’re all into this together today. The promise of snow, the usual electricity outage that accompanies the first snow, the magic. I like that, it gives me hope. As I’m typing tiny little snowflakes are falling. Mind you, not a lot, and no winter whiteness yet, but we’re promised to be enjoying it tomorrow.

I’ve been so neglectful of this blog. Yes, I did write a few entries, but only in my head. As it has been getting colder the room the computer lives in right now isn’t heated, so writing for an extended period of time becomes unpleasant.

And there have been some unpleasant experiences I had no idea how to share. Still not sure how to write about it. Best I’ll give a link to the news story at the end.

As many know, our son Toby was on the Tahoe Hotshots this year. The most amazing time in his life and though the work was excruciating hard and difficult, he was thriving. The party on the evening on the last day of work was accordingly full of fun and singing and playing and whatever young guys do after a hard season of work. As Toby was heading back home with his girlfriend driving, others were headed back to the barracks with their designated driver. But then the unthinkable, unimaginable happened. And here I’ll take you to one of the online stories: yubanet story.

There have been no follow up stories so far and I’m left with speculations and a million possible scenarios but nothing making sense.

My life besides obsessively checking for news every day of the accident consists of fiber. Recently I’ve started hosting an evening of knitting for members of our fiber guild. It’s been a blast. And lots of holiday knitting. Hanukkah having come so early this year has me relaxing now.

Our daughter Liana came for Thanksgiving with boyfriend and we had a wonderful time and she got reacquainted with knitting.

My wheel is calling loudly to spin some more. Gotta abide.

Where’s My Mojo?

It’s gone, just gone. Can’t find it no matter where I look. Have you seen my knitting mojo?  Have you perhaps stolen taken my knitting mojo? Wherever it is, whoever has it, please return!

I’ve been too busy lately, mostly being busy with doing nothing. At least I can’t see results of my busyness. Usually that means I’ve been online going nowhere. Not this time, at least not that I’m aware of. Or am I on autopilot and don’t even know what the left hand is doing? I just can’t get into another gear with my knitting. Holidays coming up very fast and Hanukkah on turbo-speed or even warp speed heading our way this year, makes no difference, I don’t feel the pressure.

Good for my heart. Bad for holiday presents. I always have some super easy knitting on hand to do while waiting for appointments or attending classes. That would be washcloths or dishcloths. But how many can one woman make if she doesn’t even have enough people who use these items? Socks are another knitting project for on the go, as long as they are simple socks. But I got it into my head that I’ve made enough simple socks in my life and now it’s time to work patterns into socks. I have two such projects on the needles and neither is the perfect no mind needed kind of knitting.

An update on the deathflake mittens: I managed to knit with the right color progression, see below, but noticed that I knit very loosely when knitting stranded and, yes, frogged it all again. My next attempt is with smaller needles but I put it aside for a while to finish a pair of socks.

Here are the frogged mittens:

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You see where I’m heading here? I’m burned out on dishcloths and washcloths and simple knitting but can’t find the stretch of time needed to make more complicated items like patterned socks or shawls or sweaters or….

That’s what I call a major mojo problem. I’m making an appointment with another season of “The Good Wife” and knitting today. It might be the cure.

I’m a very handy person when it comes to problems around the house. At least I think I am. This might all be a big delusion I’m finding out now. Yes, I can put down laminate flooring, but I can’t do the finishing touches. For years now, we are missing the finished edges of our floors. And where the floors turn into stairs? Ha. That has never been worked out in my mind. And the fact that I stopped cold when it came to the dining room and living room.

I also do plumbing jobs. Most times with a little bit more success. OK, you’ll never have to worry about that stopper again once I got my hands on it, and who needs it anyway in the bathroom. Our latest is the shower, it drips. I worked my magic, but unfortunately it had nothing to do with the shower head. The drip, I diagnosed, is caused by the thing that turns the shower on and off. I could replace whatever part is worn out, but I’m pretty sure I should turn off the water supply first. Now I know how to turn off the water supply to toilets and sinks, there is a handy knob to turn underneath them. But where does one turn off a shower water supply?

Doing research online tells me this shut off mechanism is not easy to find for showers and tubs and there is talk about concealment of these valves. Is that fair to the amateur plumber I ask? Since I’m not about to go hunting for something someone was trying to hide from me, probably successfully, I’m aware I have to shut off the water supply to the house if I am to make the repair. I can do that and have done that before. But, here is my fear: what if I can’t fix the problem? Then I’m stuck with a shower that would spew out water and the only control is no water to anything. Can I risk that? This is one time where I need to follow up and fix the whole problem and not just a part of it.

Next! Believe it or not, both our bathroom sinks are malfunctioning. They were both clogged up. No problem, I have done this many times before, get down on the floor unscrew the trap, clean it out, and reattach. With my frozen shoulder it has become somewhat of a bigger problem, but I can still do that. Unless part of the metal pipe breaks off. No problem, I put a plant in there so no one is tempted to use that sink. And after all there are two sinks in this particular bathroom. So I go clean the other sink and reattach the trap and guess what, something is wrong and now water leaks out of the trap. That has never happened before. The only solution I can see is get a new trap and keep my fingers crossed. That will be a purchase made later today.

At least the sink in our second bathroom still works, but I’m starting to feel squeezed. We have not renovated our bathrooms since we moved into our house in 1992. My belief is that we still deal with fixtures from 1976 when this house was built. But the new roof and gutters ate up our extra money and we’ll have to wait for a while before any thoughts of a new bathroom get to cross our minds.

No wonder my knitting mojo left this house new roof and all, who wants to live in a one bathroom sink home?

I’m still struggling somewhat with the heart anniversary, and I’m following along and reliving the events. You can stop right here or follow Stephen’s posts from last year.

“October 18, 2012

Still uncertain about the atmosphere on this planet…. A pretty rough day here: another transfusion and a many-syllabic-named lung problem, on top of the usual pains, discomforts, and indignities. I hereby predict much better things for tomorrow. Marianna on the Mend! -S

October 19, 2012

What’s the point of surgery if you don’t have scars to show off? This is a lesser one, of course, on the arm that graciously gave of itself – the one that hopes to soon join its partner in knitting. All in all, a better day today. The highlights were pretty high – including several hours of visits from 5 friends (asked if she’d seen the tunnel of light, Marianna responded no, it was dark and smoky, with jazz playing); and the lows were manageable. Onward! – posted by the husband of the Bride Of Frankenstein

October 20, 2012

No sugar-coating in this update (that would be bad for M’s diabetes). The only good news is mostly symbolic: 8 days after our ambulanced arrival, she’s finally out of the ICU and into her own room. Other than that… Not a good day, sorry to say. From a pre-dawn attack by a seemingly psychopathic (but presumably incompetent) couple of syringe-wielding nurses, through an entire day and evening with energy tank registering empty-minus, this has been the one step back that paves the way for tomorrow’s two steps forward. As for tonight… I think I’ll stay right here and create my own ICU. -S

October 21, 2012

The Creature Walks Among Us!

Best day yet. Two hallway walking journeys, a coupla hours of chair sitting adventures, and another good visit with friends. Marianna is well spent after all that, but definitely on the road to the road home. As always, thanks for the supportive e-shouts! -S

October 22, 2012

If you’re following Marianna’s journey from death’s door to health’s highway, you know what to expect: this was another 1-step-back day. The apparent culprit: meds that kept her blood pressure too low. Way too low, like ~74/45. Less pressure on her healing heart, but it prevented her from doing anything beyond breathing. With blood pressure meds on hold, she’s back to her self, as we look forward to morrow…. -S

October 23, 2012

A pretty good day in general – a little more walking, a lot more waking, and a major post-surgery highlight: sitting in a chair for an hour’s worth of bathing, hairbrushing, and braiding by 2 attentive nurses. I (Stephen) promise you: Marianna was in full radiance.

Still no word on our return date (probably accompanied by an oxygen tank), but I think it moved a lot closer today. -S”