Winter calm after the storm

I can't post about knitting, because all my knitting is Christmas knitting and that's - you know - a surprise. I don't think my sister and her boyfriend read my blog, but you never know....

So instead I'll show you a picture of our little Christmas tree:



It's the doll's Christmas tree, actually, with a rag doll angel on top. And our three stockings, mine, my sister's, and her boyfriend's, are waiting below it to be filled with surprises!

And Catherine, slowly regaining her comfortable winter roundness after her surgery, approves...

land o' snow

It's snowing! The first snow of the year and Mr. Newsy on TV said it may reach 3 or 4 inches today. But it will be gone by morning because its 50 degrees here.

I'm glad the streets will clear because my kitty is at the Vet's today for surgery on her oddly swollen mouth. She probably cut herself on some odd bit around the house and became infected. She is a cat with a mental disorder. She has Pica - the eating of non-edible things. Infants, Toddlers, and Animals get this disorder when they've gone through periods of starvation. Catherine was a feral cat and no matter how plump and secure she becomes in our cosy home she can't stop chewing on odd table legs and lapping up dust.



I'm anxiously awaiting a call from the Veterinary to find out how badly off she is/was and when I can bring her home. The good news is that I've put in to take tomorrow off and the next two days are Thanksgiving Holiday, and the next two are the weekend so I can stay home for five days to keep an eye on her and......knit!

Recently a knitting package came for me from another snowy land.... Norway! We had a tea and yarn secret swap on my Tea and Knitting group on Ravelry (Cup 'a Tea) and the marvelous Ziarah sent me this package:



Do you see what is there? Yes - its potatoes! Potatoes are my favorite food and I happened to make a joke of this on the swap questionaire, so Ziarah went to the local farmer's market and bought me some of the special Norwegian potatoes that are served for holidays, especially Christmas. They were small, and smooth and yellow and when cooked up they tasted so buttery! (yes I had them for supper with cottage cheese the very afternoon they arrived - I was so excited!) I would like to taste potatoes from all over the world! Wouldn't that be fun? Why doesn't anyone want to have a potato and yarn swap???

How is a guinea pig like a sock yarn?

Or… what does this:



Have to do with this:



Well, one is called: “Chocolate Almonds” and the other is called "Chocolate-covered-Almonds"!

The yarn was just sent to me by Julie. It is Panda Cotton by Chrystal Palace. When I saw this yarn at various online stores, I assumed that it would be thick, similar to Cascade Fixation – the yarn I used for the Peaceful Feelings yoga socks. But this is a very delicate, fine yarn – fingering weight like the best sock yarns, and yet it still has the soft, cushy feel that the little bit of elastic gives! I think it will be a favorite sock yarn now! I can't wait to try it out...

And, as for the riddle: when I was very young I had two guinea pigs. One was called “Chocolate Covered Almonds” and one was called “Bullwinkle Baby”.

Bullwinkle Baby looked like this:


My new yarn reminds me of Chocolate-covered-Almonds!

Commemorate

A couple of days ago, I finished the scarf I designed to commemorate Sausage.



The ends are Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, and the lace section is Louisa Harding Impressions. The angora part is a wide hem stitch, so its double-sided, and then there is a lace section of his little paw prints. The main body of the scarf is a lace pattern called "Willow Leaf" and along the edges of the willow leaves, I have little white pearls (these represent my tears). It turned out the way I was hoping, but the Impressions yarn isn't as soft as I would like. I'd like to try this pattern again with a different yarn. I was planning to submit this pattern to one of the online knitting mags, but I think it needs refining, so will hold off on that this season.

Now, I am going to eat cherry pie and read and knit! Sunday. Such a good day of the week!

pretty visions

My online friend, Carina, sent me a gift of beauty. These are precious: her grandmother’s knitting needles, wrapped with ribbon and roses. Look how wonderful! See the tips? Her grandmother knit so much that the tips are lighter than the rest…that’s so unbelievably great! I’m honored beyond belief to be the recipient of such a family treasure, and will cherish these and remember their story every time I use them. And, as you can see, Catherine also approved and tried to claim them as her own….



I had another gift this week: my friend Marky sent me some Australian knitting mags! Four of them! Look at the inspiration:



Now here is something interesting – even the ads in these magazines have must-knit projects in them! like this Little yarn monkey:



Isn’t he cute? I think I could make him, just from looking at the picture…

And the articles: this one on Op Shops (Charity or thrift shops to us Yanks) – its right up my street! And I got a particular kick out of the bluebird picture, because I think I’ve found most of the items in it right in our own Goodwill shop!



Lots of projects to keep me busy here…one of the mags is all sock patterns! Marky – you’re the best!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Vet’s called me yesterday to pick up Sausage’s ashes. I cried all the way up and all the way back. They are in a big flowered tin, like a tea tin, and I think they weigh as much as he did in life. I am trying to decide whether to keep them or to scatter them around the peach tree in the back yard… maybe I need to let some time pass to decide.

dear friends...

I just got home from the vets...Sausage died on the operating table at 9:15. This photo was taken at 8:00 am this morning. He will be so missed.

Rainy Shaker day...

9/24 5 34 pm

It was wool day at the local Shaker village, so I went with a couple of friends yesterday while Sausage, who is not very well and is having surgery on Monday, was having his afternoon sleep. It was so beautiful, I thought you'd like to see....



It was a rainy day - dark with intermittent heavy showers. We started out at the entrance, where the green house is:



and where the purple house is:



At first, all the Shaker Houses were painted white, but then, a few years ago, when they were excavating one of the houses they hadn't fixed up yet, they found something that showed them that the Shakers had used colours in their paints - both inside and outside - and some of the colours were quite vivid: yellows, golds, lavender, and greens... I don't know what they found, but it might have been paint samples, or plans...

Next we went to the Farm Stand, and I bought some chrysanthemums to put by my door.



The Farmstand was watched by a young girl about the age of my sister, and since the barn was open-sided, she was shivering in a red hoodie. I asked her if she was going to be there all afternoon, and she said yes, she was the only one and wouldn't even get a break. I thought, "I wouldn't want my sister to sit for 5 hours in the cold and rain without a break", so I went to the Summer Kitchen cafe and bought her a big Orange Spice Tea and chocolate cookie. When I brought it back to her, she got tears in her eyes, and said "that's the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me!" (which is pretty sad when you think about it). It made me think how much I love my little sister, that I would be kind to strangers because of her... She's such a wonderful person who inspires goodness in others.

Across the street and up the hill were the sheep and wool exhibits! Here is the lovely red storage bin where you can see the huge sunflowers drying... a very autumn scene:



At the top of the hill was a pen for the sheep dog exhibition. The sheep dog was young and frisky but so obedient. When the shepherd wanted to call him away from the ducks, he said gently "that's all good now" and the dog would run and lay at his feet. It was so gentle and kind. The ducks were pretty too! Here in this picture are the shepherd's children walking the sheep on leads...



And here is a closeup of Miss Ellie the sheep:



My favorite views were at the top of the hill; when you stand beside this house, overlooking the pond, you can see a swan pair glided serenely.



And of course, here is the herb and flower garden. Both are used for natural dying of the yarns:



Yes...I confess. I did buy yarn - just a little handspun and dyed from the lovely flowers. But I can't show it to you, because its going to go in a special package to Nad, in Germany!

Sausage is not very well today and not very happy. I spent a long time sitting with him outdoors at noontime, while he lay in the sun. His white muzzle and squinting eyes scanned the neighbourhood - always watchful and protective of his beloved Mum (me). Now he is sleeping. I want to get a photo of him in the flowers tomorrow morning before he goes to his surgery.

Rain song

8/20/06
7:10 AM

Rain song

This is my world on this Sunday morning.... I have just come in from walking the dog, a blue raincoat over my nightgown, and the hem tucked into my big L.L. Bean boots (for walking through puddles). I carry a huge stadium umbrella that will cover Sausage and my head, though its not quite wide enough to shelter the back of me and I am as wet as though I sat in a stream...

Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
the rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night -
And I love the rain.
~Langston Hughes

This is the view outside my front door:


I am inside now, and Sausage has been dried with his special towel and fed and is tucked up cosily on the couch - already asleep and snoring - dreaming of cats and dinner and being couragous when the big German Shepherd walks by the house!

I’m ready to watch that old movie "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and then "Under the Tuscan Sun" (which makes me feel like I should move away somewhere and start a new life)and knit on this new and wonderful project:



These are spiral socks - I am making the pattern up myself, inspired by the Art Yarns spiral socks my friend Nadine made (http://nadsknittingblog.blogspot.com/).

I am using Rowan Cashsoft Baby, which has 12% cashmere in it, but I am combining it with Kid Seta - one of my most very favorite yarns, I 'd like to have this yarn in every colour! - which is a very fine spun mohair and silk, together. The resulting fabric is soft beyond belief. These will be some comforting socks!! And I think the world can be harsh and scary at times... and a struggle at others... so we should bring as much comfort into it as possible with what we can do... (<--- my excuse for buying knitting things!)

The yarn in the photo, beside the new socks-in-progress, is Seacoast Handpaints (made right here on the coast of my state). As you can see, that is a beautiful and delicate soft yarn too. At the moment, it is destined to be a shrug to match the socks...in a lace pattern, but warm.

Yesterday brought another surprise gift to my doorstep (and this time the postman was very careful to place this package marked "fragile" very delicately in the shelter of the step).



It was the most beautiful handmade book with an Ivy cover and creamy parchment-coloured pages, made by a blogger friend to whom I had sent some vintage forest green wool yarn for her birthday. She is so talented!! And the funniest thing that I must tell you about is the Thank You card! Can you see it there in the picture? It shows "Fleecin' Joe's Baaaaaar" which is full of sheep in various stages of drunkenness and on the wall is a sign that says "don't drink and herd! call 1-800-collie for free driving service". Inside the card reads "Many, Many Tanked Ewes"!!

Early Morning Awakening

I woke up at 4 am this morning, from a nightmare. the world was so very black and impenetrable at that hour, I tried for a while to pretend it hadn't happened and to make myself go back to sleep. but as soon as I moved, Sausage knew I was awake and wanted to go out...
I sat on the floor of the worn green porch while he explored the edges of the lawn with his seeing nose - it was too dark to see with his eyes! when I looked across the street, I saw only a bank of black oil paint with no outlines, no shades, no watercolour faintness on the edges...you might have thought that my house, my one small 40-watt porch light and the small circle of world it illumined, was all that was left in a black-hole universe. it was very eerie; I felt alone in the cosmos - even the cloudless sky appeared bereft of stars.
By the time Sausage had finished "checking the perimeters", a very faint lightening had occurred, so that the houses around me across the street appeared grey rather than black. I came inside, fed my wide awake dog, and watched Project Runway - oddly, on TV - until 5 am.

Keeping Watch

by Hafiz (Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hafiz-s Shirazi)
1320 - 1388

In the morning
When I began to wake,
It happened again--

That feeling
That You, Beloved,
Had stood over me all night
Keeping watch,
That feeling
That as soon as I began to stir

You put Your lips on my forehead
And lit a Holy Lamp
Inside my Heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With my breakfast of granola and yogurt (sorry - the blueberries are all gone!), I read a book called Knitting Lessons, that I found in a small bookstore in another city. This book isn't really about knitting lessons, but it is about people who knit. Written some years ago, each chapter is a small autobiography of the knitting life of people who were just becoming known in the life of Art through knitting. The Knit Cafe in LA is days away from opening (now, years later, the owner has just had her first successful book of patterns published), Catherine Lowe has just begun her online Journal The Ravell'd Sleeve, Clara Parkes had just renovated a farmhouse in Maine and was thinking of building her online community "Knitter's Review", and Vickie Howell had started a local Stitch-N-Bitch after leaving a Hollywood acting career (she is now the well-known Host of television's Knitty Gritty)...

Ooooo, did you catch that? The Ravell'd Sleeve ??? That is the journal I mentioned a few months ago that contains vintage patterns, but it appears that it was short-lived. At least I haven't been able to find a trace of it since Nona of NonaKnits wrote about picking up back copies at a Catherine Lowe workshop in November 2004. CL has gone on to create something called The Knitting Couture Workshop, so I'm continuing my mad Googling, trying to track down this vintage-inspired elusive knit journal...

My charity knitting for the poorer elementary schools in town is going well. I finished one lavender glove and half a multicoloured hat. A couple of people at work and in my local knitting group have agreed to make something. I only have two months, so, really, I should be knitting instead of typing!

Small things in life...

My friend Mark has received his gloves in the mail, so I can now post photos of them. This is what they looked like when they were finished:



But - magic! They open up to fit almost any size hand (mine are illustrating the small size....)



This pair was made from one skein of Koigu Painters Palette Premium Merino (one of my favorite yarns right now, although my LYS is seriously out of it until the fall). Marky says he will take a photo of them on his hands. I'm really anxious to see how they fit their intended recipient!

I love making fingerless gloves, and have designed four pairs now. I've written them up to submit to one of the on-line knitting magazines....sometime...

Here is the pair I made for the Professor (it seems like a long time ago now, but I think it was a year ago)



and here is the pair I made for another blogging friend last winter. They have rose leaves on them, circling the wrist. I really love them, but I think I could do better and have plans to refine this design... Both of these pairs were made with 2 skeins each pair of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn (merino and cashmere).



This pair I made for my Silver-Apples website. But I think if I make them again, I'll re-design them... I made them in pink and another pair in black. That's a little skull on them, not an alien head! These were made with two balls of Balzac wool, which is a dream to work with...



I've been dreaming about knitting, and planning knitting, and designing knitting, and visiting yarn and antique stores and yarn websites... I found some vintage stitch markers for my friend Nad, who can't get funky knit accessories in Germany, and I found two silver ones for myself!

Its also been very important to mark the natal milestone of my very important friend who turned 17 yesterday!! Yes, that's right, it is... (drumroll please)...



SAUSAGE
Happy Birthday, Darling!

Catnip Sushi

I promised photos of my latest knitting finished object but I’ll bet you weren't expecting knitted California Roll! *Nobody* expects the Knitted california Roll!

This is actually a catnip toy for Leroy the Buttertheif, a member of my little sister Jule's household... He's a frisky young man and will to try new and exotic catnip playthings (when he's not knocking family heirlooms off the mantelpiece)!



If you want to make one for your buttertheif, I used size 5 needles and DK and sport weight yarn scraps, both wool and cotton. The entire thing is done in garter stitch. The white rice is cotton because I thought that would have a more rice-like texture.

Pattern

Cast on 10 stitches in shrimp pink yarn and knit a few rows (maybe 5 - 7) then join a green yarn that is the distinctive green colour of wasabi - this green takes some thought because its a unique shade, but not too hard to find. If you can't find wasabi green, go for celery or cucumber green. Knit this for only four rows. Then switch to the white yarn and knit for approx 25 rows or enough to wind around the pink/green 3 times LOOSELY (roll your sushi up from the pink end toward the needle to try it out). Now change to a very deep green - the Nori seaweed sheet. If you don't have dark green, you can use black. This is the tricky part because you only want the green to wrap around the roll once so you have to keep checking it out by rolling it up from the pink end until its long enough. Its length will depend on how long you've made the inside parts and how tightly or loosely you're rolling your sushi. Change to white yarn again and do the same thing - just one roll of white.

Bind off, and now its time to put the secret catnip roll inside. Cut a narrow length of cheesecloth or cotton woven fabric and lay it flat. sprinkle about a teaspoon of dried catnip herb along the length of the fabric. Fold the ends over and roll up the sides so the catnip is inside. Lay the fabric roll along the inside of the knitted roll. Now start rolling up your sushi starting from the pink end and sew the bound off end to the roll.

This is Important - to make your sushi play-safe for your cat, you need to take your tapestry needle and yarn and make several stitches around the bottom of the roll and through the top but do this so it doesn't show and doesn't distort the shape of the sushi roll. This prevents the yarn ends or the fabric from coming out and being swallowed while your cat plays.

Using a light brown yarn, embroider several sesame seeds on the outside of your California Roll. Serve to Kitty!

Life has been stressful lately, but my housemates make me laugh. Here they are for a laugh to start your weekend.... Catherine slyly invaded Sausage's space in front of the air conditioner cool air flow last night... He's a gentleman and would never chase her off, but look at the expression on his face and how he moved waaaayyyyyyy over to the edge!

Why I find it so difficult

or even impossible.... to knit with any speed....

Bunkbeds

This is actually my sister's cat - she couldn't take her to college, so she now lives with me (Catherine the cat I mean). The cat hates me - notice her paw as it digs into the pillow on the back of the couch while she watches me closely out of one eye, thinking, "don't you dare come near me or touch me or you'll be sorry!". She loves Sausage the dog, though, and sleeps closely above him like this on the couch. Often she lets her little arm hang over the edge of the pillow until it just touches his back, and then she strokes him with her paw while he's sleeping and she's half-asleep. If he wakes, though, he jumps up and growls at her and she quickly pulls her paw back and glares at him as if to say, "what are you talking about? I didn't touch you! You must be dreaming!"