Woolybuns

What're Ya Gonna Do?

This home dec stuff is killing me!  We bought this house in the spring of 1996.  While structurally sound and nicely spacious, everything in it needed updating.  That means I've been living in a state of remodeling for 11 years.  Along with folks moving in and out.  Stuff constantly shifts around, so that's what one part of my living room looks like right now.  The basement's no better.  Nor the kitchen. That's because we made a big step forward yesterday in the redec of the lower level of the house.  Carpeting!  The child chose a very pretty silvery gray carpet, which doesn't show up very well in photos because of lighting (sort of non-existent at this point) and a darker gray wall paint.  The rooms down there also now have new doors.  Well, mostly.  They've been hung but the carpeting guys needed to take the doors off the hinges because a couple of the doors still need trimming. 

In the midst of all this clutter and disruption, daughter Stacy and I are both trying to accomplish every day life.  Now firmly planted in young adult hood, my wild child Stacy did something that does a crafty mother's heart good.  Over the years, I've introduced her to knitting, crocheting, spinning, felting, dyeing, gardening, even sewing, though I'm not so good at the sewing thing.  She has consistently... well, turned her nose up at all of it.  More or less politely, but definitely.  So imagine my surprise when she made a trip to a fabric store.  And found pulled out my sewing machine.  And then used it to make Christmas stockings for the Boyfriend and herself.  Watching her domestic goddess bloom will be fun.

And me?  Well, I hunted down my dye pots and dyes and tools and managed to eke out a bit of space to work in.  A very small bit of space, but enough that I got 11 skeins of my own mill spun angora/silk/wool blend yarn dyed.  The lady holding the craft fair at the barn asked me to bring some of my yarn  for sale at the event.  Neither of us have any idea if this venue is right for my yarns and felts, but we're gonna test the waters.  If they don't sell, that's ok with me.  They turned out lusciously soft with that lovely sheen silk adds, and I tossed them in the dryer this morning for a few minutes, then whacked 'em a bit, so the foof is starting to bloom.   I have another 15 skeins not yet dyed and they may just end up as a sweater for me.  I am very pleased with this blend and will definitely repeat it.   Home decorating?  Yeah.  Maybe not again.

PIF

Pay It Forward - what a great concept!  And lucky me, I was number 3 commenter on Anne's blog, where I first read about it.  Pay It Forward, for any of you not yet aware of it, is a gifting process now sweeping blogland.   The official rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

What fun!  I don't know who I'm making for, so of course I don't know what I'll be making.  But I get a whole 365 days to figure that out.  Who came up with this idea?  I don't know that, either, but she/he is one sweet smart cookie.  So who will my giftees turn out to be?

Catching Up

I went to Maine for a few days but without my computer.  And no computer access at my Mom's.  I even enjoyed it.  But I did miss y'all!  And what a welcome back, to open my email and find Laurie's observation on the blog contest.  I'm still laughing.  And I had to call my mother and share that with her.   If you missed it, go back to the comments of my last post, but first, put down whatever you're eating or drinking.  You'll want to keep your keyboard and screen clean so you can go back and read it again and again, cause it's just as funny with each subsequent read.  I'm also very much enjoying the other comments to the blog contest.  Thank you all for participating!  There's still time for anyone who hasn't yet.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I've read each of your very kind and thoughtful comments to my Thanksgiving post and I appreciate every one of them.  My weekend was very quiet but full of simple joys.  Hugging my mom, eating the. BEST. ever. stuffing my sister made, taking Molly and Gypsy out to the grassy field area of my mom's farm and watching them run just for the sheer joy of running, a solid 15 minutes of non-stop, flat out race cause it feels good run through tall grasses and leaping over little hillocks.  Molly did most of the running.  In circles cause I had to keep her on leash to keep her safe.  I stood in the center of her circle, getting dizzy and trying not to trip over Gypsy who ran a smaller diameter.  It was cold and wet but we three filled our souls with silliness.  And then Mom and I hatched a plan.  An impish plan for gifting that not-so-favorite male on your list.  Some wine and a pair of flannel boxers.  I can think of a couple of deserving recipients.  Imagine if this idea caught on.  One by itself would never reach those recipients, but if thousands showed up, they'd at least hear about it.  What fun that would be!

Saturday Sky Blogoversary

See the neighbors' trees?  Naked, as they should be post Thanksgiving.  Mine?  Still almost fully clothed.  I love it! We've had one hint of snow already.  I think I will not have leaves to rake up before the town wide leaf pick up.  Who's thinking compost?

Tomorrow is my blogoversary - three whole years.  This whole blogging thing is great for those of us who ... err... well... like to chat.  And we all know it's much more than that.  But today, I'm hitting the road again, a short hop to visit my Mom and I'm supposed to be outta here in 15 minutes.  So no time for anything other than a contest.  I don't even have time to think of a proper contest, so how about just leave a comment to this post, say something witty, link to something ridiculously funny, link to your blog with a fabulous photo - just something.  And I'll do some kind of random choice thing.  What does the winner get?  Well, some kind of fibery fun thing.  Contest ends on Friday, Nov. 30 at 11 pm EST. 

Hoppy Thanksgiving!

To all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving today, I wish you a very happy day.  I often reflect on how much I have to be thankful for, even when things I'm not the least bit thankful about envelope me.  What I am most thankful for every day of my life is having the emotional resources to deal with whatever gets thrown at me.  Which is not to say I don't sometimes fall apart.  I do.   But sometimes falling apart is the emotionally healthy thing to do, so there are times I fall apart and embrace it.  Otherwise, there wouldn't be pieces to pick up.  I am also most thankful for a wacky sense of humor.  Finding ways to laugh in the midst of pain is exquisitely healthy.  Example: my Dad died a long, sad death from Alzheimer's. He was a kind, generous, proud, funny and so very intelligent gent.  Losing his marbles to Alzheimer's was a particularly nasty blow, a thing he feared more than almost anything else.  As a doctor, he took care of people like him, so he knew what was coming.  The grief we all felt at the years of daily dying crescendoed with his physical death.  He died in Maine in winter, so we were not able to bury him until spring.  He was cremated and we made plans to gather on Memorial Day to clear and plant a grave site on their farm.  At the end of a long, emotionally exhausting day, we sat at the dining room table missing him intensely.  I think none of us had learned to laugh yet.  That's when Mom told us how devastated she was when she picked up Dad's remains.  The funeral folks never told her an urn was not part of the price, so they handed Dad to Mom in a paper grocery sack.  "I don't even have a container to bury him in," she said to us all.  We just sat there in silence, staring at her, stunned at this one final bit of ravaging of such a marvelous man.  And then my very young son, his eyes big and round and somber with compassion for all the adults so clearly in distress, spoke up quietly, gently and with the utmost sincerity.  "Grammie, we have some Tupperware you could have."  Well.  The incongruity and innocence and absurdity all combined with the image of a burping lid and we collapsed into gales of giggles. And that is the moment we all began to heal.  Such is the power of laughter.  Dad loved the holidays and family gatherings and regaled us all with some very absurd family history.  That I remember the gist of those stories, and Dad's great delight in retelling them every Thanksgiving is something I am very thankful for. 

And now for the hoppy part of my day, I introduce you to 4 fat furries, born last week. Three of them, a black and two chocolates, have one set of parents, while the biggest, a wild gray agouti, has a different set.  Dora (white rabbit to the left) is the mother of the three, and Blue is the father.   Secret Puff, another white rabbit who looks just like Dora, is mother of the agouti baby, with Chuck Berry the sire.  Faces like these always make me smile. 

Wool + Silk + Soap + Water

and a healthy dose of elbow grease = a trip to the chiropractor a couple more scarves.  Color in the left photo is so not what the scarf is: true red with bright yellow.
The big problem I'm running into is I keep adopting what I've made.  The mittens - well, temps dropped a lot and it's a raw cold, so those mittens somehow found their way onto my hands and I noticed they are the perfect color to go with my heavy winter jacket and I'm going to Maine soon and I'll need a pair of mittens.  So, cross them off the list of things to offer for sale in the craft event.  And I've been putting some sparkly stuff in some of the scarves and the twinkly aspect is calling to me.  I'm trying to be firm, keep telling myself I can make more for me after the craft event.  I wised up and folded them all up and put them out of sight in a box.  I'm thinking I need to make a pair of mittens to go with the scarf in the photo on the right.  I'd also like to make some shawls, but I don't know that this craft venue is the right market for what I have in mind.  And some of the materials I need for those ideas are ... well, somewhere in the house that I haven't found yet.  So those ideas will be good play for after the holidays. 

Yikes, Ma! Let Me In!

Dogs provide wonderful photo opportunities, if you're quick enough with the camera.  This morning as I sipped a nice hot cuppa tea, I glanced out to the deck where Molly and Gypsy had been gamboling about. They had slammed on the brakes and were both staring in horror at the sky.  Even though I couldn't see it or hear it, I knew instantly what caught their attention so took a second to grab the camera.  Well, of course, I didn't get that shot but this one of Molly comes close. And Gypsy, still very much a baby, made a beeline for the door, tail tucked and pleading to get in with every bit of body talk she could muster.  The object of their discomfort? 

This particular hot air balloon belongs to a company only a couple miles from my house, so this is not an uncommon sight above my roof.  Sometimes there is a whole flock of 'em, which is fun.  Why, I don't know.  The thrill of "I could do that?"  This company does offer balloon rides, $250 per adult, so I really could.  Kind of a Wizard of Oz experience, no?   Imagine drop spindling from there!  Get someone on the ground to wind the yarn as the balloon descends at the end of the ride.  The spinning would have to be good though - you'd never find the spindle if you dropped it. 

Assorted Blog Fodder, Including Fiber

My grass grew but only where I dumped bunny poop.  It's a start.  And I do have a bit more bunny poop that I can dump on the parts of the front yard where the seed didn't take hold.  My plan: poop on the lawn now then use the nasty chemicals in the spring - front yard only - so the weeds can't take hold, then throw some more seed down later in the season. I'd rather not use the chemicals but what didn't grow grass this fall will grow abundant crap in the spring if I don't use the chemicals.  Once grass is growing, I can revert to more organic steps. 

My favorite tree didn't like the weather this year.  It's a Norway maple which usually decorates the autumn sky with glorious soft peachy colors.  This year the leaves said ehhhh.  The leaf color is better than this photo suggests - much more yellow - still pretty, but not in its special way.  That sky, though - brilliant this morning.  Also showing off brilliantly out in the garden is my Japanese leaf lace bush.

On the fiberly front, I've mostly been felting lately. A bit too vigorously, if you ask my chiropractor.  I didn't know my shoulder was capable of that sound, not to mention that volume.  Ouch!  But, I've been enjoying the felt.   Mostly scarves, but I did get a basic pair of mittens made.  I haven't made mittens in about a year, so I did this pair without any decoration, just to reacquaint my fingers with the process. I've made more than what's in the photo but some are still just for me.  The black scarf off to the right of the photo was very easy and quick to make but much more fun in person than in this photo.  It's like emerald stars twinkling in the night sky.  I will be playing with that more.  All of these will be for sale at an upcoming craft event.

In between felting, I've been knitting on a basic pair of socks.  Mindlessly.  To the point that once again, I picked up gusset stitches without bothering to turn the heel first.  The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill, size two circs, 56 stitches.  The colors in the photo are flat compared to the real color. That red is much more vibrant in person.  Clown red.  I like knitting socks for me.  I have small feet.   

On the Right Feet

Those socks?  They have reached their destination and are on the feet of their intended.  I'm so excited - they fit her!  Yay.  So now I can post a photo of the socks to this here blog.  Introducing my Hogwarts Peerie Socks, knit in the Hufflepuff colors, which is why the foot peerie is an H. The rest of the peeries have nothing to do with Harry Potter or Hogwarts other than the color combination.  But they were simple patterns and fit with the number of stitches I used.  I didn't like knitting with the yarn because it split a lot with ripping back, which I had to do often.  But the yarn in the FO is nicely soft and warm, so, again, now that I'm not working with it, I'm happy with it.  And perhaps if I knit without having to rip back, I'd have been happier with the yarn.  The bottom line: I learned a lot in knitting these socks and am ended up happy with the experience.

What's Your Favorite Plant?

That's Dave's question today.  I love plants.  The beauty of their forms, the opportunity to stick my hands in dirt and dig.  Fragrance, color, back to nature, food, hard work, creativity,  inspiration, and perhaps most of all, the cyclic reassurance that the world goes on. My fondness for gardening goes back to my early childhood and my mother's lovely gardens. Coming from a family of farmers, it's in our blood.  Every  March day on my return from school, I stopped at one of my mother's gardens before going inside, looking for first sign of crocus waking up.   Not only are crocuses cheerful, charming little beings, but they are a promise, too.  Happy harbingers of the world continuing, that beauty exists and will burst forth in glorious brilliant color to shake off winter's cold blanket of dreary brown and grey.  Now, as nature has finished her ping pong with New England temperatures, we sit in cold, and all that glorious color outside is fading.  It's time for the indoor plants.  For a number of years, my indoor plant space has been restricted, so I have only one greenhouse window in the kitchen that houses my plants.  Mostly orchids, but also one african violet and two epiphyllums.  And the lizard has her pothos for cover, to climb on, and to eat.  During the kitchen make over, my orchids suffered and many threatened to die on me.  I sent them off to the healing environment of my husband's office space at work.  He's done wonders with them so they stay with him.  Which means most of my plants are now new to me and I don't know which ones will prove faithful bloomers and which I will have to coax.   Masdevallia Rosemary, which I bought in bud in September, is the last in bloom at the moment and her last bloom is now fading.  I love her pretty pink and will mourn the passing of this last bloom. But fast approaching bloom is Oncidium Twinkle, purchased in summer 2006.  This perky pleaser is loaded with  5 flower sprays, each covered with buds.  Two of the sprays have been obvious for over a month now, the other three I just found this morning. I am giddy with glee!  This bounty of bloom means I can count on Twinkle.  And with that many sprays, Twinkle should be in bloom for most of the winter, which makes her very much a favorite plant.  But really, one favorite plant?  Nope, can't commit to that.  They all deserve Favorite Plant status.