Woolybuns

M is for...

MUGS!  I love my Mug collection.  They are perfect for Morning tea or Mid-winter hot chocolate, some even for Medicating that nasty cold with Mom's chicken soup.  They are fun to look at, comforting in their function, and generous with the Memories.  I buy them on trips.  A nice cheap keepsake that usually lasts longer than T-shirts since I tend to spill on or accidentally dye or subject my T-shirts to bunny stuff.  So every morning when I start the day with a good hot cuppa, I am also starting the day with a Memory.  And now I'll share some of those with you.

My first job out of college, although the job actually started while I was still in college.  One of my adjunct professors really liked my work so when a friend of hers was looking for a part time temp to help in her then fledgling Marketing communications business, the prof recommended Me.  The boss and I hit it off pretty well and shortly before my graduation, she offered me a permanent job as her first employee.  Best boss I ever had and I'm sorry Motherhood forced me to leave (though my decision was right for my kids hence right for me). 


DH the Older's 16th birthday.  We pulled him out of school for a touristy day in NYC and an evening of theater.  Magical!

Trips to Maine always include a visit to Edgecomb Potters.  A Magnificent place.

Following 9/11, our school system rerouted the annual 8th grade trip from Washington DC to someplace "safer."  DS the Younger was bitterly disappointed, so we took him to DC during spring break.  As part of that trip, we stopped at a Museum new to DH and I but integral to our history together.  We Met and Married while we were both stationed at FT Meade.  When this mug has hot liquid in it, the black changes to white and the "hieroglyphics" read National Cryptologic Museum.

This Mug celebrates friendship.

This one commemorates a big birthday.

Another trip to NYC, this time for only DH and I.

Because I enjoy My Mugs so Much, I started a tradition for the kids.  Every year for Christmas, they each get one.  I hope as they each Move on to their own lives, they enjoy the Memories.

 

Comment on Comments

I just discovered the comments from my last two posts did not transfer to my email.  I haven't been ignoring you!!  I'm off to see if it's Typepad again or if sumthin's up with my email.

Update: It's typepad - well, at least it's a known issue to typepad.  Seems some email programs view the comments as spam and rejects them.  Typepad is working on it. 

Hi-ho The Derry-o

The fiber on the bun
the fiber in the pot
hi-ho the derry-o
the fiber in the hand.

Not sure why farmer in the dell tune is bouncing around my head this morning but it's a merry little tune and I had a merry little time playing fiber while DH and the boys did this, so I guess it fits. 

The fiber results so far:

An assortment of blue and gray angora dyed pale cherry red to become roving once I figure out what fleece to put it with.

White angora dyed scarlet red though it came out more that awesome sugar maple hint of orange pink I absolutely adore, also destined to become roving.  This will go in a mix with some angora dyed a couple other colors and all blended with a brown wool.

Light fawn alpaca.  Some of it is going in a blend of brown wool and fawn angora.  But the rest of it is taking a jaunt through my Alvin Ramer super mini combs then relaxing for a bit of a spin before pairing up with a yet to be determined scarf.  Possibly for a gift, don't know yet.

On the crowded train trip home Saturday, I sat with a mother and her teenage daughter, strangers to me.  They'd obviously been shopping for the teen.  They mostly ignored me, first chowing down quite hungrily and with great gusto on stuff freshly purchased somewhere in Grand Central.  Then they focused on how to keep the mother warm.  All around her were folks in long sleeves and or light weight rain gear.  She dressed in tank top and shorts for a day in the rain in NYC and couldn't handle the AC on the train.  She ended up layering her daughter's newly purchased skimpy sleeveless tops over her shoulders.  And then she looked at me with my drop spindle and fiber and asked what I was doing.  "Spinning yarn."  I thought so, she said.  Then she got that look on her face, that "are you nuts?" tone in her voice and asked "why?"  Because I like it, I said.  "Oh."  Clearly not convinced.  And that was pretty much the extent of our conversation.  She returned to her book and shivering.  I'd have looped my angora/shetland roving around her like a shawl if her tone had been more friendly.  She'd have been warm and might have gotten a glimmer of why.  But I preferred talking with the older woman from France in the seat next to me across the aisle.  She shared tales of quilting.  There was no need to explain my hobby to her.

So while I fibered on Sunday, I found myself trying to pinpoint why.  For me, and for many of you, the FO is really just a happy side effect.  The real reason I fiber is the experience (Margene's "it's the process").  Each part of the process just enhances the over all experience. I start with the bunny.  Warm, friendly, soft, and just so dang adorable.  Worth every second of time, every penny, every moment out in the elements making sure they are fed and safe.  And then, as if they are saying thanks for the care, they give me all that fiber!  Off the rabbit, angora just begs for naked rolling fingers to run through it.  Putting it through the dye pot only heightens the demand  - ok, you have to wait for it to dry because wet angora is no fun to roll in a very sad looking thing.  But once dry, there is all that softness mounded into a cloud of color.  Big poufs of color that cavort with brain cells, tickle the imagination, and prompts possibility.  I can't stay out of it!  It must trigger endorphins and enkephalins (feel good chemicals in the brain that are remarkably like morphine).  And then comes more specific design aspects.  Think time.  Distinctly different from fondle time but no less stimulating.  Is there an end result in mind?  What colors to put together?  What textures?  By what method?  I can let my mind do as it wants.  I can plan or I can fly by the seat of my pants.  Freedom, baby!  Now that's pleasure.  And when it ends with an FO, it's time to start all over again.

New From Sandy

The original skywatcher wants to spice up Saturday blogs with photos of the sky all over the world every Saturday.  Sounds good to me!  I've got stormy skies today but sometimes those stormy skies present pretty dramatic photo ops. This is not one of those times.  I didn't see Sandy's post until 9 pm so my Saturday sky this week is this not spicy thing.  Those drops?  Rain on the lens.

The reason I didn't see Sandy's post until after dark is of course Cara.  She found an indoor spot for the NYC Spin Out so I hopped a train.  There was spinnin' and grinnin' and plyin' and teachin' and - well, just take a look for yourself!

L is for

Land in all its permutations: sweet grassy meadows,  craggy mountains, gently rolling hills, rich forests, rocky coastlines, sandy beaches. I love land, especially barefoot in grass.  One prominent memory of my teen years was lying in the grass with my horse  grazing around me, surrounded by Land's rich earthy aroma, sun shining, birds chirping, a gentle breeze rippling over me. A simple pleasure.  Land - you can't live without it.

Now What?

I spent some time on the deck this morning communing with these fuzzy companions.  Guess who that is on the left?  Yeah, Little Baby BB is growing up.   Bunny on the bench is Mysty, a blue chinchilla.

Since the end of April ushered in Spring Fiber Season, I've logged over 5,000 miles on my car attending assorted festivals and workshops, delivering bunnies along the way.  Fiber Season is a wonderful time full of seeing distant friends, catching up, new adventures, new people, bonding, and lots of a bit of indulging.   After such a spree, I tend to collapse for a while.  I don't think it's exhaustion, although that much driving is indeed hard on the body.  It's more Now What?    Factor in family changes and this year's Now What is a bit more complicated.  I'm ready to make some long term That's What decisions but really can't.  I guess I'll be communing with the bunnies. weeding, knitting, spinning, dyeing and generally playing with fiber while my mind and other folks sort things out. 

I did make two decisions this morning.  No knitting lace while exhausted and no knitting anything in the dark. 

Graduation Day!

The Kid did it!  Ryan, DS the Younger, is now a high school graduate.  I'm so proud of him! This is the one photo of him I got during the entire graduation process.  Yeah, the one wearing the baseball hat.  He did behave and wear his official cap throughout the ceremony but got away with opted for the baseball hat for the recessional.  There is a long history between Ryan and his baseball hats.  He was 21 inches long  but under 8 pounds at birth.  That meant he was a very scrawny infant.  And bald.  Scrawny, bald babies are - well, you know how adorable babies with those fatfat cheeks are. Ryan was also born in the summer.  So I put baseball hats on him for sun protection and he looked so cute in them, I bought bunches and put them on him all the time.  He bonded to those hats like most kids do to blankies.  A hat became such a part of him that I had to include one in his official portraits.   Hats in class - well, suffice it to say not all his teachers found them so cute.  Most were nice about it, but some control freaks just wrote him off right at the beginning of the year just because of the hat.  Those jerks teachers never got to know just how smart and funny and enjoyable this kid is.  He told me that when he arrived for graduation line up yesterday, a secretary immediately demanded his hat.  He refused to give it to her.  A battle loomed imminent.  Fortunately, one of the few principals who, in our experience, actually seems to like kids,intervened and he got to keep his hat on his person, but not on his head during the ceremony.  So his wearing it for the recession and only photo I managed to get makes me grin. 

These sky photos will explain why I didn't get more photos of Ryan.

The sky at arrival.

The approaching sky ten minutes into the ceremony.

Sky directly overhead during the honors presentations.

The sky all rumbly with thunder during the speeches.

And the sky during diploma presentations.

The sun came back as parents scrambled to reunite with the newly graduated but all that sky action meant I had to run home and get fans and rabbits under cover.  So, no more photos of the kid, until dinner.

Did I mention how proud I am of him?

Dyed and Went to Heaven

My trip Friday was to Fiber Fest in Ohio.  It's kinda small but the park that hosts it is amazing and the workshop selection is generally pretty good.  This year I was on a short leash, time wise.  Previous trips there I have left home on a Wednesday, returned on Sunday.  This year, I did a FridaySaturdaySunday trip.  I missed out wandering the grounds.  I'd pout, but I know I get to do a lot and I'm grateful for my opportunities, so pouting would be too - I dunno - Brittany Spearish?

Besides, I'm still delighting in the workshop I took, an all day Hand-painting Fibers with Ellen of Ellen's Half Pint Farm.  I've been wanting to take a class with her for a very long time.  I took a dye workshop in Ohio a couple years ago with someone else but the very first time I ever saw Ellen's work (Rhinebeck, 2000), I was hooked!  I wasn't originally planning to go to Ohio this year but when I saw her workshop, plans changed.  Within the first few minutes of the class, I knew I made the right decision.  The best part is, not only did I get some really good tips and practice, but Ellen is just so doggone nice.  And laid back.  Make the dyeing fun, she says.  Don't stress.  Keep it simple and focus on the color.  I think that photo to the left proves we did just that!  We each got a bag with some romney roving and some merino roving, a blob of carded cashmere, bombyx silk sliver, tussah silk sliver, soy silk with a touch of cotton, a silk cap, and two silk cacoons.  And then we got to pick one skein of yarn (I picked a skein of natural light brown cashmere).  All of that included in the fiber fee.  Nice!  I bought three extra skeins - 2 falkland and one merino/nylon - to play with and left much of the silk and the cashmere blob to play with here at home.  My  yarn results:

The red/pink/yellow skein is the natural light brown cashmere.  Wonderful learning experience!

My rovings:
 

My favorite result is the silk cap.

I learned what I needed and had a great time doing it.  What more could you ask for?

Sleep.  Yeah, a lot of us at the hotel were hoping for more of that.  Seems some jerks folks from a dog club also gathered at that hotel, bringing their dogs, which I normally enthusiastically support.  But, if you travel with your dog, you have the responsibility for ensuring your dog does not infringe on the people around  you.  The hotel welcomes small pets but these were bigger dogs, retrievers of assorted variety.  What I was told is that club members housed their dogs overnight in a couple of trailers.  Everytime someone walked near the trailers, the dogs voiced their objections.  Loudly.  Wake the dead loudly.  OMGI'mgonnadiecomesaveme frantically LOUDLY.   By 4 am Saturday, sleep was no longer an option.  Why is it that the non-dog club members at the hotel are the ones who gathered in concern???  Where were the owners - the ones who could do something about the cacophony - of those dogs?  Those folks hurt themselves because many of us complained to the hotel.  That kind of irresponsibility hurts all folks wanting to travel with animals because the easy thing for hotels to do is just refuse all pets.  The dogs weren't quite so bad the next night but I did get roused again at 5 am with more barking.  Not nice, dog club members!!  The lady at the hotel desk told me it was The Buckeye Retriever Club.  I will be in touch with them.

Back to the fun stuff.  I did of course wander through the vendor area.  One of the vendors is someone I've shared time and dinner with in past years, plus bonded over bunnies with her.  Anne of Anne's Fiber Expressions in Wisconsin (no web page but if you want contact info, email me ).  It was great catching up with her! And then she gifted me with a lovely skein of Trekking XXL.  Ooooo!  Now I see why so many folks are doing the Trek Along.   I also needed another project for the return trip.  I was driving.  Alone.  So I shouldn't have needed a knitting project.  But remember the X-tremely Slow Knitting?  That section of road was still ahead of me.  Amazing Lace is not the right project for that. Neither are the French Twist socks I had with me.  I needed a mindless knit.  Another simple triangle shawl that lets the yarn sing.  Such a project needs a yarn of breath taking beauty.   Ellen's booth is always filled with such yarns.  But this time, for me, the right combination of colorway and fiber was not there.  I wanted something to go with a particular blouse, kind of a soft apricoty orange.  I found several small skeins that fit the bill but not enough yardage.  I found lots of yardage but in a lovely merino/silk yarn spun too fine for my project.  And her mohair skeins are stunningly gorgeous but I can't wear mohair (it makes me all itchy - not allergic itchy, just irritating itchy). So I fell in love with some soft worsted weight falkland wool in one of her new colorways, Waterlilies, which she describes as Jade, Pinky-Lilac, Light Blue. She sells it in a gigantic 1500 yard, one pound skein.  I spent a good part of Saturday evening winding half of it by hand into a ball.  I did start the triangle shawl, though the traffic snarl did not happen on the return trip.  But as I drove, I kept picturing a stole instead of a triangle.  I think I'll rip and start over.

I did make a bit more progress on Amazing Pi.  But not while driving.

X-treme Challenge

Amazing Lace is pushing us to X-tremes.  Teammate Pi volunteered for X-tremely Cute Knitting with the bunnies.  But the bunnies just wanted to eat the teammates and that's been done here enough.  I kinda wanted something more exciting.  And then, on the latest road trip (details in the next post) the car decided to join the team.   The setting: state route 17 in Elmira, NY.  The plot: X-treme Road Makeover - SR 17 is becoming I-86.  The conflict: construction crew vs travelers. Without further ado, I present X-tremely Slow Knitting while driving an entire mile in 3 inch segments.

Update on teammembers: Solid Pink Center dropped out after I someone boiled the dyepot dry with the yarn in it.  X-tremely Dumb.

This Time of Year

Here in New England, spring into summer is alternately frightful and delightful.  Much of this time we call mud season.  Muck boots are in common use, especially on farms.  I have two pairs - it gets that muddy.  But as the season dries out, lush greens grow those wonderfully seasonal flowers and shrubs, and trees leaf over the land as protective umbrellas . Color emerges everywhere to feed the soul.  It's  a rite you can count on.  Rains may pound the flowers into mush before their time, but there are those moments of glory in the garden between rains.  However brief the glory, it's worth it, like treasured friends who can only visit once a year. 

Because the bunnies' spring needs are so vital - major inside and under hutch clean ups and all those hare hair cuts and babies to cuddle inspect at least daily - I don't get to most of the weeding until the weeds threaten to take over.   Except for this garden.  This is the first one I planted after we bought the house.  It's kind of my signature garden and I get it weeded on one of the first sunny days we get every year.  The neighbors don't like the color of my house (intense teal - NASA space craft guide on it, my son says), but they love this garden.   After I planted it, several neighbors started to update their landscaping and one told me I started that trend because of this garden. I started with the tree in the center, a weeping blue atlas cedar.  It's more a living sculpture than a tree and must be trained into upright growth.  As they are very slow growing, that training time is lengthy.  This tree is probably around 20 years old.  It's been here for about 8 years, I think.  I selected the remaining plants almost as subjects of this Crown Prince, planting only those that flower in shades of yellow, white and purple, with a few shrubs for year round interest. 

The newest garden came about because of the slaughter of 19 trees in my next door neighbor's back yard.  All those lovely maple trees sheltered my rabbits from the brutal late afternoon sun.  Most of those trees were self planted and surrounded her swimming pool, so I do understand why she did it.  But the rabbits needed them. I imagine she was quite less than pleased when three days after her tree slaughter, I planted an 18 foot Norway maple on the edge of my property within yards of her pool, but, just as she did what she needed to, I planted to meet my needs.  Shade was the most important need, but visual appeal came into play as well. The rest of this garden is still evolving.  It's about 100 feet long and roughly 6 feet wide.  That's a lot of plants for all at once.  I put in the major specimen plants and shrubs the first year, then the next year filled in with some perennials.  I'll probably load up on more in early fall when they are all on sale.  And bunny needs aren't quite so time consuming.

The changes in landscape seem to be changing the bird life as well.  I used to have quite a flock of sparrows that nested in a declining children's playscape that came with the house.  With the loss of the shade, we got rid of that, too and the sparrows moved out.  I miss them.  They were fearless little brats that grew quite comfortable with my presence in the rabbitry.  They fed on spilled grain from the bunny hutches, often landing only inches from my feet.  When not feeding, they were a chatty bunch and flitted throughout the trees.  Some of them still play at the back of my neighbor's yard in a crab apple tree, but not so close as to be part of the family anymore.  Now the chickadees, nuthatches, and finches  are more prevalent.  A few days ago, I spotted a parent bird feeding a fledgling and I'm not sure what kind of birds they are.  Perhaps downy woodpecker.  The other side of my property borders yards with a more woodsy atmosphere so it could be the right habitat for them.  The adult was smallish, mostly black with speckles, a small pointy bill and a distinct red patch at the back of the head. 

Indeed, a most wonderful time of year.