Woolybuns

Fitness Friday

Ouch.  Yes, that's how getting fit feels.  Being a bit o' the klutz does not help.  Neither does the Gilligan's Island approach to hiking.   My ankle has never forgiven me that little slip off the deck steps last fall, but the injury is subtle.  It is not noticeable in walking, does not interfere with tae kwon do kicks and pivots, feels fine for horseback riding (English style, with heels way down).  I notice it when I sit or prop my feet up.  It aches only at rest.  The ankle did speak up on a recent hike.  I joined a hiking group and my first hike was billed as a two hour relatively short, mild incline, and very little maneuvering over rocky places, with the option for a slightly more challenging hike down the blue trail, adding maybe an hour to the trek.   Once I had committed to the slightly more challenging trail, we ended up on the white trail instead.  Amazing views even though the highest point is only 739 feet (something we CT Yankees stupidly euphemistically refer to as a mountain - go ahead, Utahans - snort.  You are more than entitled).  The white trail has some awesome ups and downs, the kind that make you wonder where your parachute, ropes, and harnesses are, the kind billed on mntnlife.com as difficult. The kind that led my hiking companions to sarcastically helpfully holler cautions back to me: "don't look up, just keep looking where your feet are going," their evil chuckles reverberating off the cliffs as I huffed along on quivering quads.  Of course I looked up, with perhaps a shriek murmur of  are  you freakin' kidding me??? escaping my lips.  Under those conditions, yes, my ankle did announce it's infirmity.  And coaxed the knees and quads into voice as well.  But when your choice is keep going or ... well... keep going, you keep going.  And it was wonderful!  I did it.  Slowly, yes, but I made that hike.  I sat higher than birds were flying.  I saw the 360 degree views, the precipitous drops, tree tops well below me.  Awesome!  And it fueled the desire to do it again.  Only in better shape.  And with a fully charged camera battery so I can document what I really did.  I am happy to discover that I am fit enough that only two days after the hike, I took another riding lesson, walked the pup her usual mile per day, and could still kick and pivot at tae kwon do. 

Then Karen came over and showed me her ankle exercises.  Now I sit comforting the ankle with an ice pack.   Heh.  But they are strengthening exercises and I think that's exactly what the ankle needs.  Ouch be gone.

Bloomie Things Make Me Smile

This was a rescue.  I think there was a wedding or something and African Violets graced every table.  Someone who does not have a green thumb  brought this one home.  I bided my time, and when the poor plant started begging for water, Someone agreed to give it to me.  I think this is a pretty nice thank you.

My latest orchid, bought under the influence of I'm really tired of winter.  My local big chain grocerygardenvideo store also does not have a green thumb and I usually won't even look at their plants.  But this was a brand new shipment just unpacked so they hadn't neglected it yet.  It's just so sweetly feminine and short enough to fit in my garden window. 

Epiphyllum.  contented sigh.

And then there is outdoors.  Crocus, forsythia, magnolia, and lilac have all graced my yard and waved goodbye until next year, and my beautiful pink azalea is now greening.   But the bearded iris are all in bud, with the first now in full show.  

I love this annual spring parade!

 

WIP Me Wednesday 5/20/09

Knitting progress during fiber season is - at best - slow here at Woolybuns.  But progress is progress.  Waterfall Rib sock is now looking like a sock with about half the foot knit.  And with  my big vending dates completed, I should be able to make more progress on the sock.  I might even get to Montana Tunic at times, which has had only a glance to make sure I still know where it is. 

My goal for next week: finish sock 1. 

More Fiber Festivaling

Traveling to Virginia to assist a dear friend at Sedalia Spring Fiber Festival was a last minute decision when things just sort of lined up right.  Even the weather sort of cooperated, in a capricious willy nilly way.  Driving through high hills in northern PA in rain, fog and strong winds with a car top carrier was ... ummmm... interesting, as was the night time trek from festival to Leslie's house illuminated by nature's fireworks display of lightening in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but for the festival itself, the weather was beautiful, warm and bright.  And then on Sunday, just so I could wear my favorite sweater, temps plunged from the highs in the 80s at the festival to distinctly winterish mid 30s overnight, and 50s during the rest of my time there.   Kiri went with me.  She's a trooper, enduring long hours in the car and crate with little complaint, and meeting new friends, canine as well as human, with confidence and spunk.  A lovely lady, Mary Ellen of Iseespots Farm, offered Kiri a wonderful bit of quiet refuge under the tailgate of her pickup truck for the duration of the festival, a bit of generosity both Kiri and I appreciated more than I can say.   But you really want festival photos, right?  Okey dokie.

Leslie's booth - love her rugs!  And a close up of the yummy  yarns for sale (yes,  those would be mine on the right).  And a wider shot of the pavillion area where  many of the vendors were set up.

 Some of them might have been a bit camera shy, but with some pretty neat stuff in their booth. 

There were, of course, the animals, though bad me, I didn't get shots of most of them.  These cuties caught my attention, though. 

I did do a little bit of buying, but only one small fiber purchase, some lovely Suri locks for a bit of an experiment.  You'll have to wait for details on that.  Nana Sadie Rose got much of my spending attention.  She sews up a terrific assortment of bags.  I have my lovely Jessalu box bag, but I didn't have a casual summer purse.  Now I do.  Even better, I also picked up this little bit of bag to go inside my new purse.  How fun is this fabric!  Nana Sadie Rose has a lot of fun fabrics and you can order your choice of bag and fabric combo.  And then another friend gifted me one of Nana Sadie Rose's cute little knitting needle cases.

My other purchases came from Leslie's lovely shop.  I picked up a couple of favorite old books by author Mary Stewart, and a copy of the spring issue of Interweave Crochet.  A few weeks ago, Leslie whipped up a sample of Lily Chin's Glittering Capelet from this issue and has it on display in her shop.  it's gorgeous and screamed Make Me in angora blend yarn!  I was powerless to resist.  Leslie handed me a crochet hook and I got right down to work.  When I find the WIP, I'll show you a photo of it.  That crochet hook?  It's bamboo, Leslie has some available in her shop and I. Love. It.  You might, too.

And no maybe about it, there was chocolate.  Leslie lives within walking distance of some Really. Good. Chocolate.  Dark chocolate coconut bonbons definitely followed me home, along with some meltaways, chocolate creams, and mints - all in dark chocolate.  My kids don't like dark chocolate.  Damn.  I'll have to eat them all myself.  Good thing Kiri needs walks, CC is about ready for me to start riding, and Master Ziwak expects me to practice tae kwon do often.

Sometimes It's The Brain That Goes Missing

Preparing to vend for a weekend long fiber festival is work.  Well before the event, the brain is focused exclusively on Getting Ready because there are so many little details to take care of, in addition to making sure you have enough product.  So when the weekend is over, the rush to pack up and clear out exhausts the last little bit of neuronal energy.  Which is why I have spent the last couple days wondering where the heck I put my Jessalu bag with the knitting I so badly needed.  I spent yesterday dealing with banking (a rewarding chore - thank you all for that!), catching up with the animals, and getting phones.  My new cell phone, via insurance claim, will arrive either today or tomorrow, and I set up the new home phone late  yesterday afternoon.  Instructions say to charge the handset batteries for 15 hours before attaching the phone cord.  15 hours!  That time will be up for the last handset in about ten minutes.  I will finally be able to call my mother and say Happy Mother's Day.  Fortunately, I have 6 sisters so she should have gotten plenty of calls to keep her company on Mother's Day, but I know she is aware I didn't call and doesn't know why.

But with the brainlessness of the rush to get ready, I managed to overlook something else I should have and intended to announce here on the blog, something mentioned elsewhere that should have been here first.  Or rather, a very nice and talented someone.  Gale Zucker joined me in my booth on Saturday.  I think my brain decided since I mentioned having met Gale at CTSW, I had done the announcement post I intended to.  Many of you already know Gale, but for those who don't, Gale is a photographer whose credits include Shear Spirit, a beautifully done coffee table book (text by Joan Tapper) with some very nice patterns in it, including Montana Tunic.  Gale brought with her a collection of her gorgeous photo note cards and sea glass buttons.  If you missed them at the booth and elsewhere, take heart.  She has an Etsy shop.  I did indulge myself with a set of 6 notecards.  How can anyone resist that goat face or those sheep?  Flock to her shop and indulge yourself!  Thank you, Gale, for helping me in the booth!

I Is Exhausted And Phoneless

The weekend was wonderful! Very few photos cause I was stuck in the booth.  But lots of happy faces, hugs, connections old and new, serious enabling (oh, yeah, even better than acquisitioning) and maybe ten pounds of a bit of dessert.  My hostess for the weekend was fellow fiberista Carolyn of Farm in the Woods, the sweet, fun, funny, energetic, creative nut who adopted the bastard hound a number of years ago.  A quick recap for those not familiar with that dog.  My daughter adopted basset hound Flash when he was 2, they bonded intensely, and the dog decided no one else could come  near her or her possessions.  His first family apparently never set the clear limits a basset hound needs to be a companionable member of a human pack.  Generally a big loveable silly goof, Flash would at times go nuts with significant aggression and it appeared to be only a matter of time before he bit someone.  We weren't going to be able to correct the situation, so he needed a new home, a difficult proposition given the issue.  Carolyn came to visit, found Flash enchanting (he has that way about him), heard the full story and saw him in his full fury.  She wanted to give him a chance, and Don agreed to give it a go.  Flash has lived with them for about 5 years now, mostly rehabilitated with occasional lapses of manners and significant stink (yes, basset hounds stink - all those folds hold in and promote Really. Bad. BO).  It always speaks to the goodness of Carolyn and her husband Don that not only do they still speak to me after that adoption, they invite me into their home and feed me.  Last year, Carolyn helped me in my booth and did so well with her own fibers, I told her she needed to have her own booth.  She applied and got one this year, with rewarding results.  I missed her companionship in the booth but I'm thrilled she had such a good response to her own fibers. 

After watching people react to my fibers, I realized I need a webcam for the booth (not sure those attending would like that, but it would be fun to put on youtube so all of you could see why I enjoy vending).  The huge assortment of reactions when people put their hands in the fibers is amazing, fun, and quite rewarding, whether they buy anything or not.  One woman put her hands in the cormo, silk, angora roving and stood there quivering.  Yes.  Quivering.  Bliss all over her face.  All of us watching collapsed in giggles.   This little fella and his brothers also drew a lot of attention.  Fortunately, it was human attention and not the little cuties frolicking under a building Lucia snapped photos of.  He went home with a mother daughter pair who will be quite good to him, I'm sure.  I did make one foray out of the booth in search of something quite specific.  In that search, I got this photo, just a minute too late because what was happening as I tried to get the camera on fast enough was a very sweet kiss between species.  The man was willing to cooperate for another take, but the alpaca had an itch only a good roll would satisfy.  I searched from alpaca booth to alpaca booth for the Right Fleece and finally found it.  I think I reacted quite like the woman I mentioned above.  It's a luscious true black crimpy soft 2 1/2 pound fleece destined to wed some angora soon.  The only other thing I bought this weekend was tea.  Not necessarily good tea, but at least it was hot tea. 

Oh, and that phoneless part?  My home phone seems quite compromised and completely useless.  And my cell phone is either in someone else's possession in New Hampshire or more likely lying defenseless along the side of the road somewhere in Contoocook, near the small gas station/mini mart just blocks from the fairgrounds on route 103, I think.  It's a Razor with a cracked screen and chewed on case if anyone happens to spot it.  Clearly, calling the entry "Home" won't do any good if you do find the phone, but calling either Collin or Ryan will.  Yeah.  A long shot, but who knows...

WIP Me Wednesday 5/6/02

Waterfall Rib is moving along nicely and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I did mess up.  I took lace to SnB and knit 2 repeats (12 rounds), quite consistently messing up the same spot at the end of each round.  I did attempt to drop back just those messed up stitches but doing so under the influence of past my bedtime probably was not a good idea.  Turned out to be easier - not to  mention faster - to just rip back 12 rounds.  I've since knit them again all plus the rest of the leg rounds, and even got the heel flap started.  I'd like to say I'll have the first sock done for NHSW but you folks generally recognize BS, so lets just say I'll get done as much as I get done.  I will have it at NHSW for fondling purposes.  Goal for next week: finish sock one and start sock 2.

And here are some of the skeins I've been dyeing.
This batch is 60% cormo 40% angora.  There are a few more skeins of this still drying. 

This other batch is Abundance, a merino, mohair, and angora blend for socks, the fiber in Waterfall Rib.   Again, there are a few more still drying.  And I need to get back to work.  See you this weekend?

Who Knew Dyeing Yarn Was Such An Intense Physical Activity?

Ice pack on left knee, ice pack on right ankle, ice pack blanketing shoulders.  Hot chocolate in hand.  Loyal puppy licking my feet in sympathy.  It tickles, until her impish self takes over and CHOMP. 

The Tin Man Creaketh

Like most people, in the normal course of my day, I use my knees on a regular basis.  Certainly in tae kwon do and riding lessons, along with walking the dog (a mile everyday while she is still a baby), the old knees hum along doing their job invisibly.  But NHSW approaches and there was all this undyed yarn and  my dye studio is upstairs while the washer is downstairs.  Three sets of stairs.  Not optimal but it will have to do for the moment, says I.  Au contraire, says The Knees.  Hips and Ankles tossed their support to The Knees, those traitors.  I need an oilcan.  Maybe by the end of this marathon dye session (why is it, with 365 days between NHSW 2008 and NHSW 2009, I'm doing all this dyeing in one week???), I'll have svelte legs again.  At least I had the sense to buy one of these at Spa.

Some of what I've been doing.