Tilt-a-whirl

Easy Being Green

Yeah, I guess that it really is, when you live in the woods, eh?

I know that I left you all hanging with the poor old woman and the crash off of the bed. Her nose if finally healed but her mental state, although fairly sunny is not what I would call With It. There you have it...she is still with us and just shuffling along from meal to meal. I got some slippers today, down at the army surplus kind of a store downtown...Minnetonka lambskin slip-ons. She says that she can almost feel them...I found her shoeless with feet cold as ice. Yeah, feet cold as ice and not willing to wear a sweater. Oy and double oy, so we expect a visit from the Propane truck any day now because we are keeping things nice and comfortable for her. You know, we expect the mercury to dip down to the low 20's tonight, here in our little place in the woods.

Oh yes, GREEN. I have been doing a bit of that and seeing a lot of that recently. We had a visit from one of our dear Los Angeles customers the day after Thanksgiving and Sonya brought her beautiful seaman's scarf designed by Myrna Stahman. Lovely job with a beautiful design and this particular greenish looking version of South Pacific worked perfectly. This is my old and now defunct millspun cashmere that proved to be too rife with knots to continue using. Sonya's is beautiful, though!

Our Thanksgiving turned out to be a lovely evening. We invited a couple who live across highway 50. Russ Simpson is a model builder, who has been known for years for his model railroad kits for a long defunct narrow gauge logging railroad down in Tuolumne, called The West Side AND in Hollywood for his models for the Star Trek movies. Rod has been a HUGE fan for years and so it is very cool that we live so close now. (He is trying not to be a stalker!) Russ's wife Terri is the angel that came to stay with mom when we were in Baltimore. It was sort of an old home week and mom actually came out of her cave to have dinner with us all. A few glasses of wine and we were whooping it up, with Terri figuring that she could learn to knit again...maybe after your Christmas rush, Terri!

We drove up the hill on Sunday to take part in the ritual that makes Highway 50 from Camino, west, awash in  vehicles toting Christmas trees. Yup, we went up to about 3000 ft and found OUR Christmas tree farm. We just didn't know if there were many people who loved the kind of tree that I grew up with but lo and behold, we found a spot up on Pony Express Trail called Smart's Christmas Tree Farm and they had lots and lots and lots and lots of Silver Tip trees for us to choose from. I tell you, it has been a VERY long time since we were young marrieds, trying out the idea of cutting our own tree, "way out in Moraga", when we lived in Oakland. Well, WE are Way Out now and this was a dream come true, driving up the back way, up Snow's Road (scary in the BAV) to go for a Look-see. We SAW, alright and we found the perfect tree. She is perched in the holder, our in the Freezingasscold now but here she is, awaiting the right time to come in. You will notice that you can't see the TREE for the Forest, but there you have it...a 9 foot Silvertip.

I can be thrilled by the most ordinary things these days but for us, this is just lovely. I am happy to have caught up with my orders and so now there is little wait and time for me to knit. (hands slapped to the side of cheeks) I am coming along nicely with the soothing Wool Peddler and have actually signed up for the new Secret of the Stole KAL, thanks to being asked to donate some things for the door prizes. Hey, why not? This could be fun, yeah? In the meantime, I finished some cashmere spinning and put color to it AFTER, which is always the biggest dilemma...what to choose, when putting color on something precious. Hmmm...green...Caroline's Emerald City. Yup.

Do you see a theme here? I guess that I must have had a fixation going on here and had to get it out of my system. It's ok because I DO love green, after all...not as much as RED, though. :o)

If you wonder what I do when listening to a new book on the I-pod...a ghost story called The Heart Shaped Box, well, I imagine what a Cajun might see in his dreams. Yeah, more green...Evah-glade.

Four cousins on the table at the same time. At the top left is Glacier, then top right is Sock!. Bottom left is Sock! Merino and finally the bottom right is Hardtwist Petite. Kinda swampy, dontcha think? Enough Green. I need to fire up the pans and get The Old Woman fed. I promised her salmon and salmon it is.

A Rough Night

This house is pretty big but because of all of the hard surfaces, sound carries. Sasha growled a bit in the middle of the night, waking me up enough to shush her. She growled again and I woke up completely, listening for what I thought was part of a dream. Lisa, LISA! Up I jump and start padding across the bedroom and to the first baby gate that divides the portions of the house and keeps the pets of the two households away from one another. LISA! I'm COMING! I get into mom's bedroom and there she is, as if praying, holding on to her walker with her arms while kneeling. Lisa, I fell out of bed and can't get up. I try to lift her and she says, no...get Rod. I hurry back in here and pull him out of a deep sleep. Get up, I need you to help me get mom back into bed. A couple of minutes pass and we both pad back out there and into her bedroom. She tells us that she fell and can't get back up and so we both grab an arm and use all of our might to get this big woman back to the edge of her bed. Oh nooooooo...when she fell, it was face first into a piece of furniture and so her nose was nicked as were other parts of her face. Blood had been running down her face. She wonders aloud why I had not heard her for so long but I had no answer for her other than I was deep in REM sleep and I am here NOW.

Let's back up. For the past few days, she has been in some distress...coughing and getting weaker. It seemed as though every time I got her in to the kitchen for a meal, she would be sassy for a few minutes and then fall asleep as soon as we left the table. Bonk. I have caught her sleeping sitting up on the side of her bed and that is what happened last night, she was asleep sitting up and took and nosedive, literally. She looks like she was in a car accident and this morning, when she came out for breakfast (for a few short minutes of being with it) her face was awash in dried blood from her sleep. OYYYYYYYYYYYYY. You see, after we got her back into bed this morning at 3, I just felt that I needed to go back out to check on her because I had told her that there was to be no more sitting on the edge of the bed. Yup, still sitting on the edge of the bed. I hear that the sun went into Sagittarius about that time and I just stiffened up, pulled back her covers and hollered at her about lying down in the bed. I pulled the covers up around her and tucked her in and said good night.

So, this morning, after breakfast, I tried to have a heart to heart talk with her about how she was going to have to adhere to some safety rules now (I did not say OR you will have to go live in a facility) and they are...if you want to sit up while napping, this has to be done in your sitting room and if you go into your bedroom, you must get into the bed and LIE DOWN. The woman fell asleep as I was talking to her. There is a lot of eye rolling and raised eyebrow stuff going on between me and Rod about this time, to be sure. I got her into her sitting room, covered her with a blanket and called it a morning.

I'm telling you, it is true...I am in School now, learning to care for this last elder in an up close and personal manner. I left home at 18 because my mother tried to control every bit of my life including a bedtime when I was in COLLEGE. I was an only child and had to help her with everything because she sang in the SF Opera and needed her rest during the day so that she could be over there until late at night.    I guess that is why this period of forgiveness and last Doing for Mom is such a learning experience for me. I am forgiving her for all of the pain and non mothering. I am forgiving her for her lack of generosity. She has had the distinct privilege of being folded into this family, being allowed to know me as an adult with a long time marriage, two wonderful adult children and a very special little being in her great grandson. It is my last gift to her to allow her to be here and she is allowing me to care for her as I release each of the bits of pain and disappointment.

I have not gone into the dye room for the last couple of days because heartbreak and dyes do not mix well. :o) I have, however been spinning and spinning and spinning from a giant pile of cashmere. It is work and it is soothing.

Who knows how much longer mom will be with me but suffice it to say that when she is ready to leave, I will be fine with the going because she is going to slide into Home with a body that is scuffed and worn out right to the nub. She is ripe and ready for the journey and I am ready for the release. She is tucked up in the bed with a colorful patchwork quilt, with a handmade basket of feathers at her bedside. When she leaves, we will both feel a lot lighter and my stepfather can quit pressing his nose against the ether...come get her, already. Sheesh.

Whaddayouwantfromlife?

That Tubes song just stuck in my brain tonight. I don't know why but I can only imagine. I have been knitting for comfort lately. Yes, I have taken up the needles to have something to do with my hands while riding back and forth and back and forth and back and forth from Placerville to Folsom Kaiser with Rod in the driver's seat and mom yammering nervously in the front seat. Row after row of mindless garter stitch and yarn overs got me through the week from hell. What do you do with a woman who tries to be brave but has such an aversion to doctors. I told her that she HAD to go through with the trip to the OB-GYN because there was bleeding. She had been to a second visit to the GP the day before, coming away with poor marks on her EKG and neurological screening and this visit for the scary exam had her terrified to the point of refusing. I had to go in and talk her into being checked because the GP had found something that made her eyebrows go up. How do you think we both felt after having the OB keep talking about cancer? She removes a polyp the size of my little finger and says that she will have an answer in 7 days. SEVEN DAYS? We had no information in 7 days and so I am hoping that no news is good news. All that I could do was knit and knit and knit. You hold your mother's hand and listen and try to keep her from freaking out. I still do not know why the doctor would scare her like that unless she had some information...ya know? Guess what? Mom does not want to go back to see ANY doctors now. No cat scan, no heart monitor, no neurologist. Nada. So, I knit.

It is a Wool Peddler with lots of bits and pieces of leftover BFL yarn. I have now reached the part where I have to pay attention and I must say that I had to rip out the damned lace part a couple of times because my mind would not be still enough for me to pay attention properly. I finally had a firm talk with myself and lowered the brain waves...easy. Thanks for the lovely project, Cheryl. Do you see why I have been quiet?

We had pneumonia on the other end of our generational spectrum, as well. It seemed just too much but little Schnickle developed a cough that sounds just like his great grandmother's. I KNOW that this is a test. Yes, he is doing fine now, thanks to a strong little body and some pink liquid. Great grandma coughs and he says Bless You.

We have been taking care of him a bit this past week and it has been very good for the old one to get to know the new one. Saturday was an especially sweet day. We knew that we had to help out his parents and had him for the day. I got the bright idea that he was ready for his first visit to the Train Museum in Old Sacramento and it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. He is going to be 2 in a month and can name everything with wheels, so it was time to introduce him to the big stuff.

I just can't wait for the day when Rod can finally have a space to set up a layout here so that he and his little buddy can have days of fun together with things that go choo choo. I am just thankful for a little bit of fun and life and trucks all over the house during this time of letting go of mom. Life goes on, one day at a time and one stitch at a time.

Lovely new patterns and kits

The Pixies have been busy lately and now we are finally being able to get the new offerings going on the website. The creativity of My Friends The Designers is growing by leaps and bounds and so this will just be a feast for the eyes.

These lovelies were premiered at Stitches East, to much aplomb!

First we have something snappy from Brenda Patipa, a statement scarf that she calls Red Delicious . This uses one skein of El Dorado and one of Fat Bunny for a striking look that contrasts silky with blurry/furry. It is a marvelous piece. Brenda created it in Garnet and Mars Quake but I can certainly see it in myriad combinations.

Next we have a beautiful pattern that can be for a stole or scarf. The piece pictured was made with 3 ounces of leftover Fingering but you will find that one skein of Sock! Merino to be a perfect fit. To create the stole version requires one full skein of Fingering. Pictured version of Climb Up is the scarf in Vert de Gris.

The final new piece from Brenda is called Envy. It is an ethereal and heavenly soft shawl knitted with one skein of Baby Alpaca Lace in a color that she snagged from the studio one day...an odd, one of a kind color that was supposed to be South Pacific. Seriously, do NOT fall in love with this color because I have NO idea how to create this one again. :o)

Now then, I have a wonderful friend who lives in Yah, Sure, You Betcha Land...the place in the US where it is cold and hot and people are still very very very NICE...the land of TARGET. Hints enough? Yup Minneapolis. That is Kerry Palm's home town. Kerry has started a wonderful pattern company that she calls Northern Palm Designs and I have the privilege of showing the two latest that will be added to the website. Claire is the MOST adorable little bit. The sample was knitted with Hardtwist Petite in the colorway called Mother of Pearl, which was initially created for Vanessa

Second is Kelly, a great little knockaround sweater for a girl or boy. The X's and O's at the hem give it a wonderful texture and the finishing with the buttons makes it a satisfying knit for anyone. The sample was knitted with Hardtwist in Mulberry.

Mom update

First of all, as an update on the stuff going on around here...we got mom in to see her lovely GP yesterday after a worried call to the Kaiser advice nurse (an angel). Mom has some bleeding issues and so we had to put her through the first of many gynecological exams. I will know more on Friday when she gets in to see the OB/GYN. Old neglected body...not good, my friends. The doctor gave ME a big gift, by sweet talking mom into agreeing to allow help from a home healthcare nurse...someone who will come in to bathe her. She will listen to the doctor and not me , which is just fine. I was mouthing "Thank You" to the doctor when she made this all happen. Now we just have to see how the reality of Nurse Nancy coming to give her a bath sets in. *I* do not have to be the bad guy...YAY!

This is the only thing that keeps anything from being done with the dye room and so when orders come in, they go into the queue and on days like today, they will be addressed...we live with one foot out of the door but when things can be accomplished, they get DONE. Thank you for hanging in there with us. I am going to follow this post with a lovely one with all of the new patterns and kits.

Autumn's Glory

Well folks, the height of the season is over and the forest is opening up (I need curtains, I guess). Some people ask me, now and again, just where I get my ideas for color combinations and where this comes from. I can't help it, is what I say. It is color all around me that helps me to draw breath and keep my head up. It comes from within and from out there and just happens. Well, just happens with over 20 years of work with dyes, which are a LOT different from watercolor.
  Out THERE, the last of the leaves that were glowing in the dark are in this photo. You can see behind that tree (Tom, what is it???) that the walk up to the forest is littered with our privacy. :o)

I stared at those leaves for days and days and days and finally picked three in different stages of decay to produce Glory, the new colorway. I don't know who will like it and it doesn't really matter. It is an ode to Out There.

Back to the Birthday

This was back just before we packed up to leave for Baltimore. It was one of the best days that I had had since we moved here and it was all because I got to head out to do what I have treated myself to for the last ten years or so, a trip to the nursery and the promise of a new garden. This year we headed up to Camino and the wonderful small nursery up there just at the snow-line. The couple that own the place retired from the SF Bay Area and followed their bliss to open this small place. They specialize in plants that have adapted to the climate in this region and especially plants that will go happily through the winters. Their neighbors out the back are a small winery and I was extra happy to get the last two barrel halves of the season. (who knows WHEN a winery will cough up a used barrel, after all.) I was THRILLED to buy enough plants and planting mix to fill the two barrels and a couple of big plastic pots, to make what I thought was going to be a STATEMENT beginning of my raised bed gardens. When we got home with these BIG things, well, they were dwarfed by the reality of the fact that we live on almost 8 acres. In Lafayette, this would have made a nice chunk of a garden...here, it is peanuts. Point taken. :o)

The barrel halves were extra fragrant and full of crystalized wine.

Let me tell you, when Rod finally drilled the drainage holes for these beauties, the fragrance of the winery was everywhere. I made my modest beginning with these three pots here and one nearer the house, which contains a Hibiscus that has flowers the size of saucers...and you thought they were just tropical. :o)

The dogs have been keeping us hopping and I SWEAR...even with the dousing of flea and tick stuff, these two keep coming up to me grinning with something or other attached to their big faces. TICKS! The joy and bane of the woods. Tank seems determined to crash around through the bushes and is the champion at having those yucky little critters riding home with him. Eyelids, people...GROSS! Ah well, it is all part of our new lives and even though I think that a particular country song that keeps coming out of my mother's radio (this woman sang grand opera...WHY is she stuck on Country all of a sudden?) is mighty STUPID, it is stuck in my brain. The last line of the chorus is..."I'm gonna check you fer ticks". Lovely.

Sasha is slower and less likely to crash headlong through the bushes but has had a couple of riders. I love this picture. Even though she is a LOT slimmer than her time lounging around the tiny house and yard, she can still make you stand still when she wants to feel one person and look at the other. We like to call her Lean-ah Horne (bad, I know...apology to MISS Lena)

One other family member that has yet to be photographed in her new digs is poor Sadie. Visitors knew her as the Kitchen Cat, happy in her old grapefruit box. Now the poor kitty is relegated to the big closet and the master bathroom. She loves to hang out, looking out the big picture window by my tub.

Rod built a new shed, in honor of the two that we left behind at the little house. We can begin putting all of the stuff littering the outside of the house inside the shed, before the really bad weather hits. He did it all by himself!

One last thing tonight...Amazing Race is BACK! I am over the moon for one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I still think that Rod and Lauren should do it...he is getting in shape, after all. :o)

Old Home Day

My daughter suggested that I call my next post "no midnight snacks for YOU, my friend", after mom sabotaged one of my latest attempts to get her to the eye doctor but more importantly to get her blood tests done. Yeah...she HAPPILY told me that she could not go. WHY?, snarled I. I ate something in the middle of the night, chirps she. The woman is a total brat. She gets scolded by her physical therapy guy and refuses any other kind of help (he could get a social worker here, which would be the beginning of getting help for ME) getting herself up and out of bed during the day. We are starting to think that the woman we moved in here was pretending to be independent and up during the day. Now we figure, with the help of the kind therapist guy, that she probably hung out in her bed a LOT more than I thought. Oy. Passive Aggressive says he...uh huh.

I realize that I need visitors. I felt a nice euphoria when our warm and fuzzy financial planner drove up to the house awhile back for a visit. Dinner with Terri and Russ, the friends across highway 50, was fun and chatty, as well as a dress rehearsal for the rest of our lives. Dinner with Rhonda, my dear friend and buyer's real estate agent and her big bear of a husband, Lonnie, was great for us and little Schnickle, who was staying with us while mommy was sick with strep. I felt positively normal and happy.

Friday, we had a very busy day with workmen and deliveries, a visit from our daughter and then a visit from THIS person and her patient husband, who gave up a day of work and his birthday to bring her up to Folsom for jewelry shopping and then on up to the woods to Placerville.
I thought that I would treat you to a glam shot of Brenda Patipa! That's her, alright, modeling her big fluffy Gingerpeach Kid version of the shawl on the cover of Victorian Lace. Pretty! Pretty and big. (the shawl, that is...Brenda is pretty cute, too.) Yup, there are 1000 yards to a skein and it makes a really big shawl.

I guess that I should backtrack. We had a lovely Halloween and left you-know-who on her own with a nice dinner. She was certain that we were going to have the Boogie Man come up to ring ring ring the doorbell on Halloween but I was so over her shenanigans that I just agreed with Rod...she will be safe with the beasts in the house and we need OUT. So we went down to Folsom to  be a part of Schnickle's first AWARE holiday. Lauren threw a little party to feed the neighborhood before the kids took off to do their thing and it was just so much fun to see the little guy actually light up about wearing his special costume. He told me that the kids at "school" got to parade outside, which seemed to be a big hit...I remember it well, both for Schnickle's mama and Uncle but also for myself. Sweet memories. We have new memories now.

You know, I am starting to come out of my funk. I have a lot of pictures and stories to tell you and I am going to break them into several posts. There are new garments from Brenda, a new colorway to salute the season and just lots of other news. Stay tuned...I THINK that I may get through this. :o)