Tilt-a-whirl

Going to the grocery store...hungry

I KNOW, it is stupid and foolhardy and expensive. I know all of that. The problem is...when I engage The Husband in the activity of foraging AFTER a meal, I don't think with my hunger, of all of the possibilites for future meals and think with my Yuck, why do I need that mentality, which means that there is less food in the house for moments of creative kitchen flourish. See? Yeah, I saw...a Safeway receipt the size of a Costco receipt. The thing is...I am starting to think that when The Husband is home from the Prophane Wars, I will want to cook again, simply because there will be someone here to help me grow the business...oh yeah, and there is the POOR thing. :o) I could whip up some mean White Trash meals when we were raising children on one salary, believe me. So, the point is that by going to the store hungry yesterday, I thought of all of the things that I used to cook before I worked 12 hour days at this business and just worked those hours on the business and raising children...at least then, it was a home cooked meal every night. Now? Not so much...I had better remember how to do it, fast.

I have been in a little creative funk, simply weather related, I think...it feels like an Oakland summer...freezing until the overcast burns off around noon. (It sucked to be a teenager, believe me) I just can't seem to fire on all pistons when it feels like winter with longer days. Thank goodness the sun and breeze comes out in the afternoon, long enough to dry some yarn flapping in said breeze. I just have to be sure to not miss that window of opportunity and the kiss of death for that is for me to turn on CNN and the Spin-tech...nope, too cold to go into the dye studio...yatta yatta yatta.

I jump started the antidote for this behavior yesterday by having the audacity of taking advantage of an invitation to the Sock list by firing up an Ad. It reminded me, as I put skein after skein into pouches for mailing, that I just have to get more and more creative. I threw three new colors into the dye pot yesterday, well one is only new to Sock! Normally, for the blog, I photograph things together but the new Bluegrass color would just grab the headlines and so I will show them to you independently. Remember...wild socks are a good thing...

Then, there is Yellow Ribbon.

Last is the sedate Sage.

Gosh, I guess that it is time to finish putting back all of the C R A P that we boxed up when we thought the house was going on the market cuz Kerry is coming to visit in one week. Yippee! Only a person who names her blog Furballs would come stay with me for a nice full weekend of someone elses dogs and cats, yes? We did some serious bonding in our brief time together in Maryland (sheep and wool) and there seems to be an old friend set-up already in place here. (I checked the Wayback Machine and yup...there is a connection) So, we are going to play.

Congrats to Stephanie for firing out another book, so quickly on the heels of her last one. I heard tell that it is in some book stores already and so if you want to keep The Harlot in a plane and in a town near you...go buy the new book. :o)

Buddha sezzzzzzzz

spin spin spin. So, I do. When under stress, I spin. When happy, I spin. When bored, I spin. I need to go out to the dye room to fire up some more colors of Sock! but the realities of stuff going on with loved ones just makes me want to spin. Seems like a productive way to sit on my kiester, doesn't it? While I am waiting for some precious time with my web designer, I will show my new work here, which will have to suffice for now.

I spun part of this over the King's Mt. Weekend but because it was a GOOD weekend, I had to finish this project, spun on the Rose, at home. Not a bad way to go. It is about 12 ounces of superfine merino in the Sky Drama colorway. Delicious.
Yes, you can buy it OR you can get some to spin. Commerce must go on, baby.

Ok, so here is a horse of another color. I kept staring at this combo of Biffle and Firestar and it wasn't Flying Fish and it also wasn't Rainbow Trout...Hmmm, Sun Dappled Pond...yeah, that's it. Kind of like naming your kid Edgar Terwilliger...quite a moniker.

What is catching my attention today, you ask? This.

Yup, that is more angora but not HELLE'S angora...just some top that I have been maturing in the stash in a tealy version of Olive Tones. We will probably have about 7 ounces at the end of this little encounter.

Thank you all for good wishes for my friend. It looks as though the Buddha and I will be patient and see her through these turbulent times (what is up with Saturn...I want to kick it's ass) and we will all come through better on the other side of her troubles.

Now, on to the most recent installment of The Perils of Pauline, AKA The Husband VS Prophane Industries. Last night was a 'little' sleepless for moi but The Husband seems to be sleeping well and so if he is not worried, I can knock it off, I guess. His days with Can You Hear Me Now will end, the third week in October. They told Prophane to shove the idea of keeping the contract open for ONE guy up their nozzle and so The Husband will officially retire with one week of payment for NOT doing Prophane's work. Now...let us all take bets on whether the geniuses at Prophane, the almighty bean twirlers will decide to hire Dike Finger Man back as a contractor or a few months. Beautiful, isn't it? It reminds me of government...Doin' a great job, Brownie. Barf.

Trauma and creativity

Yes, yes I know that I have been quiet for the last few days. It has been a trying weekend, with scary times for a dear friend whose life is being inexplicably turned upside down and whose life is tied to mine. I am learning the patience of the Buddha, knowing that this person's trauma is greater than I could ever understand and that I can wait for clarity. In the meantime, I create.

HELLE! Your beautiful white Danish angora (these rabbits are as Sam likes to say, ginormous) that came in a box has been altered. I hear that poor Mike, who lovingly packed this beautiful and bright white stuff to be fluffy and clean and white and untangled, nearly passed out when he saw this. Does it really look like dried barf/Ralph/Ulrich/vomit? Nnnnnuh unh. It was soft and clotted and colorful and went from this stage to my hand cards, so that I could open up the blobs o' color. Yes, folks...I AM a professional :o) and did this all on purpose. (Relax Mike...it wasn't a bad trade...well, not for ME!) I divided the fiber up and spun it up on the Spin-tech, to see how He (this is not a feminine thing, this hunk of aluminum) could make it happen for me. Poifect. Yes, there are slubs and texture and everything that I wanted in this project...just right for ME and a certain platinum tressed, tatooed dude with a hook. Just right.

There has been some talk on my favorite fiber related email group about people being bogged down with grief over the constant CNN coverage of Katrina and the suffering of so many people. I told them this morning about how I pushed myself to get ready for my Labor Day show, even when I thought that it could be thought of as frivolous by some people. I remembered back to the days right after 9/11 when I just thought of my colleagues that would be hopefully and with great resolve, dragging themselves and their wares to the streets of Lafayette, for the annual Art & Wine festival, down our main drag. I swelled up with my checkbook in hand, vowing to go downtown to support my fellow artists. I thought that I would be wandering a beautiful ghost town or someplace filled with the shell shocked, on this first weekend after the day. To my amazement, the public came and came to support the arts because the arts are a bellwhether of sorts; a sign of the health of our society. People came. People came to King's Mountain as well. They came to support their choices, the economy and the artists who pour their hearts into this work that is unlike anything corporate and regular and ordinary. Such is The Big Easy. I heard the news today...the restaurants in the French Quarter are getting ready to open and may have permission to do so on Monday. As they say...Whereyouat? I am here and creating and will be ready when people are ready again.

Now, on a joyful note. This weekend I got to see how my Grandsonfetus is protruding on the front end of his narrow mama. My oh my. The daughter threw a wedding shower for her closest college friend, this past Saturday and although it was a nice intimate affair, half of the population of sorority sisters was out to here. We had October 8th, November 9th and December 10th, my friends. Life. Life busting out all over and man, was it fun to see these women that I met when they were girls show me that life goes on with juicy gusto. Fabulous. Perhaps this is why I got my lift. Not bad...I promptly went out and did my part for the economy on Sunday with The Husband, finally having a reason to go into that fancy Grandma Bait shop, coming out with a fancy box and something wonderful for The Little Dude. Woo hoo.

Feels like Autumn

First of all, thanks for all of the thoughtful comments to my tired old whiner post. I guess that there are just so many of us that see the same thing, this over-all lowering of expectations in this country. Phooey. I am with you, Tom. I loved talking to a couple of young boys this weekend...boys who told me that they love to crochet (they were outed by their moms). They were quiet about it but I told them how wonderful I thought it was and then I dropped Tom's name, telling them about my friend in Southern California that makes beautiful caps for people, with his skill as a crocheter. Their eyes really lit up and you could see a feeling of community building. I also got a big charge out of a young girl, who could not have been more than 11 that spent her own money for a skein of silk/merino yarn and showed me the cell phone cover that she had knitted and told me of her plans for this yarn. She came back on Monday and we talked more about what she likes to knit and I saw the future in her eyes. I also saw the future in a tiny little girl that had a remarkable vocabulary for one so small (18 months?) who asked me questions about the wheel and what I had in my hand and who also connected with me with her old soul eyes. I told her dad, who had moist eyes, that I saw her as someone that would be doing this fiber/spinning thing in the near future. She "told" me so in a soul connect sort of way. When she said Thank You upon leaving (!) (how great are these parents...give me hope) I told her that I would see her next year, when she was taller and had more questions. Very sweet. My point is that we have to still Reach One/Teach One to educate this Wal-Mart, goods from China numbed population into understanding Worth.

The weather has certainly done an about face around here and I can tell from the grass that dies back in the summer and then re-emerges in the autumn (to pretend that it is a lawn) that we are entering into planting season again. Yeah, I guess that really does mean that we are staying here, since I am thinking about planting season. I put that big beautiful Sea Mallow into the soil in the back yard as a sort of prayer for stability and it flourished through the heatwaves of late summer...meaningful. The husband is still in the "hopeful" stage for an extension of his contract. Prophane really needs him to teach whatever RCG that will be earning a fraction of his salary what it is that he does. Hmmm, they finally realized that there would be no guy with a finger in the dike if he was let go immediately and so the negotiations are in the works to keep him on for about 6 months longer. He is happy and I am happy for the time to live a little longer with a corporate paycheck...long enough to have paid for the robot on the truck from Prince Edward Island. What was it you said about Saturn, Sheila ?

On to fun. Anyone else watching Rockstar/INXS? I have to say that it is my serious guilty pleasure for the summer...nope, drop the guilty...I love this show and the remarkable concept that Mark Burnett, the reality TV god, came up with to bring the INXS brand up front and center, as well as showcase the remarkable talents of a diverse group of singer/songwriters vying for the lead singer position. I have been known to ZZZZ-out before the show airs (ten o'clock is just past my bedtime these days) but I have the distinct pleasure of watching it on Wednesday afternoons before the elimination show that evening. What great young singers and that house band...makes me wish that I was young again and had a shot. This is no American Schlock Idol, my friends...this is a rock concert on a weekly basis...so good that I have saved the show nights to TIVO.

Sorry, no pictures this morning...just blather. I must go sling some Sock!

Oh yeah...someone just reminded me...the Fall Knitty is up and once again, Brenda has created a beautiful little ad for me on the Covet Central page. That is the Mardi Gras colorway, people. Say it...mmmmmmmmmmm.

Creativity and "worth"

Can you feel it? The rant coming on like the electrical smell in the clouds before a storm? Ah yes. I had a man this weekend have the audacity, after telling me that they come to see me each year, that he wishes that I would LOWER my prices. I stood up very tall and looked this octagenarian in the face and said, (The Husband is usually the one to do this but I did it myself this time) Think back to when you were working and earning a salary. Picturing it? Can you see the numbers on your paycheck? Do you see the numbers on that one of a kind piece of art knitting out there (this was just before the Mesa Cardie went into the hands of an artist who knew its worth)? Can you envision yourself working for about a week to ten days for that money and have the expense of materials taken out of the equation? His eyes got larger and he looked me in the face and said, Oh...I would never have thought of it that way. Well, DUH. People do not think twice about spending Emperor's New Clothes money for something with the label of designer who has his things made in China for peanuts, simply because they can carry it home in a Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's bag. Guh. I am getting older and more tuned in to putting a fair price on my work, simply because I can now say, this garment is taking me X hours to create and knit while in those same X hours I can dye and market all of this yarn...double to triple the income. Yes, yes I AM knitting another piece, (Hah...you can see the little book that I used for wrapping shawl fringe)

feeling the shoulder and hand pain, as well as the pain of my butt in the dent in the couch. I promised that I would create this piece for a wonderful collector and so I am. I just have to shut out the little voice that sez...HEY, you could go in the dye room and pay the gasoline bill, just like that. Sad. Perhaps when The Husband comes into the business, I will have the wherewithall to do more in the hours that I am awake.

I had to explain to people, all weekend, why it is that I put my knitting machines away and out of reach. Yup, those sweaters over there are the Last Of The Line and so you had better get them now. Awwwwwww, sez they. Health and time, sez I. (One can only live with cotton lint for so many years and then stop dealing with it to know when breathing is easier...oh...hmmm, perhaps I should just concentrate on something different!) Being a person that likes to make others happy, I got dragged back into doing these garments for adults and kids for a couple of years longer than I had hoped for but it took that act of clearing the machines out of here to allow me to be Pontius Pilate...The rest will go to Folsom and The Grandsonfetus, who I have been told is making The Daughter's belly look quite Alien.

Thanks again to Kathleen Day for cranking out a pair of socks on her machine (I loved seeing people cock their heads to the side when I told them that the socks on the Sock! display were made that way). I will be dragging those beauties around with me for show and tell, Kathleen. I am very happy that so many of you are enjoying your yarn and I just might have to fire up a pair myself. (the sound of fainting bodies hitting the floor is deafening) Yes, I HAVE made a pair of socks in my life...chunky funky dorm socks for The Daughter from handspun yarn. I may lose my mind with this weensy stuff but the finished product will be just what I love to wear. I just have to fire up more colors so that Brenda can do a new grouping in her sock series. I love her Day Trips and can't wait to see what she will come up with when faced with the ever expanding palette. :o) Clever woman! I hate hate hate to write patterns...purple passion hate. Time to get over that as well, eh? SIGH.

Oh! My Aching...

...insert name of body part here. I can make it through the long ordeal of a 4 day show (including the full afternoon of set-up in our little redwood forest piece of heaven) but Howey Cwap, those last few things that involve shlepping the bins of stuff up and over the tree roots and nature's divots into the BAV (which has taken forever to be able to get to our remote booth spot) have just finished me off for another year. Yes, it is true...I consistently forget to bring a camera to this dusty little haven (perhaps it is the preservation of the health of my camera friend that makes me forget...)

This posting and this sight are proof of my return. I came home to some lovely orders last night and had to write to folks saying...it's in the van. Yup, it's still in there, with the exception of my Rose and the very essentials. :o)

While we were gone during the day, the Thundering herd was remarkably good. Sasha, who is a veteran of show weekends, never gave us any ptoblems but life can get boring when you are a big puppy who has reached the limit of time without Mama...you see, he gnawed knob number one, the right one, during moments of great stress a few weeks ago and other than a little torn paper, this knob number two was the only casualty of 4 days of the Big Experiment.

It could be a LOT worse. We are fortunate enough to live about 55 minutes from King's Mt, which means that we can come and go and sleep in our own bed at night and shower in our own bathroom. Nice. Sunday morning I bounded out of bed (I was still perky enough to bound) and into the shower, brushed my teeth and got into the kitchen to pack the day's lunch and all of that normal stuff. Before I know it, in shuffles The Husband, with sort of a wild look in his eyes. WHAT? Sez he...did you see it? See What, says I. The Giant mouse or small rat in the bathroom. Ummmmmmm ...the thought process began...I had seen no corpse or blood or signs of struggle when I had been enthroned or drying off...what was he talking about. Come with me, sez he. We march back into the bedroom and he has closed the bathroom door, readying his chair and whip. Uh oh...no corpse. This means that my little friend Sugar Pie, the diminuitive Cashmere Junkie cover girl of the website had brought something in and not killed it. SWEET! The Husband is freaking out over the whole thing, figuring that if we just open the window of this tiny bathroom, this Roof Rat will just climb up and out. Yeah, right. I shut the door with me and The Rat inside and get my curling iron "whip" and waste basket "chair" out and proceed in catching and releasing (out the window) this poor conscript back out to the wild for another day. These are the days that we call Wild Kingdom around here.

Here I sit, in my Ugly Robe, telling you about the weekend and when I look behind me, this is what I see. The Thundering Herd that wants to make certain that I do not leave them again today.

We had lovely redwood forest visits from the quite perky Alison Hyde, whose cashmere scarves were quite a hit, as well as my childhood pal Janice (kindergarten, people). I got to hug the famous and adorable Ex-Wife of the Ex-Wife Sweater fame and then bundle the Mesa Cardie up for her to take home. I am glad that she came later in the day because another collector coveted that sweater and I just knew that it would not be the right size for her and so there will be Mesa II and perhaps Mesa III (each one being unique) if Dorothy forgives me for selling off "her" sweater. :o)

Sock! made its debut at King's Mt and I was really pleased with the reception, finding that Sky Drama and Mardi Gras were two of the biggest hits. Lisa Keating just sent me a picture of some foo foo socks that she is knitting with her Sky Drama. Gawjus.

All in all, it was another great long weekend and I survived. The muscle pain will fade and I will forget and agree to give birth to another punkin' head kid next year. Thanks to all of you that made the trip up the mountain to hang out and get a little dust on your shoes. You are treasured.

Friend Wealth

Look at this beautiful Miss or Mr. September.
I haven't seen a picture of a dog that reminds me so much of Sasha until I turned the page of my calendar today. Sasha is a big girl...

I told The Husband yesterday that after listening to stories of people down south, I would never again take the act of going down to Safeway for milk and bread as a ho-hum thing. I looked around at the people scurrying from the Bart station and thought about how lucky we are and about what more we can do for our sisters and brothers in the Gulf States. We are funneling money, in our small way, to The Red Cross and The Humane Society, earmarked for Hurricane relief. We are still making our regular donations to Doctors Without Borders because we don't want to forget the poor souls that they serve.

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day for me, although I waited until this morning to open the packages...kind of like Christmas morning. The little box was from Kathleen Day of Fiona's Friends. Kathleen was the QUEEN of charity knitting for so many years, making hundreds and hundreds of sweet little hats for premature babies in her favorite hospital, until she started to develop a pain in her elbow that soon made it impossible to knit those itty bitty things. (I am now the proud owner of a Tennis Elbow brace...) After a doctor was able to work some magic and mojo on her arm, Kathleen was beginning to come back to the world of knitting, only THIS TIME, she found a new (old) device to focus on...a CSM, that is a sock knitting machine to us civilians. I sent Kathleen one of my first dyed and dried skeins of Sock! to play with because, well, she has this sock knitting thing. What does she do? She sends ME the socks.

Deep Dark Wild Things. Kathleen! Mwah! Socks to display this weekend.

Now my other little angel is Alison Hyde What does she do when she hears that The Husband is going to be cut loose from Can You Hear Me Now, because of Prophane Industries? She knits up and writes up two scarf patterns for my Aura cashmere yarn, sends me the patterns to be given away with the yarn (for personal or charity use) AND sends me the scarves to photograph and take to the show.
Cathedral in the trees

King's Mountain

See? Friend Wealth.