Tilt-a-whirl

Baby It's Cold Outside

Believe me, I am really counting my blessings, as they fall from the sky. California is a dry state, in the summer and all that we have been given this year, in the form of rain or snow is being banked and released and banked again by the powers that be. Our little corner of the world has an old fashioned banking system because we live next to a seasonal creek and a living thing, which is the sign that there is water being stored under our piece of land. Lucky lucky lucky. The water is full of minerals and we DO have to do all of that filtering stuff but it is down there and pretty much on the surface, these days, which is evident when a footprint just fills up with the stuff after a gushy walk with the dogs. We are looking into a new type of filter system, which will not only eliminate the minerals but do so without the S A L T. Once Rod is done with jury duty, we are going to have someone out to give it a whirl.

  When we came home from the lovely dinner at the new bistro in town called Bricks (Eats & Drinks) I saw some heavenly bodies in the guise of stars, which had been hidden from view for many many nights. The first walk of the morning (through the goop) showed promise overhead and for the life of me I had the silly idea that there would be SUN today. Not so fast, Sister...you can't see the forest for the trees and you certainly can't see what is coming, living in said forest. Duh. So, there's this...

That weird blue stuff? It's gone now and I guess that we are In For It again so I am doing what every red blooded spinner would do, on a day like this; I am heading back over to the house and will be watching what happens from the many windows of The Woman Cave, while turning some richly colored cashmere/merino top (Painted Desert, if you must know) into yarn. It seems fitting.

In the meantime, enjoy my fantasy garden. These two potted plants hide the rescued drowning night crawlers (yes, I AM one of those people!) and hold my gardener's heart while my own garden wakes and sleeps and wakes and sleeps. I know that it will be Spring eventually and when the sun gets here, I am going to be READY. Perhaps when we return from our Atlanta/Stitches South road trip next month, we will be greeted by What Will Be.

 

Catching Up

It has been pretty crazy, weather wise up here in the woods. My assistant, who arrived with a foot of snow plastered to the top of her car this morning, scoffed at our pitiful snow down here but mother nature has still been trying to snow on us today. The rain gauge that Rod installed in the yard has recorded that we have gotten over 50 inches of rain this season, which begins in October. Yes, that is five oh inches. Lovely stuff.

This was taxes weekend and so I had no expectations of doing anything but arranging piles of papers into their proper places but it is a good thing that I got some of the King Alfred daffodils cut before the rain and snow pushed their sweet yellow faces into the mud. They do have a lovely soft scent...

That is a wonderful vase that I found down at the El Dorado Arts Council shop in Placerville. (if you are in town, don't miss this space for wonderful art that is very affordable.)

It seemed that every time that I bent a knee, this weekend, I had company in the guise of the cat who came to live with us as Geisha but who quickly became Boopie; MISS Boopie to you. She has become quite the companion in the Woman Cave and has established her dents in the living room couch and that other one in the WC. I think that she likes it here. Adoption is a good thing.

 

On the Book Front, 10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitters has become a physical thing. The early copies came to us and a few publications and so here it is. The release date is May 10 and I guess that it is all about being on a boat from China. I got to sit with it in my hands and read the words and remind myself of the projects that Vicki and I designed but more so, the wonderful designs from friends, old and new.

 

 

I want to show you the fabulous framing jobs done by our new friends at Pop Art in Placerville. Rod and I stumbled in there before Stitches West, when we were trying to find some way of hanging the book poster in the booth. The folks at Pop Art took pity on us and sported us a couple of hangers and we promised to come back with a painting that was still rolled in a tube from its journey from Peru. We did go back and spent about half of an hour with them, going through so many different frame choices for the first piece. It is funny but when the right one goes on the piece, you just know.

This is called The Desired Place. It is a beautiful and colorful oil that I fell in love with on the Novica website. The heavy frame is so handsome and enhances the beautiful brush and knife work of the artist.

I was so happy with the outcome that I decided to take a couple of small pieces to them that had been nekkid since they came to me from a terrific Brazilian artist. They have been a part of the house for a long time and now that we found the beautiful frame for both of them, they have come alive.

I hope that Pablo Matania is happy with what we did. The angels sang when this pink, gold and verdigris frame corner touched the little paintings.

I have been doing a lot of spinning and knitting lately and here is one of the skeins from a big project. The red is actually some merino dyed in Forbidden City that was  enhanced with some sparkly bits of golden Firestar. I spun a huge amount of it on the Spin-Tech bobbin and was wondering what would compliment this pretty single. Hmmm...I decided to go to my wilder side and spun up a load of natural black angora from a rabbit by the name of Betsy. Some of her coats were silvery and some got very dark and so the wilder ones are the dark ones, of which I spun two skeins. There are five of the lighter ones. The fun part of this project is that this yarn, because it is hand plucked angora is going to bloom like CRAZY. I have just started petting it and the blur is making it SO soft. I am calling this Betsy's Candied Apple.

I am hoping that the darker ones can be crocheted into a fabulous cap by Tom Clark.

Now it is time to put on my raincoat and shuffle off to the house. We are joining the West Coast family for dinner, down at the new restaurant in town called Bricks. It is across from the courthouse where a long-time Italian place went out some time ago. We walked by and stared in the window last week and were thrilled with what they had done with the interior and so it is time to go down and patronize the place! I'll let you know what we think!