>Lemonade

Posted on January 29, 2008 | 1 comment

>Bad news in my inbox today. I cannot get any more yarn to finish my Muir shawl. Drat, drat, drat! I’m about halfway through the shawl, using a beautiful silk yarn from ArtFibers called Alfabeto in a somewhat strange space dyed colorway. The color has gradually grown on me. I don’t know why I thought I had enough of this yarn….
perhaps it was that the yarn had no ball band so over time I only imagined it was enough for a whole shawl? This shawl was to be for a friend. I need to think if there is any way to salvage what I have and somehow complete it.

This situation does NOT improve my mood. I’ve just spent some time looking at blogs of two people whose work inspires me. I was looking for a bit of cheering up and inspiration, and I got both….until that email arrived about the yarn.

I need to find a way to make lemonade out of this, but my mind is a blank….. knitting has not gone well for me lately!

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Posted in knitting

>Winter Blues

Posted on January 13, 2008 | 4 comments

>EVERY DAY IS A STRUGGLE;
THEREFORE WE MUST BE KIND TO EACH OTHER.

My son noticed this saying posted on the wall of the little hamburger place where we ate before the opera last week. At the time I thought it was a little overstated. Surely every day is not a struggle. But now as this I begin to tire of winter so early in the season this year, I imagine that each day is going to be harder and longer on the slow road to April!

I’ve already got a pretty bad case of the winter blues and it’s only mid-January. Yikes! I’ve got a long way to go…. So, look at these colors! The hot red and yellow, the soothing white and purple.  I think it was May last year when we visited Longwood Gardens. I’m trying to remember how it smelled on that glorious day in May.

Now would be a good time for spinning. I’ve got a rather imposing project going on my spinning wheel, something I admit I’m avoiding right now. But my lovely Steve spindle might be just the thing to cheer me! The fiber I haven’t finished spinning is a combination of merino and silk. It’s a very pretty grey/green with white silk streaks. And the finished yarn would make a wonderful lace shawl.

I have borrowed my son’s monitor for the past couple of weeks since mine died. He is going to pack his up and take it back to school today, so I will be visually impaired until mine returns from being fixed. So…..I won’t be here, and hopefully I’ll be spinning….

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Posted in Fine Craft

>New Year

Posted on January 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

>It’s been ages since I sat at a loom, either my tapestry looms or my “regular” looms. I’m getting a bit frustrated about that! I haven’t even managed to get much knitting done this holiday season, except to finally sew together my Hild sweater, which I wore to the opera on Monday, when I saw “DieWalkyrie” at the Met with Lorin Maazel conducting.

My younger son has certainly been creative during his time off this month. This is a drawing he did for his dad for Christmas. It’s a traditional boat called a Friendship sloop, for Friendship, Maine, where they were built. I had envisioned us doing some drawing together, but it still hasn’t happened. I could sure use a dose of his creativity! He leaves on Sunday to return to school.

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Posted in drawing, knitting

>New Ideas Brewing

Posted on December 19, 2007 | 2 comments

>I’m feeling rather smug that the presents are wrapped and the house is decorated. After my annual panic about whether I remembered everyone on my list, whether have I been fair with everyone, and whether are there enough goodies for the stockings, I am pleased to report all is well and I’ll be sleeping soundly for the next few nights!

So that gives my mind time to pursue other tasks, like a lineup of possible future projects. There are a lot of wonderful shots of desert in Nevada from our recent trip. There is a large pile of linen tow singles in luscious colors waiting to become dishtowels. There is a little warp left on a Theo Moorman project that wants to become a stylized image of sunflowers. There is a warp on my table loom waiting to become a silk scarf in my own design network twill (from aBonnie Innouye class last fall). So what am I doing HERE at the computer???

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Posted in tapestry, weaving

>Contrasts

Posted on December 17, 2007 | Leave a comment

>My husband and I just returned from taking a detour from my holiday preparations. He had business in Las Vegas, and I decided to jump off the holiday roller coaster to go with him. We stayed in complete luxury here….




But the highlight of the trip was going out into the desert. This is the Valley of Fire, and the rock formations are amazing enough without the addition of the amazing color….so different than the surrounding mountains.
Some pictoglyphs

The plants were quite green due to having a couple days of rain.
We’ve got a lot of pictures, and I’ve got ideas for tapestry designs. It was a wonderful respite. So different from December in NY!

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Posted in travel

>Bravery

Posted on December 4, 2007 | Leave a comment

>
Yesterday I spent the day in the cancer center at Hackensack Hospital with a friend who was undergoing her third chemo treatment for breast cancer. I’ve never seen such a crowded area in a hospital, but in spite of the lack of chairs for the all the patients and visitors, in spite of the long delays, in spite of what appeared to be an unacceptable level of confusion, everyone was treated with care and concern. I knew I was in the presence of people with a lot of courage. It was a lesson to me that good health is the greatest gift, and that we should all take notice of our good fortunes every day. It was a good example of the different kinds of bravery people find in themselves to go through such scary, trying times. My friend is certainly one of the bravest. She is an amazing example for me. In spite of the terrible reason to be with her yesterday, I enjoyed having a day with her to talk about our past lives before we met, to crochet together, to observe those around us. While my friend was attached to the IV she spent the time teaching me to make crocheted flowers and leaves. People watched her directing me and started conversations with her. The chemo center is certainly a place where people get to know each other easily.

This past weekend was very hectic for me, and now I’m quite grateful for yesterday’s ability to put things in perspective. Saturday I taught a class on kumihimo and met six interesting women who were my students. They came from quite varied backgrounds, from one woman who had never done any kind of handwork either with threads or pottery or metal work (but she was interested in kumihimo because she’d seen it being done in Japan during a recent visit), to another woman who came with a background in jewelry making and wanted to learn to make cords for some of her metal works. The others had varying backgrounds in weaving and knitting. They were very interesting women, and I hope our paths cross again. They have my contact information, but I don’t have a way of reconnecting with them!

After that class, I came home to a house full of people that I don’t know well, sailing friends of my husband’s. What a friendly bunch of people who were already enjoying each other and patiently waiting for my arrival to get some dinner on the table! My older son and his finance were part of this party of about two dozen people, and they spent the night. It was quite a treat to spend time with Rob and Lauren on Sunday, which included going to the movies….we saw “American Gangster.” Wow!

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Posted in crochet, family, kumihimo

>Holiday Knitting

Posted on November 26, 2007 | Leave a comment

>Those of us who celebrate Christmas arrive at the end of Thanksgiving with a bit of panic, don’t we? While I do have my fair share of shopping panic, my larger stress is the sudden realization that I intend to knit far more things than my hands are able to in the mere four weeks left to me. This year is no different, in spite of my best efforts not to start anything new.

I should have been done with that Muir shawl weeks ago. It looks so simple, and yet I’m beginning the fifth repeat and I simply cannot memorize that pattern. The lace is so spongey ( I don’t think that’s a word) I can’t see the pattern to determine if the YO/dec’s should slant left or right. So that keeps me enslaved to the chart. I’ve enlarged the chart so I can now at least read it without bringing it two inches from my eyes. I thought I’d gain some speed by making the chart big enough to glance at from a distance, so I could be in my comfy chair with the pattern placed on a nearby side table. I’m still not fast enough!

My Hild sweater is not sewn together yet. My future DIL’s sweater from last Christmas is still not done. I’m altering it for the second time (that means third time to knit, counting my innocent first endeavor just following the instructions). Actually, this time I have undone the entire sweater and am starting from scratch. Boy did that hurt!

And I’m not even going to consider working on my niece’s Marihone sweater. I will have to frog that back and redesign it. It will be fun to do, so I’d better not tackle that at this time of year or I’ll end up hating it.

I haven’t touched my historical tapestry in about a month now. I hope to get back to that next week. I hope to do all my holiday shopping online! I tried that last year, and it wasn’t overly successful, but hope is so constantly optimistic, and I do so hope to buy everything without ever leaving the house!

Let the roller coaster ride begin. I hope it will be more fun than scary!


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Posted in knitting

>Medical marvels

Posted on November 17, 2007 | 2 comments

>I’m marveling at the surgery that Chris’ friend Sarah just had. The night of the accident the doctors removed a piece of her skull to relieve the pressure from her head injury. They put her into an induced coma to let her heal somewhat. They woke her up early in the week, and since she progressed well through the week they did a second surgery on Thursday to replace that piece of skull. The part I just learned is that to keep her skull bone alive and well they had inserted it into her leg near her hip bone. At times like these, when someone’s precious life was almost taken by a random accident, the marvels of modern surgical techniques just amaze me. I’m floored and so thankful that she is going to survive this.

Now I just hope she will recover fully.
(Okay, what does this photo have to do with this post? Well….it’s an image of an amazing day in an amazing place, and both have happened this week for Sarah)

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Posted in family

>Always something

Posted on November 16, 2007 | 1 comment

>First on my mind this week is Sarah. News from my son is that he saw her awake earlier this week and that she knows who everyone is that has visited her. She even knew people who were not visiting but were being discussed. She was brought out of her coma and will have a second surgery to replace the portion of her scull that was removed during the first surgery in order to relieve the pressure from her injury. Her family, from the Philippines, is there with her. She has a long road to recovery, so if you see this please keep her in mind or in your prayers.

In the last couple of days I have discovered that some of my friends are now on Ravelry. That made me realize that I needed to update my account there, post some pictures, make contact with some of the groups I joined. When I joined ravelry I looked around a bit, joined some groups, and then promptly forgot all about it. Having some local friends there has made me reconnect, and it’s a great place! I found lots of inspiration on the Bohus knitting group. Some of their finished sweaters just make me weak in the knees. I want to drop everything and start a Bohus design. I’ve had plans for that for years….but I try to be strong and make myself finish what I’ve already started!

Through someone on the Tapestry yahoo group, one of the Convergence committee members has contacted me to see if The Wednesday Group is interested in displaying work at a site near the Convergence activities. I am totally not ready to organize another show, but how can we let this opportunity pass? Will just have to see where this leads.

And lastly, it is autumn here at last. I can no longer dash out on errands without a coat, and the colors which are normally so vibrant at hallowe’en are looking pretty dramatic in time for Thanksgiving. Better late than never….
This i

This the “corky bark” or “burning bush” at one end of my main perennial garden, with the maples behind. There are miniature bamboo under the corky bark and there is the silhouette of my David Austin Heritage rose in the foreground.

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Posted in family, knitting

>Here’s Buddha

Posted on November 7, 2007 | 1 comment

>

Here’s Buddha, not quite ready for prime time. I took a load of pictures of him today and didn’t get a good one yet. I’ll keep tweaking and replace this when I have a better one. Well, with help from my camera savvy husband, here’s a better photo.

My younger son called today in a bit of a funk. A friend of his from school was walking home to her off-campus apartment last night when she was hit by a car. He doesn’t know too much except that she had head injury with internal bleeding and needed surgery. She’s a physics major, like Chris, and this is her senior year also. Chris does problem sets with her and a few other students in the library each week. I hope she will recover. I can’t get her off my mind…. If you see this please say a prayer for her. Her name is Sarah.

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Posted in family, tapestry