The rest of the pictures

Curse you, Blogger, for giving me a hassle when I was looking forward to a special post!

Knitting's rock star

[argh, I've had all sorts of difficulties getting the pictures to stay in order etc. so I hope this works. It was going better earlier. what gives??]

Ah, Madison! What a place. Even though we had more of this stuff at about 3 o'clock on Monday . . .

I'm so glad our mid-sized city got on the tour for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book! Jaala did a great job reporting on her blog, so I'll just add to that. The lines that stuck with me were the one about carrying emergency knitting :D and of course, " our plan to take over the world continues apace." And the funny bit about the sheep & wool festival.

We're guessing that there were over 200 people in attendance, and it was great great fun. Especially for knitters like me who don't get out much ;) I didn't get home until 10:45! Oh, and the book is fun to read, too! I was so tired I felt hung over the next morning but I'd do it again in a minute!!

April has been really back & forth with weather, so we get outside whenever we can. Today, lots of gardening. A post soon on my finished vest and my next things. Cindy

I Spy

Hi there,

I see from Jaala's post that you guys made it last night. Sounds fun, how I envy you. I've looked for you in the pictures from YH's post, even tried to line up with the picture from KnitCircus, but no such luck.

Out late on a weeknight? Such rebels! ;)

Pictures?

Oral Surgery and other distractions

Hi Cindy,

Since we don't have snow banks melting or kids playing to post I thought I'd include a picture of our cholla blooming. It's got a couple of other blooms about to open although they're hard to see in the picture.

I've also included two shots of the cactus at the front of our house to show how much they've grown in about a year's time. You may remember the first picture from my last post of June last year. It is hard to see the difference on the large cactus in the center but you can really tell the difference by the two outer cactus. Both were well below the roofline but now they've grown up above it. The big rains we got November through January really made them happy. Of course we now haven't had any rain since mid-February and wildfires are starting to pop up.

I've been recovering from lots of dental fun and not knitting very much. You'd think I'd have lots of time for it, and I have, but I just haven't felt like it. The root canals actually weren't as bad as I feared. It took less time for both procedures than I spent waiting for the novacaine to kick in; I spent just about an hour in the chair. By contrast, the lengthening for the crown took longer. They actually wanted to do it for both teeth and had to start the crown prep first. After one of the regular dentists shaped both teeth for the crowns the periodontist decided that only one of the teeth actually needed the gum cut. I had planned to go back to work after all that fun but two hours in the dental chair and 5 shots of novacaine sent me home instead. I go back tomorrow to have the stitches removed and then it will be a couple of weeks before they can take the crown impressions. At least I have temporaries covering the teeth now.

Two final pictures before I close this up. The first is of our silly

Margi cat. All three cats have taken to drinking from the bamboo water. They love that the vase is the perfect height for them to stand or sit next to and drink from. Abby and Ted will only drink from it if it is high enough not to expose the marbles but Margi will stand there and try to move them around, exposing more water below. Just before I took this picture she stood patiently by while I brought more water in to fill it up so she could drink. She spent several minutes sampling the fresh water.

The final picture is the one project that I've actually made progress on. It is a bag for my yoga mats. I use them together in class and keep them rolled together so the bag is bigger in diameter than most yoga mat bag patters. I also started from the middle and worked out increasing until I got the diameter I thought I'd need and then started going up. Most other patterns have you knit the sides as a rectangle, seam them and then knit the end. This one has a shell pattern although it is difficult to see in the picture. The bottom (top in picture) is a cotton/acrylic yarn I got at Tuesday Morning. The blue portion is actually a ball of blue and a ball of tan held together. Both are hemp yarn that I got on clearance. I'll change to another cotton yarn, perhaps one of the cones you sent me for my birthday my first year knitting.

I guess I'd better close this up. I promise that I'll do better with posting in the next few weeks. The worst of the dental issues are over and my dad's doing better so I shouldn't have the distractions of the last 2 months.

Take Care, Alene

Earth Day

Hi again, hope AZ is giving you a good spring. Here are a few pics from earlier this month (notice the snow piles lingering in the background:) . Earth Day continues to grow in meaning for me through the years. Starting when I was in grad school, I use the day to reflect on my commitment to our planet and what I can do better at. Seeing An Inconvenient Truth last year really focused my attention again and I'm really glad about that. I'm still committed to using up my stash, but the big thing for me this year (although not craft related) is to take shorter showers. If I can figure out other ways we can use less water, I'm going to try them.

I hear a sneeze upstairs so it's on to our before-school routine. Still keeping you & yours in my thoughts, love, Cindy, earth muffin

March pictures during April showers

Hi Alene, what a difference a few weeks makes. [oops, weird formatting again] These pictures are from March and are in order :) DH's vest came out great and is a good and warm just the way it is. He opted to have me skip the "timbers" that were a big part of the original design (sorry, Philosopher's Wool) so now I have a bunch of skeins of black yarn to make something else! Darn;)

I'll be trying to catch up on my blogging too after some slacking due to getting some lessons ready for RE, having lots happening at home, school, & work, and the start of soccer, farmer's markets, and gardening! Yay! All good things except the water in one part of the basement; yes, now we are having lots of rain and need a new gutter on the front of the house.

I've been keeping your family in my thoughts and hope your dad is doing OK. I'm thinking ahead to Earth Day, so "see" you then. Love, Cindy

Making up for lost time

Hi Cindy,

I'm going to talk about a few more health-related items so I'll throw in a picture of pretty yarn first to distract you. MMMM-yummy, soft Malabrigo, now I just need a pattern (shrug?).

More good news on the Dad-front this week. He had an oncologist appointment on Tuesday. Mayo Clinic confirmed that the spots removed were benign so definitely no chemo for him. He will need another PET scan in June and probably quarterly for the first year.

On Wednesday he saw the surgeon who feels that the issue with the one bypass is old and does not need repair at this time. No surgery right now unless it turns critical in the future. On the less-bright side, he is still on oxygen and likely to remain on it for a while. He sees a pulmonologist in a couple of weeks and then will probably be put on a steroid to help with breathing issues.

I'm due up for some fun of my own. I broke a tooth on Monday and now get to spend days in the dentist chair. The dentist was amazed by the break. It took off the outside back quarter of my right pre-molar and left the nerve exposed. And what was I doing to receive this joy? I was eating salad for lunch. After the fun of a full mouth x-ray series I got to find out just how much fun I'm in for. The same tooth on the left side is about to do the same thing so I get not one root canal (first one) but two. And they want to do both at the same time and perhaps start the crown build-up the same day. I also need the gum cut back at the broken tooth because it actually broke down below the gumline. The dentist was even talking about a filling for another tooth and a cleaning at the same time. He joked about me having to pack a lunch for the visit (as if I'll be able to eat for the rest of the day after all of that). All this is starting to sound like DH, his teeth problems have been much worse than mine for a long time. Be glad you have good teeth and keep the kids up on theirs, it will save them a world of trouble.

As a result of all of this I probably won't be able to join you for the Yarn Harlot's visit to your fair town. :(

I am planning on heading back that way in either May or June. It would be really nice to visit my parents and I want to help them get started on cleaning out the house. Dad is hoping to be able to return to work and work into the start of September at least. He'll have 5 years in there at that point and it will mean extra $$ in his retirement. He had planned on working another 2 years until Mom reached retirement age but it sounds like that has changed. If the breathing issue doesn't get better he will probably have to take a medical retirement.

Anyways, I'll finish with a few pictures from DH's sock. It is coming along nicely although I need to get back on it. I had a needle break a few weeks ago when I had it in my bag so now I'm down to 4 needles, not 5. I think it was the water bottle I had in my back that fell over and crunched the needle. A #2 bamboo needle just doesn't stand up to a liter bottle of water. CSI of the needle showed that it actually bent quite a bit before it gave way and snapped. Hard to say if it was gradual or if it was a quick fracture as the bottle fell over on it. I must have taken a corner to zippily on my way to work.

Take Care, more soon, A

P.S. There are some days when the formatting of blogger drives me crazy. I can't get the text to wrap around the pictures the way I like it and then it puts in extra returns or deletes some I've added. ARGHHHHH!

Waiting... Or why I've been such a Blog-slacker

Hi Cindy,

Hope the spring has gotten off to a good start without too much snow recently. We've been pretty nice here but their predicting 90's by the weekend so the summer isn't too far behind.

I can't believe that its been over a month since I've sat down and written an entry. This last month has been all about the waiting. At least we've had good news about Dad's biopsy but you know that already. He has doctor appointments tomorrow and Wednesday so I'm hoping we'll have a date for the next surgery by the end of this week. He sounds much better since he's at home although he's still a bit breathy with the oxygen. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to join you when the Yarn Harlot comes to your fair town at the end of the month; I'm hoping the surgery will be right around that time, but not that day.

We are also waiting on DH's grandma. She had a bad fall a couple of weeks ago and was pretty much out of it for a week or two but is still hanging on. She turned 95 at the start of last month and hasn't given up yet. She has a hospice nurse that's been encouraging her to eat and regain her strength. At 95 her weight has probably dropped below her age so it is just a matter of waiting for her to be ready to go.

A couple of family members on my dad's side of the family have been having health issues. My cousin K in Fridley had a biopsy in February and then had one breast removed last month. She starts chemo this week. I knit her a orange fun-fur hat yesterday and sent it off along with a lacy cotton hat that I'd made recently. My cousin S is going to have a Hat Party for her soon and I'm hoping I'll be back there for it.

My dad's oldest living brother, Uncle Fred, went into the VA hospital on Easter Monday with congestive heart failure. He is over 80 and had a bypass several years ago. He's had several heart attacks through the years and one of these days it will be the end of him. Interesting fact about him, he was on the USS New Mexico at Pearl Harbor. He must have been only 17 or so at the time. My cousin K's dad took part in the D-Day invasion; my dad was only 2 months old at that time. Uncle Fred's wife just had knee replacement surgery. Every email or phone call from home is more of a health report than a conversation!

Other than that things here have been about the same. The weather has been nice, the citrus have bloomed and the rest of pollen season has hit. Normally I don't have allergy issues but they have hit me this year. I think the neighbor's "shaggy" pine has had a bumper season for pollen and has been making me miserable for about 2 weeks. It's getting better so hopefully it will be done soon.

I guess I'd better close this and get it posted. Take care and I'll let you know when I'll be back there. A

It's here!

And I'm not talking spring. [Aside: We had lots of springish melting last week, followed by 6 fresh inches on Friday and snow showers on Sunday. 100 inches of snow for the season now. whew.] I'm talking about my loom! DH immediately requested a new valance for the bathroom window, which seems like a fine 1st project to me! Doesn't need to fit anyone ;) I think it'll take a while to get the hang of it. However, I'm working on a felted bag just now because I'm wanting a new purse, so the valance will need to wait a bit. My fish tank is coming along nicely too. Tawashi must be the world's quickest projects so I've squeezed in a few.

There's been a lot of sickness going around this month, so now everyone in good ol' WI is crazy for spring. We had our share of it and Saturday will be having a (rescheduled) birthday party for the kids. It is DD's actual bday and she can't be more excited. DS is back to school today after a week of sick followed by a week and a Monday of spring break. More soon, love, Cindy

Of Ravelry, moola, and spring

Sorry for my pictureless state, Alene; it's been one of those (several) weeks. Lots new here. Around the house: furnace, cooktop, home equity loan. Teaching: knitting classes, volcano talk at 1st grade (it was fun, challenging, not sure I didn't bore them, and quite sure I left several trains of thought derailed . . .), RE at the meeting house (there I'm one of 4 teachers for DS's class).

Crafting is going well since there's no way to do gardening prep outside. I can't believe there's still going to be snow on the ground for spring break! It's next week. I love Ravelry. I've been flitting in and out of groups because there are SO many great ones. I've settled for now on not-too-high traffic ones I can keep up with and will actually read. I'm still doing the responsible stash thing. I sold one of my knitting machines after long contemplation. It is a great machine but I have barely used it since I started spinning. It used thinner yarns and I usually make medium to thick yarns, so I opted to stick with my Bond. I'm using the money to buy a small, slightly used rigid heddle loom and a bunch of books!

I hope to see you in April and would be thrilled if we could go to the Yarn Harlot's event together. If you want to stay over, we have a guest bed. I'll warn you it's near my wool . . . don't want all those "wool fumes" to make you want stash unbecoming to a desert-dweller. ;) Cindy

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Hi Cindy,

Okay, I stole that title from a Fannie Flagg novel but I figured it was good for talking about a new baby. The little recipient of all my knitting over the last 6 months made her appearance on March 5. After nearly two weeks worth of on-again-off-again labor Lytifa finally had her baby Wednesday night about 9 pm. I got the picture text on my phone just after 10. Her name is Jahmia Nyoko and she was 7 pounds-13 ounces.

Here she is with her mom and dad. Older sister Juraiya was at the hospital for much of the day on Wednesday while mom was in labor but she had to go home for a breathing treatment (she had asthma really badly and needs regular treatments). She hadn't been back to the hospital since to meet her new sister when I visited at lunch yesterday.

It is pretty amazing how light her skin is right now. While I was holding her and playing with her fingers I noticed that they were pretty much the same color as mine. I'd never known it before but Lytifa explained it to me a few years ago. The dark melanin isn't at the surface of a new-born. It takes a few days or weeks for the full color to develop. As you can see from her parents she will be fairly dark-skinned eventually but not right now.I took a long lunch yesterday to go out and visit-a verrrrry long lunch. It is about 30 miles from the office out to the hospital but it would have been even farther from home. I originally planned on staying less than an hour but ended up visiting for almost an hour and a half. I ended up holding Jahmia for most of that time too. It is amazing how holding a baby can give you a rush of endorphins. I'd been feeling pretty low that morning after hearing from my mom what was up with my dad but for at least an hour after holding Jahmia, and maybe even longer, I felt peaceful and happy.

I had better finish this off. I'll let you know when I get firm dates of flying back there. It will probably be late April. My folks want to spend some of the recovery time up at the cottage so we'll probably be there a few days after Dad gets out of the hospital. More soon, A

Ramblings

Hi Cindy,

I'm going to post a few of the more interesting pictures on my computer throughout this post. First up to keep it cat and spinning related is a picture DH took last month. Teddy had been chillin' on the chair and Margi decided she wanted up on it too. Instead of running off like most cats would, Teddy just sat there with her. We've got another picture of them both posing, looking directly into the camera but it doesn't show the wheel as well. The chair is one I found in the alley about 4 years ago with one arm broken off. I took the other one off and painted it with the crackle finish and covered it with outdoor varnish. It sat on our patio for a couple of years until I decided it would make a great spinning chair. I recovered the seat with a felted sweater and used another piece to make the back rest. I love it and so do the cats.

I don't know when but I think that I will probably be headed back that way sometime in the next few months. I got a call from my folks on Sunday, one of those "We didn't want to alarm you until we knew more" phone calls. Hate those! The upshot is that two small spots have been found in my dad's lungs. He had a CT scan and a PET scan and in the next week or so he'll have a biopsy on them. The PET scan showed hot in the two spots and slightly in the nearby lymph nodes. I offered to head back for that but my folks didn't want me to spend the extra $ for a short notice flight. My cousin S has offered to go along and sit with Mom during the procedure.

I was to the doctor myself last week. I've had itching just above my knee (no rash) off and on for about 3 months. Additionally I've woken up about half a dozen times with the whole thigh burning and then the next moring it is numb like it is asleep. It's not debilitating, just very annoying. The doctor knew what it was immediately, meralgia paresthetica or a pinched nerve in the hip area. She offered 3 options: do nothing and it may resolve itself in a few months or years; see a neurologist; or try an antiseizure drug. I've opted for #3 so I've been trying to adjust to that for 5 days now, seem to be working I guess.

I've got a training class in a few minutes so I'll close this off with a word about the rest of the pictures. The house pictures are the same house from different sides. They were taken at Mineral Park, AZ, north of Kingman, in about 1998. Yes, that's me in the second one. The final picture is the remains of a smelter furnace at the Grand Gulch Mine. It is located north of the Grand Canyon in the AZ Strip area. We inventoried that area in 1996. It is located about 80 miles south of St. George, UT. We stayed in a BLM cabin for a week and had to carry extra gas along. We didn't see anyone the entire week we were there.

I'll let you know when I'm going to be back that way. I'd love to hangout with you a day like we did last year, hopefully it won't be quite so sad a trip back there though. Later, A

Life's persistent questions

(with apologies to Guy Noir, private eye, and in no particular order)

How much ketchup does it take to make a vegetable serving?

How much ice is under that snow on the roof? (notice the ice on the orange cord)

Have I been neglecting my blog to spend more time on Ravelry??

Why are there always assorted socks all over my house? Are they fleeing the laundry chute or the children's feet?

Why does the printer ink always run out at an inconvenient time?

Is there anything as amazing as how gorgeous as the ice on the trees? And the startling shade of blue of the clear winter sky?

Where are we going to stack the snow next time?

We got 2 more inches overnight; why is no one surprised?

Why can't I got the posts to format the way I think they should?













Why are there big holes in my tawashi's petals?

















Do you like my other work in progress?

Welcome Kitty Knits Blogtour!

Hi Cindy!

How is the winter treating you this week? I see from the MKE Journal that you're expecting more snow later today. We had a little rain on Friday and it was a bit overcast yesterday but Saturday was a beautiful day. We worked in the yard all morning, attacking the weeds that have popped up under the last few weeks of occasional rain. We are now about half an inch above normal for this point of the year. Of course that won't last, the "rainy" season is about done and it's time for warm days watching spring training, if you're into that kind of thing.

Unfortunately the beautiful weather meant lots of yard work and little time for knitting. On the way to work on Thursday I started the Felted Cat Doorknob Toy from the new Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and Their People book. I ended up stash-diving for the yarn I used for it. The purple is one of the first yarns I bought from the $3 bin at Fiber Factory. I had two skeins but ended up using only one. I had about 3 yards left at the end and used that for stuffing the head. The green is the same Moda Dea Fur Ever that I used as trim on Margi's sweater last fall. I still have a good chunk of it left so it's likely to show up here again.

For the body I ended up using 3 dpns and knitting in the round rather than doing I-cord. The 12 stitch I-cord just seemed a little bulky and the regular knitting in the round worked better. I followed the rest of the pattern as directed. Margi isn't too sure if she's excited by the whole thing. Once I got it sewn together she just looked at it. I hung it on the front door and she batted at it a little. I still need to felt it but it is pretty cute, don't you think?
Donna, the author of the book had two cats herself, so she knows what it takes to keep a cat entertained. Here she is posed with her cat Deedee, a handsome and frisky-looking kitteh if I ever saw one.

One of the other patterns in the book is a quick knit. I started, and finished the knitting portion during the Oscars last night, the Felted Catnip Toy. I made it out of the churro yarn I got down at the Phoenix Public Market. You remember, I wrote about it last September. The yarn has been isolated in plastic since it dried after the dyeing and no signs of critters chowing down on it so I think I've got that situation under control. The kool-aid dying has given it a lovely varigated pattern. I'm going to finish sewing it up and felt both items one of these evenings.

I had a couple of pictures of friends at work looking at the book and picking out patterns that might work for their critters but I forgot them on my other computer so I don't have them right now. I'll post them either later tonight or perhaps tomorrow. I made them pose for me so I'll definitely use them later.

Time to get to work. Take care and don't get stuck in a snow bank! I leave you with one last picture of Margi curled up with the new toy. A

P.S. 7:50 pm

Here are my friends at work whom I asked to pose with the book. Carrie has one cat at home but also fosters abandoned kittens.
Tracy had two cats of her own but took in a momma cat and her four babies last year. So far she's found a home for only one of them so now it looks like she has 6 cats. LuDean has just two cats and they love her new house with its upstairs and downstairs.L doesn't have any cats. She does have a giant lizard but I don't think he'd like anything hand knit; I don't think there a book out there Lizard Knits. They just don't seem to inspire knitting designs although I'm sure I could find a pattern for a knitted lizard.

The trouble with tribbles

Hi Cindy,

The trouble is that you can't stop with just one. And they're so easy that multiples just pop up. It was one of the guy's that I worked with for a few months birthday over the weekend so they had cake for him on Friday. He is a big Trek/Star Wars/ LOTR's fan. I'd been thinking about making him a tribble for a while and figured this was a good excuse. I missed the actual party since we had to do a little field work. I talked to him later in the day on Friday and he'd already posted pictures on his MySpace page and sent them to his other geeky friends.

I had an awesome weekend with over 24 hours all to my lonesome. DH went up to his folks Saturday morning to visit them and his grandma who will turn 95 in 2 weeks. I stayed home because my uncle and cousin were arriving from KC. My cousin R is starting at a recording arts school next week. I didn't know what time they were going to get here or if they wanted to stay at my house before heading over to R's place that he's sharing with friends so I stayed home. They called at 7:30 Saturday to say that they were just leaving Flagstaff and wouldn't get to town until after 10 so they were just going to R's new place. I didn't see them until after noon on Sunday when I showed them around a little and helped them find a few things.

Rather than get antsy waiting for them to call I spent the entire time knitting and spinning. I started the Cobblestone Pullover from IK Fall 2007 for DH. It's coming along nicely.

I also spent several hours on Saturday and Sunday sitting at the spinning wheel. I finished off the daffodil merino blend and then plied it with the lavendar. Here are the two skeins drying in front of the bathroom mirror. The yellow shows up more in person although in the picture the lavendar is showing more, how odd. I don't have anything planned for them yet but it should be something for spring.

I also started on some green English mixed roving. It will be something for DH, I just don't know what yet. I'm thinking I'd like to ply it with some brown or gray but I don't know yet.

I haven't got the book sent off yet so it probably won't get there in time. Sorry I'm such a slacker!

Don't freeze while your standing in line to vote! Take care, A