Time Flies

Hi Cindy!

I'll start off with our sad news first. DH's grandma passed away on Friday. She'd been such a tough old gal, hanging on way longer than anyone really expected. There was nothing specifically wrong with her, her body just wound down to its end. The last 6 weeks were the toughest, walking along the edge of expecting her to pass at any time and then her rallying, repeatedly.
The picture above is from over 2.5 years ago when she was still rather spry although getting weaker. Although the last couple of months have been hard, we're glad she's at rest now and we can remember the happy times. Until her eyesight got too bad (macular degeneration) she used to spend long hours quilting.

My friend L got married earlier this month. As a thought for a shower gift I decided to try a nuno felt shawl. I bought a plain white chiffon scarf through Dharma Trading and dyed it a pale lavendar. Below it is laid out on a layer of bubble wrap. I then randomly covered it with bits of roving in various shades of purple and then some wisps of green dyed mohair locks. I wet it with soapy water and then covered it with old nylon curtains and rolled it up in matchstick bamboo placemats like a giant burrito.

After working it for quite a while, re-wetting it as necessary, I finally gave up. My arms were too tired to continue. Here is the finished item.

And here is a close up of it. I like how it looks but there are bits that aren't felted and I didn't feel comfortable about giving it as a gift. I'm not sure if it would do well as a shawl/scarf or if it should just be a wall hanging. As you can see the generic wool felted into the silk just fine but the mohair locks didn't do as well. I'm waiting for Margi to find it and lick it.

As I said above, my friend L got married earlier this month. She is Navajo and her parents live on the reservation in NE AZ. She planned the wedding to be on her grandmother's land on the Defiance Uplift. We drove up on Friday and took a scenic route up there. Instead of taking I-40 from Holbrook to the state line we went north on a little two lane road, past the west side of Petrified Forest, towards Keams Canyon. It was rugged and beautiful with little traffic. There is a series of old volcanic plugs along the road that have eroded into scenic buttes.


We stayed 2 nights in Window Rock, AZ, the capital of the Navajo Nation. This is the road out of Fort Defiance to L's grandma's place. More beautiful scenery (even if it is obscured by a bug smear).


And here is L being escorted in by her parents. The entire ceremony was a blend of a typical wedding ceremony with Navajo elements as well as Russian-Jewish traditions for the groom although no breaking of the glass and no chuppah.
The ceremony was in a lovely meadow with beautiful red rocks as a background. It was a very sunny and windy day. Early in the ceremony L's veil blew off and on of her aunts caught it. The unity candle ceremony didn't do so well as the candles kept blowing out. The minister they had went way beyond the non-secular ceremony they requested. They were only supposed to have a Navajo blessing but the cousin in charge of it went ahead with the entire Navajo wedding ceremony, complete with the blue corn mush. As one of our friends from work observed, of all the parts of the ceremony, the Navajo portion seemed the most binding.
Despite the sun, wind and delayed time schedule (they were over an hour late getting started) it was a beautiful wedding. I ended up with a pretty severe sun burn on my face and arms but the sting and color has faded and we're just left with the happy memories.

More soon, A

A real entry soon, I promise

Hi Cindy,

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I could use the trip as an excuse but that was over 2 months ago. Mostly we've just been about work, school and family crises. DH finished up his A&P class last month and ended up 3rd or 4th in the class. He had a high enough grade that he didn't have to take the "final". Right after that his work kicked up a couple of notches and his grandmother moved closer to the end.

His work has been crazy for the last year with all the unemployment extensions and then there have been lawsuits added on top. He's never really been comfortable in this job and it has just gotten worse. Additionally in the middle of this his grandmother has been close to passing away a couple of times and he gets no sympathy from his boss. We've gotten calls 3 times in the last month from his mom that the end is in sight just to have her rally.

In the midst of all this I have been doing some knitting. Unfortunately, no pictures right now. I will write more in the next couple of days, I hope.

More soon, A

Catch-up blogging

Hi Alene! Hope all is well there. I've been having a busy few months. It has not been without some time for crafts, however. Here is my washed fleece and a picture of the four color piles I've sorted it into. Since I'm planning a Kaffe Fassett project, strict color sorting isn't needed. Also here is my first skein from the dark pile. You can't easily see its unevenness because of the color. It was a useful sample because I've gotten more even in my rolag making and doing better at spinning woolen (thanks to some amazing YouTube videos).

Those are this spring's apple blossoms on our young tree. Ciao for now, Cindy

Daydreaming of lace

Hi Alene, I've been daydreaming of lace lately. Why? The gorgeous Aeolian Shawl from the latest knitty. Beautiful, beautiful, and with an earthy name as well. I hope to make one someday.

More realistically at this point in my life, I should do something a bit less complex since I have almost no experience knitting lace. I'm leaning toward that Mason-Dixon Knitting beauty, Belinda. I also like the Spinner's Shawl. Both of these have the virtue of being done on medium-sized needles for a small-needle-wimp like me.

I've got my fleece all washed now. It looks even better and a lot less yellow (that wasn't pee; it was dirt stuck to lanolin, whew). Fluffy and crimpy and soft. Ahhh.
C

What I Did On Spring Break

Last fall I chatted with Diana of Dreamfarm at our local farmer's market. As a long-time buyer of her family's excellent goat cheese and eggs, I was pleased to see yarn at her booth and bought a couple of skeins. Although the dairy goats and chickens are the mainstay of their farm, they also keep a small flock of Jacob sheep. They have wonderful spotted fleeces that she has made into yarn at a local mill. We made plans for me to get a raw fleece from her in the spring. I left the market that day feeling happy and a little dazed; my first fleece!! I didn't know until I asked her that I even wanted one! :)

So about 2 weeks ago, the kids and I went to pick up my fleece. It was a sunny but cool spring day, one of those days with a crisp blue sky. Diana gave us a farm tour. We got to pet the baby goats and the mama goats. We got to go inside a chicken shelter and adore the farm's big gentle dog! In fact, it was one of those days that make me wonder why I'm not a farmer myself. Diana emailed shortly after and said we'd narrowly missed the birth of twin goats.

I've been washing my fleece, a five-pounder from a ewe named Grace. She was pretty clean and almost all of her fleece is quite soft. I've gotten most of it washed, using the directions in the back of Start Spinning. I'm very happy with it and looking forward to spinning it. Hope all is well in AZ!

Quickie

Hi Cindy,

I should be headed off to bed but I haven't written yet this month and there is only 40 minutes left in it so I thought I'd post a few pictures.

We got new cell phones a couple of weeks ago. Mine is a pretty blue one that I want to protect so I made a couple of cozies. Guess which one is mine.
Two weeks ago DH went backpacking in Aravaipa Canyon with a couple of his buddies, one from Seattle and one from Dallas. It was the first trip they've done together in 14 years. Aravaipa Canyon is SE of Phoenix. I drove them down to the east end which is near Safford and picked them up two days later on the west end. Before I could pick them up though I had to call AAA for a jump, the truck battery had died.

Aravaipa is a perennial stream so they didn't need to carry water. There were plenty of frogs and fat squirrels to keep them company. They didn't see any rattlesnakes so it must have been a bit early for them.
The main part of the canyon is a Bureau of Land Management Wilderness area. You have to get a permit to hike there and they only let a limited number of people in each day. The Nature Conservacy has purchased ranches at both ends to help preserve the area.

This is my favorite picture. DH took it in one of the side canyons they hiked up to. Notice the columnar jointing in the canyon walls. Looks like a volcanic tuff to me. And notice how the smooth erosion of the walls is almost exactly the same height as the boulder in the distance. Imagine the force of the flash flood to move that!

I'll close this off and head to bed. DH is dropping me at the airport on his way to work. My flight leaves shortly after 10 and I should be to MKE by 3:30. I'll see you on Friday and may give you a call beforehand. Looking forward to seeing you! A

Love those natural fibers!!

Hi Alene -- spread the word: it's the International Year of Natural Fibers !! Word is starting to get around. I've read about it on Spindlicity and on the Martha's Vineyard & Hudson Valley Fiber Farms blog. Of course, my love of things woolly is well known but I can't wait to learn more about and see what people do with other natural fibers this year too.

The picture is of fiber and yarn scraps, mostly wool but other natural fibers, too, that I carded together to spin for Ravelry's Spin Your Scraps contest. What's going on with natural fibers down there in the desert?? ;) C

Start 'em Young, Part 2

DS spinning some pencil roving (no drafting required) -- any idea why it is underlining??

My service project

Remember a few posts back when I talked about making mittens for the homeless? I still think it's a good idea, but when I saw the low off-season prices of mittens at the store (yes, it is insane but mittens & gloves go on sale in February here in tropical Wisconsin), I wondered if I wouldn't help more people by raising some money. I've been thinking about how to do it. So here's what I'm going to try: Spin up some fun yarn in Ravelry's Spin Your Scraps challenge and knit it up into a scarf; then I'll auction off the scarf to benefit a local charity that helps homeless people in my city. So in March I'll work on the spinning!

Check it out!

New spinning books on the horizon: this summer and this fall (all about spindling!). Hurray!!

Crafter's block, plus goals update

Hi! Glad you are emerging from the winter icks. We're doing all right here. DS wants to learn to spin on the wheel so may try that soon. DD thus far hasn't done more than twirl the spindle and treadle the (empty) wheel but I'm encouraged by her early interest.

I've been having crafter's block for a while now. It took me lots of tries to get a Shawl Ministry project to stick with; it's a lap robe using the Babette Blanket pattern but in less thrilling colors. I'm smitten with the brights but they need some projects with more subdued colors.

I started a few projects with lovely cotton, but as usual, it makes me sore if it's anything bigger than a tawashi. So I'm going to weave with it instead.

The Big Rectangle? Poor thing. First I realized I had enough yarn but not in enough colors (what gives, I always have too many colors in too small amounts) . . . so I decided to weave a rectangle shawl. But that was giving me something probably too heavy (when I know more about weaving, I'll be able to get around that, I imagine). I considered this sweater and still am, along with some other wraps: Mananita, Nina, and Belinda. The trick: I need to use stash because I'm getting my fleece at the end of April and suddenly that seems soon. Must make room.

I've been doing Navajo spindle spinning and loving it. Really all I want to do is spin a lot and knit and weave some . . . so that's another challenge for using up the stash. Hmm. I was very moved a few weeks ago by a story of a homeless person barehanded; I felt a strong urge to "whip" up a zillion mittens to cover all those cold hands. But I'm not sure if it wouldn't be better to raise some money to help instead (I'm also always leery of repetitive strain injuries, so any project that involves me whipping out lots of something, well, doesn't usually happen).

Bye for now, C

Still Alive

Hi Cindy,

After well over a week of being sick, followed by DH being sick, I'm finally almost back to normal. I caught a nasty bug last month, right after DH's birthday and ended up missing 4 days of work over 2 weeks and the cough hung on for quite a while afterwards. I went to Urgent Care the second day and it still hung on for over a week. It didn't go away until I went again and got antibiotics. That seem to kick it.

Surprisingly I didn't do much knitting during all my sick time home, just lots of sleeping and resting. I've started back at it the last week or so. Today will be the first day my friend and I go down to the gym again after both of us being sick.

As you may have seen on the news we have a very important visitor in town today. Actually he arrived yesterday afternoon. It is hard to seen in this picture but there is snow on top of Four Peaks in the background (near the tail of the plane). Pretty cool. He's speaking at Dobson High, a couple of miles from our house. We talked briefly about trying to get tickets but we would have had to get there Sunday night to stand in line until 10 am Monday. They had about 1000 people show up and only 500 tickets.

I've got a post coming about some wedding knitting/crafting I'm doing for a friend. She's getting married in June and I've made few things in prep for the shower.

More soon, A

Need help with a sweater?

Try Farli's blocking service! (or perhaps she's ready to advise on button placement ?? )

Start 'em Young, Part 1

DD trying out a spindle with a leader attached. :D

2009 and lots of goals

Tee hee, so much for blogging the next day . . . hope all is well in AZ. We're doing well here. My niece L just had her 1st baby, a little boy (Dad's 3rd great-grand), so I'm thinking I need to whip out some kind of gift. I've been meaning to write about several things, so we'll see how my memory is right before lunch.

Do you make New Year's resolutions? I like the opportunity to reflect and set goals. So here are mine for the New Year (not in any special order):

1. Stick with my exer-stash goals as I make them in the Ravelry group Exer-stashers. Basically, have a program of regular exercise! In my case, also lose 10 pounds and get some cholesterol-busting eating habits.

2. Learn more about weaving. I am really liking the low-tech weaving I'm exploring with my rigid heddle loom and a homemade warp-weighted loom (more on that in a future entry). Remember the Big Rectangle? It was nothing but fun to work on but had the bad luck of being started right before I learned about my congregation's Shawl Ministry and got the bug to spin a fleece and also do more weaving . . . so long story short, the Big Rectangle is now a weaving project, loosely based on its knitted ancestor. Go ahead, say I told you so. :D

3. Continue my exploration of baking but not just with yeast breads that my family can't embrace. ahem.

4. Start saving for some of those big vacations we dream about here so that we don't have to rely on imaginary money.

5. Explore some of the Asian and Indian recipes in our cookbook collection ;) Also, in the fall, try to find a use for everything in the winter storage share, maybe even the turnips this time (gulp).

6. Make some mittens for homeless people in keeping with my desire to do something to be part of the "new age of responsibility."

That should give me plenty to work on besides all the other stuff of life. I'd better paint the bathroom pronto. love, Cindy