Dimsphere

They Haven't Killed Me Off Yet

2011-06-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed. I thought if you didn't post for over a year you were toast. Not so! People began asking for my "annual post" as a nudge so I thought I'd better find out.

Seems I only blog when travelling and sometimes not even then. Travel is coming up though so I am hoping for fresh material.

Miss Trixie just turned 13 and is in pretty good health!

This last year has not been the smoothest, though I have maintained a hundred fifteen pound weight loss since last August. I always say it's not getting it off that's the hard part, it's keeping it off - and nothing has changed about that since the last diet.

I am better at NOT making vows to do things. Some things work out as a happy surprise (weight loss while secretly trying) and many things just fall flat.

Most of my knitting is still for other people, and mostly I like it that way. It's a lovely way to give a gift with heart. Charity knitting is great too. You may not know who's getting it, but you know your work is doing good. I'd show you an example of a hat for a friend but my computer, my i-Phone AND my regular camera are all on the fritz. Unfortunately I vowed that I'd make this hat, which is probably why it took two years to finish and arrived in Michigan in late Spring, just in time for not needing it 'til Fall. Sorry Nancy!

Otherwise, I'm the Queen of Cowls and keep whipping them out. Enough that I can give away some and actually keep some! Pictures trashed, sorry.

I hope to be weaving and spinning much more since I've pushed my own restart button and am turning out a bit of both.

Mr. Chirpchatty (my husband's name from the personality change he goes through when we go to India) has a possible new job; and guess where part of it will be? Yep, India. This year we'll probably go during the hottest monsooniest season. Now that I'm thinner - I'm cold most of the time, but I don't think it'll be enough to get me through South Indian weather without lots of air conditioning.

Off to weaving retreat next week. Then to my Mother in Riverside, then to Austin, and then? No clue. Glad Bloglines didn't Deep Six me. I'd hate to have to write all the parts about India over again rather than just linking to them.

Retreat City

2010-02-24T14:02:00.001-08:00

Just returned from the Madrona Fiber Arts yearly retreat where I volunteered - and a spinning retreat right after.

Trying to adjust to the fact that even with much poundage gone, I look older.....lots older.

Met the lovely Linda Cortright who started Wildfibers Magazine and also started Keep the Fleece - a 501(c)(3) charity to help the smaller producers of fiber all over the world. Also spent some very enjoyable time with Sivia Harding and some of her talented friends from Portland.

Met a charming Chinchilla named Harvey while at Madrona. The hotel is pet-friendly and his mom Donna brought him along. A Chinchilla face resembles a hamster more than a rabbit, and his fur feels like mink! I had to go and get some of the fiber she was selling through Village Spinning and Weaving out of Solvang, CA. She mixes it with Cormo and silk. Drooool.

Right before Madrona I helped Ryan celebrate the big Five-O birthday.

Then on from Madrona to a week at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island for the annual February retreat with Judith MacKenzie. Few things compare with having a whole week with Judith.

Many of the local spinning homies were there too...

And of course, new friends were made.

Every year I buy more Pygora from Marcelle - I think I finally have to say I have plenty and have actually do something with it. I'd like to blend it with silk or something fun. Even spun tightly worsted it blooms incredibly.

Mary P and I lusted after Barbara's Jensen Ashley. I'm pretty much a dyed-in-the-wool castle wheel girl, but the beauty of this wheel is something. Fortunately, when I sat and spin at it with Barbara's permission, it just didn't fit or feel right with my body. I say fortunately because...

After almost being able to buy a Reeves' 19" frame wheel in red oak from a friend - she changed her mind. I've been vulturing over her in (I hope) a subtle way for over a year, hoping she'd change it again - and she has! In a couple weeks I will be its new home. I don't have a picture for you but if you go to this link, it's almost exactly like the one I'm getting. It's a double drive with optional Scotch tension and comes with seven bobbins! Also, the wonderful WooLee Winder people make a WW for it already!!! They had a fire that wiped them out unfortunately, so when they are back up and running I will hopefully have saved up the money to buy one.

Some of us took a small guided tour through the salmon rescue aquarium and tide pools that are housed on the Camp property. That salmon colored piece in the middle is a Sea Star that has only his or her middle and one arm left - trying it's best to regenerate...

I finished the orangey "red scarf" but I made it over-wide, so now I believe it needs to be a stole. I've sold off most of my zillion skeins of Koigu but have a few left in spots around the house. The site that sponsors red scarf project says that you should submit no more than 5, so I still have a head start on getting them done. I was so good at Madrona - bought one skein of red Manos so I could blend it with a variegated skein with reds for the project. And, er......oh I guess I DID buy a couple patterns, and the Chinchilla roving. I have to say volunteering is a great way to keep yourself out of the market!

While I was gone the EZ's Green Sweater class started without me at Village Yarn and Teas. Mine will be in the same yarn as these socks. Didn't realize when I bought it that it was superwash (I know I know - I was a new knitter and not so good at reading labels), so no spit splicing possible. Not as big a fan of superwash as I was in the early knitting days.

Found another pal - Nancy H at Judith's retreat - to make the Selbu Modern tam for from the last of the Koigu - doubled in brown and light aqua. That's the Martha sweater she's wearing from the Rowan Studio booklets. Bought the yarn for it. May get to it in my lifetime!

To 'paca or not to 'paca

2010-01-26T22:55:00.000-08:00

If you are not a knitter, the following post will bore (and confuse) you to death.

Finished another Selbu Modern hat (free pattern!) for DF Mary P. She wanted it in the same colors as the first one I made in Shetland - which went to the daughter of DF Evanne. Here's the first one.

I thought the Shetland would be a bit scratchy for Miss Mary - who likes the groovier end of the fiber spectrum, so I decided to make it in Alpaca. Now it makes sense to me (again) why Fair Isle is done in Shetland - it's a nice grabby fiber that makes it easy to tension - even on Addi needles, which are the only ones I will use. 'Paca got no grab I can tell you - tho it sure spit-splices well. Slippery stuff, and you have to keep re-tentioning the yarn every couple stitches. I was really worried that it would remain pucker-city even after blocking. Since Mary and I both have bigger than average heads (23.5" and 22.5" respectively) I cast on 144 stitches (instead of the 128 the pattern called for) on US size 2's and did about 2.5" of corrugated rib. I increased to the correct number for the pattern after the ribbing (192) by doing K2, then knit into the front and back of the third stitch - repeat all around - and it comes out perfectly to 192. Changed to size US 3 needles for 4 rows, then to US 4 for 4 rows, then to US 5 for the rest of the pattern. Since I was using Honey Farms Alpaca, it was more like a sport or DK weight, so US 5s made the tam part of the hat bigger - but the gauge was still appropriate for the yarn. I made sure to keep the dominant color (red) in my left hand, but all the red stitches seemed to suck in and disappear. Tried to analyze why, and what I was doing wrong, but never figured it out. I was sure blocking would not help - and it certainly didn't come out as even as the Shetland version, but it was miles better after blocking - isn't it always the way? Had to get creative with two pie plates and an XL yogurt tub to block.

No - the oven is not on - I spun it out in the washer after soaking, and then put it on a cooling rack so the air could circulate. Had a space heater on facing it about 4 feet away.

Not sure how much heat the dog contributed. I was still really worried it would just be too big and awkward tho it felt wonderfully soft and warm.

Thankfully, it fit her well. After the relief of the fitting session, I started in on January's (mostly red) Koigu scarf on US 2s in a simple Moss Stitch pattern for the Red Scarf Project. It may leak over into February....but no worries. I'm finally ahead of the game this year!

Long Learning Curve

2010-01-20T16:23:00.000-08:00

Lost most of the original post due to the vagaries of computer stamina. It was over wordy anyway. When did I stop saving them in MS Word first?

Long learning curves? Yes, certainly knitting - but right now cooking. I am - after all - married to "Mr. Picky." That would be Mr. Chirpchatty's alternate name. Although I must say he's been much more gracious and sensitive these days about what might or might not be so appealing about the dishes I've tried. Is it being in his 50's? Is it 26 years of marriage? Not sure, but I really appreciate the new "tude." Once again this year we both forgot our anniversary. We do this on a annual basis. Last year we remembered only because it was our 25th, and once I actually remembered it in advance of the date, I made hotel and restaurant rez right away and put them on the calendar. The Trixie dog got to go too.

Boy, I guess some things have changed in a year. We amuse ourselves (when we remember) by assigning different gifts for the anniversary year versus the ones from the traditional list. The 25th is supposed to be the silver anniversary. We made it the squeeze ball anniversary (having used up turnips the last year we remembered). You know...those spongy rubbery balls you squeeze to relieve stress and improve your hand strength? This year through much vulturing on eBay, I managed to find several in yellow and grey shaped like miniature brains. I have yet to find the coveted green brain that my doctor's lab tech has us squeeze when he draws blood.

We had a lovely Anniversary dinner with DFs Don and Sandi.

Part of my learning curve in cooking is attempting to cook Moroccan recipes in a Tagine (see picture below). All these recipes really should start out with "take every spice you've got out of your cupboard now - you'll need them all." Just as with knitting and sewing, I'm learning to read the entire recipe before I begin - otherwise there will always be a potentially nasty surprise in store. In sewing, your Vogue pattern may say "insert the sleeve and then take all placket pieces..." Insert the sleeve? How exactly is that done..? In knitting, you may be surprised to find - as with the reclaimed Elizabeth Zimmerman green sweater of much current excitement - that it may be knit in one color, but there are several steeks involved! In cooking, it may be that you come late to the realization that every house should have Ghee, Harissa and Rose Water in their cupboard for Moroccan cooking - no need to list them in the ingredients list. Surprisingly, Amazon Fresh (Amazon dot com's newish grocery delivery system) actually has all of these items.

You prepare the items in the bottom part of the Tagine,

and then cover with lid to steam and burble til done.

So, things are a little slow right now. Knitting a few things I promised to friends. I know I said that last year my resolution was only to knit for myself and the husband and that I totally flunked that one. I should have amended that to say I really like knitting for others, as long as there is no set deadline involved. If I didn't like it, I'd be a knitting victim, and I've expunged that word from my personal description.

Every year I also miss the deadline for the Red Scarf Project. This is such a brilliant idea (see link) that I'm going to knit my first one in January and see if I can do one a month with no pressure. How hard is a scarf? It's car knitting! Red is not a color I usually buy for knitting, but the rules are not so rigid that it can't be a scarf close to red or with just some red in it. I'm such a fool for variegated yarn that I can handle that.

The big excitement for this week so far has been going to two banks in a row with the dog. They never fail to have biscuits, and as soon as we get in line for the drive-through, my more sensitive body parts are being tromped all over by Miss Impatience who has leaped into my lap!!!!

Yes, yes, they're working on it, I promise....

Alright alright, I'm getting it out now! (Love those pneumatic tubes.)

Leave the finger, don't chomp the finger, don't........sigh.....

Damson XL

2010-01-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the Damson XL shawl. XL because I wanted to make it big enough for DF Wendy to use as a nursing-in-public cover-up for places where they are uncomfortable with the amount of exposure it takes to nurse a baby. She and little Pete are doing so well and I can't wait to see him Sunday and how he's already changed!

Here he is at about 4 weeks. Cute City, eh?

And here he is at that age with the very petite Mom Wendy. I'm hoping the XL shawl won't be tent-like on her - but since the original was meant as a little shoulder shawl, perhaps it will be okay.

Here's the shawl blocking. It really is a lovely shape that won't fall off your shoulders. I did it all in garter rather than switching to stockinette at the double decrease points. Actually, the shawl had a mind of its own at those points and all eight of them stuck out like little ready-to-nurse appendages. Since I did it in bamboo instead of wool (so Mom and baby wouldn't get overheated) I hope they will block flat............Oh goody, seems they did.

I sure do love those EZ Blocking Boards, even if it really takes two to block anything bigger than a narrow-sized small sweater. You can kneel on them to pin, stand on them when they fill up the entire kitchen floor (at least at my current weight I can) and they are just amazingly strong - yet easy to carry around when you fold them in half and use the carrying handles.

Here's the confused dog, wondering why it's not okay to walk on the blocking shawl. (Her) "But? My water dish is over there." (Me) "No, I put your water dish at the entrance to the kitchen so you wouldn't need to walk on the shawl....in fact this is the third time you haven't needed to walk on the shawl." (Her) "Oh...."

The Damson shawl (Ravelry link) is by Isolda Teague. I'll tell all on my Ravelry projects page in a day or so about what I did to get the XL size, in case you are an XL size and might want to do it. My Ravelry name is "dims."

I was able to see Wendy on Sunday at Top Pot (doughnuts and coffee extraordinaire) with other knitters and give her the shawl at last. Alas, little Pete was not there - but Wendi seemed to like it. The Bamboo gives it a nice drape.

The evidence of the other sugar sniffers gathered together. They shall remain anonymous.

Should be enough to cover little Pete without making them both too hot.

Plenty of shawl to go around!

And look! It matches her cell....sorta....

Then I tried it on the lovely Diana so I could see if it really would fit a less-petite person than Wendi as a full shawl. Bad English there....

Looks like it's working.

I believe she's had enough of the picture-taking!

New Hot Fair Isle Book / The Elusive Folca Box

2010-01-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Lizabeth had a copy of this new book at Ferals (our nickname for our Fair Isle knitting group) last week. Boy is it amazing. The stitch patterns are pretty traditional but the garment designs are really great. Go here to The Needle Arts Bookshop for a look at several of the patterns. It's the same price pretty much as going through the Kinokuniya bookstore here in town ('cept you'll have to pay shipping) - which is what I did to order a bunch for our group. You can always order from Kinokuniya - but it's nice if you actually live near one of their bookstores so you can pick books up and not pay shipping. They don't charge you for what you order until it comes in. Here is the part of their website that tells the locations of their U.S. stores. If you go through Kinokuniya, you'll need the ISBN which is: 978-4-529-04676-3

I was pretty thrilled to finally find a source for the Folca Box. Purlwise first blogged about it on April 20, 2009 on her blog, and her pictures are MUCH better than mine.

The place she found it has gone out of business - but thankfully - an Etsy Vendor who has actually lived in Japan has found the right place to import them. I have a feeling she is the only American Vendor for them and she just got a big order in! Susan is very nice to deal with and has her own knitting et al blog called Fleegle. Here is the link for her Etsy Store called "The Gossamer Web." Note that she sells cobweb and other laceweight yarns that she dyes herself. Not that there are any lace knitters here in Seattle, heh! She dyes really lovely colors! There is a Gossamer Web group on Ravelry too which posts about new additions to the store.

The little Folca box measurements are:

Closed: 4" x 2.5" x 1.5"

Open: 7.5" x 5" x .5"

The Big blue compartment is only 2" by 3" and a squeek.

The fun is trying to find some tiny Japanese snips that will actually fit in that little compartment. The smallest embroidery scissors are usually 3.5" so no-go. Also, a tape measure. I've bought a regular coated sewing tape measure - cut off about 6 inches - and folded that in half for measuring gauge swatches. You could also try folding scissors as an idea as long as they are not thick.

I um...er...found I needed more than one, and also that I like to have one each for several knitting bags. They are very sturdy little guys and stay snapped together. Spread the word!

Are all Knitters and Spinner enablers? It's kind of a disease, isn't it!

A Bazillion Blogs

2010-01-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

About two years ago, DF Nancy turned to me at a retreat and said "Don't you use Bloglines?" She was referring to the fact that I typed in the addresses or used a search each time I wanted to read a specific blog, or went to another friend's site like Ryan's Mossy Cottage Knits and just clicked on the ones from her sidebar. I thought I was probably the last person to hear about it, and Bloglines is certainly not the only product out there - but you should know that it exists and "aggregates" all your blog info into one place and subscribes to their RSS feed. If you click on the link for "aggregates," go down to the subheading "Function" and it will give you an idea. You can do this with Blogs or Sites that strictly collect news or facts of different types.

Bloglines is great - once you've subbed to a blog you like, it comes up on your list only when there is a new entry. You never have to check anyone's site again, hoping that they've updated. Even if they've gone a year without an entry (ahem, shuffling of feet, embarassed look), when it finally happens (she with the most guilt says) it will come up that day in your list. It's free, and all you have to do is log on to have your list pop up. You can also install an Icon down in your "tray" on the lower right corner of your screen that will look like the letter "B" and will have a red asterisk over it whenever there is new content. You can just double-click that and it will bring up Bloglines and your newly updated list. The saves me so much time and trouble I couldn't help passing it on. If anyone else wants to chip in their favorite one in the comments - feel free.

Let's talk for a minute about how helpful knitters and spinners are. Oh right...you're a captive audience...you can't talk! Whenever I go to an event and bring lots of stuff of my own, or get a table to sell things, it's amazing how many friends and people I barely know come up to ask if I need help setting up or breaking down. "You need help?" "No, I've got it but thanks for asking." "How 'bout now, you need help? Wanna take a potty break?" "Need help carrying things to your car?" When one of my loads on the dolly that wasn't well-balanced tipped over at the St. Distaff's day event, one friend and three strangers rushed over with the speed of light to help me get it all back in the boxes. Women in these particular crafts just seem to be warm, caring and darn helpful!!! The only other place I've seen this is in India, only reversed. Men are more predisposed to help each other in the way women do here. They are physically affectionate in public much more than we are here in America, in spite of the fact that same-sex unions are stigmatized just as they are in the U.S. and other countries. When Mr. Chirptrippy took a spill on some slick pavement, 3 guys were on him almost before he hit the ground, helping him up and commiserating, and not just because they wanted his business for their autorickshaws. I couldn't get close to help him myself because these men were helping him and making sure he was absolutely okay. Not an isolated example either. One of my funniest memories from India was sitting on a bench out in front of the hotel, and having two drop-dead gorgeous guys hitting on me (probably just to practice their English) while holding hands with each other. It's just an expression of friendship and considered completely natural there. However, women and men - even married couples - cannot touch in public. The world is a sometimes a strange place.

Beadless in Seattle

2010-01-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

That's what I'm trying for anyway. I realized that I have good taste in picking out beads; but for a person who doesn't wear - or like - jewelry to think that they'll be able to make it for other people? Nah, wasn't working. So I've been selling my stash for a month or so now. The lamp working stash will go next, and after that, extra books, fabric and other things. I was able to sell off Quite a Bit at yesterday's annual St. Distaff Day celebration - put on by the North West Regional Spinning Association (NWRSA). Lots of fiber and tools vendors around the periphery of the auditorium - including me. Many circles of friends sitting together and spinning or knitting. Those of us that spin have talked it up so much that we've gotten our knitting friends to come too. There were at least three "I'll never learn to spin, fuhgeddabouddit!" friends, so you know it has quite a draw.

The lovely Andrea and the Lovely Evanne.

Jessica, someone I don't know, and Rebecca and Peggy of BothTwins.

If you click the picture below to embigify, you'll see she's knitting monkey faces in Fair Isle - too cute!

April, Margarite, Andrea, Evanne, EmBe, and Pat. Seems to be a Schact wheel thang goin' on, doesn't there!

Many lovely things to buy..... Good thing I couldn't leave my post as a vendor.

Devorah found the BEST hat! Doesn't it suit her?

Our hardworking past Guild President, Ann Klinect, wearing her newest spider necklace (she collects them). Still volunteering at any job that needs doing in the Guild.

Really missed our Sandi Jo this year. She's been at every St. Distaff's for ever and ever, but when they were driving back from Henderson, Nevada where they spent the Christmas Holiday, she and husband Don had to make a pit stop in Grants Pass, Oregon after Don had a sudden ruptured appendix - yikes! He's healing up and is in a great hospital there, but they can't wait to be back in their own quiet house and get a full nights sleep!

Sandi on her Pocket Wheel.

The day before the event, I had a lovely New Year's Day at a dear friend's house. Knitting and Knoshing are a great way to celebrate the New Year with friends. I have yet to see knitters show up anywhere with 3 potato salads and 4 sets of cheese and crackers. Instead it's always gourmet fare covering all the food groups. There was one amusing moment when our hostess opened a jar labeled "Strawberry Jam" from one of our award-winning jam-maker attendees, and got quite an odd look on her face. Turns out it was a hot chili chutney-type topping for the black bean soup she brought, and the label just never got taken off the jar. Hostess was obviously trying to find a P.C. way to say to one of her best friends "Uhhhh, this has turned to poison and I can't feed it to 9 people!" Forgot to take pictures of the food... You'd just slobber on your keyboard so I've saved you making a mess.

Deb, Norma and Kathy knitting away.

Margarite working on finishing her felted bag. Margarite is now doing the newsletter for the Seattle Knitters' Guild and doing a fabulous job.

Andrea spinning Pygora and Lisa Spinning BFL. Pygora is incredibly soft and light. Makes you want to line the tub with it and just roll around unclothed for a while.

Suzanne working on a Christmas stocking to be felted for younger Granddaughter for next year.

Kathy and Gail knitting. Gail made that lovely Aran she has on. Looks like we're a quiet bunch but not at all. I think I just scared them with the camera. The decibels got pretty high there at times. The trouble with having fun knitting in a group is all the frogging (rip-it, rip-it) you have to do afterward because you lost your concentration.

Carolyn made that gorgeous Philosopher's Wool sweater on the chair down to her right. I snuck over and made it face front while she was in the kitchen.

Here's a closer look. Aren't those colors lovely!?

Ooooo, (Andrea thinks), this could be my next project!

Suzanne's lovely "Diva," a Bernese Mountain Dog - dog of a thousand pats. We had a Bernese boy years ago named "Browser." Still miss him a lot. The name came from my Uber-Geek husband.

Suzanne's dear one-eyed Joe-the-cat is still very much missed these days by everyone.

Finally after a very full two days, home to Mr. Chirpchatty and my little Trixie dog. She's a pretty cute girl isn't she?

Resolveless in 2010

2009-12-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

I'm talking about New Year's Resolutions. Not doing it this year. Last year I made one Resolution only; I was going to knit for myself and Mr. Chirpchatty (the hoosband if you are new to this blog) and no one else. Since that Rez I have knit for everyone under the sun but us. I actually love knitting for other people - just not under any tight deadline. The one thing I tried to knit for us was wrist warmers. Mr. C squirmed embarrassedly as he told me he "didn't really wear that kind of thing." So they are new but now also for someone else. And mine? In spite of making a zillion of these over the years - ever since I took a class from the wonderful Arnhild Hillesland at Stitches a slew of years ago, this pair was way too loose Lautrec and need to be given away or re-knit. I didn't remember this yarn from stash as being superwash (Parfait Swirls from K1C2) so I beat the pair up pretty good in the kitchen sink repeatedly with Dawn dish washing liquid, hoping to shrink them to size - but - no cigar. Sheesh. Maybe I'll just keep Mr. C's - at least his are done right - oh wait....too big.

There are a lot of basic patterns out there for this type. I start with a provisional cast-on, knit to what feels the half-way point, do a one row buttonhole (except the one time on those loose guys above), and finish off with Russian grafting. 3-needle bind off is an easier way to finish them off but the bump is a little noticeable unless you use a needle 1 to 2 sizes smaller for the binding off.

Without making any January 1 resolutions last year, I've done two things I thought I could never accomplish again - the first is that I've grown my hair out long enough to wear in a ponytail (and eventually to braid). These pictures are by DF Rebecca of me modeling her "Sleeves in Your Pi" shawl for Betty Roberts. Have you SEEN the Twins projects page on Ravelry? Check them out!

I still can't quite believe this has happened. What's more, it hasn't been a struggle. The benefits of longer hair - even tho I'll soon be 60 and officially a Geezer Babe - are that I'll never have to try to find a hairdresser who understands my pointy head again - I'm in control. If/when we go back to India, I can wear it comfortably off my neck and more in keeping with local custom. While I'll always be a Caucasian (no, really?), I find that there is more warmth and respect from local people when you attempt to dress modestly and locally and fit in. Southern India is more conservative than the North (hair worn unbraided and loose equals loose woman), and so far we always end up in the South. Women either wear traditional Sari or Salwar Kameez. There's a lot on the 'Net these days about modern Indian fashion, but unless you are in one of the big cities, these are the garments and the hair is worn pulled back and usually in a long braid, often decorated with fresh flowers like jasmine.

And....I've lost 75 pounds (and hope to lose 15 to 30 more). A "before" shot with my lovely young friend Reed Danielle.

You can see there's definitely a way to go yet. The benefits of weight loss to someone getting older are incalculable and NONE of them are what I cared about when I was younger. The beauty parade is over. Gravity has already had its wicked way with me, as I can see - now that my original shape is coming out from under its layers. Wrinkles and sags are the new me - not to be eradicated by weight loss or exercise. Fat actually makes you look a lot younger at my age because it plumps everything out. I remember a woman giving a speech at an Overeaters Anonymous convention years ago, who said "Face it, after years of abusing ourselves with up and down weight loss, the best we can hope for is to look good with clothes on!" So true! But that's not a bad thing at this age from my perspective. Who else but Mr. C and the ladies down at the Senior Water Aerobics class are going to see me unclothed anyway?

But on to the benefits, if they can be phrased in a non-tacky way. I can now "get down" because I can get back up! If I fall or intentionally get down on the floor, I can easily get back up without grabbing onto furniture to drag myself upright or have a friend help me. My knees don't shriek if I have to get down on them for a few minutes. In fact there actually were real knees under there all along! I realized how many of my friends around my age could not get up if they fell and what a frightening thing that is when you are getting older.

I can do my own nail trimming in the lower regions, I can reach all parts of myself from any angle when performing basic bodily tasks - these small things are really big. I no longer think about the fact that the item I need means going up stairs, or that I have to walk 2-3 blocks to get somewhere. I don't struggle to find the closest possible parking place. It's all good! How did I do it? I'm lucky in a way that I have to cut out things I'm addicted to in a big way and NEVER eat them. That includes (but is not limited to) any type of refined sugar and all gluten products (wheat, oats, barley, rye) in any form. If you think about what that includes - it's just about every processed food and snack. The lucky part is, if you don't eat it, you don't crave or miss it. If you try a "little bit" now and then - the craving never goes away and hence the struggle. I'm not saying this is for everyone. But it works for me and gives me freedom from re-deciding what I'm going to eat all the time, and especially when I reach whatever will be my goal weight. It really is a way of life. I've done it before, and it's always worked until I decided I could try a little something once in a while and that I had plenty of time to get a grip again. I have no illusions that I'm not a weight recidivist in life, but my reasons for doing it all are the right ones this time so I proceed with high hopes.

Also this year, I found medications for depression that are working....finally! After six years of trying something like 18-20 meds with a specialist, it's been a long difficult road. For anyone out there that feels desperate about chronic depression - even if it has come to you late in life - do NOT give up! It's always worth it to continue to try and have a better life, even if it seems like it may never happen. Try to remember George Burns' joke, "Every day above ground is good!" What I thought should be big far-reaching goals about career (when I had one), money, accomplishments, etc. have turned out to be much less important. Growing old in a healthy way, able to function physically and mentally into my 80's, being a better wife, accepting myself as I am, able to be kind and compassionate to those I care about - these are the things that matter to me now. Some have come just because I'm older and the time for some things has passed. Others have been revealed only as I was willing to let go of old ideas about the way things had to be.

So at the end of this year I find myself extremely thankful for what I've accomplished in spite of not having set out to, for having a loving husband (who has survived those six years and 20 more) and doggie, for being solvent when so many are not, for a Mother that I love and who is an inspiration in her late 80's, and for having a wonderful wonderful group of women friends who are a constant source of love and inspiration, both in the examples of their lives and their creativity and willingness to share all. Y'all know who you are. If you don't (you sillies) the next time I see you, you'll be getting a big scrunchy hug - that's a clue!

I've actually updated my Ravelry page. I am "Dims" on Ravelry. For those who wonder what the "heck" Ravelry is - you have to join this on-line knitting/crocheting and more community and database to view people's projects. It's free, it's easy, and if you're a knitter or crocheter, go there now and sign up!!!

This wraps up the embarrassing self-disclosure bit so posts will be back to knitting and humorous life-as-it-comes after this.

I Can Haz Fitnezz

2009-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, hell has frozen over and I've joined a health club. Weight coming off was too inspiring; in fact I had dreams of waking up with it all suddenly back on if I didn't start exercising. Not to mention the weakness of my joints and back due to arthritis and other aging pains in the patooty. This is day three. If all I do is show up and do half an hour on the treadmill it's a tremendous victory for me. They have a row of machines you work your way through to work all of the major body muscles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn you do it every third day - not every day - to let your muscles "recover." Nark! I thought the idea was punishment and misery EVERY day which is why I've put it off lo these last 17 years. My rheumatologist recommended swimming to help the fibromyalgia and rotator cuff tendonitis (more than you wanted to know, I know...) and for awhile a year or so ago I did go with DF Bethie 3 times a week. Just couldn't face it this time. Had gotten over the trauma of undressing in the ladies locker room and showering with 12 other women - they were all Geezer Babes like me with traditionally built rolls of fat in all the usual places so it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. But just couldn't kick my own behind enough to get down there and go through all the prequel and sequel of getting in and out of the water. The club I joined is open 5-11 p.m., has a super cheap month-to-month rates, and I got a special summer deal where I didn't have to pay a join-up fee. It's 1.5 miles from the house eggzactly. I could walk there or back if I needed to with no problem! DF Gail is also a member and we are going to compassionately drag each other there when one of us is lagging. Could be sooooon Gail, could be soooon.....

Found out tonight (Sunday) that they close at 7 p.m. on the weekends. Rats! I WOULD join the only one in the city that wasn't open 24 hours (did I mention the club's name is 24-hour Fitness?) It costs about $10 more a month to have the pass that lets you into any of their club locations in town any time. Sounds worthwhile once I have been serious for a couple months and the pass would be a convenience, not to mention overcoming any excuse I had because I was running errands in another part of town that day. So for tonight - had to come home and grab the dog for a serious walk - she was deliriously happy about that! And the route I took was half an hour with little inclines the whole way. (Say GOOD GIRL real loud at this point!) Our previous much-missed doggies who have passed on (and never send so much as a POSTCARD from beyond) would just plant all four feet and refuse to move if the smells were really good, and by then my heart rate have gone back to normal. But the Trixie dog is a good walker. You know dogs - they invented "scratch and sniff" and at each point along the way where there's a tree, post, hydrant or tall stand of ivy, they have to stop and check their peemail. Not to mention that World Peace seems to depend on circling and finding the EXACT right place to empty out. Trixie is a fast walker and I can give her a light tug when she's found a new smell and she's off again. When you see people running with their dogs - the dogs didn't start out that way - they had to be trained not to stop and do all the doggie investigative things. So after coming home huffing and puffing (both of us) I tried to get her to drink water. No dice. This is the most water-resistant dog I've ever met. I soak her kibble and cover it with water in her twice-a-day meals so she'll go through the water and the food. Tonight? Showed her the water dish (pant,wheeze,stare), no dice. So we played bobbing for biskies. You wanna biscuit? (dropped four mini ones in the water dish), go get it! Worked great. Drink drink, chomp, drink chomp chomp. Sheesh.

So my first day at the club I had the free orientation with the young spandex-clad muscles-tight-as-rocks woman who had a lovely rictus smile on her face every time I asked a question. She showed me how to use all the core strength machines. When we got to the biceps and triceps machines I tried to convince her that I didn't think I actually had those muscles, but she insisted they were in there somewhere. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to go. In my youth - even tho I didn't do much exercise then either- I had terribly strong arms and hands. Now they are much weaker than average due to stuff you don't want to be bored with, so on some of those machines I could barely get the bars to move on the lightest weights. But, time will tell. I guess I've been afraid that even exercise wouldn't really bring back that strength - but I'm setting out to prove myself wrong. She also took my measurements and weight (shades of the swimming locker room) at her desk at the front of the gym (in front of a big WINDOW at the front of the gym). They put weights on their handy dad-burned scale that you almost trip over on your way in to make sure it's accurate. Turns out I've lost 4 more pounds. I just can't figure out why I'm not fingernails-down-the-blackboard struggling with the whole diet and exercise thing, but you can bet I'm going with the flow. The newly converted are often like this - even if they are a "retread" (word from the Overeaters' Anonymous Program meaning you succeeded, had it all, lost it, and are back to try again).

Homies Gail and Ryan and I are knitting at Top Pot on 35th at 70th in Wedgewood (mega-donuts and coffee place) more regularly now on Saturday mornings. Since Ryan and I are not morning people you know we consider this important and worthwhile! Sometimes we drown out the children with our guffaws. I ripped 5 rows of stockinette back on a lace shawl for Gail so she could fix her lace row that had an owee. Ryan and I bullied her into it. You KNOW how great it is when a friend rips for you - it's a gift to get you back where you were so you don't have the bleak ripping part to look forward to. I learned this from my wonderful knitting teacher Susanna Hansson (she of Bohus teaching and other fame). One thing she would always do for us in class if we noticed a boo boo (always 10-20 rows after the fact) would be to rip back for us and get us set to move ahead again. It's the ripping that's discouraging so you tell your self "I'll fudge it" when you KNOW you won't be happy until you fix it. And Gail charted something for me while I was ripping that I was struggling with. Ryan got to finally try on her "Good enough Gansey" and see that tho the armholes were a tad big, a few adjustments could quickly make them right.

Thought I had seen all the new Jamieson colors and hadda list of same, but Karen of Two Swans (no connection to the "Swan" Flu) brought a new one called Fool’s Gold (No. 289) to the last Feral's meeting. I'm in love! It's one of those mercurial colors that changes every time you look at it or put it next to something. Karen doesn't have all the new colors up on her site, but you can see most of them on the updated Camilla Valley page - tho on their page it's a dark olivey looking thing when it's really a much lighter goldish color - very matte, and goes beautifully with some of the other new colors like "Autumn, Paprika, Merlin, and Delph." Drool. I highly recommend buying from Karen (totally unsolicited plug) because she has everything you need for Fair Isle (Feral) knitting and is lightening quick with her shipments. Plus she's a nice person - at least, she's never bashed me personally! I have absolutely NO psychic scars from our encounters. Can't say THAT about everyone, now can you?

Fool's gold in shade. This picture conveys more of its matte and moody true self.

Fool's gold in sun. Thought this picture made it too bright at the time I took it - but it's still fairly true to the color. Will make a wonderful neutral to bounce brighter colors off of.

The Learning Curve

2009-05-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

At last - an idea for people who kill plants. I read the "Unclutterer" blog regularly (who'd have thought, eh?) and they have guest bloggers all the time. This one talks about high quality fake plants - from France yet! Much as digging in the dirt is sort fun (cept for the wormies and things), it's work that needs to be constant, and constant I'm not - in terms of housework and outside-of-the-house work. This woman is serious and is winning the battle.

Learning curves work two ways as far as I can see. a) you want to learn and new skill and are excited about total immersion in it; and b) something breaks and you have no choice and you go at it with much trepidation. Did I mention the something that breaks is always one day to three years past its warranty? The old Sears dryer from the 60's that was in the house when we moved in didn't break for fourteen years - even tho already old. The new refrigerator we got only two years ago will cost enough to fix that we may as well get a new one. And my faithful '97 Jeep Cherokee Sport comes up with enough "new" problems at every scheduled maintenance that I could be putting a down payment on a new car - which I really do NOT want to do. At least with yarn, you know WHY it breaks. The moths got it, you hooked your ring in a yarn float, your pet chewed a hole in it. Even then things are not beyond hope. BTW, those new Zip Lock giant bags are GREAT for storing woollies for the winter. I blogged about them once before. As long as you put everything away in a clean condition, it gets left alone in the bags. Amazon sells them as well as your local grocery or Target or just by Googling - they come in so MANY giant sizes now. I may crawl in one myself and not come out until everything's fixed!

Blessings to Mothers Everywhere

2009-05-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

The older I get, the more I understand - the way it's supposed to happen, right? Even though I'm a dog mother and not a person mother, I have so much more compassion these days for the pains and sorrows and joys that mothers go through. Had a lovely dinner last night with Dear Friend Sandi, her husband Don, daughter Rhonda and friend Ann in celebration. Ann is a dog mother too. She rescued a German Shepherd named Addie who is a gentle, sweet, and timid soul. We all love to see her and give her pats whenever we can. I'm always shocked at anyone who can abuse an animal and/or abandon it, but thank God there are many of us who want to make up for it and do what healing we can.

For anyone who doesn't follow the Mason Dixon blog, several weeks ago Kay lost her beloved husband Peter after a sudden illness. People are knitting squares for Afghans for Afghans in Peter's memory as Kay's preference rather than getting knitting or donations directly. It's a charity she's long publicized and supported. People on Ravelry are all over this. Today, Kay wrote an entry and showed a few of the afghans that people at her LYS have already made up. Between the entry and the comments, I suggest you have your Kleenex box close to your computer before you click on.

I seem less adverse to admitting my own foibles on the blog these days. Took me a week to unpack from dye day since I bring a lot of the stoves and bits of equipment that come in useful. That means the things I dyed sat in Ziploc bags for a week, germinating. Fortunately, it didn't hurt them - so yesterday was wash and rinse, wash and rinse, rinse some more until the water finally ran clear. Since most of us are still new to how little dye it actually takes to make a dye bath give good color, sometimes the rinsing goes on forever. When everything works right, the dye gets all sucked up by the wool and the water is almost clear - this is called "exhausting" the dye bath. You can always add more dye if you need it so this works well. Sometimes we get over-zealous with our amounts (I'm certainly not exempting myself from this description) and two or three people dye things in the remnants of the dye bath and it still could take more!

So here are my pretties drying on the front porch. There is nothing so wonderful as a washer to spin out the water once the fiber has been washed and rinsed. Dries overnight! I dyed a bunch of silk bells (caps?) and a bunch of shawl blanks of fingering-weight Rambouillet wool that Rebecca of Both Twins knit up for me on my knitting machine. I originally meant to paint these up in different colors like sock blanks but it never seemed to happen, so I went for solid colors and hope to use them up sort of like Kauni yarn, knitting a pattern with two of the contrasting colors in a sort of faux-isle technique. Couldn't find a really good description of what Faux Isle means. Many people use one plain color and one variegated color so they never strand with more than those two yarns, and the color changes come from the variegated yarn changing through the pattern. Perhaps I'd better get or dye some variegated yarn in the same wait to try this. Would that be project No. 872? Probably.

Had a chance to see Michele of Toots LeBlanc and her mother Jeriene for a few minutes today - she was in town for Mother's Day. Since I believe my selling-at-craft-fair days are pretty much over, I've been trading her glass display heads for her booth. They show off her hat patterns made from her wonderful rare-breed yarn nicely. She says her booth - which she runs with brother Carl, will be at OFF, Black Sheep, Sock Summit, and SOAR this year. She also has a full-time job so this truly amazes me. The Yarn Harlot talked about making a shawl with one of her best-known yarns a month or so back. It's a fingering-weight merino/angora blend and is really lovely. It's only now after knitting for the last 14 years or so (late bloomer here) that I'm starting to enjoy knitting wool that is naturally colored. This is a result of spinning in Judith MacKenzie's classes and seeing Michele's blends and how wonderful the natural beastie colors are. I thought all the naturals would be way too blah, but it's just like your Mama said - go with neutrals and then accent with colors - everything goes farther and it's a sophisticated look. Don't see myself as sophisticated since I principally shop at Value Village and eBay for the truly discounted, but I guess I could let a little sophistication sneak in.

Living on the Edge of a Wetland

2009-05-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

We live on the edge (and I DO mean a steep hill kinda edge that goes down for 20 feet of our property before it joins the public property) of the Thornton Creek protected wetland/stream/ waterway. The kind of area our neighbors had to hire goats to clear of brambles and ivy:

It's amazing what a thorough job they do, and steepness don't make no nevermind to them. Each night they just camp out on the hill, even in the rain - 'til they've run out of edibles. Fellow blogger Jessica of "Rose-Kim Knits" used the same goat vendor (mainly because many people who rent out goats to clear weeds want to bring out large numbers to huge lots, and this person will just bring 2 or 8 - whatever you need. You can see her adventure here if interested.

The bennies: no one behind the house - lots of lovely bird calls albeit annoyingly early in the morning. Lovely sounds of the wind blowing in the trees. However, bugs hit the seasons running when you live on the edge of land with water. Other people tell me the moths and mosquitoes aren't really out there yet - I must be imagining it. I'd invite them to come view the light on our front porch on any given night when a zillion or two of them are flying around. I can't stay out there long, even to break the boxes down and do the recycling - without getting chomped. Also, the Piliated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers love this area. They love to chomp down (peck up?) heartily on the house. Partly to make noise and attract a mate, and also to work their way into the attic and find a new home for the hoped-for family.

After having a friend/contractor Dan fix the entire top board level around the house two years ago from damage:

Here's the kind of thing they do - just mow through the wood until they get a hole big enough to get in.

So, two years ago he replaced all the boards, put rat-and-bird-proof mesh behind all the vent holes and we were good to go......we thought.

Until last year. 9 a.m. every morning, rat-a-tat-tat over and over. Do birds have an alarm clock? Finally caught him in the act by peeking around the corner with the camera...

Friend Flicker. Do you believe the size of that hole? Then the sound of the birdie feet wandering around the attic space at night (!) which just happened to be right over our bed. Once I had waited long enough to figure out there were no Mrs. Flicker and little flickers early this Spring (cause I'm too much of a sap to disturb a family you know...), had to pick up the phone again. Daaaaannnnn! Help!

While he was out rehabbing the spot with a board and a secret discouragement board underneath, he built new back steps and did all kinds of wonderful things. I'm not holding my breath that we're done with woodpecker invaders though - they are very territorial and love to return to the scene of devastation they caused last time.

Ryan blogged about us Dye Day Dyenosaurs this week - go here to check it out. Instead of going back to the Oregon Cardigan, I've been working on a Truly Tasha shawl for Mom in a lavender Koigu and am basing it on the original Nancy Bush pattern (free, here) only changing the neckline to match the neckline shaping on Evelyn Clark's Landscape Scarf pattern (picture here) which you'll have to buy to get the techie bits on it - it's a Fibertrends pattern and the shawl version on the picture doesn't show the scarf version (included in pattern), which curves around flatteringly in the front and never falls off (original pattern picture here). May add beads and a second layer of edging. Trying to have it done by the time we go to the 10th annual Sleeping Lady Retreat that Acorn Street Yarns puts on in June in Leavenworth, Washington. The baby mystery item is temporarily back on track gauge-wise but dead in the water for now.

I'm cleaning house with the aid of Dear Friend Beryl and emotionally it's taking its toll. Years of sorting and letting go of stuff. I thought it would be easier with just one person helping me at this stage before hiring the squadron of professionals who march about, asking you to choose if it stays, gets trashed, or donated. It is a "bit" easier, but still exhausting. Good thing I've made a start though. Unfortunately it slows down the knitting. With a good DVD in my computer (or 2, or 3) I can usually get 2-4 hours knitting done at night - but it'll have to wait until David's back on Tuesday and this latest saga of clean-out is done.

One of the hardest things to get rid of conscientiously is magazines. If they are craft - no worries - some friend will take them or I can sell them off. But the husband's tastes are wide-ranging, and libraries no longer seem to want back issues. I can of course recycle them but if I fill that recycle bin up every week it'll be almost too heavy to lift up over the truck. And their holiday Starbucks card may not make up to the recycle guys in cheerfulness for our excess. I've thought of listing them by type on Craigs list to see if anyone interested in various subject matters would be interested. Any ideas?

Swan Song for Coffee

2009-05-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

Not something I really wanted to give up, even though for about 3 months I've been all about the giving up. No wheat, no sugar, no half 'n half (argh - was that tough), no potatoes (not as hard as I thought, that one). But Coffee? Geeeze! But, it seems to irritate my bladder (sorry for the candidness of the thing) so much lately and I noticed it most when we had to stop at every single rest stop between S.F. and Seattle (remember the one-ply paper? Just doesn't cut it!). So....since I'm a huge Assam tea drinker, I'm busy NOT giving that up as hard as I can while I give up coffee. Maybe eventually I can have a cup of coffee a month as a special treat or something eventually. Maybe.

Good thing we had that Dye Day on Saturday because it's been bucketing down ever since. Now this is my idea of great weather, as I have Summer S.A.D. and can remember having it since I was about 6 years old - but, there's a lot of moaning and whining around town as if this didn't happen every May and June.

Went to the doctor for a blood draw today and had a great chat with a Filipino man in the lobby (while I waited the de rigueur 45 minutes past my appt. time). He taught me a Tagalog word for knitting. Can't find it in any Tagalog dictionary on the net so I'll "phoneticize" it for you - GahnCHEELing. Isn't that a cool word? If I had forgotten to bring my knitting in today for what was supposed to be a super-quickie 15-minute "just a blood draw" appt. I would have been fried. Knitting is such great anger-management for me (waiting and wasting time in places, listening to conversations that get me riled up, loud people on cell phones, rude people, etc. etc. etc.). DID find out I've lost 27 lbs so far. Anything over 15 would have made me happy - high expectations are the death of the long-term diet.

Got stalled on the Oregon Cardi by missing one decrease and - head not working - had to rip out one row to figure out how I did (or didn't do) what resulted. Have added a Truly Tasha shawl by Nancy Bush for mom (garter stitch city - great edging) to the INcoming projects, ripped out the mystery baby item that I had made a hash of by mixing up all the wrong colors together, restarted on ONE variegated colorway of Koigu, and am ready to charge ahead on each one.

David is off to S.F. again to start work meetings with a new client. Packing conversations..... "Where are all my socks?"
"Weren't those them on top of the last batch of clean laundry?"
"Yes, but there were only 87 pair there, I know I have more than that - where can they be? This won't last me on the trip."

I go to the computer, find the only socks on the planet he will wear - have a heart-stopping moment when it looks like they no longer make them in grey - find them, and order 87 more pair.

"I ordered you a bunch more socks."
"Oh......good. You know that polo shirt with the stain on it - well it didn't come out - it's toast now, I can't take it."

Wait 'til I've dropped him off at the airport. Go home and order 6 polo shirts in assorted non-stained colors.

The man has a hard time finding shoes he likes, or that are comfortable. Doesn't realize the world of retail only keeps styles of anything for about a month, then (other than on eBay) will never have them again. When he finds a pair he decides are great, I say (as any intelligent middle-aged woman would) buy TWO pair, get more than one color! "No, that's silly, I can always come back" (in six months, yeah, right). So he leaves town and I sneak back to the store and buy the 2nd pair, or if I hear him bemoaning his shoe fate 3 months later when he realizes his world will crumble once these shoes are gone and not to be found again - I go to eBay, start a definitive search until I can locate the exact shoe in the exact color. But now....there's a new problem since we last returned from India. He won't switch over to the 2nd pair! Him, "but these are so comfortable - I just can't give them up." Me, "Yes, that's why you BOUGHT those shoes in the first place - the 2nd pair will still be comfortable, really!" Him, "but there's still a little wear left, they don't look that bad." Me, "The stitching is starting to pull away - besides, you walked through Monsoon rains in those shoes [you'd be appalled at what floats around in Monsoon rains in a country without much indoor plumbing] and remember? You barfed on them in the Amsterdam train station when you got food poisoning and it took me all night to clean them up because you hate germs...remember that? Him "silence.....more silence."

So, it was just a typical "been married for many years but from different planetary systems" chat.

Dye Day Dinosaurs

2009-05-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Not sure how we came up with this name but it seems to be sticking. Now shouldn't it be Dyenosaurs? Since most of us are in our 50's, 60's and 70's with a few sneakers in the 40's category.....don't think we're fossilized yet! I'm still leaning toward Geezer Babe Dyers but got outvoted. Tons of pictures of yesterdays dye day with minimal verbiage (don't faint) from me!

The "start your engines" fuel:

The massive amounts of stuff it takes!

Some of us look just way too cool and unflustered!

Cluster dyeing - will that color come out?

Yep, okay, what's next?

What? Another picture? Go 'way already!

Pat wields the baton - look out! Mary B. is looking less and less happy at my paparazzi skills. You did tell me to blog this Mary....

Calm and soothing supervision by the venerable one:

My job is to lower everyone's blood pressure and get pats.

Oh good, it's working!

Looks like the same old watched pots never boil!

The supportive Dudes corner....

We compared Oregon Cardigan/Vest progress; Linda K on top in the Autumn colorway, Mary B in the Spring colorway below.

Evanne is doing her own unique colorway.

As is Pat - she has a stunning combination of colors. Pat often has an idea, puts it together on Stitch Painter, then prints it out and off she swatches! Go here for a picture of her developing Oregon.

I was pretty darn pleased with my silk bells colors, which started out namby pamby and got better as I added colors. Janis in Eugene lit a fire under me about pulling them apart afterward and drafting them out to knit with un-spun. Project No. 766 on the list.

Gorgeous colors and overdyes are starting to stack up!

The rain didn't seem to slow us down at all!

Sometimes the mirth was just too too.

Sometimes the exhaustion was too too too...

Evanne washing fiber at the basement sink. We must have been at that sink a hundred times that day. There is nothing to compare with having an inside sink that runs both very hot and cold water to flush dyes out of finished skeins, fill up dye pots, fill up soaking pots, wash hands, scrub tables, repeat repeat repeat. If we left Mary and David a kilowatt of energy left at the end of the day I'd be surprised.

See how Karen Jo looks kinda serious? This is where we get into the gustatory rewards for all this work.

We take our potluck duties seriously. No ten trays of cheese and crackers all the same here. A dizzying and unique number of healthy salads and Pat's famous lemon bars which we called salad on a crouton to make them blend in.

A very satisfying day - knowing you can create magic - the same kind of magic you see on the shelves at yarn stores. None of us are likely to quit buying yarn, but knowing you can create some of the beauty yourself is very affirming.

Errands as a Way of Life

2009-05-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

You know how it is - you get back from vacation and the rounds start....no food in the house, need to get laundry done, make a bunch of new appts. for everything in the world. If you have a day job (I'm SO thankfully retired) it's even worse. Fifty-leven emails to catch up on, a big pile in the in-box and most of a day wasted until you're caught up enough to get back in sync again. It's kind of like when you were doing the double dutch jump rope game as a kid. You rock back and forth on your toes watching the rope, knowing you've got to run under and start in at the existing pace or you'll trip up and and everything will fall down around you. I'm lucky enough to have no real complaints, not having to work, but sometimes the whole errand routine seems to waste so much of the day that there is no day. Thank goodness my chilluns are dogs and don't require rides to soccer matches, band practice and the orthodontist.

One errand that was a happy errand was going to retrieve Trixie from the kennel we use on Vashon. It's called Avalon and they take wonderful care of her, right down to selecting dogs they know she can play with and won't bite their face off (she's a fear biter in spite of being a sweet little girl. She was happy to see me and to go home.

Here she is trying to re-emerge from behind the curtain after running to check that the view was as she left it. She always forgets it's pinned at the bottom so it won't gap open.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday knitting group homies had a lovely dye day today. Will blog about that tomorrow. An amazing amount of stuff was hauled to and from. At least three of us backed our cars down the driveway next to Mary B's house and offloaded stoves, dye, fiber, buckets, and a vast amount of other stuff - then had to repeat it all at the end of the day. Always seems worth it though with friends, food and the results of beautiful fiber. Some come to dye, some overdye skeins that just don't make them happy to look at, and though the results are not always predictable, they're mostly beautiful and lift the spirits.

Meanwhile, so many sad times are going on for different friends lately. One dear friend has been laid off after landing a successful job and doing very well at it. Budget cuts -ugh! A few spinning friends have recently lost their husbands to illness or are about to - devastating! And our own dear Evanne lost her darling younger dog Zala (a doberman) after a very sudden decline due to a congenital kidney problem that was a complete surprise. We'll all miss little Zala - she was a bouncy happy girl after a lot of work by Evanne and her family getting her healthy and secure in her new home. So many of us have been through it with a beloved animal companion. The hardest part seems to be coming home and they are not there, not in their favorite spots, not causing trouble, and not with us when we start our day. About the only benefit after they're gone (besides not having to pick up the poop) is knowing they are pain-free and beyond all suffering.

Have taken a little vacation from the Oregon cardi - don't want to burn out and not finish. Our Friday knitters (encouraged by Evanne) made some knitting resolutions for the year. I never did publish mine but secretly I thought that this would be the year I knit only for myself (which almost never happens) and my husband. Even though I didn't mention it out loud - suddenly the projects for others started to come at me so fast I expected to hear "INcoming!!!" and have to duck. But, when it comes down to it, I'm pretty happy to make these projects. There's something about knitting for someone you care about that makes you feel very happy. It's the "Knitted Hug" that we love to deliver. And I'm making the Oregon Cardigan for ME come swine flu or high water. There's a hilarious post over on Feral Leader Karen Campbell's blog about her overhearing a woman on her cell phone insisting that we are dealing with the "Swan Flu," not the Swine Flu. This caught on big time at Dye Day and we are now all calling it the Swan Flu. Y'all be careful out there around those swans. Remember if they sneeze, they can't do it in their sleeve as is proper - so the germs can come straight for you!

Trees of Mystery

2009-04-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

As we cruised up 101 we decided why not visit some of the tourist attractions we'd passed by so many times before? Went to the Oregon Vortex (which David chuckled through doing little quiet "mumble, SCIENCE, mumble, HOAX, techie techie etc. ) Trees of Mystery are at that stop with the museum/gift shop and the huge statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe - the blue ox. Apparently in the old days Babe's head used to move back and forth and steam would shoot out but it scared too many little kids so they changed it. I figure the kids today could take it, considering what they see on T.V.

The museum is worth going in to. They found many of the artifacts when a giant tree fell on the original building, followed by a flood. The Yurok baskets are just amazing, realllllly amazing. How did they see to weave anything that small and delicate in tiny grasses without the aid of half-glasses?

There's a sky ride in enclosed capsules kind of like a ski lift:

And then a hike to some of the more memorable trees. A lot of people like to get married under the Cathedral Tree. As you get close, a recording of the voice of Nelson Eddy wafts out singing "I think that I shall never seeeeee, a poem lovely as a treeeeeeee." And if you're old enough to remember Nelson Eddy - well, you're no longer young - sorry to be the one to tell you.

Here's the heart I left in San Francisco:

And the other groovy leaf sculpture from that restaurant:

These little seal cubs had been abandoned and were being rehabbed at a center in Crescent City (which has a cute little yarn shop by the way). They have to be taught how to eat. Insert fishy in mouth - seal p-tooeys it out, reinsert, repeat 'til it realizes that fish ain't so bad.

This is what 59 looks like these days on a trip. If the link is not clear, it's from Gloria Steinem T-shirt-wearing days that said "This is what 40 looks like."

Had to take a breather from the Oregon cardi (started to run out of a few colors I brought - more of them at home) and start a new mystery project for a baby-to-be who has a greater than average chance of being born with red hair.

Had to be Koigu of course.

By the way, all you who buy that nice double-ply toilet paper at Costco? - nothing will make you appreciate it more than 23 rest stops (post-coffee-drinking) between Seattle and San Francisco. They all have the low-flow machinery that sounds like it's going to suck you down to hell when you flush (now THAT could scare a child). Some of them have the automatic sensor where you put your hands under the faucet and you get (albeit freezing cold) water. Then, right up on the wall where you expect to find the soap dispenser is a button that says "Push." Instead of soap a blast of air jets out so strongly that the loose skin on your hands starts forming little waves as it is pushed back toward your wrists... Sheesh!

Stopped in Eugene and went by several yarn stores. Knew I wasn't in the right place when I asked if Joan Schrouder taught there......"Joan Schroooder? Gee that name sounds familiar...do we know a Joan Shrooder?" Last top was Dyelots Fiber Studio. As soon as Janis opened the door I remembered her and she immediately said "Oh Yes, Joan knits with our little group, isn't she wonderful?" and we waxed poetic for a few minutes. When one of the smarter knitting icons lives in the town your shop is in I figure it behooves you as a yarn store to invite her in and suck her dry for all she knows. Plus, just after we'd said hello, out bounced a darling little Pembroke Corgi named Lucy that I had many a scratchy and scritchy discussion with while there. Bliss! Janis was kind enough to show me how to take silk caps and pull them apart and draft them out so you can knit directly from the silk without spinning it. She says she'll put an instructional video on her site about this soon. I'd always wanted to do this so I purchased some and will try a scarf in linen stitch with two contrasting colors, oboyoboyoboy. I think Amelia of The Bellwether has also shown this. Check out her blog - she unselflishly shares all she knows and she's already forgotten more than most of us will be able to absorb!

Wish You Were Here

2009-04-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

April 20th two years ago I lost my sweet Scarlet doggie to Lymphoma. She was a Cardigan Corgi and we had a very deep and special connection I haven't had with any other animal companion. Miss you constantly Scarli, and wish you were here....

I'm not home so this isn't a very good picture of her - took it from my Ravelry profile page, which is "dims" by the way if anyone wants to check in. Shout out to Nina (pronounced Nynah - many of you know her). She's "Ancora" if anyone wants to go welcome her and friend her up.

[Update - now I'm home and here are a few more pix of her.]

Okay okay, I adore any picture of this dog - she was my best friend.

Here's the cute Stitch doggie in Heidi's arms from Heidi's yarn shop.

I kept running back in every day for one more thing and to see Stitch.

Went into a restaurant for lunch and saw a wrought-iron leafy on the wall. I love leafies of all kinds. They are right up there with the "P" flowers---and dogs of course.

In Garberville I saw a Corgi that had the same coloring as our current Pembroke Corgi, "Trixie." I jumped out of the car to say hello and ask for an introduction. It was a male and boy was he cute. This happens all the time - accosting cute doggies - so David just drives around the block. I was wearing huge sunglasses and as he rounded the corner to pick me up the woman (who was my age (59ish) said, "Oh, is that your Dad?" I said "No, my husband" and she huffed off with the dog as if David was cradle robbing. His hair IS snow white but if she'd seen the eye wrinkles under the sun glasses there wouldn't have been the question. David got a huge kick out of it. I've been "Dad"ing him ever since.

Forging Ahead

2009-04-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

With the Oregon Cardigan. Just put in the underarm steeks - although instructions seem a bit strange in one sense - leaving a single stitch of a pattern repeat on one side of the stitch and the rest on the other - whereas on the other side of the sweater, there is no odd stitch out. Will ponder before I go much further. Called Dear Friend Patricia who was a voice of sanity.

We're forging our way back from S.F. and are in Ukiah tonight. Great yarn store here called "Heidi's." Very cute store dog that is so sweet - adopted from a shelter about a month ago when the store owner's dog died. How can people abandon these wonderful animals. They named him "Stitch!" So cute!

Didn't take much in the way of pix here and just a few in San Francisco. Having lived in S.F. for several years it feels like another home. Recently they are placing large decorated hearts all over the city from the them of "I left my heart in San Francisco," much as Seattle did with the big pigs, and other cities have done with their special themes. Unfortunately that picture is out in the car and not downloaded

Always fun to see urban art throughout the city too.

We're SO predictable. We go to Golden Gate Park, say hi to the last of the Bison herd that is still there. The year we left in '92 was the year the Bison keeper - who'd been with them forever - retired. They decided to neuter all the males so that no new babies would be born and the herd would gradually die off. One of our previous years in the city we reached their outdoor pasture hours after a calf had been born - the placenta hadn't even detached yet. Pretty thrilling!

We go to the Beach Chalet for brekkies:

It's half a block from where we used to live at condos across the street from the beach and down the hill from the Cliff House. When we lived near, the Beach Chalet was old and sadly in need of repair, which didn't happen until we'd been gone for a year or so. The WPA artwork on the bottom floor is really wonderful and you can see it if you click on the site above.

Views from Cliff House down hill along beach (much steeper than it looks) down toward last condos on the left where we lived . In the old days this area was called "Playland" and had a roller coaster and other rides and attractions. Golden Gate park ends at the beach. In the second picture you can see one the two former working windmills that brought in water to the park. Most days of the year the beach is deserted as the fog would come in every afternoon and most days were grey (very happy-making). As soon as a warm sunny day hits, everyone and their brother calls in sick from work and suddenly it looks like any beach in So. Cal. with no place to park and wall-to-wall people. I used to do my 5-mile race walk down a path near the beach to the Zoo and back. Those were in the height-weight proportionate days. Didn't see a smidgen of fog this time. What was the deal?

The second windmill is down at the other border of the park and is under construction, but this one has been redone for years. Really lovely flowers are planted at all times of the year. How could I have left out Poppies in my list of favorite "P" flowers?

And, there are always a million "Painted Ladies" (Victorian houses in pretty colors with well-thought-out trim and gilding). I know where they are in the city so I go have a look but don't try to photograph. Once in a while tho, you run into someone that just didn't do a swatch to see how it would turn out large scale:

There must be some paint ratio of how many eye-searing colors per inch it takes with other colors added to make it all work. Knitting swatches help. Surely paint swatches must help. Ack! And these are all colors I love normally.

The smaller the bag, the bigger the cash outlay

2009-04-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

Medford seemed to have a thing about pansies - they were everywhere!. Pansies make me very happy. In fact, just about all the "P" flowers make me happy - petunias, pinks (baby carnation relatives) peonies, and sweet PEAs. Some people might think I have Pedestrian taste in flowers but I likes what I likes.

Then we stopped by Ashland because it's so darn cute. I didn't realize that the store Websters was there. I've been acquainted with them on-line forever. Geeeeeze - do they have cool stuff. Besides being a knitting/spinning/weaving store (not too many stores combine wares for all three), they have many clothes by artisans of all types of fiber arts, and tons of local jewelry to boot. I only went in for point protectors. I came out with one of those small bags - the teenyness of which is in direct proportion to the largeness of the cost of the items contained. Eeekers.

There was an amazing carved wood statue on the way into town.

Then the next day (Tuesday) I went over to Feral Janine's very cute craftsman house in Berkeley. Said glad hellos to doggy Shadow - as I was in withdrawal without my Trixie dog (at doggy summer camp on Vashon Island while we're on the trip).

Then - more excitement! Lala and Rachel came over (the thrice married). I always read Rachel's blog and was thrilled to meet them at last. We went down to a quilt museum in San Jose for an exhibit of Chinese tapestry weavings. Some very modern and wonderful pieces. Had a nice lunch and headed back. What a great day. Ryan - we wish you'd been with us! Got tons of helpful tidbits from Janine about my Oregon Cardigan progress that finally sank in. I'd heard them all in her classes but it's different when you are finally making it happen and have to know the answer right NOW!

Nice to be back in S.F. Not enough fog for my taste but plenty of roaring wind the past couple days. More friends to see, Britex to go to, no hassle with getting visas for India - which is the reason we're usually here. I'm so relaxed I'm pinching myself. That's AFTER taking my meds.

Road Trip Knittage

2009-04-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

On our way down to S.F. I'm trying to knit 4 (or more) rows every day on the Oregon Cardigan by Alice Starmore. Each row takes about a half an hour to knit. Here's the usual daily setup:

Attach chart to crack above airbag cover. Knit, look out window, stop for coffee, stop at next rest stop. Repeat. New day. Repeat. Tomorrow I get together with Feral Janine for fun and a small grilling about little niggling Fair Isle questions. Oboy!

Does your sweater need dog tags?

2009-04-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

Picture this: you’re working diligently on your latest project, which just might be a kit from a well-known designer that set you back some real $$$. You’re about 9 inches along and visit a coffee shop to knit with your knitter homies. Then, you get home and realize you left it at the coffee shop. You call, but it’s not there. Did you drop it on your way to somewhere? Did it fall on the ground as you shut the car door? The heartbreak of not getting back a project that you have put a lot of time and money into (or even “just” the time) is not to be thought of. That’s why I went to Pet Smart the other day to the “make your own personalized pet tag” machine and made a dog tag for my sweater and other projects of the future.

The cost for the tokens for the machine (which you buy from the cashier along with the little split rings for attachment) is $6.50 for two tokens (the non-gold colored kind) or $8.50 for 3 tokens for the gold-toned metal kind. Not cheap you say? Compared to a couple hundred spent for a kit – not so bad. But wait – there’s always a way around paying a lot. I’m a huge fan of going to Fed Ex/Kinko’s and laminating small cards for my wallet. You could print out a page with circles, hearts or dog tag shapes for you and all your friends and put “If found, call whosit at 206 whatsit” on 3 lines to fill up the shape per the picture above. The people at FedEx Kinko’s will be happy to show you how the laminating machine works. Cut out all the shapes and spread them evenly inside the laminating sheet, so that after lamination you can cut around each shape leaving a laminated margin of at least ¼”. If you just laminate the whole sheet of paper, when you cut out the shapes, they won’t hold together unless the plastic of the laminated sheet is pressed to itself around each one. Punch a hole at the top of the shape (leave enough room for this when you are making the shapes) and you are ready to tie them on. Use the split rings if you have them, or tie on with yarn. You don’t want to stretch out any stitches, so tie them on the edges of the project, at the bottom of a steek, or anywhere it won’t pull on the main stitches. So the tag can be seen easily, copy your original onto neon pink or chartreuse colored paper. Voila! You now have your best chance of getting your baby back if it goes walkabout!

Things that make the spoon stand up in the bowl.

2009-02-02T14:13:00.001-08:00

The first two are of clam chowder. one at Ivar's Salmon House. The second at Country Cousins in Centralia in their pre-underwater flooded state.

Trixie at home, wondering why we didn't bring any bowls home to lick...

The next group is oatmeal. We reallllly like things that make the spoon stand up.

Now we're waiting to find grits firm enough to do it.

So Where's the Snow?

2008-01-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Every time I hit town, it's magically disappeared! Got in late last week and DANG IT - snow all melted! Took a taxi from the airport so Mr. Chirphomie wouldn't have to drive on dark icy roads - and all had melted all the way up to our house - foiled aGAIN!

Sure enough, dial-up is death to blogging so I have a bit of filling-in to do. Things are better on the parental home front. Did a bunch of cooking, shopping and laundry catch-up for my Mother - who had bronchitis - so she wouldn't feel overwhelmed when she got back to normal. Found out she's still ironing all my Dad's shirts. ACK! Did I mention she's in her mid-eighties? Talked her into a few changes - like sending things OUT! I knew she was feeling better when I found her bending over the stove top with me giving advice on how to cook Orange Roughy - one of our favorite fishies. Fortunately she'd given me that advice on that same type of fish years ago and I happily informed her I'd done it exactly as she would, and she could go sit down and I'd serve her with it pronto. Sadly, their kitty of 15 years "Ximena" (think Shi-mean-a) died a couple weeks before I arrived. I was so looking forward to patting up on her! They are not ready for a new cat of course, but I'm already thinking up cat names that could start with "X" since I came up with the last name (Ximena was the wife of El Cid ).

One of the things I like to make other people for breakfast is baked apples. I was sifting through the apple choices at their nearby grocer's and came across a new one (to me) called Pacific Rose and thought I'd give it a try. Apparently it's available December through March from Washington State and the rest of the year from New Zealand. Geeze - when I was a kid it was just unheard of to be eating fresh fruit and produce from other countries. Yes, I'm old - I admit it. So anyway - this apple turned out to be a fabulous choice. I cored them, put them in a pie plate in the microwave and cook them for 4 minutes at a time and keep checking. At some point you can put a dab of butter and cinnamon down the hole. I don't let them get too mushy - still slightly firm is good. They dribble juice during the cooking and make their own steaming/ poaching liquid at the bottom of the pie plate (easiest thing I can find to cook them in) so you don't have to put any water in at first when you are nukeing them. When done to satisfaction - I take them out and fill the middles with cold Pina Colada yogurt by Yo Plait before serving. These Pacific Rose apples were amazing - they were about the firmness of a good apple pie apple and tasted just like you'd made them in a pie and sweetened them yourself. Easy healthy breakfast and great on a cold day with or without the yogurt. I just found them locally at QFC here in Seattle yesterday and stocked up. Geeze - QFC has 10 different types of apples. Is it because we live in Washington State? Is it because we live in the land of plenty?

I also made Mom a huge batch of chicken soup from scratch (actually - I presume the free-range chicken did all the scratching) and lots of other vegee healthy things. When we got tired of chicken soup I found a fabulous "mom and pop" Mexican restaurant down the street that does a from-scratch Albondigas soup. (I know, Albondigas has beef or pork meatballs and piggies don't scratch, they rout - but who's gonna say "from rout?") In our soup they cooked chayote squash which is a nice mild vegetable - great in soup. One of the joys of living in Southern California is fabulous Mexican food with restaurants practically on every block. Even the fast food can be fab. El Pollo Loco is an example - they grill all their chicken with a wonderful signature sauce and all their items are consistently wonderful. They have drive-through windows too! Ditto about the land of plenty. Another wonderful thing about So. Cal. from a middle-aged aches and pains point of view is that the majority of the houses are one storey. This is true for my parents' house as well, except they tried to be cute and decorative and made one step down to the livingroom and in another area the family room, and one step up to the kitchen and dining area - then a step back down to get to the bedrooms. Really a total waste since the house is a flat one-storey just like the rest of the houses. I suppose this was done to "create interest" in the house but it just makes one more thing to stumble over when your bones are getting old and tired.

Since Mom was not well, I stayed home with her while my Step Dad went to my Step Sister Leslie's memorial service. It was attended by 250 people and was beautifully done. Step Sister Susan came back to stay with us and I got to know her a lot better - which was great. We ganged up on the parental units and were obnoxious with advice on how they should change their life to be more secure and comfortable now that they are getting up there in age. I'm sure they were sad but relieved when we finally got the heck out of there, dribbling last-minute advice as we went.

There's only one knitting store in town - it's called the Knit and Stitch. If you are ever in Riverside, California it's in the Brockton Arcade on Brockton Street off of the main drag - Magnolia Street. Typical for California there is almost no wool. Lots of Plymouth "Encore" and other synthetics, but now starting to carry bamboo, 'paca and other sorta natural lightweight yarns. They did have a totally wonderful cabled preemie hat as a sample. I pleaded with them to have the author write it up and send it to me and they did! Just got to get it knit and show you and then it will be available for purchase from them. BTW - I'm on Ravelry now - under "dims." I just spent most of a day getting familiar with it (not near as complicated as I feared) and drooling through yarn and patterns. I seem to have waaaay too many books now that I've logged a bunch of my library. I should have been sitting at the computer with my current project because it's certainly a way to spend endless time drooling over knitting without getting a blessed thing done! ACK!

When back in Riverside, I always have to drive down the landmark historic avenue near my parents' house called "Victoria." It runs for miles through what used to be solid orange groves. Riverside was pretty much surrounded by orange groves in the 50's.
On cold night back then (Riverside is basically reclaimed desert) they'd turn on the smudge pots to keep the frost from settling on the trees. The smell and the black smoke were terrible and it would hang over the city like a pall for days. That's before they were outlawed and Riverside earned the reputation of one of the worst cities for smog in the nation. The way you had a view (we used to joke) was by looking through the groves down the rows of irrigation troughs.

Victoria has many species of trees and flowers that are not native tucked among the peppers, palms and eucalyptus. The peppers are not really pepper trees - they are actually related to the cashew family, but the red berries fall to the ground and smell just like a very fragrant black pepper. They are very pretty trees and their feathery branches resemble weeping willows. .
The trunks are really gnarly.

No, I mean REALLY REALLY gnarly.

The Eucalyptus trees are very old and twisted - the trunks are fascinating because the bark is a pale grey with mottled pinks and mauves and peels off in strips. Forgive the quality of my pictures this time - wasn't up to my usual snuff of editing and I was shooting against the sun. They're easier to see if you click to embigafy.

This is the base of one of the Eucalyptus.

Palm trees and I have never developed a friendly relationship. I find them singularly lacking in tree beauty - but they are everywhere in Southern Cal.

This is about as good as they ever look - most of them get to be super tall and skinny.

At least there are a few prettier kinds, but the basic type is just worthless for shade or any other good tree things since they don't plant the coconut palms here. The type below is more feathery and looks good compared to the basic style.

The trees drop tons of these shard-like frond things that look and feel like a cross between leather and wood. The streets are littered with these all year and it's hard for the city to keep up with them. Some times they just trim the trunk down as it grows.

And some times they shave it as it grows. They also do another unattractive variant of lower half shaved and upper half trimmed because they get too tall to manage easily, even with a cherry picker.

You know you've sucked one up with your car's undercarriage when you suddenly hear "KA-thwap, ka-thwap, kathwap," until they finally make their way into the car's wheel well where the tire acts as a burr grinder and they start to break up into bits. You can see around town where people have swept them up into piles to get them out of the road.

They seem like they should be good for burning or found-art sculpture because the texture is so interesting but haven't heard of either being done.

I thought my tree pix were sort of interesting when I was taking them but compared to Ryan's Cuzzin Tom's tree extravaganza pictures on his current trip to Australia - they're pretty tame!

I was so happy to catch up with all the homie blogs when I got back. If you are a dog and cat lover (and if you're not, you're on the wrong blog) there's a video over on Rachel's blog of one of her dogs playing with one of her cats that is just hysterical. Go look! It's the second one down.

I'm going to have to have Mom bring up her laptop when she comes up this summer so Mr. Chirptechie can rehabilitate it - she's missing too much blog fun. Speaking of Mr. Chirp - he seemed happy to have me back. You know how you are full of family-isms after a visit? I was telling him about a cartoon Mom and I thought was great when we were reading the Sunday funnies. You know...short for funny papers? This amused him no end and he gave me one of those patronizing pats on the head for being.....old and quaint I guess. Doesn't anyone call them the funnies? Is it an East Coast thing (where the parents grew up)?

As a last laughable welcome home present - I'd received an order from a major on-line retailer we deal with all the time. I'd ordered four 4-packs of Splenda Mini's (Splenda in pill form in a little dispenser - be advised that one pill is only one half of the normal Splenda packet). That would be 16 small dispensers in all since Mr. Chirpsweetie needs them for his travels where they don't have Splenda. Instead, I received eight boxes of 12 dispensers each - yep....96 dispensers. At least they didn't charge me for this plentitude - just for what I ordered. Lest you think I'm a bad person for not shipping them all back at my expense, this vendor is notorious for not fixing things. They don't want the mistake back - they just like you to keep it and want to resend - and then are just as likely to re-send you the mistaken amount a second time if you complain. You can't get a live body on the phone no matter how hard you try either. So.....I'm passing out Splenda dispensers every time I see a friend. The new flavored Splenda is out in the stores now and I'm here to tell you it has a wonderful taste - nothing chemical or lingering about it. That link is not where I bought the Splenda, but no matter - you can find it everywhere in the stores now - just not the mini's for some reason.

I MUST develop a less overchatty run-on sentence style here. You're probably all snoring in your cocoa about now. Non-flaming suggestions are welcome. Ericka? Embe?

A Week Away

2008-01-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

Traveling to see my parents this week in Southern California, and attending the memorial service for my Step Sister. As they have dial-up, I'm guessing I won't be posting. See you next Wednesday!

The Goodness of Being Back

2008-01-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Seattle late Friday evening after a grueling 17 or so hours of travel, hurry-up-and-wait, tell the nice Customs Person what you have, go through security, get all your bags back at another airport and recheck them, smile at the nice Customs Person, go through security, wait in line for the nice Passport Person, do it all again at a different place, and rush for your gate and flight. In Germany at one point we were told we were ready to board, went through the gate, down two steep flights of stairs carrying carry-ons (carrys-on?), outside to a bus, SRO for 3 miles to the plane, and out on the tarmac to wait with no shelter for 10 minutes in freezing rain and wind until they got the plane's dadratted door open. Then a steep flight of stairs up into the plane carrying bags. I'm so glad you rarely have to go outside and climb up to the plane in the U.S. anymore.

Ahhhh, the first cup of my favorite Assam tea. The autonomy of being able to drive yourself around when needed. The catching up on the mail. The heaven of being in your own bed. The choice of familiar comforting foods. It's all good! Then there's the freedom to get your own gas, make your own bed, cook your own food, wash your own clothes, and do your own chores. Not quite as exciting, but worth the price of giving up strangers knocking on your "bedroom" door at all hours. My efforts at food will not be nearly as impressive as having ten chutneys to choose from.

Or 15 ore more main courses. But, it will have to do.

It takes quite a while to warm up a stone cold house back to livable levels - slightly less time to turn the water back on and have the water heater generate some hot water. Fortunately, the electric kettle can heat water for the hot water bottle and warmth can be had. You know you've been sick when you normally live from hot flash to hot flash and suddenly you can't get warm for anything. But wait! Where is the Greeter Dog? No Greeter Dog! We have to call the kennel to get her out of hock before bringing her home.

Looking around our neighborhood in Seattle - it's so much cleaner than India - but kind of shaggy compared to Germany. Frankfurt was neat as a pin. Trees were trimmed, plants were pared down, no litter to be seen - not that we went everywhere around the city. They don't speak Horn at all in Frankfurt. I kind of miss Horn - even though I am not very tolerant of noise pollution. You always know where you are with Horn. Mr. Chirpcautious sends me the occasional link to news stories about people being shot in US cities for speaking Horn. It's a shame that such a commonsense language should be so misunderstood. In India, people are not leaning on their horn in an obnoxious manner but going through the subtle differences of toots and honks that signal positioning. Most of the larger trucks all have a sign on the back saying "Sound Horn" so they know you want by even if they can't see you. And size matters. The biggest always has the right of way.

Mr. Chipsnappy was in Amsterdam last April and took some fun shots of a local park with reptile sculptures. We are quite fond of reptiles.

Every so often they rearrange where the sculptures go to have fun. They must be amazingly heavy or bolted down so that no one makes off with them.

Frankfurt may be squeaky clean but they have a definite sense of humor. This is an entrance to the underground subway near the Museum of Natural History.

Now that I have stash access I can't wait to get back into some projects. Also to go to Feral Knitters!!!

Are We There Yet?

2008-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

On our way back to the USA tomorrow and really looking forward to it. We've had a super-hardworking trip with no play (for Mr. Chirpgrindstone), and a lot of health issues to deal with along the way. I haven't blogged about them much because I agree with the Yarn Harlot, who put it so much better than I could have, "I've been trying not to complain, since I think personal whining on a blog is annoying and unflattering unless done really, really well...." and I would add - with a LOT of humor at personal expense. So we'll be back pretty soon and are determined to be well and rested before either of us sets out again. Since for Mr. Chirproadie that's only about two weeks, we're going to have to health him up!

We took the train back to Frankfurt day before yesterday. Mr. C was recovering from a bout of what we think is food poisoning so I went out shopping in Der Romer area again to see if I had to have anything I missed last time. Here is a picture for Dear Friend Steven. These two seiza benches were really comfortable - I tried both. They seem to be Maple or Ash. They are about 100 Euros each which at the current exchange rate is about $150. ACK! And they don't ship out of the country. They're made by a group in Munich. I found a man making benches in the US and one of his looks similar. The store these came from was a kind of generic meditation and statues of Buddha and Indian dieties. Very little stock spread out thinly with lots of bright lighting.

There are various stores of small wooden decorations. I really liked the streamlined Santas in this one.

I had to get one even tho I don't collect Christmas decorations. Ours has Santa taking his dog for a walk with a matching little red cap. Too cute!

Other Gnome-ish persons having fun.

A picture of a brass (I think) bunny for Dear Friends Michele and Evanne - bunny ladies and spinners extraordinaire.

Not sure what these are. You'd think birdhouses (but too low) or a place to put your mail? Google translation sites gave me alternately "lining house" and "fodder house."

This is the sign outside a hiking goods store that had the glorious orange shoes I drooled over.

Misc. attachments and decorations.

This is a sweet sweater in the window of a children's knitted and boiled wool clothing shop. This bunny has real bunny hair for his tail.

Lovely ironwork item with a healther basket in it to say welcome outside a restaurant.

I dearly wanted to add this creature to my beastly hens collection, but she was 59 Euros. so I had to bid her farewell. Yes, chicken bags are silly, but the chicken as a visual symbol is very homey and comforting.

These are shoes with knitted tops.

This was over a doorway.

And what's this, what's this? The Hammering Man! No, I haven't reached home yet...this is outside our hotel in Frankfurt. I didn't realize the Hammering Man is installed in nine different cities around the world.

And that's it for the overseas adventures! Just when I was getting used to swapping decimals and periods when writing out European currency too. I'll be down to a nice quiet 2-3 picture fiber blog publishing a couple-three times a week. Yippee! Thanks for hanging with me if you checked in to see the travels, and don't feel bad if you want to abandon ship for less Fibrous blogs of more interest to you.

The Fit of Amsterdam

2008-01-16T03:09:00.000-08:00

Very few overweight people here in the city. What with biking most places, walking and climbing stairs at home and everywhere (and hopping on one foot and then another while waiting to find a place to use the restroom) - not much chance for flab to attach itself. I did notice that middle-aged people are wearing more tennies and comfort shoes, versus the high-heeled boots of the young. As for the elderly - the very few I saw were very fit and still riding their bike. I didn't mention what the men wear - it's mostly jeans or slacks, ankle boots or running shoes with a shirt and leather or wool jacket. Haven't seen those ankle boots for awhile in the US but they are going strong here.

Women are all about the boots. I would have succumbed, but as you know if you are a larger woman, once the boot leaves the ankle area, finding one that will fit a larger calf and leg is well nigh impossible.

Everything is very good quality leather - jackets as well as boots. There are still a bunch of women wearing Ugg boots. Crocs and Birkenstocks stores were both in evidence - supposedly because they had products close to Dutch clogs. I have to say though that aside from souvenir shops selling miniatures, I did not see one person wearing clogs of any sort. This was disappointing since I live in clogs most of the time and I was hoping to find the creme de la creme of clog selection here.

I was determined to find yarn stores. We struggled through bewilderingly-numbered streets (even after carefully mapping them on Google beforehand) looking for "Maglia;" a yarn store that had all types of yarn, but is now sadly and definitely gone. There is supposedly a Pinguin yarn store in Amsterdam but it was too many more convoluted blocks to navigate in the same trip. You'd think I'd have learned after India. Look up the store. CALL the store to make sure they are still in business.

We finally arrive at De Afstap - the main knitting store in Amsterdam. Mr. Chirpnavigator reaches it first.

De Afstap is basically all-Rowan all the time - with a little embroidery thrown in.

This picture is for the crochet-loving homies. Took it in front of the Kid (crack) Silk Haze wall. Nice! Wish they were out and displayed.

Who could not love the Rowan bunnies? Were they a pattern by Debbie Bliss for Rowan originally? Can't remember.

Looking at the shop entry area from the embroidery loft above.

Rowan DK everything...(except marl Rebecca!).

Another cute place on the way was EggMercantile, which has cute trendy things - homemade felted creatures like you'd find in an Etsy Shop if you were online in the USA. They caught my eye because they also carry Manos yarn. Look in the upper right of the picture below and you'll see it (barely) sitting on a shelf.

A groovy trick for finding places that Mr. Chirptechie showed me: Go to Google, click on Maps, type in the city name, press return. Now, look up above the map and below the main typing box and click on "Find Businesses." Type in the name of the business in the "what" box that comes up. Bingo - assuming the business has a site or is in a directory - it's mapped for you! This is pretty fabulous when in another country! Geeks bear with me - I know you know this already.

This restaurant had a row of electrified glass tulips on their windows.

Some Art Neaveau tiles on a building I passed.

I do love the blue and white patterns on Delftware - they're very fresh - I just prefer them on fabric. The building below is both tiled and bricked.

Street views of lovely ironwork - here in the functional house lights.

Some are ouchier than others.

We were lucky enough to come opon a grey heron on one of our walks. At first we thought it was a fake - kind of like the fake owls - it was so perfect and motionless for so long. It was standing on one of the long canalboats.

Mr. Chirpchecky thinks I should clarify that we went to various Cafes for coffee, not Coffee Shops. When you go to coffee shops in Amsterdam, it's not for coffee, but for marijuana in all its forms. All of the coffee houses say the words "coffee shop" somewhere in their name. Some of them actually serve coffee as well.

Back at the cafe - Mr. Chirpjava has a giant cuppa. This is from their "heaven and hell" series. Monks are flying around the cup doing heavenly things, whereas the saucer is strictly hellfire.

At one cafe, "Bagels and Beans" (a chain) I was amazed to see on the back of the napkin...

...part of the speech attributed to Chief Seattle. It says:

The doors in Amsterdam - just like in the UK - are all distinctive and of different colors.

In the picture below - see those holes on each side of the building's garage doors halfway up the picture with little balconies under them?

They're quite small but I'm convinced they are some type of little bird condo with its own separate balcony. What else could they be? You can actually see light inside the hole so maybe they have a window too?

Some buildings will have one or two windows where a tenant has had an "outie" balcony added on.

The older light poles are all beautified.

Perfume and smoking indoors are unfortunately still very popular in both Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Marriott Hotels are always all non-smoking in the US so it's been hard to adjust here.

I've also been having trouble with tea. I'm so used to the English Breakfast blends from the UK or the States that I couldn't figure out why it was so unsatisfying in Frankfurt and Amsterdam. A. I was drinking hotel tea - in-house brand. B. It was Ceylon tea. No matter how strong I made it - it seemed off. I'm a pretty dyed-in-the-wool Assam person, so it took me a while to read the leafy ingredients. I "just assumed" that English Breafast blend would taste similar the world over. Wikipedia says that a variety of tea types are used to make the English Breakfast blend, including Ceylon. Never Assume! I'm pining dearly for some Peets Assam Golden Tips or Taylor's of Harrowgate! The hotel does have a clever way of packaging tea bags.

That pretty much wraps up Amsterdam - I'm knackered now.

Q2P

2008-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

A surprising and unsightly sight on my first walk out here in Amsterdam.

Yes, those are what you think they are - 4-pack urinals for men. They are all over the city - apparently in an effort to keep guys from going just anywhere - especially when they're on their way home from partying at night. Men can indeed whip it out at a moment's notice and when they are standing on these, there's nothing that can be easily seen. There's another style that has been around permanently on many corners. The smell is another story. Since we're both getting over colds and it was cold out - not too bad for us. In summer? Ack! Women certainly can't whip out anything. A woman writer and filmmaker named Paromita Vohra in India recently produced a documentary called "Q2P" which examines some of the most basic gender inequalities - starting with who can just "go" anywhere they want and who must queue to pee.

The rest of the sights are all quite charming. On the edges of the canals - water serpents are carved.

Trams come and go constantly on the streets, right in the middle of the pedestrians. No barriers, no warning, just coming through. They are narrow and remind me (if you are a San Francisco person) of my old "N" "Judah" train home. That is if people had lined up on both sides and leaned against it and squished it skinny.

We've gone into various coffee shops for a cuppa. Some are quite cute and creative. All the spaces here seem narrow and tall. This shop decorated their poles with various spice pods, burlap, and cinnamon sticks to make it look like a tree.

There are few elevators - and those are mostly in the hotels. Here's the way to the restroom in the coffee shop. Yes, it's that steep with elongated triangular stairs. The handrail disappears on the right side toward the bottom.

A small sample of the many many narrow houses of flats - all slightly different. You can bet there are no 'vators.

The walls lean out into the street a bit by design - both in the front and on the sides if any are exposed at the end of the block.

Picture of horsie for sister Joan!

Many Buddhist signs of a Happy New Year.

We went to a Greek restaurant with a dolphin theme. On the napkins...

In the windows...

They had hanging lamps in plumb-bob shapes - one of my very favorite shapes.

Way to the restroom? Yep, here it is. Just enough room to open and shut a door to this staircase.
This is looking up at the 1.5 stories of very narrow stairs.

And the best thing - a picture of Greek women spinning on Ahka-type hand spindles.

Can't resist the color of beautiful fruit. Even if I'm not sure what the fruit is.

A big thanks to Natasha for enlightening me that all those pretty-colored winter shrubs outside the hotel in Frankfurt are different heathers!

There are different figures, but a set of the most common is that there are 700,000 people in Amsterdam, and 600,000 bicycles. Seems everyone is riding one. Most of them are the Opa or Oma-style bikes (grampa or grandma) that have a long swooping brace in the middle like a "girl's" bike - whether ridden by men or women. They mostly have the old pedal brakes, handlebars adjusted very high so you can ride upright with a straight back, and no speeds. Amsterdam is totally flat so they don't need much in the way of extras. People buy locks that are huge to keep them from getting stolen - but then often ride with them draped on the handlebars and leave them there and just lean the bikes rather than locking up.

There is an epic picture story here that's worth looking at - it shows all of the typical styles and riders. No one is wearing a helmet – in fact no one is wearing a hat, Riding upright doubtlessly offers much more wind resistance and therefore chilliness on the bikes in cold weather, but no hats - even though they’re bundled up in a thick coat or jacket and always have a knitted scarf and glove. No “hat hair” in the entire city! We’ve apparently been cheating ourselves in America on scarf length. Everyone I’ve seen in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands wears their scarf in that length-gobbling style of folding it in half, bringing the fold around to the front, and pulling the two loose ends through the fold. It’s a very chic look and very warm – but if you have a “regular-length” scarf – there’s little left over once you pull the ends through. Here, not only are the scarves plenty long worn that way, they are so long while people ride their bikes that I picture sudden deaths akin to Isadora Duncan death-by-Bugatti. People take toddlers on the back of bikes on little tiny seats - or groups of toddlers on bikes with a barrow in front as show below. If the children are old enough for their own bikes, the parent will often ride next to them through the city with one hand on their shoulder to link up and guide.

Women are ALL wearing leather boots, either with jeans, slacks, or short skirts and tights. A scarf and a long or short wool coat completes the ensemble. Their purses, tote bags and shopping all hang on the end of the bike handlebards.

At the Pancake Bakery, were were surprised to find Paris Hilton on the menu - with her own pancake - with bananas and Nutella. I could eat buckets of Nutella.

Way to the loo? Yep, again...

So all ye with weak bladders, bad knees and bad backs - keep ye from Amsterdam. It is not a place for the gimpy, aged or disabled to get around easily.

De Train Boss, De Train!

2008-01-10T15:38:00.001-08:00

Another thing I love about the big older train stations is that where ever you look, someone has done something to beautify the building.

The express trains to Amsterdam however, are modern, snouty-looking things, aren't they?

When we arrived at the Amsterdam end, there were some amazing ceilings and arches.

So why is everything so high and far away, so only those with zoom lenses can fully appreciate it? At least the vandals can't get to it and ruin it for everyone!

Speaking of vandals, every inch of hoarding and fencing along the train tracks is covered with graffiti. The difference here is that it's all in beautiful colors and carefully shaded. It was impossible to get many pictures of it as we were always moving - but you'd be amazed at the colorwork!

Blurry I know - but a lot like a peppermint sundae.

I'll try to do better on the train back to Frankfurt. Kids need LOTS more free art outlets. There must be a ton of time put into these and they go on for miles and miles. If it had been just black spray paint I wouldn't have been impressed but many of them are fabulously detailed. Perhaps there needs to be an exchange program? And then of course a way to channel it into non-defacement projects. Okay, okay - a little more work on Google turns up this interesting background on it in the USA. And Geeze - it appears I don't get out much - Europe has nothing on the USA and it's all discussed even more coherently here. Wikipedia weighs in with its own article and some cool color samples. A good way to see more samples is to go to Google, type in Graffiti, click on "images" and click through the first two pages of samples. Then do it again with "graffiti art" and you get a different set. Amazing! Suddenly this all seems well worth reading about. Looks like I need to do some serious catching up, now that I'm out of my 'hood. Jah?

By the way, if you have a Google log-on, and usually have the Google toolbar up on your Browser, I've just discovered you can have Google remember all your bookmarks, rather than having them stored on any specific machine you use. When you bookmark something from the Google toolbar, it will ask you to sign into your Google account, then you can look at all your bookmarks and add all the new ones you like. Don't forget to sign back out! I'm probably the last to know this but it's awfully swell.

Another subtle surprise at the station. It's so easy to go by these things without noticing.

This I took the night before our trip at dusk near Der Romer. It looks more Santa Fe than Germany to me. I don't know what these trees are, but they are all over the city. You'd think maybe they'd go nuts in the spring and leaf out all over the place. But Mr. Chirpzervant says no - he's been here in late Spring and there are a paltry few leaves but not much in the way of excitement on them. My....so stark!

I meant to mention that one of the great reading experiences I had in India was the Feluda mysteries. Written by a Bengali movie producer in the 60's and 70's for a children's magazine, these stories caught on in a big way with adults too and were much in demand. There are two big volumes of them in this collection - which contains all the Feluda stories. There is very little graphic violence, no sex (or even mention of women characters in the first 10 years) or bad language of any kind. Totally safe to give to kids and teens to read, and a good introduction to another culture - even if you do have to look up a lot of words. Looks like Amazon US carries them.

Holland is a Province

2008-01-10T14:20:00.001-08:00

So let's see, I'm 57, and it took me until now to get that. The Netherlands is the country, and Holland is one of the provinces. Only took a Dutch friend and a guidebook combined to finally make the info take root. And Amsterdam is a city, in the province of Holland, in the Netherlands. Sheesh! Good thing to prepare just a bit to not look like a TOTAL fool and ugly American. 'Course Mr. Chirpsmartie could have TOLD me that - had I asked, but he has strung together so many bogus stories to fool me and make me laugh during our marriage, that I seldom believe him about anything.

The last of the pictures from Germany... These are shrubs outside the Frankfurt Marriott. Aren't the colors wonderful? Winter shrubs that give off color seem a fabulous thing. No one could tell me what they were.....even in German. Some of you gardeners extraordinaire will know, yes? TMK? Mom? Beryl?

If Frankfurt is any indication, Germany is a pretty darn clean place. I've always heard this about Germany but it was quite refreshing in person. I love these obvious recycling bins that are everywhere.

When we went to the train station, there was one of the newish "Smart Cars" parked in the lot. They are tiny and take up so little room - BUT - they have just enough room for two people and two dogs - even though it may not look like it. We've been considering getting one (car, AND yes - more dogs) when they start coming into the USA - and it looks like they're here (er...there), but the waitlist is still long.

Saw these shoes on my windowshopping extravaganza - they were out on the street and so terribly happy-looking! They were on sale only in a large men's size. Rats! Lucy Neatby would wear these shoes - I'm sure she would!

Been feeling bad since I sorta bashed Wolle Rodel for not being the be-all end-all of yarn stores. Not right of me. Yarn stores always need our support. Here's the sock yarn area:

And window displays.

And I'm real sorry I didn't say nicer things. It was a pretty opinionated entry all 'round, wasn't it!

I actually found a small bit of Feral knitting...

It was in the window of a very trendy clothing store. Here's a distressed felted jacket from the same place. Something about it makes me thing of my high school physiology class.

With one thread left in the middle of each cutout hole.

A few dribs and drabs of knitting in other windows.

The photo below is one of the many of the interesting churches in the old part of town called "Der Römer" (link is a picture). Not much in the way of older architecture like Der Romer is left in Frankfurt because around 79% of the city was bombed flat in WW2. And it's already a very flat place to start with.

I was surprised up close to see actual retail stores built onto the outside wall of the church.

I'm convinced train stations are good places - and look! I met this lovely Berner girl there and got to pat and make nice with her! I sure needed a doggie interlude. Mr. Chirpbellman had to stay put and watch the bags so he sent me running off to find her when she walked by.

It takes almost longer to post the pictures than it does to have the actual experiences. I won't be sad when I turn back into a quiet little fiber blog (pant, wheeeeze) with a few loyal readers and bribed relatives.

They don't call it "Window Shopping" for nothing!

2008-01-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

We checked ourselves out of Sick Bay today to go to the train station and buy our tickets for a lovely train trip to Amsterdam tomorrow. I dearly love train travel - having lived in England as a wee child. A big part of the fun is going to the station to see the little pufferbellies all in a row. Frankfurt's right up there with the UK - a huge station with lots of vendors - places to roam, eat, and shop.

I truly can't understand how we in America let train travel deteriorate to its current state. Nuff said on that one - I'm too prone to a snit on the subject.

I've been eating only hotel food for the last sickie week. On this - our first outing - I realized that the German's are big meat-eaters.

Did we cruise delicatessons in the neighborhood? Did we visit a supermarket? Nope! These are only 3 of the food court options for lunch at the station, at a place I chose to call the "Men in Black" eatery. It reminds me of Ireland. In the few all-in-one supermarkets there (in the 90's - most people still went to smaller shops separately for bread and veg, then meat, then other things) there would be veg, fruit, bread, a very small cold case with very few frozen foods in it, with 3 of the 4 walls being long meat cases with everything meaty imaginable. A plus in Ireland at least - when I lived there they weren't putting all the antibiotics, growth hormones and other pharmaceuticals into their animals, so you were not eating nearly the chemical load as in the States. If I sound like a vegetarian - I'm not. If I had to kill animals myself to eat them - probably instant conversion. I believe that makes me a wimp for convenience. It's not the first time I've wrestled with the idea.

You have to hand it to a station where you can buy fruits and veg (the size of those pears!!!):

...books, perfume, baked goods, meats for days, flowers, flashlights ("torches") the forgotten birthday present, and anything else you might need on your way home. Aaaaaaaaand, they had some leftover good luck piggies!!!! I just HAD to...

Got a gold coin on one side of his mouth and a Fly Agaric mushroom on the other side. This mushroom is famed for its hallucinogenic properties - piggie going on a little trip?
Piggy in a top hat.

Piggy wearing the hat with a shamrock.

Piggy inna hat with a heart. And for Natasha who wondered - yes, they are all Marzipan.

Oh yessss, I'd like one of each of those for the trip tomorrow please!!!

I've been needing a doggie fix, but this was all I found:

The real trick is NOT going INTO the stores!

I'm a sucker for a teapot any day of the week.

And just as the fashion magazines for those with more money than sense have been saying - fur is making a big comeback.

I found the "notions" store below on the way to the yarn store. Why they call sewing tools and embellishments "notions" I've never understood - even Wikipedia doesn't address the issue. Does a woman just get a silly "notion" in her head to mend things, or make clothing from scratch? Don't think so. Anybody think it's fun sewing on a button - do it just for grins? Grown men turn into troglodytes when faced with sewing on a button. "Sew on but-ton? Ugh....get WOMAN....WOMAN sew on but-ton...Ugh. Sorry - I had to bash a little. Many of the world's Haute Couture designers are men. But we're not usually married to them, are we?

I DID go into this store, as it's vitally important in any city to know where all the tools, patterns and trim are for sewing and things related to fiber. I actually bought a substitute darning needle even though I thought "why am I doing this? I'm on my way to the yarn store. They'll have Chibis!" (Good thing I did.)

This store also had furry trims in case you wanted to style with the latest.

I'm sorry to say Wolle Rodel was a disappointment. Doesn't look that way from the outside...

They had many plain colored wool yarns (I believe they manufacture their own line), some glitz, some ribbon, some fat singles acrylic, and lots of self-striping sock yarn. They also have a big section on embroidery of home linens. The tools were all German, and there weren't a lot of them. Nylon and bamboo circulars and that's about it. I was so hoping for unusual tzotchkies for knitting that you'd only see in Germany or Europe... Let's face it - I'm a Seattleite - land of a thousand yarn stores - all of which import tools and yarn from all over the world. More spoiled I couldn't be. So if you're in Frankfurt and need a good basic store with a small variety of things - this is it.

The last of the shopping must wait for a future entry. Mr. Chirpantsie needs to check his mail (and see if I disparaged him in the Blog).

New Years Travel Resolutions

2008-01-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

It seems we were given a breeding pair! The progeny appeared magically at dinner the next night.

1. Stop getting sick in foreign countries! I'd already had a cold in India and managed not to share with Mr. Chirpchatty. Then, Mr. C. took a biz flight to Coimbatore (still in South India) for one long 16-hour day and picked up something unpleasant - which didn't manifest until we reached Frankfurt. He tried not to share, but is just too generous of spirit. We've both been down with a bug all week. This mimics our trip two years ago to London on the way back from India when we were stuck in a hotel for the entire time of our stay with another bug. Sheesh is all I've got to say!

2. NEVER leave town for any trip without your Chibi needle for grafting together the toes of your newly completed handknitted socks, and for sewing knitted seams. You will regret it.....deeply. In another country you may be forced to buy something much less satisfactory, like a sailmaker's needle - which will free-rotate it's spatulate end - endlessly - in the stitches and not hold STILL - that is if it FITS through the stitches! However, never stop knitting, as it is known for it's healing properties and sense of accomplishment when you can't leave your room. I finished the fun lace-rib socks, and these are for secret sock pal Sandi (since I've apparently been outed among the homies).

Sorry for the blurred closeup - I just adore this pattern. Who knew it was so easy?

3. I love this phrase sent to me in an eMail attachment by Dear Friend Anita: "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? "Be kinder than necessary" is right up there with random acts of kindness. I didn't realize there is a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation - which you'll see if you click on that link. You notice though that this resolution came second to Nos. 1 and 2 above. In my current stage of finishing socks while sick, I had to prioritize.

4. Always carry the 2-gallon size of Ziploc bags with you wherever you go (I've found the original brand name to be the best and the freezer type to be the strongest). On trips, in your car, in your knitting bag, to retreats.... They are endlessly useful on trips, keeping food and snacks fresh for late-night snacks, holding dirty clothes, packing up purchased items to keep them clean and packable, holding just-dyed fiber, or carded fiber, or stinky fiber - and they can be reused over and over again (and washed!) in the best spirit of recycling. You can take a camping/RV trip and cook an omelet in them - truly! My parents have done this over and over again. Everyone brings their own premixed ingredients in a bag to a big campfire where there is a central vat of hot water going. And then....well, you can watch a video if you click this link. I hope Mr. or Ms. Ziploc died a happy and wealthy person.

5. Never assume.....anything! This especially applies to healthcare and getting prescriptions in another country. We were astounded by the bureaucracy - and we have some varied experience of living overseas. Many of the potential struggles are well nigh impossible to find out before you go. That would be a double Sheesh! Many thanks to Dear Friends Natasha and Dan for helping us through an impossible situation.

That's it for now. A shout out to Dear Friend and socknitter extraordinaire Lynne at Socklady - glad you are recovering so well and I haven't forgotten I owe you a pattern!

Don't know why Blogger insists on single-spacing my entries no matter how I format them - but - apologies for the strange spacing.

A Very Porcine New Year To You!!!

2007-12-31T16:06:00.000-08:00

Aren't these cute? They were given out at the hotel here in Frankfurt as Happy New Year favors. Piggy themes are very big for New Year's in Germany. They symbolize good luck, prosperity, living off the fat, and other happy things. In Googling around - I found one site that said "Pigs are considered good luck because they root forward, symbolizing progress." So allow me to wish you full snouts ahead for 2008! May your troughs be full of plenty today and every day! And...may you never be disturbed when your snouts are in the trough.

Apparently lots of countries have some sort of traditional pork-related meal to celebrate New Year's day - right down to ham hocks and blackeyed peas from Mr. Chirpchatty's Southern roots. When I first met Mr. C., I'd only had BBQ sauce from a jar and wasn't overly keen on it. One trip to his home town in Alabama soon cured me of that. Not a low-fat dish in the state - but all the yummier for it! I followed his Grandmother around for days with a little notebook trying to learn all her secrets for his favorite dishes. Didn't get 'em. The training was on the order of "Oh that's easy - you just take a pinch of this and add a dash of that to it." I don't know from these pinches, tad bits, smidgens and dashes that all good cooks seem to have memorized. Not only that - you can't measure them with a regular spoon measure - it can only be done with your fingertips. Not that I'm the scientific type of cook - when and if I cook - but there's a world of wiggle room in the pinch and dash genre.

Boy do the Germans love their fireworks! We're on the 39th floor at the Frankfurt Marriott and have a lovely view, albeit of a mostly empty Expo and Trade Center. No matter! Come five minutes to midnite, the fireworks began. No big central show that went high into the sky, but zillions of little poofs, booms, and sparkles going off in every direction. The city is very flat so it was easy to see for some distance. The show must have gone on for 40 minutes without let-up. Finally there was so much white smoke everywhere that everyone had to cash it in.

There is a coffee shop in the lobby that we've been visiting. Each cup is the size of a small vat and takes both hands to lift! This makes Mr. Chirpjangley veeerrrry happy!

If I'm good, Mr. C. says he'll take me to the yarn store shown below this week. He took a picture of it for me early last year when I couldn't come with him on a previous trip to Frankfurt. Oh boyoboyoboy!

Cranberry Bog

2007-12-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Isn't this yarn a vision of yummyness? Doesn't it make you want to go open a can of Ocean Spray and eat it with your next meal? If Ocean Spray would only sponsor a "match that cranberry color" contest, some big bux could be won! This is the latest handspun of the lovely and talented Dear Friend Sandi. She dyed it herself (only last week!) and immediately spun it up to produce this gorgeous bouquet. Sandi has been a huge inspiration to me since we first met - especially in the areas of dyeing and spinning.

Here she is calculating how much of her hard-earned money (from selling her wonderful handspun twice a year) she'd like to leave behind in Heidi's shop - called The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble, Washington. She doesn't dye everything she spins... she can be taken in by pretty roving any bit as much as the rest of us.

In my ongoing effort to fill in my two years of blog silence, I have to talk about a project Sandi was the Uber-manager for; a baby blanket for the lovely and talented Dear Friend Tina. Here's Tina in the waiting stage for little Oscar while at a spinning conference.

First, Sandi bought superwash roving from vendor and friend Sara - but not before Sara dyed it in 4 colors of blue for us. Then, Sandi spun up all the roving - including the white of course - and made careful packets of all the colors for five of us to knit panels for the blanket. The blanket idea comes from those two clever Mason Dixon ladies - Ann and Kay - and can be found in their first book - it's called "The Keepsake Blanket." Then, Sara, Anne, Marge & Alice (sisters - did their panel together), Sandi and I all knit our panels. Sandi sewed the panels together and did a great crochet edging to finish it off. Claudette embroidered Oscar's B-day and name on it. Here's the final product just before Claudette embroidered it.

And here, to give a better perspective, is Mom Tina receiving it.

The middle panel was mine. Anytime someone says, "do whatever pattern you want - just make it up and be creative....it just has to measure this by this when you turn it back in," I panic! ACK! What to do, what to do... So I got this idea for a sky and sea theme and it turned out to be much more agonizing to do than if I'd just stuck to the plan!!! Why, oh why can't I just stick to the plan! Totally not incompliance. Here I am with the new cherub....

And here he is after having been happily given a bottle by Sandi. After being so content he's suddenly thinking "Wait a minute - you're not my Mama....where IS my Mama?"

Look at the little big-boy sweetie-pie now! He's been negotiating with Santa!

I found another blog where people had taken off with that blanket idea and made this. It's always fun to see how projects evolve. Can't wait to try the Log Cabin blanket from the same book.

I'll probably keep putting in scenes from India even though we've left, because there are so darn many pictures. I really love the pictures of people. This is one of our drivers and his family.

This is me modeling one of the stranger add-on winter garments in all South India. There are beautifully-dressed women in coordinating colors and patterns of fabric everywhere, right? - looking altogether fabulous, and what do they reach for when cold? An acrylic scarf. Bleah! You see them ALL OVER on "cold" days. They are always in screaming colors in stripes and everyone wears them - the women, the men, the children, construction workers, motorcyclists, EVERYbody! They coordinate with absolutely nothing, they're machine-knit, they're on every little corner stand for about 25 rupees. It's the ONLY knitted thing I've seen in South India - other than a few sweaters brought by guys who moved there from North India.

Dear Friend Ancora asked in the comments if only the women are traditionally dressed - as most of the men in my pictures seem to be wearing trousers and shirts. Men of all ages often wear lungis in South India - it's a long tube of fabric (typically in Madras plaid) that is tied at the waist and can be shortened when it's hotter by folding it up from the bottom. South India is pretty traditional so a lot of men wear them, but it's more of a daily working garment for people who don't have office jobs. Once men go to work in any service or office job, it seems they go to trousers and shirts. Likewise with the dhoti - a wrapped garment considered more formal than a lungi (kind of like a sarong in white). The dhoti is very traditional and is still worn on many occasions when the biz trousers and shirts just aren't appropriate. The autorickshaw and cyclerickshaw drivers will often wear lungis. Women wear saris or salwar kameez. The teens and 20-somethings will wear jeans and tops at clubs but mostly in the bigger cities. I brought back a small batch of lungis two years ago but couldn't get anyone to even try them on. Buuuck, buck buck, buuuuck (chicken noises).

This is us trying to fight our way out of Pondy in traffic. The Brahma bulls are always around and always look serenely calm and patient...and long-suffering. I always wish I could run over to them with a nice juicy apple, but it just isn't done.

Even their skulls are beautiful. Friend Janine found one by the side of the road and has it on her porch.

School children are always happy to have their picture taken.

This picture is for Peggy and Rebecca. These are gorgeous identical twins. I didn't snap at the perfect moment to capture both smiling - they had megawatt smiles!

So much of India seems like it survives totally on Rube Goldberg fixes. This is a classic. Perhaps Rube has been reincarnated in India?

One of the hundreds of temples that are everywhere about town - many tucked away in corners, and almost all beautifully maintained.

Closeup of the figures above the niches on either side of the gate.

Sidewalk vendors and neighborhood chatters along the way to Lakshmi's temple.

Another lovely girl elephant giving blessings for donations at a temple - from our visit two years ago. Can't remember her name. She was older than Lakshmi with a very very sweet disposition. Mr. Chirpchatty gets the bonk.

It takes so long to get over losing any pet companions. I'm still thinking a lot about our sweetie Scarlet who passed in April.

And our Bernese Mountain dog "Browser" - who died a surprising number of years ago. I don't have a jpg of him handy, but he looked a lot like this picture of Suzanne's "Diva" in her younger days. He was a small boy - only 65 lbs. Many Berner males reach 100 lbs. Of course, when 65 lbs. of dog sees a squirrel and takes off at the end of a leash, you can still find yourself skidding along on your lip on the tarmac.....and I did.

At a class this last year held at Suzanne's house - where I was learning Fair Isle color combining from Feral Janine - I showed Browser's baby pictures to the lovely and talented Shiori. She decided to do a swatch based on "Berner" colors. Cool, eh?

Our next door neighbor also lost their St. Bernard girl "Quij," (short for drool in Dutch). No more welcoming and guarding barks when we come home.... She was 14. Miss her every time we get out of the car in the driveway.

So I'm always on the lookout for fun animal signs and scenes to savor.

'course there's always that feisty Trixie dog to come home to, and I'm awfully thankful for that.

Airborne Sock Mojo

2007-12-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

It's truly amazing what you can get done on a 9-hour flight! We left Chennai at 2 a.m. for Frankfurt, Germany and arrived this morning. I was in full sock mode for most of the trip. You know - as your cheeks begin to get sorer and sorer (not those cheeks, the OTHER cheeks) you find that you can still knit a sock from just about any contorted position. (Give up here, those of you non-fiber readers who are just in it for the travel - scroll down to non-sockie pictures.)

I'd been reading the Mason-Dixon blog the night before and saw a scarf that Kay had finished as a Christmas prezzie. She was kind enough to give the pattern right there and I was immediately smitten by the idea of doing it on socks. These are very comfy strechy little guys. Here they are without the ribbing stretched.

Here's the rib stretched out. Did them with a C/O of 70 stitches on size 1.5 (US) Clover doublepoints with one of the lovely Trekking colorways, No. 78 (I think...). It's amazing how much a small incremental measurement will speed up or slow down a sock. I usually use US 0's and I feel like I'm flying along on these 1.5's.

It's SUCH a cute little lace rib and dead easy. This is the most fun pair of socks I've done in a long time. Here's what I did to convert it from back-and-forth to circular knitting. It's a multiple of 5 + 2 but you can drop the +2 when knitting in the round. I did an "eye of the partridge" heel flap and carried the pattern into the heel turn. If anyone wants the full recipe, give me a screech on email. Note - I don't take any credit for this pattern at all. Mason Dixon didn't say where they got it and doubtlessly many a sock knitter has used it before.

Cast on 65,(70,75)

K3 P2 for 15 rows
Rows 1 and 3: K3 P3
Row 2: *K1, yo, ssk, p2; repeat from *.
Row 4: *K2tog, yo, k1, p2; repeat from *.

I hang with Xtreme lacey knitters (not their name - just their qualifications) and don't normally do much lace...but I'd like to do more that's easy - and this is it! Socks - by the way - are the best antidote to the long slog of posting pictures to the blog and waiting endlessly for them to come up.

For some reason known only to the karma of last-minute packing frenzies, I brought some Brittany needles in size 0 and 1 - and (thank God) - these Clover needles in size 1.5. I quit working with Brittanies years ago because - with any size lower than US 3 I snap them just by staring at them. Sure enough....

That's two pairs snapped. Also, I usually knit socks 2 at a time on 2 circs, but only brought my Addi 20" 0's to work on the green rehabilitation socks. What was I thinking! However, this pattern is so much fun I won't mind starting over on the second sock. I dislike the dreaded 2nd sock syndrome so much that before I learned to do 2 on 2 circs, I just bought a separate set of dbl points of each size needle and knit both socks side by side - couple inches on one, couple inches on the other. Always felt great when they were done at the same time.

By the way, BONUS when you travel on Lufthansa Airlines - their stir sticks make LOVELY travel orifice hooks for travelling with your wheel. They don't fit all wheels, but certainly Louet and quite a few others.

Speaking of orifice hooks - check out this blog to see a truly lovely new design.

We are now in a Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt near their Exposition Center. Here's a view from the window.

Quite a contrast from the view out of the Marriott Courtyard in Chennai.

In a way I've been giving you a skewed view. There is certainly a lot of poverty in India and a painful lack of infrastructure to make daily life comfortable for millions of people - and a lot of my pictures reflect that, and are from walking around town and seeing the daily street life. I've left out the middle and upper classes pretty much altogether. A business person or an upper class person wouldn't think of taking an autorickshaw to work - it wouldn't be considered proper OR businesslike. When Mr. Chirpsavvy volunteered to take one to work, his local client was horrified and felt it would also reflect badly on them. Companies hire drivers for their management people and visitors, and the middle class and above often have their own drivers working for them. Business people take long lunches during that siesta period of noon to two, but none of them would be caught dead sleeping on the street. Autorickshaw and cycle rickshaw drivers always sleep in their vehicles during that time, as do taxi and private drivers.

The caste system is still alive and well unfortunately - outlawed or not. The expectations of a dowry when a marriage happens have not changed either, even though it too has been outlawed. The groom's family will often provide as list of the gifts they expect, down to brand name and price! We have met and dined with various businessmen and their wives, but it's much more difficult when traveling to visit people's homes and see their day-to-day life. Thus you're getting my birds-eye walking view. I haven't intended to denigrate Indian culture by presenting it this way. Much of my interest when traveling is not in how the wealthy live, but in the mundane things of everyday life. I do try to look for beauty and art wherever I am, but you're certainly getting it through my own filter. I stay away from religion and politics - other than basic educational comments - because I'm totally unqualified to talk intelligently about what is currently going on in either area.

Back to a few more scenes from Pondy and Chennai before we left. By the way, when the President (of India that is...) visited part of North India, she gave sweaters and blankets as gifts to the nuns (who carry on Mother Teresa's work in orphanages) and children. Knitting! She gave knitted things! You can see the nuns wearing the sweaters in the news clipping below. The Pres is also wearing a sweater over her sari. This also means of course that it gets downright COOL in North India. Next visit....I swear!

This is one of my favorite fabric stores in Pondy. I bought the silk for the little pincushion here. They have a broken tile walkway out front.

The tilework has bits of pottery - plain and patterned - mixed in. I've always loved this style.

I passed by this building and noticed the sign.

On the wall of the building near the sign is painted this:

In the Marriott Hotel in Chennai, they had a unique bathroom near the conference rooms. I really liked the translucent bowl sinks. They look liked they'd just been placed there and would have to be emptied when full.

But nope - works the same as a usual sink.

I loved the idea behind this vase at the hotel. It's dramatic, and there's no chance of it tipping over.

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Day there. Santa visited.

The restaurant had constructed an outer wall of gingerbread for a temporary log cabin and affixed the pieces to it with frosting.

Our friends Janine and Heinz came up from Pondy to have lunch.

And last for today is a picture of froggies for Dear Friend Bethie. They are partly carved and partly pained on a slab at a roadway toll booth.

More Scenes Around Pondy

2007-12-24T05:40:00.000-08:00

Another picture-heavy post warning!

I visited the Botanical Gardens in Pondy to take pictures for dear friend Beryl. This involved a longer-than-expected discussion with the driver.

"I'd like to go to the Botanical Gardens this morning please."
"The park???"
"Uh, no - the Botanical Gardens."
"The Park!!!"
"Er, the Botanical Park?"
"Yes! Botanical Park!"
"Okay...yes please..."

Afraid nothing was blooming Beryl Dear - it's winter after all. But here's a sign showing the potential.

There was also an aquarium at the site but it was closed. It's a real trick in India - getting to things when they are open! In fact, that's true of any country you're visiting in winter.

There were however, lots of interesting statues and fountains.

I think the bottle is an offering since it contains water. It's common to offer water, food, flowers and incense to sacred statutes.

This is Hanuman - the monkey god.

One of the fountains.

This is an African mahogany tree. Great texture!

Another fountain...

Many of the long lanes had elaborate ironwork gates at their entrance.

This is a snap from our stop at the resort called Temple Bay in Mamallapuram. I took it, then Mr. Chirpsnappy artified it so that is now looks like it could have been anywhen.

Pretty cool, eh? Man hasn't lost his touch! The pointy building in the background of the upper third of the picture is the Shore Temple from the 8th century AD.

I love finding things that are both functional and beautiful! This is a magazine rack from the same resort's lobby.

Lovely pressed bisque ceiling tiles of the porte-cochere where the cars drive up.

A Tamil film being shot in the street outside our hotel with everyone who can jockeying to get a glimpse. The cameraman is in the middle right of the picture. Next to Bollywood, the Tamil film industry is huge in South India. The Tamil language (2200-year history!) does not have familiar roots to those of us used to the Romance Languages - OR to North Indians speaking Hindi. It was not derived from Sanscrit as Hindi and some of the other North Indian languages were.

A typical road in a village outside the city. Those puddles are covering rocks and pretty deep holes. If a road isn't paved, once Monsoon season hits it becomes pretty impassible. South India has two separate Monsoon times. We're in the second now.

When afternoon siesta time comes (typically 12-2 p.m.) people that have come into the city to work at shops or at stalls have to take their nap wherever they can find it.

Young hip kid stylin' on the street.

Snakey Vegetables

2007-12-24T03:20:00.000-08:00

Picture-heavy posts for the next few days. Before we leave India at the end of this week I have a lot of things to show you.

Kudos to Dear Friend Don for looking up Nasi Lemak - the dish I wasn't sure of on the Promenade's buffet - that was a combination of coconut with rice. He found out the flag was from Malaysia. I've had it again since and it's surely yummy. We are now back in Chennai at the Marriott Courtyard in the lap of comparative luxury. Many many more dishes on the buffet here and all of them interesting. Today I had "Snake Guard Preparation." Lest you turn up your snoots at this one, there was no harming of snakes involved - it was totally delicious. Turns out that snake guard is actually snake gourd - a vegetable sort of related to the cucumber. It stands straight up out of the ground as if it were a cobra without the hood. Here's a picture, and has a lovely flower too. I also had braised pumpkin with olives. I was in pumpkin heaven it was so good!!! I kept thinking of Mma Ramotswe from "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith. She always eagerly looked forward to the delicious pumpkin she would be fixing for dinner. If you haven't read this serious of books, I highly recommend it.

I talked about Kolams in the blog in my first visit to India and they are worth revisiting. Kolams are beautiful designs that woman make outside their doorsteps each day with rice powder. They are also done by staff outside local businesses and have several functions. They serve as a blessing to the home, a warding off of bad spirits, an invitation to prosperity, and an encouragement to insects and rodents to eat the rice powder and quit at the threshold without bothering the inhabitants. In recent times, people sometimes use chalk dust or other types of powders for convenience, but these are much frowned upon by traditionalists. Here are some lovely samples. On religious holidays the designs can become quite elaborate.

You can see others out in front of the buildings below. Most of the pictures embigify well.

I'm very fond of this one...

And here is its location.

Sometimes they are done in a more permanent fashion with colored paint.

The next two are outside one of the Visitor's Centre stores at Auroville and are done in colored chalk.

Gorgeous, eh? The next one is not a Kolam, but one of the beautiful floor tile decorations from a hotel.

The picture below is of one of the carved pillars in the main park on the French side of town. When Pondy was a French colony, they built a canal to separate the French side from the Tamil side. People used to call the neighborhoods either the "black side" or the "white side" of town. It's become all-Tamil long since, but as the French side has all the ritzier restaurants and hotels and all the government buildings - people still refer to the French and Tamil sides. The President of India (the first woman president!) visited while we were there. There was drastic spiffage-uppage of everything everywhere on the French side for days prior to her visit. Police went a little over the top regulating both foot and vehicle traffic within a half-mile of her route all through town. The normal lathi-toting policemen (lathis are bamboo sticks - they can be short or long) were all carrying rifles during the two days of her stay.

I was amazed to see this sign in a neighborhood. Wasn't working well I can tell you.
Water Buffalo having a nosh on the roadside.

Chinese Fu Dog on a gate pedestal.

Two senior gents out for a walk on the Promenade, wearing dhotis. As you see, the fabric is a very thin cool cotton. Women wear a separate base skirt (always) under their saris to prevent see-throughness.

Blessing of vehicles by a priest. You can just see the fire in the dish he's carrying in the lower left of the picture. He is anointing cars and vehicles with oil and flower garlands and wafting sweet incense over them.

Women carry tremendous loads on their heads, using a yard of fabric twisted tight around the top of the head to make a stable base. In the villages, it's the women who gather firewood - carrying amazingly huge bundles on their heads of four- to six-foot-long skinny branches they've gathered in the countryside. Men carry loads on motorcycles of pots, vegetables and bric-a-brac destined for sale. These loads are tied on and are so big that they almost obscure both bike and rider.

Nicely carved Ganesh statue out at Auroville.

One of my favorite pseudo-bas-relief sculptures from the side of a house.

Another Ganesh statue - seemingly doing pushups on a stool - near one of the stalls selling statuettes and pictures of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother of the Aurobindo Ashram.

These are carved lions on a pillar of the Manakula Vinayagar temple where Lakshmi stands to receive donations and give blessings. They are missing a fang or two (and a claw or three), but are still very impressive. They have an Abyssinian look to me, but I'm basing that on faint memories of a 23-year old art history class.

The police are serious about the embarrassment factor to curb traffic offenders. Don't know if it helps or not - everyone is pretty daring. Other than right after an accident, I'm not sure how police would be able to insert themselves into any traffic pattern to catch miscreants.

Often busloads of students - young and old - are let off on the Promenade on school tours. The only way to get them back on the bus is to lean on the air horn repeatedly - sometimes non-stop. After awhile I was ready to shoot out the tires - but had no tire-shooting implement. Plus, it would have kept them there and defeated my purpose.

More scenes to follow soon...

Meals = 2.5, Dims = 96

2007-12-20T21:58:00.001-08:00

That means I've only spilled food two and a half times per ninety-six meals. Not bad eh? The point five is because I lost control of the food but it didn't actually fall on my clothing. Considering almost everything here has a drippy sauce of some kind, I'm so proud. Mr. Chirpneatly (who never spills food and if he did - who could tell on a tie-dye shirt anyway?) is also proud. He can take me places! Many a dinner out and social whirl happened in the last week. We went back to Le Dupliex with this lovely couple - Saumya and Shmula:

Remember the tapestry shown behind them?

I had to get some close-ups this time.

Then, another night we went to dinner with Vasantha and Satheesh - who turned out to know people that we knew. Pondicherry is a small town after all. Here they are with Mr. Chirpchatty.

Tonight is our last night in Pondy before going back to Chennai for a week for the last of Mr. Chirpbusy's business. We're going out with another couple that we've met before. The wife of the couple has been very very helpful to us several times so I decided to make her a small thank you. It's a cathedral window pattern pincushion - all sewn by hand. I don't recommend making it in silk dupioni and silk chiffon, but I wanted to use local fabrics.

I used to make a lot of these for craft fairs in the old days.

Now it's time to rehabilitate the socks I brought. Size zero is not the best size to be learning a fair isle pattern on when you're a tight knitter. Thought I had the gauge right but it turns out I couldn't get my hand through the patterned part - let alone a foot. Why rip completely when the gusset looks good and there is no unsightly hole at the apex? So....first the delicate operation to separate the conjoined twins from the two circular needles.

Picked up all stitches in the row below the motif, snipped a stitch in the second row above the pickup row - carefully picked out the row and...we have separation.

Here's the sock knit back up to the cuff and ready to bind off. I love knitting! I'm thinking of duplicate stitching the motif back on at its former location. Natasha? Okay with you?

Strange and Silly Dreams

2007-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Strange I'm used to - but I rarely have a purely silly dream. Now I've had two in one week. The first one was after rereading about Sufis in the South India Guidebook and in an article here in the local "Deccan Chronicle." Sufism has a long and interesting history and is where we get the term "whirling dervish" from. That night I went to sleep and dreamed about the "Sofis" - a mystical cult of the couch. I was just about to learn the precepts and start a new religion when I woke myself up snoring. Probably just as well. Then, last night I dreamed about introducing a new breakfast cereal to the world called "Shooter bits." Small bite-size pieces of cereal in the shape of various types of guns. Don't think it'll fly so don't look for it in your local grocery. Whatever these dreams reveal about me? - just keep it to yourself - 'kay?

In knitting news, I have not been totally lax. Decided to do a second Juggernaut hat for a two-year-old girl so I could give our driver (who's wife is expecting) both hats at once. Still a strange-looking little hat off the head.

Here are the hats finished...

And here is Bala - our driver - the recipient on behalf of (almost) two kidlets.

I'm really likeing an 6- to 8-stitch I-cord in garter stitch as a stem for the hats.

Made another hat out of leftovers that's waaay too big for anyone but an adult with a big head. Natasha? Want a hat to go with your rehabilitated socks?

It looks more attractive as a bowl...

Or maybe as a nest for Ganesh!

And I ripped out the saaad socks and have been sewing too. Photos to follow.

Domestic Duties...

2007-12-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

My wifely tasks here are not onerous: make sure Mr. Chirptrousie’s business wardrobe (of tie-dye shirts and jeans and unmentionables) is rotated through the hotel laundry services, and especially that all of the pieces come back; maintain his after-hours snack and cold drink inventory by shopping at the ex-pat-oriented grocery; liaise with staff who will liaise with staff who are welding and using noxious chemicals after hours in the garage under our room (which come right through our air vents) to cease and desist after 6 p.m.; liaise with staff to figure out why our Internet connection went dead yet again before he returns from his hard day at the office; shop to spend his hard-earned rupees and support the local economy; make sure to exchange bills of larger denominations for smaller ones at the front desk so we have appropriate amounts at all times for tipping staff and drivers; order in tea when tired from my duties; aaaaand that’s about it! A hard life, yeah?

I spent a lovely day yesterday with our friends Janine and Heinz at their house. Janine is from the Netherlands and Heinz is from Austria; they settled here about eight years ago independently and met here. Heinz is studying guitar intensively. Janine designs a line of jewelry and has it made through a group of local women, does floral arrangements for hotels and special occasions, as well as selling her paintings and landscaping services to these same places. Geez - I meet people of talent! Plus, I believe animal lovers gravitate to each other.

Their house is on the outskirts of Pondy. It has a large courtyard and garden area surrounded by a high thick wall with a gate – as so many of the French colonial style houses here do. The wall offers protection and security from wandering animals and people – a place to drive your car or bike inside when not using it – and offers that most valuable of commodities – privacy! The dogs cheerfully announce all visitors before they can get within ten feet of the gate. It doesn’t keep out visiting snakes and froggies and it doesn’t fend off any insects, but this is a small inconvenience when compared to the benefits. They have many animals they are devoted to; three dogs, three cats; 7 tortoises, 1 terrapin, and various fish in the pond - including a small shark which did not surface for me. The terrapin also was very shy and only poked his/her short pointy snout out from under the lily pads in his/her water area for a short snack. You can just baaaarely see him/her in the upper right corner.

Here was the first greeter doggie when I arrived:

I brought make-friends-fast dog biscuits with me and got to know everyone. This is the charming and totally squeezeable dachshund they adopted about a year and 3 months ago. Is he adorable or what?

Here's Rose:

and rats - my picture of Izzy (I never get his full [Dutch] didn't turn out. They were taken in as puppies from the resident street doggy population. They live outside, are very slow to warm up to strangers and still retain some feral characteristics, though well-loved and cared for in their secure compound. The cats eyed me speculatively and I had more success with some than others. Well, maybe not so much success. Rome wasn’t suborned with treats in a day.

Look at the cute Star Tortoise babies!

Heinz brought them out for me and we waited about 5 minutes after he put them on the ground for them to feel safe enough to put their heads back out and go exploring. Here’s one checking the view from Mom’s back.

“Mom! Hey, how are you! What’s up? Gee you’re big! Who are you again?” Mom lays the eggs, goes about her biz and the babies hatch later without assistance in life - so it makes sense they are a bit confused about how the big person got big. I was so into taking pictures of the animals, I forgot to take pictures of J and H!

Mom's underside. Aren't the feet the cutest!?!

Janine made us a fabulous lunch salad of all-organic produce washed in filtered water with local cheese and smoked tofu from the Auroville community. Since raw produce is something to be careful of if you don’t have a local stomach – I’ve been DYING for a big salad - and this was heaven. Later I sewed and knitted while Janine worked on a painting commission and Heinz practiced guitar upstairs and the dogs had woofy dreams. We had a spate of monsoon rain and some small frogs lined the tops of the outside louvered windows while it came down. What a lovely blissful quiet day.