After finding the ATM my next stop was Lisa Souza's tent. Lisa doesn't know me, but she has a special spot in my heart. Her blog posts about her Mother resonate for me. I think I have had more courage for dealing with my own Mother because of Lisa. Besides all of the good blogging Lisa is a terriffic artist, her hand dyed yarn really sings. I am in a monochromatic phase and I could not pass up this pretty blue sock yarn.
We met at Peggy & Rebecca's waaaaaay before the sun came up. In fact it was so early we startled an urban coyote who was still on his nightly hunt. Sez and I had a moment of appreciation for our cats being willing to live inside 24/7. Sez is a good sport for hauling me around, especially so early in the morning. I am currently on the disabled list for all two handed activities (yes, including knitting and spinning).
Anyway, we met up at P & R's house and were on the road just minutes after six a.m.. The drive was pleasant and the company couldn't be beat! We made good time and pulled into Canby just after ten a.m.. That was the start of our adventure.
Pictured: one of two hanks of 100% pure cashmere. That's a total of 300 yards of heaven. My hand can't heal fast enough.
I had a long post about our daylong trip to OFFF, but the Typepad app on my iPhone ate it. So I'll have to settle for a couple of quickies over the next day or so to fill in the details. Pictured is my new thing-a-ma-bobble for the Little Gem. It looks like Pacman, and it holds the working end of my roving when I take a break from the wheel. Sadly I think Pyewacket has discovered that it makes a fine whacketty-whacketty toy. That kitten has a dark heart.
Tonight is a great night to relax with a nice skein of Trekking sock yarn and some vintage Superfriends.
There was a lot more to it than this, but this was one VERY important part (we only have one bathroom).
Sorry for the long absence my friends. We lost our beloved kitty Simon at the end of May, and I've had a hard time finding energy for activities outside of daily necessities. But life has gone on, and the sun keeps rising in the morning (shout out to my flat-earth homies!). We have added a new kitten to our family, and I promise pictures will be forthcoming, but I couldn't bear to do a Before/After with Simon as the before - so I'm going to show you something else, and tell you a nice story.
15 years ago I was a different person. I got this fuzzy blue frog tattooed on my right ankle in a fit of ennui. This tattoo wasn't right from the start, it never looked crisp and it never spoke to me. Let this be a warning - love it from the first or you never will!
I've grown up a lot in the years since this tattoo. I've learned a lot about who I am and what I stand for. I've made peace with what I can do and what I can't, and I've learned to love who I am. These are all major accomplishments, and have come only after much work and soul searching. I am proud to reveal my new tattoo, one that represents what I love and who I am:
My frog is now a chubby dancing knitter, her knitting is attached to a Gay Pride rainbow of yarn. Over all of this is the phrase: Get pissed off in an orderly manner
Here's the story. Graduation was last week, one of the best days of the year as far as I'm concerned. The weather and location of the event were in harmony, the people in attendance were celebratory, I was full of a beautiful mix of pride and sorrow. Pride in the accomplishments of the wonderful women graduating, and sorrow at having to let them go into the future without being there to watch.
In the short time that I've been working here I have had the privilege of working closely with a group of students who are going to make the world a better place, and they set their sights first on our department. Their passion and their ideas burned through here like fire. It was amazing to watch. My role was to help them do what I could, and help them find the right channels to create as much of the change they desired as was possible. I did it the way I have done so many things in my life. Feel anger at what I perceive as wrong, get organized, create the change I need. I worked hard to meet their fire with optimism, open the doors that I could, and point them at windows (metaphorically) when my hands were tied. Their work is already beginning to pay off, it's up to the students who come behind to keep the flame burning. I'll be there to hand them a fan.
What does this have to do with the tattoo? Well, at their graduation, during the new graduate address, they called the undergraduate adviser and me up to the front. This is unheard of, especially as a staff person. I am a background worker and happy in that role, to be recognized is the highest honor I can conceive. As they presented us with gifts the speaker said: "for -- who taught us to get pissed, and for Elaine, who taught us to get pissed off in an orderly manner." Pissed of in an orderly manner, it doesn't get any more succinct than that.
So, with my mind blown and my ego running unchecked, I knew I wanted to incorporate her words into my body. There is the story behind the (Gay)prideful, knitting, troublemaker.
This weekend we hired a group of magicians to come in and turn our "bad neighbor" front yard into a "good neighbor" front yard. Click all for bigger.
Before, the grass was nearly as tall as the shrubbery.
After you see zen-like bark mulch and lots of open space.
Before the yard was threatening to take over the house.
After the house and the yard compliment each other.
It is much nicer to pull into the driveway and see this instead of wild grassland.
Shameless promotion alert - if you don't want to find out about the best artisan dyed roving you can find then come back another day.
I treated myself to a 3 month subscription to DragonFibers fiber of the month club, and this is my first batch of spinnable goodness. I'm awfully snobby about what I will and won't spin. Spinning takes time and patience, two things I am not going to waste on sub-par fiber. In the last year I can only think of two things I've spun that didn't come from DragonFibers, the baby camel still on the wheel and a sheep-to-shoe kit from Blue Moon. But that's beside the point, I'm a DragonFibers girl. The best thing about this fiber is it's loftiness. So often, with hand dyed roving, you get stuff that has started to felt together, or is so compressed that you have to work really hard to open up the fiber and draft it out before spinning. I'm no slouch when it comes to pre-drafting, but I don't want to have to pull and tug and tease just to get to the pre-drafting stage. I think I'm picky because I spin to soothe myself, and I spin to relax, I spin for myself and I can be a dilettante about fiber if I want to. So, there you have it - what's my favorite thing to spin? Anything from DragonFibers.
Before:
Years ago Dad gave us his sofa and an over-stuffed chair that were a matched set. They had been loved and were worn around the edges. They were still in good shape and were a lifesaver to two new homeowners with little furniture of their own. The chair died first and left the house about 2 years ago. When Dad passed away we inherited his recliner, it's a wonderful and comfortable chair, but not really our style.
This year we decided it was time to buy our own furniture, to finally get some grown-up stuff that was our own from the start. 
After flirting with a retro-mod set from Macy's we fell in love with the Cassidy series from Bassett. We chose a sofa and a love seat (also a hide-a-bed) in sage green, and a matching ottoman in chocolate brown. Disregard the feet on the ottoman, they are supposed to match the sofa and love seat. We called Bassett and the correct legs have been ordered, but it will take 3-4 weeks to get them here. Of course new furniture seems to beget more new furniture and we have turned a questioning eye to the entertainment unit and the other components of the living room (Sez would say "don't stop at the living room!"). Getting the new furniture has been a fun event, we ordered it the first week of April and it was delivered 4 weeks later. While I would never choose to wait, I have to admit it really helped build the excitement.
If you live in King or Snohomish County and want a good furniture buying experience go see Nicole (with the French accent) or Dee at Bassett Furniture in Lynnwood. They took great care of us.
When the Yarn Harlot talks, knitters listen. I always enjoy an hour of laughter when listening to Stephanie; but more than that, I always come away with new information and a deeper understanding of what it is I do, and why I love it.
Theta State the most creative and open state the brain can be in without being asleep. It is achieved through relaxation and repetitive motion. Runners enter this state and call it the zone, knitters enter this valuable state with a lot less sweat.
Neuroplasticity: the changes that occur in the brain from doing an activity. A recent Ivy League study shows that knitting can reduce the experience of trauma if the affected person participates in the activity after the trauma occurs. Knitting can remap the brain.
Knitting is good, knitting creates and soothes. Knitting is good for you, it changes your brain, your mind, your spirit, and your ability to live in this world. It doesn't matter how you knit, just knit.
"You don't have to be good. You don't have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves". - Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
