I just want to let everyone know that I will be making soaps in the next week to ten days.  My life has become rather busy at the moment, as my mother died Dec. 26 and I am caught up in all the ramifications of settling the estate and handling the finances.  As soon as I can carve out a day without demands, soaps will be made and sent to the three lucky winners!

Also, this is my notice that I will be letting this blog pass into history as well.  I realized last year that I really didn’t have the desire to be a regular blogger, and that time spent trying to take photos and write about my knitting was taking away time from the actual production of knitted goods, as well as from other things in my life that requred actual human-to-human interaction.

Add to this the fact that, after a traumatic head injury that severely affected my memory and ability to write, it was really a struggle to try to put together a coherent and readable post.

So I’m going back to being a blog-less person as of this post.  I’d much rather spend my internet time reading really good and entertaining posts instead of struggling to produce a less than satisfying (at least to me) product here.

So, go – knit, help someone, give some time to an effort that needs your support.  Get involved in your community, grow a garden, share your bounty, and be thankful for every day!

My first stop was Taos Sunflower in Arroyo Seco (mentioned in the prior post),

where I was greeted by the lovely and very helpful Connie (backed by the sunflower painting that corresponds to the name of the shop.)

The store is tucked behind a courtyard off the main drag (all one block of it!) and is bright, airy, cheerful, and gloriously tempting. They specialize in artisan fibers, be the artisan spinning or dying or whatever else you might think of, and the colors and combinations are, in a word, stunning.

The shawls show off some of the wonderful combinations that can be found at Sunflower, and that wall of yarn is all Malabrigo. Of course, you can find them online and order up all kinds of wonderful stuff to amuse yourself!

I came out with two skeins of complementary blues that are going to become baby garb of some sort for a new cyber-friend, Logan in NJ, whose grandma passed away a short time ago. Logan had mentioned this loss in a comment on the Yarn Harlot, and I was moved to contact her and offer to be a surrogate grandma-knitter. It may be a Baby Surprise, or it might be a tiny hoodie – but since they’ve decided not to learn the baby’s gender, I wanted something that was suitable no matter what popped out. And I have until February to come up with something that will be just right!

Then I headed down into Taos proper, seeking out further enrichment. The first thing I saw was this fantabulous fish – I do love me some yard art (no plastic flamingos for me) and if it hadn’t been bigger than my patio, I would have been hard-pressed to not have it shipped to me! The colors, the vibrancy, and the slightly bemused expression just made me giggle!

Strolling around the few blocks of downtown Taos is wonderful – the people are friendly, the weather was just right, and it made me feel very much at home. After some meandering, I located La Lana Wools just off the Plaza (the center of any small Spanish-influenced Southwest Town) and was overcome by the wool fumes.

“Overwhelming” doesn’t begin to describe the incredible variety of yarn and fiber and garments and implements and tchotchkes imported from all over. (Click on the tiny pix to enlarge and enjoy.) When I came to, I’d managed to grab three skeins of a multi-blue and one of a yellow/green/blue; I think the yellow skein will be the trim or edging on a sweater for the adorable Kira. I won’t trouble you with the sticker shock, but I’ll be counting on a goodly amount of babysitting to cover that little “oops!”

Almost as good as all the fibery wonders was Lynn (holding my bag o’ swag), who was one of those people who immediately felt like a sister.

She had a wonderful tale of leaving her high-end design job in NYC after a spirit quest, coming to Taos, and finding exactly the niche that was right for her. If I had to describe her, I’d say she is pragmatically joyous about life. And absolutely unabashed at pushing good fiber, too.

After blowing the yarn budget, I still wanted to spend a few hours at the pow wow, so headed for Taos Pueblo; what I didn’t realize was that the pow wow was not at the pueblo proper (it’s a historic site and certainly couldn’t handle the traffic of a major gathering). After discovering my error, I got back to the car and a fellow in the parking lot showed me that the right rear tire on our rental was ready to blow out the sidewall.

Off I went in search of a place that would change the tire. I knew there was a gas station at the intersection of the pueblo road and the main highway, but there was no service available – just the cheapest gas in town. So I headed up the road, and there on my left was a tire shop. I pulled in, only to find a “Closed” sign in the window. Now what? I’m in a city where I don’t know anyone or anything (not counting the nice lady in the yarn store) and am sitting in front of this sign without a clue when a nice young man walks up. He’d just closed the store, but sent me through to the other end of town where there was a chain tire store open on a Saturday afternoon.

I made it there about 1:30, and they closed at 3:00; the fellow at the front desk asked if the rental place would cover it, but I had no idea. So I call the Hertz office at Albuquerque airport to try to figure out what to do. A new tire was going to run about $120, and the guy on the phone couldn’t approve it without a supervisor’s OK. I ended up spending about 20 minutes on and off hold (on my cell and with roaming charges – what joy!) before I finally got an answer and an approval to buy the new tire, which would be taken off our rental charge when we returned the car. Then it was only another 45 minutes before they were able to get to my car. Apparently everyone in Taos needed something tire-related done to their car this afternoon – when I walked in, there was no one there, but by the time I got the answer I needed, there was a family of four, two different men, and one young lady all ahead of me.

So to pass the time I took pictures of the sky outside the tire store – scenic Taos indeed! But by the time I’d finished with that chore, I would only have had about an hour to spend at the pow wow, so that outing was put aside and instead I did go purchase some small yard art – one for me and one for a friend’s birthday that is coming up.

Sunday was a slow day for Lesley, so we did get back down the mountain to the pow wow in time to see the grand entry, hear some drumming and singing, and eat frybread tostadas – YUM! Sadly, my camera chose that moment to wear out its batteries, so only a few pix were taken before its demise.

This is the dance ground; I was a bit south of the western point, and you can see the entry at the eastern point. Right in front of us was one of 22 drum circles; they were spaced evenly around the ground.

This is the beginning of the Grand Entry, with the flagbearers carrying the US, New Mexico, and Taos Pueblo flags, followed by the two head dancers (one man, one woman) barely visible behind the standing crowds.

Here’s the male lead dancer (the woman is behind him in this shot, but I think she was a grass dancer – the ones with all the silver cones jingling on their dresses) followed by one of the elder warriors. In this and the previous picture, you can get a glimpse of some of the dancers as they begin to enter the dance ground. The parade was awesome – I would guess about 300 dancers from all over; I could recognize fancy dancers, grass dancers, shawl dancers, and what I think was Kiowa men doing a bird dance – but that was only about a quarter of the groups on display.

Pow Wows are very moving experiences for me; my great-grandmother was from the tribes that were forced onto the Trail of Tears, and I remember visiting a great-aunt on an Oklahoma reservation when I was about 5 years old. Though I look completely North European, thanks to both Swedish and Scotch/Irish blood, when I hear the drums, I hear them with my whole body and soul. It was hard to tear myself away and come back up the mountain for the evening sit-time.

Today (Friday) was another slow day so I went back into town, and traded the La Lana yarns; Lesley picked some lovely vibrant purples (plain and heathered) at Taos Sunflower for Kira’s sweater, so I wanted to trade the wool for something else – about 350 years of a silk boucle that will become a shell of some sort for me instead.

By Monday afternoon, I’ll be back in California. I do love the travel, and Taos has been a very special experience for me. Part of me wants to just stay forever, part of me wants to go home, and another part (the small rational part) insists that I really need to make a plan if I’m going to do a major move like that! We’ll see which part wins out…

That there picture is what I am seeing out the dining room sliding glass door of a condo in Taos Ski Valley, a small alpine desert enclave about 40 minutes (along a winding mountain road) outside of Taos proper, where I’m doing another travel nanny stint with the charming Kira and her mum Lesley. We arrived Monday and will be here until the 21st, when I return to California and they head to Maine for another chamber music festival. Still having some altitude adjustment issues – we’re over 9000 feet – but every day is better, and you can’t beat the scenery!

This is the river running right outside our deck, burbling along happily. Since this is New Mexico, I don’t know the plants, but this gorgeous flower is growing alongside our unit.

It reminds me of passion flower, but whatever it is, it’s a glorious addition to the setting.

Tuesday evening the chamber workshop students, faculty and support staff went for a picnic along the rim of the Rio Grande canyon; Lesley caught me in action.

Beautiful views, amazing sky (did you know that it actually goes on forever? That’s not something you can really appreciate when you live in an urban area) but the picnic was curtailed as an enormous black cloud covered the western sky, and we hightailed it back to the village before there was a chance to get mired in sticky adobe mud on the climb out of the canyon. 10 minutes into the drive, we were in a downpour, but we made it home safe and sound.

Of course, one part of travel preparation is checking for yarn pushers. I found three shops in Taos, but since we’re a bit out of town, it’s not that easy to get to them. But when I went to look for food, I found Sol Foods in Arroyo Seco, which is just out of the valley we are staying in, and noticed that there’s a yarn shop there! Arroyo Seco is only a block long little business district, and the shop is off the main drag, but I went to look and discovered they’re open Thursday – Sunday, so I am planning to get in there tomorrow if I can. And I will certainly get into the Taos shops (at least 2 of them) before leaving, so there will be another post soon to show off more swag and report on the status of yarnaholics in New Mexico.

Before I left California to meet the girls here in New Mexico, my friend Pam came by to get the skinny on the new microwave and meet the resident foster-cat before she settled in for two weeks of house- and cat-sitting at my place. I pulled out the sweater I’d spent so many hours on that came out too big, and she tried it on. Presto, a perfect fit!

Doesn’t she look great in it? She looks so poised you would have no idea it’s about 85º. So rather than frog the entire body from the armholes down, I sold it to her for enough money to buy another sweater’s worth of yarn. She gets a sweater that looks like it was made for her and I get to knit some more. Now I just have to pick a new yarn to play with, and decide what it’s going to be. I’m determined that I will have a sweater for myself by the time cold weather comes back to the Bay Area.

One of the reasons there’s been little knitting to post is that fruit is at its peak season right now. The first Saturday of July, my friend Dianne and I trekked out to Brentwood to go picking. Brentwood used to be a farming community, and then the housing crisis meant that a lot of land was taken over by housing – giant McMansions that were bought by a lot of people who couldn’t afford housing closer to the Bay, which are now standing vacant as the mortgage crisis forced people out. It’s quite sad, as the communities never really had a chance to form, and now will probably disappear. However, the picking was good and I came home with pounds of peaches, apricots, and nectaries, which became jam!

Here’s what I did with the week of the Fourth – five batches of (from left to right) Double Nectarine (white and orange fleshed fruit), White Nectarine/Strawberry, my much-admired PAN (peach/apricot/nectarine with cinnamon), the last and partial jar of Olallieberry, and GingA Peachy (mostly peach, a quarter apricot, and fresh ginger). Sweet work!

And here’s one last beauty shot – this is what I see when I look up in my backyard, a growing young redwood and the clear blue sky. Sometimes the color and vibrancy is so much it almost brings tears to my eyes, and I realize all over again how fortunate I am to live in such glorious surroundings!

The Cobblestone needed to have a higher neck, and as long as I had the sweater, we decided I should just re-knit the sleeves to fit a bit better; the problem with a “surprise” knitting project like this is that I couldn’t fit as I went, which means I’ve spent several hours frogging the sleeves, and with a mohair/wool mix there were plenty of places that I had to break the yarn to make progress. At least I had thought ahead in panic and bought more yarn than was called for, so have another skein or two to patch these up.

The neck’s done (it went 2.5″ higher) except for an I-cord trim and replacing the buttons, but if you look closely at the sleeve pic below, you’ll see I managed to get the working yarn on opposite sides of the needles, so I’ll be struggling with that over the weekend in hopes of getting some progress done, as there are other things (besides the socks) that I want to get to work on.

And in service of doing my best to ignore the sweater issue for about two weeks, I whipped up a quick costume for my friend Georgia, who is a marvelous soprano with a huge career ahead of her. She and another friend of mine, Rebecca, were starring last weekend in a student, partially-staged production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Ten days before they opened, I was taking Georgia to the airport (to go to New York for a singing contest) and she mentioned that she wasn’t happy with what costume she had pulled together from her wardrobe, so I volunteered to throw something together for her. That was Friday, and Saturday I went to the fabric store, found some stuff that would work, and emailed her photos to check the color. After she sang Saturday, she checked in to say it was OK, so Sunday I started working, hoping to get it done by her dress rehearsal Monday night. Luckily, it was a holiday weekend so I had two days to get things done. She stopped in for a fitting Monday mid-day, and I made the changes and delivered it that afternoon. But after rehearsal, it was decided that the blouse she’d picked wasn’t working either, so the next day I made her an underdress that served as both blouse and petticoat. And voila – here’s Gretel and Hansel after the second show:

Given that this wasn’t a professional production, no scenery, and little done from memory, with only a 4-person orchestra (piano, cello, French horn, and flute) I was wowed with what they had done. The singing was right on (for the most part, and certainly much better quality than one might expect in the situation), the acting was effective and convincing, and they got a standing ovation the evening I attended. Georgia was my student assistant for several years when I worked at Stanford, and seeing her develop over the last 5 years or so has been such a joy! Rebecca worked for me in my last year there, so I don’t know her as well as Georgia, but we do have one important thing in common – she’s also a knitter! I showed her my new socks and she was duly impressed.

I hope my next post will be the refinished Cobblestone, modeled by a most handsome and charming son. Now if I can just figure out that problem with the sleeves…. and manage to ignore my teal sweater that needs the entire body re-knit smaller (I’m wondering if I should put ribbing in on the sides to snug it up a bit.)

The long-delayed socks that I started in March are finally a reality! My knitting process seems to be very much a start and start-over methodology. I cast on, get a few rows done, realize I’ve goofed something up, and frog it all and begin again. In the case of these particular items of footwear, I started (several times) and managed to get to the heel after a number of false starts that caused me to frog back to the toe at least twice. We last saw these at the heel, where my first idea was to do an afterthought heel; the color changes in the yarn meant that, had I decided to continue with the main yarn, the front of the sock would have had a noticeable jump in the progression of the colors.

I slipped in two rows in a contrast yarn to hold my place and continued with the leg, putting the heel on hold until I could get to the store for a nice yarn for the heel, which took me about a week. I found a nice solid green for the heel at Creative Hands, and wanted to start that heel right away. Unfortunately, the sock wasn’t all that cooperative and the heel I managed to fashion on the first sock was a total disaster. That little venture taught me not to try to turn a heel in company, with wine. I wasn’t happy with the comparative weights of the sock and heel yarns, and the heel felt “floppy” to me, so again I frogged back to the end of the foot.

I was also worried about having these socks fall apart on me in a few months, which is what happened with my first pair. I wore them to death because they were the most comfortable thing I had ever had, but I would like my future socks to be just a wee bit more durable. Off to the fabric store to look for elastic thread, but the local JoAnn’s is rather understocked on anything that a serious crafter would want (though quilters probably find it heaven, their fiber selection, as well as implements for working with same, is not of very good quality, being limited to LB and a wee bit of Sugar & Cream in a selection of colors that would be wonderful if you were colorblind and still living in the 70s.)

I finally decided on a serger nylon thread that I could carry with the solid green to reinforce it a bit, and completed the heel using Misocrafty’s superb short-row tutorial with the double wraps. My interpretation wasn’t perfect (I never am!) and I did have a hole at the join, as you can see below, but the rest of the heel turned out so far superior to my prior heel experiences (all two of them) that I am a confirmed double-wrapper now.

One thing I tried in this sock was to put rows of ribbing at the instep. It’s only about 20 rows of 1×1 rib, but it was a success. As is evident in the photo, I have a very high arch (probably because I started dance training at the age of 3) and I guessed that this might give the sock a bit more hug. I was delighted to discover that I guessed correctly on this one! The main fit issue with these socks is the cast-off; I used US1′s for the sock, but used a US2 for the bind-off and was very careful to bind off so loosely I thought that it would never hold. Still, I do have to carefully draw them on over the heel, so I guess next time I will try using a needle size two-up from the project size in hopes that doesn’t recur. I didn’t have that problem with my first pair, so I’ll just keep working on figuring out that bit of magic.

What I enjoyed about these socks was watching the color changes through shades of blue, fuschia and purple mixed with green. I’m a wee bit disappointed that the two balls I had of this yarn (Jojoland’s Melody superwash, color MS08 – but the MS colors are not available and I’ve linked to a close relative) would have required some significant splicing to get identical socks, so I settled for a fraternal pair instead. In fact, I’m not sure that I would have been able to get matching color order at all – Sock A’s toe color didn’t show up in Sock B until partway up the leg! As a new sock knitter, I haven’t yet developed the patience for managing all the details, and as someone that’s rather wonky anyway, it just makes sense that my socks shouldn’t match any more than my attitude!

So that’s two feet taken care of; where are the other four? You can bet I haven’t knit an additional two pair of socks since my last post! My regular reader (you know who you are!) knows that my beloved Zinah, companion of the last 18 years, went to the catnip fields in mid-March. I miss her terribly still; I sense her in the house, I talk to her, she is still very present in my heart and mind. Still, my house is very empty without a fur person in it, even though I’m not ready to give my heart again yet.

I have volunteered for Maine Coon Adoptions, working as a case manager to screen potential adoptees and match them with the perfect cat. In a recent chat with the director, she suggested that I might be willing to foster a cat who is waiting for a “forever” home, and I agreed it would be OK.

On Tuesday, this young lady came to hang out at VI* with me. * VI is Villa Incognito, my humble abode. Because of the layout of this particular bit of suburbia, I am one of three units on a small piece of land. My house is built off the main house, and runs along one side of the property line; it’s also behind a fence when viewed from the street, so the house itself is invisible unless you know it’s there.

Meet “Colleen”, a Maine Coon mix who is about 7 years old. Long silky fur, calico/tabby markings, huge paws, and a tiny little pink nose. She’s personable but shy and skittish at this point. I wonder if she wasn’t hurt at some point (we don’t always have the cat’s full history when we rescue them) as she reacts with fear to noises and has been a bit upset by the heavy winds we’ve been having, which have been shaking the trees and banging the gates. She does a lovely purr, though – enjoys being held like a baby, likes to have her ears rubbed, and as you can see from the specks on her face, is really enjoying the catnip! I’d like to see her put on a couple of pounds, as right now her bones are far too evident, though that’s not visible in photos.

She’s been adjusting slowly – hey, she’s only been here three days! – but last night decided that sleeping under the covers was a good thing. So I guess you can say that we are coming to some understanding, though we are still having “discussions” about what furniture is OK (soft is good, hard is not – no tables or counters allowed) and my personal use as a pincushion, also not OK.

I realize that saving a cat, or several cats, from a miserable life isn’t on a par with world-changing events, but it still is a small way to heal a bit of the harm and is something I am capable of. I know I won’t cure cancer, bring about world peace, or settle the Democratic primary race, but I believe that each action we take with good intent adds to the balance of good in the world. If each of us took one action each day, no matter how small, that was evidence of mindfulness, of caring, of joy, we could move the balance point further to the good. Whether it’s a donation of time, money, or service, if it’s done with a good heart, you are making a difference.

By the way, if you want to help out our feline friends, you can adopt a wonderful MC mix from us, or you can donate to help us care for the many cats we are fostering around the SF Bay Area. You can even volunteer to be a “Kitty Cuddler” – we keep a variety of cats at a PetSmart store in San Jose who need regular care, brushing, feeding and play time while they are on display. Cats rotate in and out of the store, but there’s always a need for tender loving care. Volunteer here

In my “real” life, I have a home business doing baby-tending, errands, shopping and the like. All of the people I tend babies for are connected through music (most are faculty at Stanford, where I used to work) and there are two lovely, and very lively young ladies upon whom I dote unmercifully. Marie’s mum teaches collaborative piano and diction (in German, French and Italian) and Kira’s mum is the violist with the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

I found two lovely butterfly-design fabrics in lavender shades, a simple sundress pattern, and went to work. Each dress took about 4 hours including cutting time, and I found a pattern on the Internets for a six-section sun hat with a ruffle to round out the outfits. Here’s Kira’s version, which has a 2″ hem take-up that will allow her to grow a bit and still enjoy the dress next summer. Marie’s legs are longer, so her dress didn’t have that feature.

Last week, both girls and their mums got together for a play date and to show off their new duds.

Here’s Kira on her mum’s lap, and me holding Marie on the right, and below is the girls sharing a cracker and showing the back of the dress.

Marie’s dress has green buttons on the back, since her fabric has green leaves in it, and Kira’s has pink to match the pink butterflies. The hats have matching buttons on the top and ribbon ties that match the fabrics. No pix of the hats, though – getting the two of them still enough for a picture was a sufficient challenge for three above-average adults!

I think I’m pretty fortunate to spend time with these girls. I’ve traveled a lot with Kira and her mum, as the quartet does a lot of concerts – one of the nice “perks” of the job is that Lesley also knits, so understands when I use my free time to visit new shops. When we were in Toronto last time, I managed to get to Lettuce Knits (the Harlot’s home base) and posted about the great swag I came home with. She’s a happy girl, and a very competent traveler for someone that’s not yet 2 years old. Marie lives in a semi-rural area near the campus, and we go for walks while her mum tends the new sister. One of our favorite places to go is a piece of land where grapes are grown and in the field next to the vines we often see a flock of sheep (I counted 4 ewes, a ram, and eight lambs, who are all in the pogo-stick phase of leaping over everything) and their magnificent guard, a statuesque black llama. I’m scheming a way to meet the owners and inquire about their fiber, find out if there’s a spinner in residence, and generally cozy up to them

Today was also big fun, as the Maker Faire was happening only 20 minutes from my house. I hopped out of bed this morning, had a leisurely breakfast, did the crosswords, and left home about 10 minutes of 10. By 10:20, I was at the main stage in the 3rd row, chatting up other knitters, admiring some stunning socks, and having a lovely time waiting to hear the Harlot. As always, she’s effervescent, entertaining, and edifying all at once. Since I’d forgotten my camera, and the camera on my phone is lame, one of my seatmates, SarahMiss from Ravelry, took a photo of me with the Harlot (I returned the favor of course) and is going to email it to me later. I’ll be proud to post it! and here it is. There I am in my first lace, holding the famed traveling sock. I gifted Steph with some home-made soaps and jars of chutney and jam (should have also given her a spoon, I’ll remember that part next time.)

And here’s the kind and lovely SarahMiss who shot the photo:

Maker Faire had a pretty decent craft component (no sheep, but some spinning and a moderate amount of yarn was represented.) I picked up a hefty 1750-yard skein of Passion laceweight merino solar-dyed by Ceallach in a subtle lavender/pink/earth mix (I think it’s Passionate Pink on their site) that will become my first lace shawl. My only other indulgence was at the Verb/Tactile table where I picked up a Schacht spindle that can be used as top or bottom weighted. I have one spindle and it’s a bottom, so I though it would be nice to try a top as well; the fact that this one is “reversible” just made it more appealing. They also had a book called “Spinning in the Old Way” that jumped into my bag along with 2 ounces of Blue Face Leicester dyed Aubergine – a lovely greyish eggplant.

Maker Faire is much fun, many strange things and people and more than I could absorb for very long. The best description I could give is that it’s kind of like Burning Man in its creativity, but with the schmaltz, commercialism, and food vendors you’d find at a County Fair.

Now it’s time to turn the heels on those socks that have been languishing for a few weeks.

Then I was browsing the sale racks at Full Thread Ahead and grabbed eight balls of Tahki Dream – four green, two each of purple and black – thinking that this might be the solution to my dilemma. I cast on last summer, I think (you could check my Ravelry pages for the exact time) and managed to get the first border done after only three tries! Then it was the tedium of row after row of a 2-row pattern; true to form, I managed to screw this up a number of times as well. I’d be going along thinking it was working fine and suddenly realize that I was either one stitch over or one stitch under, and rip it back to the border again.

After about 8 repeats of this adventure (what is it they say about repeating the same process and expecting different results?) I figured out why lifelines are so beloved. Once I got hip to this cleverness, I really started making progress, and had it up to about 80 of the prescribed 110 repeats when I pulled it out and stretched it a bit to show a friend the design. That was when I found out I had a dropped stitch somewhere back around row 12…

Finally, I started at the border one more time, determined to see this through or poke my weeping eyes out with my Harmony circulars. Repetition, determination, a greatly improved understanding of how to read my knitting, and two years after the start, I give you:

The Victorian Lace Today Lilac Scarf – just imagine the stems and leaves of the lilac bush if you’re thinking the color is a bit off – blocking in the back yard this morning! And here’s the artsy shot draped over a wooden chair:

In the meantime, I am working hard at getting my new business, sERRANDipity Solutions, on a firm footing. At the moment, most of my work is tending children under the age of 2, with a sprinkling of errands and organizing. I’m thinking of ways to move the business forward, and in the short term, looking for new clients who will need help during the summer. Most of my childcare is for people who go away for lengthy periods – touring musicians who also teach where I used to work – so come mid-June, I will be adding a few select new clients to cover the summer.

And about my “de feet?” These are my beloved and worn to death first socks – I managed to get about 7 months of wear before I went through the heels. Lest you think I am unimaginably hard on my feet, I should tell you that I probably wore these at least 3 days a week from the time I cast off until the untimely (at lease for me) demise of the heels. I do still have enough yarn left to redo the heels, and I’m seriously tempted to do it. But there’s that other pair that’s been languishing, and maybe I should just keep moving.

I guess I could just have the socks bronzed…

This is the corner of my living room, which has full-length windows on both walls. IKEA provided the up/down halogen floor lamp (there’s also a high-intensity magnifying lamp that’s at the other end of the couch) so that I can actually see what I’m doing most of the time. That there couch is my very first grown-up couch (or chesterfield, for the Canadians among you), bought brand-spankin’ new three years ago. It may tell you something about my maturity level when I say that I was well over 50 when I bought this! Firm cushions, deep enough to curl up in the corner or sit in lotus without any problems. A handy table to prop feet up when necessary.

Close to hand, where I can grab and browse as needed, is what I think of as my “fix-it” bookshelf:

Here’s where I can look up “how-to’s”, figure out how to alter a pattern or adapt an idea, and where I reach for comfort and laughter when I’m feeling a bit frustrated (which happens pretty often!) EZ is well-represented, along with Mary Thomas (in reprint) and Maggie Righetti. You’ll also be noticing that good ol’ Steph, the Yarn Harlot, is fully represented. When I hit a snag, it’s so comforting to read her letters to knitwear designers, or the saga of the green afghan, and know that I’m not alone. That broken-handled cup is the perfect receptacle for all my DPN’s and oddities – “I have seen the Gates of Hell” is just way too appropriate for some knitting situations. (It’s actually a reference to Dante, and on the reverse is a picture of Rodin’s Gates of Hell – heck of a piece of art! I saw this in situ at Rodin’s home in Paris, and there is a replica at the Cantor Art Center at Stanford, where I used to work and where the mug was purchased.

This reference library sits on top of the little stand next to the couch, which holds (Drawer #1) notions, scissors, waste yarn, paper, pencils, sandpaper – for when the Denise needles are too dull – arnica cream, hand lotion and all the other stuff you need to have close at hand. Drawer #2 is the needle stash – a set each of Denise, Boyes, Knitpicks Harmony and Options, assorted Addi’s, and a rather puny collection of crochet hooks for emergencies. Drawer#3 is home to current partial projects, and a stitch dictionary that is too big for the top of the stand.

This shelf is mostly patterns and idea books, which live in a small shelf that holds the CD player/radio – below it and not shown is the big ugly green loose-leaf binder I salvaged that holds patterns I’ve either bought or downloaded as singles. It’s going to need to be split up soon, as several sections are getting out of hand, but the space to do that is limited so it’s on hold for the moment.

This is the basket o’ half-dones and do-overs. Not much in there at present, just Noah’s cobblestone adaptation that he wants a higher collar on, and a cashmere sweater he wants me to turn into a vest (the sleeves are too tight, and it was a found object so I expect what I’ll get from that is a big bag of 10″ lengths of black cashmere. Oh, and there’s a multi-colored bag that’s going to be frogged and re-worked as I’m not happy with the shape; that’s low on the list at present. While that is a genuine Ben Franklin wood stove, it’s not worth using as a heater for winter; the firebox is so tiny that it can’t take a substantial piece of wood, and between having to feed it every 20 minutes and the mess it makes in exchange for a radically unstable heat is simply not worth the trouble.

But what keeps all this usable is the STASH! I’m not going to go into detail in this post (one of these days I want to get my stash up on Ravelry, but life keeps interfering.) This is what I use for general storage, as opposed to stuff I might get around to someday, which is in a couple of boxes under the bed, and my bag of Knitpicks Sampler hiding behind the headboard.

So this is the stash – 6 baskets with a semblance of organization. Far left is sock yarn (the plastic bag on top), and packaged bags for large projects and good deals that were all of a piece. The basket center front has some roving to be spun, the ball-winder, lace weight stuff, and some white baby yarn that wouldn’t fit in the baby yarn basket. Right front is project leftovers greater than a single ball, and some yarn I picked up at a flea market that has been frozen and slapped around and is now sealed while we see if any critters show up. There in the middle of the bunch is all the wool, sorted by color and weight, and topped by a bag that holds any project bags (and is a project bag as well.) At the rear right is a basket with my fiber and spindle and spinning books, sitting on top of a basket with any straight needles, the swift, all the cotton yarn, and some single skeins and balls that are sorted by color rather than content. And while you can’t actually see it, there is a rectangular basket underneath that small table with the stained-glass lamp which is stuffed with baby yarn. The magnifying lamp is sitting in the midst of all this fibery goodness, and is really handy for tiny stitches and counting when the eyes just aren’t up to it.

Of course, like any knitter, I am constantly adding to all this – as evidence I show you the results of a trip to my LYS for an S&B session last Saturday (no one else was there, I needed yarn for contrast heels, and next thing you know, OOPS! They were clearing out some books to make room for new stock – so I picked up 4 books at $3.99 each! The photo that was supposed to go in here is not agreeing with something in WordPress, but I’m particularly taken with The Frugal Knitter by Annie Maloney, as I do love a good deal and the concept of taking something apart and making something new with it is dear to my tree-hugging, save-the-earth mindset! Two books of knit lit (Knitting, a novel by Anne Bartlett(, and Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales edited by Kari Cornell) were just light reading – I finished both in a day – and The Little Box of Knitted Gifts by Sandy Scoville is a treasure trove of ideas that will come in handy for gift ideas and such. Normally I don’t like this “bundle of projects” approach because the stuff I would knit is far outnumbered by the stuff I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot Addi Turbo, but at the price I will certainly get my money’s worth out of this one.

And this was the final teeny mistake – Happy Feet from Plymouth Yarns in color 11 – a lovely blend of turquoise, purple, and gold that will be making some lovable socks as soon as I can get back to the needles. This is a 90% merino, 10% nylon mix, 50 grams (192 yards) per skein; very soft, very cushy, and I know it will feel great on the needles and on the feet.

So, if you haven’t yet told the world where you knit, consider yourself tagged – and let me know so I can see your knitting haven!

Eighteen years ago in March, I went to the SF SPCA and knew from the moment I saw her that we were meant to be together. She was just a “catolescent” when she came home with me at the age of 8 months, and delighted in chasing her treats from one end of the house to the other. Every evening she would meet me at the door to say hello. She loved to chase her catnip mice, delighted in sunning herself in the studio, and enjoyed meeting all the dancers who came to classes on Francisco Street. All of us got a great laugh when she walked into the studio as we were all practicing one-footed shimmies and holding onto the walls – she saw what we were doing, and obligingly propped her little front paws on the mirror and started wagging her tail in time to the music!

From Francisco, we moved to a flat on Golden Gate, where she shared the house with Precious, a monitor lizard, and Milagro, a red-tailed python. While they all kept a wary distance from one another, it was an interesting household. When that relationship and household fell apart, Zinah’s fur absorbed a fair amount of tears, but she retained her cheerful outlook.

When we lived on Balboa, she spent many happy hours with me in the back garden, pulling weeds, watching birds, and defending her territory from the many other back-yard cats on the block.

Our next spot was the Delores Street apartment; she spent a lot more time indoors, but thrived on the many visitors, including the students who came for teachers’ class. She began to be a more “grown-up” girl, but always reverted to her playful self when the catnip was strewn on the floor, and liked to nap curled up in the papa-san chair, which she considered her special spot.

When I lost that apartment and had to move out of the city, Zinah spent several months living with Noah and his friend Maggie until I was settled again in Petaluma. Living in rural country was a new experience for her – and she wasn’t all that thrilled with the rooster that crowed outside our door every morning! But she did love sneaking around in the tall mint, watching the many hummingbirds, and sunning on the deck.

Our next stop was Fremont, where we shared a house with DW; there were some tough adjustments at that time, not the least of which was my accident. During my convalensence, she was always at my side, from the time I walked in the door after the accident until I was able to return to work some months later. Here she had a warm climate and spent a lot of time in the back yard, but would spend her evenings watching TV with us (but she didn’t horn in on the popcorn – good girl!)

When we moved to Palo Alto, JL was a charming co-tenant and welcomed her to his house; here she perfected her technique of asking to be let out of one door and then going to the other door to mew about being let back in. She began to be more sedentary, but still retained her loving personality.

Our current home, Villa Incognito, was paradise for her; a fenced yard that she could explore at will and be safe (by this time she was old enough not to be jumping 7-ft fences). The window walls let her watch kitty TV – the bird feeder and bird bath in the back yard were a constant parade of finches, doves, robins, and the occasion rowdy bluejay – and she had her “warm spots” for comfort. When I travelled, some of you came to care for her in my absence, and she would always know the day I was expected home.

Over the past year, her decline was more and more evident; she lost weight, from a mature weight of about 12 pounds down to under 5 at her passing. She got infections from her old teeth, and was on antibiotics a number of times. The past three months have really been spent watching her carefully, and petting and loving her a lot. The vet and I agreed that extraordinary measures were not appropriate – I would not do to her what I don’t want done to me – and so when the time came to let her go it was simple, if not easy for me. I brought her body home and buried her in the back yard, with a dwarf rhododendron with purple flowers for her to feed, so that she would continue to bring beauty into the world

Zinah was my “forever” kitty – the one that all other cats would be compared with. She was with me for almost exactly 18 years, and I slept with her longer than any man in my life. Every day I miss her – when I realize I don’t have to fix her meal as soon as I get up or walk into the house, when I don’t have to clean a litter box, and when I turn off the lights to go to sleep, there isn’t a soft warm kitty on my lap to cuddle with.

She will be greatly missed, but more importantly, fondly remembered for all the joy and love and laughter she brought into my life. If you would like to remember her in a tangible way, may I suggest a donation to Maine Coon Adoptions ? Zinah was part MC, and your help may find a new home for another wonderful coon, who will make another person as happy as I was with her.

Thanks for the pets you gave her, and for being my friend.http://www.mainecoonadoptions.com/

Because the holiday knitting was totally consuming my time and energy, the spinning didn’t get a glance until a couple of weeks ago. I pulled out the book and supplies, but couldn’t seem to get into the groove, so started checking out the various LYSes and found that Purlescence had a spinning night! I made the short trek to Sunnyvale that very evening, about 2 weeks before Stitches West, and Sandi kindly gave me a bit of attention. But because of SW, there was a lot going on, and Sandy said she’d be doing a spinning class in March.

I checked back and found that the class was starting last night, so got my not-so-little butt down to the shop and took it in. Only had a small “accident” before class – two skeins of Maizy from Crystal Palace (corn fiber and elastic, on sale!) for some spring soxes, and a pattern called Blessing Socks by Miriam Felton, which won’t be used for the Maisy.

Why did I have to have this pattern? Because for 30-odd years, I was a belly dancer, and Baraka was my stage name. Baruch/Barak is a Semitic term whose various shadings and conjugations derive from the meaning “blessed.” The reason I chose the name was that the definition I first learned was “the essence that builds up in places where people invest spiritual energy.” Dancing, for me, had always been a way to step out of space and time; it was, in many ways, the way I rejoiced in the energy of the universe. The name also protected me in a milieu in which the dance (and the dancer) was often perceived as being less than respectable. Any time a native Arabic-speaker was curious about why I had picked that name (assuming that, like many dancers, I’d just picked something that randomly sounded good), my explanation always assured them that I not only knew, but respected the meaning. It sure made my working life a lot more friendly!

So I’ll make the sox at some point (there is a considerable sock yarn stash here at Villa Incognito) and emjoy having a little bit of Baraka back in my life again. If you wonder why I’m not dancing any more, you can read the full story here.

Diversion aside, I was terribly excited about learning more about using my cute little spindle. Sandi herded us into the back room of the shop, checked out our spindles (mine’s a top, the other two people have bottom spindles), passed out a nice chuck of Corriedale, and started us off.

You know, it’s only just twirling a top and sending a fiber into twists. Why do I feel like a total klutz? But as Sandi just kept reassuring us and laughing with us at the “interesting” and “designer” yarns we were creating, it got a bit more comfortable. That meant Sandy could start talking to us about fiber and how it works and all the different possibilities – and still being encouraging and helpful every time one of us managed to drop our spindle or get big lumpy things in the yarn. After some stretches to ease out any muscle tension (excellent teaching technique there, Sandi – it’s a physical effort, so reminding people to be in tune with their bodies is, to this dancer, absolutely essential) she started packing up our homework bags with this:

I have NO idea what all those different fibers are but there are 23 of them (I’ve already got one spun) and I know there’s silk and cotton and I think that darker brown one is camel – at least it smells like it – and mixes of all sorts of stuff. Our homework is to keep spinning through them and make notes about the process.

And here’s what I have done so far:

The tan yarn creeping up the spindle is what Lynn started me with; it’s from her own flock, from the one named Karma. I thought that was pretty cool – like the universe is telling me it’s karma that I should learn to spin. At the bottom of the spindle (from the inside but you can’t actually see them) is what I spun from the roving bought in PA (Colonial), then the Corriedale we almost finished last night, and today’s effort so far. This was what I think Sandi called “pencil” roving – kinda twisted already but still very loose, and very different in feel from the Corriedale. This one was coarser, and I think the staple length was pretty long.

I’m not very consistent, but am getting some real satisfaction from just trying to get better. I wonder if I’ll get it all spun before class next week… and once it is all spun, what in the world do I make with it anyway?