whirl enough, and thyme

just in time!

2011-12-22T14:33:00.001-05:00

my first handspun christmas presents!

changed my mind…

2011-12-10T13:41:00.001-05:00

blocked out to a bit over 60 X 6 1/2”

one down

2011-12-10T10:52:00.001-05:00

one muffler down, one to go.

just off the needles, 54” X 6” before blocking. don’t really wanna block before i get the other one done, for which i must spin laceweight of this:

and so that will be my weekend. next one? in brigadoon!!!!!!!

Flickr Tags: knitting,spinning,brigadoon

sunday morning market

2011-11-13T11:20:00.001-05:00

i have done my bit and bought local, not an easy thing to do as everything looks all alike, but i got this kitchen sculpture, which has possibilities:

now to get in there and mix it up some more, the way it should have been made. forgive the backsplash wall, en restauro—i recently popped some more tiles off (or rather, i allowed them to remain down when they slid off in the summer humidity) to provide opportunities for further rustication. thanksgiving week, in a week, is one of the only two weeks i’m here and not teaching during the year, when “everything” must happen. this year i’m planning on implementing the “40 bags in 40 days” (modified, of course) and completing this kitchen piece, at the least.

Flickr Tags: assemblage,sculpture

the new view from the knitting chair

2011-10-22T14:25:00.000-04:00

fall

2011-10-02T15:18:00.001-04:00

for some reason, change in the set.

i don’t know that i like it, but it lets me sit in the mitt. we’ll try it til spring.

today

2011-07-28T09:54:00.001-04:00

will be the third day back in tampa isolation. so far i’ve done all the laundry and swept out the bedroom, bought the few grocery essentials needed to use up what i have and caught up on harry potter dvds. today:

~~make gazpacho from the heirlooms i brought back~~
~~clean bathroom~~
make cucumber mint soup for overnight?
~~cream of sweet potato for future stock?~~
~~return potter~~/get king’s speech?

that’s enough necessary doings for one day, i think. trying not to overcommit as usual and then do none of it. i threw out four (4) unopened packages of stirfry veggies when i got home:( the very full garbage gets picked up today, so i can begin again…

brigadoon

2011-07-26T08:45:00.001-04:00

for the first time i took few pictures while in brigadoon this summer, and no videos except for goats—despite buying all new equipment just days before i left!!--and wrote almost nothing during my month there. i guess i’ll just post here a bunch of representative photos of my working life since school let out in june, as there’s no other structure and little volume, but here goes:

small wonder i dream of retiring here, hmmm? but i’m back in tampa now. three weeks left til i resume the plow and i have to remind myself how to ~~sing~~ live here again; so far it’s amounted to flopping on the bed and plugging in. this morning there’s coffee and sunrise, just like brigadoon, but it will grow from there. it has to: i ran out of here just as soon as school got out over a month ago, and this place looks like it!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,spinning,woodcarving,john c. campbell folk school

much time doing nice things

2011-06-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

I haven’t even been able to bring myself to write, since I’ve been doing all these other things around here that I like so much. yesterday was pretty much the perfect day.

first, I got up with the sun, made coffee and tackled finishing off the bobbin I’d started the night before, and then plying it.

easier said than done, four hours later! first the plying ball wouldn’t cooperate, then everything got tangled and I spent a lot of time getting it untangled.

but the spinning looked better than it ever had before and I didn’t want to lose it.

sure enough, around 11 I emerged from the struggle with 120 yds at 16wpi, right on target. it was still too squiggly in places, which I don’t really know why. especially since I have no way of knowing how much twist I lost in the untangling part, but a lot. I had spun it with 3 twist treadles to one release treadle (is there a notation for that?) but I had to untangle so much, who knew? still, when I put it on the niddy it came to 120 yds and when I took it off, magically it was balanced, somehow, and I adjourned to a gorgonzola omelet and read for the rest of the afternoon.

when it dried I had this:

16wpi

120 yds

so my first two real skeins were 100 yds of corriedale at 12 wpi (top) and 120 yds at 16 wpi. the Tour de Fleece starts on sunday and runs through the sunday I leave here, so what I do before then will be practice for spinning up the café au lait fiber I got for daedalus. i’m thinking it just might work--even considering the carving class I’m taking right in the middle!

I fired ash up again when the guys came out for chores and spun another bobbin until the fireflies came. then I put that one on the kate, and will do another bobbin this evening so that tomorrow morning I can make two plying balls and see how they ply. (still don’t want to chance the disaster that was plying from the kate the last time I tried that! streamers all over the place!)

spinning until the fireflies come out is just about the most perfect thing I can think of these days. so I have been doing that and not writing about it. today I slept in, possibly a result of the benadryl I took at 4am, and then made coffee and futzed around here until I went down to town around 11. stopped by silva gallery on the way in, where I gave the last two pairs of soxes to pam and we chatted, mostly about local drama I didn’t really need to get involved in much. then I went to yarn circle, where that pam, karen, and becky walker were having lunch, but I barged right in anyway. did a little chatting and a little knitting, a little email checking, and then left to do errands, which consisted of mailing my little/middle checks to the bank and grocery shopping.

and that was today, until I came home and put everything up and made myself some mid-afternoon spaghetti with tomato basil sauce and ingles’ barbequed chicken legs, and had a glass of pinot noir. and here I am. Michael gave me the first cuke of the season, and I bought some tomatoes and a vidalia from the stand. I have peaches and blueberries and a big seedless watermelon. I have hot dogs and apple pie and chips for the upcoming holiday. And I have my book, which I’ve finally gotten into (Anathem, which took about 200 pages and well over a year to engage me, but has finally done so, and i have some 600 left :) what more could one ask?

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,spinning

first sunday

2011-06-26T08:04:00.000-04:00

still socked in with fog.

awoke with the headache, still, but I seem to be able to control it with coffee (which I didn’t really do yesterday morning for some badly formulated reason) and a combination of alternating ibuprophen/acetaminophen and gualfenesin. I realized too late that I hadn’t brought any pseudephed and I don’t know that I can get it in north carolina; still, I almost simultaneously realized that since gualfenesin thins the guck in my lungs, why not in my head too? at any rate, it seems to be working, and I got up at 7 to this:

there’s ash, patiently waiting for me. but instead I went out on the porch and caught the meadow in fog.

so thick you almost can’t see the barn!

but it’s 8 now and already that fog seems to be lifting. look! the barn!

my head is still good. I think the vacating can begin! :)

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

silva soxes 2011

2011-05-07T11:55:00.001-04:00

ta-da! pair no. 10!

i have enough left over for another pair and maybe a half, but i’m done for the year! it’s may!

ten pair at silva gallery! yay!

Flickr Tags: silva soxes

latest soxes

2011-04-30T14:19:00.001-04:00

Flickr Tags: soxes

air!

2011-04-24T13:03:00.001-04:00

at last, the air conditioner i bought last fall for the front of the house is in!

i did it myself, all 75 pounds/12,000 btus of it! it wasn’t hard at all, see it peeking up there in the painting space, behind the table? no longer will i be forced into the bedroom for two/thirds of the year; the energy saver thing says it costs around $100 per year to run. we shall see. but it’s cooler already! :)

Flickr Tags: home,ac

spring break easter morning

2011-04-24T10:00:00.001-04:00

deanna reminded me yesterday to start the bread, so i thought i’d document step 4.:

this is just after it rose for the final 2 hours and i poked a hole in it to see if it was ready.

it was, so i and threw some cornmeal over it and pulled the hot pot out of the 450F oven

plopped it in

put the top on and baked it 30 minutes. then i took the top off

and baked it another 30 minutes, then pulled it out.

et voila!

not bad for the first loaf of the year, and it couldn’t be easier: three minutes yesterday, two more this morning while making coffee, and this last bit done while pouring another cup (including pictures.) it takes more time to go to the store!

(i gotta get that countertop grouted…)

Flickr Tags: food,bread,boule

der blaue spinnrad

2011-04-16T10:59:00.001-04:00

a norwegian blue (!) slanty i bought from the bradenton craigslist for $70 and gas money:)

obviously, while a great color, the horrible cobalt paint has got to go: i’ll be spending spring break getting it gone. finnsheep has almost her twin, painted in proper blue.

i can use it for a guide, although i may change up the shade a bit…

but most importantly. it has forced me to take mystery back down, so i can replace bonnie on the perch. maybe i can bring myself to try again.

Flickr Tags: spinning wheel

whoever painted this…

2011-04-14T21:06:00.001-04:00

really needs to be shot, only they’re probably dead so why bother? but my spring break, in just over a week, looks like it will be spent rescuing this blue slanty, making her truly blue,

not ghouly blue!!’

Flickr Tags: spinning

the latest soxes

2011-04-13T18:12:00.001-04:00

sending the latest silva soxes to the silva gallery tomorrow. it was gonna be just two, but then the green stripedy ones also finished themselves. these are in shorter sizes, for more normal folk.

Flickr Tags: soxes

just hosting again…

2011-03-26T20:53:00.001-04:00

this has nothing to do with anything.

silva soxes seven

2011-03-26T13:06:00.001-04:00

Flickr Tags: knit

how cool is this??

2011-03-26T08:05:00.001-04:00

my ball winder arrived from etsy! can you believe they once made these and somehow they died out?? it’s just perfect: it’s pure vintage, i’d say somewhere from the 1920s-40s?

i had never seen one before and always wished something like it existed; i’ve been winding my yarn by hand as the winders i’ve seen were either aesthetically atrocious or/(and) cost hundreds. but this vintage tool was reasonable, and not a spot of plastic on it. just painted wood and a metal gear with a rubberish washer, it works (and looks) just like hand rotary eggbeater:

and makes this yarn-egg!

yes, center-pull if you want that. what could be sweeter? why on earth did they ever go away and, even curiouser, why isn’t somebody making them again now? in exotic floofywood, anointed with hand-pressed fleen juice, even?

eta: plus, operated strategically in its yarn-free state? it could make such an eloquent gesture for those times when words simply will not suffice…

Flickr Tags: knit

the last day…

2011-03-21T08:11:00.001-04:00

of my 4day weekend. today i must clear stuff away, do things like change the linens, plan my observation lesson for thursday, and get some knitting in, as well as practice spinning before i forget again. somehow i lost an entire day yesterday when i just never got up, but instead read in bed all day and kept falling asleep for long periods. the day before i’d spent all day learning about spinning and making a total fist of it, which is apparently normal. (i was supposed to go to the spinning group again yesterday, but i was asleep…) friday, of course, was sitting around waiting for the car day. and that was my 4day weekend. so today i must do sunday chores. sigh. the real spring break is just about a month away…perhaps i can get the painting on the front door and kitchen wall done then.

to do:

~~put away laundry~~

~~launder linens~~

~~change linen~~

~~swif floors~~

clean bathroom

unload dishwasher

straighten up kitchen, etc.

spin

plan lesson for observation

“new” toast!

2011-03-19T04:17:00.000-04:00

my “new” toaster arrived, and the ongoing purge of plastic from my home continues. it makes two normal sized pieces of toast (have to cut our modern slices of bread in half! so what does that tell you?) by turning that knob on the side to open the flappy doors. to turn it on? plug it in! what a concept!.

the second best part, apart from the aesthetics, is its footprint is about 1/4 of the cuisinart 4slice box it’s replacing. wish i could get rid of the microwave it’s sidling up to there, too, but even though it’s more than 15 years old it still works fine (except its carousel) and there’s really no need to replace it. and, of course, i do use it more than just about anything else (quick boiling water for coffee, etc.) so it makes no sense to get rid of it. i’d like a much smaller one, if not less powerful, since this one takes up the whole of that counter, really. needless. but until this one conks, it’s here for the duration.

4day weekend

2011-03-18T10:19:00.001-04:00

they moved spring break to just before summer because of testing month (yes, month) so they gave us a 4day weekend in march so we wouldn’t run amok. whatever. can’t fool mother nature: aunt eleanor’s lilies have come up in front of my house this year—sometimes they do, sometimes not. this year these came back.

pardon me…

2011-03-14T18:12:00.001-04:00

just parking this here so i can share it with the gang on ravelry, move along, move along…

NOT ONLY A GRAPEFRUIT…

2011-03-14T11:17:00.001-04:00

but a beautiful pink grapefruit, so juicy and tart, i’m eating it for my breakfast today, since this is a day i hadn’t expected in any way, as i wait for the verdict on the car. signs point to good…

Flickr Tags: food

it was supposed to be a lime tree…

2011-03-03T18:28:00.001-05:00

it’s about 10 years old, but this is the first time it's ever fruited. perhaps the neighbor cutting down the tree in his yard had something to do with that, all the resultant sunlight. but anyway, this is what’s hanging off it now:

they’re not ready yet, but those blossoms smell incredible!

i brought one in and washed it off. i ask you, does this look like a lime to you?

Flickr Tags: garden

kathleen spinning on the magical mystery wheel!

2011-03-02T19:52:00.001-05:00

she made her spinz! :D

Flickr Tags: spinning

this one took an amazingly long time to finish

2011-03-02T18:12:00.001-05:00

mostly because every row is a different strand of yarn which means every row X 2 ends to weave in up the instep arch and back of the leg.

not nearly as long as did the first batch of silva soxes, however, currently residing somewhere, we know not where, between here and brigadoon. light, will ya, soxes? you’re making me very nervous!

Flickr Tags: soxes

remember these? (planning ahead)

2011-02-27T11:12:00.001-05:00

i stumbled across these two years ago in a central florida antique mall, on the way back from my first little/middle folk school.

they looked so cool, i grabbed some of these antique mill bobbins to make knitting spools with the kids at the next year’s little/middle, and then grabbed some more on the way back up last year.

i figured we could make these “bookworms”:

but, unfortunately, before i even introduced them it became clear that they wouldn’t really work for that purpose: the gauge was way too small for the kids to even try to knit on! and so this year we’re going to make our own knitting spools out of toilet paper rolls and popsicle sticks,

(courtesy birdlouise)

and warp some $15 ikea nightstands into four weaving looms each,

(courtesy ikeahackers)

in addition to the knitting looms and the ever-popular finger knitting…

“tom and huck”…?

and so, last year at little/middle, my wonderful antique mill bobbins ended up being picturesque scissor holders.

once they had “mastered” the few little techniques we were learning,

i made up, on the spot, a little ceremony wherein the kids got their “own” scissors (for the duration of the class period) which symbolized my blessing to go forth and create whatever they wanted to, and i stored the waiting stubby, blunt-tip scissors like this:

much later on at home, my knitzi made me realize that they could make cool DPN holders for me, too, simply by stuffing a bead in one end. but now that i’m being an antique wheel owner and have met all these cool antique wheel ~~fiends~~ folk, i’m thinking there’s probably a purpose for them that they might want to exploit, too?

i think i can make my dozen bobbins do multi-duty! after all, little/middle is just one glorious week each year…

the “littles” fiber station at little/middle folk school

my wonderful volunteer assistant, teri, held some impromptu crochet workshops that i plan on exploiting further this year! teri is a teacher from another state, too, and volunteers because she brings her granddaughter (neither of these kids:) to little/middle. this is a fabulous thing all around!

i’m even thinking i should leap in the car right now and go up and buy whatever they have on hand, they always seem to have some kind of these old mill bobbins, after all. these were only a buck apiece, so even if the price tripled, it wouldn’t be such a bad deal. of course, the gas would cost me an extra $50 or so, so maybe--unless there’s major acclaim?-- i should wait until i’m already on my way through again in june…

Flickr Tags: little/middle,spinning

the kick line!

2011-02-27T07:30:00.001-05:00

meanwhile, back at the ranch, these guys are headed to the airport, winging their way to silva gallery today.

look for silva soxes soon! :D

Flickr Tags: soxes

saturday a.m. go-getting

2011-02-26T14:47:00.003-05:00

as long as i get revived on saturday mornings, it’s now the best time for me to get things done! if only the spinning group were on saturday morning i’d have a much better chance at actually getting there, rather than sunday evening!

last saturday morning i spent hours finding boiled linseed oil to pretty up the magical mystery wheel, and then even more hours trying to get the damned cap off the tin, which i never did. this morning i woke up determined, took a can opener to it, and poured it into a disposable plastic screw-top holder thingy. then i got to work on the wheel, thus:

i made the video to show the folks over at the antique spinning wheels group on ravelry. (hi, if you’re here from there !:) they’re the ones who pointed out to me that i have a gem here! i really do hope i can manage to take it to get seen by somebody at the local group tomorrow night---then can show me how to use it! it’s very portable; it’s me that isn’t :(

i realized yesterday that i somehow have acquired, willy-nilly and at random, an antique wheel, a spindle, and two looms (a rigid heddle and a four-harness leclerq table loom) all for very good to unbelievable deals. i bought a bunch of fiber to practice on. (i really want to do flax, but i think you have to learn on wool.) it seems i’m setting myself up to be a really truly fiber artist, doesn’t it, and yet, when asked, i still call myself a painter. i wonder what that’s about? at any rate, since i don’t ever actually do any of it, i think i must be nesting, for retirement.

in other news: linen change, laundry, blah blah.

eta: i finally located her first picture, in john and maryann’s antique shop, posted in october of 2005.

the fiber that was tied onto the distaff was truly nasty. people tell me i shouldn’t have thrown it away as it was flax, but i don’t remember it to be flax and anyway, if it was, it had gotten very nasty over the years. god knows where it had been, as it were. i think i threw it out, although it wouldn’t surprise me to find it still lurking somewhere around in a bag somewhere. but i really doubt it. nasty stuff.

Flickr Tags: spinning

my neighborhood track

2011-02-20T11:51:00.001-05:00

this is my basic one mile route around the neighborhood.

more soxes

2011-02-18T17:47:00.001-05:00

here’s all the silva soxes to date:

although the top two most recent ones are unblocked (obviously) and just singles at present…

Flickr Tags: soxes

fuzz

2011-02-12T14:49:00.001-05:00

tomorrow i’m getting coached on the magical mystery wheel, so i went to uncommon threads today and got this.

to go along with what i got there 5 years ago or more:

i am going to do this, beginning tomorrow!

Flickr Tags: spinning

punch list

2011-02-04T11:14:00.001-05:00

things to be finished first:

~~judy’s scarf~~ (done!)

~~animal feeders (AAAllllmost~~ done…)

warmth

household gods

dwelf

mosaic grouting/wallpaper and faux paint in kitchen and window sills
texture and paint the front door

all I can think of now, in the way of extant projects stuck in limbo. in addition to sorting, cataloging, photographing for sale, etc. and new projects after.

and the house.

Flickr Tags: todo

soxes!

2011-01-23T10:40:00.001-05:00

brand new silva soxes coming off the needles, emerging in my kitchen from my brand new bag!

huge thank youse to pam silva for the partnership, anna gilbert for the beautiful bag, and to dale michels for inspiration on what had been a rather gloomy morning! :)

Flickr Tags: knit,art,commerce

i regret to report: quentin was wrong!

2011-01-22T13:27:00.001-05:00

finished with one window. this was part way:

i got this far and knocked off for a break:

maybe a long break. I still have to do the other window, wash off the stuff i’ve taken into the kitchen to do that to, replace the knitting chair, and sweep whatever i can out the door, before i call it a weekend. so much gnrrr. i could continue on and get the rest of the living room done, but then i would die. just this much took something like three hours.

eta: it took another 2.5, but i got it done. then i knit a sock.

Flickr Tags: house

meanwhile, back at “home”…ambience

2011-01-22T08:47:00.000-05:00

the new heater is very quick and constant. it's only around 50 degrees out, and that's usually the about the norm here for winter, so with the bedroom door closed it keeps the room quite comfortable overnight set on halfway.

and it looks like i have a gas fireplace in the bedroom. i'm not entirely sold on that part, but it's working on me...

this weekend i had planned to clear out the front windows and the knitting chair area, and rehang the crochet panels, but it seems gloomy out and this is not conducive to such activities, which must be done in the sun, don’t you know.

that was 7am, but…is that the sun peeking in now?…

eta: 10am…

to work!

Flickr Tags: house

new year’s day, rain all day

2011-01-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

the last day, preparing myself to leave tomorrow. black eyes and collard greens, chicken and rice in the last of my chicken soup, burned to the pan. haven’t heard a peep from the guys yet today. the meadow is completely submerged, but i got the car up to the big house yesterday so, when this snow residue washes away, i should be able to get out tomorrow morning, but this is what i leave behind.

who am i kidding? i’ll never be prepared to leave tomorrow. just saying goodbye to michael and randy this evening tore my heart out. and it’s just until june.

until june…

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

coffee and peanut butter toast

2010-12-31T08:09:00.000-05:00

…and night terrors about the latest storm, presently moving over arizona into new mexico and beyond: they’re warning the dakotas and and ”northern” minnesota, so it doesn’t sound like it’s coming here, but still i awoke thinking o my god, what if i’m iced in by another one?

well, what? obviously i need to get out of here, i’m making myself nuts. but on the other hand, i don’t need to drive out of here and slide off a cliff, either. likewise, i don’t want to just sit here and then get dumped on again, so do i try to move my car at least up to the big house if i can today? to the folk school lot? what?

i’m going bonkers here, i woke up worrying about this. i set up my sub plans yesterday and emailed the admin; i can email judy today from folk school to warn her about possible further delays and that will get me through till thursday. the only thing i’m running out of is coffee, now, which should last through the weekend anyway. and they’re warning northern minnesota, for god’s sake. the dakotas? not north carolina. cool it. as far as the current weather forecast says, plan to drive out sunday morning, the end.

this has been quite a vacation. dance week--although i went there yesterday for the afternoon and saw so many friends who were glad to see me--has commenced without me; i don’t even know if i’ll be able to get to the new year’s eve dance tonight, or rather get back from it. i got almost no painting done (and the one i did work on, warmth, proved prophetic!) and i’m so flustered by all this that i had to reknit the heel on my second ruffly boot sock at least five times, the last this morning, and then lost a knitting needle! i really just need to get home and chalk this one up, is all. it was still good, really good, just not at all what i’d imagined.

i handed in my contract for little/middle yesterday, and kisha squealed when she saw me and gave me a big hug. june’s coming :)

happy new year.

(i found my knitting needle :)

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

options

2010-12-30T09:34:00.000-05:00

they’re more important than one might think, options. i came up here to get some work done in the daytimes and break it up by socializing in the evening. i knew i’d run around gadding the first week, before christmas, but thought i’d have the second week o buckle down. it didn’t turn out that way for, as soon as i saw i was stuck here, and although you’d think i would be able to get lots and lots of work done, i kept thinking about my finite amount of time and what i wasn’t doing, and i wasn’t able to concentrate. then i kept thinking of all the work i had planned to be doing and all i really ended up doing was knitting. is that because that’s comfort—i know the outcome, i’m in control of that? or because it isn’t nearly as hard? i don’t know, but i never was able to settle my mind down enough to get to painting beyond what i started early in my stay. i had enough uncertainties already to throw myself into that cauldron of the unknown.

now here it is thursday and i have only one or, at most, two days before i drive back, and i once again have options, since we can at least get out in the guys’ car, even if mine won’t move for another few days yet. i turned off npr since i don’t need that link to the outside world anymore and it was depressing me anyway, and put the cds back on. i still knit and think about all the things i’m not doing that i had planned but, of course, i planned about 4 times more than i ever could possibly have done anyway. but still, i learned that i cannot just sit and paint on my own, it makes me very freaked out. is that a clue that painting isn’t right? or that i’m simply not yet ready? what will i have to find once i’m home to get it going, a class of some sort? i don’t know. i didn’t think classes were the thing after last summer, but i my have been wrong. perhaps i’m just not yet at the point where i can just practice what i do painting again, like i do knitting.

same with the spindle: i never even turned the instruction on yet and don’t know that i will now. i want to get out of stewing about what i didn’t do and just enjoy what i have left yet. i only lost two days, really, tuesday and wednesday, although it seems like far longer. monday, what was monday? maybe i lost monday too, i’ll have to go back and look. (eta: yes, i lost monday, but i was still happy about it, so it wasn’t really lost :)

but i still have today and tomorrow, and if i don’t drive back then, saturday. i have just about decided to put in for an emergency sub on friday for monday, just in case i don’t get out until sunday and then can’t get all the way through until monday. it’s these contingencies that are driving me nuts, the not knowing, and i have allowed it to—have watched it-- rule my time, when really i just wish i could relax and take it as it comes. especially since i can’t do anything about it anyway. will i drive saturday? did karen get here and need me to, is that another consideration or not? i will need to see if karen’s still in the equation for, if she’s not, i don’t want to drive that soon by myself in the weather—if i can get the car out at all! rainstorm is called for and, while it would be nice to have someone to ride with me…i don’t know. see what i mean? anyway, i don’t want to be stuck with no sub in case i can’t make it all the way back on sunday but i’m still on the road on monday. i need to see the weather forecast again when i’m up at folk school this afternoon, to see what sunday's weather is supposed to like. and find karen. and and and…see what i mean? stop!

will i go to the new year’s eve dance? how much time will i spend at the folk school vs. here now that here is not a total necessity? gah. i’m freed up now, let’s just enjoy it, whatever it is.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

woo-HOO!

2010-12-29T20:11:00.000-05:00

randy got the 4-wheel out of the ice! we went to walmart! i’m sitting here with ginger snaps and cocoa (i had been rationing the latter to put in my coffee in the morning; it seems silly now:) i bought oranges and soymilk and bread, much more of each than i'll use, but i can always take it all home with me when i go. if i ever get my own car out, that is.

the guys assure me that tomorrow i’ll be able to get out, too. and if not, they want to drive me to the folk school! and pick me up! christmas dinner, folded laundry, now chauffeur service--life is niiice :) they’re thinking of leaving now on saturday and will have to find somebody else to take care of the animals. i told them i’d search out charlotte to see if she wants to.

i checked facebook: gayle’s been iced in just like me. kathy drove her car out and got it stuck in the ice two days ago. will seems to be back in atllanta. donna and lynday don’t seemed to have made it to dances yet, and nobody else has posted much about dance week—too busy dancing, i guess. so i don’t know if karen axelrod actually got here or not. i posted on her wall, but she doesn’t check facebook often it seems. i’ll have to find her.

tomorrow! yes, tomorrow! randy says he’ll take me over in the early afternoon. i’ll need to work on that little/middle contract in the morning so i can hand it to kisha. i considered putting in for a sub for monday, but wednesday simply seems too soon to tell…and the brasstown follies is tomorrow night, not wednesday. not that i’m going, but is seems that people adapt.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

well, that didn’t work…

2010-12-29T15:31:00.000-05:00

i did get out and did go to kathy’s, but kathy wasn’t home. i took lots of video of the journey, but that’s as far as i got.

obviously, i’m not being in the moment, here. i’m not meant to get to the folk school today either, so just go with it. i sat out on the porch when i returned for another hour or so as it seemed briefly that the sun was going to come out, but it went back in and then i got cold. randy is supposed to come by later and take me up to post a bulletin on facebook. but i hope he waits until i get warm again.

and i need to make sure i turn off npr when all things considered and morning edition come on, too, as they just take me further out of the moment. and it’s such a nice moment, i really need to just accept it. there will be other dance weeks. keith house isn’t going anywhere; it will be there in june, as will i. meanwhile, this is nice.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

i trek to kathy’s, to no avail

2010-12-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

noontime

2010-12-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

i sat out on the porch, all bundled up, and that helped a great deal to alleviate my cabin fever. it’s very beautiful out there. randy called down that it’s still all frozen solid, and it’s in the 20s—he’ll bring the mule down later and maybe i can go up to the house to get on facebook at some point, but there won’t be any getting out today, i don’ think. nothing’s moving. the goats went back in—and while we both were out i could smell goat funk all the way over here, so it’s been quite awhile since they were out!

but knitting on the porch was great. this is a magical experience, for sure, completely safe, but isolated like another century. i’ll get to dance week next year, but this is rare. i sat out there for over an hour, and finished my boot sock up to the toe, which i came in to work now. my own toes risked frostbite, i think, despite my mountain colors socks and sheepskin boots, but everything else is fine, and now i’m having some tea in my raku’d teacup. all is right with the world.

i took some video of myself, being really the only thing to take video of that i haven’t already, and i discovered i look like flay. i hadn’t realized that before. coming up on the last year of my 50s, and it seems in winter, bundled up in hand knits, i’m a dead ringer for mr. flay. which, i realize gratefully,is so much better than being simply dead.

FLASH: RANDY, WHO JUST BROUGHT BY MY LAUNDRY (FOLDED EVEN!) SAYS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO WALK TO KATHY’S—AND MAYBE SHE CAN SHOW ME THE ROAD TO THE FOLK SCHOOL! I’M GOING TO TRY THAT RIGHT NOW!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

THE GOATS ARE OUT!

2010-12-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

this has got to be a good sign, especially since the sun is not very bright today. must mean the ground under them, at least, isn’t frozen solid. maybe i might get the car out late this afternoon?

i realize what i miss most is sitting in the keith house coffee room knitting among folks and listening to the music of the dance. perhaps today, or tomorrow at least…tomorrow would give me two days, i could live with that, two days?

meanwhile, i putter on here, doing what i would at home and trying not to think about it. i worked out a ruffly boot sock from martha’s wool

and today i plan on painting and examining the spindle.

and then, perhaps in late afternoon…?

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

snap out of it!

2010-12-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

stop feeling sorry for myself, just because i haven’t been able to see the people i came here to enjoy yet! it’s only tuesday; perhaps i can get out tomorrow. i need to stop feeling like i do at home, when i really don’t see anybody—i see randy and michael, after all. and i had a great christmas dinner. last week i saw folks; i will this week, too. i’m just missing the contact of facebook, is all, as well as not seeing people either. but maybe tomorrow. maybe i can go to the dance for awhile. thank goodness i didn’t sign up for winter dance week, itself—i’d be frantic!

this is what it looked like by the time the sun went back over the mountain this afternoon:

i won’t think about driving up the frozen or mucky hill right now. it will just work somehow, is all. tomorrow is another day!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

solipsism sets in

2010-12-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

well, i found my mouse. it wasn’t, in fact, lost; i’d just forgotten i’d put it back in the media bag. so now it’s in the portable bag where it belongs, only i don’t have anywhere to port it. i am beginning to get flustered, like i was on that first morning here. things don’t work as planned and i can’t fix them right away, as i am used to.

first off is painting. this, it seems is not a day for painting. i futzed around, and then decided to set up the picture of the big jar, see if that would work for jackie, and decided to print it out since the glare on the computer screen is too bright to see it over there where i paint. set up the photo printer (which was when i found the mouse) only to discover that, for some reason, it isn’t installed on the netbook. i thought i had when i set it up on the worktable at home, did i just plug it in? i thought i had printed on it there, but it is not installed, and now i can’t get the driver to install it, of course, until i can get online. so then i took down the printer, by which time the glare had moved onto table itself and had become too bad to work there.

obviously this is not the time to persist. but what? sit and knit some more? read? argh. this must be what cabin fever is like—i have many things i could be doing and i can’t seem to settle on any of them. this is when i’d take a turn over to the folk school, but it seems to be too icy out there. radio says the temp is up to 30 in asheville. they say it will be a little warmer each day until friday is in the mid-50s. hope that lasts long enough to let me drive home saturday morning—i wonder if karen ever got here? i haven’t even seen the guys today, the 4-wheel is still parked next to my corolla.

so here i am, back on the daybed, being frustrated and chilling.

poor me.

update: boy, is it too icy! randy hiked down with a cane (!) for ballast, to report that the access road between rivercane and their place is a sheet of solid ice. so is the one between their place and my meadow, the one kathy was sliding down the other day. both of them are almost constantly in the shade, so there’s not a lot of hope they’ll clear today, i guess. perhaps the one to the meadow, so i can get up to the big house again easier? i don’t know. but the road up to the mailbox gets none but dappled sun, so i don’t think there’s a lot of hope there. it melts quite rapidly when the sun hits it, but at night when it goes way down it refreezes, and where the sun doesn’t hit? solid ice sheet.

randy even slipped on my steps, pointing out that they look fine, but are all ice underneath.

not cotton bolls, but all the snow left on the tree outside my door.,

cars in muck.

muck. under the muck: ice. and this is where the sun hits in full; where it doesn’t hit is up the hill behind that big tree on the left, the road up to the big house, and from there up to the mailbox on the street. straight up, of course; i remember videoing driving down it in summer. the mail got delivered today, anyway, first since friday, which is a good sign. the rest of brasstown is out and about, i think.

perhaps on thursday? the guys won’t be able to leave after all, if we can’t get out tomorrow, and they’ll have to go instead after i leave and get someone else to feed the animals—as randy pointed out, no one could get in to us to feed them either. we be stuck. i’m beginning to wonder if i will get back to work on monday, but that’s nearly a whole week away and i will wait until friday to arrange for a sub if i need one. sigh. it’s so weird not to be able to get over to the folk school, but even walking is treacherous (hence the cane) and so perhaps i might not even get to one dance, can that be?

oh well. relax and enjoy it; i couldn’t be in a more agreeable place. the melt is dripping off the roof like rain, and randy is even throwing my bedraggled laundry in for me! i just wish i could bring myself to paint the whole time, perhaps later this afternoon and evening, when the sun is off the table? we shall see. perhaps i shall wind up some of martha’s wool and make some more stripedy socks.

but now? leftover christmas feast! times is tough! :)

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

moving on…

2010-12-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

showed-in day four. it’s 13 degrees in asheville, so the radio says, so i guess it’s around that here, i don’t know. i forgot to turn the heat up last night, so i woke up stupid. but heat’s easily remedied (not so much stupid) and now i’m having coffee and toast, and am gearing up for the shower. the meadow looks trashed now, after randy tried to clear it some yesterday by making a circular drive with the heavy 4-wheel.

then he couldn’t get the 4-wheel back up the hill so it sits parked next to my little corolla.

i sure hope i can get out of here by tomorrow, at least—not that i mind being stuck here, believe me, but i’m out of milk for coffee and i’m also a bit concerned about running out of batteries as the camera seems to be eating them up at a rate of about a set per day. not looking forward to the guys leaving, either, but i do really need to make sure i can get in and out before they go; surely by tomorrow?

meanwhile, i’ve decided to move on to the next painting; warmth is becoming overworked and currently is mostly taken back to the under painting in the darks, waiting for a new direction. yes, i know, one doesn’t underpaint watercolors, but that’s what i’m working on, getting as many layers of color in as i can before it goes to mud.

a possible new direction is i’m thinking of adding some slippers and socks on the floor southwest of the chair leg, in the shadow of the heater, where there seems to be a place readymade for them, and i shot some pics of my slippers as they lay this morning for the purpose. also, these photos are pointing out to me that grave` shadow on the left is important; i’m not even sure how prominent it is in the actual painting, camera picked it up, but it will be:)

but not now. it’ll wait in its unfinished state until it doesn’t make me so crazy. so that means i start another one today, instead. i had said i would spend the time painting, and it seems the only way to make me actually do that is to snow me in. my new goal is five paintings, one each day now, and we’ll see what states they get to by the next mornings.

so what’s for today?

Flickr Tags: crossposted:untitled,brigadoon

noonday

2010-12-27T12:35:00.000-05:00

i went out for a walk because the painting wasn’t coming together yet and i decided to go see humans. i walked up to the big house to say hi to michael and randy, and connect with facebook on their computer. julie already had warned people off of the christmas morning brunch that i didn’t get to, and john posted last night that he was snowed in so we couldn’t do lunch today, so i didn’t miss anything. pam howard said there was a dance at the folk school last night, but bob apparently couldn’t get down so i wonder who did? lots of musicians frozen out, and they say the web page says people should come in this afternoon now. taija posted wondering what the road was like, and he’s right next door; i don’t know if he ever went out, though. i’m so lucky this happened this year when i was already here and staying longer anyway, since that’s what i was always so worried about when i did winter dance week: losing any minutes at all of these precious days!

randy and i walked up the sun-dappled drive to the road, and he moved the limb that was blocking it so we can get out now (although i can’t, in the corolla, and have no intention of trying!) took peanut, and the dog who wants to eat my left foot.

it’s supposed to be 15 tonight, which means icy, but then up in the high 30s tomorrow so maybe i’ll get to a wednesday dance? the sun is out full now and things are rapidly melting. consensus seems to be around 8-9” we got and it seems like it’s all going away at once this afternoon, or that’s what it feels like anyway!

speaking of icy, walking back down the hill i went down twice, but it was in a foot of snow so no damage done, except to the landscape :)

(where i landed—the second time ^ )

hmmmm, lunch? i’m thinking creamed corn, green beans and potatoes, sweet potato casserole and a chicken breast…

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

second monday

2010-12-27T05:02:00.000-05:00

i found npr from asheville on the radio, and now it’s morning edition as usual. this is the third day of the great snowstorm of 2010. even snowed in, i run into more people (3) than ever i would in tampa (0) !

michael and randy brought me more feast leftovers yesterday afternoon, and then when i went out to sample the falling snow i ran into kathy dudek, who was sliding down the drive to my meadow (as you can see in the video i posted yesterday,)

i didn’t write anything for the past couple of days, but the pictures and videos show more than ever i could have done, i’m sure.

i watched cold mountain on the vcr the other night. i had forgotten that it was about this very area, but then i had never been to this area yet when i first saw it, had i? as beautiful as it is, it doesn’t really do it justice, though.

and now i am realizing i am running out of milk. if i don’t get out tomorrow, i will be relegated to putting hot cocoa mix in my morning coffee—o horrors! as for food? yeah, a total dearth of cookies here, how will i survive?

i’ve been thinking about the great depression and how what we’re going through—the economy, not the snowstorm—is so very different. we may have little money at present (and in my case, not even that as i have a job, just concerns for its long-term feasibility) but we’re still amidst the opulence that we spent it all on so it sure doesn’t seems like hard times yet, just a temporary shortage of necessities amidst the luxury…and it would be such a shame to lose it all.

i bought wool and i’ve been knitting like crazy, in between video making. i even happily ripped out all that i spent yesterday morning working on, but i did finish two more hats and the peace fleece socks i’m showing to pam silva. if i ever get out of here, that is. (i’m hoping not:)

i haven’t been over to the folk school at all, except that first night i went for wifi to find the were actually closing up! they should be open now, since dance week was to have started yesterday; i wonder if many people got in yet? was there a dance last night? i doubt i’ll get out of here before tomorrow, and that may be walking: kathy said she would show me the trail, but i don’t know if i will take it after all. i’m pretty happy (very happy!) right where i am. who would have thought i would ever not mind missing dance week? perhaps a dance on wednesday?

i do regret not being able to get out to lunch with john today, nor even being able to let him know :( he’ll figure that out though, i’m sure. i hope there’ll be a time to meet later in the week, although i know he has chemo tomorrow, so maybe not. oh dear. this not having internet is quite an upsetter of what is now daily life, isn’t it. how we suffer. perhaps i’ll climb up to the big house and ask to use the guys’ computer…

‘IT’S 20 DEGREES, BUT IT FEELS LIKE ONE BECAUSE OF THE WIND…”

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

sliding on boxing day

2010-12-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

still snowing…

2010-12-26T16:11:00.000-05:00

ice.i walk out. i walk back.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

christmas dinner at the big house!

2010-12-25T17:35:00.000-05:00

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010,christmas dinner

mid-morning

2010-12-25T11:54:00.000-05:00

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010

i’m dreaming…

2010-12-25T07:57:00.000-05:00

merry christmas!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,snowstorm2010,christmas day

in which i forget my media

2010-12-24T17:32:00.000-05:00

went in to yarn circle this afternoon for the christmas eve party and bob, david and martha were playing and even said i could record them, but i discovered i’d left my flip at home! so, no music here, just knitting. but there’ll be plenty of time for music next week :)

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

donna’s sweet potato casserole

2010-12-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

for our christmas feast at the big house!

Senator Russell's Sweet Potato Casserole
Serves/Makes: 4 - 6
Ready In: 30-60 minutes
Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
1 cup pecans - chopped
Directions: Combine first 7 ingredients and pour into greased casserole. Mix brown sugar, flour, butter and pecans until crumbly and sprinkle on top. Bake 30 - 40 minutes at 350 degrees F. I roast the potatoes in the oven, then I peel & mash them. I've also peeled and boiled the potatoes and that works, too, just more time for the peeling part. In a pinch I've even used canned sweet potatoes and it's not bad - prefer fresh, of course, but if you need something quick, it works. I get lots of rave reviews with this recipe so hope you like it!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,christmas dinner,donna's recipe,recipe

and then! poof!

2010-12-23T02:48:00.000-05:00

3am: the lights just came on up at the big house, where i’d retreated after they went out last night some five hours ago. i had just returned to my cabin, actually, having been up here for drinks and chat in the evening, where we discussed the apocalyptic storm that’s supposed to be coming this way, such that the guys have postponed their trip home to florida and we’ll do christmas here together! at one point this morning they were saying we could get up to 15 inches! randy had fed me a martini and i had just returned to my body and driven it back down the hill and changed into my flannel nightgown when the lights flickered and turned off the cd player, and then went out altogether.

i decided to put my clothes back on and come back up here, which took some doing as i had to find them again in the dark, and after about half an hour that’s what i did, figuring they’d have heat here, or at least stay warmer longer than my little cabin would if we iced over—and by the time i’d gotten dressed again randy was down there with the mule, to scoop me up! so we sat up here for awhile and then i bedded down on the couch and we all turned in. it sure took a long time, five whole hours, and the whole mountain was dark. i don’t know how far it spread—was all of brasstown dark? murphy?* the heat and the water and everything was out, even though they have propane and a well and etc. because everything that accesses those things—ignition, pump—is electric. but it never got cold, and the electricity came on again about 2:30. i turned on the tv to see if there was a local channel, but there isn’t (atlanta is the closest) and turned on the computer to see if i could access the DSL, WHICH I COULDN’T—BUT NOW I THINK PERHAPS THAT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING AS IT MAY HAVE TO BE RESET? I DON’T NOW. ANYWAY, I’M GOING BACK TO SLEEP, STAYING UP HERE ON THE COUCH UNTIL MORNING. BUT A FITTING CLIMAX TO AN EVENTFUL DAY, ABOUT WHICH I HAVEN’T EVEN WRITTEN YET!

MICHAEL KEEPS SAYING IT’S A PRECURSOR TO THE STORM, BUT THEN HE’S BEEN HAVING A RATHER HARD TIME…

* eta: a car hit a utility pole on 64, and took out our line all the way up the mountain. but pam howard later told me they weren’t out, nor was the folk school. as for the screaming capitals? typing in the dark…:)

Flickr Tags: brigadon,blackout

the third day

2010-12-22T17:12:00.000-05:00

drama and adventures! this is a place holder with pictures.

morning was dark and turned out misty, not icy.

i started a new mushroom cap in the dark, but got it fixed when the sun rose. maybe jackie will want these for carolina crafting, since they’re smaller things?

i took my shawls down to silva gasllery and she’s going to show them and the flower brooches together for $95. she doesn’t really need hats, but she does want me to make her socks, so i got stuff to make a prototype with, to see how much it will take for materials and if it can be done at a price that will sell. i also bought another cup, that her husband dave made

tried to go to hayesville for groceries and etc. on old 64 but the road is closed, so i went to murphy instead (stopping at yarn circle not once, but twice!)

and then: chicken poop boots.

goat lessons with randy, rooster round-up, and drinks with the guys at 7. will we be snowed in friday?

a very productive day, but still no painting (unless you count the photos i made this morning for studies?)…

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

afternoon

2010-12-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

i spent the morning working on a drawing for a painting called warmth, wrestling with the angles, and then decided i needed to go out if only to buy a pencil and get some perspective (no pun intended.)

SO i went down to see jackie and pam, both of whom want things for their shops. i need to make some small pictures for carolina crafting, and bring my two cashmere shawls to silva gallery. they both want to show them:) the painting i was working on this morning will not work for jackie as she wants something much smaller/less.

then i went by the folk school to check out the gift shop. got another pair of the earrings i got, but never got home, last year, only these have a lapis bead on the end, instead of a pearl. i love lapis. also got another bell-bottomed blue campbell mug—and my two pencils. and then i got a little cup to drink wine from, since i so much liked holding the one i used at julie’s last night. i am an odd woman. then i couldn’t pick up the wifi at keith house, so i took myself into peachtree and had fish and chips for lunch, and did my internet stuff there. stopped by yarn cirlce again on the way back and there were steve and karen (i love this place:) visiting with martha. i’d seen steve briefly last night at the party, but i hadn’t seen karen since i left her house in summer. steve said people were playing dreidel last night until nearly 11 at least. i saw the party pictures on fb.

it’s truly drizzly / rainy this afternoon, and around 40. the sun never came out at all, and it’s been dreary, but lovely. we canceled the caroling that we’d tried to reschedule for tomorrow as there’s just too many things going on to fit it in, and i really want to stay in, anyway. i know, i can do that, i do do that at home, but that’s what i do. pam silva was saying she’s the same way about parties. i think it’s artists: we watch.

i want to make pictures of individual things for carolina crafting. i have some ceramic things i can make portraits of here, and the resin ornament michael and randy gave me, i can do that. i can make little pictures of things and not put so much into them, so i can afford to sell them for next to nothing. it’s going to take some relearning.

the inside of my lower lip is raw from cold blisters, or allergy blisters or whatever it is i’ve got. i still haven’t figured it out. i just realized i have had this cold now just a week: a week ago i was teaching at school2. amazing. seems more like a month ago. i stayed in and rested last thursday and friday, i guess it’s about time i do it again, albeit in much nicer surroundings.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon,crossposted:untitled

the second morning

2010-12-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

solstice is tonight, total eclipse last night, which i did not bother to watch. the huge moon has been fabulous as it rises, though.

slept in until 8 this morning! there’s no frost on the car at all today, but it’s rather drippy out, not exactly rain, but occasional drips from above nonetheless, and so i don’t think it’s even 32 (yesterday was 20 at 9am, so i don’t know what it was at dawn, but it was cold.) i want to stay in all day today and work, but i keep thinking of reasons to go out, of course. i need to see things. and i do, but perhaps i will do a warm-up painting today from pictures i already have. that should get me started.

randy will give me goat lessons in the evening, and perhaps gayle or will might come by, who knows? i can go out mid-day and check the innerwebs, maybe stop by the gift shop and brasstown shops for just few minutes and be back within an hour? i have enough food,and i don’t need to do a grocery and laundry run until thursday, i don’t think. they say it could easily be a white christmas weekend and i’ll be here on my own. no problem, i can feed all the quick, and michael says i must drive the “mule” (which is the most worrisome thing.) it seems i am to become a mountain woman. linda allen told me she fed the animals for them last year and i’ll be fine—but then she is a mountain woman! :)

the netbook makes such a good bed warmer! i woke up around 4 and discovered it was on battery, and flailed a bit, until i realized it simply had pulled the cord out from where it joins to the power adapter and i’d forgotten to check that, so that’s okay ( i am yet suffering form mild anxieties about things: the netbook dying, is that a noise in the car? is that rivulet coming from me or the car parked uphill from me? is that tire down somehow? butterfly mcqueen, etc.) made a big egg-cheese-toast-tangelo-coffee breakfast this morning and now all i want to do is burrow and read. which i will do for awhile, at least until the morning turns less burrow-like :)

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

evening

2010-12-20T21:56:00.000-05:00

back from julie and harry’s Chanukah party. i went! i actually went to a party. and it was a real party, just like i remember from my party days of 30+ years ago. people talked, everyone was nice, people read things, nobody drank too much. it was lovely. i was, of course, self-conscious that i was “crashing” these people’s party, even though that’s not what they would say. julie was as nice as could be. i spent some time talking with nikki’s mom, who knew even fewer people than knew me. gayle and will each said they might come by the cabin in the next couple of weeks, that’s a first! other people who know me on fb, i don’t think realized i was me. i wanted to run away a lot, but stayed for over two hours, until the first wave of people was leaving and i was among them. linda remembered she knew me but not from where, as did jo (whom i also ran into in ingles this morning.) i talked with lynday some, and ceilia a little bit, who didn’t remember having met me in summer, which is understandable. i see pictures of these folks all the time; they don’t of me.

i don’t remember being so self-conscious when i was younger, i wasn’t. but then i was younger, and confident. and i made a habit of being among people i liked. this is really new for me now and i feel so…something. not conspicuous, but self-conscious, like what am i doing there? they are so nice. i feel like i know them, but they really don’t know me. it will take time, i realize.

i took michael and randy their christmas hats, mushroom caps, before i went and i think they liked them.

they gave me a present, too:

randy said she reminded them of me. i don’t know, but i think it’s a compliment.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

afternoon

2010-12-20T15:09:00.000-05:00

whew! i was a disaster this morning! spilled my coffee, and then in cleaning it up missed the actual sunrise and overturned another glass of water. lost one driving glove and then found it, frost covered, outside on the ground, whereupon i couldn’t find the first one. broke my french press, which i’d carried in the trunk of the car for six months just waiting to bring it back up here to use it—at least i had coffee out of it before i broke it washing it up. lost my mouse.

the car was frosted over and the temp was 20 when i got out an hour later than i’d thought i would. drove gingerly down to murphy to get another french press, and a mouse, and the errands detailed below. bought 13 fun things at the dollar store! also a bottle of wine and the new french press at ingles. had lunch at blue mountain cafe again—where i discovered they have wifi so i messaged doug and found julie’s address, but forgot to message john:( stopped by yarn circle and said hi to martha, then by doug’s to get my guitar. by that time i was ready to come home for a shower and a lie-down, and here i am. my mouse will turn up; my driving glove already did. it’s all good. it’s clear and sunny and 2pm and i’m ready for a nap!

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

the first morning

2010-12-20T06:58:00.000-05:00

i slept from around 9 last night until 4:30 this morning, only waking up once, i think. it’s still dark and i’ve poked around and made my chicory coffee and put on one of the collection of cds i brought up to leave here for the cabin. they’ve now named the place “misty meadow farm” or some such, but whatever. it doesn’t need a name. i just grabbed as many cds as would fit in my bag, making sure half of them were christmas cds. i can always bring back more in summer, if i ever get myself to focus enough to actually chose from the drawersful i have in tampa which, judging from the dates on some, are from about 1994 and i haven’t listened to them in this century.

one odd thing: sometime yesterday, perhaps on the drive up, i found myself thinking about Dr. Zhivago. i didn’t know why. then when i got here the video was in the player! i don’t know if it was here over the summer and i just subliminally remembered it, but ? so i get to watch Dr. Zhivago this week! maybe i’ll find why i was thinking of it. cold mountain is here, too, and i’d been wanting to see that again. i remember i didn’t see anything there i wanted to watch when i was here in summer, but maybe that was just because they were out of season? i didn’t even think, but I should have brought that VHS masterpieces of art series i bought to teach with that turned out to be unsuitable; i have no reason to keep it for myself.

when i go into town today i want to go to the dollar store and see if they have any of those potpourri simmerers. in order to simmer water here i have to turn on the gas burner and i don’t want to leave that on all the time. but i do want to simmer water. want to check out some candles, too. if dollar store doesn’t have any, i can always go to walmart—i know it’s christmas, but doubt there are enough people here to cause a madhouse!

i’m looking forward to seeing the sun come up in an hour or so, see what it looks like now. i want to get some pictures of the meadow and some frost, so i can make paintings! i think the solstice is…tomorrow?

i put my down and satin comforter in a pillow case to bring with me, and then left it sitting on my bed in tampa. doesn’t matter, they’ve plenty of bedding here, including some heavy acrylic blankets fleece that are like bears, they’re so warm. i’m quite comfortable. as usual, it take the heat awhile to fill up the room, so it wasn’t a good idea to turn it down so low when i first got in and it was so warm—then it was chilly for the first hour or so i went to bed! but now it’s just fine. i need to push the button on the cd again…fareed hacque

today:

dollar store 8am?
- potpourri simmer
- candles
- nightlight
- antibiotic ointment
- mouthwash
yarn circle 9am?
- check in on fb
- message john
- message kathy
- find out where and when julie’s
- new projects?
doug’s for guitar 10am?
folk school gift shop11am?
- mugs
- cds?
- shirt
- something for judy?
painting—noon!

there, i set up a to do list to put on nook, let’s see if that works out.

the sun’s rising.

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

i am home

2010-12-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

i got here just as the sun was setting. cars were parked in front of kathy’s house for the party, and i snaked around them to get up the hairpin turn to michael and randy’s, but i’m not going to make it to this party. i am ded.

i drove from 7am, straight through. i used to do it all the time, but once i started staying over in perry, i spoiled myself. i didn’t get much sleep last night, a couple of hours only, and then set out at least an hour after i had planned. got my usual venti regular coffee with cream and three sugars at my usual starbucks, and then pointed north. it was very, very foggy, but that was no problem. i stopped in ocala for my usual multigrain bagel with cream cheese, and another extra large coffee with cream and three sugars, figuring that i’d need to keep awake. but by that time it was about 8:30 and i really didn’t feel tired anymore. it remained foggy all the way to lake city, and then i stopped and got gas in valdosta, where i also called randy to let him know i was on my way. i said i was aiming for atlanta by 1.

but i forgot about food, of course: i stopped in perry (!) for fried chicken around 1. then from there it was straight on through atlanta, up 575, refueling on chastain in kennesaw, and then up to murphy highway (60) right around 5:00. i always get misty-eyed when i turn off there, for it’s the road to brigadoon.

i stopped at ingles to buy provisions ($40, or what i would have spent for the motel in perry, so i’m still ahead)—coffee, bread, nuts, peanut butter, cheese, tangelos, apple juice, etc. i had no sooner gotten into the bakery aisle than i ran into doug somervell! as soon as i got into town! i never ever run into people anywhere else, i don’t know anybody anywhere else, but there was doug somervell, who had been wondering if i had arrived yet. i told you this was home! i’d had a vague plan of nosing in at the keith house parking lot and sending a quick post that i had arrived, tagging both him and kathy, but now there he was. kathy won’t miss me, she doesn’t even really know me in real life! and i’ll connect with her tomorrow sometime (i think she has to work this week to make up for snow days?) i wanted her to show me where the trail to the folk school is.

the weather was fine once the fog abated, and the sun came out south of perry. it was clear and in the 40s until i got to b’town. doug said i would have been fine yesterday, but i’m glad i waited; it was a nice drive. i wasn’t even tired until i got here and then unpacking all the stuff i threw in the car and stowing things away, and i’m just dead. drinking lots of water as i feel quite dehydrated; put a pan of water to simmer on the stove, too.

it’s after 8 now and kathy’s party ends at 9 anyway. oh well. i still have one tomorrow night, at julie’s, that i’ll have to find out how to get to. think i’ll go in to yarn circle tomorrow, say hi to pam, or martha, or charlotte, and connect. i need to drop by doug’s to pick up my guitar, too. and begin the painting. perhaps i can paint in the morning. must talk with randy at some point, too, so he can show me what to do with the goats and chickens while they’re gone; i wonder when they’re leaving? tomorrow sounds like it will be taken up with errands.

i’m here! actually, i’m kind of sad i didn’t get to the party, after all that happiness that i’d been invited. i got a bit shy to go, too, i think, but mostly it was too tired. :(

Flickr Tags: brigadoon

snow watch

2010-12-12T06:36:00.001-05:00

only four more days before i’m scheduled to drive to brigadoon and, of course, as usual i’m worrying about snow. i plan to drive from here to perry on friday evening and it shouldn’t be snowing there, and then get up on saturday early and check that there may be a four hour window that will get me through. we’re going caroling on saturday night, it’s my party (and david’s) and i wanna be there! :)

so this is what i need to do today:

~~clean the turkey stock yuck off the kitchen floor~~

~~fix the drippy washer drainpipe discovered in so doing~~

paper pack
- blue bonnet
pack art etc. stuff.
- fiber & spindle
- zimmermann and spindle dvds
- dvd player
- CDs! (get guitar ones from cypress)
- watercolor supplies
- rivercane art journal
- camera and flip
- zentangle book
- guitar books
- screaming roses
- decide which knit projects (green sweater? chemise?)
~~decide not to cook meatloaf and squash casserole for the week~~
~~bathe and etc. eat.~~

that’s the absolute sunday minimum. i cannot knit all day. but some:)

oh hell: all.

bit by bit…

2010-12-11T12:44:00.001-05:00

one crochet panel cleaned

actually. all of them are cleaned, but not yet rehung. waiting for spring? meanwhile, maybe some solid panels for the living room for awhile?

I guess not! “We're sorry, the Cameron Grommet Drape, 50 x 63", Cardinal Red (2284172) is on backorder until October 07, 2011.” !!!

this old house: black friday

2010-11-26T16:44:00.001-05:00

progress made: all that is left to do on these is regular general cleaning (and in the case of the day after thanksgiving in the kitchen? yeah, lots of that.)

no progress made yet:

need to clear out the utility closet ditto the hall, including packing away the projects obscuring the hall tree (see the dehumidifier, now in the back of the house?:)

need to clear the painting spaceand clean up, including hanging this “new” curtain and prepare that window for the new a/c that’s to go under it

yeah, massive general cleaning needed on the living room, including fixing up the windows and rehanging the crochet panels. right now it looks like i’m moving out! also need to trash the television armoire and—drumroll—the storage closet, neither of whichare visible here. once i get that done, there will be a lot more places to put stuff…

and, finally, need to clean out the study. there’s a closet that needs to be trashed in here, too, plus a huge amount of shredding. rearranging wires. but mostly general cleaning. (not even thinking about culling the books and the (3!) book armoires, only one of which is visible here..)

ALL the floors need cleaning. i got a sponge-on-a-stick at the dollar store, and some spic and span to pour on the kitchen floor, to get the most egregious stuff off so i won’t stick to it (too much.) but there’s a big refurbish due in there, which includes grout,and adhesives and such. (ditto the bathroom, which i didn’t picture because, at about 6X6, it’s actually too small to get a picture of! so that won’t take so long.:)

so what i need to do in the next three weekends (which includes this one) is get the general cleaning done. then on weekends in the new year i can start those little improvements i gave up on several years ago, like trashing closets, and grouting countertops, etc. at least everything is visible now (except the insides of the mentioned closets, which can only be reduced.) this project has been going on since June 2009 and i can’t believe i’m finally this close at last! (of course, blowing out the ac on that july 4th weekend put a BEEEg crimp in…) then? there’s always the outside…

ah, the dehumidifier is beeping. that means, in the last 24 hours, it has sucked up 17 pints (more than two gallons) of water from moisture and general humidity. i’m hoping it will get it all evened out sometime soon, so it won’t have to run all the time…gotta go dump it in the fountain!

exhausted woman is exhausted

2010-11-24T16:43:00.001-05:00

wow. ded. but i got a lot done! i got the fiber studio trashed out (including the contents of the armoire, which is now empty ready for—wait for it—fiber!) all the design and technique books are shelved in my own willy nilly fashion. and i moved the dehumidifier in there where it should be as amazon has already shipped the new window ac for the front of the house and it should be here by the first!

that means i’ll have to get the patio area cleared off, roundup sprayed and etc. by this weekend. but i think i can do that as i’m doing so well! I also got the linen closet cleared out and spaces made for the bedding and towels etc. and the perfume vitrine!

tomorrow is thanksgiving and i must cook the bird—can i do it without brining it this once? please? while it’s cooking, i can work on clearing up the kitchen and the utility closet in the hall and fix up the bathroom—shouldn’t be too bad. then on Friday do the painting space and living room, leaving saturday for whatever i can get done to the study and sunday to die.

i need to go back to home depot and get a new sprayer nozzle for the sink hose. can’t do that until friday, and of course that’s Black Friday, so i’ll have to wait till saturday. i also discovered that my electrolux vacuum is supposed to have a filter in it! who knew? i can get one on ebay though, so that will be okay and i hope i haven’t garmed anything up using it without one—the little i’ve used it. stupid brooklyn 1987 guy. googling that, i discovered there are all these youtube videos of people with my vacuum, vacuuming their carpets. weird.

the bedroom ac has been on 75:economy all day and it hasn’t really been running at all. it’s 82 out there, but it’s pretty comfortable in here. every 10 minutes it wakes up and checks to see it’s still not over 75 and then goes back to sleep. great. the dehumidifier, otoh, has been running all day and it’s 39% humidity out there. i set it on 50% so it really must be sucking the moisture out of that room. good! it’s now in the older part of the house, of course, so i had to put a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter on it which means it’s not grounded, i think. i don’t think that‘s good, but i don't know what i can do bout it. my computer in the study is the same way, and the ac in the bedroom, but i have those running on surge protectors. don’t know if that makes a difference or not; I’ll pick a couple more up for the fiber studio, though, just in case.

no pictures today. batteries ded. on the camera, too.

all this time i’m also working a bit on the green sweater. I have picked up the stitches on the first armhole steek elebenty times before i think i got it the way it should look. so that’s a lot of knitting and ripping, knitting and ripping…

omg, i did it!

2010-11-23T17:32:00.002-05:00

AIR!!! and it really wasn’t hard, and it’s sturdy and it works! and it cost under $200 and only about $45 a year to run!

I feel so accomplished, i’m encouraged to buy a bigger one for the front of the house while i can take advantage of all this free shipping. I can do this! the only problem will be lifting it as the bigger one is over 100 lbs, but maybe i can hire the guy next door or something, just to lift it into the window. I can use the same idea using a tile-topped iron table that’s already sitting outside that window, and put it up on bricks. hear me roar!

all i have to do on this one is trim the insulation and repack it around the flanges, rehang the stained glass about an inch higher, and wash the windows. another day. right now i must send an email to michael and randy, I DID IT!!! AIR!!!!

ETA: I found one that’s only 75 pounds on Amazon. Still free shipping but it’s $200 cheaper than Best Buy (different model, more like the one i have in the bedroom now, only bigger, for 640 ‘sq.) So i can’t pay it off in 18 months but instead must pony up now on my visa card. Ulp. but $200 is $200. So i bit. Should be here by weekend after next. Enough time to get the place cleared out for it, hmmmm? :D

i’ve been such a good girl

2010-11-22T07:04:00.001-05:00

i actually spent two days cleaning as i said i would! now, of course, i want off, but i think perhaps i will be able to continue around noon or so? just like yesterday. here are the things i want/need to get done:

trash studio*
trash ~~perfume vitrine~~ and vanity drawer*
trash hall closets*

~~redo linen closet~~
~~sort bedding storage~~
redo utility closet

install bedroom a/c*
1. ~~buy cinderblocks and bricks~~
trash and clean kitchen*

grout kitchen counter
deal with floor
wash curtains

cook turkey!*
blood tests*
wash curtains*

~~bathroom panel~~
~~painting space panel~~
~~living room panels~~

clean and patch up bathroom

regrout tub surround
tack wallpaper border

trash study

clear out closet
reroute wires
shred!

clear out hallway

pack up projects

clean wood floors
trash painting space

load up dresser
~~move dehumidifier to fiber studio~~
install a/c

clean living room

rehang curtains*
get new aspidistra

trash storage closet and reload

~~pack up glassware~~

clear off porch
clear off patio

ROUNDUP base of house

~~service car~~
~~baubles for shawls~~

realistically, not all of this has to be done this week*, but i would like to get as much done now as i can. i just hope i don’t lose my momentum!

(but i feel it leaking out again, again:)

the best laid plans…

2010-11-21T17:22:00.001-05:00

squeak.

i never seem to do what i say i will. mais c’est la vie. i spent all of day two in the bedroom again, clearing out drawers, washing down surfaces. ah well, it certainly needed doing. i have a whole shelf empty (except for gibbon) on the bottom of the bookcase, and drawers in the vanity and dresser cleared out. i still have all this make up that i no longer wear, but it can just stay there and be picturesque awhile longer.

so tomorrow i must tackle the ac question at home depot. that’s going to take up nearly all my time, i think, so that puts me behind schedule. but who’s counting? at least my little 100’sq french/english/creole/charleston antique-crammed sanctuary is clean again.

the view from the door, below.the sheers are down; the green velvets (hello, scarlett?) will go up when the weather demands, but apparently not this week…

the new window ac will replace the fan-in-the-chair.

some twinkly lights need replacing.

the faux door, and you can’t see the empty bookcase shelf at the bottom.

i still need to weed out the perfume vitrine above the bookcase, i forgot about that. i guess i did do what i said i would after all, just not as much as i’d thought i would. but i am tired now and am resting atop the bed.

thanksgiving clearance: ten days to fix my world

2010-11-21T12:27:00.001-05:00

yesterday, saturday (day one), i did the first rough pass on clearing out the bedroom. i still need to weed out the bookcase, dresser and vanity drawers, and more of the closet but, beyond cleaning off the surfaces and rapidly passing through each of these with trashbags, i need to move on now.

tomorrow, monday (day two) i go to home depot to purchase cinderblocks and bricks for the bedroom ac, roundup for the base of the house, and sanded grout and tile adhesive for the sink countertop and bathroom surround. that means i must first make a goodwill run to make room for haulage.

and that means i must gather up as much as i can today from the back rooms to take there, and to put out with the trash tomorrow.

so that's today, sunday day two.

bonnie blue bonnet

2010-11-07T12:24:00.003-05:00

this took one day and came out perfectly!

i took the day off from the green sweater, which i’m loving, having belatedly gotten into elizabeth zimmermann. (my fall socks, once known as punkintoes but now renamed, are knit almost entirely on tuesdays and wednesdays, while i’m at school2.)

and when i got the ez books on 40%off at knitpicks, i also got a drop spindle dvd, hoping to be able to finally get that roving i have made up and then to continue in b’town. only six. weeks. to go…:)

meanwhile…

2010-10-23T11:35:00.001-04:00

i think i want to purchase this as a kit, with enough extra yarn to lengthen it appropriately.

first fall sock!

2010-10-23T11:29:00.001-04:00

the mate is on the needles (no frost is on the pumpkins…)

it be fall

2010-10-16T12:35:00.001-04:00

at last. i’ve been knitting a bit recently:

a felted needle case

and a little triangle scarf out of silk garden stash

still working on finishing the chemise sleeves and got some blue cascade 220 to make a scots bonnet, dedicated some other stash cascade to some hand knit hose, and plan on completing the finishing on the summer tweed jacket i put by two years ago. should i make a witch hat? naaaaah. but i seem to be stuck on accessories and such.

in related news, i wanted to cast on some socks, but i can’t find my yarn!! i used to have it out but put it somewhere, apparently:(

THE END OF PHASE C!

2010-08-15T16:38:00.002-04:00

summer is over, i go back to work tomorrow, and i have effectively finished the outlined phases: digging out the fiber studio (spring) the painting space (july) and now the study (august)! i have put all the like with like and have still to arrange and load up the things that need to be put away, but at least they're in their correct vicinities and not in boxes lining the hall and iiving room, etc. now what's left is that putting away and arranging of the smaller closets and shelves (in the studio, the 2 hall closets, and my bedroom clothes closet) over the next few weeks (and labor day weekend?)

and then, when the weather cools, the next phase: clearing out the big storage closets--in the study, and the big one in the living room--so i can use them to pack away the last big things that are just stuffed in there now. thanksgiving week?

summer finale saturday :(

2010-08-14T22:19:00.001-04:00

i needed oven mitts

2010-08-05T20:36:00.004-04:00

so i made these yesterday and finished felting them this afternoon. no more burny holes with the batting coming out!

and last for today: tile answers needed!

2010-08-03T15:45:00.001-04:00

i need ideas for what to do about this:

somehow, while i was storing my school boxes in the dining room, a piece of blue construction paper must have fallen out right under the skylight, and then gotten covered up by more boxes. at any rate, it transfer printed to my saltillo/terra cotta tile floor:

that's a better isolated image of it. i need to figure out what to use to get it off. actually, it seems a bit fainter now than it did a few days ago when i first revealed it; since it's right under the skylight, will the same force that transferred it there eventually make it disappear, you think?--you know how fugitive blue is, which is how it got there in the first place. i don't want pristine tiles-- they're saltillo, after all and when i first put them in i even was hoping for the stray chicken footprint/goat hoof, but no-- and i usually relish whatever marks happen, but this purple blotch is just too...

i'm making tipper's pie!

2010-08-03T12:40:00.002-04:00

i couldn't resist. the foolproof recipe she posted this morning looked so good i ran right out and bought what i suspect will be the end of this year's special sale blues.

what made it look so good is the tiny number of ready ingredieents called for in relation to such bounteous blueberries!
(i cut down a tad on the butter and sugar, added my own special ingredient to the sugar and egg white on top:)
o dear, look at all those blueberries i have left over. what a shame!

and the winner is:

me! mmmm, i'm eating tipper's pie!:)

this is how far i've gotten

2010-08-03T08:51:00.001-04:00

it's all plain knitting from here up.

2010-08-03T08:49:00.000-04:00

ty-dy

picked up the yarn for this tiered skirt while in b'town. started it and ripped it out twice, then lost a needle for a week, then got the yarn bowl and brought it on home. it's also going to take a very long time. and i need to finish the skirt i'm already working on first!

2010-08-03T08:43:00.000-04:00

teensy

it's bigger now, about 6" or so long. it's going to take awhile.

ain't no cure for the summertime do's

2010-08-02T17:12:00.001-04:00

well, i was in north carolina for four whole weeks, during which time i taught fiber arts, had two weeks to myself, and then took a watercolor class! it was glorious, and it even took me four more days to meander on home, mostly because i couldn't quite face it.

but face it i did, and eventually even opened up my new projects on ravelry, about which more in a subsequent post. but this post is to document what i've gotten done on the house so far, and what needs to be done (below, in bold) in the next two weeks, before i go back to school :(

today i really got a prodigious amount done, though. first, i dropped off five more boxes of books at the radio station, which i had culled from their temporary stoage in the study yesterday. then i reshelved the ones remaining (willy nilly, but organizing the things in things is another phase entirely!) and cleared away most of the detritus in the study. so we're back to this now:

turns out it will be a fine place to paint during the summer, when it's just too hot to paint here:

which is the painting space i'd carved out of the dining room a week ago, and is still my main repository for painting, but which turns into an oven on summer afternoon/evenings for the very same reason it's an ideal painting space in other seasons: the skylight. The study, on the other hand, is darkened as old florida houses always were, and has this:

a really lovely ceiling fan, one of only two in the house, as i replaced the one i'd put in the bedroom with a chandelier when i thought it had burned out, only to discover that it actually worked when the man took it down, but i had already bought the chandelier. still, it's a very pretty chandelier, as is the unwired one i tied to the fixture in the fiber studio, so i'm not really thinking about re-retrofitting either.

Anyway, the study will be good for taking my watercolors into to work on when the painting space becomes unbearable, and now just needs some more squaring away, and a good cleaning (dust 1/4 inch thick!) I also ordered a shredder to arrive sometime next week, so i can turn the two decades worth of receipts presently in the study closet into excelsior to pack all the knick-nacks in the house away with, about which more later, so I think i will also clear out the study closet in this phase, to give me more storage room in this phase (even though most closets are definitely next phase!)

Once i got the study culled, i had some boxes of stuff to take back to school:

(the middle box, with no lid, is crammed with art supplies to be taken to school, while the back two are tapestry and heavy quilts that take up too much room; the front one contains knick-nacks to be packed up)

and a bunch of art stuff to go back into the studio:

This has got to happen right away (tomorrow) as the spiffy fiber studio now has got junk in it again! but! there is plenty of shelf space and empty closet space in there, so i just have to get it all put away before the whole thing disappears again!

The other thing that needs to happen is to pack away all the knitting projects currently piled on the hall tree

as well as those hanging my my bedroom closet or in the chest of drawers, into the empty green tubs in the studio, so i can have room to unpack summer

and hang up the clothes i'll need to get ready for school again. Then i'll just need to figure out how to mask the tons of linens and such that i want but have no idea what to do with

and that will be the end of this phase.

Oh, and i don't want to spend more than two hours per day doing all this, so i can have my last two weeks of studio time, of course! So that's my to-do list.

where i was in july

2010-07-11T10:33:00.002-04:00

pictures of the new home of my heart are here. i plan to spend every spare and possible week here forever!

memorial day progress

2010-05-31T10:01:00.000-04:00

what was once five boxes of books flung into the study are now
three boxes of library donations

and two boxes of keepers.

and that's all for today.

tomorrow evening comes the 3-day weekend

2010-05-27T20:46:00.001-04:00

what, oh what will i clear out next? book boxes?

painting space?

what?

the chair

2010-05-17T08:09:00.002-04:00

brandon has posted a picture of the very chair that engendered my $199 celadon velvet wing chair circa 1988! (mine, vastly inferior, can still be seen down below in the new fiber studio.)

( i just love saying "new fiber studio!")

z.o.m.g! went into the new fiber studio to find a vk from 2006 and... there it was! right on the shelf! do you realize how huge this is??? :)

2010-05-16T22:01:00.005-04:00

started a skirt.

thinking of pairing it with this jacket, from the same issue, which i made when it was new and then put away for a better time. the pattern listing, inexplicably, seems to have disappeared completely from ravelry!

2010-05-15T19:56:00.000-04:00

trying some habu.

slooow going, like knitting with excelsior.

et voila!

2010-05-01T21:45:00.001-04:00

finally, finally, all done but the washing up! let me take you on a tour of my ancient demesne (but oh, the rest of the house!!!)

Location: my new 10 X 10 fiber studio!

GAH!

2010-05-01T10:12:00.000-04:00

okay. fell off wagon. fell off the whole train. climb back on, as jess says. turn on Jazz Fest, get up, put on sweats, wade back into THE ROOM.

at least the mildew smell that was in there has gone. sure, i can get that room squared away today, i think. can't i? then i can think about the rest of the house. some other day? but not this day.

i'm thinking, around here? "day" = week...

here's where i stalled

2010-04-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

we've a three-day weekend this week and i'm hoping to get the stuff put away in the unseen accordian-doored closet...and the rest of the green tubs switched out in a second stack on the other side of the window that is jus a glow here, to match the ones in the corner over there.

only an inch

2010-04-25T11:36:00.002-04:00

an inch or so left to go on the lilac cuff and i'm over it.

just bought some habu gima from somebody's stash and am planning a gauze cotton tee with it (adding sleeves.)

put up my next four projects in my planned tab, refined my chemise interpretation some.

oh, i'm humming along! gotta get that inch done, though, and in the eucalan bath...

more tubs

2010-04-17T21:13:00.002-04:00

spring break is indeed over and i have to get ready to go back to work monday. took another load (mostly old throw pillows and such) to goodwill today, and decided to load up the books back into the study (from whence i removed them a couple of years ago or so) in boxes, until i can figure out what i want to do with them.

that will be plan c, and i'm not thinking about plan c until i finish plan b.

plan b will commence once i'm back at work, so i will do it gradually, cleaning and sorting boxes of things here or there and tossing/donating two boxes (each) a week--trash gets picked up again tomorrow. that will get the stuff i've been working on this week finished up.

i also bought another half dozen lime green tubs today, and am storing all the stash in them, stacked five high, in the corners of the studio, which seems to be working out well. i need to finish that up, and at least the temporary organizing of painting area and carpets, etc. in the sterlite tubs they'll replace--all tomorrow.

and that will have been spring break. back to teaching on monday. (i loaded up the car with school stuff to take back there, too.) never did make it down to the new baubles to pick up my shawls, although i tried. in actual knitting (not studio) news, i still haven't finished the lilac sleeve, either, but i cast on for the chemise anyway...

but just now i need a bath.

tubs

2010-04-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

running errands at last this morning, i discovered that HomeD has 18 gallon storage totes in lime green on for $3.44 each. i bought four, since i already have four purple ones. After sealing up their ventilation holes with elmer's so i can safely store stash in them, i think I'll go back and get four more, as that will give me a color coordinated stash wall and free up some more clear sterlite tubs to store fabric and tapestry pieces in. somewhere. probably in the studio closet, which is shallow and shelf-lined, and which i cleared out yesterday. i should do another run to goodwill with a bunch of throw pillows and etc. that i don't want on the way. that will be accomplishment enough for today, don't you think?

tried to go by baubles, too (the new one) to pick up my cashmere shawls, but couldn't find it! i did get flicker bulbs, though, after many months on the to do list--and s-hooks for the stained glass pieces!

planned chemise

2010-04-15T17:24:00.000-04:00

who plans chemises? chemeeses? anyway, i've been wanting to do something with the wonderful anna gilmour's chemise plan, which she sent me a year ago, and have only now found a fabric i want to make it of, i think. i'm enamored of marnie maclean's pas de valse and i'm just about done with my own version in (discontinued) rowanspun 4ply, of which i bought up just about as much as i could find before it went pffft.
when i felt the fabric that came out of this seamless pattern on us5 needles for me, i thought it might make a very nice chemise, and drew up a plan to make one in the color holly. now all i hafta do before casting on is finish that last sleeve on the lilac...