Into every life some rain must fall

 

I got my first shot of the vaccine last Friday and while I was there they ran out of the Pfizer and I was given Moderna instead which has an additional week between shots so my next one won't be until March 28th.  It's a relief to just have the first one!

I've been knitting a lot and finished this Martha Green Aran knit-along.  I wish I had made the next size up which would have created a cowl but it's comfortable to wear as it is.

I am very pleased.

I also finished Alexia's sweater which is a couple of patterns cobbled together.

It couldn't be cuter on her.

It was very important to her that she could raise her arms without exposing her belly, and it passed the test.  I wonder what she does at school that requires this gesture.

I'm doing another zoom weaving workshop in a couple of weeks, and the only reason I can participate is because of zoom.  My eight-shaft loom is too heavy to take anywhere.  I'm really looking forward to what we'll do next.  This is just the tie-on and it's awesome.

Into every life some rain must fall.  This is the Subaru Crosstrek that we bought last May.  I had to drop something off for UPS pickup and just as I was leaving the parking lot, a guy in a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado with a massive trailer hitch backed into me.

Actually he pinned my car with his hitch so that I couldn't proceed.  Believe it or not, the damage is extensive and we won't have the car back until the 18th.  Just some rain.

May blessings

Ian and are both in the middle of getting the cataracts removed from our eyes, one eye down and one to go.  My right eye is scheduled for this Wednesday.  Ian's first surgery was last Monday and boy are things different in lockdown.  I was his driver and he called from the car to check in when we arrived.  A few minutes later they called back with some instructions and off he went.  He was in the building for an hour and I waited in the car on premise as they requested.


We've been talking about whether we should take advantage of all the incentives and buy a new car.  I mean, when are we going to see 1.9% interest again?  We went to the lot Thursday evening and initiated the process but our credit was frozen at Equifax so we went home to take care of that and went back the next evening.  This is what we chose, a Subaru Crosstrek.  I've driven a Forester since 2004 and also a standard transmission.  This is totally different and loaded with all kinds of technology.  It felt weird as I started to I drive it home, but by the time I finished all three miles, I was absolutely smitten.  We never did take it for a test drive.  We just bought it.


The yard is just starting to flower.  We are always the last house to bloom because of our strange micro-climate but I took my book outside and read all afternoon, listening to the water feature and the birds.  Absolutely lovely.


This last batch of sourdough got two teaspoons of instant yeast and resulted in a much more satisfactory sandwich bread.  It's different every week.


Grandpa bought Delaney her very own little Bolga basket this week to put things into and take them out of.  She has a set of ten little books and one of those is just about to go in.


She takes a bottle every morning at 9:00 which used to be formula but now is milk.  She used to lie on her back and now she is all over the place.  I know how blessed I am.

Winding down the year

Last Thursday was the final day of Smart for 2018 and I almost didn’t make it.  My add oil now!! light came on in my car and lucky me, I was only a mile from the Subaru dealership. They scanned it and found a faulty sensor so gave me a loaner, this 2019 Subaru Ascent, mileage 1974, and my ride for 24 hours.  They understood my need for haste so had me out the door in no time.  I was only five minutes late and my little guy was still picking out his books.  Twice a month we have book giveaway day where they get to select one of the books to write their name in and take home.  BTW, I loved everything about this car except it’s size.  It was huge and I could barely get it in the garage.


Smart gave each of us readers a Christmas card and one of my kinders made one of her own for me. “And did you see that it says Happy Holiday?” she asked me. She was as proud of her work as I was delighted to receive it. I was so thankful to Subaru for getting me there on time.  We only have four payments left on Jainey so I know the loaner wasn’t purely altruistic, and yes, I was tempted, and no I didn’t bite.

Last Sunday I took a name from the “giving tree” in the narthex at church of a 17-year-old girl who wanted a scarf, hat and gloves, in pink and yellow.  I knew I have woven this scarf last year so after church went downtown to Wool Town and bought the closest colors i could get to knit a hat - not as close as I would have liked.  I wrote her a note to say that I hope she’s not disappointed in my rose and gold interpretation of pink and yellow.  The gloves were from Costco with the sensitive fingers that allow use of mobile devices, so at least she won’t be totally disappointed.

I put enough warp on for three table runners and have finished the first two in this colorway, one for our table and one to sell.  This is my first Overshot project and I’m enjoying the heck out of it.

The pattern yarn in the last one is apple green, also for sale.  I think I might want to make three more in different colors.  I certainly have plenty of 3/2 mercerized cotton that I bought on sale and have never known what to do with it.

I really do seem to be on a blue kick.  I’ve finished reknitting my “blue ribbon” yarn and sewed the ends together in a cowl.  I’m very fond of cowls these days.  I can’t spit toothpaste on them when I’m wearing them in the house.

I don’t like this picture of me, but then I don’t like any pictures of me.  That said, it shows off the subtle color changes that I love so much about this yarn.  I hope I fall in love with spinning again some day, but that day is not now.

Ian and I go to the same dentist as my son’s family so when a crown came off Sunday morning, I called and left a message on Dr Grieb’s answering machine, letting Marci know that I’d be calling her first thing in the morning, which I did. Fortunately someone cancelled and I was able to slip into the 10:00 opening. We were about half-way through fixing my tooth when Dr Grieb realized that my son would be coming in to get his teeth cleaned. He thought it would be fun to call Mo out and have me put on a mask and slip into Mo’s place and act like I was another hygienist. I slipped into her chair and rolled around, when Josh says, “Hello Mummy’.” I realized why we couldn’t surprise him when I got into the parking lot. He had parked right beside me.  In fact, I could park my car IN his truck.

I went to the yarn story last Friday on my way to return the loaner car and pick up Jainey.  I’m going to knit the green yarn (Malabrigo Rios) in size three months for Julia’s baby shower in March and then the lavender into a six-month size for the baby’s birth, April 1st.  I cast on this morning.  Time to get this show on the road.

Crackle Weave

The days have been gray for the last week so I decided my antidote would be to weave up my colorful wool/silk/alpaca yarn.  I had sett it for twill but when I saw how pretty the colors worked with the black Tencel weft, I changed my mind and went back to a very open plain weave to showcase my yarn.  The problem is that I also had floating selvedges which aren't needed and a pain in the neck with plain weave, but I had woven close to a foot when I realized that and it was too late to take them out.  I won't do that again!

It turned out beautifully and only weighed about three ounces.  I told Ian that it was my new favorite thing I've ever woven.  I was in a hurry to finish it because I wanted it to be part of the library display next month and the intake was yesterday.  We have three display cases we can fill with handwoven related items as part of our outreach program at the library March 22nd.  I posted this picture on the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers Facebook page because I want to encourage them to weave with their own handspun yarns.  While it's not a private page, I was surprised to have three offers to buy it.  So I sold it and mailed it off to Denton Texas yesterday to one of my best friends from junior high and high school.  Holy cow!

The Reno Fiber Guild met at Gayle's home yesterday.  Last year she said she'd like to offer a Crackle Weave workshop because she's been wanting to know more about it and the best way to learn something is to teach it.  Several of the members met over the past couple of weeks to warp two Schacht Wolf Pups and three 8-shaft Baby Wolfs for this.

All three of these ladies are experienced weavers but there is always room to learn in a teaching opportunity.

All five looms had different weave patterns.  Suzanne is working on one that makes blocks and looks a little like Summer and Winter.

Darla's is working on the easiest pattern and also my favorite.  It's the first draft on p.131 of Anne Dixon's book and it would make a great jacket fabric.  The one thing in common with all the drafts that I understand is that like Overshot, there's always a shot of tabby after every pattern shot.  That's all I understood and given that there were about a half dozen books there written solely on the subject of Crackle Weave, I'm not going to beat myself up over it.  If you're interested in more information about Crackle Weave, there's a great blog post here.

I learned so much and tried to weave as much of the five hours I was there as I could.  I had no idea that eight shafts are so much heavier to lift than four shafts, but I learned that yesterday and again this morning when I climbed out of bed with sore legs.  I'm so thankful to all the weavers in my guild who spent the time to put this together.

The only mar on the day was when I started to drive home in the pouring rain and a warning light came on my dash.  Even though we've had the car since September, I've only been driving it a month and this was a totally strange symbol.  I called the dealership and she said it indicates low tire pressure.  By the time I got there, my right rear tire was nearly flat.  I had picked up a nail.  They had it patched and ready to go in an hour and was I ever thankful for this new sensor that Subaru has implemented or I would have been alone on the side of the road with a flat time in the rain.  I'm also thankful for the rain and glad I got to enjoy it from inside the car.

The Unexpected

I had to run several errands Tuesday before picking up our CSA box.  I drove home with the air conditioner one and once again, driving along our road in second gear, Eleanor began to overheat.  I had to go to town on Wednesday for the Reno Fiber Guild meeting, our first for this new year.  I had made an appointment for next Tuesday to have this overheating thing checked out and we decided that in the meantime we wouldn't use the air.  I had saved errands in the south end of town for this trip, but when I pulled in the credit union parking lot, the needle was pegged to the red. 

I called Ian and we agreed that Eleanor needed to be towed to the dealership.  I love this car.  I have loved this car more than any I have ever owned.  While waiting inside the credit union for the tow truck, I asked about new car financing.  Ian and I talked while I waited - we suddenly realized that we might have to cut our losses, given the high mileage, and start over with a new car.

Meanwhile, I needed wheels. Subaru called Enterprise for me and they came, as advertised, and picked me up.  I was pleased when it was time to pay.  Scott at Subaru had called them and authorized their dealership rate.  My rental was a Honda Civic and absolutely the most boring car I have ever driven.

I left home at 1:00, pulled into the credit union at 2:00, and skipping all my errands, arrived at the library one minute early to meet with the weaving outreach committee at 5:45.  The meeting started at 6:30 and I got out of there at 8:45.  Long day.

We had a rather protracted business meeting since it was the first one of the year, followed by an energetic exchange of Show-and-Share.  It seems everyone was busy over the summer.  Lorene was been a Kumihimo machine ever since our class last year and now she has begun exploring burnished wire pendants.

Diana Ballard has a machine that prints fabric, I think mostly silk.  I really don't understand what it is or how she does it but I know she wins awards.  She and Marilyn did a series for the May Arboretum this summer and those scarves sell for $100 each.  These are some of the scarves she printed recently.

Nancy has been experimenting over the past several months with this 16-sharft weave structure, using up random yarns.  Now you can see why I'm the newbie weaver in the guild.

Beryl brought this pin loom from a class she took at CNCH.  I think we're going to try to adapt some smaller ones for our outreach in March so that anyone who wants to try weaving will have something to take home.  I just noticed that the scarf on the left is mine!

I woke up early the next morning, after a restless sleep, knowing we were going to be facing some espensive decisions.  Scott was supposed to call with an estimate on the repair expenses, but Ian had been reading stuff online and came to the conclusion that we were looking at blown head gaskets, most likely something that has been slowly developing ever since Eleanor's radiator blew up in the desert 18 months ago.  We've noticed a burned smell to the engine after driving, like an overspill of coolant.  If that were the case, given that we needed new struts and brakes, we decided to pull the cord.

We always check Consumer Reports before making a purchase and Ian discovered that they offer a discount service, must like Costco.  He was up early Thursday morning and locked in a negotiated price with Lithia Subaru.  He had two confirmation emails from them and then a personal email from their Internet sales manager, saying he was up and to give him a call.  Ian was feeding and watering, so told me to call.  The guy's name was Paul and when I told him I wanted a standard transmission and a light exterior, he told me he'd have one waiting for us.

And here she is.  Her name is Jane, after Jane Addams of Hull House in Chicago.  She was a voice for the middle class and I've always felt that the Forester is a modest vehicle.  Niece Allison calls it a Commie Car, however the Forester has gotten fancy since 2006.  Paul explained that the earlier Foresters were build on a Legacy chassis but the engineers designed the 2014 from the ground up.  This is truly an SUV.  I do miss the sports car feel that I experienced driving on our two-lane road.  At the same time appreciate the solidness of the 2014 - it will be good for us out here.

My phone kept pinging while we were signing our lives away.  It was Christina.  She said, where are you?  I'm here!  She had run out on her lunch hour to get an oil change, saw my post on Facebook and stopped by.  And here she is with Jane - two lovely ladies.