Adapting to change

 New Years Eve day our dryer door decided it no longer wanted to stay closed.  In fact, the best we could do was to duct tape it closed.  Stores were closed for the holiday so we got on the computer and tried to locate a new set.  We bought this set from my son and his wife when their new house came complete with a new set.  Matt was going to put it on Craigslist for $100.  We weren't so fortunate with appliances left behind and had already replaced the dryer and were shopping for a washer.  That was four years ago.  I found a top-loading Samsung set on the Costco website for $1600 that would fit in our little laundry closet and was available for delivery in our area.  It's absolutely wonderful and the dingy sheets are once again white!!

I started the new year by joining a hiking group that goes out every Tuesday morning at 9:30, regardless of the weather.  We're old and slow but make up for it in tenacity.  We all like to read and we talk a lot.

Last week we went to Tumalo Reservoir and got a spectacular view of the Cascades.  Sadly, the reservoir is dry.

Today we went to Horse Butte, which was a most demanding hike so far and the longest.  I thought I was in better shape than I am, but was glad when we got back to our cars.  I'm getting to see a lot of new territory and realize I need to lengthen my daily walks to be in shape for the Tuesday hikes.  BTW, a butte is a fancy name for volcanic cone.

I finally finished the sweater I've been working on for the past year.  The pattern was in Vogue Knitting and was by Deborah Newton.  The yarn is Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool.  I have another aran sweater on needles and it will probably be another year before I complete it.  I started both of these at the same time.  For now my knitting is more scarves for my daughter to cover her surgical scar.  Her family was vaccinated but got hit with Covid about a week ago and they're struggling to recover.  Chris told me that she's so sick that she's not sure she could have survived this unvaccinated.  I don't think I could have survived it she hadn't.

Lexi has fared the best and is rebounding but will be in quarantine from school for another week.  She recently finished another sweater.  Her knitting skills continue to improve and she has an exceptional eye for yarn and pattern.  She's very fashion aware and carefully curates her clothing collection from used clothing outlets.  She says this summer will be her last with us as she will be required to do an internship during the summers following her freshman year.  She has been accepted at the University of Nevada Reno and is on a career path to be a PA (physician's assistant).  Sorry, I got carried away with bragging.

Winding down

 

I've been in Reno since October 27th, in time to see the spectacular show of the turning leaves.  These photos are from our old neighborhood but it's like that all over the Truckee Meadows basin.  I'm reminded of Walter Von Tilburg Clark's book, the City of Trembling leaves.  The Clark Administration building on campus is named for him.  I've been gone from Reno for six years after living here for 40 years.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed revisiting the city.

 I've had a couple of visits with Delaney but her other grandmother has been sick so I might have to be content with that until we come back next year for Alexia's high school graduation.  Delaney loves her new sweater.

I wanted to see Alexia's band performance.  The different high schools have taken marching band into almost the same level of sports.  I have wanted to see her do high school stuff and was excited to finally have an opportunity, but I had forgotten how much driving time is involved when you go to anything in Reno.  It took me 35 minutes to get to Spanish Springs High School and I was just in time to see her high school take the field.  She is the drum major.

When given the "all clear" she climbs to the top of the platform where she will beat out the rhythm with her raised arms.  Their performance isn't very long at all, maybe five minutes - and she's holding her arms at shoulder height and beating the rhythm - not easy.  She says she chose this because you can't hear a flute in a marching band.

She has visited Yarn Refuge, a local yarn shop, and wanted us to go together to their Knit Night.  The store is every bit as impressive as she said it is.

I had a hard time reining in my buying impulses and was relieved that I held myself to these three skeins.  I've cast-on using the middle skein for a scarf for Chrissie.  Greens and rusts are her colors.  I went back later and bought another skein - oops.

Meanwhile, weaving lessons are progressing.  Alexia is so busy that it's hard to find time but we're doing a little here and there and I think we'll get enough done that she will be able to weave after I go home.

Tomorrow is the last day we'll have for weaving and since she has a threading error, I'm going to show her how to repair it.  It's a common error and every error is a learning opportunity.  She is doing great.

Every day Chrissie feels a little better and she's looking forward to the day when she can leave behind this special chair and sleep in her own bed with her C-Pap.  She is a trooper.  I was stunned to learn that because they opened her chest, they had to wire it closed.  That little dark knot on her chest is a knot of the wires that are holding her chest closed and will be hers for the rest of her life.

Today we took our first outing, her in the backseat of course.  We went to see my oldest grandson's apartment, meet his roommate and the cats, and we had a surprise visit when his girlfriend came home for lunch.  We visited for a couple of hours, reassuring to Kiernan to have his mother feeling up to a visit and reassuring to me that my grandson is becoming a man.

That's about the size of it.  The forecast is for rain on Monday so Tuesday I'll saddle up and ride off into the sunset, i.e., Bend.  I've learned that you never stop being a mom.

Autumn is my favorite season

Delaney is absolutely taken with this New Yorker issue and studies the cover at length.

She points to the bubble and names the contents, then goes back and names the people.  She and her parents are the family in upper left corner.

PlayDoh is such a mess and I regretted buying it as soon as we opened the first container.  Tomorrow is her last day so I dug it out for one last time.  She loves it.

She was on a roll and would have opened every single color when I got the idea to place the Amazon toy catalog on the table and it was an instant winner.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!

With her daddy's help she made me this birthday card which I will treasure until it's in tatters.

Tuesday was my birthday but since we were babysitting we went out for my dinner on Monday.  The tradition has been for all the family to go out to dinner on the birthday but we are shrinking already.  Grandson Logan and girlfriend moved to Kalispell this month and Son Matt, Julia and Delaney will be back in Reno this Sunday. 

I'm moving too - back into the world of adults after 2 1/2 years of being focused on a baby.  Wednesday was my book group and I hosted.  Kathi brought me these flowers which she said she instantly thought of as "Sharon colors."  They are gorgeous!  We had seven for our book discussion, first time to gather indoors since Covid hit.  We were so happy to be together again that we talked for three hours - yikes!  What did we read?  The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

I love the colors of autumn and I love that our yard is beautiful.  It's also successfully blocked from maraudering deer.  There's plenty for them to eat outside the fence, which these guys were doing when I left for my walk Wednesday morning.

I am walking with friends in places other than my neighborhood now and our walk Monday along the Deschutes River was spectacular.  Ian bought me a pair of walking sticks to protect me from taking another header.  I'm stunned at how many people I know who have been injured while hiking.  My cousin tells me that it's called FOOSH - fall on out stretched hand.  Yep, that's exactly what I did.  One MRI, two x-rays and three doctor visits later, I don't want to do it again.

My root project piece is finished and due this Saturday.  It's a simple pencil rendering and when I see the lovely pieces by other participants I feel like using mine to start the wood stove.  But if you don't enter, you don't get to play.  I remind myself that I couldn't get started until the splint came off my hand.  Lame excuse :-)

If you are of the praying kind, I sure would appreciate prayers for my daughter Chris on this coming Thursday as they replace a heart valve and repair an aneurysm.  I will go down to be with her on the 26th since I won't be able to see her until she's released from the hospital.  We've compiled a list of campy movies to watch together in her recovery, starting with Galaxy Quest.

 

 

And another month

I've been playing around some more with turned taquete.  I'm getting a plaid of sorts.

I started this warp thinking that we might be able to have a guild holiday bazaar after all, but now I realize I won't be here, since I need to be in Reno for my daughter's surgery.  I attended our guild's rigid heddle loom study group via zoom today and got infected by their wreckless design aspirations. They are all about texture and color.  I'm having second thoughts about taking classes for difficult structures and think I may need to return to my original love, color and texture.

Color!!

Meanwhile, I've been participating in Pat Clark's root project.  Pat has been a powerful and unifying force in our local art community and I'm super fortunate to have become a part of that group.  I didn't get the splint off my hand until Monday so signed up for a sketch time with her on Tuesday.  That's because Pat is in hospice and sketch times with her are limited.  We are sketching this root that was extracted from her yard and has been hanging in her garage for the past two years.

This is Pat's sketch.    I gathered up my things to leave at the end of my session and she took me aside to wish me the best with my family and said, that when life had thrown her a curve, she had learned that the word she needed was "adjust."  I treasure that piece of wisdom. 

We have another artist in the family.

Grandpa's grrl.

 

The Unexpected

I took Delaney to the park this afternoon, hoping to tire her out for a long nap.  It's a beautiful day and wonderful to be out from under the choking smoke.

She is just starting to get the hang of the play equipment, but the slide still baffles her.

She absolutely loves the swings.  It's her favorite and she squeals "Whee) on every forward swing.  And here is where I tell you the bad news.  Her parents have decided to sell their house and move back to Reno. After watching Delaney for 2 1/2 years, this is tough to swallow.  They have a list of reasons and I understand where they're coming from, but I don't like it.  I plan to enjoy her right up to moving day.

I'm lucky to have an engrossing hobby to help me move forward.  I checked out this rigid heddle loom from the guild equipment library and made this scarf with sock yarn as my first project.  It turns out someone else wanted to borrow it for a class, a beginning weaver, and so I hurried up to finish this and return it.  It was fun but I don't know that I'll be buying one anytime soon.  A Girl Scout is collecting 100 scarves for a badge so I put this one in that collection.

And I'm fortunate to be in the middle of a shadow weave workshop with Jennifer Moore.  I bought the yarn as a kit from Lunatic Fringe and chose the autumn colorway.  We had the option of 5/2 and 10/2 yarn.  Because of babysitting I am only able to attend two of the four recorded sessions of the instruction and they have been excellent.  I am able to replay spots that confuse me.  We had the option of using a four-shaft loom or an 8-shaft loom.  With the splint on my wrist I opted for four-shaft and 5/2 yarn or the class, then will do the eight-shaft later.

During Delaney's nap today I experimented with supplementary yarns, ones that weren't part of the kit.  The last session will be Thursday but the kids have asked me to babysit because they're going to a funeral in Reno on Friday.  I'll watch the instructions and will have all day Friday to weave, or until my back gives out.

I'm still knitting chemo caps and have four done so I need to drop them off.  There's still quite a bit of the yarn from Triana so I think I'll have enough for a dozen by the time I'm done.

And here is where I tell you the bad news.  Delaney's parents have decided to sell their house and move back to Reno. After watching Delaney for 2 1/2 years, this is tough to swallow.  They have a list of reasons and I understand where they're coming from, but I don't like it.  I plan to enjoy her right up to moving day. Matt dropped Delaney off the morning of the 31st and said he had an announcement to make.  I actually thought he twas going to tell me that they were separating.  I've sensed heaviness from both of them for at least a month.  But it's not a health issue.  I have to remind myself of the things their news is not, a crutch for now.

That afternoon my daughter called with even worse news.  She is going to need open-heart surgery and they're hoping to be able to do it in October.  It's called Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease and it's a birth defect.  Her father also had this surgery.  I've lost sleep over this and somehow it makes Delaney's move a little less traumatic.  Chrissie has to stay in the hospital for a week and another six weeks at home after the surgery.  I'll go down as soon as she wants me there.  I will be so glad when this is behind us, the sooner the better and before the snow flies.

 

August already!

 I've been knitting on a cardigan pattern from the winter Vogue Knitting issue and had been having misgivings about the size, hoping I had enough yarn.  I kept knitting thinking that surely it would be fine.  This is when I realized I didn't have enough yarn for both sleeves, so I took stitches off the needles and measured on the kitchen table.  It was way off.  At some point I had begun to loosen my gauge and it was a couple sizes too big.

There was nothing I could do but start over.  Actually frogging and reconditioning yarn is pre-starting over.  It's been my Olympic knitting and I am halfway to the armholes right now.  It's a complex pattern and I recognize that it probably won't be a garment before next year.

The county fair shaped up at the last minutes which left everyone scrambling so I was really impressed at what we were able to do for the fiber arts exhibit and demonstrations.  I haven't been weaving so the bright towels on the left were all that I had to enter for judging.  I didn't deserve a ribbon and I didn't get one.  But attendance was surprisingly good considering the short notice and high temperatures.  It was the 100th birthday of the fair and I think they were loathe to miss another year after last year.

Our guild's spinning study group put together this "sheep to shawl" display along with information on rare breeds and wool samples that said "touch me."  People seemed to be happy to have their fair back and were curious, though all entries were down, all except quilts which were more than they had ever had.  We think it's because the Sister's quilt show was last month and they accepted half as many entries as usual which meant that quilters were happy to have a place to display their work. 

Our displays were attractive and it was nice to be indoors, which I'm sure is what our visitors thought too, with temperatures approaching the century mark.  Some of the displayed pieces were submitted to be judged but we also beefed up the visual appeal with items "for display only" like my turquoise and copper scarf on the table.

We've had returning deer these past couple of weeks.  I seemed to be the only one who hadn't seen the new neighborhood fawns but then a couple of days ago the twins shot by me at the start of my morning walk.  One raced across the street but this guy stopped to double check before scampering off.

And on the other side of our fence, the wildflower seed that I sowed have taken root and are producing cheerful little meadow flowers.  I thought I distributed the seed evenly but it looks like I tipped up the bag and dumped it out.  I think it will even out next year but it's sure a cheerful addition to our yard right now.  According to the package the annuals will flower this year and next year the perennials will bloom.

Alexia has been displaying a lot of interest in weaving this year and is asking me really intelligent questions.  At first I was thinking I would order a 16" rigid heddle loom and having it shipped to her but then I remembered this Dorset loom that I bought to use in workshops.  Since discovering zoom weaving workshops, I've decided to skip the workshops where I have to fill the back end of my car with equipment and unload, reload, unload, etc. It occurred to me that its a perfect starter loom for Lexi.  They're coming up in October to pick it up.  

With all the time that pandemic and quarantine have provided me, I have done just about no weaving.  I finally have a warp on one of my looms.  Instead of trying to learn something new or use workshop information, I've defaulted to my old friend, turned taquette, and boy does it feel comfortable to be on my own home turf.  

I've started taking Delaney to the library once a week.  She gave up naps when she outgrew the Pack-n-Play so on the recommendations of her parents, I take her for a car ride after lunch which causes her to fall asleep and take a two-hour nap.  The trick is to get to the library without her falling asleep first!  The conditioning is so good that she falls asleep within the first mile and the library is three miles from the house.  It's tricky.

 

And June rolls around again.

It's happened.  I'd rather do yard work that weave.  I've added six new hostas this year, bought bareroot in a bag from Costco.  They have to start from scratch every season.  You'd think I'd come up with something different since our growing season is so short.  Last week we had to put our hanging baskets in the garage so they wouldn't freeze and this week we're working overtime to keep everything watered in 90-degree days.  

I was given these iris about three years ago and they finally bloomed - worth the wait!

Ian moved the tomato pots from the back deck to the edge of the RV pad where they'll get full sun all day.  The blue things are Walls of Water, needed protection against late frost.  We've lost a plant or two every year but so far everything looks good.  That bright apple green area was barren dirt but about a month ago Ian spread some clover seed and covered it with mulch.  It looks great!

Our resident rabbit approves.  With his help we may not need to mow.

Every year we tackle some overgrown area and try to make it pretty.  This was a bear, pulling out everything including some raspberries that we regret planting.  They've encroached everywhere and I don't even like raspberries.  I bought some wildflower seed from Wilco that's specific to the PNW.  We covered it with a bag and a half of mulch and already we're seeing sprouts.  Supposedly the annuals will bloom this year and next year we're get flowers from the perennials.   

This is an AeroGarden that is a system for sprouting seeds in the house that we bought about 10 days ago.  Neither one of us has had any successful with sowing from seed.  Our friend Kathi bought two of these and said they ate from it all winter.  So far only the basil is growing.  It will be ready to set out just about the time the summer weather is in full swing.

The large field behind our house was brought inside the urban growth boundary the year after we moved in, a sure sign that development was coming.  The new high school where I'm standing is completed and will open this fall.  This area of the field is where development is starting.  The trees are coming down and excavators are rehabilitating the landscape.  This is volcanic country so the excavators have their hands full blasting and removing rock.  There are 43 acres in all, including a park and businesses.  I hope that includes a coffee shop!

Meanwhile, this is what's at the end of our street.  Its construction on the sewer extension for the new development.  We knew all of this was coming but that doesn't make me have to like it.

Our neighbor watches their grandson Jasper on Fridays.  He's three months younger than Delaney and the two have come to be friends.  Jasper goes to daycare a couple days a week so has other children to play with but this is it for Delaney.  I love watching them together.  Delaney's mommy knows to come next door when she picks Delaney up.  Next Friday we'll picking Alexia up in Lakeview and bring her home for the rest of the summer, so we'll have two granddaughters!!