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.

Changing Seasons

I'm attending an evening session of beginning tai chi and like to go to the school early so I can watch the Washu kids.  Washu is a form of martial arts and these are the beginning students.  They're fun to watch and it's encouraging to me.

Master Chen is teaching more than martial arts.  He talks to them about body, mind and spirit.  Neither Ian nor I ever anticipated that tai chi would become such a large part of our lives when we signed up last January for the five-week introductory class through the community class.  Interest is growing and last week was the beginning of COCC's fall five-week session.  The classes are packed!

 I had never seen vine maple before we moved here and these beauties are everywhere.  Our yard is filled with color and migrating birds. This week marks our first anniversary in this house.

Temperatures are still pretty moderate and since we haven't had a hard frost yet our yard is still in the changing over stage, different trees and shrubs are losing their leaves at different rates.  Our huge aspen tree is just beginning to turn but our red maple has lost all it's leaves. And that shrink-wrapped stuff on palettes is our firewood.  The guy we bought it from brought it in from the road on a forklift.  No cutting and stacking for us this year!

These trees belong to a neighbor down the street.  He's going to have a lot of leaves to rake and I'm so glad it's him and not us!  We have plenty already but Ian is trying to do a little at a time to keep up.

The towels are finished and I'm never repeating this colorway again.  It's the last project and with a few housekeeping items, I'm ready for the holiday sale in two weeks.  It's a first-time event.  I'm sharing booth space with two other weavers and have no idea how we'll even set up.  I'm looking at it as a trial run for next year.

This is Ponderosa Elementary School and it's where I've been assigned as a volunteer with Smart (Start Making a Reader Today).  Thursday was my first day and I'm assigned two kinders to read with for the rest of the school year.  All the volunteers went through orientation the previous week but even so the first day was chaotic.  Once a month all the students receive a free book to keep and the October book happened to be that same day - excitement!  The program is 25-years old and has proven to improve reading skills by the third grade.  It's a combination of reading, talking about the book and developing critical thinking skills.  One of my students was an excellent listener and the other has a ways to go. DIL Missy suggested it to me and I love it already.

This is how we vote in Oregon.  Ian filled his out and took it to the mailbox right after breakfast yesterday morning.  I did mine just before lunch and set it on the counter.  Ian headed off the mailbox with mine and I said, hold on a minute Buster Brown.  I'm going to cast my own ballot, thank you very much.  It's nice not to have to go to a polling place but I still want the experience of casting my *own* vote.

And I'm finally knitting again with enthusiasm.  I bought a cone of Bartlett Yarn last spring but never found the perfect pattern.  I spent some time on Ravelry earlier this week using really tight parameters and finally found exactly the cardigan I'd like to wear.  It's not the knitting that's a problem, it's finding something that I will actually wear and enjoy.  The pattern had a link to Interweave and a magazine called Love of Knitting which I bought for $6.99 and downloaded.  I've never heard of this magazine but it had several patterns that caught my eye that might translate into later projects.  It feels good to knit - I've missed it.