Catching Up

Charlie loves the kennel where we keep him. James bought a new kitty tree for the feline area that Charlie adores so much that I've been looking for one online. But more than anything, Charlie loves his own home. I didn't pick him up until Tuesday, and he dissolved into the covers of our bed, which he normally thumbs his paw at.
We got a phone call late Wednes-
day from Carol, neighbor on the hill above us. They'd just gotten home from town and noticed a box at our gate. It was this gorgeous basket from grandson John's parents in Massachusetts, plum full of crazy good things. We have already brewed and consumed the coffee and trying to figure out how to get more.
The actual basket is a real-deal. There's not a staple in the construc-
tion. I'm going to do a craft fair in November, so conscripted it for that weekend. Chrissie can have have the rest of the foodies - oops. I think we may have reduced her selection.

I said I was done knitting felted bags, but with an eye to this craft fair, I decided to dye up some yarn yesterday in shades of purple. I love the idea that you can put four skeins from different sheep in one pot and get four colors.


These are the four skeins that I put into the pot. From left to right: gray Lincoln, Border Leicester blend (ewe named Blondie), Brown lusterlong wool cross and Lincoln/Border Leicester cross - that last was an award winning 12 pound! fleece at Black Sheep Gathering that I split with a friend.
These are the purples that I got and now I've decided to do the same with maybe olive or golds. It's all speculation - craft fair projects, well yeah, as is random dying.

Meanwhile, Ian and I both spent the day in town. I had my library book club just after lunch. Afterward, I bit the bullet and spent two hours bra shopping - tedious and excruciating. It was 5:00 and I hadn't eaten since breakfast. While gassing up at Costco, my dear friend Michelle cruised into the next bay. She was on her way to a guitar lesson and had just gotten a text message from her teacher that he was running behind. We ended up having an evening meal at Qdobas and spent an hour on catch up. I cannot tell you how sweet that hour was.

Meanwhile, I got home at 7:00 to starving dogs and no Ian. His day was crazy full, including a lunch with a wonderful mutual friend of ours and Michelle's, and he ended up in a meeting with our union. He's been hired for the legislative session and the unexpected income is paying for us to visit New York. It was pretty out of the blue, but on faith, Ian booked a flight a couple of days ago.

I told my book club I wouldn't be there next month and why, so the next order of business was what plays we should see. I think we're leaning toward the South Pacific reprise. But hey, we just booked our flight day before yesterday. Ian was trying to get reservations this evening at Jonathon Waxman's restaurant for my birthday, but they're booked into November! I have one meal in my must category and that's Yonah Shimmel's. It's on East Houston Street and totally out of the way - whatever.

Pottery

Joe said that 11:00 Sunday morning would be a good time for us to come to his studio and that he would again do a demonstration for us. Amy is directing him in the pie plate of her dreams. He is an artist who makes a living at his art, but with the downturn in the economy, has had to return to the weekend farmer's market venue and confessed to me that after all my nagging for years about pie plates, they're among his best sellers.
Amy and I have told Joe that we like a deep dish pie plate with a 7" base, so he's measuring that with his hands. She asked for a little more depth and then for a flat edge to crimp her crust on. He's already heard this from me.

Joe had already done a teapot that Lexie directed and asked me if there was something else we'd like to see in demonstration. I am a huge fan of what he calls a flounder vase so he's throwing one here.
I am always amazed at how the cone of clay takes form. The pile of clay for Amy's pie plate started in the same form at the pile of clay for his flounder vase. The cylinder now becomes a vase.
Joe put a fan on the green piece for about ten minutes to partially dry it and then set it on this stand so he can form it into the shape he wants.
Joe's wife, Shiho, is also a potter who works in the hand-built tradtion. All these surface designs on his flounder vases are hers, as well as the wonderful little boxes and wall vases below.
Joe is brilliant with the children, all cousins. I've been here during adult classes and can tell you that he's a born teacher. He gives the kids some clay and direction and you can see how they take to it.

Some cousins were still working on their creations using extra water to keep the clay alive. They ended up with clay up to their armpits and had to be hosed down. Notice the Jenga game stacked and ready in the background. After clay, these munchkins turned those Jenga pieces into dominoes and laid out track, after track, after track before the pieces were finally reclaimed by the adults. Petie commented on a morning walk that the kids were totally entertained by wood and mud.
DS Matt, Julia and Alexia are looking at the recently-out-of-the-kiln stuff. I feel fortunate to have a potter right next door. Years ago we visited a pottery studio in Oregon and I commented that I didn't know why I was buying pottery when had a perfectly good potter right next door. The guy asked me who I was referring to, and exuberantly said - Whoa. I know Joe Winter. He works big. Joe works big.

Our grandson Noah and Joe's daughter Hiroka have visited enough to have a tentative friendship and now Noah going back to San Francisco - a poignant moment for four-year-olds.

Giant Jenga

My oldest stepson Dougie is a cop with the San Diego PD and has been riding a mountain bike on beach patrol all summer. He says you know which house is having the coolest party by how many people are standing on the beach, watching. That's where he got the idea for giant Jenga. He went into town for more ice - we spent so much $$$ on ice - and came home with 2 x 4 lumber in the back of his truck. They set up production, cutting into 12" pieces and sanding. Everyone was sanding, even the children.
Jenga games were set up and tested throughout the day. The children set up the first game, followed by several games inside the third bay of the garage. It was slow to take hold, but by the time our neighbors stopped by in the afternoon, Jenga was on the ajenda - hah! This game is already about half way and players just jumped in, unable to resist until a rotation was in order - there seemed to be about five in a game.

Megan is taking a turn, next to DS Josh. They are stepsibs on my ex-
husbands side. She, her husband and three kids and mom were out on Sunday. Life is too short not to embrace the family you've been dealt. I think that's pretty much the consensus here.
Joe's turn. You can see how precarious it gets the longer the game goes. Plus, we're getting some of the Washoe Zephyr breeze effect swirling back into the garage, even though the door opens to the east.

And now it's DS Josh's turn. If you're unfamiliar with Jenga, the rules state that you can only use one hand for the maneuver, which is fine for the table-top version. It's much more difficult with with the weight at this size.

And many turns later, Megan is up again. This is a great spectator sport, just as Dougie had noticed. Everyone gets engaged - how can they not?! To the very left, in the gray t-shirt, I notice that Shiho is talking to Chris, in the yellow t-shirt in ASL. Chris is profoundly hearing impaired and while we converse on Facebook, I'm now learning ASL myself. Shiho hardly speaks English and can talk to Chris. She has shamed me into action.
Always in Jenga, there comes the moment when the balance is unsus-
tainable. She still only gets to use one hand and is trying to stabilize the stack, which is taking on the appearance of a spinal cord.

The 4th Annual Gathering

In spite of my shingles, the weekend went off without a hitch. We had 28 for the Friday night spaghetti feed which was followed by the traditional dice game. A number of us elected to be the peanut gallery as it's not so much fun with more than eight players. Yolanda (in the red) won the game and chalked it up to beginners luck. This is her first year. She's Ian's ex-wife, mother of his four children. She and her boyfriend of some 20 years came and camped with us this year.

My oldest grandson John flew out from Massachu-
setts with his girlfriend Shannon. The kids had the scare of their life. Their plane was struck by lightning after their layover in Chicago and on the assent. John said it struck the nose of the plane, the cabin filled with bright white light and the plane shuddered frighteningly. The pilot turned the craft around sharply and landed, deplaning all the passengers because the plane was broken. It's Shannon's first time out of the state - how scary!
John and his Uncle Matt had an instant rapport last year and spent a lot of time together again this year. All weekend long someone would comment on how they couldn't get over their strong resemblance and that they act so much alike. If you're unfamiliar with John's story, I blogged about it here.
Lexie spent all weekend working on double hoola hoops until she finally got it. Someone drove over the smaller one but she made it work anyway.
We had thirteen children on Sunday and where you have boys and dirt and trucks, you get this. If you can't tell, our high energy dogs are exhausted. The boys spent a considerable while sliding down the bank on their seats. That attraction is timeless!
Petie brought his banjo again this year. He follows bluegrass festivals throughout the summer months, including Rockygrass and Telluride but has given up the Strawberry Festival, also this weekend, to spend it with us. He and Ian went to community college together! He comes early to help us set up and stays late to help us clean up. He worried that he had overstayed his welcome and I told him that wasn't going to happen!

This is the picture that my stepdaughter Margi was staging to catch all seven step-sibs and their partners. I jumped in it and looking at my Prednisone bloated body, certainly wish I had rethought. No one wanted to pose and there was a lot of grumbling, but I wish we could have gone further and brought in the grandchildren. John and Shannon had already flown out by this time. Next year we'll plan pictures in advance and use a tripod.

The doctor blasted my shingles with Prednisone at nine tablets a day. I'm down to two twice a day today and one a day starting tomorrow. I couldn't sleep all weekend and everything was so funny. I kept wondering if I was having a nervous breakdown. You dropped your plate in the dirt? HaHaHa. The dog ate your burger? HaHaHa. After everyone left, I looked Prednisone on my favorite medical advice website which represents The National Library of Medicine and NIH to mention a few. The first two side effects of Prednisone are "inability to fall asleep and stay asleep" and the second was "inappropriate happy moods." Phew - they were side effects. I am NOT having a nervous breakdown.

As for the extent of the shingles, I am fortunate that it was my C5 nerve affected, so the lesions are limited to my right neck and shoulder area. As the lesions have started to scab finally, I notice that they form a scab platelet and I wonder if it's this appearance that have given the syndrome it's name. A couple of FYIs I've since learned - you can't catch shingles from shingles, but if you've never had chicken pox, you can catch those from shingles. And, a very cool bit of information, if you are over 60, there's a shingles shot available so you don't catch them at all. The doc says that the stress of worrying over Ian's illness made me vulnerable. They're not fun, wherever you get them, but it could have been so much worse! Thanks for your expressed concerns and well wishes. I'm mostly reading and knitting these days. Wait! How is that a bad thing???

State of My State

Between demon-
strating at the Nevada County Fair and the long guild meeting in August, I was able to get this lace-weight skein finished and dyed. I only have two gift knitting deadlines left and then I get to start thinking about my next projects. BTW, someone asked where my bolero pattern came from. It was Catwalk 2 by Noro yarns. I was so impressed by the instructions that I'm pretty sure my next sweater will be from that book.

My friend Judi was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer two years ago. I want to give her this scarf in October for breast cancer awareness month, to celebrate her life and that she still has one, though I'm not going to put in those terms. I laid the skein in the dye bath and let it take up color without stirring. I am absolutely thrilled at the watercolor wash effect. The knitted vegetable birthday comes first but I cannot wait to pour my attention on this. It is such a rewarding project.
We seem to be in a season of not-up-to-par. For my Scandin-
avian friends, that's a golfing term for below average. Eddie was clearly in pain last month and was diagnosed with double ear infections. It was discovered at the same time that his liver was functioning poorly and after a month of $$$ treatment, his blood tests yesterday showed improvement. He's feeling pretty smart these days and is back to barking at cars.
And when we took his lordship, Sir Himself, in for his shots - he has to be kenneled this weekend for the gathering- our vet noted that he last weight in at nine pounds and now only weighted seven pounds. She put him on a special diet which includes delicious kitty food - he's loving it. He also has to be pilled twice of day - none of our loving it. He still feels just as entitled as ever. Sammie, our adopted lab is fine and Ian has recovered.

That leaves just one - me. I went to the doc this morning for the infected insect bites I got at the fair last week. The bad news is that it's shingles and the good news is that I got into his office within the 72-hour window for antivirual drugs to be effect. I'm feeling just a little cranky about the whole thing. I have three prescriptions and the imperative to rest, rest, rest. Hmmm, that should be interesting since we have a boat load of guests arriving this weekend. Oh, and I'm contagious so in order to protect my guests, I have to swaddle myself in clothes - in summer.

Surprises

I drove over to Mim's today to pick up my stuff from the fair and to take her the dowels from her loom that got left in our garage. I was surprised that my skeins got ribbons at all since I forgot to make swatches. Amy just rolls her eyes at me. It's not the first time I've forgotten - it's embarrassing. My Navajo-plied silk got a blue ribbon and I didn't even have the required fiber sample to go with it. I couldn't attend the judging so don't know if that was the only skein in the category or what. She said nice things about it in the notes.

This was the most compe-
tition in the knitting category in years. I was a little anxious for my sweater. Best in division went to a lace scarf, knit by our shearer, a 23-year-old young man who has fallen in love with all things fiber. Cool! I've been cleaning house, but I love the fit of the sweater so this is the look for today - guess I could have cropped the photo.
This is all the yarn that I had left over. The closer I got to the end of the sweater, the more nervous I got. I cut the sleeves short by a couple of rows, and I would have safe knitting the pattern as written. I had something like nine yards of the brown merino leftover - thanks Benita!
I'm especially thrilled with the button. Since there's only one, I was anxious to find a perfect button. After KIP coffee Saturday, Amy met me at Junkees to sift through their mammoth vintage button collection. There were two of this button and she encouraged me to buy them both for insurance. It's perfect, stripes and all.
We had an unex-
pected surprise - I suppose that's redundant. We ordered our wood months ago but poor Alan was having mechanical problems on all his equipment. He sells hay and wood and couldn't deliver either. Finally Sunday morning he called to say he was coming. I passed him on my way to church. He brought it on pallets in his dump truck, and when he dumped it, the wood stayed on the pallets. We don't have to stack!! Isn't that the greatest of surprises??!
I've been knitting a cucumber this evening from the Amigu-
rumi Knits book. The patterns were intimi-
dating to me at first, but the instructions in the front of the book are completely clear and now I've started to have fun. I've started with the most simple project. I just learned that amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Now we both know.

Harumph

I began this day as I begin all days, with my spinning wheel and two cups of coffee. I decided it was time to finally change out my old fast flier for the new one I bought at Black Sheep in June. The groove in mine just keeps getting deeper. I also thought it was time to trade out the wire guide that was wearing and catching fiber for one of the three new ones I bought at the same time. Mind you, these are all Lendrum parts. My current guide is on the left. Do you notice anything? Like none of them are the same size, which means they all too big to clear the mother-of-all. They don't even make one rotation. I am so disgusted. I'm sending this picture to the vendor I bought these guides from. I realize they don't make them - they just sell them, but these are unworkable.
Not much fibering going on here, though I finally have my reassigned sweater ready for it's new life. I think this looks more like it might have been a sweater than my photo of balls. It was a day of cleaning - half of the floors are washed and waxed. I'm not trying to show off a clean house for the gathering this weekend, I'm trying to protect what's left my wood floors.
I'll finish the floors tomorrow, but tonight I was pooped so got back to work on knitting vegetables for my grand-niece's upcoming birthday. They're easy enough to knit, I just need the time. Our first guest rolls in on Wednesday. We're fixin' to get ready and howdy!

Rug Wrestling

I reached the point yesterday where I could finally call an end to this project. I had sliced up 15 pairs of jeans to get to this point. I struggled to get enough tension on this rug, something I hadn't experienced with the rag rugs. Denim is another medium.
I unrolled this unwieldy monster. It was so difficult to manage from here on out and hemming it was a an ordeal. Weaving with denim is not the same as weaving with cotton - I know they're both cotton. You know what I mean.
Buster and Charlie had to give their stamp of approval. I washed it first and the lint was so serious that I know I can't wash it again. Part of the problem is that I couldn't get the tension this rug needed with my jack loom. It's the first time I realized the limitations of a rising shed loom. Yes. You do need a sinking shed loom to weave rugs. I want one but don't have room or money for one. That's that. I didn't like working with denim anyway, so there.

We celebrated Alexia's 6th birthday today.