last week in Duvall

the kids taught me to play their lego rock band video game. they have drums, bass and guitar to go with this game. they gave me some kind of sketchy instructions, handed me the bass, helped me pick out and construct my band member self, and i became one bad ass rockin' gramma in no time at all! Alex went crazy on the drums and Zylie had the mic, though i couldn't hear her at all over Alex's "performance"! it was wild and crazy fun!

Lego Rock Band

more or less

it's always kind of daunting to get back to the blog after 2 weeks... esp. when i actually DID something away from home (i don't get out much, ya know). so, i'll just jump in even though it may all turn out in jumbled fashion.

took amtrak to Seattle last Wed and Kate picked me up at the station. one stop on the way to duvall to get patches for Z's brownie uniform. for dinner that night Chris and Alex fixed up a luscious salad... tho you can't see it, there is romaine lettuce under there. also grilled some chicken. Z wanted to know just who it was and was reassured to know it was not from their little flock of chickens. that didn't make it "right" to be eating something that had once been living, but it was not one she knew.

one of the first things i did was admire all the fabulous dyed fibers and Kate's newest "toy"... an electric skein winder! even got to use it while i was there!

a new fiber that Kate has been dyeing is BFL blended with tussah silk... and what a lovely blend that is. shiny and soft and spins like buttah and i love it! lucky me! she shared some with me. and i think it will probably work well with my next project (the Kaffe Fasset "Poppy" vest or sweater).

and good news while i was there... Chris accepted a job offer with Clearwire and starts march 1. i think this is a little bit bitter-sweet, as he seems to have enjoyed being at home the past 9 months and has gotten really involved in the running of the fiber business, besides having all kinds of time to do stuff with the kids.

sunny day!

not a very common happening in february, but on tuesday it was a warm and sunny day. on my way out to the greenhouse, i spotted these tiny flower sproutlets that had started from a seed head of one of my fave flowers of last summer. (don't remember its name)

in december Jim had planted salad greens in the greenhouse.... which is not temp controlled and is covered in clear plastic and not really weather proofed. then came snow and several days of temps in the teens. we hadn't gone back to check on the progress as we just assumed that no baby plant would survive that. wrong!!! although many had not made it thru freeze and no watering, some were alive and thriving! what a surprise!

i'm glad now that we neglected the end-of-season cleaning up of the garden. there is a beauty in those old seed heads on the dead flowers.

a self-seeded poppy and more of those tiny plantlets.

another seed head with sprouts growing in it. that one is going to the greenhouse and we'll see what it produces.

this one, too..... altho it might be queen anne's lace, which is an abundant weed.

you can see what a bright and clear day it was.... sigh...

and then the reality of winter. i think it's name is hellebore, also called december rose. but i did feel the promise of spring that day... and it made me happy.

must remember...

what Oliver Wendell Holmes said - "old age is 15 years older than i am". isn't that the truth??

ponder this..

"Today's topics put me in mind of the dyslexic agnostic who spent way too much time pondering whether there really is a dog." (source unknown to me)

the beginning of a new knitting project - gathering of the yarn needed to make a vest. this will be "Persian Poppy" from an old Kaffe Fassett book, Glorious Knits. i tried my best to scan a photo from the book, but for some unknown reason the computer and scanner are all of a sudden not working together. i uninstalled the driver and re-installed it to no avail. guess i'll need to take my computer to the cafe in Banks which has wireless and download some updates or something. the celery colored yarn will be the background main color and i need to dye some more in soft greens and golds. the poppies will be all those other colors. there's a lot of handspun here with some handdyed commercial yarns. when i can get a photo of the vest, i'll post it. i have high hopes for this project and am committed to following the pattern all the way thru, without going off on some harebrained variation of my own. i know i can't possibly get bored with knitting this!

MSNBC had a special tonight with video of the Pres taking on the House and all their hostility. he's amazing and it's good to see him taking them on and challenging their "facts".

a very fibery day

the sun was shining! the temp was in the 50's! that spells perfect for some dyeing time in my studio. i had a pound of BFL in white with loosely blended brown in it and this stuff dyes up beautifully with so much depth to the darker reds, turquoises, purples... etc. - really fabulous! and i have some superwash BFL soaking now to dye tomorrow.

also, got inspired to make a run at the mass of snarl and mess which is my yarn stash. not sure what exactly inspired me except i'm wanting to find enough yarn of the same weight and in compatible colors to try out one of the many ideas in the new Kristin Nicholas book i just got, the title of which i can't remember, but is chock full of good stuff. it was unbelievable the number of baggies on the shelf with 2 or 3 balls of yarn, all of which now have a place in a basket with sort of similar type yarns.

the little bag in the photo here came about because of the new Homespun Handknit book. there is a pattern for a bag which is knit from the bottom up, starting with a square, and is something i'd not tried... and i like doing it that way. after the bottom part was done i just did the rest on my own as i wasn't crazy about how theirs looked. the bag is pictured on some roving i found in fiber stash diving recently. i'd forgotten how much i liked spinning the roving that came off the (since sold) Pat Green cottage industry carder. Lynne and i used to spend hours standing at the carder making gorgeous blends from a variety of colors and fibers.... mmmm - wool, alpaca, mohair curls, angora, silk... sigh! wishing i still had that carder! but the dumbest damn thing i did was selling my motorized Duncan carder. i must have had a huge fit of "i don't use this enough to justify keeping it", and there have been so many times since then that i've wished i'd kept it. must admit to looking at various sales lists in hopes of finding another one..... ah well, c'est la vie, Archie.

how do i get thru these grey, rainy, gloomy, rainy, windy, sometimes cold, grey days of winter in the pacific northwest? i go to Trader Joe's and get a beautiful bunch of flowers for 4 bucks, and maybe a bottle of 2-buck-Chuck. and i pull out bright, happy fabrics and spend hours lookin' at them and planning the next

project. then there's the wall o' yarn which yields many sunny choices! hmmm - there seems to be a theme here for helping me keep my sometimes tenuous grip on sanity and socially acceptable attitude.

it is fascinating the effect color has on my attitude and coping-with-winter ability. i can feel a palpable lift on a grey day when i pull out bright colored yarn, fiber or fabric.... or better yet, go to my studio and pour bright colors on white fiber... and all this is SO much cheaper and more fun than mental health therapy. perfect day = something colorful to work on, good music or a good book to listen to and chocolate! possibly this is all a bit simplistic and pollyannaish, but there are days when all i want is a way to feel happy and not think about the grim realities and meanness of the world. it's like looking for that feeling of peace that comes with cuddling a baby or snuggling a puppy. for today, you can call me pollyanna if you wish... i'll enjoy the simple gifts and try to hold on for spring and sunny days!

Keshy Jacket

just finished this jacket and am very pleased with how it turned out! i pieced the top with asian type fabric from my insanely abundant fabric stash, also using dupioni silk (from the stash, of course). the green to brown varigated fabric looked good with it, so that's the back, sleeves and bottom of the fronts. the pattern is called "Keshy Jacket" and was so simple and fun to make that i just might make another one! sometimes i do wonder if this stash enhancing i do is a serious character flaw. the tendency seems to manifest in all the creative areas of my life... beads, fiber, yarn, stamps, buttons, fabric, books. i'll stop with that before it think of something else. with the quilting/sewing it sure does come in handy tho, because instead of rushing out to the fabric store when i want to quilt i can just "go shopping" in my stash. i love it! so if it's a character flaw... so be it. it makes me happy and brings no harm to anyone else.. so, i'm keepin' it!

pretty good day so far... no rain, no wind, so i did a shopping run. also, went by local credit union to open new accounts there and will soon close out the accounts with my too-big-to-fail bank. i don't like that they use my tax money to award million dollar bonuses to people who already make million dollar salaries. that's just not right!

quote

this is from Mary Anne Radmacher called "living eulogy"

"she danced. she sang. she took. she gave, served and loved. she risked and created. she saw, sweated, changed and learned. she laughed. she shed her skin. she bled on the pages of her days. she lived with intention."

sunrise!

wow! i just might try getting up before sunrise again sometime... it was really pretty awesome! looks like a mighty fire in the vineyard and of course a mere photo image does not do it justice.

Bucket list #7 - i want to meet the Dalai Lama. i attended one of his teachings in India and heard him speak in portland, and i want to actually meet him!

bucket list

rather than make new year's resolutions, which i don't do anymore because i never did keep them, so why bother in the first place, i will instead start my bucket list

... my bucket list will be filled with things i want to do before i kick the bucket, which is of course inevitable but i'm hoping is not about to happen any time soon.

(these are in no particular order)

1 - sky diving. yes, me jumping out of an airplane which is way high up in the air, with a parachute.

2 - travel some more ... to places i haven't seen yet. to Spain, Japan, Falkland Islands (will add more as the fever strikes)

3 - learn to speak Greek well enough to put a sentence together with all its parts and in the proper tense.

4 - knit something that actually fits (me or someone else) because i planned it out before starting and didn't change those plans mid-stream.

5 - ice skate in Rockefeller Center.

6 - live in Crete for a year.

there's more ideas floating around in my brain. just need to grab 'em and formulate them. so, the bucket list is a work in progress... more to come.

i just checked the weather in Hania, Crete. it's 64F and sunny and will be in the 70s this week.

i would really really enjoy that!

finished projects

amongst all the other goings on, i have managed to finish a couple of lingering knitting projects. i put a lot of angora yarns into the mitts and made the thumbs extra long for added warmth and comfort!

the good and the bad

and the snow experience was ugly!!! good news is the Apple store replaced the whole complete keyboard on my macbook and as a "one time courtesy" they did it for free! ($186.56 worth!) going to that mall was like going into hell for me, as i hate everything about malls... the full parking lots, mobs of people, strange lighting that hurts my eyes, and while i was there snowing started and went on and on and on... totally un-predicted by those weather people on the tv. and as much as i love my Prius and it's excellent gas mileage, i miss my pick-up truck with it's 4WD and standard transmission on a day like this. no choice but to head home (20+ miles) thru heavy snow comin' down and fast accumulating on the freeway. by the time i got to Banks, i'd seen a few cars in ditches and could feel the road getting slick, so i pulled into the parking lot at the market in Banks and called Jim.... several times, getting only answering machine and making a pitiful request for him to come and get me. he did!! he was actually out looking for me! (twice a hero in one week!) his little Nissan pickup has snow tires and extra weight in the back and we made it up the hills to home with little problem. snow tires for the Prius cost $400... money which is just not available right now. seems to be warming up a bit now. i can hear the snow sliding off the roof, which is metal. the sound is weird and eerie sliding down the dome, but means the snow on the ground won't last long. til it's gone i'll be staying home! i'm such a weather weenie!

all's well.. etc

The family dinner on Sat. was quite successful... actually, fabulous! family plus some friends came, drank wine, talked, opened gifts, ate lots, had fun! and the oven came to life early that morning. Jim went before dawn to an Amana parts store, got the replacement part and was home and had it installed in plenty of time to put the huge turkey in the oven at 11a.m. He earned huge hero points! note to self: when trying to decide how big a turkey to get for 20 people, check off the people who don't eat meat and also the small people who eat very little, especially at a big gathering where they'd rather chase their cousins around than sit still for eating! there were 5 small people and 3 vegetarians. and this means that there is a lot of a 23 pound turkey left, even after sending as much as i could to other people's homes.

the keyboard keys are getting harder and harder to depress, and i have an appointment tomorrow at the Apple store to meet with the "genius" (their label) to see what they can do. i'd much rather go to the Mac store (they are nicer to me, are closer and are not located in the biggest mall on the west side), but they said that Apple does not allow them to disassemble keyboards. as much as ihate big malls, i will take advantage of being there and see if i can find a glass tea pot on sale. i need one so that i can enjoy the flowering teas i got. small pleasures and all that!

it was a fun party, but i gotta say i was beyond exhausted by the end!

ohhhh no

and how special is that? ... my oven laid down and died today. yes, the very oven in which i'd been planning to roast a 22 pound turkey on saturday. the very oven in which i would bake a greek potato, olives and feta dish on friday, and an eggplant and zucchini dish on friday, so they'd be ready to heat up in the microwave on saturday while the turkey roasted in that oven. Jim figured out that it's the temp. sensor that went whacko and he called around to several amana parts places. they are all closed tomorrow (thursday) and there is one place way way over on the east side which might have the part available at 8a.m. on saturday. so, he could conceivably get the part and be back about 10a.m. and if he could figure out how to install the new part and do it by 11a.m., i could conceivably get a turkey roasted before family and guests (18 or 20 of 'em) are ready to eat. as a back up, the nearest neighbor is leaving town tomorrow at 11a.m., so will show me how her oven works before she goes and if i have to i can truck on over with my turkey on saturday. damn i hate complications. and besides that my keyboard is only just barely working because my grandboy knocked over my FULL drink onto my computer last week and the keys are very difficult to depress, which depresses me. and this was NOT the week to take it in to the mac store because that involves a long drive to the mall where the store is located, and that is a mall from hell any day of the week, but the week of xmas is likely to be more than i can bear without tipping right on over the edge. and i'm fully aware that my small travails compare to a grain of sand in the whole scheme of things in the world. guess i just need to rant because i am so pissed off at what is happening in congress right now with the health care reform or lack thereof. seems to me they are ignoring the priorities and needs of the people who sent them there. and tho i could turn this into a really big rant, i won't because it's late and i need to get happier thoughts in my brain before i go to bed.

Winter Solstice

Rejoicing in the return of the light! and wishing everyone a bright and joyous winter solstice.

back tonight from a short visit with the Duvall branch of the clan.

this photo is of Sunshine the fierce guard rooster and a watchful and handsome force to be reckoned with he is! sadly, his watch was down last week and a huge hawk got away with one of the hens, but previous to that he had stood his ground against a bobcat and was the winnah! he's gone a bit too far, tho, in trying to protect his flock from the humans and has met with the broom more than once. and this dude does look fierce when he is on the attack! Alex says that one of the hens, Sassy, is Sunshine's minion because she gives him a ride on her back pretty often.

Zylie came up with another beauty of a "Zylie-ism", over which i am still laughing. she was quietly playing a game, and everyone else in the room was occupied with their own thing. then, in a quiet, serious voice she came up with "Daddy, i think there's something wrong with my sense of smell.... i farted 3 times and didn't smell a thing". she got no comment on this... Chris and i were just too busted up over it to utter a word!

and now i'll spend some time getting ready to welcome back the light on monday and to have a gathering of the clan for a big dinner on saturday!

music

yesterday was a GOOD music day for me! listened to Prairie Home Companion while i was quilting, and the featured guest was YoYo Ma. the whole show was good, with some great xmas satire. Then in the evening i was able to banish my bah humbug scroogitude for a couple of hours. normally, the traditional xmas music is ok the 1st, 2nd... maybe 3rd time i hear it during this season, then i feel unpleasantly overfed with it! too damn much. but, however... last night Andrea Bocelli, the Italian tenor, had a program on PBS which was beautiful. very diversified guests with him... Reba McIntyre, Natalie Cole, the Muppets (!) and i always love Miss Piggy esp. when she is swooning all over a handsome tenor. anyway, the program was lovely and i could have listened to Andrea Bocelli all night! it put me in a very peaceful and mellow mood. no surprise that several of his CDs are now on my wish list!

it's cozy

hey!! it's a tea cozy!

b-r-r-r-r-r

yep... i know wintery weather has hit hard in many sections of the country, but to have 12F and 16F at night here all this week, in the rainy and mild pacific northwest just isn't normal and may be totally illegal! (like run-on sentences? i'm sure i'll have more). it is, in fact cold enough to freeze a witch's brass monkey. no kidding.... i'm worried about all the little birds as i've put out their fave black oil sunflower seeds in several feeders and they aren't empty yet. in fact, other than for about an hour yesterday when they made a mass attack on the feeders, they haven't been around. i wonder where they go when the below freezing temps are sustained for days in a row. maybe they huddle up together somewhere and try to wait it out.

it's very very very cold here! but wait... a bit of warming is on the way, starting with freezing rain and snow beginning tonight. oh, joy.....

long nights.....

long dark cold winter nights! feeling like it's time to start preparing to celebrate the Winter Solstice (in 16 days). bring on the candles and green boughs.... bonfire and dancing!

devil sheep

living dangerously on the island of Crete, Greece

(thanks, Tracy!)

your list

for spinners/knitters... here's something for your wishlist: "all new Homespun Handknit" from Interweave Press, by Amy Clarke Moore. it has some really sweet projects in it, several of which i have already bookmarked!... quick and easy, down and dirty.. my kind of projects. seriously, i really like this book and i have absolutely no connection with this book or any hope of financial gain. just sayin' i like the book. i have the original of this book published umpty years ago and used it a lot... this one's better.

a definition

rogue |rōg|

noun

1 a dishonest or unprincipled man : you are a rogue and an embezzler.

• a person whose behavior one disapproves of but who is nonetheless likable or attractive (often used as a playful term of reproof) : Cenzo, you old rogue!

2 [usu. as adj. ] an elephant or other large wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies : a rogue elephant.

• a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way : he hacked into data and ran rogue programs.

• an inferior or defective specimen among many satisfactory ones, esp. a seedling or plant deviating from the standard variety.

verb [ trans. ]

remove inferior or defective plants or seedlings from (a crop).

ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (denoting an idle vagrant): probably from Latin rogare ‘beg, ask,’ and related to obsolete slang roger[vagrant beggar] (many such cant terms were introduced toward the middle of the 16th cent.).

**** ETA

if you were going to use this word in the title of your book, do you think you might check the definition just to be sure it says what you want it to say???... or, maybe she did?

catching up

busy week.... Kate came down tuesday and i didn't go to the fiber-heaven warehouse with her, showing amazing restraint! Wed. we went to NW Wools so she could talk to Linda about a custom dyeing order, then to lunch, then to clinic to take care of my headcold which went rogue and became pneumonia.... better living thru chemistry with antibiotics and prednisone and oh, yeah, the cough syrup! then Chris and kids came down and we had bd dinner for Kate at the chinese restaurant in Banks, with her family joining in! tgiving feast at Jen and Maggie's with most of the tribe there... great dinner and amazing desserts! Kate went back on friday with the kids and Chris stayed to make raki with Jim... good job! i just laid around and coughed... and behold... today on day 5 of prednisone, it has finally kicked in and i'm now at last feeling way much better than a sack o' dog mess. in fact, headed out soon for a round of shopping (not for gifts... this is household essentials like coffee, bread and juice)

while in Crete, Kate and i found a wonderful shop with linens and i got this table runner. it's linen with embroidered ribbon flowers and is really beautiful. nice thing about a table runner is it's less likely to get food and wine spilled on it, thus avoiding frequent washings... a good thing.

a couple of weeks ago, i picked these flowers from my garden. gotta love the mild PNW weather. not much left now tho... too much rain. but here's the photos to keep the vision alive!

the pitcher is one of my faves and was a huge bargain at good will... like $5.

mitts for Zylie

i did manage to do a little (very little) knitting while in Crete. happened to have some bright and pretty BFL yarn and decided to knit mitts for Zylie and used a different approach since i wasn't sure how many sts. to cast on. made 'em flat, then made a gusset thing from wrist to thumb to make them fit, left a place for the thumb and grafted above that for the hand portion. picked up around the opening and made a thumb. worked out great... and she loved 'em! considering the amount of yarn that went with me, i could have made at least 6 pairs of socks, a scarf and maybe another pair of mitts. but where yarn is concerned... it's always good to have lots!!

playing catch-upf

the last week we were in Crete, there was a raki-making party. Tracy (from pdx) was with us for a week that Chris and Kate were there, so she got in on this event. they were distilling the grapes that we helped "smash" the 2nd night we were in Vamos.

this is the still, outside of a large and quite nice taverna. the fermented grapes go in the kettle (the dome-shaped thing on the right), the steam goes thru tubing which is submerged in the water tank (behind the ladder), and the raki comes out thru a pipe... it's down low on the left in front of the tree. and that's the making of fire water lesson for this evening.

Aristotles was intrigued by the fire.... and stayed back a respectable distance from it.

the decor inside the taverna was interesting! this is the head of a critter which i think was a goat hanging on the post in the corner. (ummm.... rustic!)

on the wall beside the fireplace. fascinating... and i wish i could have found out something about it.

and the cozy fireplace. above it is a wood cut-out of the island

Crete. and then the ever handy rifle used to shoot into the

air as part of the evening celebration... late evening ....after lots of wine and raki!

we had a nice Greek dinner while the distilling was going on,

and it was an ok evening, but not at all like other raki parties

we have been to.... mostly Brits and Dutch. nothing wrong with

that, but missing the authentic Greek flavor we've enjoyed

previously. and no gun shots!!

the kitten

the stray kitten - Hercules.... well, turns out that it's a she-kitten, so i changed the name to Herculina. She still needed the power of the big name. By the time i left, she had become so tame that she'd crawl up on the chair with me when i was sitting on the patio! and she had fattened up (that's a relative term as she wasn't really fat, but had added enough weight that she wasn't just skin and bones any more!) on milk, yoghurt, cheese and meat scraps! and i miss her and hope she's gotten enough of a start that she can survive. Xanthippi said she'd go by and feed her when she was on her rounds to feed other strays around Vamos.

fiber news

Kate has opened her Etsy shop and has some really lovely handdyed spinning fibers and yarns for sale. I know you will love her work... I sure do. and i'm delighted that she will keep Woolgatherings going while i enjoy being retired. I hope she'll have as much fun as I did!

home sweet home!!

and happy to be sleepin' in my own bed, loving on my sweet dogs and trying to find "normal" again. the journey took almost 30 hours this time, details later... maybe. went to bed at 4a.m., dragged out of bed at 4p.m. and kind of fumbled around til now. will see if i can find my benedryl and take one and go to bed again. as hellish as this trip is, it's still worth it for the time in Crete and i plan to go again in the spring.

ttfn and toddlin' off to bed! i do have more stories and photos which i hope to get to soon....

Greek night at Liakoto

Jim and i had a really special evening at Liakoto Art Cafe. It was an evening devoted to the music of a well-known song-writer and singer in Greece. at the cafe that night there was live music and singing... and we seemed to be the only non-Greek people there. it wasn't long before the spontaneous dancing began and the whole atmosphere was awesome! it's the first time we've seen this happen in Crete and i loved every minute of it! everyone seems to dance with a kind of wild abandon, including dancing on chairs and tables! and, no, we didn't do any dancing... it seemed to be a totally Greek affair.

top photo is Nikos, who we've known for several years. he is also a fine photographer and had an exhibit in the gallery a couple of years ago.