life is good!

and today I spent some time in my studio dyeing! definitely a good day here!! and tomorrow at noon i'm leaving for a weekend at the beach (a rental condo in Rockaway, OR) with a few twisted sisters. here are some of the fibers i'll take with me...

this is a 50/50 merino and tencel blend that has been languishing - i mean aging - in my stash for a very long time. I really love the soft, muted colors. See, it isn't ALL about in your face color, just mostly.


dyed mohair locks using lanaset and/or pro washfast dyes with the heat it up in the electric skillet, add vinegar, splash on dyes and simmer.


Blue Face Leicester top featuring "in-your-face-orange" and "attitude pink" which may not make the cut for the beach trip. i'm in the mood to spin some silk and love spinning it on my Journey wheel which is packed and ready to go! will need to go digging in the stash for some sensuous silk.

My dad has improved to the point that he wants to go back to his apt. at assisted living, so Curbhead will take him there tomorrow. Hoping Home Infusion nurses will come early tomorrow a.m. to remove his picc line... last infusion is midnight tonight, for which he and i will both be grateful!

my Dad's 90th birthday party

and what a party it was!!! THe day of the party (22nd) i had doubts he'd be able to find enough energy to last the 5 hours the party was scheduled for... but he seemed to be having a good time up until the end and was more than ready to crash into bed when we got home. I don't have an exact count of how many people showed up, but had 110 who RSVPed that they would be there! The setting was very nice... The Kingstad Center in Beaverton, OR, which is a conference center that used to belong to Nike, was bought several years ago by the Kingstad brothers and is used for meetings, receptions, parties, etc. Their menu choices gave lots of choices and the buffet table they set up was wonderful... great food and nicely presented. Hawley, the event planner, was great to work with and was there while the party was going on. Bud (Curbhead) really came thru with entertainment, a trio and a keyboardist who alternated with each other for at least 3 of the 5 hours of the party. And David had put together a slide show of family pictures which included some of Pop's baby pics. Anyway, it was a wonderful event!! but i'll wait awhile before planning another one of this magnitude!!!

So Pop stayed 8 days at King City rehab and i was not happy with their "nursing care". he had already had a week of inactivity in the hospital, and other than the 30 min. of PT and 30 min. of OT/day, they seemed happy to just let him lie in bed. he was still on his 3 weeks of IV therapy and even if we'd arranged to have that done by the home infusion nurses, he was no where near able to take care of himself. so, i brought him home to stay with us, with the warning to him that i would not let him just lie around in bed or sit all cozy in a chair all day... so he had advance warning!! Kaiser has been wonderful about the home care... 2 RNs from the home infusion dept. came out the day i brought him home,and the next day. we picked up his antibiotics at our nearest Kaiser pharmacy, the pharmacist called to be sure i had the equipment i needed, PT has been to visit him and OT is coming tomorrow. there is a 24 hour on call person if i need help. and everything is going very well. i took the infusion to the party for his afternoon dose. so he'll be here til he finishes the iv on Thursday, and since he's already doing well with his own care, he'll probably go back to his apartment on friday.


i've got a couple of fiber projects this week... a custom dyeing job for a friend and a pile of blue face leicester roving that's dyed and ready for weighing and tagging and taking to NW Wools. friday some of the twisted sisters are going to the beach for the weekend... and i am SO looking forward to it!

very cute..

hard to believe that my grandson, Alex, is almost 6 years old! I snitched this from Kate's blog. She took it when the 2 of them were out whale watching last weekend. He looks like he's enjoying his day!!

Friday already

A short update.... took my dad to King City rehab on monday to continue the iv antibiotics and get him steady on his feet after a week of lying in bed in the hospital. He's doing well and is anxious to go home!

Accomplished my 2 goals of the week... get the paper work done for taxes and get them to the tax guy, and clear out/clean up my studio for a dye workshop on saturday. well, the studio is almost ready. i guess i need to do workshops more often to keep it from looking like something the board of health would condemn. and i discovered a LOT of dyed fiber and yarn that needs to be moved out of here and into someone elses stash! being a pack rat can be a real burden sometimes!

so, today i'll finish up in the studio and then go visit my dad. didn't go yesterday, but knew Curbhead would be there so Pop wouldn't be without family there to visit with him. and next week... finish up the party planning, including figuring out what to do for table decorations. hoping some inspiration will come to me soon!

long week...

My dad is still in the hospital and on IV antibiotics for a 3 week course. The short story is: infection in his wrist of unknown origin and unknown organism, finally went to surgery on Wed. or Thurs. to flush the wrist with antibiotics and put in a drain, lots of pain and pain meds and very little activity, will go to King City rehab center tomorrow for a week to work on getting his strength up so he can go back home with a calibrated pump which will deliver the antibiotics every 8 hours. and 2 weeks from yesterday, we will whisk him away to his big 90th birthday bash to be celebrated by family and lots of friends, with some musical entertainment, lots of good food and wine and merriment! Della, my nephew's wife, made a wonderful invitation and is working on banners and scanned enlargements of lots of photos of Pop and family thru the years. if you can manage to have a graphic artist in the family... go for it, as it's very good thing! which reminds me i need to do some web searching for some ideas for table decorations. have spent a lot of time at the hospital this week, which means that i STILL haven't gotten all my tax stuff together. luckily (i guess), it was a pretty slow year on the business front with 3 months in Crete, so there are fewer papers to shuffle this year. Also, high on the do it list is getting my studio in shape for a dyeing workshop next saturday, and the way it's lookin', that ain't no small task. where is Cinderella when i need her???? and i am SO wishing for that simple life in Crete!

Fiber Workshop with Lynne Vogel

Lynne Vogel, author of the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, will be teaching Spinning for Colorwork Knitting at the Red Rooster Retreat, Crane Hill, Alabama June 29-July2 2006, assisted by Sandy Sitzman, twisted mom. Red Rooster is a residential craft retreat center where we can come together and indulge in color up to our eyeballs to the exclusion of all else, except maybe the swimming pool. We will cover loads of colorwork knitting and spinning techniques during this three day, three night intensive. We hope you will join us for the fun.

You can find more information on Lynne's Blog

http://workshopcentral.blogspot.com

We are asking that you reserve a place in this workshop by April 15. Please contact Blaine Harkness at BHark12345@aol.com to register.

a long night in the ER

My Dad came up with a sudden onset of swelling and pain in his wrist and hand, so I took him to the ER about 7p.m. last night. Foolishly, I thought since there was no full moon, no big events going on in town, it was not friday or sat. night, that the ER wouldn't be TOO crowded... and was I ever wrong! There were 16 people ahead of him.. lots of them children and very unhappy screaming babies and very sick-looking folks. So, we sat and waited as his pain and swelling increased. He had no fever and for an almost 90-year-old man, is really in pretty good health, so he didn't get on any high priority list (if there is one) Finally, about 10:45 we were taken to an exam room, and the first diagnosis was probably cellulitis and they started iv antibiotics and then gave him some morphine... which did not even touch the pain, about which he was becoming more and more vocal. So, because of this pain they began talking about other possibilities for diagnosis. So, before being admitted at 4a..m., he was seen by the ER resident, Kaiser Internist, surgical resident, xray, CT scan, had blood work. Poor guy... i felt SO sorry for him and couldn't do a thing for him! He kept trying to send me home, but I stuck it out til he was in a room and had morphine PCP going. Today, an orthopod was added to the mix, thought it might be gout and tapped his wrist for fluid... and there was none. so, hmmm... still no definitive diagnosis, but he still has iv antibiotics and morphine going, blood work still to come back and still in pain if anyone touches his hand or wrist.

I'm glad it's still more than 2 weeks before his big 90th birthday celebration, so he'll have time to recover from this whatever it is! He said he wanted a huge blow out birthday party, and that's what we have planned! We've rented a room at a really nice conference center, ordered up lots of yummy sounding food, plenty of wine, Curbhead and David are in charge of entertainment, there will be a slide show of some sort... and we've sent out about 110 invitations (so far!) Sounds like a good party, huh?

Think i better go take some magic vitamin C potion to ward off anything nasty i might have breathed in while waiting in the ER last night.

coffee

followed the link from Charleen's blog to discover what kind of coffee am i..... and now i know!

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites. And your dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear.

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

dog hair

I'm sitting here wondering what a Siberian Husky with a buzz cut would look like. There would be a definite advantage in getting all that hair off her in one fell swoop... rather than wading thru her coat blowing process and rasslin' with her to get any of it off with a brush. this is just day dreaming, however, as Jim would never tolerate such a thing being done to Meika. Actually, she could look kind of cute, especially if i followed up the hair cut with the application of easter egg dyes. And this will never ever happen....... sigh... back to vacuuming the dog hair off the stairway carpet. i think it's blue under there.....

And no, I DO NOT like spinning dog hair of any kind at any time ever!

spring???

well, the weather goddess celebrated spring with one lovely day here, appropriately - on the first day of spring!!... and it's been rainy ever since! everywhere i look around my queendom it's green, with little spots of color peeking up from the ground and trees looking ready to burst into spring glory... and then there's the weeds. ah, yes, the weeds.

I took Jim to the airport at 5a.m yesterday (which means i got up at 4a.m.... eeeek) and he flew to Phoenix to meet up with Chris and see some Mariner baseball spring training camp games. I'm glad he didn't have tickets to see the Blazers play the Suns last night, as they got thoroughly thumped, and have now lost something like 21 of the last 23 games. They have gone way past pitiful and are now an embarrassment! Lots of young talent on that team.... they just have to learn to use it, I guess. can't believe i'm writing about sports!!

so, while it's just me and the dawgs here, I'll get a bunch of dyeing done. I got a lovely serendipitous result the other day that I'll try to repeat. Using ProChem Washfast acid dyes, I poured the bright turquoise next to the iris, with just a tiny space in between them... and where they blended together there was a most glorious electric blue!! Loved it!

The only other "must do" (besides outing and inning the dogs) is to get address labels printed for the invitations to Pop's 90th birthday big bash on april 22. he emailed me the invitation list and (so far) there's 104 invitations to send. it's going to be one big party...

a good movie

here's what Netflix says about "Iris", starring Judi Dench:
"Iris Murdoch was l'enfant terrible of the literary world in early 1950s Britain -- a live wire who thumbed her nose at the conformity of the era via a voracious sex life that included male and female partners. In this snippet of her life, Murdoch (Judi Dench) faces the onset of Alzheimer's disease alongside her adoring husband (Jim Broadbent). Kate Winslet portrays the young, free-spirited Iris in flashbacks."

I watched this movie the other night and enjoyed it very much, in a bittersweet sort of way. I admire women who thumb their noses at convention... so really liked it on that level. Also, enjoyed her wit and intellect. The bitter part was watching this bright and gifted woman lose it all to that dreaded disease. It did give me a glimse into what my mother's life must have felt like to her as she gradually lost touch with reality. I'm not sure whether Mom actually had Alzheimer's or if her dementia was more due to mini-strokes which gradually diminished her thinking processes..... but it doesn't really matter which it was...the result was awful for her and for her family. It may sound like I was depressed by the movie, but I wasn't. I love watching Judi Dench and thought the movie was well done, and kind of broadened my perspective. The thought of the possibility of losing touch with my reality at some future point is frightening, but I refuse to dwell on it and thereby waste the now with worrying about what might be!! so there!!

and now am wishing "Pink Panther" with Steve Martin would be on dvd SOON! maybe i'll go back and watch "All of Me" with Steve Martin and Lili Tomlin... my all time favorite movie of his!!

life...

it's a stunningly beautiful day in my queendom.... actual sunshine, warming to mid-50s and no wind!! BRAVO!

We did go to OMSI with the kidlets on Wednesday and had a wonderful time. there is SO much to see there that we could have spent lots more than the several afternoon hours we were there. The last exhibit we were in was devoted to cartoon making and even had an area where the kids could do their antics while being filmed, and needless to say, it was quite popular.. esp. with Alex. A plus factor was that there were not many other people there, so no crowds around the fun stuff.

Hope to get to Costco later today, or tomorrow, to get a long worktable to put by my sewing machine. The new sewing place is making slow progress as I've been busy in my studio getting more fibers dyed for NW Wools. Stopped by the shop last week and the shelves are nearly bare again.... a good thing, I suppose, but it means i have to actually do some work, which i'm getting used to not doing so much of lately. One of these days i'll take the "semi" out of "semi-retired" and see how that feels.... i have a feeling it will be pretty fine!! Also, need to get some fibers dyed to take to Alabama end of June when I go to help Lynne with a class. That will be a fun time as it is part of the reunion of the class she did in Sewanee last spring, and it's a long weekend retreat/spin-in kind of thing. Then will be in Sewanee for 4th of July, and after that go up to Knoxville to spend a few days with my sis in her new house. First weekend in October will go to Taos for the Wool Festival and to help Lynne with a sock class there.... so will need to be dyeing more fibers for that. So, the reality is that I am still having fun with the "semi-retired" state of being. And we are thinking of going back to Crete mid-October, and including a couple of weeks in Italy.

new sewing space.. in progress

and a bit different view

these are some recently dyed, and now drying, rovings:

(with the usual disclaimer of "colors are distilled a bit by camera and computer monitor... yadda yadda yadda..."


Life is GOOD! veddy gud... BRAVO!!

Progress

I spent a lot of the day creating my new sewing space on the balcony... including finally giving the plants up here some overdue attention. Emptied an etigere (i think that spelling is wrong, and "spellcheck" has no idea what i'm trying to spell!!)
and will use it for stashing sewing stuff... yep, a fabric stash lives here, too! This project will need to go on hold til later in the week as Kate and the kids are coming down tomorrow for a few days... oh, goody, i hope we get to go to OMSI or the Children's Museum or the zoo!!

and, ooooops, just remembered some fiber i dyed last week that hasn't been rinsed and dried yet, plus the pot of fiber left soaking and waiting to be dyed. and Lynne is sending me some Ramboulliet (?sp. again), both yarn and fiber, to try out in the dye pot. lots to do.

life is good!!! BRAVO!

photos coming soon. really....

Roomba!!

other big news is that the robot is in residence and i have to say I Love It!! we are having a bit of a problem right now as Meika is shedding big time, the biggest blowing of coat that she does all year. she's looking like a mere shadow of her normal fluffy Husky self... and still piles more keeping floating around on the floor and there's always more tufts of fluff sticking out of her coat. anyway, the problem is that roomba doesn't do well with this massive amount of hair. it wraps around the wheels and the brush and just about everything that lends itself to being wrapped around. it does really well in the living room on the carpet and just zooms around doing her cleaning job. a dream come true. i've ALWAYS wanted a robot of my own to do the cleaning. AND the company also makes a robot that wet mops the floors. be still my heart. and now i can hardly wait to show her in action to Alex! Robots are his consuming interest right now. he and his dad built one and programed it while i was there last weekend... it's a Lego kit. it was a treat to watch them working on it together and then to witness his robot in action. Alex was so excited with one of the tricks.. when it bumps into something it sings a song and then does a dance!! this techie stuff is really great!! i'll get a picture of Cinderella my roomba robot soon. really.

********************************
and here is Cindy Roomba at work:

what's new...

well, life has happened a lot since the last i wrote here. i'll just start with today and see what happens after that.

closing of another chapter here at dome central... my big rustic clunky floor loom went to a new home. it was given to me in the early 80's when Pam divorced & got rid of about 7 looms. this one was made in Texas many years ago, somehow or other got to Damascus Pioneer Art School in Damascus, OR, and was given to Pam there. so, knowing it was time to move the loom on, i called Becki (who bought my Pat Green big carder last year) to see if i could give her this loom, she said "yes" and came today with a friend and a pickup, and we broke the loom down (taking pictures and marking coding in chalk as we
went along so they'd be able to get it back together), and away it went. and since it's probably been 10 years since any weaving has happened here, and i just sold all the 3 pounds of yarn i'd dyed for a blanket to weave for my son, the time was right. and to make it even sweeter... as soon as i get all the dust and debris vacuumed up from where the loom sat... i will move my sewing there on the balcony, under the skylight and get another long work table, and get serious about making a quilt for Alex-The-Awesome-Grandson!!

the loom...


and a current picture of Meika and Tasha, just because they looked so sweet and angelic. but, do not think for a minute that the bright light behind Tasha's head is anything other than sunlight!! she hasn't quite gotten enough control over her great need to mangle yarn and unspun fiber to deserve a halo. i think sometimes her teeth just itch and she must get a fiber fix in order to be happy! she is a sweet dog, tho, and tries hard not to be overcome by fiber urges. i do still barricade my fiber corner just in case! she will be 3 on march 15, so really should be beyond the puppy chewing stages. the birthday date is one i picked arbitrarily, since street dawgs don't come with birthdates.

which muppet am I??? Moi????

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it. You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less. You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way. Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

I have always adored Miss Piggy!! who knew i was so much like her? 'spose maybe i rigged the quiz? who knows.....

new stuff, but nothing fibery

Lynne just started a blog and since she told me how to put links in my blog(!!) here's the link:

http://handspuncentral.blogspot.com

i was feeling pretty clueless and pitiful because i could not see the icons she described... then i switched from Safari to IE and still had no luck. finally, thought i'd try the dell, and woohoo... here it is! much as i love my mac, i sure do wish the rest of the world would fall in line here and get behind mac!!! on the other hand, by keeping the brain cells firing with trying to figure out this techie stuff, maybe i am warding off the dreaded alzheimers.

also, received the cds i just ordered from Amazon... The Anonymous 4 (who i recently discovered and fell in love with) American Angels and 1000 A Mass For The End of Time. and both are every bit as glorious as i'd hoped they'd be. i was a bit leery when looking at the titles of the tracks on these because of the religious nature, but love the first one i heard so much (The Origin of Fire) that i decided to take a chance. i'll write more about this music later. headed for bed now..........

lookin' better

Some improvements going on here! The rain stopped long enough today that the sun actually showed itself, and tonight I could see the almost-full moon. And the big improvement is that my handyman (very dear dh) climbed up the ladder while it was still raining and fixed the leak over my studio (thanks for your good wishes, Charleen... it must have helped!!) And the drain problem seems to be improving after pouring some bionic-super-good-for-the-septic-tank stuff down it. AND, as i was looking for a knitting project so as to avoid the neverending stole for awhile, found a little sweater I started for Zylie (who knows how long ago), which looks like about a size 4 or 5 so i'm ahead of her there, which looks like a good project. will take some photos tomorrow. it's purple, pink (2 shades), green, lavender and varigated.... love the colors! I was actually amazed at how many UFOs I discovered lurking in those big plastic storage bins, disheartening in a way, but on the other hand lots of kind of mindless stuff to work on without having to plan out a new project.

whoo hooo

I finally gave up waiting for Cinderella to show up here for cleaning duty! (Goddess knows she is needed here) I've always wanted a robot to call my own which would clean the floors for me... so went to irobot.com and ordered a Roomba vacuuming robot. If it lives up to the advertising, I'll be a most happy woman... and the floors will at last be cleaned regularly. This little miracle even has a scheduling feature which allows me to program it to automatically do the cleaning at a scheduled time.... whoopeeee and bravo. I keep thinking about the SNL bit... an "ad" extolling the virtues of the "woomba" which causes me fits of giggles!!

on the fiber front, not much is happening. My studio is being flooded from above and below. The roof is leaking big time, with steady rain for 24 out of the last 25 days. And yesterday, the drain started backing up when the clothes washer emptied. A bit of a depressing state of affairs. Plus, I had to rip out about 14 inches of the neverending stole due to a huge mistake for a distance of about 6 inches... which even i and my casual approach to life could not ignore. tried to make myself believe that it wouldn't be noticeable, but that didn't work! spent some time yesterday looking at websites in Crete... sigh.... after hearing that there had been a 6.9 earthquake there on sunday. seems there was minimal damage to buildings in Hania, but Elena said no problems in Vamos.

finally fiber!!...

While i was in Crete, i did do some knitting (very little spinning). I took with me some Falkland Islands wool yarn which i had dyed in bright primary colors. Finished 3 kids' hats... sent one to Zylie for her birthday, gave one to Socrates, the 3 year old son of a friend in Vamos, and one for Laura, the 1 year old daughter of our Danish semi-son, Soren. I still need to finish off the loose ends inside the hat and wash and block it, but here it is in its current state:

(modeling the hat is a bear which is a xmas gift for one of the dogs)

this is another shot of it which shows the top better:


and here's the shawl/stole i started way back when and thought would be finished by now -


and:
the color looks crappy on here. i'll try again later sometime and see if i can get truer color.