LOOSE ENDS

For New Year's Eve, I thought I'd tie up a few loose ends.

Remember the shawl exchange at Shakertown? I received Carol's woven shawl and I just love it! We were supposed to stretch ourselves and Carol worked very hard to make this one just right.


Nancy wanted a shot of the sheet metal palm tree. No extra charge for the flamingo and whirlygig.


Murgie and Lucy have taken up housekeeping and are in the living room. They are so cute together. I think Murgie has missed being with his own kind.

And, I bought myself a guitar the other day. Now I know what John Lennon meant when he screamed "I got blisters on my fingers!" I mean, ow. It's harder than I thought.



Tomorrow I will prepare turnip greens, black eyed peas and corn bread to bring luck and money in 2007.

Like my friend Judy in Atlanta wrote me: We all look forward to: pray for: meditate: march for: PEACE in 2007

LONG HAIR

Sweetie finally hooked up the old scanner to the newer computer. Yippee!

My first image I scanned is of me at half the age I am now. Don't you dig those ca-razy glasses?! This was taken in 1983 and I got my hair cut mad short soon thereafter.

My hair is now just as long and I feel the same age inside. It still startles me that I am almost fifty. Doesn't seem possible. How did it happen that I am almost fifty???

p.s. I deleted the previous blog because Holly got some of mom's long hair wrapped around his neck yesterday. The more it struggled, the tighter it got. DamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamnDamn

GIFTIES AND THINGS

In the fall of 1968, our black and white television set blew a tube. Remember black and white? Remember tubes? I guess we couldn't afford to have it repaired, so we waited two months for Oldest Brother to return from school so he could fix it. Two months without television - how in the world did we pass the time?

We played card games and a lot of Aggravation. This is not a board game that can be easily found anymore, but it's a lot of fun and if you can roll dice and count, you can play it. That game board saw a lot of action and not just then, either; I seem to remember playing a lot.

Fast forward to maybe ten years ago. Little Brother made an Aggravation board and gathered the necessary dice and marbles and the play resumed at family gatherings. We were vicious and mean and yielded no quarter and we always laughed like crazy.

This year, Oldest Brother made the board for Sweetie and me, and he found the dice and marbles. I was so touched - I think it is the nicest gift I've ever received from him. (Last year, Next Oldest Brother gave me a five foot tall steel palm tree that he made which indeed the is nicest thing he ever gave me.)

Sweetie doesn't have the attention span or interest in card games and I beat the pants off him at Trivial Pursuit, but we played two games last night and had a blast. Thank you, Oldest Brother!

This is what I've been spinning. An interesting blend, created on the drumcarder. The usual - wool, angora, silk.


This is what I've been reading. Sweetie's gift to me.

This is what I've been baking. The bunnies helped.

PROGRESS!

I had another of my anxiety dreams last night. (I haven't been remembering my dreams for months. I use to dream, and remember, the most exciting and interesting dreams. Like movies they were. Science fiction, starring me and Tom Cruise. I'm serious! We have to save or rescue someone, with the bad guys chasing us, and we're flying cool jet-type things through a swarming future mega-city. That was one. Another was Tom and I were rebels in a totalitarian society in which common people were forced to work in an underground complex and we were trying to escape with the bad guys chasing us. We stole a rocket and burst through the earth's crust into sunshine. There are more and not all of them contain Tom Cruise, but you get the gist.)

Last night's dream involved costumes for a movie and the Los Angeles designer kept adding more detail, more costumes and the deadline kept being moving up. Everyone was intimidated by the designer but I said, "I've dealt with these people before and I am not intimidated. Their panties are always in a bunch. It ain't gonna happen. They'll have to wait!" I was trying to find a bathroom, then I woke up.

I take these type of dreams to be anxiety dreams, but I don't get freaked out in the dream but rather, I deal and cope.

Yesterday, I worked at excavating my studio. With the big ass loom gone, I have some room to maneuver. Photos show one month ago versus now.
I was ruthless about placing stuff either in the Goodwill box or the trash. I have boxes of sewing supplies that I haven't touched in twelve years. A box of pea coat buttons. Drapery weights. I kept the pile of velcro. I have saved picture calendars since '97, for inspiration dontcha know. Off they went to the recyclers. The score was two bags of trash and three boxes for charity and a half box of keepers. I'm not done but I have made serious progress. I'd love to have the entire house dejunked by New Year's day - but it would take a Hercules for that to happen.

I NEED A PEDICURE

Possessions are a burden. Stupid possessions. It is so easy to accumulate stuff. I have way too much stuff and I'm tired of caring for it, mending it, storing it, and looking at it. But it is hard to throw away or give away some things; I'm not quite ready to take that step yet.

So. I have taken all the extra decor, doodads, whatnots, and crap from the front living room that I can't quite throw away and I have put it in storage. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. I plan to buy some office storage boxes and label them neatly. Junk from west wall of front living room, December 2006. It's a plan anyway. Not having the boxes isn't stopping me.

I don't have a before picture, but here is the after. I like it! And I like not having to decide whether to throw away or give away all these "treasures."

Knitting content: I have almosy finished knitting these socks. They are in Fun and Stripes from Lana Grossa. I tried Elizabeth Zimmermann's afterthought heel. The heel is constructed just like a regular toe and she says it can easily be taken out and reknit if a hole happens. I like the way it looks. It's a little fiddley, removing the waste yarn and placing the live stitches on four needles. Size 1. But I hate the yarn over type heel decrease (which I somehow screw up every single time by losing stitches) and I am bored with the traditional-heel-flap-and-pick-up-along-the-sides method.

I also knit these mitts for a neighbor. The light color is an alpaca/wool blend and the purple is angora, spun into a lofty two ply. I used Joan's Wristers pattern, but of course I tweaked it. I put the thumb on mine and kept the entire hand in ribbing. I am waiting to finish the socks before I do another project. Although I do have a skein of Trekking XXL in green staring at me...

HERE'S A CONCEPT - A PHOTO!

I love Laurie's blog, Crazy Aunt Purl. She is funny, clever, voluable, vulnerable and she puts all of it on virtual paper with skill. Makes me not want to compete.

So. You may have noticed that I haven't blogged much lately. Cecelia has left me - I'm hoping for only a short while.

But I am feeling great! I haven't felt so good physically or mentally in ages (thank you, St. Pharmacutica) and I have been catching up on a number of things. Sold and moved out the huge ass loom that has dominated my studio for over three years. Had some art framed. I've been cooking! You know, all those normal type things that have been beyond my abilities for so long. I am having creative-type art ideas.

Valerie suggested a PHOTO of the cravat pattern. What a good idea! I am so retarded. By the way, you may print and use the pattern - just don't say that you wrote it, okay?

Neither of these fun fur (remember that stuff??) cravats are exactly like the pattern, but should give you a general idea of what it looks like.

BACK TO KNITTING!

Here is a little pattern that I (yes, me, who is not a fast knitter) knit in less than two hours.
LADY'S CRAVAT

You will need about an ounce of some soft and yummy yarn and either straight or circular needles that are the appropriate size for your yarn.

Cast on 25 stitches, loosely.
Row 1) Knit 11, knit 3 together, knit 11.
Row 2) Knit 23.
Row 3) Knit 10, knit 3 together, knit 10.
Row 4) Knit 21.
Row 5) Knit 9, knit 3 together, knit 9.
Row 6) Knit 19.

Continue in this manner, decreasing by knitting 3 together every odd numbered row and knitting every even numbered row until there are 9 stitches left. (It may help to mark the odd row side with a safety pin.)

Knit every row until work measures at least 22”. You can make it longer if you wish.

Begin increases:
Row 1) Knit 4, knit 3 stitches in next stitch, knit 4.
Row 2) Knit 11.
Row 3) Knit 5, knit 3 stitches in next stitch, knit 5.
Row 4) Knit 13.
Row 5)Knit 6, knit 3 stitches in next stitch, knit 6.
Row 6) Knit 15.

Continue in this manner, increasing in the center stitch every odd row and knitting every even row, until there are 25 stitches. Bind off loosely. Weave in ends and steam lightly to block, if desired.

Now, make another one using a different, delicious yarn!

WINTER IS HERE!

It was a real mess around here Wednesday & Thursday. DOT sprayed some de-icer on exit ramps of the Interstate, but it was more like oil.
There were several accidents at almost every exit.
Then I had this dick pull out in front of me.

OVERHEARD...

I have felt like being around people, but only virtually. Here is what I have "heard" recently. Oh, yes, there's a Murgatroyd photo. (Unfortunately, the baby didn't make it.)



The English Model

Little girl: Mommy, where do people go when they're bad?
Mother: Australia, sweetie, with all the snakes.

--Central Park

Overheard by: Girl from Australia

via Overheard in New York, Dec 7, 2006

Girl on cell: Look, Peter, I'm not saying that I hate you. It's just that you f*cking annoy me so much that I'd rather eat my own spleen than go out with you again.

--Starbucks, 45th & 6th

Bright-purple-mohawk guy to shaved-head girl with multiple nose piercings: Your best friend is so weird!

--12th St & University Pl

1PM Playing with an Extra-Full Deck

Coworker #1: I can get news from all 52 states!
Coworker #2: Uh... there are only 50 states.
Coworker #1: Duh -- Alaska and Hawaii!

Chelmsford, Massachusetts

4PM Being the Truth Fairy Is Less Fun than I Thought It Would Be

Bearded man in green pixie wig, pink feather boa, and fairy wings: I think about death every day.

577 Western Avenue
Westfield, Massachusetts


"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people… On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." ~ H. L. Mencken, Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920