Writer. Editor. Teacher. Maker.
Tilly turns four today!
Well. We’ve guessed that today would be her birthday. She was a rescue pup, so there’s no telling for sure.
This is how she looks at me when I work at my desk within an hour of walk time. "Mama," says she, "let’s go play in the woods." My dogs have me well-trained, so I go.
Is anyone else as excited as I am by the Interweave Spring issue preview? I just glanced at it and found several patterns I’d love to make:
Eunny’s Entrelac socks (remind me of her gorgeous argyles)
Kate’s Slanted Neck pullover
And most of all…Stephanie’s Cable Down Raglan.
Less than a month until it’s out. I suspect I’ll be saving one of my three free Knit from your Stash passes for a Spring Interweave project.
What’s catching your eye?
First, there was this, from my Interweave Spin to Knit pal. Ingrid included a beautiful note in which she told me that the wool is from South America, and that she dyed and recarded it. She used a cashmere yarn as a binder and added beads, which give it a mysterious, wonderful sparkle. Most amazingly, she did all of this spinning and plying on a handspindle. She also included two skeins of her designer yarns–those she makes from recarded bits. Thanks so much–I can’t wait to knit with it!
Yesterday, upon my return home, I found a box in my door. I tore it open and had a good laugh when I saw that my kitter was none other than Rae, for whom I made the KSKS kit! My camera battery was waning, so I didn’t get the best shots of this, but trust me, the bag is fantastic, and all the goodness filling it…amazing! Rae included two patterns, yarn to make both, roving for thrumming, a needle for trying out magic loop knitting, hand cream, wool wash, nifty highlighter tape (wish I’d invented that), and a milkbone sheep (not pictured because Maddie somehow managed to get it before I snapped a photo…she’s in love with it and has learned the word "sheep" since last night!)
Don’t you just love the fabric she used for the bag? I may just use this as my spring purse.
Thanks so much, Rae!
I’ve had an idea for a project bag for a while, and KMKS gave me the chance to try it out, so my pal will get the prototype. I used jewel-toned fabrics that my older sister gave me several years ago as a part of a huge stack of fat quarters. I love purple and green together; many of my quilts were made in this color combo.
Here is a peek inside. Like so many of us, my pal carries her small projects in ziplock baggies. I wanted her to have a bag for small projects, which is why everything looks squished–she will not likely carry so much in it. I purchased Eunny’s Anemoi pattern (I bought myself a copy, too!), light and dark green yarn, a chibi, two sets of dpns in the right sizes (I hope–the different sized mittens call for different sized needles), and a crochet hook. I also added a stack of post-it notes to help keep track of the charts. I used the big round handles so that the bag can easily hang off of a chair. When I’m out at SnB, I like to keep my bag off of the ground, so I always like handles that accommodate that.
Later today or tomorrow I’ll post pictures of the beautiful yarn I recieved for the Interweave Spin to Knit Swap. I’ve taken a short break from spinning my shawl yarn to spin for my pal, and I’ll be sure to show you a picture once it’s plyed and set.
Thanks to everyone who commented, both on the blog and privately, about my last post.
I had planned to post a picture of the KMKS kit I mailed out this week, but I have other things on my mind that need some working out. Not much working out, but as I teach my students, writing helps me to understand my thoughts and feelings.
I left a good TA-ship at UNM to come back east and live with Neal. I had one of two gauranteed spots, and although the reality is that pretty much all of the MFA students are offered TA-ships, that knowledge made me feel confident that not only could I do the work as a writer, but that I could do the work as a teacher. Somebody thought so. Along with a small stipend and tuition, one of my benefits was medical care. UNM has a teaching hospital, so the care was really good, and despite my doctor once calling me an aging primate, I felt confident and happy with my health care.
I haven’t had health insurance since May. It’s a risk I took. I am, after all, an aging primate, but I wanted to be back home. I wanted to be with the man I love. And this May, after our wedding, I will have great health care insurance. In the meantime, though, I’ve banked on my peasant genetics and robust good health holding out. I’ve had a few moments of fear when I thought "if I fall down the stairs and need to go to the hospital, I’m effed."
My birth control prescription ran out. My doctor in NM refilled it once for me, but I’ve not gone to a doctor here. I don’t want to incur the expense; my budget is too tight for extra expenses. After thinking hard about my options, I decided to go to Planned Parenthood, and I spent a good part of the afternoon today there.
I was upset when I got home. Not because I have to go back next week for bloodwork in order to get a prescription of longer than one month (it’s that aging primate issue again), but because of what being there made me feel. I’m no stranger to clinic health care. For years in my twenties I worked numerous part time jobs as did my then-husband. We lacked health care for a long time, but had a great community clinic to help us out when we were sick or needed prescriptions.
Neal happened to call as I walked in the door, and I growled before it spilled out.
"Here I am, obviously old enough to be the mother of most of the women in the waiting room. And a girl is crying. And I want to hug her and assure her that everything is going to be ok, but I don’t know that. I don’t know why she’s there. Was she raped? Is she single and pregnant? Did she get a disease?" Neal was sympathetic to me, to the idea of these women.
It made me think, though. How much trauma is there in the world because of sexuality? I know far too many women who have had abortions, who have been molested and raped, who have experienced fear because of their sexuality. I know women who have been in relationships that lacked loving sex, and in a burst of freedom, acquired a disease. And, sadly, I know too many men affected by sexual trauma as well. It boggles my mind. Why is this aspect of the human experience that is meant to give us pleasure, to help our genetics continue, to be unifying often just the opposite?
It’s a rhetorical question. But as I sat next to that young woman shaking and fighting her tears, as I longed to reach out and hold her hand but resisted the urge because her body language told me I wasn’t welcome, there was nothing I wanted to do more than to hold her and soothe her fears. If you have experienced sexual trauma, I’m so sorry. You aren’t alone. You are far from alone.
I kept hoping to take a picture outside, but the sun has been a bit elusive. This is the fiber I purchased at Rhinebeck. I kind of knew at the time that Neal and I were going to get engaged (well, at least I was hoping pretty hard), and I decided that I wanted to spin yarn to knit a stole for our wedding. I’ve almost got a bobbin full, but I’m a dork and have no clue about how to tell how much yardage I might have. I’m going to design the shawl using one of Barbara Walker’s fern lace patterns, and I’ve figured 1,000 yards should more than do the trick for me (based on yardage for much bigger shawls/stoles than what I’m planning). So I guess I’ll spin two bobbins worth and ply (I checked with the fabu Spindlers group, and I think I’ll make a two-ply, not the Navajo ply I’d wanted to try for no good reason), and check the yardage. Anyone have a better idea about that for me (Kay)? I didn’t weigh how much of the one-pound bag I’ve spun; would that be of help in figuring this out?
I’m planning a crafty weekend. Tomorrow I’ll finish sewing my KMKS bag, and I may try my hand at these booties for a baby due to make an appearance soon. I’ve got a hankering to do some sewing and embroidery. I just brought a bag of three of my almost-finished quilts home from my parents’ house, so there may be quilting in my future soon, too.
On one of the warmest January days I’ve ever experienced in the Northeast, Neal and I found the location for our wedding ceremony. The grounds are just perfect, and we’ll be able to invite more than the seven people we would have been limited to at Smith College. We’ll be married next to a stand of old lilac trees, one of my favorites.
Now to decide on a restaurant for a post-ceremony brunch. Next: plan the summer party celebration.
WordPress is not my friend. I tried to play nice with it, and when Scout’s involved, we get along just fine. But there’s not much between us otherwise. So. I shelled out the dough, and I upgraded my account, and The Seemingly Dis-Organized Elf will be back here by the end of the weekend. You see why I need this project?
Why am I up until the wee hours? Looking for wedding dresses online. Mind you, I have no intentions of wearing white or ivory or any virgin-esque color. I want me a pink, green, or pink and green dress. And I want it to swing up high when my new husband twirls me around the dance floor (he likes my gams, he said so). Most likely I’m going to have it made by Nina, the designer near my sister’s job in TN. I sort of have an idea of what I want, but here’s what I’d like to ask you: do you have any good on-line resources that show pictures of different shaped dresses? I want to be able to show Nina things that are close to what I’d like. Sort of like when I cut out Nicole Kidman’s picture and ask Peter my hot hairdresser to make me look like that. It hasn’t worked yet, but I think it might with the dress. So help a girl out, will you? And I promise, I’ve searched to the best of my 1:15 a.m. abilities. I know the power of google. I want the power of bloggers.
Finally, did you catch Scout’s kudos over at JenLa? Flat Scout and Dye-o-rama both made the list.
One of my goals for the winter break was to clean out my craft closet, which fit right in with my plan of this morning to put all of my yarn stash on a spread sheet (well, not literally, but to enter each skein onto such a sheet). I’m about 90% done. I just have to add the handspun, decide if bibs and bobs (yes, that is a technical term) are worthy of their own page, find the few skeins tucked in odd places about the house (Noelle‘s handspun sits like a work of art [she did do her art degree in sculpture] on one of the living room speakers. I have to remember to count that yarn!), and I will be done.
But that bit of organization leads to others. I’ve tidied up the closet, put all the loose needles in one place so that I may size them up and get rid of unneeded dupes. I’m also thinking that I should have a list of my craft books somewhere. And that fabric. I should measure and track it, right? No. That’s going too far. But the embroidery floss should be wound on to bobbins. That I will do one evening with a good movie on the tube.
Tomorrow is for writing syllabi and thank you notes. And maybe some actual spinning and knitting. Why can’t every day be a vacation day?
Ahh, hand me a bottle of water and that towel, will you? I just finished with the treadmill after a short hiatus, and it feels good to get back on. Ok, it’s the writing treadmill. My goal in the next two weeks is to get 80 pages of my dissertation written, which works out to roughly 5 pages a day. I was a real slacker during the fall semester. Sure, I worked the treadmill more than I had ever before, but I avoided the crux of what I need to accomplish. This means an extra semester before I’m done with school, but the one day during vacation, after I finished grading, when I looked about and realized with glee that I had nothing that had to get done? That’s inspired me to finish up the dang degree asap. I have a few other projects in mind for the next few weeks, so my days will be full. Yesterday’s project: sew buttons on Neal’s shirts. There has been a pile of shirts hanging around on a chair in our bedroom, one button short of wearable…now they’re happily completed and in the laundry.
Can I confess? I love being a hausfrau, which is what I call myself when I have breaks from school. I love having the few hours of writing in the morning, then housekeeping for a few hours, then walking the dogs, then relaxing in the evening. I need a lot of mental stimulation to be a happy hausfrau, but I’ve got it in the books I read, the stories I write, the communities I’ve joined.
My hausfrau task for today coincides with my resolution. I’m going to use Gina’s spreadsheet that she so generously shared with me and document all of my yarn. I’ll have a clear picture by the end of the day of just what I have to use for the next nine months. It’s kind of thrilling, but I’m an organizing geek.
For those interested in organizing, I’ve got the nascent Organized Elf blog up. There is lots more work to be done, and I’m trying to figure things out on my own, but I may come begging for help…I’m not that comfortable with WordPress, but it would cost me about $60 to upgrade my Typepad account in order to allow others to post. I may end up at Blogspot as I can add as many people as are interested and am more familiar with using it. But go on over and have a gander and join if you’re so inclined.
I’m off to whistle while I work and have a happy hausfrau day.
