tweaks and adjustments

June is shaping up to be a sodden, muddy month, with big storms, torrential rains, and hard winds, at every turn. Added to that, is the heat, which isn't as bad as it could be, but is bumming me out, nevertheless. Sticky, 90-ish, and rainy has lost its appeal. I do like the thunderstorms, now, don't get me wrong. I'd just like some humidity-free sunshine in betweentimes.

They do provide for some spectacular cloudshows, though.

Last week, I went to Tucker, to meet some friends at the farmer's market. It was the week of the first Georgia peaches, and cause for excitement. We had just enough time to get our produce (cutiecumbers! new potatoes! Italian green beans! Peeeeeaaaaaaaches...) before a massive, storm hit (much like the one that's pounding us right now, in fact) forcing us into a local bar n' restaurant. Nice dinner, and then when it was over, a dramatic cloud show. I drove home through downed trees, and the aftermath of what turned out to be a tornado. Arrived to find my entire neighborhood without power, which wasn't too much of a thing, as we keep big man-killer flashlights by each door, and pagans always have candles, so I wasn't in the dark for long. It's nice to sleep in a completely dark neighborhood. No ambient lighting at all, and a powerless house is so. very. quiet. I spun the rest of my brat-paca by candlelight, and listened to music on iTunes til my laptop battery died. Power came back on late the next afternoon, just in time to salvage my freezer full of food, which was a happy thing; I didn't relish a meat-cooking extravaganza, nor throwing it all out. 

I plied the brat-paca, which is 2oz of green suri alpaca with firestar, and 2oz of reddish alpaca from the Big Island of Hawaii, courtesy of Acornbud. That was some sweet spinning, but man, oh man, was that Hawaiian alpaca dirty!! I can picture the alpaca lounging around in the red dust of Hawaii, rolling around in the mud, wallowing in the vog...I expected it to wash out into a white fiber, but it was truly red, and very soft and pretty. 

At the risk of descending this blog into the zone of the ridiculous and possibly NSFW (especially if you work with alpacas) I share a video; some inappropriate but inspired silliness. 

I'd share the brat-paca yarn (sportweight, shiny marled green and brown goodness) but I put it outside after washing it, to hang dry, and it is currently being rained on. Meh. A little more washing won't hurt that alpaca...so no spinning. Practically no knitting, either, except that I will offer you a gratuitous hexipuff: 

I have been assimilated into the cult of the Beekeeper's Quilt, after years of curiosity. The puffery is fun, a little addictive, and I don't see myself finishing this thing for like a million years. But it is a portable little project for my light rail rides to GSU, or my lunch hour. Trouble is, I realize I need to knit more socks so I'll have leftover sock yarn to make the silly puffs. I am adding a wee bit of lavender in each of my puffs, because in some distant future, when I am an ancient crone, I will lay me down under a lavender-scented puffy quilt...this puff is made of Koigu, and happens to be the only thing I have ever completed successfully in that yarn, despite my obsessive love of the stuff. Koigu, like Kidsilk Haze, just confounds me, for no good reason. But I love it hard. 

So I realize that I am well and truly sick of working for the Tiger Mother Tutoring Business, and am looking for work. Hard, in a hard market, especially when one is working and going to school. I am in the happy position of being able to sub this fall for some $$ and Tiger Mother will take me back to work, (assuming there are students in need) should I desire this. But I need a change, at least a temporary one. My commute is too long for the $$ I am making, and the part of me that wants to be administrative, and make organizational changes in an organization that doesn't want to change is frustrated. Even something as simple as requesting that our students bring water bottles instead of providing them with a zillion styrofoam cups at the water cooler, gets shot down. Never mind that the water cooler is replacing a water fountain that hasn't been repaired in a year. Ditto the busted toilet in the boys bathroom, forcing us to have co-ed bathrooms (does not bother me, but it's a symptom of bigger issues) When I finally got my own students to bring in water bottles, and they left them in the room, the ones that appeared "disposable" were thrown away by a custodian. Grrrrrrr!!! I'm having to share my classroom this summer, because I am working only two days a week, and the teachers who use the room use all my post-its, paper, and supplies, and stuff I've bought with my own money. Arrgh. I want a different scene altogether, and miss the days of having my own personal fiefdom of the classroom. It feels good to vent my spleen about this here. I am on very good terms with my boss, and I've given notice for my departure at the end of the summer. Now my personal challenge is to fight the short-timer syndrome...

Work frustration, hot flashes in a hot summer, and old dog hijinx are playing havoc with my sleep patterns, resulting in me falling apart, and it's not even Litha yet!! Ugh. I've started a yoga class after a hiatus; a new vinyasa class with the parks department, and I'm re-embarking on Project Z, again, to try and fix my sleep, or lack thereof. We are early in the process, so I haven't seen any huge results yet. 

Am I the last person to have discovered the blog A Veggie Venture? In my quest to make green beans with new potatoes, a dish from my Grandma Carr's table, in my rural Virginia childhood, I stumbled onto it, with insanely delicious and simple results! 

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2008/05/best-ever-new-potatoes-green-beans.html

Considerably less porkified than the ones from my childhood, and smashingly buttery and delicious! Serious country food. 

Hopefully my whining hasn't ground you down, dear readers. In lieu of any real sunshine here, I leave you with a bit of sunshine from my neighborhood. 

Our neighborhood school crossing guard spends hours embellishing pine cones and arranging them in little vignettes at the corner near the school. This pile of sunny yellow cones reminds me of (look out, geekish moment coming up!!) the scene in one of the Song of Ice and Fire books, at the Iron Isles kingsmoot, where Asha Greyjoy dumps out a treasure chest full of pinecones all over the floor, and proclaims "The gold of the North!"I do love me some Asha Greyjoy...

new moon in Gemini

...happening even as we speak, or rather, as I write this. It is a cool, humid day here in the Georgia woods, and I'm getting geared up to do some house and yard work, after a spinach-mushroom omelet. Later in the day, some bbq will happen.

Most of my energy the past week or so has gone toward figuring out my new summer schedule, with teaching on Monday/Wednesday, some tutoring in the eves (though a greatly reduced schedule) and my last grad class on Tuesdays and Thursdays - a culture class.

I've been excused from some of the assignments for said class,  as I covered the content in the culture standard of my portfolio, and instead, will be working for my professor, editing and writing some documents for our department. I'm not sure this is a good thing - it's flattering, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will also be a shitload of work, and may extend beyond the parameters of importance I'd be giving a simple writing assignment. Apparently this is what happens when I wish for new horizons and ask the Universe to help me grow as a writer...

So now my task is to ask the Universe to help me manage this stuff. Oh the neverending balancing act of the perennial underachiever!

I taught myself to chainply, and made this:

That cute Butterfly Bush roving from the last entry. 230 yards of sport-dk weight squishy bfl. There are breaks and flaws throughout, but the chain ply (Navajo ply, but I'm not Dine, so I figure I should be politically correct) is no longer a mystery to me.

I went to a fiber flea market, last week, in Atlanta. I spent way too much money, for things which were very reasonably priced, which means that I bought a lot of stuff. Arty batts, and merino and wensleydale roving from someone's destash, someone's wonderful old project bag, for 50 cents. Two cones of yarn, priced at $3 each; the first, a 100% brown wool, looks to  be like a single ply Lamb's Pride mill end? Maybe? Another mystery yarn, heathery green, which passed the burn test, but only partially passed the bleach test, and so I've identified it as maybe 50% wool, both laceweight. The green softened up when I skeined some and gave it a bath. There's like a zillion yards, and I am thinking maybe a Whisper Cardigan for myself, and then passing the rest of it along to my sis, and another friend who has a loom and may want warping yarn. Lots of warping yarn.

In other news, I am putting the miles on Mr. Cricket, in an attempt take his crazy energy down a notch.

Somebody needs a haircut. 

It's mid-May already??!

Well Spring just keeps moving on through, and this morning, a warm, foggy one, I realized that it smells and looks like Summer, here in Atlanta. It has been a cool, wet spring, one full of pollen and huge rains, which have caused the green world to explode, before everything settles down to the stuporous heat of my favorite season.

April flew by; seems like every time I decide to post regularly, I get busy and a month goes by. The highlights of life since my last post include my sister's visit, Stitches South and a wonderful class taken with Anna Zilboorg on fair isle techniques and steeking, lots of work; tutoring, subbing, and writing for the portfolio, and a rainy day hike on Arabia Mountain. I visited P in DC, and hung out in the Love Bubble for 4 days, looking at art, visiting friends, eating delicious food, and generally enjoying myself.

A couple of FO's to show, as well. The first is a fun, fast, easy joy: Chelsea's "Out of Its League Jar Cozy", knit here in Noro Kureyon:

Note the use of the Cuppow device to turn a quart jar into a sippycup. My new iced tea delivery vehicle. I am pleased as punch with this thing, and highly recommend this pattern as a gift or a quick knitting pick-me-up. It helped me to face the endless short rows and tiresome painful garter stitch torment of Pendulum, which I finally finished. Blogger is not letting me upload the pic, so you'll have to use the rav link to see it. I did not enjoy knitting Pendulum, and I think it's oddly shaped and weird looking when you lay it out flat, but it's squishy and soft and warm and the Malabrigo Arroyo is a luxury yarn, in my book, in incredible colors. ETA: Pendulum!! The way I wear it, as a big scarf.

School is nearly out, and my round of 12-hour workdays and 1 day weekends are coming to a close. I'm trying to get the house decluttered and deep cleaned,  and the yard tamed down, before the heat becomes too oppressive, and I start combining my summer job with my last class at GSU. A 10-day staycation is coming up next week, and P is driving down to hang with me, with nothing more complicated planned than hiking, cooking and maybe putting the kayak into the Chattahoochee. I am already thinking about Summer's joys.

off and on the wheel

 I love my spinning, even though technical problems abound, and I have much learning to do. This is some recently spun, a bit scratchy, mixed wool from my sister's trip to the VA Fiber Festival at Montpelier, VA last fall. I like how there's a bright golden line running through much of the yarn.

Most of my spinning at this point is 2 ply, because I suck at Navajo plying, and only practice it at the end of plying when I have a single leftover to waste. That, of course is not going to get me anywhere. I have some white Romney-alpaca that I think I am going to dye with kool-aid and spin up in singles to practice the Navajo plying - in part because it was super-inexpensive, and because Romney-alpaca drafts like a dream; I won't have to work very hard to spin up this stuff. 

Before that, however, there's this...

I have been stalking this fiber, a mixed bfl, in Fibercharmer's Butterfly Bush colorway forever. Always with an itchy Etsy trigger finger, but never quite ready to buy...then, last week, I just happened upon a listing for it on SALE, at a considerable discount, and bang! Sold. I have no real plan for it, beyond spinning it up and enjoying the weird juxtaposition of purple, orange and lime...it is squishy and soft beyond measure. 

A gratuitous Cricket picture...just because he is handsome, and he, too, is squishy and soft beyond measure. 

friday is my friend

How did it get to be March? Wasn't it just January a day or so ago? We've been enjoying the lion/lamb weather here - one day in the 30's, with biting winds, a night of howling thunderstorms, a day to cherish, in the 60's with soft sunshine and joyous birdsong...still, it's supposed to be cold, so I'm enjoying the rollercoaster ride.

Friday is my day off, usually, unless I take a sub day, which I often do, to supplement the finances. Today, however, is my next-to-last PT appointment, so I didn't work. It's a nice feeling, the whole glorious springy day unfurling in front of me. I'm going to drink this coffee, go to PT, and then on to REI, where I have a $20 off a $50 purchase gift certificate. Then home to do yardwork, namely pick up the million limbs and sticks and pinecones which the last round of storms deposited. I am grateful that my fences are intact, still. I'll pick up the sticks, rake the yard out a little and sow some grass seed on the barer spots.

I am not a grassy yard queen, by any means. But I do have dogs, who like to lay in grass, and I have a big backyard, which otherwise would be dirt or ivy and weeds, so some cool-season fescue growing in one swath of the space is perfectly appropriate. I put in some native plants last fall, wild ginger, mugwort, and already have a small patch of goldenrod and white asters growing up, so am hoping they thicken up. My attempts to nurture the joe-pye weed of 2 years ago resulted in 1 sad little plant, which bloomed enthusiastically, but who can say? It is a favorite roadside perennial of mine. We'll see how it does.


I've been brewing kombucha, this past month, with some success! I joined a kombucha lovers group on Ravelry, (Ravelry has everything, doesn't it?) and a member sent me a scoby (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast - in other words, a kombucha culture) which I tossed into a gallon jar of sweetened strong English Breakfast tea, and let ferment in the clamcave for a week. The clamcave has become my fermentation chamber, because it's the warmest room in the house, during the winter, for some reason. The scoby is like a big muscular pancake. Not pretty to behold.

Then I strained off the slightly fizzy, slightly vinegary stuff, and bottled it, placing in each bottle 10 squashed blueberries and some slices of fresh ginger. Let that bottle-ferment a few days, and then fridged it. The result was yummy, red, fruity, slightly carbonated and altogether delicious. I've got a gallon of green tea fermenting right now, and will bottle it with some fresh raspberries and ginger later this afternoon. Soooo looking forward to that. I'm really pleased to add kombucha fermentation to my post-apocalyptic skillset, as buying the bottles, at $3.99 per 16 oz was a bit ridiculous.

Have I showed you The Lady Edith?
She is coming along nicely - I'm now about 8 repeats in, and getting ready to start the decreases. I am in love with this yarn: Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock yarn, in the Bougainvillea colorway. Red and pink always elevate my mood. I only have 400 yards of the stuff, so it's going to end up being a tiny little shawl - which I'll block the hell out of, but it's an easy, portable knit, anyway. It was a KAL with Acornbud, who (of course!) has already completed and is wearing her much larger shawl.

I had a bit of a panicky crisis at the end of February, when my professor emailed me requesting a draft of my exit portfolio, even though I'm not exiting my program til the end of July. I had put it on a back burner, and had not written a word since December 10, when I had sent her my first draft. I was not the only person in my program in this boat, however, and we panicked together, resulting in a week of nervous breakdowns and frantic writing to bring ourselves up to speed. I am NOT done with this sucker by a long shot, and am hoping to have a reasonable draft (ie, one that needs tweaking but is in the ballpark) by 17 March, when I have to face her in person, because I am speaking at a conference with her that day...needless to say, this upcoming week is one of writing and reading and thinking and rounding up artifacts.

But today, Friday is most definitely my friend, and I shall enjoy the moment.

tender

I haven't quite worked up to shooting and displaying the status of all my WIPs, but I think that's coming. For now, here's a peep at a thing I did actually finish in 2013, the first FO!

It's the IAD(dulles) hat, by cafemama, a pattern I've knit before. An easy mix of knits and purls, to which I added a silly braided tassel for emphasis. One lovely, squishy, heartbreakingly beautiful skein of Malabrigo Twist, in the BEST colorway ever, "Tender." A mix of bloody reds, clay and soft, sage greens. So unexpected that I had to buy it last summer, because I'd never seen such a juxtaposition, before, or so I thought. Later, recalling my utter surprise, my first return spring in VA, in 2001, that new tree buds weren't "spring green," but grey, red, purple, brown...and the mountains aren't really green in March and April, but instead, this dappled golden mix of bud-colors flecked with green. So maybe a "tender" color. I dunno. 

My heart is tender this morning, Valentine's Day, to be spent alone, with dogs and work all day. Huge sorrow, for a friend who prepares to say goodbye to an adored new dog, a pup who has been diagnosed with an unusual orthopedic condition that would require a $2,000 operation, plus dysplasia in both hips. This would maybe be do-able, as he's young, but he's also displaying unpredictable temperament problems, resource guarding...she is a dog trainer, and works a lot with therapy dogs, and needs a working partner. They have not been able to successfully address the resource guarding issue, and it seems to be increasing. She phoned his breeder, who won't take him back. I know that she is utterly wretched, right now, laid low by this blow, which comes on the heels of losing her beloved older dog to hip issues last year. 

What happens to the "perfect storm" of a dog? In Cricket's case, learning management tools, relentless obedience training, and the judicious use of a crate helped me to keep a dog who has, on occasion, bitten people, attacked other dogs, and is fearful and anxious, due to breeding, lack of early socialization, and traumatic experience as a puppy. But Cricket doesn't resource guard. He has not shown aggression to me, and I can introduce him to people, through the use of toys and treats. Once you're in with Cricket, you're in. But I can feel some of my friend's heartache. I support her decision to euthanize, as the breeder won't take him back (another rant for another day) and she feels he can't be successfully rehomed. I know she will release him humanely and with love, and that this was not an easy decision to make. My love goes with her, this day. My own dogs' breeder would have taken Crick back (I signed a contract saying if I couldn't keep him, she was to be the first rehoming choice),  had I desired to rehome him, but of course, that was never a consideration. Cricket, the birthday boy, is here to stay, a boon companion. 

On to another tender thing, and a happier one. My hellebores bloomed this week - a true Lenten rose! Tender in hue, and a glad thing, since I planted them 2 years ago, and considered moving them, as they've done little up to this point. Finally, flowers! They seem to be spreading, as well. 

Happy St. Valentine's Day to all my readers. To my wolves, pagans, and partiers,  a festive and fertile (however you may interpret it) Lupercalia! May we be blessed with tender hearts, no matter how much trouble they give us. 

February fiber

Days of cold gray rain have intensified my desire to do little beyond swaddle myself in the down comforter and self-medicate with knitting and silly tv. But the appearance of daffodils and pink flowers on trees, in spite of the graygraygray seem to be snapping me out of it.

Somebody has a birthday coming up this weekend. Yes, my baby dog will be 7! Even though he's done little to deserve it, I will share a bit of steak with him. P will be home, so the likelihood of red meat increases. Maybe bison? Some frisbee in the churchyard? A muddy swim to top it all off? A dog's gotta celebrate his impending middle age, after all.

Knitting and spinning are continuing at a somewhat abbreviated pace, with more spinning than knitting. My spinning mojo rarely fluctuates - I love that wheel and visit it, if only for a few minutes, daily.

This is FiberCharmer bfl, in the Seven Eleven colorway. Wholly satisfying to spin, as bfl always is. It makes me feel like a good spinner. FiberCharmer is a local dyer, and I plan to shop her wares again and again. 

On the needles are way too many wips. Really. I should catalog them, as a blog entry, just for mojo raising. Perhaps it's fodder for another entry...I did corral them all into a basket (or two, I am a great one for baskets, y'know) and have resolved to more or less be faithful to them til they all somehow jump off the needles this year. I did finish a dishcloth last week, for my beloved soap and dishcloth swap, and a kneesock, as well. That sock had taken me since August to  knit, most of it being done to and from GA State, on the MARTA train. A kneesock is a long drawn out thing. Sock 2 has been cast on, and the toe already complete, though like its (fraternal because it's Noro) twin, it will spend most of its days languishing in my purse, waiting for some downtime in waiting rooms and on the light rail...

This weekend, P comes home to hang out for a few days; hopefully we'll manage a hike and some birding, as well as the Cricket birthday extravaganza. I have big plans to bake chocolate cupcakes with some pink buttercream, for the fluffy heart holiday, being celebrated late.