k-brow: waiting for barack...

...to make his big speech tonight on a Democratic convention pre-recorded show. Drinking red wine, roasting beets, broccoli cut up and ready to steam, mac n' cheese poised and waiting for the little melange dinner to pull together. It's clean out the fridge night, and I was craving the comfort of the Annie's White Cheddar n' Shells, but felt the need to balance it out with the veg I'm trying to integrate ever more thorougly into my diet. Ella is laying by my side, on the couch, a slightly stinky dustmop, while ever faithful Cricket is at my feet.

It's a Thursday that wants to be a Friday, as we had a 4-day teaching week this week. Staff development tomorrow, with a full day of self-betterment (P's cynical term) in the air-conditioned library. I'm of mixed emotions regarding this. While I welcome the full day of largely uninterrupted knitting (Koigu Chevron Scarf, here I come!) time, I would rather my time be spent either teaching or alone in the classroom, reflecting, planning, fixing what I've messed up and fine-tuning what's working. Or, incredible concept...an actual day off. Though I guess that's coming on Monday.

I dislike staff development with my coworkers, feel I know too well the little prescribed roles we all fall into, consider it a waste of time, and a golden opportunity to dig myself in deeper into trouble with the boss and team members. Only the knitting will save me. Koigu, flowing through my fingers, soothing me with its green kelpy calm, the violets and blues, a balm to my irritable soul. My roommate, the GT/tech teacher shares my desire to be completely left alone, as does the twitchy Sixth grade teacher. We'll sit in the back of the library. He'll mumble sotto voce and draw little caricatures all over his notebook. I'll knit furiously and the techie will sigh sadly and write comments on post-its and stick them discretely on her students' work. At lunch there will be spicy tuna bento and green tea. Small comforts in a thorny day.

My vermin war goes well; no sign of mice, (one trap sprung but no victim) diminishing ants and dead and dying cockroaches here and there. Yay boric acid powder! I will take this time to pay tribute to a key ally in my bug battle here in Nuuanu: (click for the full eyeful)
Our house is full of geckos, large and small, living behind pictures on the walls, in closets, on doorframes, in every room of the house. There are other lizards, too, but it's the geckos, rubbery and pinkish with the big round eyes and the suction-cup feet, that charm us, in spite of the mess they make, and their incessant squeaking and chirping. Whenever we see one, we always greet it, with a reminder to "do your part around here, buddy" to keep the cockroach population at bay. Cricket has caught them before, and occasionally, we see a 3-legged one or one who's missing a tail. I find them completely charming, which I guess is a good thing, because they are everywhere; I don't know of a place on all of Oahu, indoors or out, that doesn't host a gecko or two.


K'den, time to give Barack my full, rapt attention. I leave you with a pic of our view off our 31 steps, down toward the harbor and Liliha. Note the evening star, who reminds me of Inanna, a goddess I always associate with this time of year, end of summer, heading into fall. Even here.

k-brow: hands.

Aloha Friday here at last!! The week felt like a slog, until it pitched into fast-forward on Wednesday afternoon, and then there was just no stopping it. This weekend is already too piled up with social engagements, and I was nearly relieved when the most enjoyable possibility of all was cancelled - Cricket's playdate with his girlfriend Jazzy. Certainly the least effort for me, but I had a proto-migraine, and Jazzy's owner's kids were returning from their summer in France, so we decided to call it off. Poor Cricket. He's had the consolation of a trip with P out to Hank's Haute Dogs for a dinner run, but it's not the same thing as the romp with Jazzy the beautiful white shepherd.

I teach a fiber arts class on Wednesdays at school; we're doing weaving on cardboard looms, stitchery and will visit crochet. Here are some shots of my students' working hands:




I continue to enjoy the work, but the bite into my lazy time, not to mention the mojo-less knitting, is impressive. The junk digital camera prevents me from showing my sleeve efforts, about 5 inches in; mercifully there's more Olympics to carry me along, and then the Democrats promise to entertain me and fill me with optimism next week. I am seriously wondering about a new camera, but the Honda's also making an unseemly rattling noise at low speeds that threatens to bite into my slush fund.

In other news, and undocumented photographically, I made a cheesecake this week! From scratch! Complete with graham cracker crust! And it was easy-peasy! Joy of Cooking gave me the recipe, which I augmented with extra egg, fresh ginger, and grated lemon peel. I witnessed my formerly cheesecake-scorning husband eat it greedily, night after night for dessert. I no longer fear the springform pan, nor the graham cracker crust.

k-brow: the lion doesn't actually sleep, but i need to.

Slow...so slow today. I dined with the NRN last night, and then stayed up til all hours knitting. Had the day off from work, thanks to the celebration of Hawaii's admission into the US (which probably worked out better for the US military machine than for the poor Hawaiians, but there I go getting liberal again...). I slept in til about 10, then puttered aimlessly til this eve, when I went to work to pick up my camera, only to realize I left the cardreader in my desk! Arrrgh!

I'm waging war on vermin, my annual late-summer/early autumn pursuit. Roaches, ants and mice seem to explode here this time of year, and I'm routing them all out! Traps, baits, boric acid, all strategically placed out of reach of the ever-curious Cricket, who does his share of hunting, but isn't quite up to population control usefulness, yet. I won't spray, and aside from roach baits, like to use the snappy snap traps for mice; I like my mice mercifully killed quickly, thank you.

Sorry if this is a gross topic for folks who might have logged in hoping for a knitting update. Let's just say "sleeves" and let it be at that.

P called from Saipan or Tinian or someplace out in the South Seas. Complaining about the food, though mostly complaining about his vegetarian co-workers' complaints, as he had plenty to eat, being a carnivore. Whining about the heat, which of course kept me from whining about any kind of Hawaiian weather, I know it's far, far cooler and breezier here than in the Marianas. He'll be back Sunday eve. I rather enjoy my time home alone, but I've missed him, recently. It does get a bit lonely here, especially since I'm not a get-up-and-go-out kinda girl. The NRN dinner was a pleasure, even though I did sacrifice another Aloha Knitters night. Next week, I'll make it back there. We went to The Hungry Lion last night. It's our closest restaurant, a cheesy little diner gone quirky, with murals of cartoony lions, and a center pillar painted up as a big banyan tree. Cheerful wildebeest and antelope, and an altogether jolly looking lion motif. Fine saimin, and they make a good pancake, as well. Mostly I like the fact that it's just down the road; Nuuanu doesn't have much in the way of restaurants and commerce (unless you count Queen Emma's palace and the Pali Lookout) but The Lion is open 24 hours! And we only stayed til 10:45...

Today's tarot card was the 8 of pentacles. This card speaks of slow steady effort, without obsessiveness over the end result. An encouraging card, as I chip away at managing my mood, my vermin, my dogs, my sleeves.

DisKnit: The Knitting Party and quiet

Dear KBrow,

Enjoy the quiet. I'm recovering happily from an intensive round of knitting at my house with 8 other knitters from my ravelry group. I put all the leaves in the table, and rounded up all the chair. I ordered up some yummy food from Astor Mediterranean including a massive bowl of beautiful hummus, felafal, spanikopita, chicken skewers, etc. The other knitters brought beautiful desserts and wine. They all petted curtis and a few threatened to take him home.

Danielle of Knit-A-GoGo who is now a full-time knitting instructor and knitting event organizer gave guidance to us all for about three hours as we worked on a the Woodland Shawl by Thrify Knitter. Reflecting the incredible diversity of the group, we were all working with different types of yarn and with different degrees of concern for accuracy. I am the casual knitter, though I am going to have to frog a few rows from the later evening knitting when the wine took effect. I wish I had taken pictures of the event, but I was not in the photo mode since I had my normal need to be the "hostess with the mostest." So all I have are pictures of the aftermath, but they help tell the story as well.

Here is the pattern, and my centerpiece of yarn, double points, scissors, wine. They are on top of my most successful weaving from over 25 years ago when I took classes at Springwater (now sadly closed).

We had a white elephant exchange (also known as a yankee swap, and many other things). I went first and was pleased to get this in my favorite colors. Maybe because the other knitters were concerned about its shaky heritage (dyed by somebody who ended up going out of the yarn dying business in a great flouce on Ravelry, there is some question about whether the dyes might run. Fortunately the solution is apparently to rinse it with some vinegar nearby and fix the colors that way.) Or maybe they all knew this single skein of yarn contains all my favorite colors they let me keep it. Maybe because we are all such yarn lovers there was not a lot of stealing going on and most people seem pleased with their random things.

Here is my scarf so far. Obviously I chose not to do it in the original pattern but with worsted yarn bought from the amazing Solitude Yarns that I splurged on some time in this odd spring. I think it is going to work very well in this pattern and will make me a worthy scarf for the coming winter. It is not going to be gifted, it is for me!

KBrow, enjoy the rest of the quiet. I think I'm going to try an afternoon of knitting and reading. I haven't done it in a while and after a full day of playing and talking yesterday, I need the rhythm.

For Peace.

k-brow: the lost weekend, part 1

As in it's the first weekend I've been home alone in many moons. Silent. Phone off. Computer mostly off. Olympics watching, some, and lots of knitting. Lots of tarot, writing in longhand and dog cuddling. Peace and quiet and high winds. Many hours of sleep, I went down at 7pm, up again briefly at 10, for peppermint tea and a wee dinner of black beans and rice, and then back out til 7am.

I gave myself the long delayed tarot reading, and was really impressed with what came up, because it did sum up my current state of mind. Which is, basically, we make our own theatrics, and sometimes it's good to take a step away from it all, and just listen to the inner voice for awhile. The Hermit is a great card that rarely appears for me. When it does, especially, combined with The Moon and my old friend Justice, well, watch out. I was mightily pleased to be back with the cards, as I find looking at life through the tarot perspective to be enormously grounding and comforting.

Last week, the ever-kind Acornbud indulged me by going out to P's favorite ramen joint (he was already out of town) so I could eat katsu curry. She was kinder to her body than me, and ordered something healthy, like vegie ramen. I've become a little addicted to Japanese curry, here in Hawaii. It's not really like Indian curry, the flavor is a little sweeter, and the sauce is more liquid. Poured over a crispy chicken katsu cutlet, and sticky short grain rice, with some sour kimchee or pickled veggies, oh yum. The place in question is Taiyo Ramen, at Ala Moana. Fine, fine stuff. Enough of a serving that I could take some home, and enjoy it for lunch at school the next day.

Tonight's dinner, since I cleaned the fridge out and have nothing really to eat, unless one counts plain yogurt and some watermelon, might have to be a takeout of another type. Zippys? Or maybe Pad Thai from the thai garage down Nuuanu ave. Those are really the closest restaurants to us, unless I count TCBY...

I'm having an itch to cast on for a new project, but have resolved not to do so until I get Minimalist and then Must Have off the needles. Be strong. I wonder if knitting on the already-cast-on Icarus shawl (dropped like a hot stone, shortly after it was started, for no good reason) is cheating? No. The sleeves of Minimalist must be knitted. I've got the dvd of Jane Austen's "Persuasion", the one with Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth and Amanda Root as Ann Elliot, to enchant myself over, so I'm good to go. Go Ann, get out there and get your man! I'm gonna go get my pad thai. Yay.

k-brow: the meme issue

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Lessee...August 1998. Was living in a cute little cottage off a big public park in Sacramento. I'd just gotten Ella that summer, and she was a tiny, silly puppy. I'd probably just met, or was about to meet DisKnit, and I was a very new knitter. I was into planting rose bushes and yarrow and hollyhocks in my yard. I had a long commute to work and I hated it.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

I'm saying it's for tomorrow, since my only to-do for now is to get some shut-eye:
1. LEAVE WORK EARLY, dammit.
2. haul off the recycling.
3. watch the Olympic opening ceremony, and knit some, though not on any Olympic project.
4. take the dogs to the schoolyard for some frolicking
5. wash some dishes.


3) Snacks I enjoy:

- whole wheat toast with Nutella
- pita chips and hummus
- tamari pumpkin seeds
- Seay's Almond Royale toffee things
- cottage cheese and tomatoes with salt n' pepper


4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

- have my dogs professionally groomed, every six weeks
- bankroll my sister's vacation fund
- fund art and music in public schools
- build a house in the Carson Valley, CA, with access to Grover Hot Springs
- go see this Arie Smit painting more often

http://www.6foot6.com/fr/insane/WALDRON2.HTM

5) Places I’ve lived:

-The Gambia in a mud hut
- Fort Devens, MA in army housing
- Richmond, VA in a 'gatehouse to an old Catholic orphanage
- San Francisco, CA in a small victorian house
- in a teepee out in the Arizona desert for 3 months in some awfully cold weather

Feel free to do the meme. I'm always the last kid on the block to do the meme, so feel free to do it over again.

k-brow: thinking aloud

If ever there was a time for laying low... I cleared a huge hurdle tonight, with the big parent meeting, where I talked for an hour straight about stuff I was just in the process of figuring out. Homework policy. Integrated instruction. Where I stand on pogs, pets and the standard division algorithm. I don't think I made them very happy with my fondness for the math program we teach. Sorry folks, I love Everyday Math. Screw the standard algorithm. Naturally, I was diplomatic, a state which took me all afternoon to work up to. I hate Back to School Night, but now it's over and I can breathe and relax until mid October when Parent conferences roll around. Back to keeping the head down and working my ass off. Not a problem, for the most part. I did take some time to gush a bit over the kids; by far the easiest class I've taught in years. Nice folks, those 5th graders.

Bits of Knits Chris and I had a conversation a year ago, about the weirdness of having a blog; the freedom you feel writing about your life, till those folk who know you start reading it. Now I truly usually don't mind this, and usually do a fairly good job of censoring myself into reasonable amounts of coherent sanity, but it all has me thinking about the evolution of my online writing career.

First there was the Diary-X account, which was read by no one I knew in realtime, at least in the beginning, and I felt pretty free in writing about what I write about, which isn't much; at that time there was the dog training, the weightlifting, the knitting, and the adjustment to my new Virginia lifestyle. And the pagan stuff, details of rituals, meditations, workings. Later, D-X crashed and I played around with Livejournal, which I like, in so many ways, and found ultimately unsatisfying, in light of my growing fascination with the whole crafterblog thing, which seems to live around Blogger and Typepad. So on to Blogger, on to The Knitted Brow and this business of having most of my readers NOW be people I do know, and quite well at that. Not a problem for these readers, but I still sometimes get these moments of...oh my gosh, people read me, people know about the blog! Aaaak, I've been exposed! And then the completely conflicting feeling of comment whorishness, wanting more readers, even though my posting's not so frequent or alluring. As Reya said to me, when I complained about feeling conflicted by my Leo nature, "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be loved, y'know."

Here, I feel pressure (self-induced, I might add) to post pix, show knitting progress, participate in all the online fun n' games like Corners of My Home, Project 365, 101 things in 1001 Days... and it just shuts me down. Cuz, like, I want to write about the goddess, tarot, middle aging and The Dark Night of the Soul that occasionally comes around. Only you can't always just drop that stuff down in the middle of a knitblog, or so I've convinced myself. To quote Blogless Michelle, "Pah!"


4 years ago, I was here, or headed here, at Stonehenge. No connection. Just wishing I was on vacation somewhere cool and peaceful. Or on vacation at all. P's off to Saipan tomorrow. Work, but also, no doubt, the chance to wallow over some nice reefs.

Not sure I'll make it to Knit Night this week. I'll play it by ear. Home alone means it's too easy to grab the takeout, and curl up on the couch and knit. Minimalist needs the facetime. I need the downtime.

k-brow: low of mojo, red of head.

A little rain blows in off the Pali. It's been hot today, and the breeze is suddenly cool. I'm drinking iced peppermint tea and trying to get up the gumption to bathe the dogs, both of whom are still dirty and in need of haircuts.

Little knitting mojo of late, driven out by the all-consuming job and some mysteriously aching wrists. My theory is that it's all the writing on the damn chalkboard. A funny, if lame excuse. Both sweaters seem stalled in the "half-a-front+2 sleeves-to-go" stage. You know... the one where 2 weeks of effort and a little finishing would render me a sweater, but I can't seem to pull it off.

I've been coloring my hair this summer. Now everyone in my family is plagued/blessed with rather premature silver. Though at this point, we're all pretty mature, I assure you. I sported a liberal frosting of grey hair in high school, and once in college, began to dye it, first with henna, and then various boxed potions. Every shade of red, brown and color-in-between. When I turned 40, I decided to cut all the dye out and see what I had naturally. Silvery on top and a lot of salt and pepper at the sides. I maintained this for a few years, but this spring, I started to want to see a little color up top again. So I mentioned this to my hairdresser, and she was all over it. I was thinking brown, she was thinking strawberry blonde. I let her have her way in June, and she turned me gingery red with blonde highlights, which came out well, if a bit surprisingly light. Today, she decided I needed to go brighter, so she added some more serious "red." Fun! I like it, and will keep it up for a few months, at least.

Of course my camera's at work, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Happy slightly late Lammas! One of my favorite pagan holidays, the Celebration of the First Harvests. All about summer's bounty coming in, and the waning sun. The sacrifice of the god. Of course here in Hawai'i, we don't see a terribly cold dark winter, but the days are getting slightly shorter. Returning to work has shortened my sense of an endless, brilliant day, anyway. The harvest seems to be bringing nice plums and stone fruits from the mainland, these days, as well as some superb apple bananas. Must be the season. I drew the Hanged Man tarot card the other day, and realized, with a start, that Lammas was upon us.

Earlier this week, a dinner with the NRN, minus one, who could not be with us. Delicious food, wine, and delicious catching up with friends. I skipped knit night on Thursday, which didn't influence the mojo one way or the other, I think. Sometimes, I think, knit night is a joy, and at other times, it feels like just one more place I have to be at a certain time, and not necessarily a soothing culmination to a weary day.

I have been reading, with great relish, these days, the genre of blogs which fascinates me endlessly, the homestead/homeschooling blogs. Two of my favorites are Sarah's Homestead Blog and Handmade Homeschool. Since I am neither a homeschooler nor homesteader, it's a look into a life that could have been. Sarah of the homesteading blog, is a dyer of wool and roving; her Maisy Day handspun is available at Hello Yarn! I believe.

Since the camera's at school, filled with unprinted pix of cheerfully rambunctious 5th graders, I offer you my last Star City Motor Madness memory, the flamin' car in the parking lot. Don't you love these colors?

k-brow: potato pause

It is raining great white sheets of Nuuanu wind-driven rain, as I write this. I am heating this most excellent veggie soup for dinner's first course. It's a multi-course dinner because I'm awaiting the completion of a 3-hour baked potato.It's gonna be about 2 hours more for the potato, so I need the soup first to keep me from bonking. I first learned about this slow-cooked method for potatoes from Rachel's blog, and gave it a try. Dude! Those potatoes are substantially different for the extra 2 hours of baketime. Just try it. Yum. So. The soup, also, is a soup with a difference, that difference being the bit of parmesan cheese rind (carved off a Costco Parmesano Reggiano wedge) tossed in as it bubbled away. The cheese rind disentegrates, and adds a richness to the soup that makes it more than the sum of its parts. Especially if you add a cup of wine and lots of garlic. Otherwise, it's an unremarkable scratch veggie soup, but it's a mainstay around here.

Today was my first day with students. Fun, but I'd forgotten how frantic the first days of school are, before I've learned the new schedule, and I felt like the kids could smell my insecurity. Aaaaak! So many directions, so much talking, so many decisions to make. My resource teacher job of yesteryear, in the spider hole of the cubical, was so low-key by comparison. It's entirely pleasurable, though, and I'm feelin' the love, big time, for the students and the job. But ask me again in 2 weeks how it's going.

I'm going to go make a martini. Put on the new "X-Files" compilation dvd and crank out some moss stitch. I leave you with a shot of Ella, who does not enjoy this windy weather, and is extra clingy. The moving trees and slamming doors and rattling window blinds make her nervous.

k-brow: laying low with my koigu

A little of this and a little of that, and mostly working my butt off, trying to get that classroom ready for Tuesday, which is the day that those 26 5th graders show up. I'm mostly ready, enjoying the planning of curriculum and the anticipation, though everything would be so much more ready if I had 2 or 3 more weeks. It has been many a year, 4 to be exact, since I've been in charge of an entire classroom. I've spent the past few years working as a resource teacher, an assistant teacher, or as a specialist, and thus, have not had to worry about the planning of every minute of the day. I forgot how much one has to consider the management of time and materials. Yick. Rude awakening.

Knitting has helped me navigate our endless staff meetings, without remarking to my boss that "hey, we don't need you to make a Power Point presentation AND read it to us." The Minimalist Cardigan, with its endless miles of moss stitch in the soothing green Cashmerino Aran is just the ticket for keeping me suitably passive in such trying times. I'm through the back and 1.5 sides, and will knit both sleeves at the same time. I'm hoping to finish this puppy by the time the Olympics begin, so I can concentrate on Olympic knitting; project to be determined...

A peek at the endless miles o' moss:

This is not a very good rendition of this color. It's way less yellow, and more of a nice clovery green in reality.

Last Wednesday, Acornbud, P. and I went to see The Dark Knight at Ward Center. What a thrilling movie! Dark and awesome in every way. Not feel-good, not even one little bit, but so riveting and relentlessly fast-paced that I didn't even mind. After the movie, we felt the need for Thai food, so I drove us to Restaurant Row, for some Payao. Or that was my intent. In the RR parking garage, getting out of my car, I stepped in someone's spilled slimy frappucino or some such coffee-oil slick and fell, partway under my car, taking a faceplant right into the concrete. Where I lay, crying and soaking up the coffeeslime til P. and Acornbud helped me up and sponged me off. Lots of blood; my glasses cut my eyebrow and head wounds bleed like crazy. Needless to say, there was no Thai food. Now my boy P is the survivor of many freak accidents, and Acornbud herself is a doctor, so I was in good hands, though they both seem to have graduated from the same hard-nosed bedside manner school of manners. P: "Looks like you're gonna have a real shiner here!" Acornbud: "You're lucky you didn't lose that eye!" After the parking garage triage, we dropped Acornbud off to eat pea soup, and I went home and sent P back out for Chinese food, after he denied me the martini which would have made it all better. No concussion. But I did have a terribly sore face the next couple o' days, and a mild black eye, pictured here in a mending state.


I'm trying to take back some of my time, these days. During my weeks at my parents' house, I was bedazzled by how relaxed I was, away from the drama of work. I read a lot and got so much knitting done. I'm struck by how much time I spend messing around on the web, blogreading, emailing, timewasting and procrastinating. With the return to work, and longer workdays, at that, I'm trying to open up some more free time for myself, and more quiet time, as well. To knit, to read, to do tarot, to just "be," as well as hang with P and the pups. I'm done with agility, Ella's retired, Cricket's not ready, and so I'm done, for the moment, with formal dog training. Laying low is the order of the day, as we move into the harvest season.

In VA, I didn't do much fibery shopping, but my sis and I did get to the wonderful Mosaic Yarns where I indulged in some Koigu acquistion. Now I'm still not over my fervent belief in the Koigu curse, but since my Chevron Scarf is going well, if a bit endlessly, I'm thinking my curse may just be limited to socks. I'm thinking Eunny's Endpaper Mitts for these skeins of Koigu goodness:

I taught myself to do 2 color knitting at my sister's house one evening, and magic loop, too! A fiddly experience, and my work was not too pretty, but I've got the basics down, more or less.

Look! It's the opening of Opalescence, the Akamai Knitter's new Etsy shop! Go! Buy! Give her love!

DisKnit: A boring color and a secret?

you are darkkhaki #BDB76B

Your dominant hues are red and green, so you're definately not afraid to get in and stir things up. You have no time for most people's concerns, you'd rather analyze with your head than be held back by some random "gut feeling". Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

I am not Khaki. But maybe after a long boring week at work and then a busy weekend volunteering at the Capital Fringe Festival, my colors are mixing.

But some people might want to think about Friday and what it might have meant to KBrow. Of course, one person missed the chance for a timely celebration. But at least I didn't make you one of these cakes. But then you are not a podiatrist.

Oh, did anyone want to see non-Khaki knitting, let's go looking:

They were given to my Mom who was visiting via Alaska and returning there, so needed wool socks in July.

Back to lethargy before one more volunteer shift and then the end of the fringe party.

the infrequent one.

k-brow: medium sea green

you are mediumseagreen #3CB371

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Lots of stuff happening. More to come.

dear lucy

Dear DisKnit,

One of us has to post eventually. I guess it's me. This is sort of the "what I did on my summer vacation since I didn't visit you" entry. Mostly I hung out with the 'rents. I spent 2 weeks virtually internet-free, and got an impressive amount of reading, knitting, writing and movie watching done. Kept my ailing dad company, helped my mom out, coddled the tomato plants, and ate more watermelon and summer-ripe tomatoes than I thought was possible. It was the summer of red fruit, I guess.

My sis and I attended Roanoke's "Star City Motor Madness" car show; a sort of loosely organized craziness, in which everyone with an unusual car convenes on Williamson Road to show them off. We milled around, admiring, speculating and mostly people watching. Drinking beer and eating Mexican food. Later walking it off, over several miles of quiet, firefly-lit neighborhood.

I think, growing up in the country with parents who kept us on a short leash, left us capable of making our own fun.

A few pix here from the automotive extravaganza. Knitting progress and other such stuff to come.

love,

K-brow


The setting; the strip mall strip of Roanoke's main sububan drag. Dusk, after a big storm. Humid and genial ambiance.


My sis, enjoying the automotives.


A pink skull isn't all that scary.


What is it about car shows that bring out the boa constrictor carrying guys?

DisKnit: there is a time for worry and for knitting

I am going to stay somewhat quiet for a while. April and May were hard -- my 100 year old grandfather, William Lancelot Holland, grew ill for the first major time in his life. I spent more time in hospitals than I had before and learned how to transfer him to a better care situation. But recovery didn't happen and he died on May 9. Next weekend we have the funeral in Mass. and I've been reading his memoirs to think about what to say, but also just thinking. I did learn that acute health care crisis do not inspire me to much knitting. A conference I went to in Montana a week ago was much more useful I turned the heels on two socks knit at once on one circular needle. It did not prove that hard in the quiet light of powerpoint, but was impossible to contemplate admist suction, palliative care, and 1-800 numbers. So here's some incomprehensible images of that accomplishment and one of my grandfather and I in the hospital.



Hold us all in your light and needles.

k-brow: school's out fo' summah!

Cue my man Alice Cooper. I am free, baby, I am FREE!

Here's a little peek at something I decided to do with those balls o' Koigu. Gets me off the hook for making socks, and since that Koigu's already shared its feelings with me about socks, I figured we'd try something else.
But this isn't really my knitting focus these days - that'd be the Minimalist Cardigan, which is actually making progress, thanks to ongoing Battlestar Galactica watching and the heartbreaking season finale of "The Tudors". All's I can say about "The Tudors" is that Jane Seymour is in waaay over her head. sigh.

Yes, my friends, school hath ended, and I am pretty much done with the work to be done on-site for the moment. But since I am changing grade levels, and the school is radically changing the way reading and writing instruction is done, it's more or less a working vacation for me. Not really a problem, or it wouldn't be if we didn't already have just a 6-week summer. ugh. So I've got a healthy stack of curriculum maps, teacher's editions and articles to read, and planning dates set up with my new pseudo-teammates. I say pseudo, because I'm under no impression that we are a functional teaching team, but being at adjacent grade levels requires some planning and coordination. meh...

Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to all well-wishers and commenters for my dad's health. He's doing well in rehab, right now, and I will be going to Virginia on June 23, to stay for a couple of weeks to hang and have family time, and to possibly, just maybe, stop my mom from firing up the riding mower for a couple of weeks. My mom is ON IT with the yard maintenance, apparently. She's a scream, but really, what business has a 70 year old got riding around on an acre of land on the John Deere? Or whatever little tractor-ette they have now... I should be grateful for her friskiness, and hope I am so vigorous at that age. Anyway, all Salem-Roanoke knitters, be advised; I'll be around til July 7, or so, and will diligently attend any knitting events, cafe klatches or other such crafty ventures you have going on at the time. Hopefully my sister will know your schedule, otherwise, drop a note in the comments for me to find.

I'm tired. Too much to do, and nothing really is an emergency anymore. Miss Akamai gave me a big pile o' pencil roving that I'm tempted to spin up, but the evil gremlin also brought back an unbelievable array of spindles from MS&W-fest, and so has infected me with this perception that I can no longer spin without a new spindle. I'm telling you, there's not a damn thing wrong with my current spindle! Pah! Still, it was nice to admire her pretties, and I think I may get to spindling again this weekend, just to celebrate the summer.

But right now, I have to take some furry friends out in the developing drizzle and run them ragged.

k-brow: finito!

The stripey socks, they are finished. Mindless knitting, with Austermann Step in the color "laub," on #1 addi circular needles. Stockinette at its best. These are for my sister, simply because she was audacious enough to ask for them in a blog comment, many moons ago.

Little else going on here at Chez Nuuanu Estate. Dry, sunny and windy is a welcome change from hot, hazy and humid, I assure you. I've been baking more bread, working longer hours, in preparation for school's end, and letting the house go. meh. I'll catch up in a week, for that's all we have left of this school year. The funding for my reading resource job dried up, as our school's enrollment dropped. Thus, I become a classroom teacher, once more - 5th grade this time. A far and welcome cry from Kindergarten, let me tell you. Now I've got sex ed, drug n' alcohol ed, (thank the Goddess for DARE - the national program for this aspect of my job) number theory, the American Revolution, and major forays into the Scientific Method to occupy my mind. Fortunately, I've met the students, and really like them. High hopes for a fun year, and no real designs on becoming a forever 5th grade teacher, at this point. Who knows?

Summer beckons seductively, with beaching, an agility trial for Ms. Ella, a renewed determination to get some sweaters off the needles, and a long visit back East with familly. My dad fell and broke his pelvis a couple of weeks ago, and is in a long-term rehab/convalescent facility while he recuperates. At 80, this is a serious injury, and we're looking at probably 30 - 60 days in the place. He was diagnosed, last year with myeleofibrosis which has left him anemic, weak and achey, though he's responded really well to recent blood transfusions. My sis and I are going to try and work some things out with my mom about getting some household help for her, and in-house care for my dad, if that's needed. Our mom is a can-do type who often bites off more than she can chew, and doesn't always consider her own physical limitations.

Meanwhile, since I'm looking at a long boring plane ride to Roanoke, VA, I couldn't resist setting up a little travel knitting...

What can be done with plenty o' Koigu in 2 different colorways? All this Koigu, by the way, has been ripped from failed socks, in my now-abandoned attempt to break the Koigu curse that haunts me. I LOVE this yarn, its scrunchiness, its "dry" feeling, the lucious colorways. But I have yet to knit it into a pair of socks that doth please me. Fortunately, it's not a troublesome yarn to frog out, and I have a feeling its new incarnation will be the pleasing antidote to my sock woes.

k-brow: bad reputation

I suddenly realize that my last 2 blog posts are about days I take off from work. Yikes. Seriously, folks, I have been to work every day between those two days. I'm just saying.

k-brow: brainvog and a diminishing work ethic

This was taken about a week ago, and gives a pretty good impression of how things are around here when the trade winds stop blowing. Click for a big scary view of the downtown harbor area, as seen from Nuuanu schoolyard, where I regularly violate the leash law, after hours. Vog, which gives the weather-obsessed among us something to fret over, also stings the eyes, scratches up the throat, and causes a brainfog of stunning proportions in those susceptible to such maladies. Or maybe it's a brainvog?


I took a day off yesterday, and my announcing this at work caused a firestorm of "Why? Are you sick? What's wrong with you? Is everything okay?" Really, I discovered that I had an unused personal day, and hastened to correct that issue pronto. I work with teachers who rarely take time off unless they're sick or have a pressing issue to take care of in the 9-5 world. Not me. I'm a great lover of playing hookey from school. As a kid, I took regular time off, with my parents' permission. My dad would frequently grant the "lay off from school day," in spite of the fact that he would never miss a day of work. My sister got the work ethic gene in our family, and is known far and wide as a hard-working, loyal employee. Me? Well, let's just say that I work hard when I'm at work, but like to put it out of my mind, off-campus. But I think my coworkers believe I'm a slacker...

Only 13 more school days left. Then I can indulge my not-so-inner slackass openly and with impunity!

Here's a shot of the most lovely pink double hibiscus in my yard. I want to eat it up, or spin it into something to knit up. This photo is, quite possibly, the only thing I did yesterday of note. Okay, maybe not. I knit 3 rows of sock. I drank a mai tai at the Halekulani hotel. I clipped my dogs' faces. All reasons to stay home on a warm spring day, no?

k-brow: of werewolves and baking

I took a day off today, as I've been deliriously busy at work; teaching, attending inservices, giving inservices... it looks like I'll probably be used at my school again next year, as the reading resource teacher and all around data geek. Not my dream job, but tolerable enough, and far less stress than being a classroom teacher. Less fun, too, but I'll take what I can get. So, I planned for a very festive domestic goddess-y type day of baking and knitting, but awoke with my old friend, the menstrual migraine, at 5am. Decided that I'd be damned if it would establish a beachhead in my day, and immediately began to medicate. I have it at bay, now, and have been reasonably productive, toiling away at my latest project:

I've never baked bread, for real, from scratch before. I used to own a bread machine, and used it quite often, mostly for pizza dough, but got rid of it when I went packing away to Hawai'i. I've been really enjoying the breads of Great Harvest a lot, recently, especially a millet-sunflower bread they make on Wednesdays. But all this homemade bread has served to spark my curiosity about the process, and I decided to do a bit of experimentation myself. I'm using the basic recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book, and spent the morning mixing, kneading and baking. I haven't tasted it yet, the loaves are still cooling. I know already they're a little too brown for my tastes; a bit hard-crusty, but they smell heavenly and seem to have risen nicely. One thing about this book is that it is explicit in its directions about kneading and mixing. It doesn't tell you how long to knead the dough; instead, it lets you know how the dough will look and act when it is ready to be set aside for a rise. Hard work, but fun to play with, and I'm really looking forward to that first warm slice!

Here's my other little project:

It's baby Icarus! One repeat of the first chart and then some, and coming along enjoyably, if a bit slowly. I cast on for this on May 1, and completely wrecked it, after about 20 rows, ripped it out completely, and cast on again and have been chugging away on it, since.

Another look at its bones; that's what this first chart reminds me of, is a spine, with ribs running off it. Nice thought.


Last night, I went over to Acornbud's. She lives just about a mile from me, as the crow flies. Except there are no crows to speak of, on Oahu. As the Mynah bird flies. We had an evening of knitting, tea and a most enjoyable viewing of Kibakichi 2. Maybe not the best samurai film available, and possibly not the best werewolf film, but one would be hard-pressed to find a better samurai werewolf film. Old Japan sure was full of monsters, and I've gotta say, since my induction into Kibakichi fandom, I'm rooting for them. Oppressed underdogs for the most part, and just trying to get along. Kibakichi the first is a better movie, but I can't complain, and indeed am hoping for another offering in the near future. Acornbud was rocking the impossibly beautiful alpaca; we've both been sampling the sale offerings at Webs, this month, in light of the fact that Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is just too far away.

A birthday shout out to my baby sister today! Hope it's a blissful one, and sorry I couldn't be around to liven it up!

k-brow: hither and thither

A full month went by with nary a peep from me; I trust that Lucy was every bit as busy. I've been embroiled in the usual pursuits, only everything has been cranked up a notch in intensity. Work is working me in its usual "final 6 weeks of the school year" manner. I'm taking training classes with BOTH dogs, which is utter madness, and ensures that my Saturdays are completely dogcentric in a smelly, sweaty, up-too-early way. Knitting has been at a mighty standstill, with sore wrists, a lash of migraine that took 3 days to unwind, and just general pokiness. But I've broken through some of the wall, and managed to finish my Project Spectrum Fire project. Behold the flaming bamboo Clapotis! Off the needles, and not a minute too soon, as I was mightily sick of the endlessness of it all. Pretty, drapey, but I have yet to weave those ends in. There's a surprise, too, but I'll save the surprise ending for another entry. Meanwhile, warm your hands by my fire:

For those wondering what the suburban jungle of Nuuanu looks like, here's a picture of our street, just outside our front gate. Note the serious cloud cover? It's VOG - I took this shot about 2 weeks ago, right before the vog got really bad. Last Friday, it was so intense in Kailua, where I teach, that my eyes stung and my throat was sore all day. Rain has come and settled some of it, plus the tradewinds have returned to clear us up somewhat. I dont' think all the electrical wires crossing everywhichway in this area are such good feng shui, do you?

To ease my stress, I've been doing some thrifting, lately, and I scored this beautiful handmade bowl, at the Beretania Goodwill for fifty cents. I wonder what its story is? Who made it, who loved it, how it ended up sitting there on that dusty shelf? On that same trip, I also found a nice black t-shirt and some tacky plastic baskets for my classroom, to hold school supplies, so it was a huge haul. But only a month later, the shirt has a hole. meh.


In other news, Chelsea and I are KAL-ing on the Icarus shawl from Interweave Knits. Today was our cast-on day. Pix of the wee nascent sprout to come.

DisKnit: March Learnings

A beautiful spring day here in Washington and I've had a hard time motivating to a particular task or fortune. Last weekend, as the picture above shows I wandered through the wonders of Dumbarton Oaks Garden in early spring. Absolutely amazing. Like most other "non-Easter" visitors, I was intent on photography. I'm found of the one above. But I also really like the one below though it is more abstract:

And here is the mystery test for you far away from the East Coast spring. What kind of blossom?

Tomorrow I go for yarn pleasure at a yarn sale organized through the usefulness of Ravelry. You can read all about it at the Homespun Yarn Party website: http://www.homespunyarnparty.blogspot.com/

The big accomplishment of my knitting life was learning this super cool cast on for toe-up socks. Many of the knitters in my raverly-organized Knitting Group are fans of circular needles and toe-up socks. I've been doubtful because I learned socks on dpns and didn't really see the hype. But I was weary of my father's second sleeve last night and decided to ball this lovely yarn I bought from Woolarina at a craft fair. And then I decided I wanted to learn this toe up method. I found this pattern called Lifestyle Toe Up Socks which is more of a formula for knitting socks then a pattern. Since I love formulas for making sweaters, this appealed immensely. But the first thing she starts off with is the miraculous "magic cast-on" by Judy Becker. You can read all about it in Knitty, but it involves twisting the yarn around the points of your circular needle. It is easy, rhythmic, and means the sock starts off with its toe sewn shut. It made doing the "magic loop" on few stitches much more steady. I know I am gushing, but it was cool to learn something so useful so quickly. Here's the progress so far:

While I did this learning, I watched Brother's Keeper, the odd story of a quartet of elderly brothers in upstate New York. One of whom was accused of killing his other brother. They all lived together with little education, tending to cows, birds, and rarely doing much else. They didn't wash, their neighbors tended to leave them alone even when in town for their hamburgers. But when the "state" accused the old man, the people rallied around him, holding dances, hiring a lawyer. Less than the legal drama, I liked the look at how eccentric people shape their lives. I've always have like that kind of viewing experience. But I'm not that eccentric.

However, last Wednesday night I did wear the below hat to the Easter Bonnet party at the restaurant next door. The party wasn't as fun as it might have been since most people were hat-less, but I got some praise for the Peeps Hat and enjoyed the half-price wine.

Here's me:


Here's a close up of the hat in construction mode (note glue gun, poor peeps):

k-brow: randomly random

Red tagged me for this meme, which I've done before, but that which is random changes, so I'll give it another go.

Five Random Things

1. My "uniform" of leisure time is a faded soft black t-shirt and khaki shorts. Rubber slippers optional. Seriously. If you see me out and about, you probably see me in some version of this outfit; it's one I've worn since college, some 20-something years ago. In cold weather (back when I lived where it was cold) the shorts were switched out for jeans, and the slippers were sneakers of some kind, but the black t-shirt remains the same. Needless to say, I've got a healthy collection of them in my dresser, and am always supplementing the collection.

2. I just caught a mouse in a trap. Our mouse war has started up again. I'm a little disturbed, as this mouse was big; could it be a juvenile rat? Rat Bastard has had the indiscretion to cruise around my counters for a few days, breaking and entering into a container of browned breadcrumbs, and eating some papaya seeds, and then, most outrageous of all, had the temerity to shit all over the counter. This is war, my friends.

3. I played Dungeons & Dragons with ardent enthusiasm throughout college. I may as well have majored in it. Then I played about once a year, for 10 years after, but only with the college friends who were my original D&D group. Weirdos, but I love 'em. The recent death of Gary Gygax has our group of gaming buds discussing whether or not we want to take up swords again, via iChat. Please do not comment to me that I may enjoy World of Warcraft, or Dark Age of Camelot or some such other massive multiplayer online roleplaying game. I won't. D&D was and still is about me and my geek friends being social and having fun together.

4. Today is a public holiday in Hawaii, called Kuhio Day, named for Prince Jonah Kuhio. P works in the Prince Jonah Kuhio building downtown, and yet, because he is a federal employee, he doesn't get the day off. Talk about bitter. I, too, feel it's a little wasted on me, as it falls on a day when I am already off work, due to spring break. I am going to celebrate by visiting Blogless Michelle in Waialua. There will be some knitting and perhaps some beaching, as well. Maybe I'll take some pix.

5. My dogs will spend the entire day in bed, if allowed to do so. Ella sleeps with us, and only gets up after the last human leaves the bed. Cricket sleeps in his crate, due to his habit of running around the house barking in the middle of the night if left out. As soon as someone gets up in the early am, they release him, and he joins the pack in the bed. And there, both dogs lay around, snoring and slugging, until the last human has gotten up, or they've been given the boot. I was reading somewhere that dogs need to sleep an average of 16 hours a day. These two seem to be getting their fill.

There, enough randomness. I am breaking the Random meme rules by not posting their rules, and also not tagging people. You all know you want to do this random thing, even though everyone's done it before. Everyone's got something else they need to share with the blogoverse!

k-brow: E is for Ella

G'Day Silverella, the little pocket dog that could do it all... the runt of her litter, I saw her in utero (well, saw that bulge, anyway), cuddled her as a 2 day old pup, and held my breath as she was bottle fed and carried around in her breeder's pocket because she was so small they were afraid she'd not make it on her own. Never knew she'd be mine, til the day came to go pick up the puppy that had been chosen for me (our dogs were puppy-tested, a la Volhard's) by the breeder. It's been mad, mad love ever since. She was my first dog, as an adult, and has been such a splendid companion, up for any sport or training, smart AND pretty, to boot. At 9, she remains my wildest, liveliest dog, and can throw some serious attitude, when she chooses. She's also completely reliable off leash, and virtually ignores other dogs on walks, so she's my easier dog, these days.

I got Ella right after we'd bought our house in Sacramento; I like to think of her as the dog who led me out into the world, introducing me to all sorts of new joys and tiny details that only dogs know. If not for Ella, I'd never have met my co-blogger DisKnit, whose dog Curtis was one of Ella's dearest canine friends. We both lived in dog-mad Curtis Park, when the dogs were pups. Now DisKnit is of the opinion that Ella is a wee bit neurotic, while my mom says she's just flat-out crazy. The breeder called her the "CEO and Board of Directors", and even around here, she's called Ms Bossybarks more often than not. But there's no better bedwarmer, no more reliable surf frisbee retriever, and no more enthusiastic beggar of handouts and crumbs in this house.

The camera just loves her, too.

DisKnit:: Politics of 1825

I am taking advantage of my first weekend home from my travels without a visitor to reconnect with my bills, blogs, and other worlds that vacationing and visitors distracted me from.

On Gold Puppy's blog a number of days (or weeks) ago, someone gave her this task (i.e. a meme in blog speak but I don't get that word):
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Like her -- my unknown neighbor who takes lovely pictures of my city -- I refuse the last part. But I stuck by the rule of the nearest book which happens to be a biography of my great great great or more grandfather, Joseph Duncan, Governor of Illinois, by my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Duncan Putnam. So here is the passage (the context is the Duncan's election Congress in 1825):

"A contemporary letter expresses this feeling: "What will the old members of Congress say when D. [Duncan] is seen to rise (if he ever should be so unfortunate) in the place of C. [Cook]. They must believe us madmen and fools." On the other hand, Mr. Brown, the author of the memoirs of Cook, says: It is but just to General Duncan to say that his constituents were happily disappointed in his subsequent development of talents and tact, rendering him a worthy successor to our second representative."

I hope that all of us will feel that way after the end of this long, long presidential election. But in honor of International Women's Day tomorrow (March 10), you will not get a portrait of the Governor/Representative, but his wife, Elizabeth Caldwell Duncan who I think had 10 children only 3 of whom lived to be adults. Her name carried down to my grandmother.


Okay on to the bills. And later some knitting.

k-brow: the sleepiness of it all

Just awakened from a nap... word to the wiser, don't take a muscle relaxant 2 days before if you wish to avoid sleeping your weekend away. sigh. Drugs have an extraordinarily long life in my bloodstream. Said muscle relaxant is part of the headache treatment plan, and it seems to have finally done its work, albeit soporifically. I even dozed through the whine of my neighbor's weedwhacking. What is it about Hawaii that causes everyone to mow their entire lawns with a weedeater? Get a goat, mister!

DisKnit has returned from CA and shamed me into both posting and knitting a little bit. She's good for me like that. I am toiling away on the straight rows of my Project Spectrum color-schemed bamboo Clapotis, not pictured here. Suffice to say, it's a fiery colored thing, with lots of orange, yellow and red. The bamboo yarn? Soft, and creepily cool to the touch, even though I don't think it'll be a cooling garment to wear. It's splitty and heavy, and I'm not feeling too much love, though I do think I'll feel it once I'm wearing it; Clapotis has that magical effect on me.

Here are some roses blooming in my neighborhood:

And a candle for the new moon:

And a shot of Ella (click the photo for the full-on crazy effect) turning on her crazy look, while Cricket shows off his cool trick of eating while reclining:

And now off to try and revive myself with some ice water and a walk.

DisKnit: D is for my fake name

I am back from California for almost 2 weeks but you would not know it from this blog. By fortiutous mistake, I forgot my camera and thus was able to spend 10 days on vacation without documentation. The time was great. Plenty of visiting with dear friends, a tiny-itsy-bit of work unrelated to the normal job, and 3 whole days hiking and knitting in a lovely little place at Point Reyes Station. The weather was stormy, but it was the ocean, cheap california wine, and good food. Besides there were energetic hummingbirds to watch and a wood stove as the only source of heat and the resultant TV substitute. I finished up a hat for a co-worker's much announced but not yet arrived baby. You can see it here or on Ravelry:

Or another angle:


I am confident there is more to be said about the hat, my knitting, and other events, but frankly the computer is driving me up the wall for refusing to download my email from Yahoo (which may be related to the wonders of the microsoft bid for control) but I really just want to relax. Lots of work at the guv'mint these days so I am tired and I am about to welcome the second of two visitors since my return. After the weekend and the discovery of my camera battery charger I may have more news on the welcome return of SPRING.