The End Already?

Wow, time really got away from me. After Dozer passed away I then lost the African Grey parrot (Stormy) to a seizure and the next week one of the parakeets died (Skye).  What a crappy month.

Right now everyone is hale.  The indian ringneck (Kiwi) has been moved out to the computer desk & the play cage and I am trying to stuff her with food as she is thinner than I would like.  It is fun to visit with her, although I miss Stormy calling me "HEY! Girl! HEY!" all the time.   I also moved Wavey the parakeet in with Opal the parakeet and they seem to have come to a room mate agreement.  It is too early to say if they like each other, but the nitpicking has lessened. 

This year I read some books, knit some things and played some World of Warcraft.  I went to gardening every week I was supposed to.  I watched some movies, took an online class and adopted a dog that was pound-bound.

Next year?  Maybe finally apply for a new job, maybe go back to making soap, maybe get serious about honing my German language skills, maybe knit some things, read some books & play some more WoW.  Walk the dog more and do the dishes more as well. 

And blog more.

Sweet Sunday

I managed to get up and out of the house today as it was gardening day at Martha's. We cut back the roses & shrubs, harvested the lemons, snuggled the corgis and then it was time to make food from the fruit. Fruited spiced wine and lemon tart / pie were accomplished and eaten with gusto. I started to watch the BBC version of "Bleak House" and I think it will make a good series to watch while spinning.

Yes, spinning. I picked up a new drive band for my spinning wheel when I drove up to San Francisco last weekend; I visited John & Mrs. John at Village Spinning & Weaving. I figure now that I have it, I should end my two year spinning hiatus and get to work on the fiber I acquired at the fiber fairs this fall.

The pets are all snoozing - on the bed in little cat balls, or as little headless fluffballs on their perches. Maybe I should put the heater on.

Mixed Blessing

A very handsome plant volunteered at my friend's house this spring. I begged for it to stay and it got more handsome and more interesting as it grew, and grew, and grew. They twit me about "the beanstalk" as it is obviously some kind of weed, and somehow they have humored me until it is about 8' tall. Last week it flowered. This week I can see the little pods forming where the blossoms were and it struck me yesterday what this ugly duckling must be... a pokeweed Phytolacca americana. Um... oops.
The good news is that it is a vegetable (kindof) and makes a stain that can be used for ink, paint or fabric dye. The bad news is that just about every part is poisonous and it will need to be removed from the vegetable garden before the dog starts nibbling it. Maybe that is why she has been so quiet this week?

It must have arrived in the garden via the droppings of the birds that visit the feeder. I will have to spend tomorrow taking it out and having a farewell service. I wonder how to get some seeds...

Good Tired

Off line yesterday and today due to a sleepover / gardening party. I packed up the dog and scampered down to my friend's rural property. We chatted about old times, new times and future times, had yummy snacks, pulled a gazillion weeds, uncovered a long-forgotten garden path, identified birds and lizards, watched my dog chase peacocks and brazenly dig dog wallows right in the yard and flower bed and generally enjoyed the day. It felt really nice to get out in the open, as opposed to my urban home and cubicle workplace.

No pictures, for I am a dummy. Sorry.

Sitting Pretty

I have been parrot sitting this week and it has been wonderful. The 5:30 am "Hell-ohhhhh" is adorable and she even called out "Hey, hon" when I was in another room. I see now why greys are so popular.

I finished _Dracula_ at long, long last and it moved pretty fast - for the last three pages at least. I also finished listening to an audio book lecture series called "History of Fantasy" and that was good fun for a week of commuting. My 'to read' list is much longer now! Many of his observations had me saying, yes, yes, that is obvious, but there were a few very good points I had not considered before. I am still reading The Last Samurai (not related to the movie) and finished a quick teen novel that was a free download. A brain-expanding week!

Also keeping me entertained during parrot snuggling time were some movies - "The King's Speech", "Jeeves & Wooster, season 4" and "The Last Samurai" (yes, that one). "TKS" was particularly excellent - I think it will earn a place in my drawer of movies next to "Gosford Park".

Not much to report in the home garden. A weeding / pruning / harvesting / deadheading day needs to be arranged post-haste. The tomato is growing, the lavender is blooming, the sunflowers are opening, the lettuces are bolting... spring has sprung.

Knit a few rows on a simple scarf while listening to the audio book before work / at luch, but still no serious knitting progress to report. The knitting mojo is still gone; it's going on two years now. I have thought about pulling out a cross stitch project of an evening, but haven't made any actual progress. Same for weaving - I stare at cones of yarn but do not approach the warping board. The cats are pleased with my increased petting schedule, however.

Socks for Ostara

I started some new socks last night with the remainder of the purple bamboo / nylon yarn from the purple fingerless mitts and a ball (or "cake") of a pink / purple / green sugar cane yarn that has been marinating in the stash. The colors are not a perfect match, but I think that purple for the toes and heels and springy stripey for the main part of the sock will be very nice. I was blog surfing the other day and this post from Franklin gave me the idea to use a solid color to make the special yarn go further. I can hardly believe I have never tried it before. After the ribbed & cabled mitts and the broken rib scarf I have as my emergency knitting, it feels good to be knitting stockinette again!

Spent some time today gardening at Martha's and then gardening at home. I declared it "death to dandelions" day and had quite a tidy stack by the end. There are still quite a few left in my yard, but I was out of steam. Long hours at work, darkness when I leave and come home and a staggering amount of rain this season has really given them a head start on me. The coreopsis has started blooming and that is always a cheery sight to return home to. I need to get some white yarn spun so that I can use last year's flower heads as a yellow dye. I can't think of any yellow garments I need, but that really isn't the point.

Surprise Developments

The blooms on my Foxglove plant (planted last spring). A very odd shade of pink, but nice. These are stealth blooms; caught me totally by surprise!

Brushfire seen from the commute home... looks like it started on the left and is working its way around. Saw water dropping planes zipping to and fro. Another view.

Not much else to report - another 14 hour day at work. Just enough time to skip dinner, play some WoW (or maybe just do some flirting) and go back to bed at 8:30. Woot.

Memories of Knitting

CeCe, day 0 - swatched. stated gauge is 20 st & 28 row to 4" over garter stitch on size 7 needles. I am getting 21 st & 26 rows. I could go up a needle size to get the right st count, but that would make my row count even fewer... I don't think 20 x 28 is possible! I will cast on anyway.

CeCe , day 1 - cast on 185 st (40" bust size), knit one row ribbing at lunch and one row whil playing WoW and reading knitblogs. Start to make a blog post, realize the directions said "with smaller needles". Make note to rip it all out after posting to the blog. Wonder if it was a good idea to reduce my knitting time by 99% over the last year. I like this yarn so far. It is very soft and shiny. No stretch, but lots of drape.

n other news, I made it to work on time, had a good day, remembered to pet sit, came home and pulled up weeds in the garden with Beaker and played a little WoW. The epi is blooming - here is a picture of what it looked like last year. This plant came from Miss Muriel's garden - she lived next door to my grandparents for 30 years and I miss them all.

Monday

A flurry of activity this morning when I got ready early and went to the DMV. Then I got in some good knitting time during the 2 hours I was in line / waiting to be called. I did pay the registration, renew my license and turn in the accident report, so I call it a win. I also fixed the error in the sweater and then made significant progress on the decreases for the back. The end is in sight!

Had a nice chat with the 'good neighbor' when Beaker and I went out for our evening sit. I took "A Weaver's Garden" out for my evening reading, as wanted to look up the proper harvesting time for the coreopsis if I want to dye with it. "Now" is the answer. I will go out and collect some flowers tomorrow for freezing. Previous reading selections include Scott Cunningham, John Milton and Beatrix Potter.

Sleepy tonight and back to my regular shift tomorrow, so I had better hit the hay.

Technicolor

Sunflower in the garden.

Coreopsis tinctora - dyer's coreposis. Must start dyeing again!
Two weeks old today! I am beginning to suspect that she will be a pearl. *fingers crossed* I will have to get a leg band for her later this week, before she grows any more!

Blooming

The flowers are winning the battle against the weeds in the yard. The first sunflower has a perfect, modest blossom shining out and the coreopsis tinctora patch is a cacophany of green, yellow and maroon. I will have to hurry and spin some white fleece so I can dye it! The geraniums are islands of pink, the roses are a lucious red and the alyssum are dainty and white. Sigh.

I mangaged to e'file my taxes this morning and was pleasantly surprised to discover I am actually getting refunds! Now I wish I had not procrastinated, of course. Had a short day at work and then came home and walked the dog to get chili dogs for dinner. Still got settled back at the house by 8pm. Another short day tomorrow; perhaps I will bathe them and take them on a dog-drying walk in the morning.

Knitting continues on the sweater - another 2 rows today. I finally mastered "p2tog tbl" so that it looks correct on the front; I almost want to go back and tear out the ones that did not come out quite right.

Hmmm. I hear quite a commotion from the budgies. I hope they are just being garrulous and not fighting.

Lazy Sunday

Took some time today to sit on the porch and enjoy the morning. Had a book, had some coffee, had Beaker on my shoulder and had some saffron yellow socks to keep my toesies warm. It was nice. We did a little gardening (well, weed pulling) too. There is quite a riot of wild flowers and / or weeds in the garden. If you look at it long enough it seems gloriously riotous, but a quick glance just reveals an overgrown mess. Have to find some balance.

Time to Reap

Watermelons and Wool.... this is the sunset colored merino I have been working on for a few months now at varous demos, photograped on a bed of watermelon leaves. I think I will enter it in the LA co fair.

Can you 'ear' me now? I promise I did not force the corn to grow this way!

The haul from the garden today. The corn was very tasty with a side of hot dogs and potato salad. It could have grown some more, but was sweet and fit exactly in the pot! Those tomatoes are about 3" deep in that container. I took lots of garden pictures but will settle for posting just this one. The sunflowers in the front are doing quite well; the goldfinches already check on their progress. Down the other side of the house is swiss chard, basil, a tomato, a larkspur and some coreopsis tinctora. I have flax to plant too, but no idea where to find the space! Here are the completed Uncloudy Day socks. I am always bewildered when the stripes come out so differently. The stitch count is identical. These might also get entered in the fair... the worst that can happen is that I waste $1 on the entry fee!

Loomacy.

The kittens love the loom. Mama cat (Carrie) is supervising and the gray kitten is hiding under the treadles.

Time to Sow

Well, the first kitten went to her new home today. She is missed, but the others are being so rambunctious I don't have time to fret. Another is on the 'maybe' list. They have another photo shoot tomorrow, the lucky ducks.

Had a hard day today... don't know if the lack of ambition caused the badness or if the badness drained my ambition. Either way it sucked. I did manage to thread about a third of the ends on the big loom this afternoon before my back cried uncle, and I think I can finish that tomorrow. Yes I took my meds, yes I remembered to eat, yes I took headache pills and yes I cuddled kittens. But yet - feeling off.

My big planting plans are put off until the morning, but I have larkspur, catnip, jasmine and lavender to plant and feverfew and flax to sow. I also bought some dirt and received the first batch of composting worms, so the poor little plants might actually grow. I will have oregano transplants for giving away (and maybe basil too), but am looking for a comfrey plant if anyone knows where I can get one. It is a rabbit digestive. mmmm

I thought of a wonderful caption for the picture in the last post.... 'A Loom with a View' .

Cat-aclysm!

The kittens are getting bigger and more interesting. Here is a picture I took of one at the "dogwash". Dozer just loves the kittens but he is much bigger than they are! They are always closely supervised. They will be 3 weeks on Thursday and are still in need of homes.

They had a professional photo shoot on Sunday and were just adorable*. I love the look on the gray tabby in the background in this one...... and the expression on the orange one here. You can only see the tail end of kitten #6 off to the left there. She is a mostly dark tortie and white and was very shy that day.

Things have been getting bigger in the garden too and I made up a little bouquet of geranium, oregano and alyssum. The picture didn't look upside down when I took it! The alyssum is a volunteer from 4 houses down that just sprang up a month or so ago. Now it is huge and I have little seedlings all over the garden; much like the oregano come to think of it. And the basil. And the tomato. I might have more volunteer plants than real ones!

My hand wasn't feeling well last week so there wasn't much spinning or knitting, but I did manage some work on these socks a couple of days ago. I believe the yarn in Seacoast Handpaints and the colorway is "Butte". It is a lovely soft 2 ply yarn and I am knitting on size 0 dpns. One sock is on waste yarn for the moment - I set it aside to make the other so that I can work on each to use up every bit of this lovely yarn.

*Studio pictures courtesy of Kelly Vela at Mountains and Meadows photography. These are available as prints (kitten free with purchase of course) and you can see them in person at the Riverside Arts Walk.

Random Tuesday (is it Tuesday?)

First, a pic for the fine folks visiting from "Desked"... a niddy noddy in action:When the yarn comes off it is in a circle and then I twist it into a skein (seen in the desk picture). You can just see the spinning wheel base and the ball winder at the top there. Yarn requires many a gadget.

Next, a pic of the stray cat that needs a home. Here she is reclining on the neighbor's a/c unit. Anybody need a cat? The inn is full at my house.

For Melissa: it is not sunny here all the time. We had fog this weekend! And I thought I was just bleary eyed. The next day we even had rain squalls in the morning. You can see my 7 lane street there... I have a persistent mild fear of someone crashing their car through the kitchen wall.

Another rose has made an appearance in the garden. I actually have quite a few now and am on the lookout for ladybugs to eat the aphids. The lettuces and spinaches are ready for harvesting, the carrots, corn, watermelons, cantalopes and swiss chard are taking their sweet time.

And a scary sight - Devil Kitties. I wonder if I should submit this pic to LOLcats?

Catching Up

Howdy All! Sorry that posts have been thin on the ground. I have had some motivation issues and didn't want to (leave the house) whine about it. Right now I am back in the world and sending out resumes. Woot! I also made it to another soap show this weekend (3 for 3 weekends) and am desperate to get into the one next weekend.

But sometimes I do get out. A smattering of pictures:

Snowdrops that I thought were toast

Picture of lace from the Winter Lace Conference.

Progress being made on That Scottish Stole. This is the knitted-on border.

Snap on Saturday

I found this unlikely sight in the garden last week. I didn't even know I was expecting!

Sproing!

I think that southern California needs another season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Sproing, and Winter. Those late-in-the-year rains make for some surprising additions to the garden in December...I had forgotten that there were even bulbs planted there (the gardeners whacked them this spring), but it was a pleasant surprise. I love to look at paperwhites, although I think they smell like ant spray. I think the snowdrops may have gone to the big flower field in the sky, however.

I should have remembered to take a picture of my parrot after our shower. She looked like a drowned rat. It has taken a few days, but she will finally come under the water for her bath. She also tries to "help" brush hair and teeth. Geez.

Progress (but not photo-ing) on That Scottish Stole continues apace. I am nearly done with the second third. Then I flip it around, take out the provisional cast on, knit the third third, and add the border. Each repeat of the end motif takes about 8 hours of hard knitting, leaving me a good 30 knitting hours before the border.

I am slowly emerging from my shell. Dozer and I walked up Mt. Rubidoux the other day and it was fun and pretty. We were up higher than the red-tailed hawks (but I think they were slumming). It is always entertaining to see how people do or do not control their dogs on a walk. No people or loose dogs? He can have 10 feet of lead. People, dogs, bikers, squirrels? He gets 6 inches of lead on the far side of the distraction and we *never* stop walking. Then a pat on the head. Particularly amusing / annoying was the woman with a pit bull who would stop her dog to "soothe" it whenever another dog came up... effectively rewarding it with a rest, pettings, and entertainment.

Anyway, I hope to get out even more soon.

It's a Mystery

Yesterday I started (and finished) a book I received over the holidays, Three Bags Full. It was pretty interesting and a fun read. I have to say that I was mildly annoyed about one flock having 4 rams and no wethers, but I am not a sheep-grower. All in all I give it one hoof up.

Today I browsed through (Denise's copy of) Hand Woolcombing and Spinning. He is extremely detailed. Extremely. It might be a fun challenge to try and be as precise and see the difference it makes in my spinning. I need to return the book and invest in one of my own.

In other news, I am one sock down of the "Bejeweled" pair that I am working for Mandy. There is nothing better to knit in the world than a pair of ankle socks. No kidding. They knit up in a snap. Big fluffy Mountain Colors yarn on size 2 needles doesn't hurt either. The colorway is just gorgeous (I have misplaced the ball band) and I think I will make a secret s-c-a-r-f out of the remainder.

The garden is growing, tomatoes are ripening, bell peppers have been eaten, and lettuce is giving up the ghost. The last two weeks of searing afternoons tried to burn everything to a crisp and nearly succeeded. Today has been warm and overcast (=humid) but rather cooler than the last two weeks.

Off to pizza night at the yarn store!