Tigger Speaks

There are times when a cat just has to speak out, to say what's on his mind, to make his voice heard. All too often we stand mute when the cry must go out through out the land. Now is that time. So, without further ado, hear me roar:

On behalf of kitties everywhere - black, white, yellow, gray, brown, tabby, calico, orange, striped, speckled or any combination thereof:

Happy 40th Birthday, Chris!

So c'mon all you kitties - go wish her a happy day yourself. The more the merrier.

Time passes

Although it's not the calendar I use for the everyday household business, this is by far my favorite calendar in the house - in fact, I think it's the only physical calendar in the house. It's hand-made by Kathryn and it expires at the end of this year. It was last year's Christmas present to us. It has all the pertinent dates marked - birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacations. Every month is decorated with an appropriate seasonal picture. It's beautiful, I love it, and even though there are things in this past year I would not wish to re-live, I'm going to use the calendar again next year. Thanks to Deb for the great idea.

My First Swap

I've never really liked swaps. I've never joined a Secret Pal thing or a swap before. I was the kid in school or a work who got the bad Secret Santa. I was reluctant even to join the KnitFlix swap. But I felt compelled because, hell, I work in a yarn store so that part would be easy. Then I draw a swap partner who is an independent film producer. DOH - strike one for me!!

My package arrived yesterday - see it says "Deb" - which means I don't have to share it!





Treats!! Hidden under the popcorn are Sea Salt and cracked Pepper Pretzels! Yum or what?









Flix: "The Limey" recommended by my swap partner because she new I liked the non-linear style of "Pulp Fiction", "Parenthood" because she knew that Jon is currently collecting Steve Martin movies and this is one I happen to love and that he doesn't have, and "Newton's Disease", the movie my swap partner produced! How cool is that!! Here is the City Pages review!





And then the dessert. Some yummy Patons Soy Wool Strips which perfectly matches the colors of my family room so I already have a throw pillow planned. Perhaps crocheted, perhaps entrelac. Can't decide. Don't have to right now.

Since I was an idiot and didn't take pictures of my package before I sent it off to Carrie, would you all be so kind as to visit her site and take a peek. Did I mention that she managed to fit this swap in in the midst of her marriage and the Twin Cities World Premiere of her movie.

Thank you Carrie for making my first swap a great one. And good luck with Newton's Disease.

End of Suffering??

Yesterday morning at 9:00, a rather forlorn looking man rang my doorbell and, seeing that I was not it any condition (directly out of the shower) to hear his "pitch", he simply handed me his tiny pamphlet which proclaimed that all suffering would soon end. Well, thank goodness. Apparently, the producers of these pamphlets have never been sinus infection / migraine sufferers or they would realize that yesterday was not the day that suffering was to end. Ouch.

Further, they have never knit socks. These socks in particular. Because while in the throes of this massive headache, I spent the day copying and shrinking, cutting and pasting, coloring and drawing to create this:













So that in the end, after the charts were combined and colored, the symbol key shrunk and co-located with the charts, there was just a tiny bit of time left in the day to create this:













And so I ask you - is this the end of suffering - or is it just the beginning?

The Three Harloteers

We came, we saw, we held the sock.

This is apparently why I am not the family's chief photographer.

However, if you've read any of the many Twin Cities area bloggers' updates you already know that this is the Yarn Harlot and that I traveled to Eau Claire with Chris and Jeanne for her fabulously funny talk and book signing at Yellow Dog Knitting. Really, I haven't had that much fun in such a long time. I gave up 8 hours at the Mall of America to take this road trip. That's how Jon and Kate spent the day - 8 hours!! It was such a sacrifice. I'm feeling mildly guilty because I'm still telling my parents that I went there to hear Tom Clancy. I just don't think they'd get this whole thing.

And while Stephanie was wonderfully funny and every bit as charming as you'd think she would be, the true highlight of my day was this:

Meeting Vicki Knitorious. Do you ever just meet someone and take an instant shine to them? You just know that you really like them? You just connect? You feel like you've know them forever? That's how I felt about Vicki when I first met her in February 2006 - as the "first person I didn't already know who commented on my new blog". I started reading her blog and I just knew that she was someone I really wanted to meet-meet - like, in person. And then the planets all lined up and Dixie and Stephanie brought us together. I knew her the moment I saw her in the store and Vicki was EXACTLY as I thought she would be - only live and in person. The really cool thing about meeting a blogger in person is you don't have to waste a whole lot of time asking them background questions about who they are and their what they do. You can get right to the good stuff like "Did you bring Fib?". She did, it was fab!

What can you say about a girl who made reservations at the Acoustic Cafe for 12 out-of-town knitters, which came in handy as we got closer to the event time, then sets up the chairs and saves you front row seats for the event!

Thanks Vicki - Love ya!! There are at least 20 yarn stores here in the Twin Cities and plenty of willing and able tour guides to haul you around. Please come visit us soon.





P.S. The Hedgehog has a face!!!!

Happy New Year

It's New Year's Eve for me - despite what the calendar says. The beginning of the school year always seem like that. It starts a new budget cycle; there are new schedules and logistics, new activities, new classmates. There are new clothes (unbelievably uncomfortable uniform skort and pants), backpacks and school supplies. For Kate, this is such an exciting time.

This is also a period of significantly longer commute times. Not only will Jon be providing the morning car service to school, (no more bus for us) but with the additional traffic on the roads, this time of year has always added to his stress level. It takes a few weeks for all the UofM students to drop the early morning classes and then it levels back out!

For me, this time of year is always a trigger for very high anxiety and stress levels. It always has been, I suspect it always will be. The whole house knows this too. The animals think it's weird that I start getting up earlier the two weeks before Labor Day ("Hmmmm, can we get an extra meal out of this?"). Jon knows it and he backs off and leaves me alone. Kate knows it and isn't really sure what to do. I've gotten better at managing it - just knowing that it is situational helps. I don't take on big things this time of year. Managing day-to-day is enough. I sort of just plod through and take care of what's in front of me...

Preparations for this year are pretty much nailed down.





The family calendar is updated and posted for us all to see.









The built-in-desk and fresh pink and green paint suitable for a fourth-graders room should be finished by tonight. Too much for me to handle - Jon did this!!















The grab-and-go snack cabinet has been stocked with "healthy" snacks.







Pretty good, huh!!

Because I do think of it as New Year's, I do try to make one resolution. Last year I resolved to keep the calendar updated both on my Palm and to then synchronize it with Outlook so that I could easily keep Jon up to date on what all was happening (yeah - I know there are just three of us but sometimes there are quite a few things going on over here!!). It was amazing how well it worked and how once I stared doing it, maintaining it just became a habit.

This year's resolution is to keep track of my knitting projects. I searched all around for a really great knitting journal - to the point where searching for the ultimate journal was becoming the reason why documenting was never going to happen.

Behold, the Knitting Journal:

And it's first two entries:

FiberTrends Huggable Hedgehog. Technically, he's not done. He needs a face. I'm thinking of needle felting a face on him instead of sewing eyes and a mouth on. What do you think?

I think I'm going to teach him as a class because he's so flipping cute!

Mini-sock on mini-sock blocker. Which would you rather your key chain say about you? "Hey, I drive a Lexus!" or "Hey, I knit socks!"

So, Happy New Year. Wish a Fourth Grader luck this year - you know how girls can be at this age.

I Think They're Waiting for Me

The "Satur-Dye" girls (Chris, Jeanne and yours truly) got together again this past weekend. We were much more organized and armed with new yarns and new dyes we were down to serious business in no time.


This is Jeanne. She is always serious when she dyes with purple. She always dyes with purple. Therefore .....


Chris looks on. "How?" you might wonder without a head, but I assure you, she has one.




Mister bought us an extra table so that we could all "color together" as he put it which was nice. There were times when it was so quiet out on the porch with everyone working so hard I was beginning to think it was a job.






Yeah - a job where they let you splatter dye all over the place and call it work!! This was my attempt at a Jackson Pollock type yarn but I overdid it a bit. It still turned out nice and I like it which is all that matters.









I think the finished results speak for themselves.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Shhhh - I'm in-cognito and hiding from Deb. I'm a brand new skein of sock yarn and she started a pair of toe-up, Jaywalker socks just today. I'm scared though. I've seen what happens to other socks and sock yarn around here and it's beginning to make me nervous. Maybe you've met these three . . .











We are three Matchless Socks. We are never to have mates. No "e-Harmony for socks", or "matchsock.com" will help. We have no shot at ever having a right (or left) foot knit for us. Sadly, the best we can tell, our future may be in sock puppets. You see, the rest of our un-knit selves have gone here.....





...to the seemingly endless collection of what was supposed to be just sock yarn scraps but now seems to be any kind of sock yarn not currently attatched to a needle. In fact some socks were ripped out just to be relegated to this place of honor.

But why, you might ask?

Need I say more?

Funky Chicken

Not the kind that you do at some third cousin's wedding either. This is "Funky Chicken" and I made her all by myself! I had a wee bit of help from Kathryn and an even wee-er bit of help from Tigger (see here). But for the most part, she's my creation. OK, sure, my mom had to sew the muslin form together because I don't have a sewing machine. But I do know. She happily gave me one of her extras so that these little projects could be done "in-house" - I think she meant in "my" house.

I probably also need to come clean on the fact the FC is not my own original idea but rather that of the good folks at Fanatica Fibers. We started carrying their line of needle felted soft sculpture kits at the shop and I couldn't resist making one. The kits are wonderful. Almost everything you need is included (exceptions being foam batting, glue, sewing machine and mother, paint) which is key for me. I'm not a "craft" person but surprisingly, I had everything. Sewing machine exception already explained. The directions were clear, concise, thorough, easy to understand. She was time consuming to make. Give your self plenty of time for the initial needle felting to get the form covered. And by a lot of time - I mean A LOT of time. Say, the better part of a Sunday and then the next Sunday. And then some more time because you just want it to be so nice and firm on there and you will not accept anything that is not tight and just right and basically you just love poking that roving on there and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and poking and jabbing and jabbing until it's just perfect and here is some popping up over here and this just isn't right over here and poke, poke, jab, jab, stab, .... Oh, was that out loud?

Then you get to paint, and bead, and bake clay, and glue feathers, and sew yarn and it's just ever so much fun to be crafty when you never thought you were. And then you have to give her to the shop where she sits on the front desk and struts her stuff to all the visitors.

I kind of miss her already.

He's no Chaos.....

A call for help was issued this morning for a small project I am working on for the shop. I'd show it to you now, but it's not done. Kathryn, who in previous posts both here and over at Chris and Jeanne's blogs, was unavailable. She was at the "Club", swimming with her pal. Yea - I'm working like a dog over here and she's off living the life. So on short notice, Tigger was offered up as a capable assistant. Clearly, the job requirements were not laid out ahead of time. There weren't many but they were important:

1. Must have opposable thumbs.

2. Must not try to eat the feathers used as embellishment for project.

3. Must not scatter the 50,000,000,000,000 beads required in project on the floor.

4. Roving must not stick to your fur after you roll in it.














He did however meet the most important one:

Must look DAMN cute while keeping me company all afternoon.

A quick dyeing update: Chris, Jeanne and I have examined our wool and dye situation and decided that it's time to replenish both. After numerous emails and meetings, orders have been placed and plans are being made. I think the next steps are warehouse space, election of officers, a shell corporation and off-shore accounts in the Bahamas. Oh, the places we'll go! (Sincere apologies to Dr. Suess.)

Friends Don't Let Friends Dye Alone

Here are some tips to help you if you plan to get together with friends for some yarn dyeing. They'll come in very handy if your friends are Chris and Jeanne.

1. Give your self a lot of time. By this I mean A LOT of time. For instance, 7 hours - not enough time by a long shot. Maybe plan on a whole weekend. You'll need it just for one of them to decide on which colors to use.

2. Limit the color choices. See above. If you keep things in the purple family, you could save yourself a lot of time and angst. On the other hand, watching the decision making process is quite humorous. Do yourself a favor and remove anything in the orange family as it will never be considered anyway.

3. You need space. Chris and Jeanne bring stuff with them. It all looks so cute in the back of Jeanne's trunk but it's deceptive. It all expands when it gets out. Plus there was all the stuff I had - meager at best. Our spacious (I thought) screen porch had buckets and bins and tubs and yarn and Pyrex and towels and solutions and gloves and people and a dog and a cat and more and more yarn and dye and wine and snacks and it was wonderful!!! There wasn't a horizontal surface left untouched by the process. At some point we discussed having our own a studio. My daughter Kathryn has this darling two-story playhouse off to the side of the house that just might suffice in a few years when she's bored with it. But we figured that'd be about the time she gets interested in boys and then playhouse would take on a whole new meaning.

4. If you can find a kid who's willing to help you out by alerting you to a beeping microwave, bringing you heated water, rotating yarn, and general other fetching activities, it's really nice. She can also be instrumental in keeping the dog, who just wants to lick the yarn and the guests, occupied elsewhere. Because after all, it's all about the creative process for us. I mean - we're artists. So what if we snack and drink wine while we are artist-ing. They doesn't make us any less arty.

5. You don't have to feed Chris and Jeanne dinner but if you do - they'll love anything you give them. Even if you change your whole dinner plan based on the salad that the lady at Byerly's was sampling, which then involved purchasing two things you've never purchased before (yes, you knew what they were and you could identify them and you've eaten them before, it's just that you've never actually purchased them before). And even if it is 9:30 when you feed them and you literally throw silverware at them, they'll like it and say nice things about it like it was the best thing they'd had to eat all day.

6. Jeanne and Chris will teach you everything they know. For instance, they know it's really important to wear masks all the time when working with dye powders. Another thing they know is that exact and precise measurements and detailed record keeping are all critical to the successful dyeing process. Sure - they know all these things. Did we actually do any of them? What do you think - remember...we're artists!!!

7. Lastly - Make sure to take your own pictures. I forgot and now I'm depending on them for the process pictures. I can only show you the outcome pictures.












KnitPicks Wool of the Andes destined to become felted clogs for our dyeing assistant, Kathryn.














Shepard Baby Wool destined to become a pair of socks for a neighbor.

Oh - and Renee. Thanks for asking. My sister continues to do well. Physical wounds are healing nicley. We had a wonderful visit with her here in Minnesota despite a close encouter with a deer on my brother's back patio. She thought it was the largest Great Dane she had ever seen and that it was coming for her but it jumped off the deck and went in the other direction. We told her it was a good sign in that she scared the deer off. I think her emotional and mental healing will take a while!!

Small things

Take this -














+















+
















for this -















Oops - dog head optional.


This is much better:















As the temporary mother of three young girls, this is all I've been able to accomplish lately but I just love them. I'm addicted to flip-flops but my toes are cold all the time. These are like pulse warmers for your feet.

My sister arrives from San Diego tonight. We are all very excited to see her. She had her stitches removed today and finally got a prescription for something to help her sleep (duh - that would have been my first step . . . but I'm an overmedicater!!). She sounds much better but the girls and I just want to get her here so we can pamper her a littler bit. She found out the name of the offending beast who attacked her. Any guesses? Charger. There's irony for you. Thanks for all your well wishes. They were all passed along to Di and she thanks you all as well.

Sigh.....

All is well back home in Minnesota and I managed to get all three girls back safe and sound, arriving home last night just after midnight. Young girls don't seem to tire like old girls do so they were up are ready to go pretty early this morning. I imagine the crash will come sometime early this afternoon.

However all is not well back in San Diego and I'm asking you guys to please keep my wonderful sister, Diane, in your thoughts. Early Saturday morning while on her regular walk, she was attacked and mauled by a dog. She suffered numerous severe dog bites on her arms and torso and is completely traumatized by the whole event. The worst part is that there were people around when the dog attacked who turned away and didn't help her. The dog was "in the care" of a homeless man while its owners were out of town and he fled the scene when the dog started to attack. A second man came out of his house and turned around and went back inside when he saw the commotion. That part makes me so sad - to think of her so helpless. She was able to finally fight the dog off with the help of someone who finally stopped and then others came out to assist her - thankfully. She spent the day in the hospital getting cleaned up, getting stitched up all over etc. She's still in really bad shape - physically, but mostly mentally. She can't sleep or rest peacefully. I imagine, as with any trauma, that healing will take the longest.

Please keep her in your thoughts.

80's Babies

Did I mention that my brother's party was a "theme" party? And that the theme was "80's"? Probably not. I was not a child of the 80's but baby brother Dennis was. So I did not complain when I had to dress-up for his party. In fact, it was relatively easy. Short black skirt, leggings, lots of tank tops with straps showing, 45 pounds of metal belts and necklaces (all supplied by my sister) and - DONE! Add gobs of hair gel to spike your hair up straight in the air and you are "like so totally eighties". After all we were in "the" Valley. The rest of the family did their best to dress the decade - I'll let you decide how they did.


From left to right, yours truly, brother Dave with yuppie upturned Polo collar and Ray Bans look, sister Donna as burn-out, sister Diane with the "Madonna" look, guest-of-honor, Dennis as Sid Vicious, and brother-in-law Pat as DEVO. He pretty much stole the show.

Happy 40th birthday Dennis! Love ya!

We're off to the Ball

School is out. Third grade is over. Summer vacation has begun. But something is different. This is usually when I start to panic. How will I ever keep Kate occupied for three months. She's an only child. I'm an only mom. She's nine. I'm---not. Jon calls this May/August Anxiety Syndrome. It must be in the DSM IV somewhere (I knew that Psychology degree would come in handy someday). I call it "I'm a cranky mom in June and a lonely mom in September".

Not this summer. Nope. Call the Mother-of-the-Year-People. Friday afternoon Kate and I are headed to San Diego to see her two best cousins, Dana and Andie.



Dana (10) is on the left, Andie (8) on the right, and Kate is in the middle. This picture was taken in Old Town, San Diego last year at Thanksgiving. They don't know that Kate is coming. They'll still be in school until June 16.








The story is that Aunt Debbie (me) is coming for Uncle Denny's (my baby brother) 40th birthday party. Denny is pictured here with his girlfriend Helen (left, and yours truly). The picture is also taken last year at Thanksgiving and also in Old Town.

But surprise of all surprises, Kate will be with me. We'll stay for 10 days and then the four of us --Kate, Dana, Andie and I -- will all fly back to Minnesota where the cousins will be together here until July 3rd. Their mom, my sister Diane, will come out on June 26th to spend some time with our family as well, but basically, Kate gets 3+ weeks with her cousins. I'm quite sure it doesn't get any better than that.

Except for this:


This is the pool ball that Di purchased for Kate's arrival. It's kind of like a human hamster wheel. You get in and spin it around. It looks nauseatingly hot and claustrophobic to me but I can't wait. Neither can Kate.










So that will get me through the 4th of July which by my calendar is just about half way through summer when I can start worrying about what I'll do when she goes back to school.

Third Grade Wisdom

My daughter's third grade teacher taught a section on proverbs a few weeks ago. As part of the lesson she had the children complete several well known proverbs with their own endings. Here are some of the best from Mrs. Kitzmann's Graduating Third Grade Class:

Never put off until tomorrow . . . . . . . night.
Two wrongs . . . . . . . is equal to nothing.
When the cat's away. . . . . . . let the dog out.
Don't count your chickens . . . . . . . just count your eggs.
A penny saved . . . . . . . is a penny spent.
Birds of a feather . . . . . . . are worth nothing.
Look before . . . . . . . a chicken flies in your face.
Early to bed and early to rise . . . . . . . makes a grumpy man.
Never look a gift horse . . . . . . in the eye.
All work and no play . . . . . . . will keep your boss away.

When the cat's away . . . . . . . look for it.

Don't count you chickens . . . . . . . count your blessings.

You can't make this stuff up.

And now for somethingthing completely different. On these early days of summer when it gets just a little too hot, Holli says...cool off, take a dip in the lake. Don't forget your sunscreen!

Shameless Promotion

I don't think I've done this before and I won't likely do it often (unless it's really worth it) but I thought you should know about Girl's Night Out in Excelsior - especially at the shop. It's every Thursday night from 5:30 - 9:00 from now until October. More than 25 shops in Excelsior participate with specials during the evening. Carri has wine and snacks in the shop and a chance to just sit, sip and knit. She's also running various specials each Thursday to those who wander in. This coming Thursday (June 8) is 25% on any cotton yarn. That's like 1/4 off isn't it??

Amy, Lisa, Kelle, and Christine (blogless) came on the first evening. They had planned to dine first at 318 Cafe, but they had a $15 cover charge (hello?? Not conducive to wandering around Excelsior and shopping). No problem. These ever resourceful pals and yours truly with a takeout menu from Ming Wok solved the dinner problem and the wine poured and the knitting and gossip began.

Last week was so nice I set up table and chairs outside and knit all evening on the sidewalk. I had a few friends join me and it was an absolutely delightful way to pass a Thursday evening.

I'll be gone this Thursday and the next (more and that later this week) so come take my place for me OK?

Lots of catching up to do...

Jen asked us to share pictures of the views from our windows. That like a really easy way to get back into the swing of blog things.
This is the view from my kitchen window. The little hanging basket is one of five that Jon made this year; he is the gardener of the family. I don't have a good track record with living, green things (frogs, salamander, lizards included.)






This is the view from our front door. The teeny lilac tree is "Walter". He was a gift from me to my husband last year on our tenth wedding anniversary.

Around the corner, just out of sight is "Glenda". She is a flowering crab tree that I gave him on our first anniversary.

I'm really romantic.




This is the view on to our screen porch, which Jon built, and where he and Kate are spending the afternoon trying to finish their books. Jon is trying to finish his so he can start another (so NOT a knitter's mentality). Kate is trying to finish hers so that she can meet her reading goal for the year. I'm leaving them alone in order that they accomplish their goals.






CAUTION: Bandwagon Jumping-On Ahead!

Because it looked like fun. That's why! And it was. And I'd do it again, and I have! And it really doesn't smell like every one says it does - plus if you have a nine year old you already have juice that smells like Kool-Aid anyway. And everything you make is original, unique, one-of-a-kind. Did I mention that is cheap.

There. Those are my answers to the questions non knitting people asked me about why I would bother with such a silly idea. That's why I Kool-Aid dyed some yarn.



I finished the little wrap in about two hours one day. It's made from two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan which I originally did not care for when it came in. But I played around with it and worked a purse stitch (P1, *P2tog, YO* P1 - every row - I think) and it turned out very sweet. Planned on wearing for Mother's Day Brunch - but forgot it at home. Damn, it was chilly in there too.






Blue, photographed on a green countertop, comes out looking - well - gray, I guess. Here is
my "close to almost being close to being done" sweater. When it is complete, it should look as below, except blue. I'm using Classic Elite's Classic Silk, (color #6947, Cobalt) which I love and can not recommend more highly.

I think I'll look happier than she does when I'm wearing the sweater.




School is almost out and the end-of-year activities are beginning to dwindle. Dance Recital was Mother's day weekend. Kate and I have out piano recitals on Tuesday. I'm very anxious as this is my first time playing solo (she and I played a duet last time and she saved me). Kate has a few school ""end-of..." events at school. And then it's time the big trip. But I'll save that for next time because there are a lot of complicated plans in this one.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Home

So physically I'm home, but mentally, I'm still here.

This is the view from our bedroom window on Sanibel Island. It's what I woke up to every morning for a week. The view has been improved greatly due to the hurricanes a year and half ago. Some significant trees were lost. Sorry for the trees but I have a wonderful view of the gulf from bed! The weather was wonderful and each day was better than the one before. My days were simple. Wake up, knit for a while, by 10:00 it's off the the pool or the beach. Lunch at 2 and then back to the sun until 5:00 or so when the cocktail flag comes up. Shower and dinner follow. Next day - repeat. I know a person would eventually have to do more than just this, but damn, why?

I did knit this:

"Embossed Leaves" from Interweave Winter/2005 in Opal UNI 1267. It's not that vibrant of a blue in person. I knit socks via Magic Loop. When I do the second one I'll move the stitches around so that I don't start with two purl stitches at the beginning of the needle. It made for way to wide of a rib gap. The pattern is very easy to follow and the sock was pretty much done on the flight down to Florida. Why isn't the second one done?

Because I had to do this on for a class I'm teaching:

(ISH - no, we do not have green hard wood floors!!) This is Thuja from Winter 2005 Knitty. I re-wrote this pattern, with the author'sermission for Magic Loop and teach it as a class. It had to be finished for a class last night and I got it done just in time. It's done in Artyarns Supermerino but I don't know what colorway. I really love this pattern. Fast, easy, and stretchy. Can't wait to start the next one.

So it's back to real life for me. I hope it'll go easy.