MITTS

These are mitts for Patty - I had tried to finish them before Sheep and Wool, but ran short on time.  They are Anne Hanson's clever 'Zig Zag' pattern, knitted from Wooly Wonka cormo - my photo does not do the yarn any justice whatsoever - the color, Nantucket, is dreamy.  

I have been longing for a new camera with more pixels - I wander around the internet and admire blogs which boast really intense, saturated images - places where one feels one can reach in and lick touch the yarn!  Maybe Santa will hear my wish if I close my eyes and concentrate on sending this out into the universe!  Santa, think Canon G9.   


As we get closer to Halloween, I am getting ready to pull out the best of my decorations - I have saved the best for last.  Here's a sneaky peek-

A BIRTHDAY, mine

Today I am older than dirt.   But it's all good.  I'm hearing that there will be sushi.  There was pumpkin cake from Trader Vic's at work.  And my BFF Patty - she is an ANGEL.  She made bed socks for me.  BED. SOCKS.  Socks that are never meant to be worn in one's shoes, but rather placed upon one's feet while reading or watching 'House'.  They are scrumptious and I need to take a pic, but I've lost the light.  Tomorrow, when I am one day older than dirt.


But my BFF Patty?  She didn't stop at that.

COUSINS

There isn't more than a year separating my cousin from myself.  We grew up differently and mostly apart, but there was a connection between us from the beginning.  In later years, when we would sit and count our similarities, one thing seemed crystal clear - we had garnered the lion's share of talent that was bestowed upon our clan, and we both suffered (silently) from ADD.  Fifty years ago kids like us got whacked for twisting in our seats and deviling our classmates.  We were considered disruptive and problematic and sooner or later we were either ignored or dismissed as having nothing significant to contribute.  We both excelled in our art classes.  We could paint, we could draw, we could sculpt - but forget about anything like calculus or chemistry.  We inhaled literature - our noses always stuck in some obscure volume, or the back of the cereal box in a pinch!  We watched our classmates wave their excellent SAT scores over their heads and we watched them trot off to college.  My cousin ran away to join the hippies while I skulked off (reluctantly) to junior college.


But I digress.  


When we were young, our mothers-who-were-sisters, would put us together for a few days during our summer vacations.  My cousin was tender and easily given to tears.  For some unspeakable reason, this vulnerability of hers brought out the bully in me.  This is a confession, people.  I used to take my cousin for a walk past the dirt road that led to the creek.  I  would fill her head with ghoulish stories of hatchets and murders and then I would LEAVE HER THERE and run like hell for home.  Looking back, over my despicable shoulder, I would see her standing, frozen in place, fists balled into her eyes, crying for all she was worth.


 I think that I always relented and went back for her.  But she was so trusting, so gullible, that I could turn around and pull the same nasty trick on her the following day!  I was a bad child.  She was always a sweet forgiving soul, luckily for me.  And so, we have this history between us which makes us fast and firm friends and we will be, for life.  No matter what.  I would do anything for her.   


SO...... I walked down into the cramped room the other day that was once the servants quarters in this old house.   It's a little bit creepy, that space, with its low ceilings and the smell of disappointment clinging to its walls.  For the most part, I avoid that room altogether, using it for storage of seasonal decorations, etc.  There is no light until one actually climbs down the stairs into the room and flicks a switch.  As I was reaching for the switch in the dim light, I saw something move.  It scared the beJesus out of me.  It was unworldly, unholy.

It had a friend - 

Cousin - you did it.  You scared the ever-loving sheeeit out of me!  Are we even?  HELL, NO!  We are just getting started!  My cousin made these frightful dolls from the gourds that I grow.  She and I share a love for Halloween and all things ghoulish!  I think that she is way more Tim Burton-ish in her discipline than I, but we do savor and celebrate the macabre in our own special ways.  

Bella is thinking about what she wants to be for Halloween.  

Harley is more concerned about a nap, taken in a pool of October sunlight.

And I have been thinking about that orange project - it involves another interpretation of 'Storm at Sea', which I can never seem to get enough of.  Now it's time to say goodnight.  

SHEEP AND WOOL 2009

The weather held - what a delight.  We had a perfect day for the festival - cold and crisp, brilliant.  The highlight of my day was meeting Anne Hanson in person and her lovely friend, Kim.  No, I didn't take pictures - it seemed too common a request and besides, it was a fleeting moment - best savored and turned over in the mind's eye.  I was lucky enough to attend this show with my BFF Patty, and we really had a wonderful day.  Autumn had painted the sugar maples just in time for the knitters -

Lots of food vendors to choose from, but we were anxious to peruse the aisles and make our selections and head over to see the livestock - really, what is Sheep and Wool without the creatures who provide the fiber?

Isn't she sweet?  I am absolutely smitten with these animals - 

This one didn't share the sentiment.  In fact, he was one downright scary dude!

That's Tulip.  She's cashmere - a mere slip of a creature.  Patty tried to purchase her.  I wondered out loud where Patty (a) planned on keeping her, and (b) what part of livestock/barn works with person/house?  Too much.  We left without her.  

This guy was just downright majestic, and a kind soul to boot.  He tolerated his grooming like a good sport and had leftover good cheer for his audience.  Him, I'D take home!  Imagine the great butting contests he and the Harley dog would have!

There were bunnies galore and a pair of these gorgeous guys -

There were exotic animals that were fascinating - tortoise and kangeroos and striped lemurs.  Are you wondering about fiber?  There was an abundance.  I found some incredible merino and alpaca blend - it was a wonderful bargain, so I stocked up.  Do you love those buttons?  Love at first sight - I'll build a sweater around them!

On the way home I had to make a quick stop at the local quilt shop - my head has been buzzing with a new quilt idea that incorporates orange (what a surprise!) white and gray.

Got home, tired and happy - there was one fellow who was a bit annoyed that he had missed his walk.  We'll take care of that.

ME AND MY SHADOW(s)

 What do you think of my Halloween candle?  Lally gave it to me when she picked up her quilt the other day.  The packaging is gorgeous and the fragrance of the candle indescribably beautiful.

Just sitting around knitting with my buddies.  Harley has a new toy, courtesy of my son.  He loves it, even when he shakes the devil out of it and gets hit simultaneously on each side of his head.  He also trips when he runs with it.  He is a very funny fellow, and so good-natured.  

oh,oh, here comes trouble.  That cat is always trying to steal Harley's thunder, as well as his people.  Never mind that the cat was here first.  Bella has given this dog a wide berth from day one.  She taunts him whenever my back is turned, but I like to think that they have established an agreeable living arrangement. 

Maybe not.

I've been watching the weather channel pretty anxiously.  Sheep and Wool is going to be 'enjoyed' with a good old fashioned nor'easter in town.  This means wet, cold, windy soaking conditions all weekend long.  The sheep will have their coats on, and the knitters had best do the same!  Time to pull out the sweaters and hats.

THE SEEDLINGS HAVE SPROUTED

I opened this blog with an entry of a pieced table runner - do you remember?  Over time it grew into a wall hanging and I am happy to report that I have finished it!  It traveled back from Colorado two weeks ago where it was machine quilted by the iconic Linda Hibbert.  Her work continues to astonish me.  I sent her my little unadorned seedlings and she returned them in true Garden-of-Eden splendor!  


This weekend was about completion of the seedlings - Binding and Beading!  My finger tips are sore, my eyes are burning, but my creative soul is happy, content.  There was no knitting, which was the only truly disappointing part of my productive weekend.   There will be no new sweater to wear to Sheep and Wool - unless I forego sleep for the next five nights!



The process of binding the piece has become  second nature to me now.  I don't know what I did before the Walking Foot appeared on the scene.  Geez, I don't remember how I even CUT before the rotary cutter was invented!  I've seen many many changes occur in the quilting world, since I made my first quilt in 1972.   Here's a look at some of the process~

God bless the Walking Foot.  Then onward and upward to the ironing board~

Check out that wallpaper - it came with this old house.  One of these days I will be very happy to see it replaced.  My son swears that it has the propensity to bring on a seizure!  I never focus on it for any length of time.
Next, hours and hours of hand stitching the binding in place.  I do enjoy the repetitive nature of this chore, but am always relieved when I turn that last corner and can indulge in bead selection.  Auditioning beads can take up the better part of an afternoon, so I have trained myself to select only the bead bins where everything is neatly color coordinated.

I treat myself to a cup or two of green Chai tea and continue with the long hours of beading under the Ott light.  I worked so long into the night last night - I found myself watching old John Wayne films and thinking about my father.  I wanted to call him and tell him that one of his favorites was on, but for the cruel realization that he is in a nursing facility where his reality and mine never hold hands anymore.  I miss him.  He isn't gone, and yet I miss who he was.  He doesn't recognize my face, but sometimes I think he hears and knows my voice.  He weeps.

Today I sewed a nice envelope on the back of the piece for hanging.  And then I took it out under the apple trees where I could photograph it on the clothesline.  We are having a bit of a wind today, so please indulge me - I had to get some shots of the back of this piece where one could see the wizardry that is Linda.  When I look at these images, I am reminded of the little Silhouette books that I used to take out of the library.  Were they a part of your childhood too?  If memory serves, the books were always published in a turquoise cloth wrapper with the black cameo silhouette on the cover.  I was a voracious reader - always taking as many as I could possibly carry.  Remember - the backpack hadn't been invented yet!!!

Goodbye little seedlings!  Bloom where you are planted - on that lovely Parisian wall where I hope you will captivate and delight all who pass through.  God speed!

GOING TO THE DOGS

Obviously an old photo ... but can you see HOW old?  I was in my early twenties when this was taken at the NY Statler Hilton Afghan Hound Specialty.  My dog, Thaon's Crossfire (Rossi), had just taken a fourth in his class, beating 350 other dogs.  Not too shabby for a novice!  It was a big day, I tell you.  And not easily forgotten.  
My family has always been about dogs.  My grandfather was a famous breeder back in the 30's and 40's of both dogs and horses.  He bred a champion cocker spaniel who won Westminster's Madison Square Garden Show two years in a row - quite an achievement both then and now.  One wonders what he would have thought of the breed that his granddaughter chose - I like to think that it would have made him happy and proud to know that the love of dogs had carried down through the generations.  My cousin is one of the top handlers in the northeast of field trial dogs.  Watching him work his dogs is really a thing of beauty.


Dog shows are well behind me now.  My love of dogs will always exist and I cannot image my life without the company of a four footed companion.  Like this one.  Look what he did to the screen with his big yellow head.  Gotta love him.

WALKWAY OVER THE HUDSON

We rushed after work on Monday night so that we could walk across the Hudson River on the newly renovated Rail Trail which measures 1.5 miles one direction.  We were pretty excited until we got to the gate and were turned back by a pair of oh-so-stern NYS troopers.  I guess that no one is allowed on the bridge after dusk - maybe they assumed that we wouldn't be able to make it back in time.  The Bean, The Can-Do-Guy and I were all very very disappointed.


Earlier in the weekend, someone was able to get on the bridge with absolutely NO trouble.  Unfortunately, because I am technically challenged, I cannot manage to bring the image to you of my son, working color guard for his fire company.  It's a great shot and I'm sorry that you don't get to see it.  He looks great in that uniform and those white gloves!

My Mammie Dolls are all dressed up for the fall season.  My cousin, who is a gifted dollmaker, sent these lovelies to me a few years ago and I made their dresses and britches.

She is a painter and a magician and a horse-rescuer ... just for starters.  I love her and I admire her very much.  I can't think of anything that she cannot paint or create.  

NEVER ENOUGH RUNNERS

A Monday morning sneak peek at the latest Halloweenie project...I hope to have this on the table by mid week.  And Bella, the Halloweener Cat, will be waiting to perch on it.  Does anyone have a solid remedy to keep cats off tables?