Checking in

Each weekend I've been busy doing something and think briefly, I should update my blog. It's been a while and not everyone is on Facebook or Ravelry. But just as quickly it leaves my brain and before you know it another week has passed. Or my case, two months.

I've found as I've gotten older that unless I set out reminders for myself or stop and think for a minute beforehand what I must do I tend to flit from one thing to another at the cost of paying attention to other things that should be attended to. If I have things written down and go over them first thing in the morning I'm very good at getting them done. But if it's not on the list and I don't add it, it will be forgotten. Unfortunately, the blog writing has fallen into the category of not being put on the list. I will try to do better.

Things have changed a fair bit here at Chez Runamuck. I found a young cat that fit the household dynamic a month ago. His name is Fritz, is a year old, and has made friends with Sammy and Buster. Fritz isn't a lap cat but he is affectionate, a chatterbox, and has found all the toys in the short barrel tower. His favorite is a furry mouse that came in a gift pack I received from my Secret Santa last year. He carries it around in his mouth, plays with it on my bed, and has chewed the tail off of it. The other two weren't sure at first but Buster found him to be a fun playmate and Sammy has taken to him as a housemate. It's made life around here comical at times as the chasing goes on in the evening with either Fritz chasing Buster or vice versa.

In April I went to a fiber festival in Hood River. It was the first one for this particular group and they had a great turnout. There were some beautiful things there and I didn't come away empty-handed. One of the things I was looking for was purchasing a Schacht Matchless wheel on layaway. I had my Louet S10 for putting down as a down payment and wanted to pay off the remainder in installments. I found a buyer and the wheel is now being built. I was able to negotiate having the wheel available for my upcoming workshop at the end of June but I have to return it until it's completely paid off. I got the chance to work on someone else's Matchless while I was there and I was very pleased at how well it spun and fit me. So I'm anxious as ever to get it paid off and home!

May has been busy. I volunteered some time to demonstrate handspinning at the annual AgFest in Salem OR. That was fun showing how yarn is made from animal fiber. The kids were delightful to watch. Agent D and I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday to go to the Gorge and take pictures. The water from all the rainfall made the waterfalls spectacular.

One of the things I've been doing is preparing for a class on making toe up socks. I've knitted up sample socks with three different toes and heels to demonstrate different methods. In addition to those I finished a hat for Agent D and a baby sweater for one of the gals in the office who is expecting her first. There will be more baby sweaters coming: one for the grandson coming for one of my partners in crime in my unit, the others for sale to raise money for Outside In.

June promises to be a busy month. Between teaching, taking Judith MacKenzie's workshop at the end of the month, and my birthday, my challenge will be pacing myself so that I can get everything done. Summer's almost here which will mean hiding in my cool house.

Peeping in

Not much is going on lately to write about. Winter weather has made its way in. The furries have their own spots for snoozing in but on particularly cold nights I'm surrounded with lumps trying to suck some of my heat for themselves.

I got a love note from the city on needing to have my sidewalk repaired. The inspectors had come through the neighborhood last year and were now requiring us to make repairs on sections they deemed not up to code. I've been able to come up with some of the funds to have the repairs done but some of my fellow neighbors are having to scramble to find a way to pay for them, including the one I share a driveway with. The city has earmarked our driveway skirt to the street as requiring replacement. It's best done as one piece so I'm waiting for them to be able to put together the funds to help pay for having the work done.

On the knitting front, I am working on a commission that I hope to have finished by next weekend. It's another Harry Potteresque type striped scarf, only done in cream and dove gray. It's coming out very nicely. When that is done, the knitting will be set aside. Work will require me to do a lot of data entry over the next month and a half so care will have to be taken on my arms to make certain I don't get tendonitis.

Onward and upward!

Fallen

Well, I'm betting some of you are looking for the next installment of "The Memoir". I have to admit I've run out of gas on it. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out what sort of sordid event would make Mr Snitterton be in hiding, and there were already a couple of flaws with it. But it was an interesting experiment. I hope you enjoyed what there was. With the failure of the story there was also the failure of my keeping up with the blog on a daily basis. Some things distracted me and others required my attention. So it goes.

I came home to a "love note" from the city saying I need to repair my sidewalk. A more formal request will come from them later. It's not a good time for me to have this happen but it just means that what monies I can pull together from commissions and such will have to be earmarked for that. In the meantime I'm going to be looking at options. I have one option cooking right now with the credit union which I'm hoping comes through. It will make settling things easier.

Quiet weekend

Not much to post about the past week. Most of it was the usual go to work/come home/go to work/come home/go to work/go to knit night/come home/go to work/come home/go to work/come home. Part of it is coping with health issues that are draining me of energy. Those are being addressed. The rest is just making preparations for the next big event, Oregon Flock and Fiber, which is at the end of next month. I have plans, oh do I have plans.

I finished the Arbor Rose socks for Gail and she's very pleased with them. I'm thinking I'll be altering the pattern when I get around to doing the next draft. I'm thinking that the number of repeats of the pattern are making the foot too wide. I'm also thinking that it would be better with a solid instead of with a multicolored yarn to bring out the lace more. Socks need to have negative ease to fit properly and I think I made them too loose. If nothing else they're good samples for Susan to display at her booth or bedsocks.

I did some spinning experimentation with some fiber I had purchased some time ago. It was tricolored BFL and the first part of it I spun up along the color repeats, thinking that I'll break up the color and do the second ply in long colors. I decided not to go that route. The first singles are sitting waiting to be plied up and the unspun fiber is sitting waiting for inspiration. I set it aside for Abstract Fiber's BFL in colorway Hydrangea, which is black, purple, and fuchsia. The first bobbinful flew off my fingers yesterday (4 oz packed on there). The second bobbin's just started today. It's very pretty, colors a goth grrl would just love. (pix will be forthcoming when daylight and my camera are in the same place)

December adventure

Snow doesn't come to western Oregon often. It's more likely to appear as rain or flurries. But this year we've been struck with the first of what the forecasters are saying are a series of storms that will accompany the cold air that has dropped from up north. For some of you folks in northern climes in the US this may not seem much but for Oregonians it's an event and we aren't as prepared for it as we could be. Besides, the stuff has so much moisture it turns to ice almost immediately so it's treacherous around here.

The concerts Confluence put on went well and despite the weather were well attended. When word of the coming snowstorm was confirmed most of our group who lived in Portland planned on returning as soon as possible Sunday night from Corvallis, which is normally a drive of a little less than 2 hours. Because of accidents and tie ups on the freeway, most folks didn't get home until after midnight. Emails telling their tales of sitting in stranded cars went out from their phones. The snow had started falling in earnest around 6 pm while we were taking down the risers and cleaning up the place in preparation for our Christmas party. By the time I headed out with my friends Sam and Clark to stay the night with them, there were a few inches on the ground and blowing wind.

Sam rode with me on the way to the house, for their house was in the hills over Albany and they knew the back roads well enough to know which had the least elevation. I hadn't driven in a snow storm at night before but knew enough to just go slow and steady in low gear. The Bright Red Bug with her new shoes took the challenge gallantly. We got to the house without any problems and settled in for a long winter's snooze.

The next day I hoped that the roads were more clear and for the most part the main highways were. But all the side roads and lesser traveled streets were glazed with ice. After a bit of a struggle to get my chains on my tires, Sam and Clark sent me on my way with a belly full of blueberry pancakes and bacon. The chains worked well on the ice so I was able to get to the highway without any problem. About halfway into the journey, however, I noticed there was extra noise coming from the chains. At first I thought it was that they had somehow shifted and gotten loose, but I learned later on that my driving on the pavement too fast with them broke a few of the links on the crossbars so they were banging on my wheelwells. It reminded me of a story Mom told of coming back from the beach with a station wagon full of hungry tired kids and Dad and crossing over the coastal mountains in the snow. They had one chain set with a loose string and it would go BANG BANG BANG on the fender. So I crawled my way home, banging away.

Four and a half hours after I left I got home, exhausted and ready to call it a night. I walked in the door to be greeted by the cats letting me know how hungry they were and why the heck I didn't leave more food for them and just where the hell was I all these hours. Then I noticed that the house wasn't very warm. When I checked the thermostat, sure enough there wasn't any heat. My furnace was on the fritz.

On Saturday after I had run some errands I noticed that the heat wasn't on and found that something in the furnace had indeed tripped an error code. The thought of having no heat in the house while I was gone was not a good one, so I called the furnace repair with hopes that they would be able to fix it in time for me to be able to get to concert in Salem. They did and I left with the confidence that my children and pipes would be warm. So when I came home to the house being chilled I wasn't happy. Not so much that the furnace didn't get fixed but the prospect of having to figure out how to pay for the repairman. It would work out, I figured, and called them again this morning. Sure, they said, we'll be over. I explained to the bookkeeper my situation and she said she'd work things out with me. So they came over, tried again to figure out what was tripping the furnace's brain, then left with my house thawing out. It was nice to come home to find the house nice and warm.

So more snow is forecast for tomorrow and the weekend. As long as the power doesn't go out, I think I'll be fine. Otherwise, I'll be shoving the piano away from the fireplace and burning my recycling.

Sunday meditation

Sunday mornings are usually spent listening to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, This American Life, Car Talk, and A Prairie Home Companion. While I listen I'm usually doing a few things around the house, enjoying a cup of tea, or doing the NY Times Sunday crossword from their archives. By the time PHC is done, I have a little time to get things ready for the carpool to choir practice in Salem.

This morning during This American Life, there was a discussion of the current financial crisis and an explanation of what's happening to cause the meltdown of the credit markets. I highly recommend listening to it, no matter your political affiliation. It was something I needed something calm to do during the broadcast, so I picked up the baby alpaca I got last weekend and started spinning up some laceweight.

I'm now more informed and have a pretty single. I'll need more calming spinning as the powers that be try to get the markets straightened out.

Horticultural Intervention

I have some really nice and patient neighbors behind me. I'm not the greatest neighbor to have as I don't really take care of my yard like I should. The back yard, while small, is overrun with weeds and ivy and I don't prune my Japanese cherry very often.

It's the tree they were concerned about because it casts a lot of shade on their property. The tree is I think as old as the house if not a decade younger and taller than my house.

So when they mentioned the tree, I was afraid they wanted it taken out. "Oh no," they said. "We just want to trim it so that we can get more sunlight in our yard." They'd do it right, not just hack away at the branches leaving a flat side. They'd do the whole tree for free. All I needed to do is get someone to haul the debris away. No problem. I found a hauler who would do the cleanup and take away the debris.

So this is the before. Overgrown with sports and sprigs growing everywhere.

Now, this is the after. After one big truckful of debris and 3 hours of work. The hauler was quite nice and efficient. It was an excellent opportunity for getting rid of some other yard debris I had in the yard that had been there for a while.

Space! Air! It's going to be a happy tree this summer.

Don't tell me lace isn't addictive.

Someone posted on the Knitting for Sale list the Melanie Shawl pattern by Sharon Miller being up on eBay. Since it's still in print, I didn't think that one could get a good deal on it, but I put a watch on it. Sure enough there were a couple of bidders, but it was still below the exchange rate. So I threw a bid on it and won it! With postage it's a few dollars more than what I would have gotten for it from Heirloom Knitting, but who knows what with air mail postage from the UK to the US if that would have made up the difference. Has anyone knitted it in anything other than the HK Merino Lace? I was thinking the Baruffa FA RE laceweight because that's pretty fine stuff and the HK Merino Lace called for in the pattern is reeeeeally fine stuff. Like fat thread.

In the meantime, I'm working away at the Voyager Lace Stole and liking it and the Berroco Comfort yarn quite a bit. I'm doing it wider than what the pattern calls for but then I'm wider than the model demonstrating the stole.

Have a safe Memorial Day, folks in the US!

New necessities

A milestone has been passed. I got my first bifocals. I'm glad I was able to find lenses large enough to make them stylish. So far I'm getting used to them but then I just got them in the mail a couple of hours ago. We'll see how I fare tonight while I watch the idiot box and work on a project.

Another tool has been acquired to try to outwit the tendonitis troll. This is a tablet mouse that I now use at home instead of a regular mouse. The stylus has a point that acts as the left click button. The side button is the right click button. It's been very easy to use and recommend it to my fellow knitters who do a lot of computer or similar work with their hands. Since getting it I have not had any issues with my hands falling asleep while I'm sleeping or tingling in my arms. My thumb and forefinger on my right hand for a while were getting numb but that has gone away. Whee!

This weekend, a group of knitters is descending from the murk of Seattle to do a yarn crawl through some of the shops in downtown Portland. Members of the PDX Knitbloggers will be accompanying them, guiding them to sights and good eats. So if you're in the Pearl District and see a gaggle of chatting women with purpose in their faces, it's best you move aside. We want to see yarn! (I for one will be stationed at Dublin Bay).

Doings

The furries are all outside playing in the evening sun. It's cool enough that I can open up the house to get the stale air out of it. It's Friday; it's payday; it's the end of the month end brouhaha and the beginning of a vacation week. And I'm almost ready to start the front and back separate sections of the Rogue.

After the last week or so, I'm ready for some time away from the office. I'm hosting a gathering of fellow GLBT-Knit knitters the first weekend of October and I must get this house in order. I have clutter *everywhere* not to mention my stash and wheels and books. The house is small -- the main floor is 1100 square feet with two bedrooms and a narrow bathroom -- and one of the bedrooms has been the catchall of previous cleanings. The house was built in 1913 so it has no storage to speak of. In the past I've simply let things lie around or created make-do shelves but it's to the point where I can't stand the mess anymore. So my vacation week will be to clean up the house and do something with the clutter.

Lowe's had a sale last week so I was able to pick up three sets of these shelves for setting up in the spare bedroom. They're very utilitarian but strong enough to handle the weight of clutter. They will be used to handle the stash, tools, and other items that need to be taken out of the main room and stored away. With the clutter moved out I can clean up dust and fur and cobwebs that have taken up residence. I may end up wheezy at the end of the week but it will be so nice to be in a clean house. And if I finish before the end of the week, I'll treat myself to a day downtown.

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (aka OFFF) is coming up in a couple of weeks. A bunch of us from the PDX Bloggers and a few GLBT Knitsters will be heading over to Canby to fondle fiber and spend the day comparing purchases. I have plans to visit the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth to see if I can find some Socks That Rock yarn that lures me with their siren call. I may find some that will work for the Brother Amos socks that Brenda Dayne has put up on the Cast -On website. Of course I'll visit Interlacements Yarns and follow up with Judy Ditmore on what I'm doing with the yarn I have (um......nothing. But I have a bunch of ideas!). I'll also be toting the Suzie to sell or swap.

I won't compare my cats to children. They don't have the same level of responsibility required for their care. But they are my kids and definitely have their foibles and demands. This week, Sammy's teeth needed my attention. It turned out she had four teeth needing extraction and after a day at the vet returned home with that particular smell they get from the vet's office. I brought her home and let her out of the carrier, then went to visit my friend Ruth who had returned from dealing with the death of her aunt in North Carolina. After a couple of hours of sisterlike commiserating and a gift of chocolate truffles (the aunt was a cranky old witch), I returned to the house to find Buster sitting warily in a protected corner, Sammy trying to be friendly with Maisie, and Maisie hissing like a leaky steam piston. Maisie still remembers the awful visit to the vet when her teeth needed work and the smell just brings back nasties like you wouldn't believe. One sniff at Sammy and hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss she would go while running away. Poor Sammy was left looking bewildered. Maisie spent the night in the basement. This was Wednesday; things have calmed down since then.

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Les Schwab for new tires. One already has a leak; I think the other back tire has a slow leak; and the penny test shows that I'm due. It's a good thing they're having a sale. Best to prepare now before the weather gets nasty. The drive on I-5 to Salem is nasty enough as it is without worrying if I'm going to start hydroplaning. I better get some patterns written up.

Wild Wednesday

We don't get many thunderstorms around here and usually they're pretty mild compared to some of the storms experienced in Tornado Alley and the Midwest. Today however we got several storms through the area, some with hail the size of marbles. When you're used to baby pea size hail, marble size can be a bit disconcerting. With that storm came winds that blew off a lot of dead flowers and leaves off the trees. The streets were a mess on the way home.

It was nice to come home to a long-expected box from these folks. The Sunday of knitting camp had a trip there where I succumbed to the siren call of the pottery. I came away with a few items but they were going to be too heavy to take with me on the plane, so I had them shipped. So it was a treat to find these all lovingly wrapped in bubble wrap.

A butter ramekin, measuring 1/2 cup.

A cup from the Monroe Salt Works of Maine.

A porcelain dish in turquoise glaze (the flash didn't work this time - sorry), perfect for holding little items like stitch markers and yarn needles.

A heart-shaped baking dish for macaroni and cheese.

The cats were curious of course about the box. Maisie was fascinated with the yards of paper stuffing and had to check it out.