Powerless December 26, 2008
Posted by Sheila in Finished Items, Starburst Runners, Weaving.1 comment so far
We braved the snow and ice to get to Whole Foods the night before Christmas Eve so that I could spend a small fortune on fresh veal shanks, saffron threads for risotto, and the real Parmigiano Reggiano. I planned to create this exquisite ossobucco and serve it to my beautiful daughter and her boyfriend.
We arrived home safely, stowed our edible treasure in the refrigerator and dreamed of the delicious melting lumps of marrow-filled meat that would be ours the next night.
On Christmas Eve, I picked up the 1,813 balls of yarn from the living room and hid them somewhere. I put dozens of knitting needles back in their places. I put countless books we had already read back on the bookshelves. I dusted every flat surface in the house, and turned on all the Christmas lights and ignored the big white flakes that were still falling from the sky. All the while, I kept an eye on the clock. I would start the ossobucco at 3:00. Therefore, I plugged in the vacuum cleaner at 2:45 to give the house its final coat of luster. At that precise moment, the power went out.
Realizing there was nothing we could do but wait, we settled down to do just that. Fortunately, the things we like to do best– reading and knitting– can both be done without power, with the light of a candle or few. And there is that fabulous old-fashioned “Armstrong” bicep-powered vacuum cleaner that worked quite well. We built a blazing fire in the fireplace for warmth and were very cozy. Still, it was disappointing to think of the veal sitting in the refrigerator, possibly to spoil if the electricity wasn’t restored soon. Even more frustrating was the fact that only two blocks away, people had power.
It dawned on us that our favorite Italian restaurant, about a mile away, probably had not been impacted by the power outage. A quick call confirmed that they were alive, they were open, and they had room for four: Plan B was thereby set into action. We drove/slid/bounced in to Capitol Hill to pick up our guests, who were icebound, then drove back to Marcellos for a fabulous feast. Was it what we wanted, what we planned? No. Was it wonderful to spend time with family and not worry about the fact that the plans had to be changed? Yes. And when we arrived home after dinner, the Christmas lights were twinkling their welcome at us, as if laughing about getting us to go enjoy an evening out.
Did Sherah love her red clapotis? You bet!
And the ossobucco? I’m looking forward to having it soon– very soon. Mouth-wateringly soon…
Here is how the runner turned out (not the greatest photos)
Winter Snowlstice December 23, 2008
Posted by Sheila in Finished Items, Knitting, Starburst Runners, Weaving.add a comment
We are still snowed in. I don’t know of any other U.S. city that is as hilly as Seattle is and also gets snow and ice. We have so many hills that you can’t get half a block without climbing or diving. The biggest hills are named– Capital Hill, Somerset, Queen Anne, First Hill, etc. The smaller ones are just referred to as “that really long hill” or “the little hill down by the school” or “that hill that’s so hard to climb”. But when they are covered with ice, all hills are equally unwelcoming. We don’t actually get much snow, but you wouldn’t know it by looking around. Here’s a view of our back yard:
Meanwhile, stuck inside, I’ve finished weaving off the first runner. Here we are at the end, having just finished the hemstitching.
And off the loom, but not washed yet:
The true color is somewhere between the two. This winter light makes it hard to take good pictures.
Whiskers doesn’t really like being stuck inside either. He may blame Santa for not being able to cat about the neighborhood.
Here’s how to make really cute slipper socks look kind of ugly: stuff them with newspaper “feet”. Really, they’re too small for me, so I can’t model them for you, and nobody presently in the house has smaller feet than mine.
And here’s the first of the manlyman socks– again, not good with the color. They are more khaki and less azure.:
And I leave you with more visions of the ice and snow that form my prison. In the pond there are four koi. Did you know that koi don’t eat anything once the temperature dips below 50 degrees?
Cabin Fever Palliatives December 22, 2008
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Things you can do when you’re stuck in the cabin and the windows are disappearing beneath the snow:
1. Read a book. Better yet, have someone read one to you while you knit him a sock. Make him leave out the gory details of terrible rape scenes if he is reading The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett. Look up the things you don’t know about, like
a. What’s Whitsun?
b. Winchester… was it really the capitol of England? (This will remind you of the song “Winchester Cathedral”, which will remain in your head for the next two weeks.)
c. What’s a plinthe?
2. Pay attention to the table runner that should already be in Denver. Finish it, remove it from the loom, wash it, iron it dry and pronounce it exquisite. Get someone else to ship it overnight so that, if you are very lucky, it may arrive at its destination on Christmas Eve.
3. Wrap presents. Christmas trees look ever so much more festive when they are skirted with colorful gifts adorned with bows. Nevermind that these are the same bows used for generations and are starting to lose a little of their gaiety. Promise yourself that you will buy new Christmas bows at the after-holiday sales once you dig out from beneath all the white stuff. If you dig out from beneath all the white stuff.
4. Bake cookies, knowing that there are only two people around to eat them and one of them is you. Justify this by saying “but it’s Christmas only once a year!” or “I’ll take them to the office tomorrow!” knowing that the office is closed tomorrow and that Thanksgiving, Easter, birthdays, Valentine’s, and Halloween also only come once a year.
5. Make and drink Fabulous Adult Beverages, including eggnog blended with ice cream and spiced rum, Irish Painkillers made with Jamieson’s and Baileys, and/or hot toddies starting with spiced chai. Justify this by telling yourself that if God didn’t want you to drink this stuff he would make it stop snowing.
6. Watch the poodle. See Sherlock sit, see Sherlock eat; see Sherlock go bananas over his increasingly dry skin. Don’t sleep for two nights straight because he can’t settle down. Make him sleep in the living room one night yet remain sleepless because he makes it known to all and sundry that he is lonesome. The fourth night, run some of your expensive hand cream into his skin and watch while he (and you) sleeps like a baby.
Snowbound December 19, 2008
Posted by Sheila in Knitting, Weaving.1 comment so far
The offices at my place of work have been closed for two days now. The Seattle area is encased in a shell of crusty snow and sparkly ice. I’m starting to flush with a bit of cabin fever, but due to the miracles of modern technology I can still work from home, and due to the drudgery of eminent deadlines, I sit hostage by my computer waiting for word that I can install yet another two instances of SQL Server on some new boxes. I think I’ve set a new record this week, installing over 15 instances.
A couple of days ago I did the initial hemstitching on the first table runner that I left on the loom a couple of months ago, and today I began weaving it in earnest. The first one will be going to its new home in Colorado soon, hopefully before Christmas, but as we know, time is short.
I was thinking, as I was weaving, about the booths of handweavers I encountered about a month ago at a craft/arts show at the Seattle Center (think Space Needle). Every one of them said they had handwoven their goods. Every one of them used an AVL or similar type of powered loom to do the actual treadling. Now, I am the first to admit that the bulk of the weaver’s art is in the design, warping and finishing of the goods, but to say that you handwove an article when you used a computer-driven loom is about as correct as saying you handknit an item when you used a knitting machine. A truly handwoven thing takes much more time and of course is much more prone to human error. I’m sure that most weavers who want to make enough product to sell in the open marketplace can only afford to use computer-driven looms because of the time involved. They might have to charge a whole lot more for truly handwoven articles. Yet I feel they should have to designate somewhere on their labels, in their advertising, etc. the fact that part of the weaving process was handled by a computer program. I feel the same way about quilts– they are not truly handmade if they were quilted by machine. I would even go so far as to say that they are not truly handmade if they were pieced by machine. Am I a curmudgeon?
To be honest, I think using a microwave is cheating when cooking. And a bread maker? Blasphemy!
Maybe I should be Amish. Do Amish people get to weave? They probably don’t sit in front of their computers.
Clapotis is finished well ahead of Christmas, and is now tucked in a box ready to be wrapped. I could not get a good photo, but here she is, a little embarrassed as you can see from her bright red visage.
And a little better color shot of her sweet little stripes:
Santa Clau(poti)s December 16, 2008
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It’s COLD out there! The roads are covered with ice and I, thinking to avoid the hazards of driving on icy roads at the same time as the ubiquitous DWAs, decided to walk, just as I have been for the last week. It’s just over a mile, I said. I’ll go the flatter way, I said. It’ll be way safer than driving, I said.
I made it home with knitting parts still functional. That’s all I have to say about that.
The clapotis is coming along nicely in Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn, Ruby River, though I hope Santa isn’t sizing it up as a sleigh robe.
This is what happens when Santa swallows a yarn ball:
Yesterday, Luckily December 7, 2008
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Yesterday I fell down the stairs. A very large bruise is emerging on my outer right thigh.
Luckily I love the color purple.
Yesterday I became the eight-millionth person to start knitting a clapotis scarf. It is very boring.
Luckily it is also very pretty.
Yesterday we walked to a shop about which I’ve been curious for a couple of years… it turned out to be an eclectic amalgamation of old junk and new junk.
Luckily we saw a sign for a glass art sale walking home. Following it, we found an entire studio and pretty hand-blown ornaments, all in what appeared to be a normal house in North Seattle. We bought two (ornaments, not houses).
Yesterday we walked by a house and saw on its front lawn a huge hawk perched on an iron ring. It was very much alive, a gorgeous healthy specimen of hawkhood.
Luckily, it was tethered.
Yesterday’s yesterday while today is here,
Today’s today til tomorrow appear;
Tomorrow’s tomorrow until today’s past,
And kisses are kisses as long as they last.
Handblown Glass by Maya Radoczy
Turkey Tale December 1, 2008
Posted by Sheila in Knitting, Uncategorized.2 comments
The turkey was a little dry. That’s the worst thing I can say about Thanksgiving this year. The dressing and apple/cranberry/pear sauce were excellent. The sweet potatoes, bursting juicily from their skin, were delicate and delectable; the rolls rose at just the right time and the pie was perfect. There were many things for which to be thankful, and we were duly grateful.
It was nice, though, to be able to have more family over on Saturday and bake a big pan of lasagne, altogether ignoring the turkey relaxing in the refrigerator. I think we must have watched at least ten football games over the long weekend, none notable in my memory but all contributing to the general good times of the holiday.
I finished one double-soled slipper sock…
… and started one of a pair of manly man socks (modeled here by S. Poodleupagus).
I progressed on the Noro scarf that you probably had no idea I was making…
… and was generally fickle when it came to knitting any one thing at a time. It’s all good; I’ve learned not to beat myself up over not finishing something allatonce. I know that if I like the project and if it looks good, I’ll come back to it eventually. Maybe some of these things will be Christmas presents, and maybe some will gestate longer than another five weeks. Either way, theirs will be a healthy birth.
