A View from Sierra County

Z es por Zapatos

Nosotros queremos zapatos!  It's a family thing... one son set a goal to collect thirty pair while working at a local sporting goods store (although he later decided this was excessive!)

The first photo is of a pair of Barbie sandals I made as a special order this month for a local who wanted to get a desert-dwelling friend an appropriate gift... it is fun fur crocheted around the tops of flip-flops!  I also have a set of clogs to finish up and felt for myself, and promised DH a set too.

I featured my fab rain boots earlier this year, but boots are a popular item for mountain dwellers with equines...

I have at least four pair to meet different needs at any given time, your hiking boots, snow boots, snowboarding boots, rubber mucking boots, insulated barn boots, dress Western boots, you get the idea (actually, while making this list, I counted and realized I currently have 7 pair of boots alone).

In the summer, I switch to the most minimal shoes possible for conditions, whether that be in the water in my Keens or barefoot... although there is always a pair of barn shoes waiting at the door, just in case... those donkeys have pretty heavy feet and though they are careful, it's just best not to have them step on one of my feet!

I have loved participating in the ABC Along this year, and each entry has been a rich surprise, teaching me more about so many of my blogging buddies.  Thanks to Anne for a creative and worthwhile project!  And don't worry, dear readers, that this is turning into a Spanish-speaking blog... although I studied Spanish from sixth grade through to college, I am not fluent and promise to stick primarily to English... but I do live in California.

Fleece Navidad

I hope that everyone is enjoying a happy, love-filled holiday today, no matter the way you choose to celebrate!

Eldest son caught this photo of me, opening up the package from him and sis, who went in on a new pair of snowboarding pants for me... my other passion besides knitting and my donkeys.  My surprise Christmas gift this year was a new board, unexpected in that I had been looking for a replacement for my board that I bought used six-plus years ago and have put some wear on, but hadn't found a good enough deal to allow myself the purchase... then, yesterday we were shopping with one son at the sports shop where another works, found him board and boots at closeout prices, and I started looking through them and discussing my options with my sales-son.  I found a very good choice for me, and am looking forward to winter riding through the next three months.

The snow is finally here, but then so are the people, as the nearest mountain resorts are at Lake Tahoe, which gets packed with visitors at Christmas.  Soon we will be getting out on the white stuff, though!

Here in the California foothills, Christmas is not a white one this year, but mild with lots of dampness in the air from lingering cloudiness... the sun is trying to peek out today but having a tough time of it.  We are heading out for an afternoon hike to work off Christmas Eve mexican food dinner and deluxe Christmas morning brunch foods.

Merry Christmas to all and a fibery New Year!

A Good Feeling

 

It's a good feeling to believe that I am "ready for Christmas" when it is only the 22nd... I am sure there's something I've forgotten, but not that peaceful feeling of celebration, festiveness, love for family and content at having such a good life.  I hope this season brings the same feelings of warmth and love to all of you.

I promised a photo of our tree once it was decorated, and that has proved to be a photographic challenge; I have to keep reminding myself that those magazine layouts all have floodlights in the background, out of sight in the shot, but providing the illumination my dark, pre-Victorian family room lacks.

The office holiday party for our clinic was a group potluck luncheon on Tuesday.  Our staff is pretty small, just like everything else in a rural place, and so we draw names in early November and have a gift exchange.   One of the nurses who has been involved in outside activities with me as well and seen me knit my way thorugh many a meeting, drew my name.  She is not a knitter herself, but put together this lovely star basket full of yarns, a candle and a snowman ornament for me... I had to laugh when she told me that her selection guide was looking at the labels to see if there was a drawing of knitting needles on them,  There is Berocco Chinchilla for a toy teddy (somehow, my friends over at the Knitters At Work Yahoo list got it in their heads this past weekend that I might be working on the lingerie-type teddy, so any pattern links would be appreciated).  There is also fun fur to put into a felted project and pretty pink linen-like ribbon yarn for a spring scarf.

I have done pretty well on the receiving end, and I hope that my mother-in-law, Diana will feel the same.  Our family does three different name drawings: the little cousins, the "big" (as in young adult) cousins, and the old adults, and Diana and I got each other this year.  She and FIL Jim met us for lunch yesterday while on their way to their second home in Lake Tahoe for Christmas with BIL and his daughters.  We will be staying here at the old Camp, as a few of our children need to work, two on Christmas Eve and one on the afternoon of Christmas Day.  She had left my present under the tree, and will wait to open hers on Christmas, but since she won't be reading my blog, here's a picture of her finished shawl:

We took this photo on Sunday, the only sunny day all week, but after heavy rains yesterday, it promises to be nice today - icy right now, though.

This shawl is a basic triangle, starting at the top with a few stitches, increasing at the ends of the right side rows and on either side of a center stitch.

I added a simple, pointy border, the same one that I had used for my Lily of the Valley Shawl this summer, although it looks a lot different in the fluffy mohair.  This was an easy, fast and elegant gift and there will be more in the future.

I also haven't showed you my Suede Bejeweled scarf yet - mostly because I didn't much like this picture, bit I haven't been able to get any good ones.  That was something I neglectedto mention when touting Aubergine last week; it also photographs about as poorly as black when trying to capture the details of a knitted piece.  It sure has been a nice, cozy scarf to wear this week, with the temps dropping again before the latest storm.  My version is half the stitches, but a bit wider than the pattern, being made from bulky yarn.  I might just have to make another one!

The other thing I have been knitting this week is a slew of folk toys, using the patterns I teach to my young students.   These cats and bears went into our crafts co-op shop, where I hope they will be well-received.  They are not the modern, polyestery-plastic stuffed animals that people have grown accustomed to, but rather a wooly, homey version that a child can breathe their own imagination and live into.  I was inspired to make them by my first and second graders, who get so excited when each animal a classmate makes gets finished, asking what the name will be and adding simple embellishments to them.  It isn't necessary to have colorful plastic jewels to imagine a crown, or fancy on-and-off outfits to devise a lot of play stories for your stuffed friends... but then the test will be if modern parents and children decide to buy them.

I will be slacking on posting for the next week, taking my annual vacation time with family, but I am also looking forward to a chance to catch up on reading emails and some of your blogs!  I have a "Z" post ready to go for after Christmas and am working on a New Years surprise for my knitblogging friends, so stay tuned.

A warm and blessed holiday season to each of you, who have enriched my life so much in the past year.

2006 In Review

The first sentence of each first post of the month for 2006 (one picture from every month, in order, is Vicki's suggestion):

January:  Our's was pretty quiet this year, as mudslides blocked the main highway, and flooding threatened Downieville Saturday morning.

Photo to the left is of the creek below our Forest City house, as seen on New Years Day... nuff said.

February: I have been reading with interest as some of my fellow bloggers have been dealing with New Year's Stash Diets... and I decided that this was not my problem.

The Sierra Buttes showing how winter light can shine.

March:  I have to admit that I had quite a bit of trouble with the letter E.  (so I picked "equine")

There are lots of other good March photos, but since this is one of my favorite pictures of myself, driving my friend Ginny's burro Ashley, it gets an end-of-the-year replay.

April:  The official cast-on for Mountain Peaks has come and gone...

In case you weren't around back then, I quickly made a Mountain Stream scarf, which I am gifting to my dearest and oldest (as in "known longest" friend, Laura, but I was daunted by Mountain Peaks, and still haven't gotten around to restarting it.

This photo is from our April travels through the Nevada desert, a Virginia Range wild mustang mama and foal.

May:  I am so delighted with this pattern and how lovely (and different) the blocked scarf looks. (Yep, my Mountain Stream)

May also saw completion of the Ruana from Folk Shawls..

June:  It has been a bit fragmented around the old camp...

Now there's a sentence that could easily summarize all of 2006!  It hasn't been our best year and there are many reasons to be happy to see it over, but June brought one of the happiest parts of the year, my trip to Estes Park, first flying back to Salt Lake City to stay with Margene and meet Carole, Susan , Miriam, and Laurie, then driving to Colorado and back with Margene, Carole and Anne... as well as meeting some of the best bloggers around:

From left to right:  Margene, me, Carole and Stephanie.

However, the photo of the month award goes to this one of a group of us kayaking on Lake Tahoe... I can't take photographer's credit as I am in the picture...

July:  This Saturday sky features the thunderheads that are prominent in our mountains in early summer.

It was hard to pick a photo for July, as summer is all about being outside in the mountains for me, so if you feel a hankering to dream about summer weather right along about now, go check out the archives for my old blog.

This is a favorite photo of Rita, in her packing gear and ready for a trip.

August:  I have felt particularly blest the past few days, somewhat swamped in gifties...

Actually, the act of reviewing all of my posts to get the first line of the month and the best photo has made me so thankful for the rich life that I have!

My Lily of the Valley shawl, finished in August, is probably my most favorite creation in 2006... shown here modeled while I was demonstrating spindling at the county fair... spinning took up most of my fiber time in August, and I got pretty good at it by the end of the month.

September

: Great Basin was all about fiber friends for me!

I was away the first week of September and didn't have a post up until September 7th, but could regale my readers with tales of my spinning and fiber adventures staying with Margene and taking a spindle spinning class with her and Susan at the fair.  What a highlight of the year!

As a remembrance of my lovely, lovely  time back in Utah, I made this version of Susan's Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawlette from yarn dyed by Margene, and named it "Echos of Hugs"... it is my other most favorite thing I have made this year, and has seen a lot of wear this fall-into-winter season.

October:  Yesterday was the deadline to enter my 375th post contest, and announcing the winners is my first task at my new Blog-Home..

I switched to Typepad at the beginning of October, giving up my comfortable yet narrow relationship with Blogger, and have been steadily learning the features....

October was a difficult month around here... the fourth time down Grieving Lane for our family in 2006... one of DD's friends was killed in a vehicle crash.  This has been a year marked with tragedy, both in our intimate lives and in the world.  My uncle Ed, my children's aunt Julie, our sweet burro Louise, and then Johnny, all left us behind to weep.

My children and their other family held a remembrance celebration in October, with each person helping to dissemble Julie's bulletin board, where she had kept photos, mementoes, and saying pinned up... each person had a story to share about these treasures.  They also printed up a bumber sticker of Julie's special saying, "Live Happy Ever Now", which adorns each of my (adult) kiddos' cars.   I know it sounds trite, but I am praying for peace, because I still need to.

November:  Throughout the week, my eyes have seen sightst that my camera just could not capture.

This has been another touchstone sentence... me wishing I could share better with everyone in Blogland the beauties of my world...

November's photo of the month was a pretty darn good attempt to capture the Harvest Moon....

December:  It's been almost two years since Time named bloggers the men (and women of the year).

My parting photo, my favorite for this month, at least so far... capturing the joy the holiday season is meant to bring to all of us.

Reviewing the year, on this, the shortest day and longest night, has always been an important ritual for me.  Going back through the photojournal of my life that my blog has become was a very moving way to do that.

Tagged Again!

“THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

I got this meme from Vicki, and then had fun reading Margene's answers.  It's going around like the chicken pox used to do, so as busy as everyone is during the holidays, I will let you decide for yourself if you want to join in.

1.  I can't leave the house without earrings in all six of the holes pierced in my two ears, or I feel naked.

2.  I can't eat certain foods, like yogurt right out of the carton, or a whole banana without feeling like I am about to gag... something about the texture.  It's ok if they are mixed with other foods (frozen bananas are great in smoothies).

3.  I live where there is more space around things mainly because I can sometimes feel claustrophobic.... like when driving in rush hour traffic, or when at a packed event in a building.  Hey, wait, maybe that's not so wierd after all, just a strong survival instinct.

4.  I always need to check and see where the exit is... see number three.

5.  Although I like wine well enough, I have never really developed a "palate" for it; the sulfites in most wines will trigger asthma that is usually under control for me.

6.  I refuse to watch violent or horror movies... this one goes way back to hiding behind the couch when the Wizard of Oz was on TV when I was a little girl.

There's probably a lot more, especially if you asked my kids or my husband!

I have been busy making several small things, finished up the buying and mailing and now need to finish the wrapping and cooking.  Relaxing will come next week, along with some new "me" projects.  I will be attempting Hidcote Garden as my "Lace-uary" project, joining together with a few others in an as-yet informal KAL.  I have three possibilities to choose from in my stash.  First there's the pale turquoise Merino Oro that I originally bought for this shawl, then there's the Iris Alpaca Cloud that I bought before Christmas LAST year, planning to make a EZasPi shawl, but changed my mind, and last, but not least, the natural silk that Margene sent me as a birthday gift.... hmm, I will have to make a decision soon.  I am also planning to start Seda using the Cormo wool I got at Estes Park.  If I can keep from being distracted by new ideas and projects, and get those two done, I would love to start on my Wild Apple Bohus cardi, leftover from last year's Christmas gift that didn't arrive until March (something about being back-ordered by not telling us it would take so long).

I will have photos of the mohair gift shawl and my Bejeweled scarf tomorrow...

Cookie Extravaganza ...

or, Why I Didn't Get My Christmas Cards Done Yet.

I don't go to such lengths every year, but I have always loved holiday baking.  This is something that was passed on to me by my father, who used to take the two weeks of school holiday off from work every year, to be the Poppa In Charge while Mom kept working.  We baked.  We cleaned.  We helped him get ready to host my Mother's annual Christmas Dinner for the extended family.

One of the things that Dad made on his own, without our help, was a persimmon fruitcake, baked in October and soaked in rum for two months.  I never really understood why people DIDN'T like fruitcake until I left home... obviously, they had never eaten my dad's.  He taught me all I knew about cooking before I left home, and really, it was mainly how to bake!  We made breads as gifts, cookies to wolf down, and other goodies for the holiday meal.  I have continued my own version of this tradition, in greater and lesser amounts, over the years.  The year that DD was an infant, I was not working as Christmas approached and had little money for gifts.  DD watched on in her infant seat as I made about a dozen pies; most of those on my gift list got a pie that year... persimmon pie for my Dad, pecan for my SIL, chocolate cream for lil' brother, pumpkin for my family, etc.

This year, I asked DD a few weeks ago if she wanted to come over and share a day-long baking extravaganza.  She suggested that we make gingerbread people and invite our little friend who lives up the road and is almost four to join us.  Everything was arranged during the week, and she arrived after a hectic day at the toy store where she is working, at the same time that a farmer from our community was delivering 15 pounds of persimmons for us.

We made the first batch of persimmon cookies last night, studded with chopped walnuts, rolled oats, and dried cranberries, and at least we were eating "healthy" cookies...

It was downhill from there... we also made a batch of fudge last night and hid it in the fridge to harden.

This morning, my first task was making the gingerbread batter and letting it chill for a few hours before trying to roll it out.

Nikki is rolling balls of dough for Raspberry Fudge Thumbprint Cookies.. not so healthy, except that we used raspberry preserves that were "fruit only", then ate a bunch!  These are the greatest.

We also made Peanut Butter Kisses... another family favorite, but put a few organic dark chocolate morsels in the middle of each one instead of unwrapping all of those Hersey Kisses.

Youngest Son decided to come up and join us, do his laundry and get in on the goods.  He has always had an artistic bent, and painted these snowpeople, plus a tree and a cat extrapolated from the wreath cookiecutter.

DD made an equally stunning plate of decorated cookies and was disappointed when the head on her gingergirl started coming loose.

Our little grrlfriend had a great time too, playing with our toys between bouts of cutting out shapes, stirring and mixing, sprinkling colored sugar (and licking it off her fingers), and plucking mini M&Ms into her mouth as often as putting them on cookies to take home to big brother.

This much fun in my own kitchen is worth all the mess... I felt truly blest today, and really couldn't ask for more from life.  It didn't hurt any that the sun was shining, and we were able to fit in a photo shoot for my gift to MIL and my aubergine Bejeweled (which will appear later this week).  I hope your holiday preparations were as much fun!

Winter Dawn

Cold, windy, but at least dry!

Aubergine is the New Black

Two years ago, almost, as 2005 dawned, one of our local hip-hop stations had a DJ touting that brown was the new black.  And it seemed like it the past few years, with more available in shades of brown than usual.  But those of us who have watched fashion (or at least walked into a mainstream mall or department store) have figured out years ago that the colors change every season or two, just so we will go out and buy "new looks".  One thing that I love about knitting my own wardrobe items is that I have a bit of immunity to the trends, being able to at least choose the color of yarn I want to start with; well, provided it was either chosen by my LYS buyer, or the yarn company's color guru.  I like to pretend I have greater choice, anyway.

So, I'm giving you a heads up, a free fashion tip.  Aubergine is the new black!  I love this color... not just because it is an inky, velvety, rich purple verging somewhere between the midnight of a deep, deep navy and a black-purple seen in the night sky just before the first inklings of dawn.  I love it because it truly could be the next black, working so well as a neutral.  It plays well with all the other traditional neutrals: black, white, greys, browns, navy, even red (at least that is the fashion advice I get from the Red Hat Society).  It goes well with every shade of green (my favorite color to wear), and every shade of blue....especially denim, a modern test that any successful candidate for the "new black" must pass.

Deciding that I wanted to expand my aubergine wardrobe, in defiance of current fashion "wisdom", I mounted a search in the past few weeks to determine how hard it might be to buck fashion trends... could I locate anything in this color?

First, I browsed through some of the mainstream catalog companies, which shall remain nameless, as I only managed to locate one turtleneck sweater and one "dove wrap" (no, not the chocolate!) out of my massive search.  Not in this year...

Oh, well.  Not one to be daunted, I searched through some of the little, alternative shops in my area, and found this wonderful velvet blouse to spice up my holidays:

And, then I did a bit of snooping around through the yarn stores and sites... not much luck there, either.  I did find that the name "eggplant" was far more common, and that traditional yarn collections, such as those offering a wide color range for stranded colorwork knitting, were the most likely to have almost every color, no matter what this year's fashion trends are.  Examples include Knitpicks' Telemark yarn, which they say was inspired by traditional Scandinavian designs, and Alice Starmore's collections focusing on Celtic knitting tradition.

While searching, I picked up some Lion Suede at my local Ben Franklin, just in time to also discover the Bejeweled scarf pattern and start it:

Shobhana's pattern is very easy and I have progressed quickly, with a photo shoot in the offing next week.... but astute observers (i.e., those working on the pattern already) will note that I am using only half the stitches called for.  Suede is a bulky-weight yarn, but the ONLY yarn I could find locally in aubergine... I like this pattern very much and may well make a second scarf in the suggested worsted weight.

There is still plenty of time for you to join the Bejeweled KAL and purchase the pattern from Shobhana, with $1.75 from each pattern (which only costs $2.25) going to Dulann to help with their shipping costs.  She has secured a match from Anichini, meaning that a total of $3.50 goes to Dulann for every pattern sold... think of the good you will be doing while making yourself an elegant scarf for the coming cold months.

Am I disappointed not to find more aubergine yarn choices? You bet!  The search is not over, but I have a few major projects looming, and had insisted to myself

"Self, we are NOT buying any more yarn till those wonderful projects waiting patiently in the stash get done!"

I can't help thinking sometimes of my stash being like those poor, forlorn toys in A Toy Story, waiting for me to come and play with them.

Now, THAT was definitely a mental sidetrack, but the point I am getting to is that this whole exploration of aubergine (remember, it's the new black) has me examining what I knit v. what I wear... how close in alignment are those two?  I have gift yarn in a purple that is a tad too bright and the wrong weight for the Seda vest I want to make next.  I have lovely, lovely nuetral pale brownish-grey Cormo that I bought for a Wool Peddlers Shawl I don't really need, nor that would get all that much wear, considering the number of shawls I already own.  It would make a wonderful vest, but that would be much like buying clothes off the rack in this year's color rather than the colors I prefer to wear.  Hmmm... mayvbe I am right back to searching further for aubergine yarn.

You might have noticed that my blog is a bit boring; I have never successfully figured out how to post buttons in Tyepad!  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I am looking forward to a weekend of holiday baking and candy-making, a tradition my DD and I have.  We did our shopping yesterday.  I am also hoping the rain lets up enough to get a few nice pictures of three FOs!  Have a great weekend.

Y is for Yoga

Knitting was touted as the next yoga, and then crochet, but yoga really is a multi-faceted dimension all its own.  Yoga has filled my life for many years... at my best, I get a half-hour of postures and contemplation in daily and an hour and a half class or two in a week, and at my worst, this reduces down to three  20-30- minute sessions a week, but over the years, yoga has been a constant.

I don't need to go on and on about the health benefits; there has been a lot of positive press and recent scientific inquiry into the virtues of yoga in the past few years.  Yoga reshapes your body, restores flexibility, tones, strengthens, and lengthens your muscles, strengthens your spine, improves circulation, raises energy level, diminishes the effects of stress, increases balance, coordination, focus and discipline and clears your mind and calms your soul.  All good ideas for a busy life.

That is partly why I was so excited to learn that DH's DD (the only one out of our combined five that did NOT grow up with us), had decided to open a yoga studio.  Although it took over a year, and the birth of granddaughter Mia, Amy's studio in Sugarland, Texas opened at the end of the spring, and she is thriving.  Amy's best tip for me was to turn the heat up in the morning from our propane fireplace and do my yoga right in front, so that the warmth would loosen up my muscles.

This is the right time of the year to consider giving yoga a try, and getting lessons as a gift for a friend or family member.  I have benefitted enormously from my teachers: Josef, Laurel, Sun, and Marshall. Om Shanti Shanti.

Welcoming Christmas

Getting into the spirit was an ambling and peaceful journey this weekend, as heavy rain kept us home all day Saturday.  We cleaned and straightened and moved some furniture around in order to fit a Christmas tree into our family room.  Amazing the stuff you can accumulate; I will be listing some items on the Destash blog later this month, and managed to burn three grocery sacks full of no-longer-important papers.

For the past few years, we have set our tree up in the parlor (keep in mind these are 10 x 12 rooms in a pre-Victorian house before you get too envious of 'all that space').  This kept us having enough family seating in the family room, but we didn't get to hang out with our decorations much.

This year, we have less people around the house and decided the tree would be a boon holiday companion.                        

Sunday, we planned to be decorating, but the lights, when unpacked, chose to disagree... there weren't enough that worked.  Now, we discovered this about 3:00 PM, and living over an hours' roundtrip from stores that would carry replacement strings of lights, opted to wait.  Poor, forlorn-looking tree.  DH will be picking up a replacement string today, and decorating will continue throughout the week.  This is a Red Fir, also known in our parts as "Silver Tip", and a native to our mountains.  Some people consider them too sparse, but when filled with our glass ornament collection, this type of tree offers the best display.

I can't believe it, but I managed to avoid getting into a car and driving both weekend days.  I finished MILs gift shawl Saturday night while watching Dead Man's Chest with DH, DD, and DES (they bought the DVD for me as an early gift), but got busy trying to install and work with my phone's MP3 software and missed the narrow window of opportunity that passes for daylight this time of year... photos soon!

We have ten doors to the outside on the ground floor of our antique house, and three of them now sport festive holiday wreathes... the photo above is the main front door, seldom used in grand old-fashioned ranch-house tradition.  The one below is on a set of french doors facing our circular drive that are never opened, unless to move furniture.  That many doors, along with entrances between rooms, make for little wall space, so a few of the six sets of french doors have been treated as mere walls... hope your holiday decorating has been fun and the season remains magical to you.