A View from Sierra County

Snow Day!

These words are music to schoolchildrens' ear and mine too.  I always get excited by big snowstorms, and have learned over the years to have good 'snow driving' skills so am less daunted by being caught away from home as well.  Yesterday dawned like any other workday in winter, grey and gloomy, but rapidly turned different.  For one thing, the storm that was expected to start around 2 in the afternoon was already giving hints of its true nature as I left for work around 7:30 AM... a very light, fine snow was beginning to fall.  I still expected a normal sort of day, as snow falls during about half of the storms where I live, but I quickly drop below the snow line heading to work.  Therefore, I was amazed to look out the windows of our childcare center around 8:30 AM and discover that close to an inch of snow had already fallen... snow is very uncommon there!

Shortly after breakfast, our preschool had received word from their supervisor (a different branch of our common parent organization) that roads were getting very bad elsewhere in the county and schools were closing and calling families to get children safely home before conditions worsened.  They surely did over the course of the day, with vehicle mishaps, serious accidents, road closures and plenty of adventure stories being retold throughout the day. 

I decided to stay at work, catching up on paperwork and letting everyone else make it home and off the roads.  DD made it safely home from work but urged me to cancel my plans to attend my weekly night class 50 miles from home, as even though there was no snow at that location, at least 3/4ths of my journey would be over roads now deemed perilous... she was right!  Youngest son, who shares a house with her, works for a large California recycling company now instead of driving a beer truck as he did last year, and all their trucks were called back in, incapable of safely navigating the snow-clogged back streets.... the region simply doesn't have the snowplowing equipment such a surprisingly heavy and low-reaching storm requires.  He had further adventures helping friends get unstuck or safely home the rest of the afternoon.

My personal commute home was much slower, but safely navigated thanks to four wheel drive and studded snow tires... others were parked along the roads, chaining up or not so fortunate... this was the scene awaiting me in the garden....

a grey winter wonderland, as it started to snow even faster!  We ended up with a total of 10-12 inches of new snow, and a calm, wintry wonderland in the morning, following light flurries over the course of the night.  Our staff had already jointly decided that our site would be closed because of the road problems for today, giving the plows a chance to catch up, and by the time I headed out in midday after working at home this morning, the roads were lovely.

Even better was seeing children out with sleds and snowboards, giving those newly-whitened hillsides a try!

One would think I would have lots of knitting news to report after such a storm, but it turns out that missing both of my two night classes because of snow cuts into my available knitting time this week rather than enhancing it.  I have a pile of two lacy blobs waiting to be blocked, am contemplating a new sock and swatching a new project... nothing worth taking photos of, even!  It has been nice to be at a knitting crossroads this week, contemplating my stash can be a lot like the proverbial contemplating a navel... entertaining, enlightening and full of choices. 

There is a lot of potential there, and it's hard to pick a new direction right this minute (maybe I need to wait for a different phase of the moon, LOL).  I pulled poor DH's vest (from Felted Knits) out of hibernation and it will get time at Knit Night regularly, but reminds me that a plain stockinette can sometimes get tiresome before the end is in sight... especially when it is large enough to get felted upon completion.  I want to get a few more leaves done for the Tikkun Tree Project too; if you haven't  read about this venture, go and take a look!  Also, go on by and wish Carole a belated Happy Blogaversary and enter her contest to win a batch of brownies, after all, chocolate is GOOD for you!

A is for Assteroid

I had every good intention of starting the ABC Along in early January, but somehow here it is, the very last week of the month, and I am just now getting to it.  January has been all about finishing up December for me, and I have managed to finish up three major knitting projects in the past few weeks, but I do wonder what it will mean for the rest of the year if I am already almost a month behind!

Many of my dear readers have cats to feature prominently on their knitting blogs when things lag a bit; not me.  I DO have a cat, but she is semi-wild and strictly an outdoor grrl.... and doesn't consent to posing for photo shoots.  No instant fodder around here.  What I DO have to offer that is totally unique, at least in my Blogland experience, is BURROS!!

Assteroid is the youngest of the three burros currently living here at Slate Range Camp.  He will be four years old in May and was born right here...
His mama, April, is a wild grrl who was born on the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge in the northeast corner of California.  She was very pregnant when she arrived here, but our burro expert and rescue operator, Ginny Freeman, was convinced when she trailered April over to us that it would be another month before she gave birth.  I went out a few days later to discover this fresh young one... a very pale grey and looking like he must have fallen from the early morning sky... hence the name.

Of course, being our very own homegrown burro, he is very special to us... he has been a 'pocket burro' from very early on, and his training started with imprinting to us his first day (though Glenn almost got a serious kick from mama when he accidentally got between her and baby within the first hour of birth).

We have halter trained him, but donkeys need more time for their skeletons to fully form and are not to be ridden until after age four, so more advanced training has waited.  I don't know if he will get much taller, but he certainly will begin to carry a pack saddle in the coming summer and maybe even learn to drive a cart!

Just in case you were wondering (and Kathy isn't the only burro fan out there... you all know who you are!), the burros DON'T like the snow... they bray in order to convey their disgust with the cold, wet stuff and really would prefer the drier conditions of the desert... here, Assteroid is on the far right, his mama April in the middle, and Rose, the oldest one we have now (she is 11) is on the left... they are enjoying some extra grain to make up for the cold.

Thanks to everyone who writes periodically asking after my critters.  You can expect to see more of them in 2008, and also to learn some interesting things about me through the ABC Along.

Next up will be details about TWO finished objects off the needles yesterday... whoo, hoo!!

Winter Sky

In between storms, we are getting some wonderful winter sunsets....

Lacy Eye Candy

May I present..... the Lacy Kerchief Scarf!

She is definitely feminine, and my new favorite to coze around me and wear out into the cold.

My version of this pattern, which appeared twice in Interweave Knits (once in the Summer 2005 issue, then again in their 2006 Holiday Gifts edition) was made in Berocco's now-discontinued Denim Silk, which is a lovely blend of silk and rayon, making it a truly year-round treasure.

Just in case one photo isn't enough to whet your appetite to add this pattern to your Ravelry queue, here's another.... this time featuring the terrific shawl pattern I found online at White Lies Designs, while working up this project.

Wishing you a relaxing, knitterly weekend filled with beauty!

Progress Notes

I was sorry to discover that I had started 2008 off as one of those bloggers whose frequency has dropped almost off the charts.  I fully intended to blog more rather than less, however this sinus illness has been slow in going away and led to minor coughing and hoarseness and general dragging myself through the days last week.  I was not only too tired to get to writing, but too uninspired to notice good topics, great photo opportunities, or to plan to get snaps of my various WIPs.

I also started two classes with the new community college semester, finishing up the last early childhood administrative units I will hopefully EVER need in the next 10 weeks on Tuesday nights and planning to have loads of fun in the Creative Process in Children art/early childhood class I am taking on Wednesday nights.  The Tuesday class is further from home, necessitating staying overnight with DD, who is almost an hour closer..... distance is one of the biggest drawbacks of rural living, and as spring unfolds it is sure to be the harbinger of the end of that journey for me this year.  I will be sharing interesting tidbits about our art class throughout the 15 weeks (it is longer than the other course, but much closer to home).  OUr first homework assignment is to come up with 'unusual' playdough!

I have also been able to use some of my new class time to knit, and decided about two weeks ago (just before sinking under my stretch of illness) to give up on the fussy zigzag pattern I was making into a Kidsilk Haze stole/scarf and make a pleasantly lovely-to-knit Feather and Fan of the same width... and lots of progress has been made!

As you can see here, I am about halfway through... I started with the second ball of yarn I had and knitted almost until I needed it, then managed to gently undo the other version, and wind it up while watching The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil the other night with DH... by the way, that is a great documentary and we were able to check it out from our local library.

The second half of the stole is coming along swimmingly, and I should be able to enjoy this soon.  The photo was taken Saturday while I worked a very slow morning at the LYS.

I am finishing up the edging, done in a clever scallop design, of my Sivia Harding Victorian Shoulderette, though I didn't have it with me to photograph.  Sunday night  I did manage to get to the midway point, and finally able to lay the edged portion of the shoulderette flat to see just how lovely it will be when completed.  I will be searching for photo ops this week for a progress report.

Since I was off on Friday, having gone on a school field trip last Monday with our various programs, I finally got the chance to wash the henna from my yarns, and was ecstatic to discover the wonderful warm brown tones I had gotten on alum-mordanted wools.  I was particularly pleased with the woody brown that my greyish Cormo yarn from Elsa Wool Company in Colorado came out and plan to get some more henna to dye the whole lot of about 750 yards and make myself something, either a vest or wrap.

The larger skein in the photo was the natural Brown Sheep worsted, and the smaller is the Cormo.

Henna is a powder and permeated the dye bath, so I plan to suds up the yarn for a second washing before using, just to make sure I got it all out... it has an interesting, though not unpleasant clay-like smell too.

Our afternoon at the LYS got busier, just as Allison and I started to try and discuss our ideas for a Superbowl Sunday Yarn Tasting.... let me know any clever and cute ideas you have for tiny items to knit in samples of yarns someone might be afraid to try.  We plan to offer light refreshments, maybe a little wine, and some goodie bags to those who make reservations to attend our first SuperYarn party at Fibers.

I also finally got a chance to take some photos of my Lacy Kerchief Stole... which I dearly love and have gotten lots of wear out of this month... those will come later in the week, as we are heading off to pick up DH's new glasses from the optometrist and then get together with our family to celebrate eldest son Cody's birthday tonight.

Happy Knitting!

Non-Electric Pastimes

Although it has been a week since we got electricity restored along our line here in Camptonville, I continue to hear stories of neighbors in the surrounding area who went without for a week or more.  I wasn't that upset to lose power but I certainly wasn't upset to see it restored, either.  There are plenty of non-electric pastimes in my daily world, knitting and spinning being right up there at the top.  I can even manage to accomplish quite a bit in either with only mediocre lighting.

First, I spent some time in my studio, which has a good window, winding wool for future projects.  I wound several skeins of natural Brown Sheep Lambs Pride worsted off so that I could put them into dyepots later.  I also want to experiment with overdyeing grey yarns, as I seem to have collected a few pounds, partly handspun, partly millspun from colored sheep, and the rest commercial.  Knowing a big storm was predicted, I had stocked up on cranberries, turmeric, and henna hair dye to see what kind of results I could get.

Though the light was never good enough for using the circular sock knitting machine (those tiny needles!), I do need to re-wind the yarns I plan to use into center-pull balls, so devised my own way to keep the sneaky things from getting away.

This yarn is from Knitpicks, a gift that will end up being socks for me... I also wound a skein of Wooly Wonka BFL sock yarn off and a skein of Trekking, both for Glenn.
 

The deep bowl really helped to keep the yarn from bouncing all over the room!

After spending a few hours on yarn-winding, I decided to move on to mordanting.  Alum is the easiest mordant to obtain, as many grocery stores stock it for home canners... to make pickles.  I still had a few jars left from some earlier dye experiments, so first scoured the yarns (soaking them in hot, sudsy water), then mordanted them and allowed them to soak in the buckets overnight.

The greys are all in one bucket and the naturals in another.... though there isn't anything to bleed off between the two.

In between all of these projects, the fiercest of the three storms continued to rage, but then it petered out overnight, leaving us with some snow and a pause before the next storm... that was a day spent working at the LYS.  DD went shopping for me while I worked, picking up a nice enamel kettle and a few other tools, as you always want to keep your dyepots separate from the cooking utensils.  I like to use enamelware, partly because I like how it looks and partly because it is lighter to lift when filled with water and yarn.  She found me light grey enamel stock pot, courtesy of Marfa, and I set up my cranberry experiment by pale, wan daylight the next afternoon, when we returned from a brief outing to secure ground coffee (we had used up what we had already pre-ground in anticipation) and survey storm damage. 

Before I was finished, the early dusk of winter had descended, and I was working under a Coleman lantern, so I couldn't really tell how well the color was turning out, or even what it was, but at least it smelled good!  I left the cooling yarn in its kettle, along with a dash of white vinegar to help the color set, and waited until the power returned before rinsing it clear.... I am very happy with the results!

These colors are pretty close to my actual results, with the cream turning out a nice rosy color and the grey taking on a pinky-beige cast.  I don't think I will bother to apply cranberry to any more grey yarn, but it was fun to see what would happen.

I had to wait a week to get back into the dye kitchen, but my next experiment was with henna... I figured since it successfully dyes the protein fiber of human hair, it would be a good try... The Spindling Scot also wrote to tell me it might give me very good results over grey.

Here's my dyepot simmering away Sunday afternoon.... as I like to let my yarns steep a few days after cooling down, just to see if they will absorb any more color, the washed and hung-to-dry shots will have to wait, but the colors are very promising.  It could be that more henna dyeing will produce the yarn needed to make a Logan River wrap.  Too bad henna doesn't smell as nice as cranberries!

Perhaps you are wondering at the new category listed, titled "Stash Makeover".  You will see it a lot this year, as I have decided to consider what I can re-purpose, either through dyeing or through giving up on an unhappy project and casting on something different with the yarn, before going shopping.  I have a LOT of fiber/yarn.  I have a so-called environmental ethic.  This is my chance to live my values while knitting.  join me for the journet.

Last, First and Always

I am so far behind in my blogging that I am just finally getting around to showcasing the last FO of 2007 and the first FO of 2008, though both were done one right after the other over New Years!

The hat on the left is in Rowan Felted Tweed, selected by Glenn while we were away on vacation... I made it first, so it is the last item I finished for 2007.  I liked the Seed and Rib pattern from "It Is Always An Adventure in Knitting" so much that I made myself one from some yarn I had in my stash, a Shetland two-ply from Elemental Affects that I don't think is quite the same as what they now offer.  The 'always' part is a testimonial to how special this guy is to me....

I waited so long to post, hoping I could snap a picture of us wearing our hats, but first we were without power and going through a series of winter storms for three days (always bad for photo ops, except of storm damage), then he was sick.  Now, I have what he did, though not quite so bad, and have been moping dragging around today getting only smatterings of things done and feeling very low energy.  I am hoping to be back on top of my blogging soon!

Might As Well Laugh

It's been a rough couple of days, re-entering the work world after a two week break.  DH has been sick and woke up with no voice this morning, all the while trying to insist that my malaise, congestion and sore throat I came home with last night was totally unrelated, probably a completely different virus out of the thousands out there, etc... of course most of those other viruses haven't been hanging around MY house the past week or so.

I was just about to say that today was a better day, upon returning home after dark from a hectic workday that included a new class I need to take one afternoon a month down in the 'big town', when I realized while unloading my groceries that DH's scrinch (those who use chainsaws will know what that is) had punctured the top of my brand new, giant bottle of liquid laundry soap on the twisty, turny drive home (Seventh Generation, I will be talking to you about why you would use a rugged plastic for the jug and a different, flimsy one for the cap, while promoting your environmental consciousness).  Not only had over half of the soap seeped out on the 25+ mile trip home, but now the front passenger side of the truck will always smell like blue eucalyptus and lavender.... and on top of it, the washer load of towels I used in my attempts to mop up some of the suds created a sort of suds monster!  At the end of the first cycle, I ran a second rinse without even bothering to look inside, then when I went to check just now, I found nothing but bubbles, though I think there are towels flattened against the walls of the washer somewhere in there... my washie may never be the same!

Since the days are so short and the time for a good post just hasn't arrived, I wanted to share a bit about two new knitting books I checked out of the library to peruse....

The first one is Inspired Fair Isle Knits: 20 Creative Designs Inspired by the Elements, by Fiona Ellis.

This book is very beautiful, and the designs are organized by the four seasons, with colorways to match... there is a strong element of the artistic in them and some may not seem of general interest, but there is also a wealth of information about stranded knitting, and several projects that only employ small bits of fair isle, for a yoke or sleeves, so that a beginning stranded knitter can start small.  I like the ways that Ellis combined fair isle with cables, lace and felting (not in the same projects!)

I do really love the Glowing Women's Raglan Sweater, with a background of garnet, a zip front and a nice hoodie look... though I won't buy the whole book just to make that one sweater.  However, if you have been wanting to give fair isle a try, peruse this book!  It may be just what you need.  I have some other general references, so will return this to the library....

The other book is The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters: A Knit-to-Fit Workshop by Lynne Vogel.  

This book, by the same famous sisters who took on socks a few years back, is equally valuable, and also comes from the group's deep wealth of experience in making sweaters from their handspuns, where the yarn you produce yourself may not easily suit a pre-made pattern, which may also not suit your own body so well.  I am enjoying the book, and may well add it to my collection, though I have done a lot of sweater designing in the past (from the time I discovered The Book of Progressive Knitting, written in the 1950s, at my local library back when I was a teen).  I still rely on that book and on EZ's books for help when I want to design or alter a pattern, but I am really pleased to see this book in print and encouraging fledgling sweater designers!

I hope to be back in rare form again over the next few days, with a REAL post, including photos.... in the meantime, Happy Knitting!

Storm Survival

Now, isn't that a catchy title?  I have been absent from Blogland for several days as we made our way through what DH jokingly dubbed "The Storm of the Century" (he claims he can get away with saying that because it hasn't been a very long century yet, though the storm was pretty severe)... the winds didn't match the predictions we heard in advance, but the heaviest part of the storm, from very early Friday through to very early Saturday, brought winds as high as 69 mph at the Sacramento airport and 153 mph over one of the passes in the Cascades at the very north of the state.  Sleeping wasn't easy that night, and I was not surprised to have the lights begin to flicker and then go out completely early Friday morning while I was doing yoga.... it was much more surprising to learn later how many thousands were without power (and consequently, without heat or water) over much of the north state, as well as how long it took for the electricity to be restored (late Sunday night).

We are mountain storm veterans, and have made many choices over the years that relate to these experiences... I insist on having an old-fashioned gas range (no electric starter for me, thank you very much!), and we have both propane and wood sources of heat.  We got really 'energy efficient' five years back and installed an 'on-demand' hot water heater, propane though.  We are also thankful to have gravity-fed water in our tiny town, a fact that influenced me when researching whether to purchase here, as we had many years of maintaining our own spring system, and knew we preferred this.  It doesn't hurt, either, that DH likes to collect camp lanterns!  We both have our hobbies, and some of his collections can seem eccentric, though this is one that really shines in a power outage (pun intended!).  I actually had enough light to finish my Lacy Kerchief stole, though I didn't have the juice to run the computer and post about it, or show you the last FO of 2007 and the first one of 2008 (a hat for each of us, which we both put to very good use out doing storm chores)... well, guess that is blog fodder for future offerings.

I also managed to wind a lot of wool while the wind was beating up my house, work at the LYS on Saturday where shoppers dropped by to take advantage of light and heat in downtown Grass Valley, and watch the snow begin... .we got snow from the second and third of the storms, both times leaving us with about four inches... just lovely.  Though the light was too poor to get very good photos.

Sunday was spent on a dye project... I will be able to show you the most beautiful cranberry-dyed yarn later this week!  I am glad to have the daily routine restored, but treasured the storm time when life stands still and nature takes back over.  I promise the blog fare will be better next time you stop by, but in the meanwhile, please think healing thoughts for DH, who is laid up with a viral 'thing' as he calls it, and my dear friend, Margene, who is recuperating from pneumonia.  And remember to eat healthy and take your vitamins, so that I won't need to add you to that list!

Eye Candy Friday

This special statue caught our eyes last week, and we hope someday to bring a similar one home for our own fish....