A View from Sierra County

The Spirit In You

I don't blog much about yoga - it is something I do quietly by myself, especially since I haven't been able to attend classes in the past couple years because of a combination of geography and scheduling.  In fact, in most of my 30-odd years of practice, I have practiced alone, relying on books and the occasional video/DVD to share the wisdom of various teachers.  I was fortunate to be able to attend classes for a handful of years while I was teaching high school, and my Iyengar-rooted teacher Laurel, helped me fine-tune the accuracy of my body alignment and introduced me to both restorative and yin yoga.... and I am hoping to fit classes in again soon, once my teaching and my early childhood classes are over for the spring.  I was excited to find the Namaste yoga mat bag pattern, the third one I have attempted over the years, in hopes of needing to carry my mat off to class soon!

Getting to use my handiwork is not the best part of this project.... the wonderful cables are!
I so thoroughly enjoyed knitting these back-and-forth, intertwining cables as I made my Berroco Suede version of the pattern, which I finished last week.

I even enjoyed mattress stitching it up...thanks, Allison!  Bet you are surprised to hear me say that, but I have come to love and appreciate the way that mattress stitching creates an invisible seam up the side.

I was tickled to insert my mat in the bag, stand it on a chair for a photo and realize that the cables looked like hearts nestled inside of each other, marching up the sides in rows... what a perfect image for a bag to take to yoga sessions with me!!

I am still searching for the right re-purposed strap, though I think that if I sewed this utility strap from our camping box in the right place on the bottom of the bag, and in relation to where the fixed end of the buckle is, I could make it work... I still have a few days yet, though, as I haven't found a class with time requirements to match mine... so be thinking of me, practicing quietly at home every morning around 6 AM Pacific Daylight Time.

Sky Over Donner Lake

From my mountain heart to my dear blogland friends I send this beautiful, heart-expanding view from the old highway looking down off Donner Summit to the lake... it may be spring in other places, but not here, not yet, and I am one who rejoices in feeling the warm sun while gliding across the snow.

Can You Give a Blogger A Hand?

I am faced with a dilemma and need to turn to my fellow bloggers for help... I finished my Gift-It-Forward project for Comfy Bev a few weeks back but haven't heard from her in order to send it off.  This is one of the dilemmas that comes up every so often, when we don't really "know" our blog-friends; we lack that circle of mutual acquaintances that would have already been able to help us learn that she was on vacation, just moved to another city, going through some sort of computer or personal crisis, or otherwise unable to respond.  My best answer is to turn to my circle of blog readers in hopes that someone will know someone who will know a better way to reach her than the two email addresses (the one connected with her blog, which hasn't had a new post in over a month, and the one connected with her Ravelry account) I have already tried.  As an incentive to get you excited about sleuthing along with me, I am even breaking my vow not to post a photo of my gift in advance... don't you want to help her be the recipient of this lovely shawl as soon as possible?

Please lend your blogging fingers my way and spread the word so that Bev and her shawl may soon be together!

Almost Instant

If you have been knitting up piles of scarves for instant gratification, you need to switch gears and try Teva Durham's Ballet T Shirt pattern.... this has got to be the fastest garment I have ever made!  I had six balls of Cascade Fun over-marinating in my stash... they were a lovely spring turquoise color and I had long ago bought them intending to make a fancy tank top.   I decided my middle-aged arms just wouldn't look all that good in the original pattern (and I do strength-train on a regular basis, but I don't wear my clothing with the same bare daring that I did when 20), and the yarn languished.  I would look at it periodically, reminding myself how much I had and what a wonderful color it was... but never started anything.  Then the other day, while shopping through my Ravelry queue for something to start for summer wear, I pulled up the pattern and began looking around the shop for possible summer-weight yarns.  The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece doubled, which I would not be happy wearing next to my skin.  It dawned on me that I had the perfect choice waiting at home (don't you just love that!).

I started this top last Thursday and was finished by Monday; it would be possible to make at a one-day knitting retreat, but I have been battling against both laryngitis and seasonal hay fever, so napped more than usual and had to take a few more days!

I had fun knitting this up and may well make another.... I am not sure I wouldn't want to tinker with the top-down construction and get a bit more sleeve next time, but I am definitely happy that I used the longer version as written, along with another increase row at the hipline  and three more inches of knitting, to get a hip-length version instead of a cropped one!

D for Donkey

A logical choice! Let me introduce you to all four of the current long-eared residents of Slate Range Camp: First, there's Rose, who has been here the longest.  She arrived in November of 2003, is a Frosty Russet (referring to her coloring) and is now 12 years old.  She is versatile, having experience in packing and being ridden, and I hope one day to train her to drive a cart. Unfortunately, she is also a piggie when it comes to food, and tries to push everyone away, so we have to watch her weight.

April came next... she was once living in the wild on the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge and was harvested by the California Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2003, along with a small herd of animals removed from the range because they were at risk of being hit by cars and trucks on Highway 395 at the edge of their habitat... she lived with my friend Ginny, who has a licensed animal rescue facility, for three months after being released from quarantine... Ginny had agreed to bring a half dozen animals to her ranch and begin the gentling process, so that they would be more adoptable.  We visited her place right after the group arrived, and Glenn got to choose this time... he liked her distinctive dark coloring.  After Ginny had been working with April for awhile, she realized that we had selected a 'twofer', meaning April was pregnant!  Ginny and her husband Dave delivered April to us in May 2004 - here she is with Glenn when she first arrived...

she looks pretty durn round, doesn't she?  Her ear position shows that she isn't quite sure about that hairy guy, even though she thinks butt scratches sure feel good... how come he doesn't have long ears?!

Well, we were still surprised when she gave birth to Assteroid only a week later... we had been watching for the usual signs of impending labor, and thought she had more like a month to go (did you know that donkey gestation is 365 days?)

Here, mama and baby are resting just a few hours after birth.... I also managed to catch another photo of donkeys at rest this morning, in preparation for this special post... you see, while donkeys here at the Camp like to lie around in the morning sun,

they don't like you to catch them at it... they are generally a bit too wary to be caught on film napping!

Assteroid is now almost four years old, and a grown-up.  He has the traditional donkey coloring, with the cross marking on his back, just below the base of his neck (see the poem below, for a reference to the myth associated with this marking)  He was gelded when young, since breeding donkeys wasn't in our plans, and now that he is fully grown, we will begin training him to pack as well.  He already leads well, and likes to hike with us!

Assteroid is the wooliest of our donkeys, and we are already brushing to shed out his winter coat.  He is sporting a rope harness in hopes that I can get his still semi-wild mama to let me put it on her once it smells like him...

Our most recent addition is Abraham...

This photo is the best one I have of him so far... he is posing in pack gear with a friend of his former owner, Sally and one of Sally's mini-donks.  He is also in the foreground in this morning's pastoral shot of donkeys at rest.  Abe is a 10 year old BLM donkey, brought in from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area near Susanville, in northeastern California, and is a gelded Blue Roan.  Here's a close-up of Abe... not the best portrait, but you can tell that he is stockier than the others, though close to the same height.

Do we have a favorite?  Well, we can't tell you that, because they might hear... each has special qualities and each is a great joy to have as a part of our lives... since we aren't playing favorites, D is also for Dog... the dogs don't understand what all the fuss is about donkeys and want you to know that they improve our lives daily as well!  Jere are Jake (l) and Elwood (r), clamoring at the barrier to the inner yard, as I return from taking donkey photos... who could resist their appealing faces?!

I leave you with this little poem, though not reflecting our own sentiments about donkeys, it does accurately reflect the commonly held beliefs... we hope to educate you further and encourage you to love them too!

 

The Donkey

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

-  G.K. Chesterton

Reminiscing, In The Moment, Gazing Into the Crystal Ball

Reminiscing

The computer woes have abated, though we still have a few glitches where newly downloaded replacement software isn't working smoothly with our computer, reset to its original 2-year old settings (kind of reminds me of my day job, working with toddlers!).  I didn't lose anything critical, and even got motivated to back up more photos, patterns, etc.  I am also grateful that I have been using two webmail services and photo hosting and Ravelry!!

While I was incommunicado, some knitting has continued - in fact, quite a lot!  I still can't show you the gift I made for Comfy Bev, as the viewing will have to wait until the gift has been shipped off and has safely arrived in her hands... don't want to ruin the surprise effect, as I personally believe we can all benefit from a good surprise now and then.

The other knitting project that has been taking up my time the past few weeks, yet has received no notice on my blog is this one...

I have been steadily working on the Namaste Yoga Mat bag, carrying it to my night classes and day-long work training in the past two weeks and loving the wavy cabled pattern. I now have only four more inches to go.  I decided I would recycle a web belt or yoga strap to make the strap stouter than the knitted one in the pattern (and also avoid using more of the costly Berocco Suede, a nylon tape yarn with a sueded finish, which is giving it a vegan touch).  That flap-thingy turns out to be the bottom once the side is seamed up, making a very nice, circular tube to carry your mat to classes, which I plan to resume just as soon as these early childhood classes are finished!

In the Moment

I wanted to let you know about some fun happenings going on around Blogland this week...

Knitnana is having a contest to help her decide the best closure method for her new needle case to carry around your interchangeable circulars... head on over before Friday and cast your vote!

Sivia Harding is having an auction in honor of her father, with the proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders... also ending this week. She is offering up some wonderful yarn and fiber goodies, and I have already been outbid on three or four items, so hurry and see if you can do your part.

Wooly Wonka Fibers is celebrating its first anniversary, and Anne is offering several specials and raffles
throughout the month.

The Spring issue of Knitty is up (though this may not be news to you - I am often last to the party), and there are several things I love in it... Marjorie is a terrific, 1950s vintage-look sweater, Yosemite may be just the summer sweater I didn't know I wanted to make until I saw it, and the Charm shrug and Emma culottes for little girls are both adorable!

Knitting is proceeding on my second Gift It Forward project, once again not blog fodder yet, but entertaining and compelling knitting:)  I won't even say which of the two remaining giftees it is for... I loves me a good secret!

Gazing Into the Crystal Ball

I have started to think about what knits I want to wear this summer!  I brought home some lovely mushroom-colored 2nd Time Cotton to start making a Fitted Tank (from Knitters Summer 2007), and plan to start it next week while I am on vacation from work.

I also shopped through my stash with the plan to make Teva Durham's Ballet Tee from a pile of  turquoise Cascade Fun that I bought a few years ago with another summer top in mind that I have now decided this yarn isn't right for... it is a lovely cotton-rayon blend, but a bit too much of a novelty texture for the original design.  However, there might not be enough of it... and I can't get it any longer, so the Ballet Tee, which starts from the neck down and will be adjusted to fit my shorter-than-average torso, will be a great way to use this yarn, and then add a solid-colored band at the bottom if I run out.

I had a great time doing my 'summer shopping' with the help of Ravelry and Yarndex... I could go back through my queue to see what I was in love with last summer, but didn't get around to making, then think about what yarns were available to me, either in my stash or in the store, that I could put to use for my dream wardrobe... I even set aside some Berocco Touche for a second Ballet Tee, pending finding out how much I like the first one!  At least I know already that I love the feel of Touche, another cotton-rayon blend with lots of sheen and softness to it, and something for summer will definitely get knitted up in this yarn.

The other exciting knitting news I am looking forward to is that I am planning to teach a beginning lace class for Fibers Grass Valley, my LYS Saturday job, in June... probably on Wednesday evenings.  I have been wanting to get more of our fan club hooked on lace knitting since I started there last spring, but just haven't been able to fit in the time to teach the class.  Summer is also the ideal time to be working on a lightweight, easy-to-carry, not-so-warm to hold project.  I was delighted when Sivia Harding commented on my Victorian shoulderette last week (and thanks to all the rest of you for the lovely, uplifting compliments on my shawl and haircut *blush*), and will be planning to help my LYS customers make one of their own!

Computer Blues

I have so much to share with all of you, but here it is past bedtime on Sunday night, and I am finally getting through with re-installing virus software.....Yup, we have been singing the computer blues around the old Slate Range Camp since Friday morning, when DH discovered that he couldnt' bring anything up except a cryptic message about being over frequency.... I am not sure if his first attempts at re-setting the system did more harm, but he did manage to restore the settings and get started on the path towards business-as-usual. 

However, along the way he lost most of his email (I stick with web-based, after going through that before about eight years ago), and we both valiantly put in long hours at different stretches to get applications re-loaded and problems diagnosed and repaired, a painfully slow process when you only have a slow dial-up connection.  He read a book or two during his stints, while I managed to finish up one of my Gift-It-Forwards (Bev, if you read this, I need you to email me your mailing address!!).  As Sunday serves as my "Saturday", the first half of my weekend, we also managed to get some errands run and a leisurely lunch at our favorite local cafe, but the really GOOD posts will have to wait.  At least I still have all my photos, and even burned off my knitting patterns and photos to CD.... when was the last time you did any computer back-up?  A friendly reminder, courtesy of the tired but wiser duo here at the camp.... see ya soon.

A Little Yarn Tasting

Yesterday, Allison and I hosted a small group at Fibers Grass Valley for our first-ever Yarn Tasting... this was an idea we had ready to go as an alternative celebration for those who didn't plan to celebrate Superbowl Sunday, but then we were all snowed in!  We decided to move it forward as a consolatory celebration of the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, and it was actually a mild enough afternoon to have the door of the shop open and some sun pouring in for awhile!

Allison and Karyn did most of the set-up work (rolling LOTS of small yarn balls), and when I arrived, the table was set with wine glasses full of small sample balls of a dozen or more yarns...

Participants brought their own needles, and we also brought out a set of Denise needles and some of the lovely Lantern Moon ebony needles to experiment with... as we had the knitters try out several yarns and discuss the qualities and uses for each.

Each wineglass also had some other goodies, including a packet of Glove In a Bottle (a great hand treatment that is non-greasy), a tapestry needle and these tiny wood crochet hooks that Allison found, good for picking up dropped stitches.

We had a very fun afternoon and each person got to sample at least six or so yarns, including Farmhouse Yarns' Mary's Little Lamb, Soutnwest Trading Company's Optimum (along with a great explanation from Allison about how the wool scales are stretched to 'de-barb' them and make the wool both machine washable and softer to those who find wool too scratchy), Gedifra Tiago (a great summer silk blend) and Schaefer's Little Danya.  We also tested out both Cascade Yarns and Manos de Uruguay  combinations of merino and silk... and concluded that the Cascade version is shinier, but the Manos version has their fabulous kettle-dyed colorways... and both are wonderfully soft.   I mulled over what I could make, but also want to get thinking about summer sweaters to wear!

Yesterday was also the debut of my Victorian Shoulder Shawlette....

I was very delighted with the way this lovely Sivia Harding pattern turned out, and received lots of compliments yesterday... the yarn is Anne's Wooly Wonka Fibers Blue Faced Leicester in the Sagebrush and Cedars colorways.

One of the Yarn Tasting participants commented on how this pattern is ideal for a little cover-up for an elderly person, and I got to thinking about what a great charity knitting project that would be, especially using sport weight for a little more warmth... a few others asked if we carried the pattern.  It is sometimes a bit difficult explaining to the customers that many independent knit designers don't sell their patterns through stores, simply because they couldn't make enough by selling at wholesale to cover their costs, and can actually do better running their own web-based businesses.  I like to wear wonderful pieces like this to work at the shop, but do try to stick with wearing something (yarn, pattern, or both) that we carry at the shop because it is so hard to keep a LYS going these days, what with all the competition (sorry for editorializing here, it just slipped out...).

Anyway, here's a front view... at least I am displaying a lovely Gita Maria pin that we carry at the shop!

The shop is in the background... and you will discover through this photo that I have been wearing my hair a lot shorter the past few months.  I decided back in November that I wasn't going to color it any more and then discovered through the winter that this was the length where I had the most natural curl sproing forth, so I could wear it either curly or flat-ironed straight, and have been very happy with it!  Love the new shawl too, but not the worn-out look:)

Eye Candy Friday - Husband Style

My husband is in heaven in this photo....

DD bribed him into replacing the brake pads on her car by bringing up a dozen of his two favorite kinds of doughnuts - unfrosted buttermilk bars and unfrosted old fashioneds... she also got him some beer... all for a half hour's labors.

He says he's smiling in this photo, but it's hard to tell since his mouth is full!!

January and February have just flown by somehow... I remember dyeing yarns, power outages, deep snows, hard days at work, but they just don't add up to enough time to equal two. whole. months.  Spring is beginning to try and make an appearance, with several warm afternoons last week, and then the winds of March roaring in the past few days. 

As the month of February wound its way to a close, I took stock of my knitting and realized that almost all of 2008 so far has been about finishing up and using my stash.  I hadn't made a clear, stated intention or a New Year's Resolution; it just worked out that way.  I continued working on Glenn's huge vest, and now have only a few more rows to finish the pre-felting wool knitting... I have to wind a second skein of black for the last 10 rows of the back shoulders, but am really liking the back yoke effect.  I then will need to pick up and knit edgings out of cotton waste yarn before felting the vest in the washer.  This process, though tedious, will stabilize the edges as well as preserve the stitches, so that I can knit a nice, rolled edging around the entire thing including the armholes, also in black.  I don't usually enjoy such fussy, little parts, but it certainly will make for a special garment for him when finished.

I also finished my Vintage Capelet over the weekend...
though she still needs blocking to set the lovely, pointy edging of the bottom lace border.  I promise I will get a photo of her, adorning something equally vintage and featuring the final-touch brooch or pin (I am still dithering on that part) once she is truly done.

The yarn is Mountain Colors Alpaca Blend, reclaimed last year from a failed project and allowed to marinate for a year in the stash... look how lovely the result turned out!  Stash marinating may be a lot like barbeque marinating, better than immediate gratification!
I had to alter this pattern quite a bit, being unable to get the proper gauge, but was very happy that my alpaca yarn lasted until I got up to the collar (though it wouldn't have gone any further).  I had already decided that a velvety collar would enhance the vintage feel and also feel better around my neck, so on my shift at the LYS Saturday, I picked up some Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, which very quickly did the trick!

Two other projects in the works can't be photographed, or even discussed in much detail at this point, as they are for my Gift It Forwards... suffice it to say that I had the perfect color for one giftee marinating and am most of the way through that project, and also had a lovely and coordinated selection of hand-dyed yarns (by moi no less) marinating as well, from last year's guild Dye Day, that I have gotten ready for project number two.  I am hoping to see one gift mailed off by the end of March and the other well on its way to completion... I am still pondering what I want to make for giftee number three, but she is also often in my thoughts....

Last week, I fell in love with Miriam Felton's new Flutter Scarf and decided to buy the pattern and shop around for yarns... then it occurred to me I already had the perfect spring laceweight marinating...

This yarn was a prize I won from Kathy back in October 2006, and has been aging well... here's what I wrote about it back then:

"I am also enchanted with this gift, a prize I won as second place in Kathy's recent contest... I think this fabulous silk laceweight will just live on my nightstand, where I can fondle and smell it, and admire the Birdsong colorway, as I am completely intimidated by how fine the thread is!  Even the package is delightful, covered with chickens.... Thank you, Kathy."

I finally unpacked it from the really cool cellophane wrapper last fall, as it had started to fall apart from every time I would pull the yarn out to fondle it, and I was hesitant to allow the silk to linger any longer on my nightstand, where insects might be attracted to it... but I love it every bit as much and Mim's new scarf, so like the silk chiffon ones I wear during the warm half of the year, actually is small enough for me to feel like I could get through in a reasonable amount of time while using size 2 or 3 needles.

As winter works to dissolve into spring, I discover that I have managed to chip away at my huge backlog of WIPs.  There is still my Spring Things shawl, awaiting her beads, my Bianca jacket from IK a few years back, and more Tikkun Tree leaves to make up, as well as a few older WIPs on my Ravelry project list, but little else.  I did make a list a few weeks ago of stash items that would be nice to use sometime, and started trying to match them to projects, but I also bought the yarn Saturday to start the Namaste Yoga bag in Berroco Suede.  Maybe I can get it finished by the time I am done with my two early childhood classes and can take yoga once again!!  Ever the optimist....