Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
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| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
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0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, July 31, 2004 Imagine 48 hours with nothing falling from the sky! Imagine floors that aren’t slippery, counters that don’t feel clammy, cabinet doors that shut - well, no, that’s not quite happening. But they sort of shut, as does the front door. Really - this is how your ancestors lived - swollen, sticky and probably crabby as hell. I never did get back to sleep yesterday, but I did get 3 loads of laundry washed, dried, and brought inside. The last is the most important, ‘cause if you don’t get the stuff in before twilight, the dew soaks the cloth and you need morning sunshine to dry everything - if the sky doesn’t decide to rain in the night. I had to take the last load into town and run it through the dryer - but that gave me a chance to spin a bit of the BFL on my little Bosworth spindle. La, that is a sweet tool. The SRC story tellers were adorable: a husband and wife team complete with puppets and music. We had a good crowd - which always sparks the energy in a performer, so they had fun, we had fun and the kids had fun. And we are done done done with the program yippee yea! We love the summer reading club but goodness we are glad when it’s over. The afternoon dragged interminably, though, as it always does when I wake up before 5. I spent it holed up at the cataloging computer, doing necessary but basically mindless work. I’ve always loved typing and that’s mostly what cataloging is - so much of the decision making has been done for us during publication that the actual apportionment part takes very little time. We make minor adjustments but mostly we copy stuff - when we have to catalog at all, since we actually buy the bulk of our books pre-processed. Still, when I have to be at work, but haven’t the energy to make decisions, I can still feel productive if I can whittle away at the backlog of odds and ends that accumulate in the workroom. There was another little treat waiting for me at work yesterday - it is a bit of an involved story but I have never shirked from prosing on and on about myself. When middle age attacked my eyesight and my focal length stretched beyond arm’s reach, I was sucked into a vicious cycle of ocular shedding whereby I would struggle with scratched bent glasses till I finally lost the pair, then I would rage about helplessly for 24 hours, then shell out another $40 on the cheapest discontinued frames and instant lenses, tenderly cased and guarded for a month or so, only to begin scattering them about as I vacillated between close vision needs and normal vision needs, guaranteeing they would torque, twist, and scratch, till I once again mindlessly set them down in some outlandish location, to be forever forgotten. The cycle has lengthened ever so gradually. At times there is a whole year between one purchase and the next. It’s an expense I’ve had to factor into the family budget. The rages have grown less violent. The sympathy of friends, family and staff has long since dried up. I no longer fret that there is some deeply buried subconscious denial going on in my psyche. It’s mostly a shruggable issue now. On Thursday, while having a manicure, I was reading the local paper, so I know I had my glasses with me. I got back to work and immediately noticed I no longer had them. I’d left one building, gotten in a car and returned to another building and in that space those glasses had vanished. Three times I retraced my steps, then asked LD, who was riding home from work with me, to do the same. No glasses. No where. On Friday morning I made a final trek along the road oft’ taken but still no glasses. Now - I can’t read at all without them, and I can’t do any work at all if I can’t read. The particularly nasty pair I keep for emergencies in my desk are just barely usable. There was nothing to do but order another pair. Thank goodness this is a small town - and I could be over at the eye doctors and back before the story tellers arrived. But on the way out the door I realized the trashcan needed to be put out on the sidewalk. I grabbed the lid to settle it and lo - sitting on top of the litter I’d scooped out of my car the day before were.... Really - sometimes I am so stupid. So. There lies before me a lovely day of my own, to make friends with my house again. I am sure it feels deeply neglected. There are several ugly stacks of clutter in (gasp)Public Spaces. There are some drawers of yarn who are whispering to me. There is a shameful kitchen disaster that still needs attention (I will say nothing more than that my treasured 1979 Fannie Farmer Cookbook has spent the last week in the oven, where a pilot light has valiantly sucked the dampness out of blessedly high rag content paper.). I am not exactly sure what I shall do today - or rather - I am not sure of all that I will do, but a fairly thorough housecleaning is in order, for we have guests coming. Tomorrow, BD and I shall drive up to Madison and gather Captain Nicky and First Mate Julia and bring them down to the river for a week of water fun. BD is cock a whoop with excitement, as he has always longed for daughters. They are both budding fiberistas, too, so it’s a good thing I have two spinning wheels. In fact - I had best clear off those bobbins on HeyBaby. posted by Bess | 6:38 AM 2 Comments:
I remember volunteering for Summer Reading. (Granted one of those summers I was in a contest with my good friend and co-volunteer to see how many books we could read. I read hundreds of books that summer. I probably checked out 80 books or more a week - I had 2 different days of volunteer shifts) Young volunteers are often as much work as help, but they're so darling. Now I don't have my own kids in the house, they give me a young view of the world - very welcome it is, too. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Friday, July 30, 2004 I woke at 3:30 this morning to the strangest thing! Moonlight shining through the bedroom windows! A peer out the west window showed an almost full moon setting over the cornfields. I haven’t seen the sky in so long - weeks it’s been - that I had forgotten that there was a second full moon called for this month. Truth is, I’d almost forgotten there was such a thing as a moon, knowing only monsoons.
posted by Bess | 6:39 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, July 29, 2004 Hey! Only 10 more days of rain forecast! Aren’t we lucky? My house has that gray film everywhere. I wipe. I dust. It grows. Well, I don’t really wipe. I do it all on Saturday. Or - rather - I will do it all on Saturday. Maybe. Yesterday was a tough sit through a custody hearing. It was an ugly thing. To be expected, I guess. It was an ugly marriage. There is a little more equity in the custody arrangement and with that I believe BH will have to be satisfied, not just now, but, I suspect, on a permanent basis. Some choices we make have decades long effects. Well - she has had to struggle to be understood all her life. This seems sad and even mystifying to me, but at least she is used to it. Odd that she has almost never been difficult for me to understand - even admire. Eh. Well. Such is life. We’re really winding down the kiddie stuff at work. The grand finale is on Friday and everyone is longing for it to come and go. We’ll still be busy enough with regular summer traffic but the drop in extra visits and programs will be welcome. Of course, we won’t really feel less busy because my staff, who’ve been saving up vacation time till August, are going to vanish. Less work but fewer people to do it won’t leave us feeling much less harried. Thank goodness all the board stuff is done till October. This week’s emotional roller coaster has left me pretty lethargic. Obviously there’s no fiber stuff going on. Besides, who wants to touch any sort of fiber when her skin feels like it’s wet? Ick. I did make a quick dash (slipped on over) to Mechanicsville yesterday. I wanted to check out the nearest Ben Franklin - for I’d heard they were carrying Trendsetter yarns. This is a sudden shocking move on their part - but oh so welcome. The only thing they’ve had for years was a little Patons classic wool, which I am glad to see they still carry. But they have Cascade, Trendsetter, Berocco and more variety of Patons, along with Caron (much less of that) and Lion Brand. It’s good to see the diversity - though, baring the Cascade and Classic Wool, there isn’t much in the way of plain old good wool yarn. But really, one doesn’t need more than that at a Ben Franklin. If I want a higher end I can go on into Richmond or order on-line. Besides that! fer goodness sake! I don’t need another inch of yarn at all. The prompt that got me on the road, besides not wanting to go straight back to work after the hearing, was the possibility I could find some Trendsetter Dune there. Alas. They had Fizz, which I almost bought, and like very much, but I don’t really need that. I could use one more ball of either of two different colorways of Dune to make sure I could finish two projects. (Hah! Should I ever get around to starting one.) It’s entirely possible one ball of either would be enough. I'm just not quite sure and would like to have that extra ball as backup. Anyway, it is good to see more choice at a closer store. Hmmm. Just writing this is making the creaky old creativity wheels move a little. Maybe ..... Think dry. Think sun. Have pity on the gal who has to haul all her laundry to town to use the dryers there. posted by Bess | 7:32 AM 1 Comments:
Just checking... you okay? Not like you to miss a weekday... Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Tuesday, July 27, 2004 Greetings from the land of mold and mildew. Long range forecast promises lots more of the same, so you need not feel like you’d miss out on any of this, should your visit not bring you to VA anytime in the next 2 weeks. Yes. 10 more glorious wonderful days of muggy rainy steamy weather. How stupid to complain about weather, though. Best just endure it. But though I shall, I’ll certainly give it the blame for my lack of knitting energy. It’s a lack that has pricked a little, but not enough to get me off my duff and into the den, where all the toys are stored. I have an idea to get me over my slump, though. I’m thinking of casting on that modular sweater idea I developed in the Lily Chin workshop - it’s done in pieces so I can pretend each section is a unique object and I’ll have an FO each time I complete one. Maybe that will trick the brain into Progress Mode - and even if it doesn’t, it ought to suck up enough of August to get us through this awful muggy spell. Old Farmer’s Almanac promises us hotter than normal weather in August - normally a dread prediction - but dry. I bet we won’t even notice. "And pray, dear weather gods, don’t send us another Isabel this year. Hurricanes are bad enough - or at least interesting, but keep them east of us, please." And what else can I say. Truth is, all brain activity is on hold while I wait out the middle of the week. With the custody hearing coming up on Wed, it’s as if the less "present" I am, the easier it will be to endure bad news. A sort of withdrawal - probably some primeval impulse - an animal protective behavior like playing ‘possum. If I let myself care - I’ll hurt too bad. And if I feel that way, just imagine how BH feels. She’s the one who pays the price - she and the girls - I only watch. Lawsee - why can’t people be nice? Why must jugular activity thread its way through our lives. In little ways like this family dissolving - in big ways like international strife. Bah! And to think I’ve got 400 more lines of the long drawn out battle between the Teucrians and the Latins. Has mankind learned a durn thing in 2000 years? Hmm - best get outta here. Ta. posted by Bess | 7:42 AM 2 Comments:The "clever justification" is great! Thanks! I thought so too - I don't usually need justification, but it's nice to have the math to prove it, now. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, July 26, 2004
posted by Bess | 6:31 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Sunday, July 25, 2004 The birthday trip was 100% perfect. It was everything you want a mega playdate with your girlfriend to be. Pure joy. Pure bliss. I’m still smiling about it. It began with a bit of an emergency when BH called at 8. Her dog had developed a hot spot and had chewed all its fur off. Not to worry - we were first at the vets, with time to take Ginger back home before heading off to the city. First stop was at the expensive make-up counter, where we dropped many dollars, but not more than we had. And the boy who did BH’s makeup was subtle and skillful and flattering. I was not so lucky but I was mostly interested in skin care products so I could sneak off to the ladies room and eradicate that particular mistake. Black eye-liner on a 52 year old is truly a no-no. And it was fun to look so weird that when a woman from my town walked past the counter she didn’t recognize me. Lunch at Applebees was the WW special and I liked it just fine. The teeeeeeeeensy sliver of chocolate cake was really good, too. 1/12 of a cake is not much - but it was enough to give us both that happy desert feeling. Honest and true. It did not have that metallic taste of artificial sweeteners - it was quite good. I suspect it was done without oil - probably with applesauce and had more of a moist brownie texture. Then it was time to try on all the clothes we’ll never buy. We hit the designer sections of the two big department stores and scouted out Anne Taylor, since BH looks great in pink. Truth is, she really only intended to buy shoes and I was only looking for that single pair of summer weight pants that are not going to wrinkle and eventually we found both. But the bulk of the day was spent trying on beaded silk party dresses and giggling and parading around in them. In the end, though, BH spied a white silk pantsuit that fit her like a dream, marked down so low that the final purchase price on the $280 garment was just slightly over $50. Now - I think every woman needs a birthday gift like that. At the big every size in stock shoe store BH hit paydirt. Saxons is not a chain store. All it’s staff is expertly trained in both the store’s inventory and how to fit people’s feet. BH has a really small narrow foot - she could be a shoe model, actually, so she always has to shop at this rather expensive place. So, what do you know - all their own brands of shoes were 50% off - and at the checkout counter, when I casually mentioned to the clerk that it was BH’s birthday the woman beamed and said "oh, we can give you a 10% discount on the boots, which were pink flowered Wellington’s that matched the lining of her raincoat - just right for a real estate agent to show wet farmland to potential buyers, but which were not on sale. So. 12 hours after I’d left home, I was driving back down 631 in the rain (yes, yes, it rained all the live long day) when BH&GF passed me, stopped and backed up. We exchanged greetings and a key as the headlights of a familiar little white Nissan pulled up behind. This is so like a joke description I often make, of my little town, where three cars will pull up on a 2 lane road and what do you know - it’s the whole durn family. How about that. I’ve become my own cliché. BD followed me home and he is the one who pulled the tree limb out of our lane - there is nothing so wonderful as big strong guys who lift heavy things. We caught up on the important bits, but I was dead dog tired, asleep by 9 and out of commission for the next 10 hours. A perfect happy birthday gift to give a best friend. And today is another rainy Sunday. I’m tired of the dampness, but I’m not tired yet, of rainy Sundays. I’m ready to curl up with toys. I’ll probably take a nap. Who knows? I may even do something fiberly. posted by Bess | 8:59 AM 1 Comments:Overmind does it again - I didn't blog about it, but I was thinking today about how disgusting Angelina Jolie's lips are to me (not that I find her all that attractive anyway). She gets raved about for those lips, and they just look like plastic surgery gone wrong to me, no... as though she's recovering from a fight. Ick. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, July 24, 2004 Still fiberless alas. Just doing other things with my fingers. Today I am off to the city with BH. It’s her birthday and we have appointments at the expensive make-up counter and the bead shop, with a special lunch in between. We always plan to do this on my birthday too - or at least, around my b’day, but somehow that one gets lost. Last year there was Isabel, this coming year we may be on vacation - and even if not, the state library always holds this series of library directors meetings the 3rd week of September and when your birthday is on the 21st, it gets caught in the trap. They want is in Richmond for 3 days this year, claim it is mandatory! In my case they’re bound to be disappointed. I watched Bend it Like Beckham last night and it was as sweet as I’d been assured it would be. I even think BD will like it. Ball games don't really do it for me, but I have no trouble with using them as a plot vehicle. My only gripe is the silicone padded mouth of the boyfriend/coach. I am so sick of Hollywood mouths that look as if they’ve just survived several rounds in the ring. It is not attractive when it is ubiquitous. Some faces, possibly only the ones created by full-lip DNA, can convince me they lie upon heads with adult brains inside, but the rest look like freaky baby claymation mouths slapped onto brainless dolls. I've read that the full lip look is supposed to trigger parental responses in our human breasts so that we will take care of our young -hence the proportionally larger mouths on infants. It is also supposed to look erotic - to give the impression of a mouth that is kissed a lot. But I am not stimulated by the hidden kiddy-porn manipulation of the mavens of beauty. I really dislike that look. It’s yucky on a woman. It’s really gross on a guy. Every time I see an actor who has had his mouth plumped I spend the rest of the movie thinking about what I would have done with that spare $3,000. All fashion trends fade in time, but god I wish this one would hurry up and disappear. And take capri pants with it. Oh la! I’ve just gotten this image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers wearing capri pants! Better go get dressed. posted by Bess | 7:11 AM 2 Comments:Drivel? I didn't see any drivel. I only ever see fascinating stuff here. Glad to hear you have some helium time ahead.
Just found a new site: http://weigh-better.com/forum/ Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Friday, July 23, 2004 Warning - long drivel about me and not about fiber.Whoopee! Friday! Yes! I’m feeling particularly light about this past week, as if a log jam has finally broken away and things are beginning to flow again. We’re in a new fiscal year with both budgets (yes, inefficient, but it works, this very southern, not to say Viennese, way to do things. Think of the creaking Austrian empire in, say, 1913. ) adopted. I made it through the gingerbread house workshop without destroying the carpets. The cataloging computer is back from the repair shop. That’s a biggee! I make no claims to housekeeping. I’m untidy and lazy and an inveterate procrastinator. I can let the laundry lie in the baskets for weeks - well, maybe two weeks - just so long as the baskets are in my bedroom - or some other private place. My quirk is that I can not bear to be in a public space that is cluttered. Even at the worst stage of crowdedness in the old library building, the public areas were tidy. When our shelves got so packed that, even after inventory we couldn’t put books back on them, I put the books in storage rather than lay them flat in the tiny space between the tops of books and the bottom of the next shelf. I can not abide functioning in a space that combines clutter with another person. (BD excepted, since he’s also a permanent resident of the bedroom, and besides, I don’t leave the laundry piled up that long. I need the baskets to do laundry when Saturday rolls around again.) But without the cataloging computer, we were getting such a backlog of items in the workroom. Unfortunately, though most of my staff are charming, creative and friendly, they are also horrible pack rats - blind horrible pack rats, capable of burrowing through the most tottering heap of scrap paper, empty boxes (just in case), catalogs and craft ideas. With the exception of T, who is also young, new and part-time, they blissfully stack, pile and squirrel away every thing that crosses their palms. It’s as if they’ve never seen trash cans! Believe me, I know. They’ve all entertained me at one time or another. Compared to them I am sleek Danish modern! With the return of technology to the workroom, there is the chance we may dissolve some of the visual torment that greets me each morning. With our summer kiddie programs drawing to a close (July 30!) we can actually turn our attention to behind-the-scenes activities and maybe, just maybe, create a smoothly functioning private space to match our lovely public image. So - that promise certainly engenders the beautiful lightness of being. And I got out out those dratted invitations to the family reunion. Hmmm - no wonder I’m feeling so great. I’ve even managed to keep up my healthy workout regime and drag my eating habits back onto the WW path. It’s no joke. Maintenance is harder than losing. I found it hard to believe when the successful ones said so last summer, but by golly - I have battled harder with the 6 lbs that flit in and out of my life than I ever did with the initial 30 lbs. One of the insights that blinked across my consciousness was that the difference between eating to lose 30 lbs or to be 30 lbs heavier was not all that great. It’s 230 calories a day. Now, I like my coffee sweet with cream. A second cup a day is about 100 calories. 3 Oreo cookies is another 100. A bite of cheese is another 100. Do you have any idea how quickly I could scarf down the whole package of Oreos? I could be back where I started in one year. Sheesh! Phase III of my weight transformation process has been all about finding the core beliefs, to which I can subscribe, so that I don’t bounce back into a physical state I don’t want to live with - or, considering I’m in the second half-century of my life, to die from. Do I believe that "it’s only 3 Oreos" or do I believe "My god, That’s THREE Oreos!!!!!" Hmmm. To shift the mind around to seeing those 100 treat calories, not as an insignificant throw-away subconscious binge, but rather, as something rare and magnificent, like, oh, say, a Faberge egg. If I’m not spending my treat calories on something as fabulous as the tsar’s gift, I really ought not to waste them on a lesser gift. So - anyway - getting the bod back on the healthy pathway has also contributed to my sprightly attitude. Add to that, there is slow, but steady progress on the purple lace and enough movement on the other ProjectWithADeadline to preclude guilt and angst over that. And it’s Friday - as I stated above. BD is off to play with one of his friends for the next two days, so I don’t have to cook dinner and can go to the gym after work. This is enough to make one feel helium filled! If you look up today, and see a floating woman overhead, well, it’s probably just me, shucking off the workweek dust and soaring into the weekend. posted by Bess | 7:41 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, July 22, 2004 And so - the calendar has clicked around another quarter of the year. With the passing of the July board meeting, when we adopt the budget, btw, I always feel that summer is almost over. When we finish with the family reunion, this year on the 14th, well into August, I’ll really feel the weight of summer start sliding off my shoulders. Come Labor Day I hope we’re off on vacation - though that is still in just the talking stage. Board meeting days are always energizing. Sometimes the pulse lasts for several days. Surely that’s what got me in the gym yesterday evening, for the first really good workout I’ve had all month. I swear I know that regular vigorous exercise keeps me high, but by golly it’s easy to let it slide. The most contrary behavior problem I know of - why anybody would skip doing something that made him feel marvelous. Of course I didn’t do a lick, stitch or twirl of fiber stuff yesterday but I did see an absolutely darling movie. It’s a Christmas special sort of thing, British style - Love Actually with just about all your favorite British leading men. Mmm mmm. Everybody gives a good performance, though the porn stars could have been left out - that was really too British - even too European for me. I’ll never get cavalier about gratuitous porn. But the scenes with Colin Firth had me laughing till tears spilled and I always like to listen to Alan Rickman, who makes a very good fallen and straying husband to Emma Thompson’s frumpy housewife. With Hugh Grant as Prime Minister squaring off against Billy Bob Thornton as the President - well - you get the picture. It’s maybe 8 couples trying to get it right. Even BD, who’s ultra-sensitive to PC stuff, had to have a good time with this one. Yeah it’s light fluff - sort of like that cool whip and fruit glop you get in restaurant salad bars - but oh such fun fluff. Honestly, if you need a lift - this is a great candidate - and I wonder why it never hit our theater. I suppose it was the "porn" stuff. But really- that was so boring it couldn’t have been rated beyond R. I’d call this a More than a Chick Flick. The corn is still sweet - the weather is supposed to get hot then plummet to the 70’s this weekend - I got the family reunion letters out (thank god) - the cataloging computer is back and fixed and it’s Thursday - my favorite day of the week. Guess I can’t ask for more than that. posted by Bess | 7:09 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Wednesday, July 21, 2004 La! Hump day already - with meetings all afternoon. And of course I slept late and of course I’ve loitered all over the net. So I leave you with this mental picture: Large room with three tables set up. 16 kids from 6 to about 11, each making a frosted gingerbread house out of graham crackers, frosting, and candy, with gumdrop trees on pretzel trunks. Do you remember when you wanted one of those frosted cookie candy houses sooooo badly? Do you remember!?! Yep That’s how I spent Tuesday afternoon. But today is Wednesday and we all know what that means. Ta. posted by Bess | 7:47 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Tuesday, July 20, 2004 I didn’t know where to fit this into my previous post, but the image of Mr. Bart, "tensed like a setter", was particularly creepy. Perhaps that’s another reason I don’t buy fashion magazines any more. Ruth La Ferla's verbiage just doesn't cast the right spell for me - victim of canine lusts? No thank you. posted by Bess | 6:57 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Oh this is just so lowering.It’s no secret I like to read fashion text. A little fashion text - enough for a laugh but not so much I actually have to subscribe to something. On my way to the NYT obits, today, I stumbled over this delicious, tempting headline: "Old Style Glamour Makes a Comeback" Ahhh. Can’t wait to see this. How is the 21st century going to interpret Jean Harlow, Marylin Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor? What classic beauty is going to set the bar for aspiring models, fashionistas, teens, twenty and thirty somethings. (Take heart - you can still care about fashion after thirty but you don’t have to aspire.) Imagine my chagrin when the piece continues with: "Mr. Bart, the director of IMG Models, tensed like a setter, his attention fixed on the model in front of him. "Suddenly I saw this tall, leggy blonde, Karolina Kurkova, who sashayed down the runway like the sex bombs of the 80's," Mr. Bart recalled. "I said to myself: `Who is that? I haven't seen a girl like that since Claudia Schiffer's boom-boom days.' " Oh dear. It happened again only this time it was worse than the last - my youth returning as nostalgia! Not even my youth! The 1980's! My No Longer Young But Can Still Fake It 30’s - my last gasp at youth. I remember at the time how many articles were coming out in the world of fashion and style assuring me that women in their 40’s were still hotties. They aren’t, of course. They can be beautiful and fit and strong, but those articles completely missed the target of mid-life achievement: Authority. That, my younglings, is the best thing that will happen to you when you turn 40. People will obey you. Of course, the editors of fashion magazines don’t want you to have power. They want power over you - power to make you buy all new clothes so they can get paid to publish all new magazines. I’m not offended by the cycle of commerce, though I do think, in the fashion arena, it takes a terrible toll on women’s mental health. But if you can immunize yourself against the onslaught of self doubt, self deception and self hate, you can have a lot of fun with color, texture and shape. Fiber is, after all, the theme of this blog. The fashion industry tries to gain power by selling you hope. Hope is good. Just remember that you have the power to pick your hope. Even if you aren’t yet 40. Anyway, to think that Claudia Schiffler, the Queen of Butt Jean Ads, is considered a model of glamour makes me laugh. Give me Joan Collins any day! After all, there’s nothing so tragic as aspiring to turn back the clock and she can give me 20 years. I remember the first time the 60’s retroed back into my life - and how appalled I was. Now I am inured to fashion's brief shelf life, even a little bored with it. That first time I visited Mama and she didn’t have a copy of Vogue in the living room was such a disappointment. When did she stop caring!?! Besides, there was nothing to look at, to guide me and start the juices flowing, now that I was within easy driving distance of the stores. But I haven’t bought a copy myself in years. Partly there aren’t enough photos, and those they have are difficult to see; arty shots that present an image, but not of the clothing, only of a mood. Mostly, though, I am not interested in recreating someone else’s mood. I scan the net, peek into the library’s magazines, and let what’s available in the shops be my guide to style. After all, I’ll have to create my own style out of what I can buy. But if I were shopping (with my lottery winnings) I’d buy from this designer. A bit heavy on the dark neutrals, but I like the lines a lot. No fiber activity on my part at all yesterday. This week my library board meets and the committees are all busily trying to accomplish what they’d promised they’d do 3 months ago. The budget committee & nominating committee have presentations to make and the 5-year plan has to be voted on. Plus, of course, the full board always meets on Wed and we all know what that means. But the great fun this week will be today, when I help 24 6-10 year olds make gingerbread houses. Yep - ambitious aren’t I. We’ll assemble the houses first, then while they are hardening up, we’ll read some stories about cookies, listen to a little of Humperdink’s Hansel & Gretel, and then finish up the program by attaching candy to the outsides. Don’t you wish you were 6-10? posted by Bess | 6:39 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, July 19, 2004 Spent the day at the "movies" - the ones on the VCR. LD came over, as GF was working in F’burg yesterday, and we all watched Master & Commander, then later in the evening I watched LOTR III, mostly by myself, so I could fast forward through the battle scenes. A little of that goes such a long way. In between shows we took a long walk over to LD’s house, watching the storm clouds disperse, actually feeling the humidity drop. I plied up the fine BFL singles on the Golding, which works quite well. I was able to get 98 yards from the two spindles done on the Bosworth. It’s a tad bit over plied. Well, I’m learning. I ought to get at least another 150 from the fiber I bought. I forget how much that was, but I think I’ve spun half so I can always weigh what I have left. If so, this might become a pair of socks - though I am really thinking and seeing lace these days. I also worked with the SMF Maple Tree in Autumn merino. I’m spinning much finer these days and what’s on the bobbins, nigh on to 1 year old, is both thicker and lumpier. I’m not sure how I’ll deal with that. It’s interesting to try to spin thicker yarns - it’s not interesting to spin lumpy yarns. At least, not when that’s not what you want. Alas, KnitDad couldn’t find a molecular transporter so he couldn’t join me in person, but he was with me in spirit yesterday. Woops! Look at the clock! Gotta dash. Ta! posted by Bess | 8:18 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Sunday, July 18, 2004 One of my favorite things is a grey rainy Sunday. There is something so liberating about such a day. I never feel like I have to actually do anything when it rains on Sunday. I can, mind, but I don't have to. Rain falling on Sunday signals the great permission: permission to sleep late, to stay in my pajamas all day, to watch movies during the day - something that usually makes me feel inordinately guilty - and to dispense with regular meals. Want to lie about reading a book? Go ahead. Want to draw pictures - feel free. No garden work to do, no chores, no need to start something or finish something.... A rainy Sunday is like Francie's cup of coffee in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - something to enjoy, savor, or even waste, if I want to. Oh. Yes. Well, I woke up to a rainy Sunday, of course. Yesterday dawned sparkly bright, just like the previous two days. BD and I took a hot walk through the west woods. How like him to want to tramp through mosquito-ville - I will know better next time he invites me on a walk. If it's not qualified with words like "to the mile point" or "to Robert's" or "to Daingerfield" I will politely decline. At least, until the first frost. Still, the trek was, as always, interesting. The Indian Pipes are all done with now, blackened as if they had been burned, but the mushrooms and toadstools (is there a difference?) are out in full force. A smooth orange/red one with a bright yellow rim was new to me, though BD, who spends far more time in the woods than I, says he's seen them before. Both of these plants need lots of moisture, and we've had plenty this summer. Not like last summer's endless weepy rains, but in huge thunder storms that roll in from the west, crashing, flooding and departing anytime after 3 o'clock. June was a record breaker for rainfall and July is going to be way up there on the rain-0-meter. There is also a sweep of Enchanter's Nightshade that looks like it's been planted by fairies. It probably was! But it's located in the sunny spot revealed when the behemoths fell during Isabel last September, so it took more than faries to bring on a display. No loss, right? Without some small gain. And for a delightful essay, including poem, on the Indian Pipes, click here. I knit a little yesterday, only to see I have to rip it out. La! I'm so bad with this pattern when I have to go back and forth. I think I'll knit the sleeves in the round with short rows at the sleeve caps just to avoid purling back. Of course, that may not be the cause of my constant errors. It may just be a lack of attention, but I don't remember the body of the garment being so full of errors. I also spun a little - on the Bosworth - making a gorgeous fine yarn from the Blue Faced Leicester I bought at MSW - a twin to one C picked up - wonder what she's doing with hers. I've also cleared the bobbin of the superwash, but I am unsatisfied with either skein that I've made from that slippery fiber. I'll use them in my project, but I don't care for them much. They are entirely too amateurish looking to please me. It's a fiber that will take lots more practice for me to master and since it's such a nice sock fiber I'll have to put in the time on it. But I believe I shall intersperse some more cooperative fibers between my efforts with this. Since there are two almost filled bobbins of a beautiful autumn yellow merino I bought from St. Mt. Fibers - and several balls of the same, ready to be spun up, I think I'll finish both bobbins today and ply them. How wonderful to have some empty bobbins again. It'll be interesting, too, to see how much, if any, my spinning has improved since I spun up these singles. Hmmm. Yes. And I checked out LOTR III from the video store. Nice - 2 cassettes - ought to soak up most of the day, no? posted by Bess | 8:14 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, July 17, 2004 Hmmm. Paying for my sloth on Thursday, I woke up Friday to find a watermelon had leaked all over the kitchen counter - all the way down to the cookbooks, 22 feet away, and oh lawsee you never saw such a mess to clean up. In fact, I’ll have to spend some time today trying to mitigate the disaster. Sometimes, my housekeeping leaves so much to be desired. I’ve been having a hard time focusing these days. I’ve always been a multi-tasker/ADD sort of gal anyway, but this summer seems to have brought out the worst aspects of such a personality. I have lots of thoughts whirling around in my head - thoughts prompted by Martha, who asks why American’s aren’t reading any more, thoughts about weather people are reading more, but we aren’t counting it accurately, thoughts prompted by how awful most modern literature is, thoughts about the insistence upon multiculturalism that denies a cannon yet laments our lack of subscription to one. Then there are fiberly thoughts about the joys of spindling - a different sort of peace. And design thoughts prompted by drawers full of yarn. And a little guilt over the desire to shop instead of create, little impulses that prick and scold me for being baaaaad and stuuuuupid and greeeeeedy. Plus the glimpses of memory poking through the fog of years - memories of Bess’ little house in the woods and the promise - nay, the desire, to write it all down before I forget even more of it. Well. I’ve managed to fill up a paragraph that hints at everything and goes nowhere - which is precisely the issue. This is because there is something up ahead that I don’t want to do - dread even - in fact, there are 2 things up ahead that lie like black oil slicks, waiting to pull the ground from beneath me. BH’s final custody hearing is in 11 days and the family reunion is 2 weeks later. You know, the same family that includes the s-i-l who testified against BH at the temorary custody hearing. One will come and leave a powerful impact, one will just come and depart, but the first will definitely effect how well we enjoy the second. My horoscope for this week warns that I will watch, helplessly, even get caught up in, a tense situation, that, no matter how much I dread, is something I have to go through. Crap. Nevertheless - I suspect that, until the Soprano sings, it ain’t gonna be over, so I may as well accept the fact that my brain will flitter about, accomplishing nothing more than small tasks. Guess it’s a good thing I can’t get into those Yahoo groups. Who needs more gratuitous distraction? posted by Bess | 9:13 AM 2 Comments:I'm registered for Handspinners, but haven't visited yet... I agree about Yahoo... I'm part of 1, but NEVER visit... just chaotic over there. Glad you had a lovely day - been missing you and thinking of you! I've never been shut out of a Yahoo group, but the ones I got into weren't worth staying in - too much clutter, little value. You ain't missing much. But yes, I think if it doesn't let you in it's an error on the part of the person who set it up. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Friday, July 16, 2004 If I was going to take a surprise day off, yesterday was surely the one to do so. Glorious, perfect, low-humidity crispness glittering golden through emerald trees. That was yesterday. My oldest sister’s daughter, the only girl grandchild to follow an entire generation of girls, was visiting on the east coast. She called Wed. saying she was closer to us than to the grandparents and could she spend the night. We’d have been thrilled to say yes anyway, but this actually worked perfectly with my own schedule. I had a dr. apt. in Richmond on Thursday that I’d already postponed twice. I’d been afraid I’d miss her visit. She and her companion arrived about an hour later, at LD’s place - since that’s where we were, and we had a grand walk down to Farmer’s Hall Creek, where the bull frogs jump from bank to bank. It had stormed mightily, earlier in the evening, so everything had that damp clean smell of summerwashed air. LD had taken Thursday day off, and after a very leisurely breakfast the younglings went out on the river while I got in some quality time with HeyBaby. She’s working on a special project that has something of a deadline attached. I don’t want to get into anything else big, till that spinning is done, but I do have a delicious handpainted Blue Faced Leicester going on the new Bosworth mini spindle. That is more addictive than I’d ever have thought - and it’s a fiber craft I can do in the car! So when BD heard I was going to Richmond and offered to drive, you can bet I took him up on it. I’ve decided that I’ll spin the fine singles on the Bosworth and ply them on the Golding. When I plied 2 singles on the B, it got awfully heavy and difficult to handle. Using the Golding also allows me to put more on the B. I only got 49 yards of 2-ply on the B. I really enjoy spinning in public. Knitting always draws some polite questions, but spinning truly fascinates people, and I’m enough of a show off to enjoy the attention. The nurses at the dr.’s office were really intrigued. It’s so much fun to blithely educate the curious. I love how my spinning wends into people’s psyche, too. Perfect strangers will comment on the relaxing effect watching a drop spindle has on them. Of course, I love the process myself. And then, I also love the product! I filled the spindle yesterday and will wind it on the ball-winder so I can begin another today. Got in another pattern repeat on the front shoulder section of the purple lace. Only 15 rows to go and I can begin the sleeves. Lawsee I am dragging this out! But of course, there are only so many days a person can knit mohair in July. All in all, it was a very good fiber day. We finished it off with seafood at a favorite Richmond restaurant and a back-roads drive home with windows rolled down, driving slowly enough for conversation and observation. So - has anybody joined/read the new e-zine Handspinners - the art of fiber? I had hoped to peek in on the virtual launch in their forums, but alas - that was a madhouse work day for me. Still - at least it’s not a stupid Yahoo group. For some reason I can’t get onto a single yahoo group - too many yahoos running the place, I guess. Every time I log onto a yahoo group I’m told to register. When I register and try to log on, I’m told to register. Is this a continuous loop I’m experiencing? Anybody else shut out of the yahoo inner circle? Probably a good thing. I spend enough time on-line as it is. Probably ought to go spin right now. Yep. That’s just what I’ll do. Ta. posted by Bess | 6:09 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, July 15, 2004 More comforts of routineI finally got back to the gym yesterday - after a 10 day hiatus. Oooooo that felt good. I planned to only put in a 15 min. effort but it slid easily into half an hour. Why do I ever let life get in the way of living? Not even a stitch of fiber news today. My niece is visiting from Seattle and we have these few hours to chat. I hear her stirring now so this is all the post I'm going to make today. posted by Bess | 7:39 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Wednesday, July 14, 2004 Ahhhh. Nothing like getting back into a routine to make things feel right again. I must be getting so creaky and crusty as I begin this second half-century journey. Only, I was always like this - fuzzy headed after a trip. At least I can still fit my shoes back into the familiar track of the Life-0-Bess. But the question remains ... in order to feel normal will I have to work forever? And was it only a week ago when Jen called and said there was a schedule change - we were needed at Creative Strands at 10 a.m. on Friday, set up and ready to sell? Yep yep yep. I remapped my weekend. I still had to get the car fixed, but Thursday a.m. ReallioTrulioBigDarling offered to drive me up to Jen’s and come pick me up on Sunday. I can drive. I do drive - everybody has to these days - but I do not like to drive. I knew I’d be particularly tired if I had to drive those extra 2 hours from Jen’s house on Sunday night. I snapped up BD’s offer in a flash. Jen, otoh, is a very good driver, a confidence inducing driver - and we were on the road by 2. The route up 15 through Leesburg would be pretty only, there’s so much vinyl construction going on, superhomes of the super vulgar variety, that it was a relief to cross the state line. I had never driven up the Susquehanna valley, but I sure will do so again. I have this prejudice that Pennsylvania is all shabby cinder block houses with unfinished rooms and linoleum on the living room floors. This is because when I was 5 we visited an aunt whose house was like that - on a busy highway with no front yard and cars whizzing past, and too many daughters in one bedroom. Funny the prejudices that settle into a subconscious when one is tiny. My aunt, married as a teen, was probably 30, with 5 kids. Of course they were in a modest, rather humble setting. Who isn’t when she’s 30, with 5 kids? Anyway, PA just stayed in my mind as the place where shabby people live in shabby houses. I never had the opportunity to revisit the state till I was an adult - and each time I have, I’ve been amazed at how beautiful it is. So - first the complaints - since they are always easier to start with. Creative Strands was held at Bucknell University in Lewisburg - a darling little college town with great shops, great pubs, and restaurants with tiny portions. I really looked forward to wallowing among fiber people. I’m used to fiber shows being filled with energized folk moved by tactile hunger, dropping any usual reserve and shyness to share each discovery of beauty, color, texture. What I saw were lots of folk “just looking” without time to either decide, or get swept up in the excitement. As Jen said in her Monday post, there was no excitement. There were good reports about the classes - but there was also a kind of ennui and I am guessing some of that was due to an over-packed schedule. I’ve taken a few pretty high energy classes and when I’m done, I’m pumped, but I also know I’d start to grow vague if I had to turn right around and take another high energy class. My brain eventually grows full. I wonder if that happened to these folk. The solution to that is a bigger break during the day: A 2 hour or even a 3 hour block for lunch for r&r and, by the way, visiting the vendors. There were other things that pointed to a top-down problem. We really busted butt to get to PA in time to open our booth on Friday at 10 a.m. and guess when the classes started? Yep. and with one hour for lunch before the cafeteria clanged shut and classes resumed, potential buyers had about 10 minutes to spend in the market. Worse than that, the only time the booths had customers was during those 1 hour meal slots - which was also the only time the cafeteria was open - and the snack bar was not open at all on Saturday! Guess who didn't get lunch. Thank goodness I had brought some snacks. There wasn’t even a coke machine - and if I hadn’t bought bottled water on Saturday morning I would have been in big trouble. Vendor beware - bring your own sustenance. With about 23 vendors, and 250 students - that’s about 20 customers per booth. Not a great ratio. Rumor had it that some of the spinning classes had been canceled - and I know one of the knitting classes was - but of the vendors there, 10 were primarily yarn/fiber shops. Yes - they offered different types of yarn/fiber, but my goodness - most of the students I talked to seemed to be weavers, and honey, the put up of yarn for a weaver is not the same as for a knitter. Not by a long shot. Though the shopping portion was open to the public, there was no sign in front of the building where the vendors were, and on a Saturday in the summer, you can bet there weren’t many people lounging around, to ask for directions. I had more than one customer complain that she’d driven all around over the campus before finding anyone who could tell her where the fun was. One other administrative thing really rubbed me wrong. At the very end, as the vendors were packing up, the woman in charge began yelling out to everyone a long whine about how it wasn’t her fault and it was her insurance company’s fault but it wasn’t her fault, see, so don’t be mad at her, but see, her insurance company was making her, see how it wasn’t her fault, so .... (fer cryin’ out loud, lady, get to the point) The point was: You have to have liability insurance next year, if you want to sell there. Huh? To have this screamed at you while you’re in a frenzy of packing and lifting and toting and you may not have made much over your costs at this show anyway? Isn’t this the sort of thing that is written in the letter someone ought to send you, thanking you for helping to make things such a success and asking you if you want to reserve a space next year? Not blabbed in an almost unintelligible garble of words and defensive apologies to hot sweaty lifting and toting bodies. A little professionalism is needed when issuing bad news. Okay - now the good stuff. There were some wonderful vendors at this show. Beautiful fibers in natural dyes with great polymer buttons to match. Hanks of silk yarn that made your mouth water. “Supported mylar” thread on spools (if you quilt you know about this stuff) that could also be used to create glittery core spun spiral and boucle yarns. Ditto spools of silk thread. Gorgeous spindles, folds of lovely silk fabric - and the Mannings’ book display. And the vendors themselves were warm and friendly and sharing and full of advice for a newbie on the circuit. And we sure had plenty of time to get to know each other. (ooops. sliding back into the complaining section - see how easy that is?) There were also some happy customers who were thrilled to touch and feel and even buy. Another wonderful treat was the chance to just sit and spin with Jen’s beautiful fibers for hours at a time. I had my Golding and I bought a little Bosworth mini spindle, and I just twirled away on samples. Plucking one magnificent fiber after another, fondling it, manipulating it, knitting it into a little soft square - days of doing this, hours of pure bliss. Best of all, though, for me, was hooking up with SfNY and AM and meeting LindaD and just playing, laughing, joking and eating. See - I was just a hitchhiker for Jen’s booth. It was pretty much all play for me. I don’t have to do the accounts when I get back home so there wasn’t really any pressure on me. This whole weekend was a gift from Jen to be able to spend the time among people and things that mean so much to me. So I have to give the weekend an A+ even if the organizational stuff wallowed down near the bottom. And even that was saved from a D- grade by the one brilliant decision the organizers made. They had hired strong boys (and girls) who could lift heavy things, to help people pack up. There were plenty of dollies to haul things out to vans and trucks. There is nothing quite so welcome as some 20 year old muscles, when you’re lifting and toting. We were packed up and ready to go in an hour and a half - and not really all that exhausted either. We took 81 back - ending up on a beautiful winding Virginia backroad and BD was giving me a bear hug by 8 o’clock. So. It is back to the routine for me. Good news from staff about last week’s puppet show, good news yesterday about managing the stuffed animal pet show. Today is Wednesday, and we all know what that means. Off we go. posted by Bess | 7:16 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Rediscover the Drop SpindleI'm still moving a little slow - some of it due to stressed out hands, some due to not working out regularly - ha! rather let's say "not at all!" The hands really seem to suffer when the weather changes and it's been changing at least twice a day this summer. So - the long report about Creative Strands may have to come later this week. But, mixed in with all the fun and excitement of the weekend, I rediscovered an old love - the drop spindle! I'd taken my Golding with me and during the long slack periods (see Jen's report) I spun and knit little swatches of some of the Spirit Trail fibers that didn't have any. The Isaacson's (of Handspun by Stefania), in the booth just across from us, were selling Bosworth spindles. I bought a mini and began spinning lace weight with it. What fun! I couldn't stop! I still can't. I've been playing with it ever since I got home. I love making fine yarns, and I've never been pleased with my lace weight spinning on HeyBaby. I suspect wheel spinning is too fast for my skill level. Spindle spinning is slower and one can spend more time thinking, sensing, watching, learning the fine, delicate draft needed for lace weight. At the show I had opportunity to play with the beautiful Spirit Trail fibers and of them all, my favorite was a purple and white blend of 70% Blue du Maine, 30% Merino. Naughty Jen doesn't have a photo of that one on her website yet. I'll have to chivvy her a bit. But it's one of her UK fibers, the last one listed on this page. Spent yesterday cleaning out the baskets lined up on my blue stash wardrobe - including the one mama's dog got into last month. I untangled all the messes, threw out all the really uninformative swatches and snips and bits, and organized the rest, ending up with one empty basket, one current projects basket and 5 storage baskets. And I only have one bag of junk that I'll think about tomorrow - at Tara. When my good works were done - I got my Bosworth and spun some painted Blue Faced Leiscter I picked up at MS&W. Photo tomorrow - today if there's time. And now I must return to earth - back to work for me, with a whistle and a song. posted by Bess | 7:31 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, July 12, 2004 One whirlwind later, we’re back from PA and the Creative Strands conference. Truth is - I’m a tired (really tired) and don’t feel a bit literary so I shall only report that I had a wonderful weekend and am taking an extra day off for exhaustion recovery. We will call it a mental health day since I maxed out on accumulated sick leave 10 years ago I doubt I’ll get back to the computer before tomorrow but I promise a full report of the weekend. I’ve sifted through all my email, assorted blogs, phone messages, snail mail and newspapers plus back obits. Looks like everyone is alive and well enough, with one sad exception. A moment of pause for the passing of a wonderful writer: Paula Danziger posted by Bess | 7:22 AM 1 Comments:I enjoyed reading your posts so much. You are an excellent communicator. Its a comfort to look into the lives of others and find common ground, small delights, and the honesty to express them. I found that in your posts ........I am impressed with your site format also. I have the free blogspot and really like it, although I am lacking the knowledge to put things in the sidebar as others do. Hopefully I can learn as I go. Any suggestions welcome. Well, on this lanquid summer day I am as busy as a grasshopper and must hop on down to the ironing board. Thanks for the good read, I'll visit here again. Come visit my blog if you've time. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments." Psalm 119:73 Happy day to you.
By Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, July 08, 2004 So, guess who leaves for Creative Strands today. And guess who is so darn homesick she wants to cry. Especially when she heard that LD&GF are bringing a bushel of crabs over Friday night. What is it about a pending fun trip that twists my stomach with misery? I always have a grand time - especially these fiber trips. But the 24 hours before leaving are the absolute worst for me. Just plain misery. You’d think I'd have outgrown this by now. But since I obviously haven't I can only adjust around it. The double booking/weather issue has been prepared for as best as possible. I am doing my dry dance to add good fortune to contingency planning. So, all would be set for waltzing off the job without a care for a few days, only... we have a jerk who has figured out how to circumvent the filters on the internet computers and he's viewing porn sites in violation of the agreement he signed promising not to do so. He's a sulky nasty boy who tends to wait till my youngest and most nervous staff member is on duty to come in. Since I have already given him a stern warning, he sort of lays low when I'm around - wanders in, lingers a bit, then wanders out. I've written out detailed steps for all my employees to take, should they catch him viewing porn and also told them to do nothing if the situation upsets them. He already thinks he's able to break the rules. He'll break them when I'm on duty soon enough. And I'm not the least bit shy about confronting that sort. In fact, it would be a pleasure. I'm a mom - and to some degree feel quite maternal towards my staff. And you don't want to mess with Bess' children. The car needs a part before I can take it out of town, so my first project today will be to stop by the mechanic's. I have one other appointment before I can head off. I ought to be at Jen's by 1 or 1:30. Be back sometime Sunday night but I am sure I shan't post till Monday a.m. TA and sweet weekend knitting. posted by Bess | 5:48 AM 1 Comments:How funny! I only managed Biology myself, one semester. All the others I tried were just too dry. I'm glad I didn't have to take any math classes in college. I'd never have made it. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Wednesday, July 07, 2004 Dawn prowling again, a combination of excitement about the coming few days and anxiety about a double booking we did at the library that is now dependent upon weather for successful dovetailing. Crumbs. And of course, I haven't much to say, nor have I anything to display. I finished up the audio tapes on epic poetry - I'm also just at the point in the Aenead where Juno has whipped up the war between the Trojans and the locals. So, I selected the lectures on astronomy as my next listen. I picked them to push my brain out of it's history/literature rut. I have such a lot of background in those areas it's easy to pull needed references out of the databank when the lecturer makes a statement, supposition or asserts an opinion. With science, alas, I am woefully underinformed. I managed to wiggle through the math/science maze in school without ever taking anything but a single, oft repeated, freshman biology course. Biology, especially human biology, had enough of a practical application in my role as Mom, the Authority of All Things Healthy, to keep me interested. None of the other sciences ever pulled me very hard. I'm hoping I can stretch the brain a bit with this series. I'm a bit worried, though. In the first tape, the scientist casually spits out Copernican laws as if I remember them and I am afraid I'll buzz off instead of listening. Well - I shall give them a fair trial - and maybe learn something I didn't know. I have some good hours of drive time coming up over the next few days. If they don't take, I'll check out something more within my comfort zone. Hey - I'm not in school any more, right? Did a little spinning last night. Almost finished with the bobbin of CVM. No. I didn't finish it on Monday. We ended up having company till 8. It was strange, all weekend we were well guested - not at all what I would have chosen ahead of time. But every time I'd look at the lovely people around me I'd be awash with the realization that this was what I really wanted. And today, along with it being a virtual Friday for me, I having lunch with T-theComputerWizzard, who is also an old and beloved friend. He started out as my son's friend, or rather, as the child of my friend who happened to be my son's age. Eventually we grew the closer, since we had the most in common. He lives on the west coast now and we haven't seen each other in years. Some days just hold so much promise. And with this I see I have nothing more to say but adieu. Or finis. Or both. posted by Bess | 5:04 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Tuesday, July 06, 2004 The holiday continued with more sunshine, more guests, more blue skies, more play, more food. Except for the food, I could do with an entire summer of days like yesterday: leisurely waking, a little spinning at the wheel, coffee with BD, a little out-loud reading, family showing up for some play, swimming in 360 degrees of chamber of commerce scenery. A luscious storm blew by to the north and brought us only the cool breezes - I was glad enough to miss the rain, but I see by the front walk that more fell in the night. So. It is ended. Work summons and I obey. It's easy anyway, for there are only 2 days of it this week, and one of those is Wednesday. It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't posted anything remotely graphical in ... well, let's go look. Good Gracious - not since May. Hmmm. Well, I always did talk too much. Be glad you never had to teach me in school. Unfortunately, I haven't really anything much to show for the month of June, either. A pile of swatches, some purple lace I've ripped about 5 times, the flat blue face of the wardrobe where I keep my stash. I fear productivity this summer will be limited. Still, I shall see if I can find something colorful to share over the next few weeks. Shucks - even wordpower is succumbing to the languor of summer. I'll try again tomorrow. posted by Bess | 6:51 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, July 05, 2004 Did you expect some scattered afternoon showers yesterday? Did you get them? If not, it is because they were over at my house. Sometime after 1, Priss popped the screen door open, ran up to me and tucked her head under my knee - then dashed upstairs to hide at the top of the stairs - her spot of choice when thunder rumbles. And rumble it did - along with pour, flash and blow. It rained for hours. Sometime between one huge storm and the next, BD went down and pumped 100 gallons of water out of the boat. About 6, LD came over to borrow the pump, because his own boat, on its trailer, was so full, he was afraid the weight would bend the spine. We Got Rain! I had spent the day spinning on the back porch but it grew so wet there I moved indoors. By then my superwash merino was plied and hanging in the shower downstairs. Alas, it’s too soft. Too softly spun, that is. I may use it - I may not. I’m a fairly loose spinner who spins more woolen style these days anyway, but superwash is so slippery I believe it’s going to need a pretty tight twist or it shan’t wear well. It ought not to pill, since it can’t felt, but it may get an ugly low-rent looking fuzz to it. I don’t know this, but my fiber knowledge tells me so. A solution would be to put it back on the bobbin and re-ply the heck out of it so I can cable it. I’ll have a lot less yarn, but I think it’ll be more useful. Soft is nice, limp is not. I’ll decide after it’s dry. But emptying that bobbin let me sit down with the CVM and have at it. Oh oh I love spinning this fiber. It just may be my favorite. It’s very fine. I don’t know the micron count but the fineness of the fiber makes for an incredibly silky touch. Like kid mohair, only with crimp. I have half a bobbin full of a sproingy lovely single. There will be some time today to finish the bobbin and I’ll work on the second one this week. I’ll be taking HeyBaby with me to Creative Strands because I have Md. Sheep & Wool stuff on my castle wheel. I want to only spin Jen’s stuff at CS. What started out as a sedate dinner for 6, last night, spread out into a lively gathering of 10. Funny, I kept buying more food, even though I expected only to have LD&GF plus her parents. It was a good thing, too, since in the end, her brothers and two of her friends showed up, outnumbering the old fogy contingent 6 to 4. It was a remarkably congenial group and, since these are old, old friends, not only was the evening delightful, but nobody minded the dampness. They’re from the deep south and it’s not uncomfortable for them till it’s 98 degrees with 98 % humidity. At 8:30 BD took the under-50 crowd out in the boat to see the fireworks in town, viewing them from the river to avoid the traffic jam, and here’s an odd thing. GF came back and said there were no fireworks and BD came back and said there were fireworks all over - in Montross, Naylor’s Beach, Wheatland, Gwynfield and Tappahannock. So - who’s telling the truth? I can believe that we each view life in our own unique way, but no fireworks vs. a ring of them? BH is coming up this afternoon, bringing her little girls. The sky is clear, but weather dot com promises hot hot hot to go along with the sunshine. I believe we’ll do a good bit of swimming. A fitting way to end the 4th of July holiday. posted by Bess | 7:04 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Sunday, July 04, 2004 Great Scot - another rambling post about hair!?As the only daughter with straight hair, in a family of curly haired girls, offspring of a curly haired woman who grew up with Shirley Temple, I remember a dreadful Saturday when mama made me sit in the kitchen while she put in, not one, but two, Tonette kiddy permanent waves. The result was the same stick straight stuff. It was such an awful way for a 4 year old to spend a Saturday the details have remained clear. I vividly remember Mama saying "It won't curl. I think I'll just let it grow long and put it into braids." Well, if you grew up in the 50's and the pre-Beatles 60's, you will remember that no girls had long hair, so I was both a celebrity and an anomaly. By the time I turned 12 I was begging mama for short hair, promising her I would take care of it, swearing that it wouldn't look like the ubiquitously named rat's nest. So, for my birthday, off it came, and I was given a set of those spiky pink curlers that made a torment of the night as my coveted badge of teenhood, along with a puffy frilly lace boudoir cap. The next day John,Paul,George&Ringo said "I like long hair." You all know the rest. There was even a silly pop song about Hair, long beautiful hair, and a musical. And I spent the next several years struggling with growing it out, cutting it off and never being satisfied with either. When I met BD, though, at the peak of waist length hairdom, he said "I like short hair better than long." I was in another growing spurt and shrugged, said something like "too bad" and kept on fiddling with long hair. But it was a nice little secret bit of knowledge to keep, just in case I ever wanted short hair again. Other women complained that their DH/BFs insisted (?) on long hair and I smirked inside, knowing that if I ever cut off my signature locks, pleasing myself would also please the most important man in my life. I had my final fling with long hair the summer I was 29, complete with curly perm. At last I had something close to the flowing locks of tumbling tresses cascading down her shoulder into the sea foam while her lover loomed over her in passionate embrace - you know - like on the covers of those bodice rippers - The same kind of hair my sister really does have. But after that, well, if you have long straight hair and if you've ever had a perm, you know what happens when it's about 5 months old. Right. Pretty hideous. That spring it all came off and I have not been tempted to grow it long again. It was then that BD looked up at me one day and said, "I like long hair better than short". Well. If that ain't ... Okay - no sexist remarks. He doesn't comment on specifics much any more, but rather offers up his compliments about the total package and since his eyesight is pretty bad, what he sees is sort of organically airbrushed into more of a glow than a body. This is one of the sweet blessings of a long marriage - one tends to see with prejudiced eyes - a vast improvement over, say, a camera lens. So - not much knitting, but certainly fiber. Keratin, at least. I did get in some lovely hours of spinning on the back porch (ably cleaned by Himself, the Darling) and now I have a bobbin full of superwash merino that I believe I shall ply back onto itself from a center pull ball. That's because I want to free up a bobbin to spin my CVM. I don't always finish projects, but I try to find an appropriate stopping point to break off my activity. The late afternoon was spent on the river which sparkled with a sudden drop in humidity. It was high tide, so the swimming was delicious and with nobody around we could jump in au naturelle. Dinner was crab cakes in front of the video machine, watching Armageddon. Yeah, I know. It was in a box of movies a friend sent LD and as we'd never seen it, and I was in a rare Trash Movie mood ... Well, I got some good laughs and in the night I dreamed I was forced to write jokes about the movie for a magazine editor. Why did Bruce Willis blow up the asteroid? Yeah. Serves me right. Happy Birthday USAposted by Bess | 7:19 AM 2 Comments:If I could find one of those "perfect haircuts" I might just go ahead and lop it all off despite my husbands protests about loving long hair.
Lovely, beloved Bess... have I fallen into your Overmind? I didn't post it today, but was thinking I would for Monday... I thought of you all morning while spinning silk... always fond thoughts when they include you, today I was contemplating the faith of spinning, and how by just believing something amazing could happen to a fluff of hair, it pulls itself together (because certainly I was doing very little) and becomes what it is meant to be.... Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, July 03, 2004 And The Answer Is ...The haircut is pretty darn good. Not a perfect haircut - where I don't have to do a thing with it even though it's been washed in that soft Tappahannock water. But one douse with my good artesian water and it will look perfect. It's good to go, now, for a couple of weeks. Warning! Long post where even the fiber stuff at the end becomes spiritual stuffIt's been a strange roller coaster week, when my emotions rode the cars from euphoric heights to subterranean lows, around tense curves and through gravity defying spins. It seems as if my emotional state is dancing around some truth, catching glimpses of it, now and then sensing the entire truth, but shying away from complete immersion in it. My horoscope says "seems like nobody likes you any more? well - you'll get a second chance later in the month". Huh. Great. Well, last weekend notwithstanding, when dear friends stroked lovingly, ever since that July 14 library meeting, it’s seemed as if a goodly number of people, who used to be in my life, have moved on. Some, I don't mind bidding farewell, Others, I am puzzled (read here, wondering what did I do?!) that they have departed - though I must keep reminding myself that it's not necessarily about me - they might just need to go elsewhere. For a few, the parting was painful. I suppose I'm ultra sensitive to this because I'm pretty involved in putting together the 151st family reunion coming up in August. Two years ago three of us made all the arrangements and had such a loving experience. That triumvirate split over a divorce and now there's a sad aura about doing all this family reunion stuff. Well, it's really not all that much work and it will be done by middle of next week and my reward will be a few days spent with Jen up at Creative Strands. Life is nothing if not adjustments. In fact, I have been getting some fascinating insights - some of those glimmers of truth I was talking about - from the lecture tapes - the one about Spencer's Faerie Queen - where the ultimate nature of truth is revealed to be submissive to change without losing its fundamental core. Spencer was talking about the Church of England, I am worried about the soul of Bess, but in either case, what the spirit needs is a steadfast core that can be reconciled to change. Today I have a totally free day. There is a little house keeping that I want to do - and sometime I must do some shopping because we have company coming tomorrow. But I can do all of that tomorrow in the wee dawn hours if I choose. Right now there is a blank slate before me and I have a new piece of chalk. A whole box of colored chalks, in fact. In my pocket is a tiny piece of CVM (California Variegated Mutant) roving. I like to put my fingers in my pocket and feel the tender springy texture of this delicious fiber. It’s got something in it, some nutritional content, that feeds a hunger in me. It works like a love blanket, a security blanket, on my psyche. All week I’ve carried it around in my nightgown pocket, touching it, feeling the silkiness of it, letting its energy calm me. When I spun a little, last weekend, I let a good bit of fiber into the twist and ended up with my ubiquitous 4 st. to the inch aran weight 2-ply. Knit up, the fabric had a great heft and structure - a jacket weight fabric. Later in the week, though, I worked up a small length of sport weight 2-ply and knew that was the yarn I wanted to spin. I don’t have a real long draw technique but I have what I call a modified long draw. When I use this technique I treadle with my left foot and sit almost sideways to the wheel, using the scotch tension with the drive band set up on the small whorl. My forward hand is the left hand and my pinch is very light. My drafting hand is also holding the fibers very lightly and I pull back - or rather, I pull out with my right arm, across my lap, fairly quickly, all the time letting my leading hand pinch open and close as I need to let more twist into the yarn. With this technique I can create a thin, woolen spun yarn of satisfyingly even dimensions and a soft, springy texture. This isn’t a true long draw - where you definitely do let twist into the yarn while drafting, so that you actually get two points of twist that get stretched apart till the fibers between them accept the twist and poof! suddenly you have a length of yarn. I have experimented with that a bit, but I don’t care for the unevenness of the yarn I get when spinning that way. In fact, I didn’t really care for the unevenness I saw in Patsy Z’s yarn when she demonstrated the technique on her video. It may be that one can create a fairly even yarn using long draw, but I just haven’t seen it. It’s a “for later, after I’ve practiced” technique that I’m just not yet in the mood to learn. My method is still a fast (for me) way to make yarn. It’s a modified technique where, as the pinch in the fingers of my leading hand opens and closes over the yarn, I can see the energy flowing into the fibers between my two hands. The big difference, as I see it, is that, even though I am drafting swiftly, there is only one point of twist between my hands. But it is still in the “long draw” family of techniques, which is a very spiritual place to be from. Yes. Spiritual spinning. Not because it is meditative nor in tune with one’s heartbeat; not because of it’s calming effect on self nor because of the peace one generates for others, while spinning. This is an important spiritual act - a ritual perhaps, because when one pulls out the fibers fast, with hands well apart from their staple length, one must trust that the twist will come into the fibers, not only in time to prevent them from breaking apart, but also in time to transfigure them into a beautiful, resilient, useful, pliant, strong and vivacious yarn. In much the same way, one must move out into the world, the unknown, trusting that God will come into you, not only in time to prevent you from falling into the abyss, but also in time to transfigure you into a beautiful, resilient, useful, pliant, strong and vivacious human. We need both the protection of the pinch, which must be gentle, but effective, and the bold courage of that long draw, which moves swiftly and with confidence. The only way to achieve this is to trust. To believe that it will happen because of some fundamental law - in one case a law of physics, in the other, of spirituality. I am not one who likes ritual (says the woman who eats the same breakfast for years at a time). Allow me to rephrase that. I am not fond of other’s rituals. But I do like my own. Little repeatable actions that reassure me, comfort me, feed my hungers. Visible steps, observable activities, familiar movements; they offer great opportunities to be reminded of the important things I sometimes forget in my busy, reactive life, all hung about with the fever trees of other people and their wants and demands. Spinning is a pretty spiritual activity, but long draw spinning is my ultimate ritual of faith. posted by Bess | 6:59 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] And The Answer Is ...The haircut is pretty darn good. Not a perfect haircut - where I don't have to do a thing with it even though it's been washed in that soft Tappahannock water. But one douse with my good artesian water and it will look perfect. It's good to go, now, for a couple of weeks. Warning! Long post where even the fiber stuff at the end becomes spiritual stuffIt's been a strange roller coaster week, where my emotions rode the cars from euphoric heights to subterranean lows, around tense curves and through gravity defying spins. It seems as if my emotional state is dancing around some truth, catching glimpses of it, now and then sensing the entire truth, but shying away from complete immersion in it. My horoscope says "seems like nobody likes you any more? well - you'll get a second chance later in the month". Huh. Great. Well, last weekend notwithstanding, when dear friends stroked lovingly, ever since that July 14 library meeting, it’s seemed as if a goodly number of people, who used to be in my life, have moved on. Some, I don't mind bidding farewell, Others, I am puzzled (read here, wondering what did I do?!) that they have departed - though I must keep reminding myself that it's not necessarily about me - they might just need to go elsewhere. For a few, the parting was painful. I suppose I'm ultra sensitive to this because I'm pretty involved in putting together the 151st family reunion coming up in August. Two years ago three of us made all the arrangements and had such a loving experience. That triumvirate split over a divorce and now there's a sad aura about doing all this family reunion stuff. Well, it's really not all that much work and it will be done by middle of next week and my reward will be a few days spent with Jen up at Creative Strands. Life is nothing if not adjustments. In fact, I have been getting some fascinating insights - some of those glimmers of truth I was talking about - from the lecture tapes - the one about Spencer's Faerie Queen - where the ultimate nature of truth is revealed to be submissive to change without losing it’s fundamental core. He was talking about the Church of England, I am worried about the soul of Bess, but of course, what all mankind seems to need is a steadfast core with a reconciliation to change. Today I have a totally free day. There is a little house keeping that I want to do - and sometime I must do some shopping because we have company coming tomorrow. But I can do all of that tomorrow in the wee dawn hours if I choose. Right now there is a blank slate before me and I have a new piece of chalk. A whole box of colored chalks, in fact. In my pocket is a tiny piece of CVM (California Variegated Mutant) roving. I like to put my fingers in my pocket and feel the tender springy texture of this delicious fiber. It’s got something in it, some nutritional content, that feeds a hunger in me. It works like a love blanket, a security blanket, on my psyche. All week I’ve carried it around in my nightgown pocket, touching it, feeling the silkiness of it, letting its energy calm me. When I spun a little last weekend I let a good bit of fiber into the twist and ended up with my ubiquitous 4 st. to the inch aran weight 2-ply. Knit up, the fabric had a great heft and structure - a jacket weight fabric. Later in the week, though, I worked up a small length of sport weight 2-ply and knew that was the yarn I wanted to spin. I don’t have a real long draw technique but I have what I call a modified long draw. When I use this technique I treadle with my left foot and sit almost sideways to the wheel, using the scotch tension with the drive band set up on the small whorl. My forward hand is the left hand and my pinch is very light. My drafting hand is also holding the fibers very lightly and I pull back - or rather, I pull out with my right arm, across my lap, fairly quickly, all the time letting my leading hand pinch open and close as I need to let more twist into the yarn. With this technique I can create a thin, woolen spun yarn of satisfyingly even dimensions and a soft, springy texture. This isn’t a true long draw - where you definitely do let twist into the yarn while drafting, so that you actually get two points of twist that get stretched apart till the fibers between them accept the twist and poof! suddenly you have a length of yarn. I have experimented with that a bit, but I don’t care for the unevenness of the yarn I get when spinning that way. In fact, I didn’t really care for the unevenness I saw in Patsy Z’s yarn when she demonstrated the technique on her video. It may be that one can create a fairly even yarn using long draw, but I just haven’t seen it. It’s a “for later, after I’ve practiced” technique that I’m just not yet in the mood to learn. My method is still a fast (for me) way to make yarn. It’s a modified technique where, as the pinch in the fingers of my leading hand opens and closes over the yarn, I can see the energy flowing into the fibers between my two hands. The big difference, as I see it, is that, even though I am drafting swiftly, there is only one point of twist between my hands. But it is still in the “long draw” family of techniques, which is a very spiritual place to be from. Yes. Spiritual spinning. Not because it is meditative nor in tune with one’s heartbeat; not because of it’s calming effect on self nor because of the peace one generates for others, while spinning. This is an important spiritual act - a ritual perhaps, because when one pulls out the fibers fast, with hands well apart from their staple length, one must trust that the twist will come into the fibers, not only in time to prevent them from breaking apart, but also in time to transfigure them into a beautiful, resilient, useful, pliant, strong and vivacious yarn. In much the same way, one must move out into the world, the unknown, trusting that God will come into you, not only in time to prevent you from falling into the abyss, but also in time to transfigure you into a beautiful, resilient, useful, pliant, strong and vivacious human. We need both the protection of the pinch, which must be gentle, but effective, and the bold courage of that long draw, which moves swiftly and with confidence. The only way to achieve this is to trust. To believe that it will happen because of some fundamental law - in one case a law of physics, in the other, of spirituality. I am not one who likes ritual (says the woman who eats the same breakfast for years at a time). Allow me to rephrase that. I am not fond of other’s rituals. But I do like my own. Little repeatable actions that reassure me, comfort me, feed my hungers. Visible steps, observable activities, familiar movements; they offer great opportunities to be reminded of the important things I sometimes forget in my busy, reactive life, all hung about with the fever trees of other people and their wants and demands. Spinning is a pretty spiritual activity, but long draw spinning is my ultimate ritual of faith. posted by Bess | 6:59 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Friday, July 02, 2004 I'm much better today - though still not 100%. Just made an idiotic post on KRForums and can't figure out how to delete it. Anyway - I'm rushed off my feet - it's haircut day again for me. The $64,000 ? Can Bess get another perfect haircut? What about a just pretty good one? Tune in next time for the exciting results. Today's exciting news is that the CVM spins into the most fabulous sport weight yarn, knitting up at 6 stitches to the inch on size 3's. Best of all. It can be spun using my version of a modified long draw, a zippy technique that fills bobbins fast. This may just be what I work on when I'm with Jen at Creative Strands next weekend. When there's time. When we aren't selling pounds and pounds of fibers and yarns. This 4th of J we will host the GF's parents. This should be interesting. They sounded excited and happy to come so I look forward to a grand day - with Saturday in between to clean the house for them. How is it that my house goes from delightful to demolished so quickly? Ta now - haircut in 1 hour. posted by Bess | 6:49 AM 1 Comments:
On your post there should be a little trash can icon. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, July 01, 2004 I woke at 1 this a.m. and with each tick of the clock I'm growing steadily crankier. In fact, too cranky to post anything beyond: I fixed the error I'd made in the purple lace. One step backward, but ready now to step forward again. posted by Bess | 5:44 AM |
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