Random Thoughts

This will be a short and random post today.  I didn't want to let another week go by without a post, not wanting to disappoint Andrea.  She told me she checks every day to see what I have written.

1.  I want to resign from my job of mother, but am not sure where to turn in my resignation.  Any ideas?  I have tried to do this several times over the last 12 or 13 years, but no one would take my resignation letter.  I will just say that being a single parent to an almost 18 year old young  man is not always easy, and I really don't want to do it any more.  However, I realize I have to and I'm sure we'll get through this battle of wills.

2.  On our way home from Saranac Lake a couple of weeks ago we saw this beautiful sunset.  When I stopped to take a picture, an Amish buggy turned around and started driving toward us.  We often see Amish buggies on our way to and from Saranac Lake, but never with quite such a beautiful backdrop.

3.  A new book was waiting for me when I arrived home today.  It is Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns by Carol J. Sulcoski.  I am trying to be more discerning in my knitting book purchases, but felt this was a book that would be quite useful, and has many patterns in it which I can't wait to try.  I am not allowing myself to cast on another pair of socks though, until I finish the two I now have on my needles.   

4.  Tomorrow I'm planning to have a dyeing day.  I am working on creating some shades of green-it will be interesting to see what comes out of the dye pot.  

5.  Seamus has arrived to tell me it's time to go to bed.  He has a habit of sitting on my arms, which makes typing a little difficult, so that's it for now.

Sorry I've Been Absent for So Long

This is a quick post to say sorry I haven't written for a few days.  

Here is picture of my grandcat Sterling Battleship Sylvia.  Travis named her (she's Caitlin's cat) Sterling Sylvia, and a friend decided she should have a grey middle name as well, so he suggested Battleship.  Isn't she a clever cat lying in a box? I bet you've never seen a cat in a box before. She is a very energetic kitten-it's amazing she sat still long enough to snap this photo.

Samples for the phat fiber box are still a work in progress-they  have to be in by next Friday. Gerard was quite helpful while I was making the sample skeins of sock yarn.  He kept trying to steal them.  Bad cat! Now I have to get the fiber samples ready.  I think I am going to send in a few bracelets also. Here is a little hint of what may be appearing in my fiber samples.

The February Phat Fiber box arrived last Friday, and it was so much fun to open.  I spied it on my front porch when I arrived home from work.  Lots of pink and brown yarn and fiber, as the theme for February was Romance and Chocolate.    I would anticipate there being a plethora of green in the March box, in keeping with the Celtic theme.

 

There was a field trip to Burlington yesterday with Suzanne.  We left at the incredibly early hour of 7:30 (at least it was incredibly early for me).  We went to KaleidoscopeYarn, Northeast Fibers, Ben Franklin and Barnes and Noble.  I was quite good, and only bought a skein of Cascade 220 and a skein of Lambs Pride for my collection.  I love the colors in both types of yard, so each time I go to a yarn store I tend to buy a color I don't have for my stash.  OK, I also bought someMalabrigo worsted weight yarn.  It is one of my favorite yarns-so soft.  But also extremely feltable.  I made Caitlin two pairs of socks from Malabrigo yarn, and she now has socks that would make lovely Christmas tree decorations  I want to make a hat and some mittens from what I bought. I figure those articles of clothing aren't quite as likely to make their way into the washer and dryer. 

I hadn't been to Barnes and Noble in a long time and realized how much I miss visiting all those books.  When we lived in New Jersey we went to B&N at least once a week.  I think it is a good thing that I live far away-both for my wallet and my stuffed bookshelves.  Lately I have been wanting to read a Miss Marple mystery, so  I bought Murder at the Vicarage, the first book in which she is the main character.  I prefer her to Hercule Poirot as a sleuth, maybe because she sometimes knits in her books.

Wasn't it fabulous today when the temperature was above 40 degrees?...... I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring.  Delusional, I know, to think that it will be here anytime soon, but I can pretend.  Actually, it must be spring, we have a fly in the house.  Seamus is industriously trying to catch it, and making some strange noises in the process.  

Time for bed.  I will try to be a more regular blogger in the future, and my apologies to those who have been missing my posts.

I'll leave you with a picture of Gerard sleeping, and my feet adorned with a pair of my hand knit socks.  

Another Phat Fiber Sample Box

Do you like this colorway?  I just put it in my etsy shop.  I asked Conor for help in naming it, requesting a song title, because that is where I get most of my names for my colorways.  I told him the colors were blueberry, pumpkin and green and he suggested blueberry pie.  When asked what green and pumpkin colors had to do with blueberry pie, he said the pumpkin was the crust and it was in a green pie plate.  Instead, I decided on Blueberry Hill, since that is a song title.  I always think of Richie Cunningham singing Blueberry Hill on Happy Days when I think of that song.

I've been working to get things together to send samples in for the March Phat Fiber box.  The boxes sold out in something like two minutes this month.  It's awesome for independent dyers and fiber artists to be able to get samples of their work into the hands of people all over the world. Boxes went to Japan, Canada, Scotland, England and Norway this month.  I am truly appreciative that Jessie (the creator of Phat Fiber) invited me back in October to be a part of this group of fiber artists.  I was a contributor to last month's inaugural box and will be contributing next month too.  I took a month off to regroup and figure out exactly what samples I wanted to send in. However, I couldn't go a month without my Phat Fiber fix, so I purchased a box.  I can't wait to see what's in it.  I am hoping it will be here when I get home from work tomorrow, and I will share pictures of the fibery goodness contained within.  

Every month there is a theme.  Next month it is Celtic.  With the last name of O'Brien I had to participate.  I think I am going to send some bracelets in this month, along with some nice, fluffy batts of fiber.  I am having a wonderful time with my drum carder, creating the batts.  It's another fun way to play with color.  And thanks to the Yarn Harlot, I know that it is OK to put fiber in sideways, and it really does work better than putting the fiber in with the ends first. Who knew?

Tuesday night Trina and I went to Potsdam to Fields Coffee House to meet two other knitters for what is hoped will be a new knitting group.  We met Jody and Stacy and had a nice yarn filled time.  Jody was making her first sock, and Stacy is crocheting a baby blanket with Noah's Ark on it-very cute.  We discovered that the Coffee House has an open mic night on Tuesday, so we were treated to some music along with out knitting-quite a change from the library where we knit on Wednesday night.  Next week we thought we would try meeting at The Blackbird Cafe in Canton.  Any place with coffee and yarn and interesting people sounds good to me.

Here are a few more pictures from the parade on Saturday.  Only in the Adirondacks would there be a float with a deer head on the prow of a pirate ship, with a mountain coming out of the middle of the ship.  It was a little shady when this picture was taken, but I think you can see the concept of the float.

Look, there was fiber at the parade, in the form of some very large dredlocks.  I thought Travis' were long, but they can't compete with these.

And not only did the pirate have dreds, but so did the car that was following him.

This is a very tired puppy at the end of the parade.  She belongs to Travis and Caitlin's friend Jess.  Isn't she adorable?

Here is a rather blurry shot of the ice castle at night.  Pretty.

Time for bed.  Work again tomorrow.  I'm wearing a wool sweater-twas very cold today.  

A Walk to Moose Pond

On Sunday Caitlin, Conor and I decided to take a little drive.  I wanted to take some mountain pictures so I could replace the Christmas picture on the blog.  We had a limited amount of time because Caitlin had clothes in the dryer at the laundromat.  I headed toward Bloomingdale, when Caitlin suggested going to Moose Pond.  Upon driving toward the pond, we found that it is only possible to drive partway down the road during the winter, but Caitlin assured me it was only a short walk from where we were parked to the pond.   Silly me, I believed her.  You must understand that I do not do a lot of walking, it's just not a part of my daily routine. Although I keep making resolutions to walk,  I'm not very good at keeping those resolutions.  

Anyway, we set off on the path and started walking, only to discover that Caitlin was wrong about the length of the walk to the pond.  As we were walking my mind was going a mile a minute thinking we should turn back, Caitlin has laundry in the dryer, I left my purse on the front seat of the car, this is farther than I thought it would be, we need to get back to meet Travis, and so on and so on.  This is a problem that I have-not living in the moment.  I don't think I am alone with this problem.  So I told the rolodex in my brain to stop spinning, and began to  relax and appreciate all that I was surrounded by, not just the woods, but my lovely children as well.   After all, how often do I get to go for a walk in the mountains with two of my children on a beautiful sunny day? Here are Caitlin and Conor, blazing the trail. 

Look at that pretty blue sky.

We made it to the lake.  It was at least a mile walk, which I realize is not really that far, but I was proud of me for doing it, especially when there was a mile walk back to the car.  This is Conor, fulfilling one of his lifelong ambitions, to walk on a frozen lake.

I was sure that he was going to fall through the ice, but he didn't. and he was very happy to go out to the middle and take the picture of the mountain I had wanted.  I kept wondering if the handknit scarf I was wearing would be strong enough to help pull him out if he fell through the ice.

Conor left proof for the next intrepid hiker that he had been on the lake.

This is as far as I ventured from shore.

Caitlin  did some snow art also.  This is a drawing of her cat Sterling, and a drawing of Conor saying I am soooo right.  I think there might be a little sibling stuff going on here.  

Here I am,  with proof that I was, indeed, at Moose Pond on a snowy day in February.

We saw this lichen covered log on the walk back to the car.  I think this would make a pretty colorway if it is possible to produce a dye the color of the silvery grey lichen.

When we arrived back at the car my purse was still there, Caitlin's laundry was still in the dryer at the laundromat, and we made it back to Saranac Lake in plenty of time to meet Travis for dinner, so all my worries were for nought.  I have to keep practicing the not worrying. Life is too short, and I really do know that worrying does not change anything.  I am happy that I was able to relax and enjoy a beautiful day in the Adirondacks with two of my darling children.

Home Again

We're back from Saranac Lake and I am exhausted.  It's hard work going to Winter Carnival and being awakened several times during the night by some very vociferous carnival goers.   I will post more tomorrow, but will share a couple of pictures now.

The theme for the Winter Carnival this year was Pirates and here is the Grand Marshall of the Parade.  The parade was one of the best I've been to in a long time.  A lot of creativity and time went into the floats and costumes.  

This float represented the store where Caitlin works, cooking and baking yummy vegetarian and vegan food.

 

There are many more parade pictures, which I will share another day,  but I need to get myself to bed, since I have to work tomorrow.  I can't go until I share some pictures of my new grandpuppy.  She is absolutely adorable, and a very good girl, but also very, very large.  We walked down to the ice castle and she was such a good girl on the walk.  Isn't she cute?

Caitlin's cat Sterling, was not quite as happy to meet Begonia as we were.  I have never seen a cat quite so fluffy, she even had a mohawk on top of her head.

There were also some sounds coming out of Sterling which I have never really heard from a cat before.  All Begonia wanted to do was play-poor Begonia, misunderstood by Sterling the puffed up cat.