Pamela's House of Blues

Resurrection!

I am back -- a lot has happened in the last year, all of it for the good, but it has been incredibly busy and the blog just got lost, somehow.

Knit Stuff:

Let's see in the last year I have:

- Changed jobs (Yeah!)
- Knitted two more sheep sweaters for raffling off to benefit the Inland Empire Herding Dog Association
- Mastered (sort of) cobweb lace knitting -- love those charts!
- Grown to HATE domino knitting -- whose bright idea was it to make it take TWICE as long to knit something in modules?
- Decided that Elann is a gift to the stashaholic, not to be missed!
- Put 15,000 extra miles on my car battling one elderly aunt over the care arrangements for her even more elderly sister (I won! but the oldest aunt won most of all by getting the care she needs)
- Spent the down payment on the next car on bladderstone surgery for the oldest dog -- why can't they put their paw in the air and tell you they hurt as easily as they can put their paw in the air and demand a biscuit?
- Sold the Joy
- Bought the Lendrum
- Learned to spin S L O W E R
- Worked on learning to spin CONSISTENTLY rather than IntEREstIngLY
- Found a Schacht  Matchless lurking on the top shelf of the erstwhile-fiber-arts-now-knitting-only store and bought it for a song. I AM IN LOVE!!!
- Conquered my fear of strangers and competition long enough to win 2nd place in the County Fair spinning contest
- Bought more sock yarn, knit more socks, stash overfloweth.
- Attended the Madrona Fiber Arts retreat and worshiped at the feet of Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin

Whew -- quite a year!

And now I am experiencing a lovely Virginia spring

while visiting my family (that's Mom in the background - pretty good for 80+ !)

                                                                                                                                                 and gearing up for the semi-annual pilgrimage to Fiber Mecca, better known as MS$W.

I know that the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is run by volunteers but they do have a serious problem with their workshop registration process.  A word to the wise -- send in your registration via FEDEX or UPS with signature certification.  Even then, it may do you no good.  Their registrar refuses to accept the US Post Office Delivery Confirmation service as proof of delivery! Unheard of says the USPS Customer Service Supervisor at the Silver Spring MD post office, but then, there you are. It is very disappointing to have a legal proof of registration delivery in your hand and be denied entry to workshops.  I think that next year I will have my friend Linda hand deliver my entry and take a photograph of the "registrar" accepting the envelope AND holding up a copy of the day's Washington Post!  Sort of my own "hostage" photo.  Think it will work?

Puppy Stuff:

Ghillea is not such a puppy any more -- in fact he is about to turn 3!  Since Beardies rarely mature before age 9, he is still a sweet, bouncing pup to me. But his coat is now nearly all in; he has kept his lovely blue-silver color (yeah!); and his fascinating eyes are still blue-grey (YEAH!).  Photos to come.

Renewal

Spring is here and so is the first full bloom in rose gardens.  Peering deep into a Joseph's Coat climber, I found this

Now if only I could spin these colors into a lovely laceweight Merino -- maybe the Lendrum wheel which is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday will be the answer to my prayers.  Hopefully the new wheel and this newly re-published book will help me to improve both my spinning technique and my color manipulation in fiber.

The events of the last few weeks, as life ebbs and renews and cycles turn, have turned me even  more philosophical than usual.  I have been thinking a lot about the events of the last few years and the twists and turns in my life.  An increasing theme is aging -- me, as I approach 60; my aging aunts and how unprepared they are for the events at the ends of their lives; and the increasing joy and enrichment  I gain from relationships with women in my creative life.  At our monthly guild meeting this Saturday, one of our members crystalized my thoughts about the value that creative relationships give to us.  April 10 marked the 60th anniversary of her family's decision to flee the advancing Russian army as it invaded Berlin  and try to contact the American force.  After several days of what must have been a harrowing existence, they decided to reveal themselves to a group of soldiers and beg asylum, hoping that these were Americans who would not turn them back to the Russians. My friend wondered that back then as a frightened young girl, she could never have believed that 60 years later she would be sharing a beautiful spring day in California with so many good friends, all enriching each other's lives through their love of knitting and fiber.

And just to bring us back to another take on reality, the Surrealist Compliment Generator has gone all fibery:

"Your legs are like threads of cotton, though much thicker, and filled with weevils."

 

We Are the Champions!

Well, not quite -- but we did get two more points towards Ghillea's conformation championship on Saturday when he went Best of Winners over the bitch who took Best of Opposite Sex!  Since he has at least another year of coat-growing to do before he will really be competitive, this was a very nice surprise for what I thought would be just a practice experience.

Knit Stuff

Last year, I knit six pair of sox for Noni and her two wonderful girls, Gina and Elena -- otherwise known as the nicest teens on the planet!  At last, we got all six feet together in one room and took the photo:

Last fall, Gina went off to college in cold, snowy Pennsylvania.  I offered to knit her anything she wanted and she chose mittens -- on a string.  The result was felted mittens with eyelass "fake fur" cuffs.

It can get chilly in winter, even in LA, so Elena got "pop-up paws" mittens -- fingerless gloves with a mitten top which can be flipped back.

Return of the Prodigal

After a bit of a hiatus, the House of Blue Beardies is back in business.  And what better way celebrate April 1 than to take a ride on  THE YARN BUS, courtesy of the Flying Fingers yarn shop in Irvington, NY. 

The NEW YORKER loves it!  I was contemplating a minivan as a Beardie-mobile, but this may move to the top of the list.

When last we met, I was bemoaning the impending heat of summer.  Since then, life has dealt the following hand:

--  My 97-year-old aunt broke-her-hip-and-fell or fell-and-broke-her-hip (not sure which) and I became her primary care manager.  Hence, free time all but disappeared and the blog became a time-consuming  luxury.
--  Ghillea grew up -- but not before eating/shredding all of the Christmas presents 2 weeks before December 25.  Major behavior modification ensued, once I was peeled off of the ceiling.
--  We discovered that Robbie is totally deaf at the age of 7 -- no wonder he would not listen to the herding commands and decided to work sheep HIS way!  Moral:  pay attention to those seemingly little behavior changes!  Solution:  thank goodness his basic obedience training included hand as well as voice signals and we are building on that foundation.
-- Kitchen re-model was postponed, but this gave me the time to face the reality of budget and space constraints.  Project is back on for this summer.
-- Knitting saved my sanity -- many project pix to follow.
-- Thanks to a mad Russian trainer and the cutest nutritionist Wisconsin ever produced, there is less of me -- and what is left is lean and muscled.  Now I can move Ghillea around the show ring with aplomb and (hopefully) grace!
-- Life is much better with a new job where skill and experience are valued in a professionally managed organization.  Besides which, my office is 2 blocks from the beach!

Out of the Blue

Spring is a fleeting moment in Los Angeles, but you know it is officially over when the jacaranda trees bloom. Who knew there were blue trees?

Knit Stuff

The EL vest is out of the frog pond and back on track, but is sitting on the sidelines for a bit till other stuff clears out.

It's been pretty busy and all my free time has been devoted to finishing Grass Creek in time for this weekend's big dog show -- but I did it !!!

Now if it will just be cool enough on Friday evening to wear it to the barbeque and show off my handiwork.

This has been such a long project that, for the next one, I want to do something completely different so I am considering some summer knitting and yarn other than wool. Rowan's CALMER has been humming a siren song and the new issue of INTERWEAVE KNITS has a bunch of cute tanks and tops, as does the current issue of KNITTY. Decisions, decisions, decisions ...

But then I reall like this little felted bag from MAG KNITS which I bet I can finish in a weekend.

Puppy Stuff

Rob gets to go to camp while Gil and I hit the road for one last big show for the Bearded Collie Club of the Golden West. The living room is piled full of dog show gear and I remembered to run by the library and pick up some books on tape for the long drive -- Harry Potter and Donald McCaig -- eclectic is my middle name. We hope we come home with championship points, as well as blue ribbons, so wish us luck.