ahhh ... the knitting, the weaving, the yarns

Cold!

Very very cold at the beach!

January - is just a cold month in my little piece of the world.

But January is the perfect time to handle yarn and wear your furry slippers

... and that is what I did.

First of all, the view ...

The real view ....

Other things that filled our eyes.

Hand woven scarves - all done by my talented cousin, Linda.

Yarn ball winding.

Needle Point - this picture doesn't do justice to the brilliance of the colors.

This is my loom with a brand new project on it - started (shamefully) last May when my cousin visited. That little scarf is almost completed.

Knitting, of course, :-)

Crocheting, too.

Morgan, my cousin's dog. A most beautiful face to match and loving personality.

Talking and hanging out.

Reading - yes that is a yarn pattern book.

Weaving DVD on the TV

Ok, so not everyone thought the DVD was interesting!

And finally my yarn purchase! I saved this until the end.

I can hear those thoughts flooding through your brain

(well, maybe is is just my brain)

"What!! More yarn.

Have you looked in your yarn closet lately?

Have you looked in the baskets all over your floor?

Have you lost your mind?"

To the last question - well, maybe yes. Just a little.

BUT I have reasons in answer to the other questions.

Reason #1

I was at the beach.

This was vacation yarn.

All fiber artists know that vacation yarn doesn't count.

Reason #2

That yarn was kettle dyed and the color of beach sand!

Really ... do you need to know more?

Reason #3

They had the perfect buttons to go with the yarn. See?

How often does that happen?

Reason #4

The yarn shop owner's name was Elaine - just like me!!!

So the yarn was coming home with me.

It was just meant to be!

Tomorrow: My walk on the bay side of Ocean City.

"Resorting" to launch 2012

Resorting ...

that is what my life seems to be about now.

A lot of time has been spent resorting

... like space ...

our upstairs den is a good example. It used to be mom's sitting room, but now it is my craft room.

The desk in this picture is mom's desk. We tried to get it into her assisted living room, but it wouldn't fit. So it now resides in my craft room. I use it to file mom's important papers and to do her minimal bill paying and bookkeeping.

There are no before pictures, but here are some after pictures.

This closet shows only half of the space my yarn stash occupies. Slide the door to the left and the other half is just as full - floor to ceiling. I was feeling pretty good about squeezing all the yarn into this closet ... very good, until I found another pocket of sock yarn stash that isn't in this closet. It looks like this ...

Yes, that is all sock yarn! Enough yarn to make 80+ pairs of socks!!

Where that bunch of yarn is going, I haven't figured out yet, but the closet is full up!!

Right now it is sitting on the floor of the craft room

making me feel guilty for having so much stash.

All my knitting, crochet, spinning and weaving books are gathered together in this new craft space. That feels pretty good. Easy to see and use.

On top of that book case is my weaving loom all folded up. Once the dust settles on all this stuff shifting, I want to set up the loom again. Beside the loom is a stack of magazines and patterns that need to be sorted and filed.

My filing system is loose leaf binders sorted by project type.

There is probably a bunch of stuff in there I could get rid of

given the time to sort through it all.

And my spinning wheel is now housed safely on a round table near the yarn and the fiber.

It is dusty and I need to give it a little loving attention. But it is nice to see it out where I could easily use it without interference from the various pets.

This picture also shows the other side of the overly full yarn closet.

And I still maintain mom's bedroom - the room that now houses most of her earthly belongings. It is ready for guests - since mom probably can never sleep there again. It still makes me a little sad when I walk in knowing that she doesn't reside there anymore. But she has adapted fairly well to her new room and home, so the "problem" of occupancy appears to be mine alone. It will fade with time I know.

But I fear the hole left in my life and heart, while smaller, will always be there.

I am spending a lot of time moving other stuff around as well.

Although I am not a hobby cook, I do cook every day.

My cookbooks have never had an adequate home.

Initially they were in a book case in the living room, then in a book case in the basement (a worse location), and then stacked in a kitchen cabinet ... closer to the action, but hard to see and harder to use. Our eat in kitchen no longer needs space for a walker,

so I brought up an old book case from the basement.

And for someone who doesn't care much about cooking, I have a lot of cookbooks.

I am "resorting" my alone time. I have really missed my walks. It is alone time and thinking time. So for the umpteenth time, I am heading back to walking. My little walking icon at the top of my blog doesn't show the 1.4 miles I walked today! I guess I am not working the app right. Or maybe the little person on the graph is bent over in laughter at the 1.4 miles I logged and can't catch her breath to show the total ... after all the goal is 1,000 miles by December 31, 2012. I only need to do 998.6 more miles! Only!! :-)

Other alone time is also changing. I used to value the hours between 8:00 pm and midnight. My mother and husband would have gone to their rooms for the night and I would putter around doing this and that. Now I find my body slowing down and settling into the quiet before sleep - around 10:00 pm. That evening time doesn't seem as precious as it once did.

Maybe I am focused on "just keeping busy" so my mind doesn't settle on stuff I can't control. Maybe I am finally free enough to do some long over due stuff.

Maybe I am resorting my empty nest to change the look and feel and push away emotions.

All I know is that at the end of the day I am very tired from all the "resorting."

Welcome to the new year everyone.

Welcome 2012!

Maryland Sheep and Wool

There was a rousing chorus of voices to show my Sheep and Wool purchases!!

So the truth about the "rousing chorus" is that it was one voice, DebD,. For me, it doesn't take more than one voice. I visited her blog, Deb On The Run. You should too. Very nice. Thanks Deb. I am thrilled you asked.

So here is the story and pictures.

I plan all year for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I make sure I keep the day free, I save my money (my birthday is in April so that works out well), and I have a list of what I am looking for. I usually attend with my cousins and my sister. This year I was going with my one cousin. I am happy to go by myself, but it is extra special to share it with others who love this event as much as I do.

Of course, all my plans changed quickly when my Mom got sick in April, was admitted to the hospital, and then a rehab stay. Mom was discharged from rehab the morning of the Fair. But luckily everything fell into place easily. I scheduled mom's discharge for 8:30 am. The ambulance arrived early (that was a surprise), and mom was home in her new living room chair by 9:15 am. It went like clock work.

My daughter was there to keep mom company while we went to the Fair. We still had to make a trip to the pharmacy on her behalf, but we were on the road by about 10:30 am. There were no backups on the roads - usually typical on Fair morning. We pulled into the large grassy field filled with cars as far as you could see. I took a quick turn to the right hoping for an early departer - and I was gifted exactly that. Someone pulled out and I pulled in. We were not far from the entrance. As we walked towards the gate, I was thankful that everything fell into place, including the beautiful weather, on this one day of the year I look forward to all year long.

I didn't have my camera with me (as I originally planned to do) nor a shopping list, but here are the snap shots of the things I got.

The first thing I purchased was one of the Fair's bags. It is a nice roomy canvas bag with their logo. In the back it had a nice outside pocket. I also purchased 2 Fair T shirts with the same logo.

Turns out this bag is pretty handy for my second purchase - my Rigid Hettle loom (that you can see peeking out of it).

I settled on a Kromski Harp Weaving loom. Here is a picture of it folded up. And sitting on its side, it fits pretty well in my new bag.

I love Kromski products. I also have a Kromski spinning wheel. This loom has nice features that make it pretty to look at compared to other looms. This is pretty typical of Kromski products. They take time to build some style into their products.

Here is the loom opened up and ready to weave. In fact you can see my first efforts.

My cousin spent time putting the loom together, getting it warped up and then instructing me on weaving. Everyone should have a cousin like her. Without her guiding hand, this would have taken me forever to put together and warp. The weaving was easier than I thought.

I have been using my free time to finish mom's shawl from my hand loom, and to complete my own scarf and matching hat from the left over yarns. Soon I will be working on my Kromski loom again.

I thought it might make sense to purchase some sort of instructional material for the loom. My cousin doesn't live close enough to "pop over" to help me when I get stuck.

I haven't had a chance to watch it, but I will. I did the same thing with my spinning wheel - got a DVD.

I find that I can absorb only so much in one sitting. I am sure I will re-discover a number of helpful hints when I watch this DVD ... probably stuff my cousin told me and it went right over my head.

Another fun purchase was a Yarn Bowl.

I am not actually sure that is what they call it. But it functions alot like a basket, but it is ceramic. It holds a ball of yarn and the yarn is fed through a slot as you need it. The advantage is that the yarn ball doesn't roll away as you are working with it. I have seen these bowls before, but never one so beautiful.

This maker not only put effort into surface decorations, she added another feature to the back.

She included a small place where you can hold knitting notions.

It took us quite a while to pick out one from all the many beautiful choices provided.

I also got 8 ounces of BFL and Silk for spinning. This picture doesn't do this justice. It is just beautiful. And, it is very soft to the touch.

I think I will hold on to this for awhile until I am a better spinner.

I also visited my favorite yarn vendor: Brooks Farm out of Lancaster, Texas. I purchase something from them every year.

This year they had a new product called Willow. It is composed of 70% Super Wash wool and 30% Bamboo in a worsted weight. I picked a brick red color that is variegated to a brownish dark red. Very nice. It isn't at all scratchy and has a very light feel to it. I had a picture, but my computer filed it away and I can't find it. I also purchase a few patterns from them.

Finally I purchased 2 hand crafted mugs from different vendors. I will show off these mugs in a different postings. And I got some bees wax skin cream for my daughter. It had a citrusy scent.

I think that pretty much sums up my purchases this year.

I want to thank my daughter again for staying with her grandmother while I attended the fair. I knew mom was in good hands with her. And it made my day pretty care free.

All in all, the day was perfect. The weather was just beautiful, my cousin was with me, I had mom home - in time for Mother's Day the next day, my mom was in my daughter's capable hands, and I got some really fun stuff at my favorite fair. It doesn't get much better than that.