Random Sightings…

I haven’t forgotten you dear readers…

This past week or so has been filled with final preparation madness, mixed with bittersweet family quality time as I prepare to leave for a month of teaching.  My daughter who was my right hand this month, discovered some yarn I won at the Fiber Fallout Spinner’s Retreat last September, they are very generous with their doorprizes.  I won four skeins of assorted alpaca and wool combinations, all very large grist, none of which I could see using in anything I weave or knit.  But my daughter grabbed them in delight, and mulled over the possibilities while she was home in January.

Last weekend, we all headed to the Catskills to my sister and brother in law’s lovely cabin, and it was a much needed get away, where I fought for an entire three days, the urge to think about anything having to do with my studio and my upcoming trip.  I’m trying hard to balance life and work, and work is sort of winning, wreaking havoc with my stomach acid output…  It is hard to run on pure adrenaline for so long, I’m trying to figure out how to reserve the adrenaline surges for just before I actually teach.  I’m not doing a very good job of it…

So I sat and knit, made dishcloths, worked with my drop spindle, and generally sat by the fire and chilled out.  It felt really wonderful…  and I watched my daughter sit sprawled on the carpet by the wood stove, and ball up the skeins of chunky alpaca/wools I won at that conference.  She pulled out a hefty crochet hook, her current drug of choice, and started randomly crocheting or so I thought.  Every time I glanced up, she had made substantial progress.  She crocheted one of the variegated skeins into a wide band to go around her head, and was disappointed when she ran out.  She wanted a hat.  I suggested she take the band to WEBS when she returned to school in Massachusetts the next day.  Of course I have no photos of any of this.  What was I thinking.  Actually I wasn’t.  I was just enjoying the moment without feeling the need to record everything that happens in my life.

Then Brianna started crocheting a very wide rectangle, which when I inquired, was told it would be some sort of a hood.  She had a plan.  She worked for a couple hours, just sitting on the floor, and ended up with a very cool hood, which she forwarded a photo of, once she returned to the dorm.  She did indeed spend Monday, the day before classes started, at WEBS, and was quoted as saying, “Never let me go there again without adult supervision.  I hit my yarn budget for the next 2.5 years…”  She did me proud… 🙂

She found another skein of the hat band wool, though in a different colorway, and apparently undid the band, and mixed it with the second skein, and sent this photo of the hat she just made up in her head.

Meanwhile, I’ve been printing some 10,000 pages, double sided, gone through about $1200 worth of ink, shipped some $300 in boxes to the west coast, the last shipment goes out tomorrow, and I’ve whittled down my extensive list of things to do, to a manageable state.

I finished the knit pullover top.

I remade one of my samples for the jacket class.  My original sample was made from handwoven fabric and handwoven fabric doesn’t tend to stay true to size, it gives and moves and it has been on my long term to do list to redo the jacket, for far too long.  The fabric was something I picked up cheap at Joann’s, weaverly looking, but very stable.  And very pink.  I still have all the handwork, but there is time for that.  I don’t need the sample until mid February.  I tucked a spool of very pink sewing thread in the pocket.

And I’m slowly working through the scarf warp.  I have finished the fourth scarf, only one left, and I’ll wash and press and tag these and add them to the pile of stuff to haul to California.   I’ll try to post images of some of the classes while I’m on the road, note to self, pack good camera…  I’ve got a bag of knitting projects, I’m hoping to fit one of my small inkle looms in one of the suitcases, and I’ve downloaded a few books on my Kindle.  I still have to pay all the bills, leave all the paperwork in order, and update and move all the files onto my laptop, but I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and then it is a matter of packing my suitcases and leaving on a jet plane…

Friday…

Stay tuned…