Post Thanksgiving/Pre Christmas Blahs

Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times. ~Kate L. Bosher

How well she put it! I get antsy this time of year, pressured, scatter brained, annoyed easily, depressed, nostalgic, melancholy, etc. etc. etc. Nothing can hold my interest for long. I want to work on something but when I start I don’t finish it. I can curl up on the sofa all day and watch movies and then freak because I didn’t get a thing done. I just knit a mitten and was getting ready for the decrease at the top. I asked the man what he thought of it and he liked it but I decided I didn’t and frogged the whole thing. The man just shook his head and didn’t say a word. I think he is use to my yearly angst by now and just suffers through it! Another quality I love in him.

Then you listen to the TV and if they aren’t trying to sell you something every two minutes they are reporting how people are kicking each other’s butts for a bargain, or how they are taking your identity off line…how Christmas-y is that!?

There are only 27 days until Christmas (clock here http://www.emailsanta.com/clock.html ) and I have bought three presents and I made two. The man hasn’t worked since May while building the house, which we won’t be in for Christmas like I had hoped, so money is tight. The kids aren’t worried about it but I guess I am.

In hopes of getting in the holiday mood I listen to…http://www.trans-siberian.com/multimedia/video.shtml . I love them, classical yet rocking. I would have loved to have taken everyone to their concert but it wasn’t in the cards this year. Maybe next year.

I normally snap out of this before Christmas so hopefully this won’t last long before I am my normal chirpy self in love with the holiday. . . I am in desperate need of a hoorah type of day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace,
the celebration of work and the simple life...
a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons,
the beauty of seedtime and harvest, t
he ripe product of the year -
and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.
~Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson)

I take a lot of things in my life for granted. I don’t say things I want to say thinking that people know how I feel or that there will be time for that later. We are not a “mushy” family. But this year so many of my friend’s lost family members or had a family member that suffered an illness. Our own family is dealing with an illness that a short time ago we never would have believed possible. So this Thanksgiving I am going to tell those in my life how thankful I am for them.

So HAPPY THANKSGIVING and THANK YOU.

The Weekend Cometh

“There aren't enough days in the weekend.”
Rod Schmidt

Lately there just have not been enough days period. It seems like I am always running somewhere, which might explain why I like doing the more portable projects like socks,

and thrummed mittens and I have got to clean my lens because both of these pics have a blur towards the bottom left. The thrummed mittens are from a pattern on line but I didn't thrum from the wrist up like they said to do because everything I read said how hot they are and I mainly wanted his fingers warm. If I make them again I will do it the right way. The first one I made the thrums as I went but the second one I made them all in advance which sped things along.

Had it not rained the whole week we would have had the shingles on the house but this has now been planned for today and tomorrow and some where in here we have to go get a washing machine. I need (yes it surpasses want) a washer.

At the feeders we have been getting more visitors...we immediately got the chickadees and titmouse but the juncos started about two weeks ago and then the sparrows, a wren, the flicker, and the downy woodpecker with the cardinal thrown in for color. He doesn't come often and I have never seen the female. Some pose and others are of the eat and fly variety. And as I sit here I see a movement in the woods...two squirrels chasing each other and a deer is walking by. And as quick as that I realize I should quit my b*tching because as hectic as days can be I have the time to stop and watch natures antic's for a while. It brings it home just how lucky I am. I could be sitting in an office, working in a factory or living in a city. But no I do have the fortune of living in the country and not having to work so I am there to help family and friends when they need it. And now with my priorites righted I am off to chart my day. Have a good weekend.

The Sycamore

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.- William Blake, 1799, The Letters

I got up early on Saturday to help a friend. On my way to her house I was greeted by the sun rising over the river that seperates our homes.

Standing next to her family home is a Sycamore tree. I love these trees. Some people call them ghost trees because they tend to shed their bark down to a smooth white base. This tree is so old that only it's upper branches now shed their bark. The base of this tree is huge. I have pictures of her house from the 1920's and this tree was there then and was already bigger than the house. She is thinking of having the tree cut down as she is afraid it may fall on the house.

I can understand her fear but the tree is in perfect shape. I keep thinking that it has looked down on the four or five generations of her family that have lived in that house. It would be odd to look across the river and not see that tree there anymore.

Well with helping her and then having to take my laundry to my mother's to do (my washer got tired of keeping up with my kids) I have not had much time to do fiber. I did finish the second sock. I started a pair of thrummed mittens and I am up to the decrease at the top on the first one. I am still working on the afghan and I got to spin up some more of the cormo that I had dyed. I guess I didn't do so bad after all.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day or at least the observed day and my kids are going to school. I like that they go to school as they are learning about the day and honoring the veterans in a ceremony other than just sitting at home playing a video game.

Our school is honoring a local man that was killed in battle. His graduating class is dedicating a flagpole in his honor this morning and then there is a ceremony for all veterans this evening. Our school district covers almost 350 square miles but I was still surprised at how many graduates have served. They asked my daughter to come but she will not go. She feels she didn't do anything or do enough. I personally think what they do is amazing. I think of where our country would be right now had it not been for them. So Thank You Veterans.

Indian Summer

"From his pipe the smoke ascending
Filled the sky with haze and vapor,
Filled the air with dreamy softness,
Gave a twinkle to the water,
Touched the rugged hills with smoothness,
Brought the tender Indian Summer
To the melancholy north-land,
In the dreary Moon of Snow-shoes."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tomorrow officially starts Indian Summer. From what the weatherman says it is only going to last a couple of days but I will take that.


The Fog
Yesterday it was rainy and foggy so I rode with my daughter to have her car serviced. While she drove I knit. I was able to get to the toe decrease on a sock done. I finished that last night and I started the second sock this morning. I will have to put that aside now because with the rain from yesterday and the temperatures they are calling for I should be able to finish getting the gardens put to bed. This is the last chance I will get to prepare everything for winter.

"that wondrous second wind, the Indian summer, attains its amplitude and heavenly perfection, -- the temperatures, the sunny haze; the mellow, rich, delicate, almost flavoured air:
Enough to live -- enough to merely be."~ Walt Whitman

Election Day

So today is Election Day. In a little bit I will pick my mother up and we will go to vote.
On the up side all the ads will finally stop and peace and quiet will reign again. I would rather hear a soap/toy ad then people ripping each other apart. Guess I am not the only one...here are so Election Day quotes that I enjoyed.....


Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~Charles Krauthammer

There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen. ~Author Unknown

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~W.C. Fields

And for those of you who think your vote doesn't count and don't bother to vote....

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote”
William E Simon

You don't have the right to complain if you don't vote.

Hunter's moon and little projects

The moving Moon went up the sky.
And nowhere did abide;
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside-
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)


Tonight is the full moon. This month it is the Hunter's Moon. According to the Farmers Almanac this is because with the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can easily see fox and the animals which have come out to glean. Last night we were out and about and I took some pictures of the moon. I like it when we have a full moon and there is snow on the ground. It won't be long before I get to see that. Yesterday the kids had another soccer game as part of their tournament. They lost and I know I am not a good soccer mom because I was not upset by this. The sitting in 34 degree weather with the wind blowing made me quite happy that they lost and that we didn't have to stay for a second game.

As it wasn't much warmer today I stayed inside and finished another apple dishcloth and two apple magnets for my apple friends Christmas basket. Then going with the Christmas theme, I knit a five pointed star. I need to work in the ends and block it still. I was looking for star stuff as my daughter is a star fanatic. I used the pattern found here... http://tiajudy.com/SnowStar.htm. The pattern was a 6 pointed star but it said it could probably be done as a five so I tried it. It called for size ten cotton but I used the white Christmas yarn with the silver in it and # 5 needles. I was thinking it could be made into an afghan. Something to think about for later.

I also tried spinning some silk sari waste this weekend. I bought this last year at Rhinebeck and just re-found it! I also found some dyed corriedale roving that I bought at the same time. I am so not organized but if you look at it this way it's a pay once and get excited about it twice deal. Anyhow back to the sari silk, I read how to do it on a couple of sites and sat down to try it. My yarn turned out more thready. I like the fact that once you start spinning it is a mindless spin where you can let slubs go for the texture. It probably wouldn't be so thready if I hadn't had been so mindless but hey it was fun. Just more learn as you go thing.

So this whole weekend was full of little projects, now I have to find something productive to do. I don't know what I want to start and I am still working on the afghan. I guess it is back to looking at patterns I have saved.

November

You have to love Maxine! I got her in an email! But moving on to blogger business....
Tuesday I didn’t work on anything fibery like I had wanted. The weather was so nice that I had to be outside. I worked in the garden and greenhouse for a while and then quit to make an early dinner before trick or treating.
Yesterday morning I got sick of hearing the news with the whole Kerry thing, followed by the none stop political ads so I went and set fire to the pile of weeds/plants I pulled the day before. I started pulling the rest of the garden but I hadn’t put on my gloves and I ended up with blisters.








To soothe my aching hands I got out the rest of the first finn fleece and washed that and set it out to dry. Then I pulled out the second fleece and sorted that. I have a small pile set aside to tie in bundles and wash it that way and see the difference. I love these Finn. I think it is actually softer than the cormo roving that I had my cousin pick up for me at the MD S&W.
I did get some weaving done ….

I know it is an awful picture (where is the color?) but I have appts today. I finished this about 10 PM last night. I need to full it, but right now it measures approximately 12 inches by 5 ½ feet. I am in love. I knew this was going to happen which is why I didn’t work on it…I don’t have time for more hobbies even if it is fiber related. I have lists of things I want to do in knitting alone and have so much fiber that needs carding or spinning. If only I could teach the kids to do the warping!!!!