I could hear the wind howling when I woke up this morning. It’s usually too dark now in the morning to bother opening the blinds, but I did…
The window was bespeckled with water droplets, and I love the effect.
It’s wet & sticky snow.
And it’s fairly “warm” today, so now (noon-ish) it’s wet & slushy.
I received a letter/story in the mail yesterday from Malina. She addressed the envelope herself, to “Nona,” but the letter began “Dear Vikey,” and I can’t get over it! I’ve never embraced the “Y” in my name, it’s always been Vicki with an “I,” but this… that spelling never even occurred to me back in the experimenting-with-spelling stage in junior high! VIKEY. I love it!
It’s not for lack of trying — I’ve attempted a new project (twice) (the mittens from Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Carousel Collection for Purl Soho) but had difficulty understanding the pattern and/or counting and neither attempt makes any sense (in terms of fitting the intended hand) — so it’s on to something else.
KNITTING (SEAMING):
I’ve begun to seam the Family Temperature Blanket panels. This is going to be my “doing laundry” project at Annie’s because I can spread it out on the dining table (I only have to move two things in order to do so) and stitch away.
It’s looking a little wonky in that photo and I think I undid all that & started over… if not, I will be! It feels great to be underway with the second-to-last part of that project (the last being a border)!
I’m using black yarn and it’s almost invisible… there seems to be enough variation & tweedy-ness in the Felted Tweed to get away with it. Fingers crossed.
I still need a project for TV time, and I’ve used up all my dishcloth cotton… contemplating casting on a simple shawl. Maybe another Close To You. Soon enough, it’ll be time to cast on the December mystery gnome.
READING
I’m closing in on The Houses In Between… and keep eyeing up all the piles of books around me. I recently saw a cartoon referring to those as “emotional support” book piles. haha. So true!
In other news…
We have our first Winter Weather Advisory of the season, which should make tomorrow’s commute interesting. It was in the mid 50s yesterday… and I think that’s probably the last we’ll see of the 50s until spring.
I hope your knitting comprehension is better than mine at the moment, and that you’re reading something wonderful!
It was one of those weekends with a good balance of relaxation & productivity.
The two productive things I’m most happy about are cleaning the oven & getting the rest of the garage sorted so my car could park inside! I also cleaned out/organized some of the kids’ toys (this in prep for the Christmas tree that will be put up soon), took a few more bags of “stuff” for donation, and did some laundry. I was able to remove a big buttery stain right in the middle of one of my favorite shirts — it thwarted me the first time through the washer & dryer (probably should have not put it in the dryer), so I was very happy to succeed (thanks to OxiClean MaxForce Stain Remover)!
The kids were over for a few hours on Saturday night, which is always fun. The girls made a countdown Christmas garland & some ornaments (one of the wire trees is up in the kitchen already)… I’d been to Target, y’know, and always get hooked by those Mondo Llama craft kits!
I saw the ISS fly over a couple of times…
…even with the full moon. Look at how green the grass still is!
I somehow managed to squeeze in an almost 2-hour nap on Saturday. I was so surprised that I slept that long, but I think the stress of the previous week-and-a-half caught up with me.
I have been knitting absolutely nothing, though I am gathering some items for a little creative play (not knitting). I’ll be sitting at Ann’s for a while later today doing laundry and I threw the small tote with the Temperature Blanket in the back of the car… seaming shall commence!??
Kate was telling me about an article she wrote for Colossal about a Navajo weaver who weaves computer processor patterns. They’re pretty amazing & I thought you might like to take a look, too! The weaver is Marilou Schultz, and she just happens to share my birthday! (No doubt she had a crap birthday this year, too.) In doing a little research of my own, I found that she’s also been an instructor at Rhinebeck.
Speaking of Colossal, they had some interesting things in yesterday’s email (besides the Samurai backpack). If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find a section called SWEATER WEATHER, highlighting four knitted works (and links to previously published full articles — one of them also written by Kate).
I have a toolbar shortcut to Kate’s author page on Colossal and it’s fun to check it out every once in a while — so many interesting things out there.
And, y’know, just because it’s in the same vein, Kate also wrote an article for the most recent issue of Selvedge “about Ernesto Neto’s expansive crocheted installations that address colonial transatlantic trade, Brazilian craft and performing arts heritage, and a fundamental desire to bring people together.” I was lucky enough to receive a copy of that issue and WOW… what a treat.
Finally, because I didn’t intend for this to be all about Kate, some recent work from Malina.
She’s entering the story phase and I couldn’t love it more.
Gregory Alan Isakov has topped my end-of-year Spotify “Wrapped” lists more than once, so when I learned that he’d be at the Excel Center in Saint Paul the first weekend in November tickets were soon acquired. (This is my favorite album.)
It wasn’t until later that we discovered he wasn’t the headliner!
The main act was Nathanial Rateliff & The Nightsweats! They’ve never landed on my “Wrapped” lists, but they do show up on my playlists often enough… and they put on a very enjoyable show!
The concert happened to be on a Saturday night — the weekend before my birthday — and by a stroke of luck, even though it wasn’t a “vacation weekend,” I did have Friday off, so it wasn’t even quite as quick a trip as it might have been.
Kate treated me to birthday dinner on Friday night at Chloe by Vincent… oo la la! I can’t remember the last time I was at a French restaurant, and it was amazing — the food was excellent, service was terrific.
Our hotel was in Minneapolis, so on Saturday, we made our way to Saint Paul via some book stores, coffee shops, thrift shops, an antique shop, and a yarn store!
THE YARNERY was celebrating their grand opening in their new location! I’ve been following all along on IG, but somehow missed that detail. What a lovely shop — each of those alcoves is dedicated to a particular weight of yarn, which is really nice. And there’s so much more — kits, samples galore, and lots of room for community.
We found a couple of new places to eat/drink* and we’ll definitely return! Well, lunch was a return visit… to Lake & Irving. We stopped at Estelle for before-dinner drinks (will stay for dinner next time). Dinner was at due foccacceria… those foccaccia sandwiches were HUGE!
Little (or big) trips are a deliberate part of the Winter Happiness Plan (and, likely, for the How I’m Going To Make It Through the Next Four Years Plan). Eagle River counts. Minneapolis-Saint Paul counts. Dyeing Day with Ali counts. There’s a #whirlwindarttripwithkate (& probably Kai) coming up in a few weeks. Charleston in January. Chicago with the kids (& maybe Ali) in February. Perhaps a hunker-down (& knit) trip to the North Shore in March.
And I just read that Gregory Alan Isakov is going to be (headlining) at Red Rocks next summer… that’s a bucket list venue! We’ll see.
*For various reasons and by choice, alcohol consumption has been limited since the beginning of the month, and I’m happy to report that not only are NA/AF options more plentiful everywhere, they can also be amazing (Estelle, especially, made some very fine cocktails).
