Smatterings

  • putting it together

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    Getting all this together; tree stuff.. bows, balls, and in this case small pants and shirts, (it’s a uniform company) shiny decorations, a tree skirt, well… it takes a lot of time.  As I mentioned yesterday, I spend a whole bunch of the time in my office / studio making stuff and tying bows.  A tree might take three or four dozen smaller bows and a big ball of a bow for the top, that sort of thing.  You’ve got to stay entertained while you’re doing it.  I get books on tape and with my DVD. play it on my computer discovery, I get movies.  Today I discovered another web find.  I found a really fine web radio station named "A".  Check it out if you like a mix of folk, blues, latin, and easy listening.  It says it’s broadcast form Antartica.  Maybe it is, who knows.  Sounds good to me.  It’s all streaming mp3 files.  Wish I could figure out how to record it onto my ipod, it’s that good. 

    All of this leaves me with plenty of time for dreamin’ about knittin’..  I do, dream.  And, my stash is pretty much right behind where I’m sitting*and* working.  This afternoon, after seeing Margene’s post with her little cabled cap and seeing this during my walk in the woods

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    ( I walk, I HAVE to walk, my back demands that I walk.)  I remembered some grey alpaca handspun (Grey is the color of November.  Look around you, you’ll see I’m right on this one.  It was nearly dark at 4 pm.  I had to put my headlights on.) sitting right there behind me in box number, well.. some number, and I went and got it and wound it right into a ball for a new fast project.  Some quick gratification is badly needed these days. 

    4 responses to “putting it together”

    1. I’m thinking that we see the world from a similiar view: somewhere to the right of the forest but never far from the garden. My husband, enthralled by Andy Goldsworthy, is busy building stone wonderwalls all around our property. I’m thinking of knitting one. All I need is the perfect misty blends of moss and stone.
      Jane

    2. You need elves. That is all I have to say. And that I need to wait until Friday to mail you a check, so I’ll email you my address then. Sorry….

    3. You’ll love knitting the hat!

    4. Tree trunk? Gnarled? Stately.
      I would love to see the alpaca handspun.

  • the season begins… or the Curse of the Red Ribbon

    hmmmm…. where has time gone??  Thursday C drove to NH and swapped my MIL for a frozen turkey (the turkey was a perfect house guest, can’t say the same for .. ermm…),  Friday we swapped a nephew for a daughter at an airport,  oh, and gave the turkey to an ex spouse to cook for Thanksgiving,  can I make this sound any weirder??  Truth is, it was a pretty good weekend.  I’ll see the turkey (and the MIL) later this week, can’t have everything, right?.

    The season has begun.  I have to turn this..

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    into lots and lots of this..

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    I’m not sure what took me so long to catch onto what every kid with a computer already knows.  Movies can be played on the computer.  It occurred to me the other night while I was tying the first of the season.  Since then, I too have started watching DVDs on my computer (there isn’t a TV in my studio) while turning thousands of yards of 4"-6" wide stinking flocked ribbon into hundreds of stinking red bows.  This morning a trip to the library is in order.  MORE MOVIES!  So how about some movie suggestions.  Any must sees, all time favs I should hunt for?

    Sunday, I took a lovely break from the red curse.  Laurie, Cindy and her daughter, and Sue came by.   I spun nearly a bobbin full of Bess, emptying my basket of carded rolags.  We ate, we talked, we knitted and spun the afternoon away. Marissa and I modeled our Ribby Cardis. Thanks girlfriends for a lovely respite.  I think it was Laurie that mentioned that it isn’t even so much about the knitting as it is about the possibilities.   It’s all knitted dreams in my near future. 

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    ps.  You know what??  Cindy is usually the only one in the group that
    remembers to take pictures.. I bet if you pop  over there, she’ll have
    something up.

     

    5 responses to “the season begins… or the Curse of the Red Ribbon”

    1. Those singles look so light and airy on the bobbin. Makes me wish I could touch them. And thanks for the wonderful account of seeing the Dalai Lama. It sounds like an incredible experience!

    2. Holy COW, that’s a lot of red ribbons! Where are they? In VT or RI or CT? I can never figure out where you are at any one time!

    3. Bess looks so fine spun up in that gauge. The picture of the ribbons brings home how much work that truly is. Whew.
      Thanks for a wonderful, sunny, fun afternoon! It was hard to come home, plunk my wheel back in the family room, and realize how different it feels to spin alone.

    4. Wow…you got bows galore!!! Your handspun Bess is a super gray color. Whatja gonna make?

    5. Some good movies – “The Rabbit Proof Fence” – a true story of aboriginal girls who escaped from a govt school and traveled across AU back to their family.
      “Diary of a City Priest” – a very quiet reflective movie about a year in the life of a priest on Philly.
      And one of my favorites – the ’92 version of Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis.

  • the Dalai Lama

    Dalai_lama   picture from a report by WJAR, no cameras, no anything with picture taking abilities was allowed into the area, yesterday.

    Some things are just meant to be.  I literally lucked into tickets for the Dalai Lama’s talk yesterday.  Yes, I did have to go wait in line to get them, but I was third in line.  And Chris did go back and get an extra ticket for my nephew, who decided to fly here from Pittsburgh for this one in a life time opportunity.  He too just walked in and bought the ticket.   That was all there was to it.  300 tickets opened up at just the right time.  I heard the announcement and went to get them.  Security was very high, secret service was everywhere.  We arrived nearly 2 1/2 hours early.  Parking was a mile or so from the event and we knew there would be lines for the shuttle, lines for security checks, lines, lines…. we wanted good seats.  We got them.  When the Dalai Lama entered and exited the tent, he walked right by us.  We were thrilled.  He spoke of peace and compassion, told stories of his youth, laughed a laugh so infectious that he charmed the crowd into giggling with him.  Smiles and tears.  He answered presubmitted questions, honestly.. one with an ‘I don’t know‘.  He preached (well, I don’t think he does preach) that all religions have the same basic principles.  He asked us to be unbiased and learn compassion for others.
    Behind him I could see the waves rolling in, the sun on the sea.   

    I’d tried to write yesterday morning.  My internet was out early, then Typepad the rest of the time. 

    Thanks for putting your locations on the Frappr map.  I am having so much fun with it.  Hi to all of you!!  If you haven’t done it yet, look in my left hand side bar, just click on the Frappr link. 

    6 responses to “the Dalai Lama”

    1. It’s always seemed to me that he’d be A LOT of fun. I’m glad you had this wonderful opportunity. Thank you for sharing.

    2. That sounds like an amazing experience…lucky you! 🙂

    3. It’s interesting, but just reading about you being there gives me some of the same sense of serenity I get from a good solid meditation session. Have you read Margene’s post today yet? There is a similar calmness about it. Not to mention the Buddhist approach (well, to my view anyway).

    4. I’m afraid with so many blogs tapping into frappr that we have put it in the crappr. (Couldn’t help myself.)
      After that you think I shouldn’t even say anything about the Dalai Lama but, what an incredible experience. Cindy has a very nice post about it today, too.

    5. Amazing opportunity – how cool.

    6. There are some people in each generation who are special. Different. The touch of their life to yours means something. You were fortunate to be there.

Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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