50 Degrees on January 7

Just back from a 2+ mile walk to Riverton and back. No coats, hats, mittens, gloves, or scarves. Simply fabulous. Right now I am actually sitting OUTSIDE to write this. Wow.
Spinning: completed the remaining 2 ounces - the bobbins are now resting. Will ply them tomorrow.

4 ounces of Norwegian Longwool enjoying the mild and sunny outdoors

Spunky Eclectic's "Night Owl" Merino

Next up: 4 ounces of merino, from Spunky Eclectic in a gorgeous mix of gray, brown, yellow, and copper, called "Night Owl".  This is the June 2011 shipment - I'm gaining ground!!! I did, however, just sign up for the 2012 club, so it won't be long before the fiber stash starts growing once again...sigh.

Information Label for S. Eclectic fiber

Knitting: Noro Sock #2 continues apace - the heel flap is done, the heel is turned, and the gusset is taking shape. But do you see how tiny the yarn ball is??? Noooooooo.....

Noro Sock and 1/2

 Exercise:  The brisk 2-mile walk was my cardio - the last 1/2 mile is uphill. My elevated heartrate is what allowed me to sit outside to write! I will be doing 30 minutes of free weights after I post this.

Oh, were you wondering about today's poem? Wonder no longer:

The Sixth of January
David Budbill

The cat sits on the back of the sofa looking
out the window through the softly falling snow
at the last bit of gray light.

I can't say the sun is going down.
We haven't seen the sun for two months.
Who cares?

I am sitting in the blue chair listening to this stillness.
The only sound: the occasional gurgle of tea 
coming out of the pot and into the cup.

How can this be?
Such calm, such peace, such solitude
in this world of woe.

I know, I know - this should have been yesterday's poem.  

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

The Three Goals

David Budbill

The first goal is to see the thing itself

in and for itself, to see it simply and clearly

for what it is.

              No symbolism, please.

The second goal is to see each individual thing

as unified, as one, with all the other

ten thousand things.

              In this regard, a little wine helps a lot.

The third goal is to grasp the first and second goals,

to see the universal and the particular,

simultaneously.

              Regarding this one, call me when you get it.

It's good to laugh at one's attempts to understand. 

Friday, January 6, 2012 - Three King's Day aka Ephiphany aka the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Still nary a snowflake in sight; in fact, the temperature got into the 40's this afternoon. It would seem that putting snow tires on the Mini was for nothing. Ah, but statements like that tempt fate...

After almost a week of daily blathering, I'm realizing that my weekday entries are going to lack visuals - for two reasons: 1) no time, and 2) no discernable progress on projects.

Nevertheless, the second sock continues to grow, as does my fear of insufficient "yarnage". I even went so far as to make the second sock's leg 10 rows shorter than the first. And I'm actually admitting that shocking fact in writing. Necessity is the mother of bad knitting decisions.

I boxed today! Not packing things in containers, but physical boxing. Yes, it's "only" Gold's Gym Cardio Workout for the Wii, but 45 minutes of jabbing, hooking, and ducking was enough to counter the winter blahs.

The BIG news is that I'm down 1.8 pounds since last Friday, Friday being my official weigh-in day. Notice I'm not indicating a starting weight. That number is unimportant.

More tomorrow, with the added bonus of photos!

  

Poetry

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

By John Keats

The Poetry of earth is never dead:    

  When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,    

  And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run    

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;    

That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead      

  In summer luxury,—he has never done    

  With his delights; for when tired out with fun    

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.    

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:    

  On a lone winter evening, when the frost     

    Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills    

The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,    

  And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,    

    The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

That line - "The poetry of earth is ceasing never:" reminds me that

the gray, iron-hard lack of life is only a deep repose, and that we

will again hear spring peepers trilling in our woods.

I asked myself why I've been including a poem each day - at first I

had no answer, but then I realized that it is a way to express

my state of mind, as well as to share beautifully written and

juxtaposed words. I earned a BA in English Literature...some people

might think that a waste of time, but I'm grateful for the love of

words I found.

Spinning: No progress today...

Knitting: Still plugging away on Noro Sock #2. Getting increasingly

worried about running short on yarn... 

Exercise: 30 minutes of free weights; 20 minutes of bicycling

  

Ten Degrees Fahrenheit

Welcome Morning

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello there, Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.

~ Anne Sexton ~

I am not religious, but I do love this poem. It helps me to focus on what truly matters.

A very short entry today - I am leaving shortly to go to a UCONN Women's Basketball game in Hartford, prefaced by dinner at Trumbull Kitchen. 

No progress on spinning, but I hope to get a significant amount of sock work (why do I call it "work"? It's pure pleasure!) during the game.

Still no snow in Connecticut, but the ground is hard as iron and it's very still outside. Quite different from last year:

January 2011

 

Back to Work

Furry Bear

By A. A. Milne

If I were a bear,

   And a big bear too,

I shouldn’t much care

   If it froze or snew;

I shouldn’t much mind

   If it snowed or friz—

I’d be all fur-lined

   With a coat like his!

 

For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,

And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.

I’d have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws,

And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.

With a big brown furry-down up to my head,

I’d sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

I was wishing for a bear's warmth when I went out to my car this morning. Brrrrr. The first real cold we've had. My car thermometer registered 14 degrees on the way to work.

Noro Sock #1 - Complete!

Noro Sock #2 - barely begun

Norwegian Longwool - Bobbin #1 complete and resting

Norwegian Longwool - Bobbin #2 barely begun

Sock Quest 2012: Noro Sock #1 is done and blocking. Sock #2 was cast on last night and I've begun the 3x1 leg. A bit of concern about the amount of yarn that's left...
Handspinning: I spun up the rest of the 2 ounces of Norwegian Longwool and am pretty pleased with the results. 
After an hour of annoying wheel noise and movement, I realized that an Allen wrench would eliminate most of the problems. Who knew? Now my wheel is almost silent, but for the knocking of the two conrods - I still can't figure out how to tighten them.
Exercise: 30 minutes on the stationary bike.
Food/Water: Tea and soup and carrots and hummus and quite a lot of water and a delicious pasta/spinach/tomato/ricotta dish that Zig discovered in his "Staying Thin" French cookbook. The latter has not yet been prepared - alas, I cannot cook it until he (Zig) gets home, as it's written in French and I might mess up. If I acted like a grown-up, I'd use my rudimentary French to figure it out, but it only takes 30 minutes to prepare and cook, so I'll just wait.  

 

A Poem For You

Sock Quest 2012: Noro Sock #1 is about 85% complete!

Spinning Status: 1 oz of Norwegian Longwool spun - fairly finely

The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

So much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

It's pretty easy to blog daily when work has not yet resumed. Making hay while the sun shines - here are my updates on a variety of fronts.

Sock Quest 2012: About 85% of the first sock is complete. I hope to finish it today, and cast on the second sock. I have so much sock yarn in my stash...I could easily knit nothing but socks for all of 2012 and still have more. MUCH more. Just ordered Clara Parkes' new book The Knitter's Book of Socks because all my favorite knitting podcasters say that I can't live without it. With that, and Cookie A. and Cat Bordhi, I should be all set for ideas.

Ounce #2 of Norwegian Longwool waits patiently

Handspinning: About 1 ounce (of 4 ounces) of Norwegian Longwool is spun. This is the May 2011 fiber shipment from Spunky Eclectic in Lisbon Maine. The wheel is an Ashford Traveller. I am ignorant as to ratios - just trying to spin this as finely as I can for a (hopefully) fingering weight 2-ply. We'll see. I am (obviously) playing catch-up with Spunky's monthly shipments. This particular fiber's colorway is "Angkor Wat". Very easy and pleasant to spin.

Other Knitting: I splurged (that's putting it mildly) at Stitches East 2011 in Hartford this past October - bought the kit from Ruhama's for Christel Seyfarth's Malthese Flowers Shawl. The first bit was tricky because I was working back and forth in fair isle, which meant purling on the wrong side, but once I had enough stitches on the needle I was able to make a steek and continue knitting in the round. I think this will be lovely when cut, finished, washed, and blocked. Right now it looks pretty lumpy.

Malthese Flowers (yes, the spelling is weird) Shawl

Shetland wool for Malthese Flowers Shawl

Exercise: Today was a weight lifting day, which means approximately 30 minutes of free weights (5 and 10 pound) for biceps curls, military presses, wrist flexion and extension, and "rowing" with an exercise band. This is followed by 20 minutes on the stationary bike (5 minute warmup, 10 minutes fairly fast, 5 minute cool down). Add to that the 2.2 mile brisk walk to Riverton and back (with Zig), and you get a fairly active day!

Food/Water: Healthy breakfast of steel cut oats, walnuts, banana. Lunch of chicken barley soup. Supper of homemade squash soup. Water and tea and vitamins - check.


Reading: Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Not one of my favorites, but pretty good. It's on my iPad.

 

Sock Quest 2012

First Pair of 2012 - begun on 1/1/12.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn
Needles: Signature 2.5mm (US 1 1/2)
Stitches: 64
Pattern: 10 rows 1x1 rib, 60 rows 3x1 rib. 32 row heel flap. 45 rows between end of gusset and beginning of toe shaping.

Hmm...this almost looks like some sort of weird cultish altar.