My Father's 85th birthday

Wild Geese
Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Today is my father's 85th birthday. January 13, 1927 was the day he was born, at home, in Kingfield, Maine, to Augusta Barnjum Savage and Freeland Arthur Savage. I wonder, was there a midwife, or a doctor, or both, or none? I am going to Maine today to see my father, along with 16 other people who are all converging on the little town of Stockton Springs for a weekend of lobster, steamers, wine, pingpong, walking, laughing, and, I imagine, some tears. My sister Suzy will be there, and she is celebrating the end of a horrific year of breast cancer treatment, involving surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. We will all be so glad to be together. I want to be there NOW.

Spinning: I started the first bump of Spunky Eclectic "Night Owl" and am about 1/3 done. I don't quite know how I feel about spinning merino. Let's just say that I enjoyed the Norwegian Longwool much more than this...I LOVE the colors, though. What will this become?

Merino Fiber in "Night Owl" colorway from Spunky Eclectic

Knitting: Nightfall Sock #1 is done!!! Sock #2 will be cast on this evening during the trip north.

Nightfall Sock #1 - I like it!

Exercise: Catching up on yesterday and today: I cycled for 30 minutes yesterday evening, 20 of those minutes at a very (for me) fast pace). Today I did 30 minutes of free weights, some crunches, and 20 minutes of cycling.
Food/Water: Doing well on both counts. Sushi last night for dinner - oh, how I love it.
Weight: Friday is weigh-in day and I'm happy to report that I'm down .6 lbs from last week. That's not much, but it is a decrease. Have lost a bit more than a pound a week in the six weeks that I've been keeping track - and that includes Christmas. Not too shabby...     

Manufacturing Time

A Teacher’s Lament

By Kalli Dakos

Don’t tell me the cat ate your math sheet,

And your spelling words went down the drain,

And you couldn’t decipher your homework,

Because it was soaked in the rain.

Don’t tell me you slaved for hours

On the project that’s due today,

And you would have had it finished

If your snake hadn’t run away.

Don’t tell me you lost your eraser,

And your worksheets and pencils, too,

And your papers are stuck together

With a great big glob of glue.

I’m tired of all your excuses;

They are really a terrible bore.

Besides, I forgot my own work,

At home in my study drawer.

Last night's inch or two of snow carved out a piece of extra time

manufactured time - for me to blog this morning instead of this

evening. It's raining now, and the wet, congealed snow is plopping,

with squelchy thuds from the trees onto the ground, the cars, and

the roof. My oatmeal steams in its bowl, topped by walnuts and dried

cherries. I'm dressed and ready to go but reveling in the fact that

I can stay home for another half-hour.

Spinning: Decided to go for a 3-ply, and split the fiber vertically into 3 lengths. It took awhile to get the weight of the three bats the same, but they're ready to go. Problem is, I'm going to Maine this weekend and don't really want to lug the wheel.

"Night Owl" Merino bumps

Knitting: Twenty rows into the foot. Twenty rows to go before toe shaping.

Almost there!

Exercise: As promised yesterday, I lifted weights, increasing some to 15 pounds, and cycled. Today I will be home late from school but I plan to do 30 minutes of cycling or "boxing". Quotation marks are a must.

Food/Water:  Tomorrow is a weigh-in day - I will keep that in mind.

Snow tonight?

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


— Wendell Berry

Alas, I could not (and did not want to) lie down where the wood drake rests today, but my drive home from work each day never fails to provide visual rest. Today it was the lavender-gray of the January sky, overlain by the lace of the maples and oaks, as I drove through Hartland Hollow. I am very lucky to have such a drive to and from school. Sometime I'll write about the wildlife I've spotted...

This will be a quick entry - the knitters in my knitting group are arriving shortly for an hour or so of knitting and conversation. 

No news on spinning, but I am going to figure out how I want to divide up the fiber - either for a 2- or a 3-ply, maybe split vertically.
Knitting:  The heel on Nightfall Sock #1 has been turned and the gusset decreases are coming along.

Nightfall Sock #1

Exercise: I will lift weights and cycle AFTER the knitting. I promise!
Food/Water: On target for the first, and above target for the second, having had several large mugs of herbal tea at work. 

First Day I Missed

Far too much going on yesterday - a full day of work plus a UCONN Women's basketball game in Hartford last night. Does that mean I post TWICE today? Hmmm.

Spinning: NONE
Knitting: On the first heel flap
Exercise: NONE
Food/Water: Too much of the former, not enough of the latter  

Second Pair is on the Needles

Song to Onions
Roy Blount, Jr.

They improve everything, pork chops to soup,
And not only that but each onion's a group.

Peel back the skin, delve into tissue
And see how an onion has been blessed with issue.

Every layer produces an ovum:
You think you've got three then you find you've got fovum.

Onion on on—
Ion on onion they run,
Each but the smallest one some onion's mother:
An onion comprises a half-dozen other.

In sum then an onion you could say is less
Than the sum of its parts.
But then I like things that more are than profess—
In food and the arts.

Things pungent, not tony.
I'll take Damon Runyon
Over Antonioni—
Who if an i wanders becomes Anti-onion.
I'm anti-baloney.

Although a baloney sandwich would
Right now, with onions, be right good.

And so would sliced onions,
Chewed with cheese,
Or onions chopped and sprinkled
Over black-eyed peas:

Black-eyed,
grey-gravied,
absorbent of essences,
eaten on New Year's Eve
peas.

We're having onions tonight, in Chicken Tikka Masala. The house smells marvelous - I dumped everything into the crockpot this morning, and Abe plugged it in at 10:00.
Spinning: nothing to report
Knitting: Cast on and began knitting a pair of vanilla socks using Nightfall yarn from FibroFibers. Sky blue darkening to black. The yarn is a joy to knit with, and with size 1 1/2 Signature Needles, the sock is flying along. No picture yet, but here is the yarn:

Exercise: Weights for 30 minutes; bicycling for 20. Didn't want to, AT ALL, as I didn't get home until 6:00, but Abe "encouraged" me to suck it up.
 

  

They're Done!

6:05 pm:

Noro Socks

Colder

A Haiku by Hai-Stu
Stuart Ziarnik

A steaming patty
Hamburger, oh, hamburger!
No need for ketchup.
  


It's only in the high 30's today - by normal standards that would be warm for early January, but it feels chilly compared to yesterday.

Norwegian Longwool 2-ply

Spinning: Photo above is the Norwegian Longwool 2-ply. Approximately 246 yards of fingering weight yarn. What will it become? No idea yet, but after washing and flicking it'll join the other handspun. Another goal of mine for 2012 is to knit up some of this yarn. I did manage to make several projects last year using my handspun, but not enough.

Handspun wool awaiting its fate

  Just to stay honest, I'm posting some photos I took today of fiber received from Spunky Eclectic during the autumn of 2011.

"Tartan" superwash Corriedale

Romney Sheepswool

50/50 blend of fine wool and soysilk in "Tossed Salad" colorway

"Peace on Earth" South African Fine

 Knitting: almost done with Noro Sock #2. It's difficult to knit when my fingers are crossed that the yarn will suffice.

Exercise: 40 minutes of "boxing" using "Gold's Gym Cardio Workout" for Wii. 

Food: I made delicious braised red cabbage with apples and onions last night - served with roasted pork chops. Magnifique! The recipe came from a book that my dear sister gave me for Christmas - Cooking From the Farmers' Market.  Williams-Sonoma does an excellent job with photography.