Spring!

75 degrees in the shade on West River Road this afternoon. All I can say is "Wow". Our windows are open, and we got sweaty on our brisk walk this morning. It's top down weather!!! Dare I call this "the winter that wasn't"?

Lots of exercise lately, in the form of weight lifting, aerobics video, walking, and dancing. Yes, we danced last night at 41 Bridge Street in Collinsville. We saw The Revelations featuring Tre Williams - a fantastic blues/soul band that rocked the house for 3 hours. We danced in the mosh pit (well, calling it a mosh pit is a BIT of an exaggeration) and were purely happy. My left knee is mad at me now, but it was worth it.

Lots of knitting, too - I've reached the top of flower section of Malthese Flowers and have begun the border, a fairly simply grid. I machine-stitched, using tiny stitches, two lines of stitches through the steek - will have to do a bit more later but the bulk of the shawl is protected from the dread scissors.  I hope to be able to cut the shawl open later this week.

Tour Eiffel is coming along, as well. I've decided to knit the small version, so it's going to be more of a scarf than a shawl, but I think that'll be easier to wear.

Socks are slowly creeping. I knitted on them during a teachers' happy hour celebration after work on Friday, and also at the concert venue last night before the music commenced.

In other news, our living room coat closet has been emptied, cleaned, weeded, and sorted through. All the hats, gloves, and mittens now actually fit INSIDE the basket they live in.

Last, but not least, and better late than never:

St. Patrick’s Day

By Jean Blewett

There’s an Isle, a green Isle, set in the sea,

     Here’s to the Saint that blessed it!

And here’s to the billows wild and free

     That for centuries have caressed it!

Here’s to the day when the men that roam

     Send longing eyes o’er the water!

Here’s to the land that still spells home

     To each loyal son and daughter!

Here’s to old Ireland—fair, I ween,

     With the blue skies stretched above her!

Here’s to her shamrock warm and green,

     And here’s to the hearts that love her!

International Pi Day

You must have heard about 3.14…
In many cir­cles she’s all the rage.
She’s the greek char­ac­ter that we all adore,
whose irra­tional nature takes cen­ter stage.

Defined by divi­sion, as opposed to sum,
(a fact that is known through­out the land).
But don’t count on her with your fin­gers and thumbs,
she flaunts more dig­its than you have on your hand.

Men fight to reveal her dec­i­mal places,
– around 2.5 tril­lion is the cur­rent amount.
A com­plex atti­tude is not what she embraces,
but, she’s a real num­ber, and that’s what counts.

I hes­i­tate to sound slightly cliche,
but she’s a hero unhonored and unsung.
And after all, it’s true what they say:
two Pi is greater than one.

yes...

Our school abounds with Pi posters, streamers, banners, and, yes, actual Pi(e). Personally, I was never a fan of geometry - algebra was most to my taste. Maybe because my algebra teacher was not afraid to throw chalk at us if we ventured to answer incorrectly, as opposed to my geometry teacher, who was just plain boring.

Great strides in spinning, knitting, and exercise. It's been warm enough to lug the weights up and out onto the deck, which is a much more pleasant space than the basement, even if Zig and I did spend a few hours cleaning up the TV room. I MIGHT get my bike out today when I get home, and, if the tires are amply inflated, go out for the first street ride of 2012.

Tour Eiffel - not much to look at yet - just an expanse of gray

Knitting steadily on both the Malthese and the Tour Eiffel shawls. Will I finish both by the 13th of April? Too soon to tell. It might help to do the smaller size on the Eiffel.

Almost done spinning up the first 2 ounces of Spunky Eclectic's "Tartan" Corriedale. That's September 2011's shipment - I'm getting there! It's a better (easier, "funner") spin than I expected. 

Nancy's Knit Knacks magnetic chart keeper with Tour Eiffel chart

Spunky Eclectic "Change" Falkland 2-ply

Official S. E. label

Malthese as of 3/11/12

Green/Blue Ground for Malthese

Fuschia/Orange/Purple for Malthese Flowers

 

Quince

March is vanishing
with the leafless winter trees
- each week is greener

Peter S. Quinn

Today's post is going to be all about the yarn and other goodies I received from Quince and Company this week. My most generous dad and stepmom gave me a gift certificate to Quince for my birthday - needless to say, I wasted no time in hopping on the ol' laptop and ordering what I so subtly hinted for a few weeks ago in this blog - 3 skeins of Chickadee in Nasturtium for the Piper's Journey shawlette!

I also ordered two skeins of Quince's newest yarn, Finch, which is a fingering weight yarn perfect for socks. I know. Socks. But the Lupine color is so luscious! Resistance was futile.

After adding these yarns to my basket, I had just enough left on the certificate to order a color card. So glad I did, because even though the yarn photography on the website is stunning, it's good to be able to look at the colors in natural light when deciding (drooling over) which to choose.

What fun it is to shop and not spend my own money! Thanks, D & J, for you oh-so-thoughtful gift!

Conference Week

It's the second of two crazy school weeks. The first was back in November, after the first trimester report cards were sent home. Now we're done with the second trimester, and parents are streaming in for evening and/or after-school conferences. Our school is always bustling during these weeks - the PTO holds a Scholastic Book Fair in the gym, sells Hartland clothing in the front hall, and a town resident who is a portrait photographer sets up her portable studio in the library to shoot photos of kids. Kids stream in and out of the library while their parents meet with teachers. We enjoy it, but we all breathe a sigh of relief when the week ends.

Zig's traveling this week - gone for two nights. As always, I'll toss and turn...

Knitting and spinning. The spinning (Falkland wool) has been spectacular. I'm now plying (2-ply) the singles, and the finished yarn should be lovely. Knitting-wise, the second vanilla sock is on hold. I'm working on Malthese in the morning before school, and on the Tour Eiffel shawl during lunch and in the evening.

It's March, but it's still pretty darn cold:

Winter Clothes
by Karla Kuskin

Under my hood I have a hat
And under that
My hair is flat.
Under my coat
My sweater's blue.
My sweater's red
I'm wearing two.
My muffler muffles to my chin
And round my neck
And then tucks in.
My gloves were knitted
By my aunts.
I've mittens too
And pants
And pants
And boots
And shoes
With socks inside.
The boots are rubber, red and wide.
And when I walk
I must not fall
Because I can't get up at all.

Early March

Driving less than 1 1/2 hours due south of Hartland is a mind-bending experience, climate-wise. Yesterday we met Pat and Jackie (Jess' parents)for lunch at Pepe's in New Haven. We have about 5 inches of snow here in the woods, but by the time we were south of Torrington, there was no sign of winter anywhere - no snow, no ice, no slush, just bare grass and tree limbs. The sun came out in the early afternoon - perfect weather for strolling around the Yale campus. It's spring break there, so students were few and far between. We stepped into the Sterling Library just 5 minutes before closing, then ambled over to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Cool stuff. It was good to get together with the Hennesseys - it's always easy to hang out with them. They thoroughly know New Haven, so it was fun to walk around the city and listen to anecdotes and trivia. 

The spring-like weather lulled us into thinking that northwestern Connecticut would be devoid of snow - surely the sun would shine there, too? - but alas, it was not to be.

It's been a week of gustatory delights - dinner out Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, lunch out Saturday and today (with Mom and Becky). Needless to say, there's no shrinking going on, but I've been judicious in my menu choices, so there's not much expansion, either. 

LOTS of photographic evidence of fiber crafting.

Spinning: well into the second bump of Falkland. It's a delight to work with. I hope to get more spun later today after my lunch with sis and mom.

Blurry Falkland fiber

 
Knitting: Malthese is growing. Yes, it looks like a giant tear-shape, but once steeked it'll be a large triangle. We had a moment of hilarity the other night - I almost had Zig convinced that this shawl is for him - after all, Parisian men wear all sorts of elegant scarves - wouldn't this look GREAT around his neck?

This will look MUCH better when steeked and blocked.

Working on the eighth (out of 12) rows of Malthese Flowers

The vanilla socks have taken a back seat this week; not only to the Malthese but to a NEW project I cast on yesterday - Natalie Servant's Eiffel Tower shawl. I'm working the large version, using String Theory Seri silk in a gorgeous graphite called "Carina". The plan is to have this finished and blocked before our trip. I have 6 weeks - that should be sufficient time. 

The finished object will have filigree-like arches seen in the Tour Eiffel

Just starting the leg of the second sock. Yawn.

Last, and yes, least - the vanilla socks did see some forward movement - not much, but a bit. This is my travel knitting, but I can't knit while I'm driving, and I was the driver to New Haven and back.


Excerpt from

Ordinary Time

By Tim Dlugos

 

Which are the magic

moments in ordinary

time? All of them,

for those who can see.

  

 

53 Orbits Around The Sun

Maple Feast

Frances Frost

Into the bit-flaked sugar-snow

The crystal-gathering sledges go.

Stumbling through silver to my knees,

I shout among the maple trees, 

Tilt gleaming buckets icy cold

Till I am full as I can hold

Of clear bright sap, until I feel

Like a maple tree from head to heel!

Then to the sugarhouse I run

Where syrup, golden as the sun,

Is boiling in the crisp March air

And I, as daft as a baby bear,

Eat, till my buttons burst asunder

From maple sweetness, maple wonder!



Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss, John Irving, and me! Having a snow day yesterday  was almost as good as having the day off today. My dear son Abe cooked breakfast for me, and gave me an absolutely hilarious card. 

Snow Day

A snow day on March 1st? Unheard of in these parts this winter - we haven't had a snow day since November 4, 2011. It's been (indoors) a lovely, relaxing day with lots of knitting, spinning, and exercise. I started listening to 11/22/63 and am enjoying it immensely. It's been awhile since a audiobook has captivated me like this.

Great progress on spinning Falkland - I finished the first half (approx. 2 ounces) and started the second half. I hope to dedicate some time on Sunday to washing and flicking all the yarn I've spun recently - I have four or five different types of handspun awaiting this final process. Then I can figure out what the yarn weights are. I find that I spin mostly DK or sport weight with the occasional worsted weight thrown in. I would love to spin finely enough to produce a laceweight yarn. 

Cruising along on the Malthese Flowers shawl, as well. I almost let it go into hibernation earlier this winter, but I pulled it out last week and haven't put it down since. It's still far from being even 50% complete, but that's okay.

Tomorrow is my 53rd birthday. We're going to see "The Descendants" at the Gilson Cafe/Cinema. What with all the dining out this week (Monday, Tuesday, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday), I don't think tomorrow's weigh-in will be an occasion for celebratory fireworks, but I am feeling SO MUCH HEALTHIER and energetic than I was at Thanksgiving. And my clothes fit better. Numbers don't mean quite so much as those two intangibles.

No photos today - it would just be more of the same, albeit a bit more.

Dare I post this poem? Am I tempting the gods of frozen precipitation?

Last Snow

By Heid E. Erdrich

Dumped wet and momentary on a dull ground

that’s been clear but clearly sleeping, for days.

Last snow melts as it falls, piles up slush, runs in first light

making a music in the streets we wish we could keep.

Last snow. That’s what we’ll think for weeks to come.

Close sun sets up a glare that smarts like a good cry.

We could head north and north and never let this season go.

Stubborn beast, the body reads the past in the change of light,

knows the blow of grief in the time of trees’ tight-fisted leaves.

Stubborn calendar of bone. Last snow. Now it must always be so.