fiberrant

Sorry for the downtime this week. I’ve been busy porting this blog to a new server, and in the process I broke it. [Not that anyone would notice...]

Quiet weekend in Rexford, playing working on the computer, taking pictures, visiting with Paul’s dad and brother. Paul is on the Amtrak back to Rochester right now, and I’m curled up with the laptop and my subscription to Safari Books Online. Too much fun!

I’m resisting the urge to find a yarn shop – I have a second-sock-in-progress with me, and far too many projects’ worth of yarn back at home. The shop I’ve been to, in Altamont, closes in 1 hour (not worth the ride). But there’s another shop, Trumpet Hill, which is open until 4. I haven’t been there before. It’s kind of on the way to the office, and it looks like a lovely shop. Sigh. What to do?

* * * * *

Ha. Never one to resist temptation, I caved. Trumpet Hill is very nice. There was a large gathering of knitters, chatting and knitting away. Ruth has a beautiful shop, a friendly assistant, 10% off for new customers, and an exhaustive line-up of Cascade yarns. (Seriously, Venezia is lovely. And the sock yarn – Heritage – at $12.75 for 400 meters, in beautiful colors, I could not resist.

So now I’m back at Casa Rexford, curled up with laptop and Cascade 220 in primary red, blue and yellow. On deck: a felted kitty bed, in Fibonacci stripes, for Junebug. She’ll love it. Time to wind yarn (and try to duck the oncoming headache …)

How fitting: this post, or technically just the title of this post, has been in my Drafts folder for the last two months.

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As I get older, it seems that everything is about maintenance. (Not one of my strong suits.) From changing the oil in my car, to weeding the garden, to updating blog software … so little is new and exciting, but it requires just as much work. I’m not sure why I don’t like this. Probably because I enjoy New and Exciting!

So. I’ve spent quite a bit of time this weekend taking pictures of yarn and knitted objects, maintaining my Ravelry notebook, backing up my PC, documenting code written this week for work, et cetera. Maintenance stuff. The good news is that

knitting + photography = Wendy^HAPPY

Happy as a clam, padding around, making a lightbox, propping up tiny white reflector cards, connecting cords, evaluating exposures. Nothing I shot is earth-shattering, or even an original composition. Just a [fairly] color-accurate journal of what I’ve been doing.

Aran cardigan, from an old Sirdar leaflet (Ravelry link). Knit from Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, which is absolutely wonderful yarn. It has great texture when knitted up with cables. The cardi will have a deep V neck and drop shoulders. It’ll be perfect for the office next winter.

Brown socks, plain vanilla 1×1 rib, top down. The yarn is from Wendee at Hazelknits, and it is by far my all time favorite sock yarn. Squooshier than Cherry Tree Hill, prettier colors (and more colorfast) than Lorna’s Laces, and bigger skeins than STR. Win win win. This colorway is called Chocolatier (click for big and delicious version). Wendee also runs a Sock of the Month club, which I have gotten in the past – so there are several more skeins, well aged, in my stash. I’ll not want for sock yarn this year. Or maybe even next year.

This is a Boho Beret knit from Noro Kocheron – a soft spun single of wool, silk and angora. The beret is extra-large, so I can stuff all my hair into it. I sewed a round of 1/2″ elastic into the brim, so it keeps its shape even though the Noro yarn is very drape-y. The hat used just over 1 skein of Kocheron, so I’ve got nearly two skeins left. There’ll be a matching scarf in my near-future knitting.

Here’s to maturity – defined today as Embracing Maintenance.

Saw a piece last night on TV about blogging (how it has grown up, yadda yadda). And they mentioned that the average blogger makes about $4,000 a year from their blog.

Yah. That’s not how I’ll become independently wealthy. I think you have to have actual writing talent, and readers.

- or –

(Thanks to Valerie for the link, I hadn’t seen this before!)

There’s not been much in the way of verbal blogfodder this week. Back to work (which sucked, though not nearly as bad as the week I was on vacation – when several servers died, and gasp! data was lost), taking pictures, and not much more.

This is yesterday’s picture of the day – and lunch. There are tips and tricks for food photography, all of which I’d never thought about when snapping food shots for the blog. Yikes! I looked at some of those, and they are truly awful. This one didn’t come out quite the way I’d envisioned it, but I know why (the flash needed a snoot) and mostly I’m pleased with it.

It may be coincidental, but posting frequency took a serious nosedive while I was depressed. I’m watching for depression triggers now, and trying to sort out effects and causes. Though, which is which? Wouldn’t you become depressed, if you lost your creative drive? OTOH, it’s nearly impossible to maintain any drive at all, when I’m depressed. So it’s neither here nor there, just another sticky note on the wall: watch the creativity.

I didn’t blog yet about my most recent fiber adventure, which was BTW (before the weddings). My next door neighbor’s youngest daughter, a first grader, invited me to demonstrate spinning at her school. They’d studied “Pioneer Living”, and had some spindles, but no one to show them how it’s done.

As always, there were some kids who didn’t get it, and some who took to it like naturals. Most were able to create a length of yarn to keep. A couple really didn’t want to put down the spindles, and begged for some wool they could take home. Mwu-ha-ha! It’s so cool seeing future fiber addicts as they discover the craft.

If I can manage, today I’ll be making a pie with the cherries we bought at the market yesterday. I’ll have to wing it, since Sean’s got the cookbook with my go-to sour cherry pie recipe. I’ve also got to pack – it’s back to the office this week – and make some photos. When what I’d really like to do is, sit down with Mom’s sweater and get some quality inches knit.

None of which will get done, unless I sign off the computer!

Vacation is over, and it’s time to get back to the grind. I’m still working from home this week, so it’s not a *total* shock to the system. But today was still pretty brutal.

Sean and Carrie’s wedding was beautiful, and uniquely them. No fuss, no stress, just a celebration of their love and commitment to each other.

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In spite of the heat, it was a good party. The happy couple didn’t leave until about 1 am. My favorite part of the evening was talking about the party with them, then seeing them leave. They walked to the hotel, hand in hand.

Lisa’s at the airport already, and it’s time to start the clean-up!

Did I mention that I’ve recently acquired a new camera? And an obsession to go with it – learning to use it. Well, practice makes perfect, so I’ve been faithfully shooting every day. Today was fun: “Beary” Potter was my model for playing with light.

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Eventually I’ll get back to knitting again, once I realize that it’s going to get cold again … and hopefully, I’ll have gained a few skills useful for lovely knit blog photos … In the meantime, I’m having a virtual, visual blast.

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The color of June at my house, this year, is PINK. My son is getting married here next month, and his bride’s favorite color is purple. We started looking for purple flowers, and there aren’t many.

So we’ve gone with hot pinks, pale pinks and white. The gardens looks so pretty, especially after the last few years where they’ve gotten so little attention.

The wedding will be small (intimate!), casual, and that’s totally in keeping with the happy couple. Two more laid-back people, I can’t imagine. We’ll celebrate, then they’re driving to Colorado where Sean is interning on an organic farm.

He’s a chef, and I couldn’t resist bringing a little “spice” to the party, with these dish gardens. They smell wonderful, too.

I’m a little bit frazzled, thinking about getting this little party together. Not as much as Paul, who’s in the middle of drywalling the downstairs bath (after discovering a leak, and extensive water damage, inside the wall). But we’ll get it together, and it’ll be magic.

This post inspired by Sue at Life Looms Large. Check out her photography and weaving – I want to be Sue when I grow up!

It’s so peaceful here, with the rain drumming on the roof (and cascading down into the rain barrels, and dripping on the deck) that I’m suddenly sleepy. But before I turn in, I want to share another picture. This is Kaboodle, my roommate’s kitty. She spent this last weekend home alone, and now she’s sticking to us like velcro.

Cats are funny creatures.

I’ve started to make a photo each day to sharpen my eye and my skills. Photography class was a few years decades ago. But I’m starting to look at the world a little differently.

When I look at the world through different eyes, I stimulate new pathways in my brain. And it tickles me, literally and figuratively.

Busy week! Again, TGIF – but for a different reason (Mercury must be in retrograde, or worse, because one of the SANs at work crapped out big-time).

Upgraded WP to 3.0 this morning – I love, love, LOVE the dashboard, and how simple it is to upgrade now! And just so it *feels* like an upgrade, I’ve changed the theme.

Which brings us to the photo above. Backstory: I’ve been wanting a “better” camera, and I was horribly disappointed at the shots on my camera from Lisa’s wedding. With Sean’s wedding coming up, and no professional photographer in the plan, I decided it was time for a hardware upgrade*. I splurged last weekend, and bought a new camera with more features than I can even name. Plus a book, so hopefully I’ll be able to name them someday. So I’ve been taking pictures, all sorts, mostly cats and flowers because that’s what’s here. Lots of unpublishable shots of my office, desk, trash can. Because the beauty of a digital camera is, film and processing are virtually free.

Yesterday I dropped the old camera off at Mom’s house, and we went on walkabout (touring the gardens). This shot is of the fountain on her patio, shot with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, 1/1600, f/1.4, no flash, burst mode, sunny, in 6pm shadow on the east side of the house. In case you were wondering.

* My old camera, a 3-year-old Canon Powershot, works perfectly well. The lack of photogenicity was entirely operator error. If I’d stuck to Auto mode, or even thought about the manual settings, or … hell, even looked at the screen with my reading glasses on, this story might have a different ending.

But not by much. :-/

TGIF. It’s a travel day for me. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, too much playing with the technology.

Lisa and Adam’s wedding pictures were blogged yesterday – aren’t they incredible?! I want to be able to make photos like these.

But I’ll have to settle for a picture of Monday’s sky. Words can’t describe the day this was: cool, fresh-washed, bright and huge. I walked out of the building for some fresh air, and I was compelled to take a picture.

Have a wonderful day!

Listening to Traffic, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Delicious memories. I can feel an iTunes crawl coming on, looking for more Steve Winwood.

I’ve just put on wool socks, and wish fervently that I had a sweater and my fingerless gloves with me here in Rexford. It’s raining, around 50F, and feels like early April. Which is all the more difficult to bear, since we’ve already had several 90F days this season.

Weather aside – It’s a great year. I feel marvelous, juicy and full of creative energy, and a kind of … understanding … about projects taking time. About how a little bit every day adds up. Yes, I’ve always known it to be true. But this year I know it in my heart, too. A kind of grokking knowledge.

I keep looking for the middle-aged balance. The time when I’m not blown about by life’s gales, the time when I can walk serenely through life. I’m getting closer, I think. I’m also sure that I’ll read this in five years and laugh at my immaturity. (Why would now be any different?) I can hardly bear to read some of the crap I wrote here, for example. Yet I keep it up. Again, the day-at-a-time thing. Today’s post is number 1,415. That’s a hell of a lot of writing over the last nearly-eight years, more and longer than any journal I’ve had.

What are NOT progressing, are knitting projects. Not for lack of excuses: I’ve yet to make peace with my eyesight. As much as I love contacts, they just don’t cut it for close work. Neither do my glasses – they’re old and scratched, never mind the prescription is old. This is my excuse, anyway. There’s also the lack of idle time, and the warmer weather, and my fascination with the computer/iPad/Facebook/ebooks, and the wedding, and and and.

Of course, if I had either sweater with me this week, I’d be knitting – instead of blogging.

I had a craving yesterday, for cucumbers and mozzerella. So I unvented this salad:

2 cukes, sliced into rounds
8 oz fresh mozzerella, sliced
Bottled Italian dressing

Layer cukes and mozzerella in a casserole – I had 3 layers of cucumber slices and 3 layers of mozzerella. And the cheese doesn’t really slice; don’t sweat, it’ll be delicious. Drizzle with Italian dressing. Or slather, if you feel like it. Refrigerate overnight. Serve chilled.

I wish I had more of it right now!

I’ve had a hankering for some strawberry lemonade (possibly influenced by the McDonalds coupon on my desk). Yesterday afternoon, realizing I have lemons, strawberries, sugar and water in the house, I made it fresh. And I will never drink another can of pseudo-lemonade again. (Yuck.)

[ok, to be fair, Minute Maid products aren't disgusting until you put them into a single serving can. With glycerol ester gum of rosin. Mmmm. But the frozen and boxed drinks don't look that bad.]

This morning I’m blogging from the front porch. I’ve already done my yoga and I’m half an hour early for the dentist. It’s a cloudy, damp morning – reminds me of the mountains, except for the traffic noise. I’m redecorating, as you can see – It’s time to refresh the look of the blog! Much easier than moving the TV.

Have a marvelous day!

- So, if cleaners put a big neon “In by 9, out by 5″ sign in their window, how come they act so surprised when you actually need your shirt back at 5?
- I’m madly ripping my old home movies (digitized a couple years ago by Lisa – thank you!) to play with them in iMovie.
- This Mac thing is pretty darn fun.
- After the wedding, I’m going down to the Apple store for some One To One learning.
- It’s so easy, I can learn a ton from them.
- We’re packing for the trip, and I wonder how little I can get away with. Will I really miss my knitting if I don’t bring any? After all, I will have things to do.
- I want to plant some lettuce, but keep holding back thinking about it’s maintenance.

It’s beautiful here, sunny and about 70F. Though everyone else here is wearing sweatshirts.

On second thought – It’s closer to 60F than 70, and I’m off to unpack my sweatshirt.