Good Busy

Dear Mom,
Lest anyone think I never came back from that getaway in October, when Last I Posted, I think I'd better get an update here on the blog as proof of life.
The October trip was perfection. For the first time in EVER that I was reluctant to come home. For a total homebody to say such a thing is Something. Our cabin was charming, with a big fireplace and lace trim on the cabinet shelves. We dressed for comfort, took turns cooking meals, took long walks.

Since then my time has been filled with family visits, picking apples and freezing them in pie filling; I've been knitting (and un-knitting) and weaving and painting a little, too.  Sewing and littering the house with threads and fabric scraps. (Why is it that I can conceive of and knit an entire sweater out of 2 sticks and a string, but I am unable to figure out how to sew bias tape in a straight line with angled seams? I gave up and sewed the strips together with the ends smack into each other at 90 degrees.) Baking for neighbor gifts and really appreciating Amazon! Reading  Career of Evil, Fairy Tale Girl, and Banquet of Consequences and binge watching The Tudors, Land Girls, Wives and Daughters. (Wives and Daughters is very good. A+! ) Making friends with the elliptical machine (attitude is everything) and creating The Binder of Organization. More on those last 2 in another post.....
Love,
Kim

I did squeeze in some knitting

Dear Mom,
Until I looked back through the photos downloaded on to the computer, if you'd asked what I've been knitting I would have answered "not much".  I don't know exactly how, or when, but I did manage to start and finish a few things.
First up- The Bobby Sweater from Tadpoles and Tiddlers. I've made many sweaters from this book, multiple times.  This little gansey is for a new great-nephew.  I made the smallest size and used about 1/2 a skein of Baah's La Jolla yarn.

And then, I must have been in some time warp because I can barely remember knitting this Highland Shawl with Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool XL from the Folk Shawls book.

For the yarn shop- from one skein of Berroco sock yarn- The Ananke scarf.

Up next, and with 2 skeins of Ella Rae Lace Merino, a pattern I've had in my stash for a long time.  Finally. This is Scalene, a very clever keyhole scarf. I love the yarn combination I chose, but my expectations for how much I was going to love this scarf may have been too high. I'm not sure I like it all that much. It needs to rest in a quiet place for awhile. Maybe I'll like it better after we've had a little break from each other.

And Last, but certainly not Least. I am most proud of this one.
This is some of that beautiful angora/ merino roving, spun and knitted into an original design.
Meet Mistress Tippet.

 Spinning this yarn was a dream.

 And then watching the angora bloom after it had been knitted and blocked….magic.

 Mistress Tippet was inspired by the little pink shawl that Claire wears in Outlander during the boar hunting.

While we were watching you commented on how it would be nice to have something like that to keep the back of your neck and shoulders warm but would not get in the way. One of the reasons I have to watch these episodes multiple times is because I am dissecting the hand knits. Really. Too bad Jamie doesna wear as many as Claire does, aye?

 Ahem. Anyway. I had all that pretty hand spun- and some ideas. And Mistress Tippet was born. By the way, the definition of the word tippet is : a scarf, usually of fur or wool, for covering the neck, or the neck and shoulders, and usually having the ends hanging down in front.

But Mistress Tippet takes it a step or two further. Buttons allow you to wrap and secure the ends at your shoulders for a pretty draped cowl.

 Or, you can wrap those ends all the way around, securing them at the center back, for a snugger fit.

Pretty and warm and dressy. More details for knitting and purchasing the pattern can be found HERE.

Love,
Kim

The Weekend

Dear Mom,
A picture is worth a thousand words and this next one pretty much sums up the weekend here.

The family room has been officially Spring Cleaned. The last bit required a family effort. The toy box, games and movies have all been purged of out-grown and unwanteds. The Goodwill received a healthy donation this weekend.
Unfortunately, giving all that attention to one room (and that room is looking mighty good, I must say) means that the rest of the house is looking rather seedy and I am way behind on laundry. Today is for catching up.

All work and no knitting makes Kim cranky, and without breaks My Hero and I would probably be crippled right now, so we did do more than clean, take trips to the hardware and lighting stores, spackle, paint and stain. I knit my way past the halfway point of my sweater thanks to Season 3 of The Closer. (I just love that show and enjoy every character in it! Thank you MaryLee for introducing me to Deputy Brenda Lee Johnson.)

This sweater is looking like a blob right now, but I am hopeful that it will come together the way it does in my head. It could be that elusive perfect sweater. Or a horrible waste of time and good yarn. We shall know soon. Maybe. I still have that second Polska mitten to start and last week My Hero asked if I could knit a baby gift for a March baby. Just putting all that in writing made me nervous. Gonna go brew another pot of tea and get a move on.
Love,
Kim

When Everything was Special

Dear Mom,
Back in the day, or I guess the 'day' for me being the 70's, when there were 4 or maybe 5 channels on the television depending on the reception and whether the PBS station was coming in or not, it seems that everything was SPECIAL. The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special, the Andy Williams Christmas Special, and of course, The ABC After School Special.

Nowadays there are hundreds of channels and nothing is special.

I've been looking on the internet for a particular episode of the After School Special, and I can find what I imagine is every After School Special ever made. Except for the one I want. I remember that After School Specials were events. But now when I skim through the list of episodes and read the synopses, I am wondering why. I was a bit shocked at the subject matter of some of the specials. It seems like they dealt with some real depressing topics, and I count my blessings because, fortunately for us, some of the topics were about as foreign as the antics and ugly behavior of The Housewives of Whatever County and The Kardashians. We didn't have best Friends who were Stoned, a Mom Who Hit Us, and a brother who thought it would be cool to be a Teen Dad.

Besides the one special with Lance Kerwin and Pa Ingalls where the boy turned into a gold medal marathon runner because he wet the bed and his cruel mother put his sheets out on the clothesline and he needed to run home faster than the bus to get the sheets off the line before the kids on the bus saw them and learned about his secret -and why are the Moms on those shows always so mean?- besides that special (which maybe it wasn't even an after school special now that I think about it) I can really remember only one After School Special. One line from that special that has stayed with our family for more than 30 years, and it is the one After School Special that I cannot find:
The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon.

Whenever I am on overload and need to give myself a little pep talk, the words etched 30+ years deep into my brain and the image of Duffy Moon with his eyes crossed and his cheeks puffed out come to me and I hear are the words Duffy said to himself. "You can do it, Duffy Moon!"

So, when this morning I gave you a brief rundown of the Christmas knitting and the exciting new magazine knitting deadline along with the selfish knitting I've been doing for me you said just the words I needed to hear.

"You can do it, Duffy Moon!"

Yes, I can. So just know that if you see me sitting with my knitting at hand, my eyes crossed and my cheeks puffed out, I am giving myself a little pep talk. And hopefully I will not be the subject matter of a future After School Special written by my kids: "My Mom Knit Herself a Straight Jacket"!   ( edited- I mean strait jacket..... back to the knitting- kim)

Love,
Kim

Another Teen Heart Throb

Dear Mom,
In one of those email exchanges that only good friends can manage, CarolWho'sHouseWasStruckbyLightening told me that Bobby Sherman was on the Brady Bunch the other night. I didn't pause to wonder why she was watching The Brady Bunch, because I figure it was on either before or after her Andy Griffith Show fix, but mostly because I was overcome by my Bobby Sherman swoon.
I immediately recalled the Bobby Sheman pictures I had carefully cut out of the TV section of the Sunday paper and taped, lovingly, to the headboard of my bed. I specifically recall they were publicity shots for that weeks episode of The Partridge Family on which Bobby Sherman was The Guest Star. Remember Guest Stars? I don't think shows have Guest Stars anymore.

I can also remember having a mini crush on Jack Wild when he was on HR Pufinstuff. What was I thinking?

Anyway, those photos probably had the bonus of including David Cassidy in them, too. Not being a family that would waste our money on a purchase as foolish as a Tiger Beat magazine, the Sunday TV section was my only source for pre-teen beefcake photos of David and Bobby. I remember carefully scanning the paper for any glimpse of a teen heartthrob.
So, in our email exchange, CarolWHWSbL asked what "that" song was that he sang. I replied: Julie,julie,julie do you love me?  Yep. And Julie, Do Ya Love Me sang in our heads the rest of the day. It wasn't long before I was compelled to go to itunes in search of anything Bobby Sherman. No problem. You gotta love itunes for this stuff.

I downloaded Julie, Do Ya Love Me, and Easy Come, Easy Go (and a couple of Osmond and Partridge Family songs), Easy Come, Easy Go is the song that, until today, I believed Bobby was singing about shaving under the sun.  
   ?  
Shaving? Outside? Well, it was the late 60's/ early 70's and there could have been an advertising campaign for shaving cream or an electric razor that inspired those lyrics, I suppose.  I took advantage of another modern day wonder- I googled the lyrics. I have to laugh at myself, (and I am pretty sure Bonnie was singing the same lyrics I was, and believing them to be correct for 30+ years) but the actual lyrics are "TAKING THE SHADE  OUT OF THE SUN." I'll still probably continue to sing it (in my head) the other way.

In my internet searching, I have learned that Bobby has 2 sons, has been a paradmedic and currently serves with the San Bernadino Police Department. Which kind of makes me appreciate him even more- no has-been melt downs, rehab visits, no wrong side of the bars jail time.

Okay, I am plugging in my ear buds now, and going off to attend to the housework I've been ignoring while taking this little detour. And as all the songs of that era did, I faaaade oouuuttttt......

Love,

Kim

tiger beat

Dear Mom,

Two words.


Donny Osmond.


yep.

I may have to break my unspoken rule and actually VOTE on this season of Dancing With the Stars.

Love,
Kim

Project Runway

Dear Mom,

Thursday night I kept an eye on the time, and kicked the Young Man out of the family room (the Young Lady was already in bed) and commandeered the remote control so I could indulge in the long awaited return of Project Runway.

I love everything about Project Runway. The pressure, the clothes, the creativity, the time limits, the challenges, the tears, the challenge of creating a red carpet gown out of office supplies or whatever in 3 hours and 12.762 minutes and having it ready for the runway. Maybe not so much the tears. The nervous breakdowns take me back to board exams and the early days of my dental hygiene education when each of us, in turns, had a breakdown of one sort or another. If we had Tim Gunn mentoring us and talking us down, I can tell you there would have been a lot less crying in the dental materials lab.

On each show, the designers are given an assignment. They sketch, shop for fabric in something like 30 minutes (unless they are given auto parts or something to work with) and put their sewing machine pedals to the metal and get to work. It always seems like there is like 8 hours to work the first day and then like 10 minutes the next morning. This is usually when there are tears and drama and little bits of sniping like the time one designer had a hissy fit because somebody changed the thread in the sewing machine, or when the dress won't fit on the model like happened last night. And since it is a competition, the designers are only friendly with each other for about 3 1/2 days before they start watching their backs and sort of spying on what the designer across the room is doing instead of paying attention to their own work. But I don't watch it for that stuff.

I really like seeing what different designers, given the same challenges, resources and time limits, create. I like to watch those creations walk down the runway- some of them truly inspired and creative and some of them dreadful. I pick my best and worst and listen carefully to the panel of judges (I even like the judges, Heidi Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia) and then hang on in suspense wondering to whom Heidi will bid "auf wiedersehen". I worry a little about the feelings of the person who is "aufed", but sometimes I am glad to see them go. Last night was a glad night. When Miss Designer said she didn't sketch and did head stands until it was time to go shopping, I had the feeling she wouldn't last. She didn't.

So now to wait until next week for my next episode of slightly guilty viewing pleasure and an excuse to stay up late and knit on a school night.

Like I wouldn't anyway.

Love,

Kim