May 09, 2004
May 06, 2004
Gardening is the new knitting
This article in the New York Times (registration required - sorry), catchily titled "The Blog Generation Takes Up Its Trowels," says that gardening is the newest DIY trend among the young and hip.
"I'm thinking about gardening as a radical political act," said Fritz Haeg, 34, an architect who teaches in the environmental design program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. "It means completely questioning the way we live, the way we get our food, the way we use and abuse natural resources, the way we occupy public space." Mr. Haeg plays host at a monthly salon that draws a young, flamboyant crowd. Events are themed "avant-garde knitting" was a recent topic.
For those interested in this movement, ReadyMade Magazine is the publication of choice. Sort of Knitty for the 20-something homeowner.
I am WAY too freaking old.
May 05, 2004
Things I love
I threw my neck out somehow today so entries, fiber work, and yardwork will be minimal until it is totally healed up. (I've got an emergency call in to the gym to take the next chair-massage spot that's open - my regular therapist is booked for the week.) Anyway, I have two new toys that just make me smile:
As I write this, I think that I should probably clarify that those are battery-powered toothbrush and flosser, you filthy-minded people.
Up off your butts, people
"So what if you know what bliss is like? Get to work. So what if you feel special? Everything is special, everything is sacred. Get to work. Let go of desires, power, and relationship bliss, and get to work giving your gifts."
-- Haidakhan Baba
(via the Dzogchen Center's weekly words of wisdom e-mail)
May 03, 2004
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Sheep & Wool is this weekend. Hear me now, people: I am shopping for Sarah in England only.
[twiddling thumbs as choking gasps of hysterical laughter emanate from the reading public]
Thanks. Your vote of confidence is appreciated, believe you me. Harumph.
Vendor list is up here. Last year's NHS&W report can be found here and in the few entries above it, including pics of the gorgeous Coopworth I got from Marianne Dube. Embarrassingly, the ONLY thing I've used from last year's haul was the set of pewter buttons for the Northcott Rib.
Weather forecast for Saturday is currently 60 degrees and cloudy.
May 02, 2004
Play the nice lady's game
Despite the implications that I have less than legal plans for my Big Ass Chipper, I still love most of you. Joe and I fired up the BAC yesterday and reduced quite a few branches and six bags of leaves to a fine shred. I love this thing! Yard cleanup proceeds slowly, but like Charleen, I don't want to show you how crap-ass it looks right now. Looking better, mind you, but still crap. I work out there until the unholy bloodlust comes over me and I begin to think "Wouldn't it be better if I just burned the yard to save it?" That's when I come inside and calm down a little. (See, previous owner lady was the sort of person who wanted "garden islands" but put no planning into it. She just planted stuff randomly and haphazardly, so I have a peony/azalea bed in the middle of the yard, a dogwood under an elm tree, and so forth.)
Anyway, since I am doing no fiber work whatsoever and am spending most of my time either tearing apart my yard or planning what will go in once I get rid of everything that's there, here's a little game for you to play. If you answer it on your own blog, please trackback me or leave a comment so I can see your answers!
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Stallman and his co-conspirators created an organization called the Free Software Foundation as a tax-exempt charity, using the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's definition.
1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-Player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions.
I can't understand a word you're sayin'
We've got a bad connection on our minds
Communication's one thing we never seem to find
Oh Lord I'm sorry, but there's trouble on the line
Guesses? Your own?
April 28, 2004
Acquisitive day
[Morning note to self: set entry to Publish, not to Draft, if you want it to appear on the site....]
We scored a lot of cool stuff today, none of it fiber related. First, a batch of old computers from Rosemary, for a future project in which we'll need to run four or five flavors of Linux simultaneously. Then, after much fruitless calling around, we ended up at Lowe's on the South Shore, buying an intimidating and powerful 10HP chipper/shredder. When we got home, my new composter from Gardeners Supply was here. In Georgia, Joe and I built some seriously heavy bins from lumber and hardware cloth, but we get a lot more rain here in Boston and also have a mouse/feral cat/woodchuck issue (what comes from living on the edge of both a wetland and a woodland park, I suppose). So, I sucked it up and bought a plastic composter and a rodent screen. It's quite sturdy - and I can fill it up pretty fast with the output from the chipper. (Haven't quite figured out the environmental and economic implications of bagging up my leaf/limb refuse and putting it out for the city, then going to Home Despot and buying wood chips and compost in bags. A noisy gas-powered chipper really does seem like the more reduce/reuse/recycle solution to this libertarian girl. Besides. Chipper is noisy and dangerous! This makes it very very cool!)
Then, to the gym, where Personal Trainer Ingrid gave me a great new upper body free-weight workout which had me in puddles at the end of the session. I told her the story of my very first personal trainer, ten years ago, who was a screaming bitch. She gave me an upper body workout so difficult that I literally could not raise my arms to drive home. I cried in the parking lot for a while, then somehow managed to get my wrists through the steering wheel and drove the nearly 30 miles home (I lived in backwoods nowhere rural Georgia that summer) in second gear because I didn't think I could get my hand down to shift and back up into the wheel. Ingrid was appropriately horrified and amused. I think I like her, even though she made me do two sets each of four different ab things.
April 27, 2004
Aching back
Bitten by spring fever and concomitant yardwork. Planning to purchase kick-ass chipper this week, then take out a whole slew of annoying shrubs and clean up the plentiful branches and leaves. Mildly disabled by enthusiastic leaf-raking Sunday and today (interrupted by serious rain yesterday). In no way am I paying exorbitant landscaper clean-up prices even if my yard is covered in nearly seven years' worth of leaves, brush, and neglect.
In fit of extreme FlyLady dorkitude, I take my timer outside. How embarrassing to be waving at a neighbor and hear the beepbeep go off....
April 26, 2004
Embarrassing stashes
Too much wool. That's the verdict from Chez Yarnhead. Had I been a good girl and continued to spin an ounce-a-day, like the left menu tally expects, I'd have plenty of room in my bins and be able to buy a fleece or three at NHS&W or MaS&W next month. Instead, I have too much wool and no room in the bins, and should get off my ass and start spinning again.
I did take my wheel up to NY a weekend or two ago, to spin with Carolyn and Joan and Tanya and Teresa and Rosemary. I brought some of the FoxFire stuff from last year's WEBS tent sale: the cinnamon/apple Border Leicester blended with angelina. (ooooh. shiiiny. You folks know how much I love the angelina!) It's spinning up very fine, finer than the first bag's worth that I spun last summer. I still have to decide what to do with it all - one bag is decidedly darker than the other, so I'll either have to alternate rows as I knit or abandon the planned "Spicy Apple Pi" shawl. All depends on grist, so I should probably figure out what I'm spinning before I finish that bag.
Gonna order a WooLeeWinder for my Schacht. Catherine, you said something about ordering bobbins that had gears at both ends for high ratios with the double drive? Enlighten me, please, so that I can ask Nathan for the right thing when I order.
[You all know this is laying the groundwork for fleece buying, right? Okay. Just so we're all on the same page here. And only one of them might be for you, Sarah...tomorrow I'm going to rave about your package - joe has absconded with the mint balls.....]
