FiberTribe

Something Wicked This Way Comes*

It's not always fun and games chez FiberTribe when the intuitive powers kick in.  Last night around 9 o'clock out of nowhere a violent headache started to grab the left side of my neck and head.  Dennis and I were to take the new wildlands fire truck over the mountain the next day to have a two-way radio installed.  Something vague had been bothering me all day about that trip.  I found myself increasingly thinking of reasons I shouldn't go. And there really was no compelling reason NOT to go. Just this escalating reluctance.  Finally, as the headache increased I finally got it. We shouldn't take that fire truck out of town and furthermore, we should go over to the firehouse in the morning and be sure the tank was filled to the brim. 

I told Dennis that I had a very, very bad feeling about something happening on Monday and I couldn't tell when, what, or to whom it would happen or even be sure anything WOULD happen.  And bless him, he believed me and instantly said, ok, we'll stay and we'll be sure the truck is filled.   Immediately, and I mean from one moment to the next, the headache was gone.   I still felt the waves of whatever it is washing over me.  I finally sat down and typed a status update on FaceBook to ask everyone to be very, very careful on Monday. As soon as I did that, it felt like the probability of something bad happening decreased.  It continued to decrease throughout the day today. 

I could feel foolish as if I cried wolf, but I don't. That's the way this thing works. One never knows unless by blind luck whether what one is getting is A: correct and B: if it's unchangeable or if the probability of occurence can be altered, diminished or totally negated.   I'm hugely relieved that nothing (that I know of) has happened.  I've had precogs (precognitive events) since I was a child  but haven't had one in a very long time. And I've never had physical symptoms from it.   Strange.   All that I can think of that might have heightened my sensitivity is that I spent a fair amount of time with a gifted intuitive this past weekend. We tend to amplify each other's abilities. That's my best guess. 

So if you're reading this, do let me know that you and yours are ok. Yes? 
Back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

* title from a Ray Bradbury story

Back in Blue...Sky, that is...

Been a while, eh?  Life rolls along and yeah, Facebook and Ravelry do take the edge off my urge to post to the blog.  A couple of acquaintances have vanished recently off FBook abruptly, no explanation.  That's the immediate prompt for resuming here. Also, I've been knitting up a storm lately and reading again after a hiatus with both.   So I've got a bit of blog fodder if anyone is still out there?

Playing a bit of catch up, my wee, elderly kitty of 21+ years died a few weeks ago.  Blind luck that we took some pictures of her about 2 weeks prior to that so here she is in all her little ballerina glory.  My friend Leni always called her Ballerina because she walked with her feet turned out in 2nd position.   If you're a horse person you'd have said she was cow-hocked, heh.

I do miss her furry butt. And yeah, that's one blue eye and one golden eye. 

In happier news, I've started my first garden here and the weather has finally warmed up. Hopefully we'll have a long, warm fall and the veggies will have time to mature from their late start.  So far, only the jalapenos are flowering.

Knitting you say?  I'm so virtuous it's disgusting.  I'm currently about 90% done on the Trellis and Keyhole Tank from the latest issue of Interweave Knits. The yarn is recycled linen/viscose from a too-large tank top I harvested from the Boulder Mall aka the free box. What a pain in the ass it was to frog that.  Note to manufacturers: step away from the serger, plz. I had to cut the yarn into lots more bits than I would have liked, but the large skeins seem to be enough for the pattern I'm working on. 

The color is growing on me.  It's a bit bleached out by the sun in the above picture. Have never thought I looked good in green but maybe this will be all right. If not, can always gift the bugger.  I was looking forward to the Hindu Pillar stitch after the long bits of stockinette but after the first couple of rows, meh. It slows you down considerably and as usual, I'm ready for this sucker to be done and on the body.
The above pic is the back.
Here's another of the entire back and partially knitted front.

Mods:
-- MUCH thicker yarn, had to completely rewrite the pattern. S.L.O.W.L.Y.  Many stoopid math errors here
--Didn't wash and weight the yarn after re-skeining because I like the kinky-crunchy look of the once-knitted yarn. That crunchiness shows up well in the ribbing. See above.
--Had to decrease sharply after the ribbing due to completely different gauge knitting in the round vs. swatching flat. Forgot about the waist shaping and decreased all in one round. also very visible, hoping  blocking will minimize the visibility. NOT ripping it out.
--Gauge got larger again once I separated for the front and back at the armholes.  So this may be too large/too long for me. 
--Forgot to take into account the weight of the yarn. Great drape but again, may be too long due to weight-of-yarn related stretching.
Yawn. Next...

Spring In BTown or Home at Last

Spring is a fickle beyotch fer shure, but for now she's showing her finest side. Here's what springtime down off the Burr Trail looks like in late April.

And here's a little Scarlet Paintbrush loveliness
So much to be grateful for.
These photos were part of a great 3 hour hike last Sunday.  We had ambitions of hiking out to Stryker Overlook off of the Upper Muley Twist trail, but some problems with the battery in the 'Burb made us choose the closer option in the event it wouldn't start on our way out.  I'm kind of glad we took the closer in option.  After 2 months at sea level, I seem to have lost some if not all of my altitude adaptation. So that little 3 hour, easy hike kicked my butt.  But there's the entire season to get back in shape and so many trails I've never yet hiked. Not to mention bushwhacking which I purely love.

So, yeah, bring it, Spring...

Countdown to Squeeeeeeeee

So tonight I meet with my prospective tenants.  Please cross all available digits, yes?  I'm loving my time in Miami but I am terribly homesick for Utah.  I wanna go home.

It's been another astoundingly beautiful day here in paradise south aka Miami. Low humidity, light wind, blazing sun, squealing squirrels in the backyard... you get the idea.  And a full moon tonight, ordered especially for my boyo's 60th birthday today.    How the hell did it happen that I'm living with a geezer, huh?

heheheh. He'd kill me if he knew I'm putting up his picture here but, tough. This is from last April on South Beach.  Ain't he cute?   Since then he's lost the moustache, and tanned up a  bit.  In case you're wondering, I wear the matching "Beast" cap.  Truth in advertising, eh?

Not that you can tell in this picture, but the ice blue/green of the ocean exactly matches his eyes.  Am I smitten or what? 

1100 Words and More Waiting

The potential tenants aren't back until Wednesday. Fingers tapping... turning this over to the universe fer shure.  May the house be 'handled' in the best possible way for me and all concerned. 
It can be very freeing to just turn back to that which I can actually accomplish, like the final punch list, marking hurricane shutters, cleaning the grout on the front porch, finishing the gardening.

And today I wrote 11oo words. If not now, when, eh? 

I think I need to do some knitting...

Ballet and Base and Free, Free, Free (except Base, heh)

What an unforeseen and wonderful free day.  Free as in tickets to the Sunday matinee at the Miami City Ballet courtesy of my friend Neesy via a kind gifter on Freecycle. Free as in wandering all over Lincoln Road pedestrian mall on Miami Beach admiring the two-legged wildlife.   And a kind waitron at one of my favorite just-off-Lincoln-Road restaurants gifting me with a free chocolate truffle.   Followed by a free NYTimes Sunday paper gifted by one of the other patrons there as he left.    And a free (only because I can't have afford a damned thing there, right now) stroll through Base, hands down my favorite clothing/music/houseware/style store EVAH.  The website doesn't show the women's clothing nor most of the everchanging decor. Always inspiring.  The website says it and it is true, this store re-defines retailing in its own, quirky uber hip yet accessible way. it's sort of the anti-hip, blow your mind, effortless, smack your forhead why didn't I think of that design.  In three dimensions and six senses. Yeah.

And O, my girlchiks. What incredible design and knitting inspiration I found at Base.  Constructed and deconstructed tunics, tank tops, sweaters...Noro sock yarn striped black flipflops, pillows, scent, and the music bar...they should hand out lobster shack bibs at the door to handle the drooling.   The best CD bar ever, including Berlin, eh.   Can you tell my not-ready-for-prime-time-rural-Utah internal fashionista is out of her closet???  Oah, yesssssss.  

I'll do my best to sketch out a few of the ideas, but no promises as to the quality of the artwork. Let's just say that I doubt I can knit quickly enough and I know I can't knit at a fine enough gauge to make most of what I saw at Base. But I can get close...

So. What floated your boat this weekend?

I am Fully Capable of Committing Poetry...

That line came to me as I sat in a bookstore cafe yesterday.   And have I told you lately how much I love Orion magazine?
If you're not yet familiar with it, O my girlchiks, you are in for a mad treat.  The subtitle below the masthead says, "Nature/Culture/Place".  It's published by the non-profit Orion Society. 

The photos alone are worth the $7 no-advertising-whatsoever price.   You can also subscribe digitally actually gaining more photo galleries, lowering carbon footprint, etc.   And scattered throughout its pages are wonderful poems. Four in the current issue alone.  There is most always some fiction and there are many wonderful articles by a who's who of nature/culture/place writers like Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass, Annick Smith, Gary Snyder, Gary Paul Nabhan, Bill McKibben, and others much less well known and worthy of knowing better. 

Make room on the bookshelf, though. For it's really, really hard to part with any of the print copies of the mag. The photos are that luscious and the layout is clean and spare.  It's a refuge for soul and eyes.

Mood Indigo

Your rainbow is intensely shaded white, red, and violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate quiet moments. People depend on you to make them feel secure. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you.

Cheerfully swiped from Rabbitch, eh.

Bloody dogged day today here in paradise south.  Standing at the kitchen counter (for lack of a table in this near-to-empty, soon-to-be-rented, please goddess, house) working online and on the phone on endless tax and financial matters.  Cautious good news on those things.   And researching home health care options for a dear friend's husband whose condition has taken a turn for the worse.    I made some tough phone calls today and yeah, I did suck it up, buttercup, or as we say in Utah I did surely 'cowgirl up'.   

I'd be sitting at the table out on the deck enjoying the humidity and the breeze,  but the mosquitos won't share, teh barstards.   I am in dire need of a glass of cava and dancing cabana boys. Cabana boys who will skein all my yarn for me and tink that damned wrap, too.    That totally counts as knitting content in my book.  Later, girlchiks.