FiberTribe

Reading

Been reading some of this:

P.D. James: The Murder Room. so far so good. I like her spare voice and the rich inner voice that is her primary device for her main character, Adam Dalgliesh.

We're Just Like You, Only Prettier by a tarnished southern belle (her own description) and of course her name escapes me.  Just like the jacket blurbs describe, I defy you to read this without much snorting and cackling.  I also like it because it reminds me that I am, too, a Southerner.  You know, I'm reading along going, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, what's yer point? duh. The writer is a North Carolina native so there ARE some differences. Cherce line? "As my Aunt Sudavee says, A bit dog hollers." gotta love it.  Or, "The last thing a good ol' boy says before he dies: "Hey, ya'll! Watch this!" heh. I grew up with people like this.  For one thing, for reasons that are just not clear to me, we always went to a neighborhood Southern Baptist church. Mind you we weren't Baptist. We weren't anything, come to think of it. Go figure. I bet you anything you care to name (and I'll win) that you just couldn't find a better theatre of the absurd than a Southern Baptist congregation in Miami in the early sixties.

What else?

Amy Tan: The Opposite of Fate. Autobiographical essays with her wonderful voice, of course. My friend Matteo called me up this morning to say that at last week's T.E.D. conference he was seated next to Amy T. at lunch. I shrieked, he cackled. Apparently Ms. Amy carries two small dogs around with her in a pouch. And is as wonderful in person as you'd think from her writing.

Don't you love the title of her book?

Pink Flamingos of Spring

Thank you, thank you, Secret Pal!  Spring has officially arrived chez FiberTribe courtesy of my secret pal. The handspun beauty above is in the colorway Pink Flamingos and I defy you to gaze upon it and NOT think of spring.  You can bet that these pink flamingos won't be perched on my lawn, but rather on my needles. Since this is 361 yards of screaming pink, there is a chance that it will be enough for a v-neck shell or tank. Can't wait to swatch it up. 

I have to say that this is a perfect antidote to the gray February grizzlies. And yes, even down here in the sunshine we're not immune to that end of February is-it-just-me or has this new year gotten off to a crappy start for everyone? feeling.

Actually, there have been many good things going on but also lots of mechanical breakdowns, plans going haywire, and just a general malaise. Maybe it's growing pains, maybe it's just the turn of the year and facing all the tasks to be done. Whatever. This pinkness just shakes it loose.

I Went to Sarasota to Sea What I Could Sea

And it was very, very lovely. Cool breezes, great beach, fucking freezing cold water but I laughed at it and did not dip a toe. Lots of great little shops and fifi places but just enough of the old, redneck west coast of Florida to fall in love with it. The landscape is much more sere than the east coast. Here we're all about tropical and lush and overgrown green. West coast is Dade County pine and dry scrub and sable palms.  Hardscrabble, thin soil on top of limestone (ancient coral reefs) and old frame houses. Lots and lots of protestant DIY standalone churches once you get outside of where the real estate developers have run amok. Once upon a time Myamuh was a lot like that.

Lots of good seafood and, christ on a pogo stick, americans friggin' everywhere... so weird to be back in the land of walking shorts and billed caps and wide bodies and shiny pickups driven by shaggy drivers.  The Land Where Buick Rules Supreme. The only spanish I heard all weekend was the accent on the Ritz-Carlton cabana guy, William (gotta believe the R-C was behind that anglicization). And even he was from Puerto Rico...not the other island. And no, my wallet doesn't stretch far enough to encompass a weekend at full price at the Ritz-C.  Some friends were down from NYC with their kids attending a nearby superfamous tennis camp. And such a deal the R-C made them. I stayed down the road at the Mormon-hegemony chain.

Best of all, I got to do two of my most favorite things simultaneously: walk the beach and knit. Am a third of the way up the first sleeve of the Hourglass Sweater and am loving the wider stripes and slower, subtler color changes.  But I am damned sure I will be running out of yarn pdq. Curse badly written patterns.  Will have to call woolneedlework to see if they have any more in this dye lot. Pray to the yarn goddess for me, peeps.   oh. and btw, it was a three hour drive precisely door to door miami to sarasota.  Now that I've got my driving groove back, a certain Bossy Little Dog better watch her butt. For I am bound to come up there and check out her redneck sprinkler system.

My fingers still smell like the ocean. The best.

Li*on Brand Infomercial, WTF?

So am I the only one who is wondering why she PAID for an extended Li*on Brand infomercial when she bought the latest issue of K1?   Is this what it takes to get knit designs published these days?  Geez.  Some of the designs are great, usually despite the cheesy yarn, but some of these are instant flashbacks to how a 70's knitting mag looks beyond ridiculous today. I'm thinking that all that talent could really produce a baby zine that rocks.  And can you imagine if one of the better yarn companies or several of them together had the deep pockets to produce such a mag?

P.S. Tried to put an image of the most recent cover here but it's saved as an art or bitmap file which typepad doesn't support. It's all good. I'd rather not pimp for them anyway.

Free Wilderness Announcement

Yes, I know. And yet all of our voices need to be heard. I read a lot of ya'lls blogs from Utah and Colorado and other places of breathtaking beauty. I know you love you some mountains and desserts and wild wildness.  So here's your chance to raise voices all together. I'm FOR it so will you join me? 

Evr yr shameless political hussy,

Caroline, who only wishes she was the...

President
Natural Resources Defense Council

		The Bureau of Land Management has released a new draft management plan that would allow oil and gas drilling on the fragile, uppermost ranges of Colorado's Roan Plateau. The plateau is one of the most biologically diverse areas in Colorado -- home to elk, deer, cutthroat trout and many rare plants -- and its clear streams, plunging canyons and forests of aspen and spruce offer exceptional fishing, camping and sightseeing. But with roughly half of the plateau area already in the hands of oil and gas companies, the summit and cliffs of this national treasure have become one of the region's last remnants of wild beauty. We are calling on the BLM to adopt a more balanced land management strategy and prohibit oil and gas development on the plateau's most ecologically sensitive lands. » Urge the BLM to revise its draft management plan for the Roan Plateau. KEEP LOGGING OUT OF TONGASS WILDLANDS In a move that could lead to increased pressure to log the Tongass National Forest, T.F., Inc., a forest products consulting group based in Washington state, has begun negotiations to reopen and operate the Ketchikan veneer mill in Alaska. If reopened, the mill may put wild and roadless areas in the Tongass National Forest at risk, either by using trees directly from these areas now or at some point in the future, or by increasing the overall regional demand for logs at a time when the U.S. Forest Service has reopened Tongass roadless lands to logging. The wild reaches of the Tongass provide a rainforest haven for bald eagles, brown bears, wild salmon and other wildlife. Last year, nearly 60,000 messages from BioGems Defenders helped persuade an Oregon-based timber products company to withdraw from talks to restart the Ketchikan mill. Now, we are calling on you once again to ensure this facility stays shuttered as long as the Forest Service continues to leave roadless areas in the Tongass at risk. » Urge T.F., Inc., to halt negotiations over the Ketchikan veneer mill until the Forest Service reinstates protections for Tongass roadless areas.

Playing with Crisp

Crisp is the lovely handspun on the bottom left from Hello Yarn's Adrian Bizilia's wonderfully creative hands.  What colors, yes?  Since there was only one skein left to buy, what you see above are the results of my hunt for yarn mates to create something to wear (other than a scarf, not too frequently worn here in Miami) out of it.  On top is white Katia Ingenua, my most favorite soft mohair in the world. Peeps, I've knit a halter top out of this and the giftee swears it's lovely to wear even without a bra.  My idea was a front of something like a shrug or Stephanie's Boobholder in the Crisp then arms and back in something else. Like the Ingenua held together with one of the two Koigus you see to the right of the Crisp. The colors of the Koigus are much softer and more muted than in this photo. I will swatch but I'm thinking the Crisp will show up better up against a white cloud of loosely knit mohair.  Am also thinking about a simple top with the ta-ta area of the front in the Crisp and the rest of the shell in loosely knit white mohair along with longish slightly belled sleeves also in loosely knit mohair. Kind of a dreamy, lace-like effect in very large stockinette stitches without having to knit the lace.  So what do you think? Am open to other ideas so if you've got 'em, let 'em rip...

No picture of the Hourglass Silk Garden Sweater since 15 inches of Hourglass looks much like 13 inches of Hourglass recently posted.  If you want to see more, head on over to Blog-O-Rama and see Michelle's Hourglass in purple CashIroha. And wish her happy birthday, too!

From My Bear to Yours

Happy Valentine's Day from me and my grumpy bear.  Borrowed from another blog:  Sometimes I wake up grumpy. Sometimes I let him sleep. Heh.  You see the gold thread bandoliers?  They held chocolates. Held being the operative word.  Oh yes, chocolate anesthesia does work.

And here is the Hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Not quite up to the break for the armholes but almost. Notice the odd dark stripes in the middle. The yarn is color #84 dyelot #02, all the same. So here is another peculiarity of Noro's latest Silk Garden to add to the frequent knot issue.  Bizarre color variations within the same dyelots. Eh. Lucky I'm not fussy about this.  Just can't wait to wear it.

It's a perfect color for the day, yes?  So go, wrap yourself in some red love.

Everything's Perfect

Not a good end to the day. I trudge home, feeling blue and bereft. Again. Took myself out to dinner, still no refrigerator (awaiting a part) so I have to eat out if I want anything fresh and green. 

And there in the mail box is a plump white envelope from Corine, one of my Secret Pals 3.  You see, she needed some additional DB alpaca silk in a certain dyelot in order to finish her vest. So rather than send money, we agreed that she'd go down to her LYS and pick something out of similar value and send it along.  C and her son, Aidan (thanks for helping mom, Aidan!) did just that.  And this is what they chose:

First, the clever wrapping, wee package is connected to the next which is connected to...Fiesta Yarns, La Boheme, mohair, wool, nylon & a strand of rayon boucle. In color Caribbean and as blue as the water off Pelican Rocks in the B.V.I. Oh, yes. What to make will take up a whole 'nuther post, you betcha.

But I don't know this yet. I walk on up to my front door, tremulous smile trying to peek out, clutching my plump and promising envelope, and there hidden behind a plant is a smallish, long box containing this:

Handpainted lace-weight merino in the color 'seaweed' from Juno. It's my prize for making her spit up her diet soda onto her computer monitor. I swear. Go see. And in her mad preparation for going away on a trip, she made time to wrap and send my prize out.  Which of course, I totally forgot about.  I'm sayin' I'm not thinking of prizes when I'm dumpster diving my so-called lovelife and coming up with slim pickings...

So my two lovelies? You totally rock!  How could I have doubted that everything's perfect?  Mwah!

Stash Diving

Thursday, February 10th...This is a do-over, peeps.

You deserve a crisp, clear roll in the red.  Doesn't it just lift the spirit?  Lately I've been working on a lot of first chakra issues, tribe, family, welcoming, belonging... no surprise I've been drawn to red, the color of that chakra. No accident that it's the color of Valentine's Day, eh?  BTW, the heart chakra is green...

I fell into a drawer full of red. Ritratto, Lang Opal, Stacy Charles Baci, KPPM deep rubies, cotton classic deeply saturated... every possible shade of brilliant and deep reds, yum. damn, I have a fine stash. Too tired to knit a stitch tonight but just looking at the quietly glowing yarn is a meditation. I really did get into this for the color. That's probably why I can take or leave cables, textures and fiddly objects like gloves and socks. I just love to watch the colors flow from the needles and I stop often to pet the fabric. It's a sensualist's vice, eh? 

Progress + Wonderment

Here for your viewing pleasure is a slightly blurry and not altogether color-accurate picture of 6 1/2 inches of the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden color # 84.  The colors are much more subtle than this and the greeny browns don't show up well in this picture.  Will try again later in daylight. The stripes are so skinny because this is knit in the round. As others have noted, this yarn ain't what it used to be. It's coarse with lots of twigs and threads raveled and protruding. But Eisaku still has a magic hand with color.  And the cool nights warm days pattern is holding so Hourglass may yet get worn with my favorite pair of brown cords.

The wonderment(s)?  The first is that my eyes popped open at 5:45 am thereby enabling this early morning post.  Odd dreams again last night. High ceiling-ed, large and dark apartments, cats coming and going, Spanish ladies with bad teeth, my late stepfather, you name it. Like being in an Almodovar movie. And I haven't been watching Almodovar movies. Eh.

Wonderment #2 is the wonderful conversation on Sunday with one of my life coaching buddies, Beth. I'd been mulling over whether or not to go for a one-day writing workshop offered by two writers I love, love, love: Will Shetterly and Emma Bull. It's offered in March in Tucson, AZ.  Pretty far to go for just one day and then I'd have to do a very tight turnaround on the return. And since Miami-Tucson is not a heavily travelled route it's not cheap, either. And then as I'm talking with Beth, it turns out she lives in Tucson. Synchronicity is OK with me. I can take a hint writ that large, O yes.  And we're doing a trade. An intuitive reading/energy work by me in exchange for a life purpose reading by her.  Beth has an amazing national practice doing these readings. And dude, could I use a few choice hints right about now.

Wonderment #3 is that Mindy is a fellow science fiction/fantasy geek. Who knew? Don't you love the connections the knitblogiverse throws your way?

And the Boy? Erm. Calls were received but nothing was resolved. Like George Carlin says, ya gotta wanna...