(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Remembering

Late November is hard. The year is ending, the nights are long. Six years ago today Nonny died and a guiding light for my life went dark. It's been beautiful having Mom and Dad in town this Thanksgiving. We've shared memories and food and family holiday traditions. I still think about Nonny almost every day and remember things she taught me—how to make Jule Kage and gingersnaps, the value of making things, the importance of volunteering, and how to live a good life.  I continue to try and live up to her example and standards. I hope I'm doing well.

Holiday Traditions

I took advantage of Dad's visit. This morning, he made a batch of caramels  (I'm perfectly happy to let the expert do it when he's on hand) and then turned half of the caramel into turtles. I have about 40 pieces of caramely chocolately nutty happiness to share with David (and no one else) during the next few weeks. I don't have the patience to carefully lay out pairs of pecans, coat them with caramel, and then dunk them in melted chocolate after the caramel has cooled.

If I were a better blogger, I would have photographed the entire candymaking process, but I was doing other things while Dad worked today. Should I be ambitious next weekend and make more just for the benefit of the blog?

I interspersed making Jule Kage (Danish Christmas Bread) with the candy making: I mixed up dough, Dad made caramel and dropped it over nuts, I shaped loaves, Dad dunked turtles in chocolate, I baked the bread. And then I made a second batch of caramel for David and I to take to work this week.

As always, caramel and Jule Kage signal the true beginning of the Christmas season for me. Annoyning automobile ads during football games, lights on houses, and decorations everywhere are all lovely, but it isn't Christmas until my kitchen smells like cardamom, vanilla, and melted sugar.

 

Today's new house discovery is that my oven temperature is running about 20 degrees low. This hasn't been a problem for roasted meat and vegetables and casseroles (all I've used the oven for since we moved in), but it certainly is for bread and explains why the apple pie was a little bit underbaked even after extra time in the oven. I hope the thermostat is consumer fixable. If it isn't, this may be the tipping point to get an appliance repair person out to troubleshoot the other little problems we've been having.

 

A Short Trip to Point Reyes

Since rain is predicted all weekend in the North Bay, Mom, Dad, and I drove north this morning (instead of tomorrow as we had originally planned). We headed for Muir Woods, but changed plans once we learned that the park parking lot was full, the shuttle lot was full, and the shuttle line was long. We continued north to Point Reyes Station for lunch at Marin Sun Farms.

After lunch, we drove on to the lighthouse. Even though it was cloudy, windy, and chilly by the time we got to the lighthouse, we enjoyed the vistas, watching a bird hover in the wind (unfortunately my photos of that are blurry), and climbing the 308 steps back up from the lighthouse.

Now I want to spend a long weekend in one of the lovely inns on the coast to spend time on the beach, hike in the hills, and poke around in all the little towns. And distribute the long drives over a couple of days.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday, I spotted a surprise in my yard—blossoms on two of the rose bushes. We've been so busy, I pretty much missed the buds. I cut three flowers for our Thanksgiving table.

I hope your Thusday was as lovely as mine and that holiday happiness exceeded holiday stress. I spent time with family and cooked: pies, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, cheesy wild rice, and roasted green beans. Activities that always make me happy, even when the pie crust doesn't quite cooperate. We visited via Skype with the Wisconsin contingent of my family. Best of all, everyone pitched in to wash dishes, so my dishwasher-less kitchen is clean. Everything is clean, and almost everything is already put away.

And I knit a bit. The red scarf is ready for blocking. I started a giant swatch with the yarn I bought last week. I hope it doesn't lie.

Developing style

Since we moved and I started working in an office again, I've been a little bit (really a lot) clothing obsessed. My daily T-shirt plus yoga pants or jeans on office days and khakis with a button down for customer meetings uniform no longer cuts it. This being clothing obsessed and actually needing to budget for clothes (as opposed to just buying things as others wore ou) has been an interesting challenge—expecially since I started at pretty much zero a year ago. D and I have very different views on what represents a reasonable clothing budget. We've more or less compromised on a number that I can live with if I'm thoughtful about what I buy.

I still hate shopping even though I live within sight of a giant mall. And I'm still terrible at putting together an outfit complete with accessories. I always feel like I'm trying to hard when I toss a scarf on with whatever else I'm wearing. Even after many years of watching What Not to Wear, I'm stymied by getting dressed most mornings. I can envision what I want to look like, but I rarely manage to put all the pieces together.

I've never thought hard about building and maintaining a working wardrobe. My attitude has always been buy classic pieces and wear them until they fall apart or don't fit. Since my size has been nearly constant for about 10 years, falling apart has been the criteria for cycling things out. Or, I get tired of something, stop wearing it, and discover it five years later lurking in the back of my closet when we pack things up to move.

Just before we moved to California, I learned about Stitch Fix and getting dressed got significantly easier. Once a month (or so) a box of clothes arrives on my doorstep. I try everything on, and send back the things that don't work for me. Every piece comes with a styling card with two ways to wear and accessorize it—dressed up for work and more casual (which almost always works for me). Best of all, the box pushes my boundaries just enough to make my outfits interesting. Some of my favorite clothes are things I never would have bought for myself in a store but I fell in love with once I tried them on.

I still gravitate to classic syles, but I'm slowly developing a bit of modern edge with a tiny bohemian vibe—a silk tunic with skinny jeans, a maxi dress, a motorcycle jacket styled sweater. And getting dressed most days is less work because I have things in my closet that I love and can work with. And I can continue to avoid the mall because someone else shops for me and usually listens to my preferences for natural fibers and high quality clothes.

To help out my stylist, I may feature an occasional favorite outfit on the blog. I doubt that I'll start sharing everything from every Stitch Fix box as some bloggers do, but I'll be sure to call out those things that did arrive in that monthly box.

Note: this post published itself last night before I finished writing it.

Ten on Tuesday: Thankful

Carole's prompt this week is Ten Things I'm Thankful For.

1. I'm healthy, David is healthy, and all four of our parents are healthy. Many friends have had health struggles this year. Many more lost parents. 
2. My kittie girls. They make me smile every day even when they're being pesky. I took the photo Sunday morning after I left my knitting out overnight. In addition to the scarf dangling from the sofa, one ball of my pretty new yarn was under the kitchen table. Even after 10 years, these two little girls sometimes remind me to be neater and pick up after myself.
3. I love what I do for a living, the people I work with, and the people I meet because of my job.
4. We found a beautiful new home in our new home town.
5. Wool and the sheep who grow it. And the farmers and processors who turn it into spinnable fiber, yarn, and clothing. Even though I've moved to a warmer climate, I still love my wool clothes. I've met many of my closest friends through wool and the things we all do with it.
6. David.
7. My nephews and nieces. It's nice to have kids to spoil even without any of my own. All seven of them are growing into interesting fun creative smart people.
8. Technology. It's been my career and it keeps me connected with friends all over the planet.
9. Airplanes. Flying them keeps David sane and happy. Traveling on them brings my family together (Mom and Dad are scheduled to land here any minute now) and helps me meet all the interesting people I work with.
10. All of you—friends, acquaintences, and strangers who read and comment, and have been keeping me blogging this month.

Story of a Scarf

I went to Rhinebeck in 2009 with many friends. We had a lovely weekend of chatting and eating and enjoying all the joys of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. I bought a bump of cormo roving from Briar Rose Fibers and a mini from the Bosworths and started to spin. My general goal was to match Malabrigo Lace. 

The spindle and fiber lived in my travel kit and were my travel spinning for almost three years. By the spring of 2012, I had a pile of yarn—about 600 yards of soft squooshy possiblity.

By June 2013, I knew what the yarn wanted to be (or at least what I wanted it to be). I spent my summer travels turning all that lovely yarn into a lightweight wispy scarf I called Windblown. I cast off with only a few inches of yarn left on my flight to Maui for our 20th anniversary celebration last August. I blocked Windblown in September and wore it throughout the fall. In December, I left it in a restaurant in Portland; lucky for me a kind person rescued my scarf and mailed it back to me.

I continued to wear my scarf all winter, even though it was barely cold enough. In April or May, I carefully washed Windblown with all my other woolens in preparation for summer storage. And things went horribly wrong. I set a load to soak and spin in the washing machine. I hung up the sweaters and socks, leaving Windblown and another handspun lace scarf behind. I intended to go back and pull them out to block on wires and pins. In my rush to finish all the laundry that day, I forgot they were still in the machine and ran another load.

I was sick to my stomach when I unloaded the washing machine and found two crumpled forlorn scarves at the bottom. I pulled them out and stretched and prodded and prayed, but water and agitation had worked their magic on the wool. The orginal Windblown was light and airy and maybe a bit too long; the new Windblown is cushy and snuggly and the perfect length.

Yes, I'm looking for the bright side in what felt like a disaster at the time. But I really do love the fulled scarf as much as the original. I just wish that I had intentionally fulled something else and not a project I spent nearly four years and hundreds of hours making. And now I always double check the washing machine before loading it up for the next load.

Goals week 2

I did OK on my goals last week.

• I blogged every day and included quite a few photos. 

• I did not spin every day, but there is more yarn on the bobbin today than there was last Sunday.

• I did not practice yoga or do PT exercises every day. Three days is not seven.

• I did not unpack every day I was home, but the big push yesterday made a big dent and moved all my boxes out of the guest room.  

• Most of the stuff is out of the guest room, but there is a bit more to move out.

My goals for this week are similar, with one key addition.

1. Write a blog post every day. Take a photo for at least 4 of them.

2. Spin for at least 20 minutes every day on the merino-silk.

3. Take care of myself by practicing yoga or doing back PT exercises daily—ideally first thing in the morning.

4. Move everything left in the guest room to a permanent location. Unpack the boxes in the guest bathroom. Before Tuesday.

5. Have fun with Mom and Dad. We're planning to get out and do fun Bay Area things. Dad wants to visit the Ghiradelli Outlet. Mom wants to see coastal redwoods. We'll probably spend a day doing San Francisco tourist things. We'll watch the Packers-Patriots game on Sunday.

Unpacking

We're still unpacking. Three weeks ago, my studio looked like this. Last weekend we bought bookcases at Ikea and built the shelves for my studio (bookcase is new, we moved the 5x5 Expedit). Today, we built the bookcases for David's office. Then we spent the evening unpacking the boxes of books and other stuff that had been lurking in our private spaces.

I still need to do some organizing. The books, for example, are sorted by craft and then pretty much by size and broad category. The random bits I found in random boxes are mostly just tossed onto the shelves with no realy order. Most importantly, the yarn and fiber is hiding out of the frame in boxes, bins, and the closet. And there are 6 boxes of papers to sort. And my desk is a disaster. And I need work tables for the sewing machines and drum carder.

But today I made real progress toward turing my space into a working studio.

Yesterday's yarn

To me, this is a big pile of possibility. I'm going to start knitting tomorrow. My flight home was delayed nearly an hour. I need a small snack, since I didn't get supper, and then a long sleep.