Resolutions

Oh, good heavens. I found out that I didn't publish the post below to this blog, and it's been SEVEN MONTHS since I wrote it.  Sheesh.  Which all goes to show how much I do on this blog. However, I will post it now, because I really have been working on this resolution. More on that later, I promise.

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As usual, I'm late with any kind of Christmasy messages, forget about Christmas letters. I had a letter started and was two-thirds of the way through, and then life intervened. Well, with the Alien Child and his lovely wife (yes, he got married this year!) off to be with her family, my husband and I decided we'd have a quiet holiday just by ourselves and my mom. Surely I'd get through the Christmas letter and send it off.

Well, you know how it is. We found out that some college friends of ours weren't going to go see their family down in California after all, and then of course there's their grown-up son who is friends-like-brothers with the Alien Child, and we thought why not invite them to our quiet evening?  And then we found that my brother-in-law and his wife were going to meet up with those friends, and just to make it all convenient for everyone's schedule, we invited them, too.

So instead of a couple of turkey breast slices, salad, and stollen bread, we ended up with a whole turkey, spiral-sliced ham, pumpkin and pecan pies (good thing I had already made the pie crust and put them in the freezer for future use), the whole works. It was the Christmas that Grew.

And that is a perfectly good and happy thing to happen, but it means the intended Christmas letter (and Christmas cards) did not get done. Clearly, I need to schedule and organize these things better.  In fact, I need to organize more than Christmas better.

I did decide on a New Year's resolution, however: to organize, and then reduce my yarn stash to at least 10 percent of what it is now before I buy more. 

Don't laugh.  This is a serious endeavor.  I knew I had quite a lot of yarn (as well as spinning fiber), but not really how much, as quite a bit of it is stashed here and there in the house, somewhat in the manner of a squirrel stashing nuts in the forest. I also realized a while ago that I tend to buy yarn according to color first for a project, and then by type of fiber.  So, the logical thing to do was to gather all my yarn together and sort them out and store them according to color.

Dear heaven.  I seriously did not realize how much yarn I actually had. I was on the brink of turning into one of those hoarder people on reality TV. In fact, last night while I was in my computer room, I suddenly remembered I had some yarn stashed away in some drawers there, too, which I hadn’t looked at for probably years.  Luckily, I always put bags of lavender throughout a container whenever I have yarn in it, so they’re fine.  But for the first time last night, I had a feeling of...dread, thinking of the fact that there might be even more yarn stashed away elsewhere that I had forgotten about.

I had turned into a Yarn Squirrel. This is not good.

I was not taking out skeins to enjoy the look, feel, and texture.  That would have been a useful thing to do, a way of de-stressing without having to resort to medication. I had put them away, but not to take out and make things for others or even myself, which not only would have been calming, but a happy, bountiful thing to do. No, I had turned into someone who squirrels away yarn for the sake of squirrelling away yarn.

I had a dim realization that I had a very large stash of yarn before Christmas, and needed to do something about it, and to that end I made a resolution to reduce it. To ensure committment to this goal, I knit a bunch of items for my church's Holiday Fair.  I even gave out coupons to some coworkers with a list of small, quick-to-knit items on them (scarves, hats, fingerless gloves, etc.) for Christmas, thinking this would surely reduce my stash to the desired 10 percent. 

After having organized for half a day and two evenings, I found that I had way more than I had thought. Way, way more. Knitting these goodies for friends and coworkers would make only a small dent in the mounds of yarn I have.

I have already given away yarn to (and made hats for) charity and to friends who knit. But I am reluctant to give away the very, very, very nice stuff that I have accumulated over the years. It's stuff that would cost a mint these days, stuff that I bought when the price was a pittance years ago.  There is nothing for it but I must knit them.

Good thing my family now includes a daughter-in-law and her family.  I now have a wider group of people to knit for.

So, first up: a long scarf made of Lang Colori superwash wool yarn, fingering weight, in a gradient dark taupe/beige color for my dear hubby. I bought this yarn while we were living in Germany. The design is very simple: stockinette stitch to show off the gradient color, with garter stitch edging to keep it from curling, and with fringes at each end.

Second in line, a pair of fingerless gloves in a soft merino wool, taupe, DK or worsted weight, for a coworker. This will have a lace design on the back of the hands, possibly with buttons at the wrist. I already have buttons I need to use.

I have a list of knitting projects now.  I guess I'll see how far through this stash I get. Yeow.

Fabric, yarn, and ghosts

Yesterday, I went with my mom and my sister-in-law Margaret to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA. We always go every year, as Mom is one of the Clothing and Textiles Advisors (CTA--which for some reason makes me think of something like "counter-terrorism agency") who help organize the event.  If you're a fiber artist, into sewing or knitting, this is the place to be.  There are tons of helpful workshops and an abundance of vendors selling every type of fabric, yarn, notions, and machines to fill a crafter's heart with joy. People from all over the country and even out of the country come to this expo. 

I went in thinking I'd not buy anything, or if anything, just one item.  Foolish, foolish me! I came away with a skein of furry yarn (to go with some yarn I already have, so as to make a fancy shrug), 8 oz of alpaca fiber (from Longbranch Fiber Farm, which has VERY soft alpaca fleece, and almost NO guardhairs), and a pair of lovely fine silk scarves from Leilani Arts. I could not believe it, but those scarves--quite large--were only $10 each!  What a deal! They also had some very, very tempting Merino Irish Donegal Tweed yarn (actually made in Ireland), worsted weight, two skeins of which would have been perfect for the shawls I've been obsessively making, but I refrained, as I have yarn I need to go through first for those projects. Yes, I was strong, strong, I tell you! Because those skeins were very lovely and so, so soft, and at a very decent price. 

Margaret was about as foolish as I was, for she also had vowed not to buy anything, but of course came away with some to-die-for cute vintage embroidery patterns, and then she got stuck somehow looking at more vintage goods, as well as buying SOMETHING (which I will not reveal, because she is making it for a certain SOMEONE who may read my blog) that I am sure that SOMEONE will like a great deal.

As for quilters...well, if you have not gone to the expo, this is quilter heaven. The fat quarters were plentiful and diverse, and the displays of quilts were glorious.

I was happy to see Maker's Mercantile at the Expo, which is the brand new retail shop that features the famous Skacel Collection (of the fabulous Addi Turbo needles and other fine notions and scrumptious yarn).  I had noticed this shop on my way back from shopping at the Uwajimaya's Renton store, and of course had to stop in because, hello, YARN. It also has RylieCakes within the shop, which is a gluten-free cafe full of lovely gluten-free pastries. AND they have a place where you can sit and knit! What can be better than noshing down deliciousness while knitting and chatting?

Mom, who is 81, seemed tireless as we walked through two buildings for a good 5 hours.  I noticed that she hardly used her cane at all.  What's up with that?  She'd fallen a few times this year, which has caused my brothers and me a great deal of concern.  But here, she hardly showed any signs of fatigue, except once when she wanted to sit down for a few minutes before she was up and about again.  Either her physical therapy is showing good results, or it is a testament to the healing power of fiber arts.  She was in particular pursuit of an iron, but we didn't find one that suited her needs at the time, possibly because she decided to look for one near the end of our stay, and only looked in one building. We did get separated from time to time in our quest for Mom's iron, but thank goodness for cell phones. 

And now we come to the ghost. After all this fabric and fiber glory, it was close to 5 pm, so we decided to go to a very nice Japanese restaurant in the heart of the old part of Tacoma. We managed to escape to our cars between rain showers--it was quite cloudy and rainy--and drove a few minutes to the place.  Fujiya resides at the top of an old building, which--if I recall its history correctly--still has the original stained glass at the top of its windows that face the street below. 

We were one of the first to arrive after the restaurant opened for the evening, and so the waitress said we could sit where we wanted. Margaret immediately made a bee-line for the booth in one corner, saying it looked like a sunny place to sit.  I was momentarily taken aback by this, because the clouds hadn't parted, and there was no sunshine beaming down on that particular booth, not that I could see.  But I went with it, because we could see down to the street below. 

We went through our menu, while the waitress brought our nicely large pot of green tea and poured it into our cups. But while I was sipping my tea, a sudden movement caught my eye--it was the teapot!  It had slid a definite two inches to the side.  I pushed it away from the edge of the table.  Perhaps I was seeing things.  I went back to my menu, watching the pot out of the corner of my eyes.  It moved again!

"Did you see that?" I asked Mom and Margaret.  "The teapot moved--by itself."

Mom said, "I thought you were pushing it."

"No, I wasn't!"  It moved again.  "There, see?"  I had both my hands on the menu, so there was no way I could have moved it.

"Oh, that's weird," Margaret said, laughing.  "Maybe it's a ghost."

I thought about it a minute--surely there was a rational explanation for it.  I noticed that the table was wet.  Perhaps that was it.  I took my napkin and lifted the teapot--still pretty full, even after the waitress had poured the tea--and wiped the table and the bottom of the teapot until it was totally dry.  I felt it to make sure.  I set the pot down again.

"Okay," I said.  "Let's see if it moves."

We went back to our menus again, but it was obvious that we weren't focused on ordering yet--we were watching the teapot.

It moved again, this time a shorter distance, maybe an inch.  Was the table vibrating from something, enough to cause it to move?  Was there something under the table, maybe some magnet, that was pushing it around?  I felt the surface of the table, and under it.  No vibration, nothing. There was no draft of air going through our corner--the air was still.

The waitress came back again to take our orders.  The teapot moved again.  

"Did you see that?  The teapot moving?" I said.

She grinned.  "Oh, I see you've met our poltergeist.  Yeah, he or she keeps moving the teapot at this booth, and sometimes the one next to it.  It's always the teapots, never the water glasses or the sake bottles."

"Are you serious?" Margaret said.

"This is an old building," the waitress said.  "A lot of buildings in old Tacoma are, and we've experienced more than a few things like this.  The Swiss Hall?  You go there and sometimes you hear some old music playing, even when there's nobody else there--you know, polkas and stuff like that." She nodded at the teapot.  "This one is all right. Sometimes I think it just wants to help pour the tea." She opened the top of the teapot and looked in.  "Thanks for helping," she said to the teapot, and laughed. 

We talked some more about the ghost, and she mentioned that she was careful about telling people about the ghost, especially children, because she didn't want to scare them.  Her own young son had experienced the teapot moving, so she told him that it was because she was magic, which he was very ready to believe, because aren't mothers magic to very young children?  She didn't mind telling us about the resident ghost, because it was clear we weren't worried about it.

We ordered our dinner then, and I kept an eye on the pot.  It didn't just move in one direction, but around.  Oddly, it moved when it was full, and never when it was empty or close to empty. I would have thought that it would have moved more easily had it been empty, but it didn't at all.

When our meal came, we dug in and ignored the moving teapot, and after a while it stopped moving.  The food was delicious, and Endo--the owner/chef--sent out a complementary appetizer, which he did the last time I had been to this restaurant.  Margaret had some grilled fish, and I had a combo sushi plate, and Mom chose from the a la carte sushi menu.  So good!

Just before we left, I gave a nod to the teapot and said, "thanks for making our meal memorable."  It gave one last jiggle before the waitress came to take it and our dishes away.  I like to think it was the ghost's way of saying "you're welcome."  :-D

Baking Pies

The Bake Sale Table - yum!

Today, I'm being bad...but good.  I'm skipping church, but I'm making up for it by doing two things:  Sleep in late (hey, it's supposed to be a day of rest!), and baking pies for the Holiday Fair that's coming up on November 5th.   It's a marvelous Holiday Fair, and I absolutely love it.  Everything's all decorated and people are cheerful and friendly, the children are excited, because it all says Christmas is coming in not too long from now.  I love it because of the happy vibes, and because the proceeds go to help the community in the form of donations to homeless shelters, orphanages, and so on.  In the past, we've donated to the Domestic Abuse Women's Network,  to Hope for the Children of Africa, and many more.  This year, it's to benefit two charities, Fusion and Ramps.

Quilts!  Christmas Decorations!  Paddle Thingies!

The pies?  They'll be apple pies.  I mean the genuine Federal Way United Methodist Women's apple pie recipe, with the lovely flakey light-brown crust and the luscious abundant apple filling inside.  I did not know how to make good pie crust before I went to this church.  However, I volunteered at their pie-bake session and learned The Secret, which I will not reveal here, because, hey, it's a secret!

Well, not really a secret, because it's in their church cookbook, which I believe is also on sale.  So if you want to know what the secret to good pie crust is, you have to buy the cookbook.  I promise to post pictures here once I get the pies done. You will then see the lusciousness that is the Traditional Federal Way United Methodist Women's apple pie.

I may also make some peach pies, and berry pies.  I'll have to see what I've stored in the freezer.  In the coming days, I'll probably make some cookies as well.  Yep, I'll be a baking fool!

Scrubbie!

What else is at the Holiday Fair?  Oh, lovely, lovely hand-crafted items.  Jewelry, knitted and crocheted things, including the homely, yet famous Scrubbies!  Yes, those round crocheted things made of net, that are the perfect things to scrub non-stick pans with!  Or anything else, for that matter.  You can stick them on the upper rack of your dishwasher on one of the prongs and wash--and sanitize--them that way.  Or, you can toss in the washing machine and dryer.

Come visit!  I'll be there.  You can find the church here:


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Yes, yes, I'm going against my policy of verboten mention of Christmas before Thanksgiving (before it's even Halloween, for heaven's sake, and I won't go into a rant about how stores do this), but this is the Holiday Fair and it is one of my favorite events of the year.  :-)

Spring Cleaning Part Deux: New Uses for Old Things

I have been steadily cleaning out this disaster-area of an office, and finding things that are...well, fairly useless.  Such as 5-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks that have information I've already either archived or have on my current computer.  There are books for which I have copies in ebook form (Jane Austen books, many of which you can download free), and paperback books that are falling apart because they are literally over 30 years old and I have read them over and over again (and I hope, hope, hope that I can find them again in print or in ebook form).  Then there are papers that are decades old that surely can be thrown out, and so on and so on.  Or, there are old Windows 95 and other software manuals that are way, way out of date.


However, today I came upon this particular item.  It's made of Gore-Tex-like material, about 9 inches by 5 1/2 inches when folded.  The interior pockets are made of some kind of vinyl and are about 3 1/2 by 4 inches.  I've had it for...probably almost 15 years.

I pulled it out of a pile of stuff that I had put on one of my bookshelves to look at "later," which obviously was about at least 10 years later.  Yes, that's how long it's been sitting around.  I opened it and when John popped his head around the corner of my office to see what I was doing, and I held it up.  "Recognize this?"

He gazed at it for a second or so, puzzled.  I said, "It's a holder for the 3 1/2 floppy disks for the old PC we used to have.  I guess I should have thrown it out by now, right?" I said, laughing a little at how silly I'd been for holding onto it for so long...but stopped laughing as an idea slowly formed in my brain.  "On the other hand...I think I won't because I might be able to use it.  I could use it to--"

"Store knitting needles!" John said.

"Yes!" I said, much pleased at his perspicacity.  "Exactly--circular needles, in fact!"

The top pockets are too shallow to hold the needles without sticking out, but they're just the right size to hold a small pair of scissors, especially if you pass the velcro strap through one of the finger loops.  The clear plastic holder to the left, which normally would hold a business card, is perfect for holding a cable needle without too much worry that it'll fall out, since the opening is up against the fold of the holder.  It would easily slip into any purse or knitting bag without having the cables get tangled up, especially since the velcro strap holds them down.  Here's what it looks like with needles and accessories in it:

Just to test how secure the items were within it, I closed it and shook it (the horizontal velcro pieces on either side are "opposites" so that it stays shut when closed).  Then just to be absolutely sure, I opened it and shook it upside down.

Nothing budged!  How cool is that?

So now I have a handy-dandy circular knitting needle holder for whatever knitting project I might want to take with me when I'm on the go.  Now I'm thinking about looking for more floppy disk holders like this for more of my needles.  Each pocket can be easily labeled as to the size, and and another label on the outside saying what all sizes are within.  The holder is about the height and width of a trade paperback book, so I can put it in my bookshelf if I want to, and the spine--though thin--is wide enough to put yet another label on if I want to see what sizes are within if I do put it in a bookshelf.

Wow.  I absolutely must see if I can find more of these!  If I recall correctly, it wasn't very expensive when I bought it.  However, if I can't find any of these, I bet CD holders would work about as well, and at low cost, too.  I found one here in Amazon.  Less than $10!

However, I like the slim line of the 3.5 floppy disk holder, since it's very easy to tuck in a purse, unlike the bulkier CD holders.

I feel so frugal and resourceful!  :-)