50's costume

My daughter is about to be in a play at her school called "Rock Around the Clock." It's set in the fifties. Of course we waited 'til the last minute to put her costume together. I was working on the 50's apron til into the wee hours last night, so I neglected to put the construction photos here until now. I finished it this afternoon after work. Here she is modeling it. I think it came out pretty well. She's happy she's got a costume I made for her. Check back for what the entire costume looked like tomorrow.

Recording

Here are a couple of pictures of my husband and son recording yesterday. I'm glad they didn't get it right the first time since I got to listen to them for a long time. I feel so blessed to have music in the house. Thank you Alex and Paul.

Spinning our wheels

My friend Leigh Ann came over today. Look what she brought!!!




What a generous friend. She brought the wheel and a bag full of roving batts for me to learn on.













Later I tried again. As you can see I got a little carried away on the pedaling and got it really over twisted. I definitely am going to need a lot of practice.

Slow Day

I started the day really slowly today. Slept in. Did dream interpretation. Talked on the phone for hours. Straightened my room. Took a bath. Sorted papers. I wanted to go to an art show and never really got moving. Still have to find some papers to be in the mail this weekend...taking a break now from "my busy day."

I've been doing some illusion knitting designing lately. This one is my "The space between the OMs" scarf. The top picture is how it looks straight on, while the bottom is from an angle. It's only partly done. It is going alright. I may have to compress the rows a little to get a better image in the illusion. I have continued on from this stage. Unfortunately the Noro yarn I am using gets to be a color too close to the background color. Otherwise I may have been happy with this design. It's kind of hard to see the middle of it. I did want it to be somewhat etherial so maybe it is just fine. I'll finish this OM before I decide for sure.

Glad to be home

Sure glad to be home tonight. This is Wolfie, she looks glad to be here too. It's been a week...I hate it when I feel beat up at the end of the week. At least we had a good dinner and hung out together a bit.
Bought our tickets to New York yesterday. Have to go hug Justin. I realized that everybody else in the family felt the same way so we're all going. It's funny, I thought being his mother gave me the special right to miss him the most. It just doesn't work that way does it. We can't go immediately. It feels good to have the reservations though. Have a good Friday!

He's here!!!

Got a call at 6:30 this morning from Justin. He's back on US soil at Fort Drum. I've been singing, smiling, and doing the happy dance all day!
:)

Waiting for my son to return

My eldest son is scheduled to come back to the US from Afghanistan very soon. I am waiting, somewhat less than patiently. He won't get to come home or use any of his leave because of army plans to stop-loss his unit. I am heading to see him as soon as I can. We miss him and are holding our breath for his safe return. The army has had him since the week after 9-11...more than 5 years now. Here he is with our other son two years ago while we were at camp.

The long day

It was an interesting sunrise behind the mountain on my way to work today. I would have had a great shot of the last of the sunset if I had moved quickly enough to get to a spot to photograph the mountains while they were still purple-pink. They were stunning to see.

The Boys in the Band

The boys had a great time all weekend. It's Paul's birthday today and he says he hasn't played this much in 25 years. He had a good birthday. The homemade eclairs didn't hurt.

Artist or craftsperson?

I've been thinking of the distinction between art and craft. I have spent most of my time lately knitting...
technically craft. Thought I'd show you a couple of my fine art projects. I need to paint or sculpt more often...




Spent the day running around. Picked up a couple of books on dream interpretation and symbols. Visited a friend. Found some cool new yarns at Yarn Deli. Tofuootsies and Aquarelle hand-dyed. Tomorrow is hubby's birthday so picked up a little something. The boys (hubby, son, and friend) spent the day playing guitars and recording. Their idea of heaven.

On the way home...

These are a row of palm trees blowing in the wind I watched while waiting for a train to go by in San Timoteo Canyon. I am lucky. I don't have to take the freeway to work. I drive through a charming canyon going the opposite direction as most of the rest of the traffic. The traffic has increased quite a bit in the almost 9 years I have been driving this route. I still enjoy the drive.

Memory of a joyful morning

I don't know why it feels like such a grueling week. It's only been 3 days at work so far. I didn't take my daily picture today. I thought it would be nice to try to capture a little calm from this summer. . This was early morning at our camp in the Adirondacks. It was so quiet as the sun came up. The colors were even more intense than this. They had faded before we could get to the lake to take the picture. I love it there.

Frozen Citrus

This is an orange grove I drive past on my way to work. I stopped to take a closer look at all the ice pillars around the trees. These are young trees. As we witness grove after grove of citrus being cut down in Redlands and warehouses and high density housing going up in their place, this was one grove that had recently planted new orange trees. It gave me hope that not every grove would be lost. I know that the fruit is lost this year. I hope these trees withstand the temperatures of this month. Without the trees this is a desert.


Here are the latest handwarmers. The black pair is for my son, the red ones for my older daughter. The red ones are a really nice color that didn't photograph on my little Casio well. These are so quick. I love having something done in a couple of hours. They are definitely useful while it stays cold here. They aren't blocked yet. They look great on. I need to make a pair for me now.

Quick Handwarmers

We're still having cold temperatures around here. The orange grove we pass in the morning have ice pillars all around the bases of the trees. I've never seen anything like it before. I am inspired to make a few quick mitts to keep everyone's hands warm. I found a really quick pattern on another Allison's website yesterday. Started a pair in class mid-morning, grabbed them when there was a minute to spare and finished them up at my son's guitar lesson this evening. These were for my daughter. I am almost finished with a black pair for my son that I did while watching American Idol. Here's the website
http://resipsaknit.blogspot.com/2006/12/holiday-hangover.htm
I adapted these just a bit by casting on 36 stitches instead of 30.

My new toy

I got my New Zealand AutoKnitter a couple of days ago. Had to show you all. For those of you that haven't seen these yet, it's a new manufacture of an antique machine with a few modifications to make it easier to use. Haven't tried it yet. Too much else going on. Hope to finally be able to make socks on this one. My antique one has been less than cooperative by dropping stitches when I have tried to make heels and toes. So far I've only made tubes. Maybe soon though...

Snow Day

We took a ride to Oak Glen today to play in a little snow. It was quiet up there. Not much snow. I bet the ski slopes were packed today though...


The kids had fun target practicing...
THE TARGET

My friend Leigh Ann and I dyed some yarn today that will self stripe when knitted. Hers is different shades of purples, while mine is shades of silver gray. They are beautiful! We had a blast doing it too.


It was cold out and a perfect day for being next to a steaming dye pot.

Snow falls in Redlands

Today has been like a dream. When I got up this morning it was SNOWING! In the Southern California low desert! My kids got up about 6 am. It was still dark when we went out to play before breakfast and school!


There was a light layer of snow on the lawn when we headed out. We got to school and it started snowing there too. It melted by the time it hit the ground. My students had fun chasing snowflakes with their tongues though.

Back to Work

I am so pleased we had such a delicious break from work. Now it's time to go back. This is where I spend most of every day. It's not a bad place. I have some pretty cool kids for students. It would be nice to maintain a little time for myself. I do bring my latest knitting project to school to work on in free moments. They have to be projects that you can drop at a moment's notice. Some of my students have knitting projects they work on between assignments.

Here is my first endpaper mitt finished. Now to start the next one...

More from Arizona

Here are a couple more photos from Rex Ranch. I have to say it was a wonderful retreat. It was exactly what I needed. I will carry the energy with me. It is wonderful to spend time with such exquisite people. I spend too much time concentrating on the endless details of the day and not on the overarching plan. It's good to really delve deep from time to time. I am glad I had such a wonderful opportunity. My deepest gratitude is sent to our guide, Brugh Joy. He is an admirable teacher.

Happy New Year

I am having a wonderful retreat in Arizona working on my spirit. Arrived here New Year's day. This is Rex Ranch in Amado, Arizona. It's raining a bit today, and has been beautiful during the days most of the time. Cold at night and in the early mornings when we gather. May the new year bring you all the things that feed your soul.
Love from Allison