Stash Enhancement

Several weeks ago, I went to Good Fibrations in Edgewood with Rebecca and Pam. They were having a sale and we caught the very last day of it. There was much excitement over two rooms full of yarn and books.

I didn't think I would get very much, but there was a lot of good stuff.....

Wool for socks or a hat. Very yummy stuff. The color is much better than in the picture. Andean wool for a neck cowl for fall. It's VERY soft and was quite cheap, too. The color combination is exquisite - brown and purple and blue and bright orange. You wouldn't think it would work, but it really does. This "trekking" yarn reminds me of Neopolitan ice cream, and that is the sole reason I bought it. ha ha sole reason. I am going to make socks with it. My first toe-ups! They will henceforth be known as the "Yummy Ice Cream Socks". After we had enhanced the respective stashes, we headed next door for some yummy Chinese food. Who knew? Edgewood, NM and Chinese food. Wonders never cease.

Last week, Meg came back for a visit and she brought this delicious yarn - Tofutsies. More socks, yay!!!! It has chiton in it, which comes from crustaceans, I believe. It's supposed to be anti-bacterial. All I know is that it is pretty and will make beautiful socks. Thanks, Meg!

Sustainability IMBY

Last night, Jon and I went to the Home Depot to pick out plants to grow in my new vegetable garden. They had a limited selection of seeds, so we got some seeds and two seedlings. Then we started the project:

Lucky was very vocal in his instructions. I really hope he didn't ruin it all today, while I was gone.

Breaking up the dirt

Potting soil

Carrots
Pumpkin (prize-winning, fo sho)
Basil (you gotta love the pesto)

We also planted a bell pepper plant and a tomato plant. This is the finished project.

I really hope it all works out. I want to be eating from my garden all summer long. Maybe I will plant some beans too. In any case, I love the smell and feel of dirt. Playing with dirt is good.

Patch

As soon as I got home yesterday with a fresh new hand itching to knit, I cast on for Patch. Patch is an ADORABLE little dog toy from Knits for Babies and Toddlers by Fiona McTague. I got the book from the library. I am very thankful for the Rio Grande Library System - they really accomodate knitters pretty well. I got the yarn for a dollar a ball from Wal Mart a year ago. It is the softest fuzziest brown yarn ever - perfect for making into a puppy dog for a little boy. I am super excited. I have already finished one back leg and the many increases and decreases make for an interesting but fast knit. It's gotta be fast! The little boy has a birthday party in just over a week!

The Liberation of the Arm

Today marks the day of freedom and liberation from the bondage of plaster of Paris. My arm has been set free! The gates have been stormed! My skin has once more seen the light of day! The crowds have overrun the streets! And there is great rejoicing!

Apparently, it is "only" a bad sprain. I am SO glad it's not broken, and that I can once again knit and button my clothes. It still hurts, but that is to be expected, I suppose. In the meantime, I have learned not to take my left hand for granted. Thanks, left arm, you are special!

And much fun was had by all.

Indisposed

The craziest thing happened this weekend..... I was swimming in Fenton Lake on Friday evening, when all of a sudden, I felt something grab me around my waist. It was sharp! Before I knew it, I was being hoisted 15 feet into the air and flung back and forth like a ragdoll. When I looked down to see what I was attached to, my eyes were filled with wonder as I glimpsed what could only be described as a close relative of the Loch Ness monster. After a few seconds that seemed like minutes in my fear, I was hurled 55 ft toward the shore. Fortunately, most of my body landed in some deep sticky red mud, but my arm unfortunately struck a hard granite outcrop. Although my arm is broken or sprained, I feel truly lucky to be alive.

Things I really miss about having two functional hands:

1. Ability to knit

2. Ability to put buttons in buttonholes

3. Two-handed typing

4. Driving (although I have AWESOME friends)

5. Opening my Nalgene by myself.

Now, in case you were wondering, the Loch Ness monster disappeared before I could snap a picture of him.

I did, however, get a picture of this Bug. I am not too sure of the artistic choices that have been made here, but it was worth putting ou there.

Did I mention I really miss knitting? I can kind of do it, but the guage is off, and my left hand hurts to hold the needle in a vice-like grip. I should learn to knit with my teeth.

"A Week of Easter Prayers: Help Us to Love"

"Loving God, we love how you love. We love how you have freed us. We love what you have given. Help us to recognize, Holy One, and to rejoice in what is given, even in the midst of what is not given. Help us not to doubt, Lord, what you have given us, even when we feel our shortcomings. We praise you, and we thank you for the promise and sign of your love in Jesus. We thank you, and we praise you for sharing your life, your Spirit with us. We offer you our lives. We offer you our bodies, our hearts. Bless this people, heal us, make us signs of Jesus. Do in us what you did in him, Father. Make us your sons, name us your daughters. Renew our Church in love and in forgiveness. We ask, Lord, for all of this. We trust in your love as Jesus trusted. And we pray as Jesus prayer. Amen."
- Richard Rohr - from Days of Renewal

Frisbee

I have been learning (okay, twice) how to play frisbee. Not even PLAY frisbee, just THROW a frisbee. IT'S. NOT. WORKING.

I can catch pretty decently. I can run after frisbees quite well. I am even very good at watching other people throw! There are, however, several major problems with my throwing:
1. I am supposed to "flick" with my wrist. I need more details on that, apparently.
2. There is supposed to be some "spin" so it doesn't topple over mid-flight. How one gets "spin" is evidently unanswerable.
3. There is supposed to be some force in the throw. This creates a longer flight, and causes the frisbee to actually reach your intended recipient, instead of falling in the dog poop that lies between you. My arms are quite strong (from walking an 85-pound dog everyday), but I CAN'T throw a frisbee very far at all. Why not?
4. There is supposed to be direction in the throw. The flight of my frisbee, when all other things are at least somewhat correct, is off to the right about 45 degrees. AAAAARGGH.
5. I actually care about my ability (or lack thereof) to throw a frisbee. This might actually be the main problem.

Maybe I should just stick to knitting.

The Namesake

On Friday, I went to see The Namesake (yeah, check out that 84% rating!). "A river runs through it", having enjoyed an almost ten-year stint as my official "favorite movie of all time", has now been demoted to second place and The Namesake moved to first. I pretty much cried all the way through it. So did a lot of other people in the theater. I not only cried in the movie, I cried AFTER the movie, too. That was a new experience. From a completely objective perspective, there were some problems:
1. Kal Penn - not that hot.
2. Too much mixing of seasons - come on guys, please do not have red maple leaves juxtaposed with cherry blossoms.
3. Set in NY rather than MA
4. No special hat bought for Moushumi.
5. The actress who played Sonia did not look at all like the rest of the family and didn't look very Bengali at all.

Things I liked:
1. The dual train wreck scenes where the second completes the first.
2. The common theme of images shown whenever someone was traveling.
3. The authenticity of Gogol's feelings.
4. All the Indian friends of the family.
5. The head-shaving scene
6. The dual scenes in which Ashok takes Gogol out on the pier, the second completing the first.
7. The effective awkwardness of Gogol as a teenager.
8. The magic turning point at the Taj Mahal where he seems to grow up.
9. The actress who played Ashima was FANTASTIC - Tabu.
10. I loved the scene in which Ashok finally explains Gogol's name.
11. The cinematography was awesome.

All in all, I loved it, and I plan to buy it as soon as it comes out on DVD (along with my new favorite chick flick - Catch and Release).

Cherry Tree Hall of Fame

I am absolutely enchanted by cherry trees, and Albuquerque has quite an offering. When they were in bloom a couple of weeks ago, I took as many pictures of them as I could, along with pictures of other flowering trees. I thought I would post them here for your peaceful cherry-tree-loving enjoyment.

A house in my neighborhood.

San Mateo at Highland.

Menaul and University
I love pink!Carlisle and CoalLomas and GirardAnd just for good measure, look how green my neighborhood is! We can all now get rid of our preconceived ideas about how dry and brown Albuquerque is.
It's true. I do live in the best neighborhood in probably the whole country.

"Father and Son"

"Who is the Christ? First, most obviously he was a man. He was a man who walked the journey of faith, who grew, as Luke says, in wisdom and grace. It was he who returned to the desert to seek the will of his Father, to seek to hear what the Father was telling him, to seek to be true to himself and the word of the Father. Why did Jesus call God Father? My own opinion as to why he chose the masculine word (although he often uses feminine images) is that it is the harder and more necessary word to speak. Perhaps many more people have been wounded by the masculine. In Luke's Gospel every time Jesus prays (five times explicitly), his words are always preceded by "Abba," "Daddy." This brings out the beautiful relationship in which Jesus grows with his Father, of being the loving, trusting son. Three times at the end of the Gospel, in Gethsemane, and two times on the cross he calls out "Daddy!" Jesus seeks at all cost to be true to his Father, true to this relationship. Whenever he goes to the desert he returns to the city to preach the word with new power. What is this word? That the Father has absolute claim to our fidelity, our love and our life, that God's love is unconditional and forever."
- Richard Rohr, from The Great Themes of Scripture

Albu-quirky-ness

More pictures to add to the file of "wierd things I have seen in Albuquerque" - more reasons to love the place.

This truck was decorated on every spare inch of its body with poetry, symbols, pictures, and abstract color. it was actually quite beautiful, and oh-so-hippy.
The whiteboard at Winnings Coffee - complete with precisely drawn cross-section of the geology of the Rio Grande Rift. You learn something while you are standing in line waiting for your coffee. Who knew? I mean, I realized that there had been some kind of uplift to make the Sandias, but now I know some details. In case you can't tell where the traffic is coming from.
Gratuitous picture of "Lucky, the depressed dog".

Nob Hill: Inspiring Creativity

Recently, I have felt a slight lag in my general creativity. To remedy this problem, Dena, Krista and I walked around Nob Hill this weekend and just "looked" at things in the stores, in the hopes that my craftiness (and theirs) might be inspired. I thought I would share a few of my inspirations. The first place we went was the most inspiring, but I didn't get pictures. It was the cool paper store, and I decided to make a paper quilt or a series of wooden disks mounted with beautiful papers to hang in my house.

Dangling paper circles. Simple, colorful, light-catching.

A mirror edged with driftwood. Would be fun to make, but not fun to clean.

The niftiest felted purse ever. it was one piece of felt with a crazy zipper. I am not sure I am geometrically-minded enough to figure out the shape of the felt.

An intricately carved and painted cupboard. I cannot hope to attain this level of craftsmanship; I just thought it was beautiful. Little boxes. They are actually a bit too cutesy for me, but they could be adapted.
A pillow. I would make it out of overlaying pieces of cut felt with a cotton twill backing. I would make my own fun abstract design. Check out the fantastic and unusual construction of this bag. I will knit and felt one long piece of fabric and then fold it for this effect. A classy and unusual bag. I am not sure yet how I would adapt it to my own skill set. Isn't it cool though? Nice paint job on this cupboard/closet. More great painting techniques used on this sideboard. All of this will keep me busy for a while, I am sure. Any other ideas would also be appreciated!