Ahoj Brno!

Long time no write!? I've been busy and not busy. But today let's talk about my lovely trip to Brno Czechia.

After much time spent actually getting there, we arrived safe, sound and hungry. Where to eat? Let's go get some Czech food and beer. D had pilsner goulash and dumplings while I had "Moravian Sparrow" which was not sparrow but pork with dumplings and the best cabbage I've ever had.

Excited but travel weary and ready to eat!

 We took a long walk up the hill to the castle. Spectacular views everywhere. We took a tour of the dungeons and left ready for fresh air and happiness. 

Brno has a whole cabbage market/farmer's market. I wanted to buy everything every time I walked through. Fun fact paprika is the Czech word for peppers.

I loved visiting and would visit again! Don't worry I found a couple of yarn stores that I can tell you about too...

Knitting and felines

After all these years of knitting I have finally figured out a few things. Those things may not save me from ripping back a project but they sure do help me keep the number of rip backs down.

I'm knitting another Multnomah Shawl. This one is number four or five, I'm not sure. I have learned stitch markers are my friends when knitting shawls. I have this one so blinged out! 

 All of the markers were acquired over my knitting years. The most recent ones, near the ends are numbered markers bought at this year's Black Sheep Gathering. Multnomah has a four row repeat and I'm using my nifty number markers as row counters. Each time I start a new row the coresponding marker is moved to the top position on that side. One and Three are playing jump frog and Two and Four are playing on the other side. Lucky me found a set that goes up to 10 so I am set for larger repeats too.

The sheep are marking my center spine column they get a yarnover in front and behind when directed. The two green ones mark the center garter stitch portion that is slowly being expanded by those yarnovers. Those were bought at my first Rose City Yarn Crawl. The stitch repeats are being carefully looked after with the pearl and tiger eye loop markers that I bought from Mt Rutsen Fibers at two different Rhinebecks. They are my most favorite and useful markers! I have bought four different sets and would buy many more sets if I could. Maybe one day I will make it back to Rhinebeck...

My knitting companions have been Princess Melissa of the Most Ladylike Sleeping.

She's even ladylike when she wakes.

And Duke Burton of Keeps an Eye on the Neighborhood and Momma.

What my kids have lots of titles?!

Inspecting our Black Sheep Gathering 2019 haul

My second Black Sheep Gathering was fiber full, just like last year. So that means I have been a spinner for a year now. Woot woot!

Let's take a sniff through the stash shall we? Melissa started us off. I think she may have a preference for natural fibers. She may take after Gus that way, he liked a rustic wool.

Well Mellie, do you think Momma's new sticker is right? Does Momma speak fluent cat?

Yeah Momma you do... with a funny accent. 

What kind of accent? I don't know a Momma accent?

 Yes the sticker is Burt approved too.

Actually Burt likes to lick plastic. Eww I know but we all have our quirks. So he was licking the overwrap for my new needles.

I think I buy needles, usually sock needles, everytime I see Carolina Homespun's booth at a festival. I started buying at Rhinebeck because they're one of the few supply vendors there. And I have continued here. I knit most of my socks on 2.25mm Knitter's Pride dreamz wooden needles. I always have multiple socks on the needles so I "need" more needles. Well, that and needles do wear out an break with use. I also like trying out different needles so this time I bought zings. 

Back to the festival talk. When I decided to have lunch I was joking with a group of ladies in front of me, I tend to lose a bit of my introversion when I'm surrounded be fellow fiberistas. One of the ladies who I thought was part of a group was really not part. She waved me over to her when I turned to find a seat. We had a lovely chat about wool and where life takes us. She was a Vermonter that now lives west coast. She had taken a class many years ago that was taught by a South Dakotan, and was disappointed because the class was altered to fit the need of most of the students but not her need. She mostly understood but was still disappointed to not learn what was advertised. Anyways we had a lovely chat that did not drain my introvert battery. 

I'm always surprised when this little vignettes happen at fiber festivals. I still remember watching two ladies talk about how weird hair growth felt after cancer treatments at one Rhinebeck. So thanks happy lady for sharing lunch and the love of fiber with me at BSG.

Now onto what I bought: seven bumps of fiber from Shaggy Bear Farm to fill in more of my collection from her fold. I leaned to finer fibers since I did not tend to get them before. Two colors of fiber from Greenwood fibers, and two braids from Renegade Fibers. Filling out the non fiber side of the haul include a copy of Ply magazine, a tool for picking up stitches, a tool to tell us what weight fiber is spun at, stitch markers, DPN needles and a lovely basket. But you've already seen the basket put to use.

Therapy session

I took one of my Black Sheep Gathering purchases out for a little stroll in the backyard. 

I realized the other day while admiring my garden that I had created a great way and place to take yarnie pictures. I do miss all the yarn on grass pictures that I took in NY. I don't really have a well lit pleasant background spot in the new house. Plus one of my go to spots was already occupied. 

What Momma? This chair shows off our colors well enough, and it is cushy too. It is a prime spot for kitten recharging.

Anyways back to this morning's project. I took my gorgeous new basket filled with yarn outside and had a little photo shoot in the garden. What better backdrop than blooming tomato plants? It was some much needed yarn, color, and outdoor therapy time. I also discovered that my basket can hold 18 pairs of pre-socks or as others would say sock yarn. It also held a few skeins of not sock yarn. Yes I buy that sometimes too, just nowhere near as often.

My feline yarn companions were quite put out since they did not get to experience the outside portion of the session. They complained loudly about how unfair life was. How can we be yarn inspectors when we cannot get to the yarn? Then I came back inside and it was nap time so the world continues. 

Aggressive Pruning; Life Lessons from my Garden

Who knew when I started planting last  year that it would teach me so much. I mean honestly I knew I would learn a bit about growing things but I didn't know it would teach me about growing myself.

I had dianthus looking horrible and thought about pulling them out but with spring and patience they bloomed lovely. I mean honestly they were rocking the patio. Then they started to look bad again I thought about pulling them out again, but just cut back aggressively. Instead of wasting energy trying to support dying stems and blooms they redirected that energy into growing. Now I have a happy little mound of new growth. I am hopeful they will be able to bloom again. It felt good getting rid of sad brown crunchy bits. I could almost hear the new leaves sigh while stretching for the sunshine.

I have been struggling in a position of leadership in a volunteer capacity. I hate it. I never wanted to do it but people looked at me with puppy dog eyes and said it is not that hard, we will support you. Then someone sent me that nasty anonymous letter and put a dent in my armor. And the people "supporting" me, didn't. They listened to my fears and hurt and made a few comforting noises and honestly expected me to get over it in a week. So they took my dented armor away from me.

Have you met my black little introverted heart? I come from pioneer stock I know how to circle the wagons. I could feel myself withdrawing every time I was around these people. I carefully placed every stone back in my introvert wall and closed myself off. I retreated and my wounds turned out to be deeper and they festered. Oh man did I fester. Every time someone said I needed to "get over it" and every time I heard myself ask why can't you get over it...I added another layer of bricks onto my you-can't-hurt-me wall.

The thing is, on the scale of things I know it was not that bad. It was a nasty little letter meant to steal confidence and make the sender feel more powerful. Guess what it worked. It got under my skin and poked holes in my identity, self worth and ego. It ricocheted around my brain and heart. It stole my joy. Yeah I'm tough, but it hit me hard in my soft candy center. One single anonymous letter...fucking bitch. Three little lines implying I was not good enough to some coward unwilling to sign their taunt...fucking bitch. Because if someone could take the time to do this what else are they capable of?Or even doing without me knowing about? And that my friends is how fear grips its icy had around your heart. How do stalkers start? When does it become a war? When does it go from nasty words on a page to harmful actions?

I don't have answers for those questions. I know that things were said behind my back to people. I know emails were deleted before I could read them because "they ruined my weekend." I know that this whole situation was not handled well or correctly by people who said they would support me. I know that I am watching my back.

Last month I took out one of those layers of bricks and sent out a message. I am resigning and retreating. I am going to take care of me and mine. I'm going to allow myself to regrow and bloom. I am cutting you out of my growth cycle. Your branch has been pruned. I am going to give my energy to myself and what I want, because I know that I am worthy!

Garden update from months ago

I am enthralled by my garden. So much so that I don't even take the time to tell you all about it. These picture were from months ago. Hey at least I remember to take pictures even if I don't show them.

In this bed we have top to bottom beans, mustard spinach and chives. Row two has a tiny nasturtium that is now blooming in real time not blog memory time. Continuing down the row is a marigold, carrots and tiny green onions. The third row is mostly not planted till you reach the swiss chard, more carrots and more tiny green onions. Fourth row holds marigolds, peas, perpetual spinach and another kind of chives.

this bed is just full of hopes and dreams. Six tomato plants, three kinds of basil, two more kinds of peas, parsley, cilantro, lettuce and two kinds of mesclun mix.


I said at the start of this project that I would be happy if we got a few tomatoes and maybe a salad or two. Well we're all happy here and it is not even July yet. We've had several salads, a few tomatoes, a nice chard and parmesan dish, and a few peas. My beans and tomatoes are blooming and the spinach and cilantro have bolted. Don't mind me I'll be going out to pick my own salad soon.

Bigger than we thought

When last we left our intrepid gardeners a bed had been made and dirt dumped in it. Good black rich dirt as the primary gardner's hand shows.

Then a second bed was made and they sort of looked like weird oversized graves...

Or huge litter boxes depending on your perspective and needs.

Yarn grids were established and slowly plants began to get planted. The thought of planting things in March warped the midwestern gardeners mind but not enough to stop her.

Not bad. Plans are forming and ideas flying everywhere.

Wee lettuce and mesclun mix sprouts. 

Not so wee kitten inspecting my efforts.

Yeah I think the guide wires (yarn) will hold.

It is even more impressive now. But I was really behind on blogging so here's where some of my time has gone. Oh and I've been knitting too. Three pairs of socks on the needles.

Weekend Project

A couple of weekends ago Hubby and I were busy people. We did the thing I've been wanting to do for a while now. We put in raised beds to plant a garden in.

We looked at the home improvement store and decided a kit would be too easy Drill Sergeant! Concrete blocks that you can slide the wood into that looks easy enough. But then we brought the wrong car and were not sure how we could get the wood to fit. So maybe just the blocks and rebar and we can plan it out...

Yeah I think this is the best spot for them.

We headed out another day to get the Cedar. Now I have bought wood before, I've been to lumber yards. I've never bought lumber for a raised bed. So we bought rough 2x12 Cedar. It smells amazing!!

Guess the concrete blocks were made for planed wood because our rough cut did not fit in the notch. and oh yeah we were not planning on getting 12 inch height either. Rework the plan again, if you could call the way I do things as planning. Shh Hubby, no comments from the peanut gallery yet.

We borrowed a belt sander to smooth the area we needed to fit and oh yeah wet wood does not sand as well as dry wood. Hubby had the brilliant idea the maybe we could just stack the blocks to make it look like we planned it that way. He's pretty smart that way and quite handsome too, don't ya think?

Not too shabby, looks like we made some good decisions. Oh you can see my nice Lemon Thyme plant too. Planted it last year and I still love it!

We had that bed for a week or so, and put the remaining wet wood in the garage to keep it from getting even wetter. It is the rainy season in Oregon, you know. My garage never smelt better!

Now we have two beds and I've planted chives and bought seeds. I need to plant some lettuce and cool weather things but hey look it is raining again. I do still love the rain.

If the garden produces anything I'll be happy. I'm looking on it as an experiment. I've never tried to garden in Oregon, but I'm on my way to learning now.

Kitty Antics

My boy Burt decided he needed to accomplish something the other day. I was sitting upstairs and saw a flash of orange out of the corner of my eye. 

Burt what are you doing in that window Momma told you not to get into? It is too high for kittens...

Momma, just because you shouldn't does not mean you can't. I resisted the urge to give it a go for over a year. Sometimes I need a Mellie break.

Yes Burt sometimes we need a break from each other. Mellie took hers on my lap. (I think she is part leopard with those spots.)

You can also enjoy outside and picking your grass fresh. 

But Momma you say Mellie can't be trusted outside.

But I can!!

ps: Can we plant a whole bunch more grass? We did manage to keep it growing all winter. Nothing tastes as good as a nice fresh salad in wintertime.

Knitting in March

Well would you look at that I have been knitting! I've had this lovely yarn with me since NY. I'd been holding off knitting it waiting for the right pattern to pop up. I knew I wanted something more than plain socks. But I finally gave up and started knitting a plain sock. Then right before the heel flap my brain said I should knit some purple Monkeys. I ripped back to the cuff and sure enough they did want to be Monkeys. 

And look what Hubby brought back from a nice little yarn store in Pennsylvania. I just love seeing what colors (and brands) he picks out. I think he does a great job.

Last Halloween time a coworker brought in a cat shaped soap that he had made. We did some negotiating and decided to trade our skills. I got some handmade Star Wars soap for Hubby and he was supposed to get slippers. You know like his grandma made him in the past. A quick and easy knit...

Never send a muggle to the yarn store unsupervised. He bought sock yarn, but he did buy enough for his bigger-than-mine feet. So yeah, I'm making a pair of socks for a coworker, how did that happen again? Oh, he did get a great large tote bag with a fun kitty on it, like sweater size bag. I didn't have a knitting bag big enough to hold a sweater, but I do now, and I'm making socks.

In other news I found a wee bit of time to spin some yarn. I got up to check on the laundry and next thing I knew I had lost my spinning seat. Don't worry he gave it back not too much later. Good thing my spinning has so much supervision.

Finally it is hard to be a kitten in this house, you have to share everything. 

I think they may just love each other a tinge.

Trying something new

I've been sick and every time I'm sick it gives me a big urge to bake. It is something about being home and wanting to give comfort. What's the best comfort? Baked goods of course. I usually can resist the urge till I'm on the mend and no longer contagious, like this time. Good thing my body planned ahead and demanded I buy frozen blueberries beforehand. So I tried my hand at making some mini muffins using a new recipe. You're supposed to layer the berries then batter, but then I missed the multiple layers item. So I had to convert them to upside down muffins. No worries they still taste great. 

It's new sock Friday! These little buggers are finally done. I started knitting them way back before D's accident in 2016. I got halfway through and thought they did not want to be socks, but I didn't know what they did want to be. So they sat on the needles and they moved into the new house and sat some more. When I finished knitting D's new socks (pictures coming) I wandered into my Rhinebeck room and none of the yarn called to me. I know right?! Then the half finished sock said "Uhm maybe I do want to be a sock, and another sock. Yes being two socks would be nice." So I took up my needles and now socks!

 This is Bumblebirch Heartwood in Celestial.  I bought this in 2015 in Portland on a visit before we decided to make the big move. Full circle and what not.

So now I need some different socks on the needles. I'm thinking this pair needs to be called Your Mother was a Hamster. You all have seen Monty Python's Holy Grail, right?

Burt says, I know how to keep my socks clean. Will you knit me a new pair sometime Momma?

Dreaming

I've been dreaming about my dad a lot lately. I'm always surprised when something I think that I have dealt with keeps popping up like a whack-a-mole game. Do you ever really deal with the death of a parent?

This time I think I know why. I'm forming a plan for the backyard, it involves garden planning. I keep hearing dad's voice in my head discussing plants with my mom. I know he wanted clematis and columbines. He always liked bachelor buttons. He planted snapdragons for me, because I loved playing with their little flower mouths. We had a huge strawberry patch in the middle of the garden.

I loved walking behind Dad as he tilled the garden. I always tried to step into his foot tracks in the dirt, never quite managing to do it with my shorter legs. Guess I'm still trying to do that now.

Last summer I faced the same issue with trying to figure out what to do with our backyard. I started small. I found a local nursery and bought four or five single plants, based solely on if I liked them, no plan to speak of. Ok fine I bought a few to plant in teacups but that was not really planning more of a random idea. I bought some containers a few weeks later and some Snapdragons and Marigolds. And some dianthus because that was the first flower I could hear Dad and Mom discussing in my head. I remember thinking what an odd sensation it was to be remembering decades old conversations.

Again I had no real plan other than I wanted them to surround the back patio. So that's what I did I plopped them in the ground or container and wished them well. It was interesting to watch them develop. The marigolds didn't get planted that first day and dried out. One of the six showed stunted growth from the trauma but they really did fine. My snapdragons made me smile each day I saw them. I made sure to test a few dragon mouths, you know just in case. 

 

I now know that I want to put this lovely lemon thyme in around the porch. Lovely green and it grew so well, hey it is still green and growing in January. I think it is supposed to be a bug repeller which is a big plus for me. I'll have to check on that. Also who doesn't want more thyme in the garden. 

(See it is even good for bad puns.)

Burt is campaigning for his own grass allotment. He solemnly swears that he will keep it trimmed back. Now there is a plant that I thought was dead, so I plopped it in the ground, gave it some water and wished it well. Sure enough the green shoots popped back up and Burt found he likes to garden too. 

I'm fighting off the tendency to add too much, too soon. I'm thinking of a couple of raised beds of veggies and adding a few more flowers. I'd dearly love to finally have a clematis for Dad. I'm looking into lavender too. I've always admired CrazySheepLady's lavender garden, although I don't know how much of an effort I want to make. Again if I start small with a plant or two...

An acer, Japanese Maple, is one thing I said I would have if I ever moved to Oregon. Have you seen those things? They are beautiful! And Bamboo is on my mind too, how can I grow it without having it takeover and without it costing me oodles of cash. Ferns, we have a nice shady corner that I bet would grow ferns.

But mostly right now I'm thinking about what veggies to plant. As a farmer's daughter, I really should be growing things to eat. And we all know Hubby will eat any and all tomatoes that I can grow. I'm going to try my hand at lettuce too. I think I read somewhere that they are companion plants. I should plant some peas and Swiss chard too.

Oh and an herb garden, and a tea garden, I know they sell camomile plants here...  The garden I'm growing in my mind is huge and wonderful. If I can manage to get one percent of it planted in real life I'll be doing all right.

Now if I can manage to not put my name on every seed catalog list. I remember how Dad would pour over those when we lived on the farm. Surely a catalog or two won't fill the mailbox too full or be too tempting for me...