Horizon

Catch you on the flip side, Golden Girl.

Winding down.

I have been writing this blog with strict irregularity for over five years.  I have made some great “imaginary” (aka Internet) friends, a few of which have become real live “I can prove to my husband that you exist” friends.  I have followed some other blogs (which is how I got here in the first place, thanks to Ruth in Whistler)  and stopped following others.

It turns out that writing, however brief and sporadic, is not where my heart lies.  By its nature, a blog is a soapbox, a place where a person can take a stand and write whatever one wants.  There may or may not be feedback, and therein lies my problem.  I want conversation.  I want interaction. Even if I don’t feel like taking part, I want to be able to lurk around other conversations.   Like the Little Mermaid, “I want to be where the people are”.

As you may have suspected, my creative life is centred on fibre.  I knit, I weave, I dream about fibre, and when I can’t sleep at night, I get up and reorganize my fibre stash or wind skeins of yarn, or plan my next project.  I don’t get up and write a blog post.  As I said, this is not where my heart lies.

I suspect that I am not the only one.  I have noticed over the past year that many of the blogs I follow have become inactive.  Some have petered out and some have just stopped cold.  The latter ones have caused me some worry, and not all my follow-up “I hope everything’s okay” emails have been answered.  I just hope that everything’s okay.

Where is all this leading?  Under Sask Skies (blog edition) is saying so long.  Five years is a long time to hold my attention even sporadically, and I think I have given it a good run.  I am not slamming the door, only leaving it ajar.  Thanks for dropping in over the years, and hopefully we can touch base every now and then.  In the words of James T. Kirk, “it’s been…fun.”

Judi

Come back when you’re ready to throw the ball. We’ll be waiting. Or taking a nap. Or barking. Or whatever.

p.s.   If you want to look me up on Ravelry, I am UnderSaskSkies.  I am there nearly every day when I should be doing housework. Drop by if you’re in the neighbourhood.

First Snow

Yuck.

 

Just Checking In

Where has the summer gone?  It seems like I’ve been home from Phoenix for just a few weeks, and yet checking the calendar, it’s been almost three months since I posted here!

We’ve had a nice time around here.  After our trip south, I told Mike I would be happy just to hang around home this summer, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.   After our yard construction last year, where we sat out in the yard exactly zero times,

we have been making up for it this year.  We’ve got a new patio, potted  flowers,

and new wildlife

(better behaved than the dogs, I must say).  The bats have not yet moved into the bat house

(I even put the Bat Symbol on the roof so they could spot it while flying over), but  the instructions  said it could take a year or two before they find it.  I know there are bats in the neighborhood because we’ve been buzzed  a few times in the evening, and there is a lot of available food for them (I really hate mosquitoes- but who doesn’t?).  It’s just a matter of time.  We painted the fence, and in a few places the paint is all that’s holding it up.

All in all, the backyard is a Happy Place.  If I was organized on the weaving front, I could theoretically even drag a loom outside and weave there.

I did not join a team for the Ravelympics Ravellenic Games, but I did my own thing.  I am the sole member of Team Anarchy/Does Not Play Well With Others, and I accomplished my Olympian task of finishing the body of Squares that look Round.

I need to decide on the border colour and mounting and hanging details, but this was a lot of fun, and I am pleased with all 45,000  stitches so far.  The pictures cut right through the whole illusion thingie which is much more obvious in person, so if you want to see the effect, click on the link and give Steve a visit.

Oh yeah.  I also finished the blue pullover, about which I am ambivalent.

I suppose one can’t love all one’s projects equally.

In case anyone is still reading, and was wondering “I wonder what Judy’s little granddaughter looks like now?”, here’s the latest:

My heart goes all aflutter.

Another Weird Driving Adventure

So Mike and I decided to take a little trip, and after 4 days of driving, are hunkered down in our palace in Buckeye because it’s too freakin’ hot to do anything outside.

What did way learn on the way from Saskatchewan to Arizona?  We learned that Williston North Dakota is hopping’.  I mean, lined up for half an hour  late Friday evening  to eat at freaking Applebees. Also, if  you don’t wear  a ball cap in Applebee’s, you are in a very small minority.

We learned that  Team America does not actually have a secret lair at Mount Rushmore (at least not in evidence.  I guess that’s what would make it secret.  Duh.).  We learned that the Crazy Horse Memorial will likely not be finished in my lifetime, but what a cool story.  We figured out that Ziolkowski the sculptor had a method to his madness of fathering ten children (seven of whom are still involved with the Memorial).  All I could think of was “his poor sainted wife”.

We learned that not all Pronghorn Antelope are smart enough to avoid traffic on the interstate.  (No, we didn’t hit it.  It was already sleeping the Big Sleep when we drove by).  I have seen a lot of road kill in my life, but never a Pronghorn.  Sad.

We learned that Cheyenne, Wyoming is largely not visible from the interstate, and that there is a lot of railroad traffic fairly close to the Holiday Inn Express.

We learned that  Mexican Hat, Utah, really did warrant a photo stop at the side of the road, but we were kind of in a hurry. Ditto at Monument Valley.   Almost like we were afraid we’d miss all the hot weather here.

Another gem of wisdom I would like to pass along is that yes, you can get a sunburn even hiking the south rim of the Grand Canyon.   Perhaps by the time I am seventy five or eighty I will realize that sunscreen is a good idea.

We are parked in Buckeye for a week or so, and then will drive home, maybe through Calgary to visit the wee one.  While we’re here I hope to finish this:

It’s from Knitting Pure and Simple, with the prosaic name of #244 Neck Down Hooded tunic for Women.  ***The picture is from the designer’s website.  My progress so far is not really fit for photography.  I am knitting it in Lion Brand Nature’s Choice Organic Cotton, in Blueberry, which is a lovely light blue.  I learned that gauge matters.  I swatched.  !  Since the construction is flat, then circular, then flat again, then circular for the sleeves, I have been monkeying around with needle size (I purl looser than I knit) (and I thought I was perfect), so I really hope there aren’t noticeable lines where I changed needle sizes.

I learned that it’s not great car knitting, since it is unmercerized cotton and sheds like an Attie.   Nothing bugs me more  than when Mike tries to dust the dashboard when the speedometer is registering 75 mph, and he’s the one doing the driving.

I would like to leave you today with a  picture of the exact moment I decided that a grandchild might just be interesting.

Life is no longer sleep-cry-eat-poop. Sometimes the punchline is actually funny.

and my favourite picture to date:

…and sometimes we smile because we know we are just that cute.

Have a great week!

Afterwards

Fibers Through Time wrapped up today.  I don’t know how much of  the course content will stay in my main bag of tricks, but it was a fun weekend (except for the insomnia) (more on that in a minute) and I got to know some really interesting people.  There was one other Canadian woman taking  a class, and one Canadian instructor.  I always chuckle when people in Arizona say I have an accent, because I can never hear anyone else  down here in Arizona speaking with an accent.  Great.  I talk funny and apparently I am going deaf.

Insomnia, you ask?  Yes.  The hotel bed was more than a little uncomfortable, and the pillows were feather, which made my eyes scratchy.   Once I did get to sleep, I dreamed that the knitting police kept bursting into our classroom and telling me that I was doing it wrong and I should just give up trying to pretend that I am creative.  Then I found myself driving around in some gated community but I couldn’t find the gate to get out.  I suspect that I was a little stressed about having to step outside my comfort zone of knitting in the “Paint by Number” genre.

I got back to my house today  to find that the lovely stick that I mentioned in my last post, and which I had left on the patio to finish drying, had been tossed out by Lorenzo my yard guy.  I guess he didn’t share my vision.

I may have bought another little bit of  Navajo spun and dyed yarn.  I will try to remember to snap a picture to post.

Now, I think I’ll head to bed and see if I can evade the knitting police long enough to find the exit from the gated community.

Killing Time

So, I am sitting here in a slightly depressing hotel room (you know the kind; some of the lights are burnt out, the window doesn’t shut tight, the pictures are screwed to the walls and there was a police cruiser parked in front when I pulled in to register.) having some me-time.  I am at the Arizona Fibers Through Time conference, and having checked in and registered, I have an hour and a half until the first official function.  Now, a wiser woman than me would have a whole bunch of options aka wip’s in her bag of tricks, especially since I am here to take a weekend class of free-form knitting, but I finished knitting a small thing last night, and didn’t have the foresight to start anything else.  Actually, the thing that was top of my mind was going for a walk this morning to find a stick.

I found my stick, took it home and scrubbed it clean, and left it on the patio to dry for the weekend.  Then it will get a light sanding, a good waxing with Clapham’s Beeswax, and be used to hang the piece I finished knitting last night.   So, short story long, my brain was uncharactistically mono-directional, and  here I sit with nothing to do except crack that bottle of  Campo Viejo Rioja Crianza 2008 (I think I’ve run out of label details) and pen excuses for not knitting.

I originally registered to take Saori weaving, but the instructor had to cancel, so I am contenting myself with freestyle knitting and crochet.   I must confess to being terribly disappointed  about the weaving, so I ordered a book (and they are few and far between on this subject).  I think I may have to take myself to Saltspring Island at some point, because this book spoke to me like nothing else has for a long time.  A really long time.  I will do a post from my real computer with links and everything once I get home, but if you google  “Saori weaving Saltspring island” you will get the general idea.

I should mention here that  there are no links or pictures in this post because I can’t figure out how to do that sort of thing on my iPad.  I know I have done it before, but knowledge is fleeting, memory is fickle, and blah blah blah.

So, I will finish my wine, and head down to the reception.  I hope to have a mind-opening weekend,  which will inspire me to more creativity.  It’s in there somewhere.

Have a good weekend!

 

 

 

Wine and Babies

One of the great things about visiting the USA periodically is that in a perverse way, it slows down my alcohol consumption at home.  Not that I drink to excess (that is a sport for younger people than me), but once I discovered how heavily we are taxed for alcohol here in Saskatchewan, it took the fun out of trying too many new wines.  Example:  a bottle of red wine (and here’s where my lack of crediblilty as an oenophile shows), (and I can’t remember the name, but I know I like it,) costs upwards of 18 or 20 dollars here under Sask skies.   I found it down in Arizona for 10.  If that doesn’t slow down your consumption, I don’t know what will.  (Well, at least it slows it down up here.  Down south, maybe not so much.)  As well, there is a lot of wine from all over the world that the Saskatchewan liquor board does not list, so we never see it up here.  Fun things like this:

and for a closeup on the label:

Now, before the inevitable snarky comment from an older sister about how fitting it is that I might drink this wine, I would like to point out that she left home way before the worst of my drama, and I have been (mostly) over it for years.

Moving on, I would like to say that being a grandmother hasn’t changed my day-to-day life much.  It would be a different story if we lived in the same city, I’m sure.  Anyway, Geoff continues to send us pictures, and I send them care packages.  The last one had 4 flannelette baby blankets that I crafted, mitred corners and all, a couple of dishcloths

and some booties that I whipped up on the weekend:

These are Christine’s Stay-on Baby Booties, with one small change.  Instead of a round of eyelets for a tie above the feet, I thought I would try just ribbing to the top of the leg.  Mackenzie’s feet never seem to stay still long enough to tie ties, so I thought they could try this and let me know how the booties stay on.  I also used dpn”s for the top of the foot, and it was easier for the short row shaping. (Just like they say in the pattern.  Who knew?)  I did switch back to circs for the legs.  That seems to be my comfort spot.

Since no self-respecting new grandmother would sign off without at least one picture of the new addition, may I present, in her Easter Finery, Mackenzie!

 

Hopefully spring is rearing its head where you are, so I wish you blue skies, and warmer temperatures, and if you are in Calgary, I also wish you minimal snow.  Just remember, you live there on purpose.

 

 

 

Besottedness

Mileposts

Another new frontier has been crossed; another redefining of my role in life has occurred.

At 7:25 am yesterday, March 17th, Mackenzie Leigh joined us from whatever the opposite of the Beyond is. The Great Before? The Slightly Confining Preceeding? Anyways, she arrived weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces, and welcomed by at least 6 grandfathers and at least 7 grandmothers as well as an assortment of aunts, uncles and cousins. (I have to approximate because there’s been a remarriage and I don’t know the status of the new inlaws or if they even care.)

Observation: Even if they don’t let you stay in the hospital more than a day or two now ( and believe me when I say I would have stayed in 2 weeks if they’d let me), someone should make sure that you can visit with the lactation consultant right away instead of some silly student nurse who doesn’t really have a clue, instead of your poor sleep-deprived husband having to physically track her down as they are ushering you out of the hospital even though you suspect (and rightly so) that perhaps a little pow wow with the lactation consultant is in order.

I’m here for a week or until my son and his wife figure out that I still can’t cook.

Another observation: You never lose the Standing Rock, or the Sway, or whatever you call it.

I do have some pictures to share, but I can’t seem to load them on my iPad. Just another example of how technology is passing me by. I’ll hook up my laptop tomorrow and then you can see just how cute and not at all leprechaun-like she is.

 

Oh, figured it out.  Whaddya think?