ZEKs LITE

Back from Spring Break

Happy Easter! 

We're back from Spring Break in Prague, where we visited Aunt B, Uncle P and little O.  Oh the many photos we have collected and the many good beers we drank.  I'll put up pictures in a few days, perhaps along with an album.  I took over 600 photos...

The eggs above depict a Czech Easter tradition.  Read about Easter Monday here.  This is the short version from the same source:

The origin of the pomlázka tradition (pomlázka meaning both the whip and the tradition itself) dates back to pagan times. Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to chase away illness and bad spirits and to bring health and youth for the rest of the year to everyone who is whipped with the young pussywillow twigs. Boys would whip girls lightly on the legs and possibly douse them with water, which had a similar symbolic meaning. An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping. The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlázka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.

I made sure to buy a pomlázka of my own while we were there
(E hasn't whipped me with it though).

Age of Inhibition meets age of Abandon

Ah, a mother-daughter outing to the track!  Our running club started with a walking warm-up.   We missed the first training day, so we didn't know the drill.

So embarrassing that Mother gets out the camera right there on the track!  Plus she was embarrassing in other ways.

What we were supposed to do:  meet with our pace group and walk around the track before running.

What we did: start walking around the track, watch pace groups form from far away.  What are those clusters of people up to?  What are the little signs they are carrying?

Then we realized they were starting to run.  So we ran.  Each group we approached, I hollered at people.

"What pace group is this?" and they'd yell back, "12:30-13:00!" or "9:30-10:00!"

Apparently this was mortifying.  Z let me know that I had broken some rule I didn't even know about.  It seems you aren't supposed to holler at groups of strange women while sprinting and panting.  It seems I have a voice like a wild turkey.

Flashback from sister B, many years ago:  Mother in Canada, hollering down from a bridge at people in a hedge maze: "Hey!  Is this a maze or a labyrinth?"

To me it's just another reason to love the three of them.  B and Z are two peas in a pod--a direct transmission of genetic material.  And I'm beginning to behave like my mother.  

What a tangled web we weave.

With a slight squeeze in my chest, I am getting used to this.  I'm starting to embrace it.  Either I'm adjusting well, or falling off the edge of something...

The Itching Hour

Fuzzy:  "Snirrffftttt!  Shnew!  Fnntthhh!"

That's enough sound effects for the rest of the year.

She had some sort of itching thing going on.  Lots of twisting and licking.

Then back to cuteness with a trace of evil insanity.  I can almost see the vampire fangs.

E starts a book club

I'm cheering for E, who got bored with his quiet evenings and decided to do something about it.

He did something that for me would have been scary.  He called up neighbors he didn't know and hadn't met, but had heard about, and invited them to join a book club.

So the foods were put out.  Things from Trader Joe's heated up, chips and dips, and an attempted tart (mine).  The house was cleaned only minimally.  He didn't want to set the bar too high -- make it easy. 
Make it fun.

He waited patiently in the living room for his guests to arrive.

And they came!  He has gathered about eight people, half of whom are men, and all of whom are in walking distance.  The first book... I don't have the title yet.  It's a biography of Keith Richards.  It's gonna be a rockin' book club.

Yarnies!

Another year at
the HomeSpun
Yarn Party at Savage Mill. 

There's something festive and friendly about it. 

The converted old mill is a wonderful place, full of artsy shops, a good bakery and a pub with a live band.  The last weekend in March, it's for the yarnies.

Folks from the fiber arts guild and the knitting group came out to see the local products by local dyers, alpaca and sheep farmers, soap makers, etc.

The yarn party is a place to see colorful fibers and colorful people.

It's where everyone wears their shawls. 

In her amazing green and yellow shawl and hat (and matching socks), N was easy to spot in the crowd.

She donated many hats to the charity knitting/crochet group. I knit a few rows on a hat.

It's OK to be brightly colored here.

It's OK to dress like you're at Ren Fest. Or wear stretchy knitted skirts.  Anything goes.

Miscellany

The daffodils are everywhere!  The trees are exploding!

All the tourists hoping to see the cherry blossoms in April had better change their flights.  They'll miss them by three weeks.

I'm knitting up a storm
but I can't show you what...
Here's a small peek.

And this is totally unrelated. 

It's the best error message I've ever received.

A difficult goodbye

We lost our Petey boy today. 

He'd taken a bad turn and his illness quickly took over. 

It was very sad to see him go.  Ten years is a short cat life, and it is not fair.

His absence is everywhere; I can't take a dish out of the cupboard to make a snack without expecting him to appear and ask if he can have some too.

So here are some pictures of his final days with us, as well as some of his chubby youth.

In his prime he was a 21-pounder.  That might have been a little too much.

Pete had a brother, Wizbit, who is no longer with us.  Wizbit had a habit of jumping into people's cars.

Pete was known to carefully guard Easter baskets and Christmas presents. 

He liked the taste of cinnamon and gum drops, which we never fed him but he sometimes captured.

 

Pete talked a lot.  We had many good conversations.

He was a good listener when we talked to him.  He greeted us at the door when we came home.  Although he didn't play with toys as most cats do, he stayed close to his family.  He was a people cat.

He loved a good snuggle, and was the source of artistic inspiration.

When Z was little, she drew a picture of kitties napping in what seem like heavenly beds--
the ultimate in comfort and peace. 

I found it recently, and it fits the occasion.

Good night, sweet Pete.

 

Nature walk

Today is Nature Photography Day.  We're having super-fun-Springtime.

 

The carpenter bees hovered and bobbed, sometimes bonking into one another.

 

Soon our fence will have piles of sawdust all around.

 

 

 

 

My morning walk was the sort that invites long deep breaths.

I was a silly stroller with a camera, admiring ordinary things.

More Blooming Things

Hooray for my sister B of OneGreenBee Designs -- her illustrations were accepted by Tiny Tales and put onto silly-cute-useful-sweet cards.  Check them out!

They are good for recipes, memories, and messages.   I like the one that goes, "I said something..." and gives choices like "embarrassing," "smart," "for the first time," etc. 

There are a few adjectives I could add to that list for myself.  I ordered some so I can pencil them in.

A quiet house

Blooming things about the house.

Living in a row house, we have limited space for growing things.

But I potted some bulbs last year.

We greeted the change to daylight savings time with some baked french toast (raisin bread, with apples).  Good smells help us wake up early. 

And we've spent the weekend waiting.  Watching our ailing Pete, who has stopped eating and drinking.  He's curled up in his blanket on our bed, less than half the kitty he was a year ago.  We expect we'll be saying goodbye soon.  We're sad.  It's a quiet house.

Arms and Legs Girl

Around our house we've heard the question, "How's it going with Arms and Legs Girl?"

She's been growing around her white funny-shaped dress.  The dress is the school district boundary, which she was conscripted to personify as a cheerful school girl.

Perhaps she is now flouncing by on the school bulletin board somewhere...

Forgotten Socks! "Star Treatment" hexagon socks (aka "Bottleglass Windows")

In the spring of 2009, when I was playing with hexagons and still didn't know what test knitters were, I sent a pattern to Knitter's Magazine.  It was full of geometry.  And then I mostly forgot about it.

But what do you know -- it has emerged at last in this Spring 2012 issue of Knitter's.

They have a new name and are worked in a different yarn than I was assigned (that means they tested it, thankfully) and they misspelled my first name.  But that happens.

This issue happens to be full of all kinds of good stuff.  But right now I'm happy to see my funny socks in here. 

Here's the sample pair I sent to the magazine, in the yarn they gave me.  It's Peoms, single ply, and I don't recommend it for this purpose -- too splitty and fragile.  Pretty for a shawl though.  I cut it to pieces to get the colors where I wanted them.

These are from
Knit Picks yarn.

They are ridiculously tedious.  I'm going to have to read the printed pattern and knit them again, because I have forgotten how I did them.

The assembly process is crazy.  What on earth was I thinking?  I hope some adventurous folks enjoy the puzzle.

Bread head

OK, some shapes are fun to knit but silly to wear. 

It was a good opportunity to work with some very fun yarn.  SpongBob SquarePants could sleep in it.

March comes in like a lion

That's what Mom used to say. 

It fits the way the wind blows inside our house. Those who parent teens know what I mean.

 

The first baby crocus came up. 

With the crocus came other blossoms -- discoveries on my camera, taken by a stormy Z on a day when she was channeling her energies artistically. 

She took the photos above and below the crocuses.

 

 

Blue hat, more yarn tasting

Here's the finished blue hat.  Crunchy bunchy cables.  It's soft.

Z looks cute in it. A little pokey on the top, but hopefully the tassels pull down the little "ears."

I also began some more yarn tasting of Beaverslide Dry Goods yarn, this time with the 65% merino, 35% mohair blend.  It's completely different, a little bit silky.

This yarn is mule-spun, on antique equipment that gives it a very hand-spun feel.  I love it.

I also am proud of myself for figuring out 2x2 ribbing invisible cast-on.  It wasn't hard: Do a 1x1 Italian/tubular caston and switch the order of the stitches on the first row.

Visitors from the south

We got some almost-surprise visitors this weekend. 

Me-Mom and
Pop-Pop were on an unexpected journey, and came by to paint Z's nails and kiss Pete for a few days.

One positive thing about Pete's condition is that he's more sociable, so he took all the extra attention well.

Yarn Tasting

I'm sampling some yarn for a chunky cabled sweater.  This is Beaverslide Dry Goods Mountain Midnight.  It is 90% merino, 10% kid mohair.  It's wonderful.  I'm also going to try some with mohair.

Here's a week-old picture of last Wednesday's snow.

We got barely a dusting, but it was enough to give our dancing solar snowman a reason to wiggle.  I have a feeling it's all the snow we'll see this year.  It's been a warm winter.  I'm not complaining--the walking weather and the sunshine are welcome.

 

Reading our treads

About this time last year I started writing down the miles I walked and jogged.  Turns out I put 1,160 miles on my sneakers.  I showed my worn shoes to the good fellow at the local shoe store and asked him to read my treads.

He had me jog on their treadmill, with the camera behind me and the screen in front of me. I watched the back of my feet jogging along.  I am not symmetrical.  My left foot points out, requiring me to swing my left foot and arm around to the front if I want to run in a straight line.  It accounts for my hippity-hoppity stride that a couple folks have commented on.  It's also why I stand like Mary Poppins.  Ideally, I should have two different kinds of shoes, one for each foot, since they wear differently.  But I'm not going to do that.  I bought one pair.

Spring is a good time to read our treads and get some fresh ones.  I've got a conference-sized table up in the living room, covered with papers to file so I can do taxes.  Going through the past year's numbers is like counting miles, reading our treads.  Not a bad year -- could use a few more vacation and travel receipts, a few less medical bills, but otherwise, pretty OK.

So for the fresh start Spring calls us to, Z and I joined the Montgomery County Road Runners.  We signed ourselves up for the Beginning Women's Running program. By mid-summer we will run a 5K and get a T-shirt. Woo!

Spring things

Mitts in the works.  These are a tester.  They'll be done again in blue.

The bulbs in the potts are poking up.

The orchid is ready to bloom again.

Pete is getting really skinny, as his illness progresses.  We are trying to keep him comfortable and warm.

Look at all my colors

It happens sometimes -- I cave in to the urge to amass a palette.  I don't quite know why I picked Brown Sheep Nature Spun.  It's good for mitts, which I'll make more of for next year's craft fairs, but it's also just in all these tasty colors.

Some of the colors were not in the box because they were on the table, going into mitts.

More things in heaven and earth, Horatio...

The Art Ladies got postponed a week ago when we had some ice.

Not sure whether this demonstrates an understanding of Focal Point and Center of Interest.  I think it might be more like Split Focal Point...if there is such a thing.

It's made from old photos of the Duomo cathedral in Naples, the Dulles Air and Space Museum and some quilted stars.  It's made 3D with the help of sticky foam bits.

14 and 44

Two birthdays this weekend!  E and Z had a pizza dinner. 

More photos of E's hat to come when I take them in the daylight.

Foggy

I've been feeling a little blue and foggy.

Could be the underactive thyroid gland.  That's also why I have half the usual amount of hair, I am told.  But I have reached a certain age, met a new friend "Peri" who my doctor says will be with me for the next 15 years, and now I put stoppers on my half-full bottles of beer because a full one gives me night sweats. 
Red wine is right out.  Damn.

Oh, and Z is soon to turn 14.  I think it was the long weekend where she fretted over her birthday and we didn't go anywhere that brought in the fog.  Note to self:  Plan a life and do it!

I'm glad I don't live in Alaska with the dark winter.  For sure I'd need the treadmill.  That's what's keeping the remaining hairs in my head right now.  My sneakers are worn out, right through the foam.  I was wondering why my feet felt hot -- it was the friction with the treadmill, heat coming through my thinning shoes.

On the lighter side, E has requested a knitted hat.  First he wanted robots on it, but then later the choice was made for Space Invaders motifs.  Here's the chart I'm working from.

The gun turret at the bottom could also be mistaken for the Capitol, which is appropriate. 

Name this stitch

Is it a cable?  Are extra wraps or slip stitches involved?  I wish the photo wasn't so blurry.

I wish I knew what it is called.  I can't find it on Ravelry, though I've found something similar in one of my stitch dictionaries.  If you've seen it before, or projects that include it, please let me know. 

The Netherfield socks pattern is close, but not quite the same (the little flower stitch in these is amazing!).

Time has whizzed by, with some temp work taking up the usually quiet mid-day project time.  That's not a bad thing, but I'm not used to it.

I think the lack of winter might be what makes things keep going as well.  We haven't had an opportunity to get cabin fever.  No ice, no morning walks below 30 degrees,  no commuters getting trapped in their cars for six hours...What kind of winter is this?  A great one! 

But pleasantly we woke up to an inch of snow this morning.

 

Why we all need the big box of 100 markers

Too many yarn colors is a great problem to have.  But I have difficulty putting colors together, and even more difficulty visualizing how they look as a mitt. 

So I created a coloring sheet for myself.  It's very helpful.  Yes, I can also do this on the computer, but there is something swift and satisfying about markers.  Tactile.

Someday this will be a pattern; the writing process has begun.  The pattern will include a coloring sheet just like this one.

Now the fun can begin

Yahoo, it's January!  The longest possible time until next Christmas, which means if I start now, I won't feel so crazy as I did this year.  I can even get to work on presents I meant to make but didn't get around to, and give them out late if I feel like it.

We say this every year.  But some years we succeed.  It could happen.

For Z, right now is not so fun.  Not only will she need minor surgery on her aching big toe, but she has two weeks of exams to prepare for.  And the PE teacher says it's Polar Bear week, which means they go outside even if it's 20 degrees out there, which it is (what happened to our extended autumn?).

So to make herself feel better, she made this delightful video of happier times.  It includes several neighborhood children and her stuffed kitties, to the tune of a happy friendship song.

Don't feel bad if you aren't in it; she got a Flip camera a couple years ago and much of what is on this is leftovers from that time.  She hopes to make more fun videos soon.

A little more festivity

Before the new year begins, just a little more Christmas.

A little more of a choral performance by friend in a beautiful place...

Where we saw a lovely handknit sweater with an interesting stitch pattern up the sleeve...

A little more hot cocoa in a festive chocolate shop...

A few more tasty treats...

A last look at all the bobbles...

(these last 4 photos by Z)

And one last bit of Christmas knitting.

Z and Visual Art Center

These strange objects are for drawing.  This is the Visual Arts Center of Montgomery County, located at Albert Einstein high school.  It's a studio for dedicated art students.

We don't know how Einstein got associated with the school that is known for it's visual and performing arts programs, but there you have it.  Maybe he could dance or act and we didn't know it.

The Visual Arts Center is a small school within a school.  It's entry by application, holding about 85 students from the entire county, grades 9-12. 

It's rigorous and time consuming. Its students frequently go on to art and design colleges.  They get a solid foundation, and then they are launched into their own personal pursuits.

There's a nifty video about it here.  It's a little long; start at the 45 second mark and quit when you get the idea.  It's got much better pictures than these.

We visited the Visual Art Center in November.  Z got very excited. She talked to a student and to the teachers, she saw everyone's work in progress.  The funky space felt to her like it should be her space too.

So in December she brought in her portfolio and was interviewed. 

It was one of those times when several years of seemingly unconnected activities all came together.  It was good that she had illustrated for Stone Soup, that she had been a summer art camp counselor, that she spent so much of her free time cartooning and studying cartoons -- turns out they display excellent composition sense. 

It was especially good that her art teacher had emphasized "observational art" -- drawing real life, objects in space, with value, depth and perspective.  That was a huge requirement.

Thanks to her good grades, good writing skills, and a glowing recommendation from her art teacher (again, thank you to the art teacher!), she was accepted on the spot!  Woo!

So how do we do this dance?  How does she go to two high schools at the same time, or does she transfer to Einstein?  She has a lot to think about.  I'm glad to not be working, because I may be the taxi that takes her to art school in the morning. 

We will start the new year in the counseling office, trying to create a schedule that will work.

Weekend Christmas

We had an early gift-opening time at our house, then hit the road to see the northerly relatives for the holiday.

We stopped at the Italian deli for some treats that are harder to find in our neighborhood.

Z got to help Aunt Toots finish up the cookies.

I got a little bit of knitting done.

She has some special memorabilia around her house, like these teddy bears my mother made when I was a kid.

When we first discovered the patterns for these teddy bears, there was a bear-making frenzy that seemed to last for years.

Christmas day it was over to the cousins for a lot of eating and silly games; Z was attacked by five little cousins and finally got to eat at the big people's table.

Every traditional treat was on the dessert table and we all ate way too much.  E has already charted his recovery plan; we'll be taking lots of walks in the coming weeks.

The day was a whirlwind, as always, that leaves us tired but glad to have spent it with family.

Our kitties were happy to have us home.  A happy kindness greeted
us -- our neighbor had brought in our Monday morning trash bins and newspaper so we wouldn't appear to be away.

I'm looking forward to the morning wake-up walk, greeting the dogs and their walkers.

Making my own coloring pages

For Design group, we explored the illusion of space, or depth.  I decided to experiment with colors and overlapping shapes.

This first design uses warm and cool colors.  The warm ones are supposed to advance, the cool to recede.  I also tried putting the duller tones of colors in the back and the purer hues in the front. 

For this design, I played with the idea of a lighter background.  Colors were supposed to be lighter and duller in the background, and purer and darker in the foreground (didn't always work as color blending gave me some surprises). 

My design group suggested that drawing the outlines in white or gold would have contributed to a backlit effect.

Z observed an illusion of transparency.  Whether that was due to the colors, the values, or the shapes, is difficult to discern.

It all makes me want to color more.

New York in a Day

I'm over a week late with this one -- I finally got to the pictures on E's camera.  Last weekend (8 days ago) E and Z hopped a bus to New York for the day. 

It made for a very long day, but the price was right.  The trip was booked through E's office, and they ran out of tickets just as my number came up.  So I will have to take the next one. 

They went to Chelsea Market...

walked the high line...

roamed the city, where they saw lots of drunken Santas and one Hanukkah Harry.  I am told he looked like a blue Santa with a dreidel on a long staff.  They were out on a bar crawl and not quite depicting the usual spirit of the season (also not captured on camera, darn it!) so E does not advise bringing small Santa-belivers to New York City during the holidays.

E met some silly puppets and coincidentally he is now committed to performing a puppet show at church for Epiphany (he can't wait)...

and ate many tasties.  E swears this is the best waffle ever.

Firetruck Santa!

We never know when to expect him.  Probably because we don't read the paper.  But Friday night, just as we were getting out of the car after the art show, Firetruck Santa appeared!

One of these days I'll be quick enough to get a focused picture.  Then again, the blur of the insanity and fantasy of it is fun too.

Student Art Show

Last night we got to see some of what Z has been working on in art class.

Her teacher is amazing. Every project has a process, a set of steps to help develop skills that will be needed for the larger project.

For the portrait project, each child made a first attempt at drawing themselves.  This was the "before" picture. 

Then they performed some exercises in understanding proportion.  They had to replicate certain shapes and forms.

After that they worked with value, creating darks and lights with pencil.

They practiced drawing some still lifes, completing the other half of a face from a photo, and improving their sense of value.

Then finally, with the help of a grid, a portrait.  It was always a stunning improvement from the first attempt.

What at first seems impossible to the kids becomes achievable.

This portrait of Z is better than any photo that could be taken, I feel.  It's not just that it looks like her, it also looks like how she sees herself.  It makes me very happy!

And here is her block print, which is a delightful exercise in depth of field, contrast, and a challenge to the fingers that must guide the cutting tools.

Z says that clay is not her favorite.  She called this Outhouse on Mars.  Perhaps it is what you'd get if Audrey II sprouted up out of an outhouse.  It's fun.

I don't know which class did all these clay faces, but we enjoyed looking at them as well.

 

Leaf prints, and other random arts by nature

The morning wake-up walk is absolutely necessary.

Before I go walking, I never think about how soothing nature is, or what discoveries I might make.  My mind is fixed on my tea, the warmth of being inside. 

Thankfully, I somehow do get myself outside, and then I give thanks, heartily, for the refreshment of it.

Water took many forms today; sometimes a river of stone, sometimes a ripple of reflection.

Where are the geese?  I haven't seen them this year.

Today was the day to capture the leaf prints.

I try to walk with my head up, but today, my eyes were to the sidewalk, where the goodies are.

They appear most often after the rain and mud have cemented them to the sidewalk. 

Eventually, homeowners with leaf blowers peel up the stuck leaves.

These patterns are temporary; the next rain will take them. 

That's what I told the kids at the bus stop, when they asked me why I was crouching and photographing the sidewalk. 

I hope they notice these things; I'm glad they were curious and asked.  They live rushed and densly-packed lives.  They get a lot of exposure to new ideas and activities, but I'm not sure how much growth can really happen when there isn't time to process one's experience and respond to it.

I'm thankful for a childhood of roaming through vacant lots, catching grasshoppers and examining weeds and crickets up close.  I have happy memories of floating on my face in a river, the sun warm on my back, and looking through clear goggles at the bright stones and baby fishes under the water.  Good stuff.

Long socks

These socks were knit from two skeins of yarn I don't like.  One was Online sock yarn, another something called Hot Sox.  I've lost the labels. 

The patterns were made up on the needles, often inconsistently and imperfectly.  Mistakes don't appear to matter with these. 

The toes are my favorite.  I cast on six stitches with both yarns at the same time, using Judy's Magic Cast-on.  On the next round, I knit each yarn as a separate stitch, making twelve stitches of alternating colors.  After that it was just adding stripes with each increase of the toe.

Blink and you miss it

Sometimes Z will sit down with her Bamboo tablet and pen and doodle on the computer.

This image no longer exists in this form; I took the picture while she was doodling, and when I came back, it had changed considerably.

Not so innapropriate for a self-portrait of someone her age.  You blink and you miss it!

Speaking of fleeting things, if you have three minutes to spare, watch her video of us putting up The Tree.  It's our first and only home movie, and a happy one.

 

Mitts from handspun

Lots of spinning recently. 
Lots of fun.

These were from random spinning.

This was from some more controlled spinning. Some planning even, and some charcoal/ chocolate alpaca for a background.  Whoa, they are soft.  I'll have to make more.  Or at least a mate for this one.

Happy Unstoppable Super-Cute Bigger-than-life Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was Turkey Day, and for the first time, I was on the ball.  Mother did not freak out or throw anything.  The parts of the meal were on time and fully cooked.  This may be a one-time event!  It helps that there were fewer parts.  Our guests brought the salads, sweet potatoes, and wonderful See's turkeys.

I had time to watch the Macy's Parade. 

E was watching and keeping a record of hyperbolic introductions to the various floats.  He composed this list, which he reads in a much more connected manner so that it sounds like one big long crazy introduction:

Famed
Towering talent
Singing sensation
Bigger than life
Award-winning international superstar
5-time Grammy-winning
On an unstoppable roll
Stunning
Amazing
Legendary
A national treasure
The world's favorite goodwill ambassador
The adored and coveted international and national superstar
Super-cute gigantic
Cupcake-like pastel ambassadors
Show-stopping showboat

I'm so happy with my turkey! I couldn't bear to open it.  I ate someone else's...

Spinning fall colors

I normally don't agree to do commissioned work after a craft fair.  I've got enough to do with my own gift-making and I'm pooped out from the weeks of production. 

But a woman was admiring some of the hand-spun yarn in a pair of mitts Z was wearing.  For someone who can appreciate the colors and the handspun yarn, I was happy to work up a pair of custom mitts.  Just one. 

It felt good to do a little carding and spinning.  I was rather quick and sloppy about it, but the colors are wonderful and the yarn is bouncy.  I hope I have enough left for a pair for myself.

Autumn fog

This year we have a real autumn.

The colors weren't so spectacular, but the climate has been wonderful.  Instead of only one month, we're getting two months of autumn, and I'm very grateful.

I walk nearly every morning in our little neighborhood.  I pass the same kids and dog-walkers as I make multiple loops.

Some days, like today, I carry a camera and try to catch what I can before it all changes again.

Crafty gals

Z and I did a little craft sale this weekend in the little community center in Arlington, VA.  We had constant traffic, a fun crowd, and lots of tasties.

Z sold a lot of collage cards.  She also sold some packs of cards from previous years.  The earrings were not the hit we'd hoped, but she'll have them for Christmas gifts. 

It's a funny thing that happens:  She thought that artsy-grown-ups would like the earrings that looked like pies and cupcakes, but it was the kids that wanted them.  And, as with my mitts, parents won't buy nice things for kids who might lose them.

Z did some drawing during the sale.  At once point she looked up and saw that the woman across the way was drawing us.

Burning through the yarn

The heap on the kitchen table, of all the mitts I've produced in the last two months.  I'm all out of my fun Nature Spun sportweight, in the crazy colors.

Here is the last pair of mitts I got from that yarn.  The colors didn't appeal to me as yarns, but worked up, I love them.

Surprises like that are what make these so fun.

Yellow leaves

They might be leaves, they might be bird feet.  But I'm happy to have some!

I've had so much fun making these that I think I will write up a little pattern. 

But I wonder if I can make them make sense in writing or in chart form.  I will follow Nancy Marchant's stitch system as best I can, when I get around to it... which might not be until after the holidays. 

What's it got in its pocketsesssss?

Happy Trick-or-Treating to all who did it!  We hope your pockets are full of treasure.

Z was a fabulous Wednesday Addams.

E and I sent her out the door without us.  We decided to stay home for the four little costumed visitors we received. 

So things were different this year; no gingerbread houses, no walking about in the dark and watching the kidlets tromp from house to house. 

Instead E and I sat on the couch with cats in our laps.  While I knit, E read aloud from The Hobbit, which happily landed us in Gollum's cave.  A perfect Halloween adventure.

E is an excellent out-loud reader.  He knew how to snag himself an English major 21 years ago, when he stole me off to the quiet stairwell of the men's co-op and read aloud to me from wicked little Tennessee Williams short stories.  My heart was like a butterfly under the net, captured.

We ate some of Z's candy, and now she's off to school.  God help the teachers today.

 

Frost on the pumpkins

What the hey -- it's snowing on pumpkin carving day.

No accumulation, but some very big wet flakes.  That made it fun.

This year I tried a white pumpkin.  Who knew it would be green inside?

E and Z did the big orange ones.

Here are the happy faces on our doorstep!  Z's has no eyes.  We call it the Charlie Brown pumpkin.  E's is a classic.

I carved out a cone shape, and our friend B inserted it back into the pumpkin, inverted.  It was a pumpkin horn!  I had so much fun making more pumpkin horns that I skipped the face.

 

Scrappy little totes

Gifts that cost next to nothing.  The zippers from SCRAP, a Portland source for art supplies in the form of industrial discards, and the scraps from H of Marsbarn and others and ourselves.

It's good to have some free time as well. 

Sewing them has been a workout for my spacially-challenged brain. 
So some things end up inside out and backwards... we rip where we sew.

Kitty in a tote

Pete has broken through two cat carriers.  Mainly through flailing (he was overweight at one time as well).  That's how much he doesn't like going to the vet.

But surprisingly, he doesn't mind a tote bag.  In the car and at the vet, he curls up at the very bottom.  Last visit, the vet tech took him in the bag to the back of the office, and showed him off to everyone there.  Kitty in a tote makes for many giggles.

Colors for Fall

While you're getting ready for Halloween, don't forget your toes.

Enjoy the wonderful colors of the season.

Do some exploring...

... and gather some good things about you.

What does ZEKsLITE stand for?

It stands for us!  Although if you read us in the order that you see us here, it would look like KZE instead of ZEK.  We're ZEKs.  And this blog is about the lighter, less stressful parts of life; it's the Reader's Digest Condensed version, it's Diet Cola.  It's us Lite.

That's in answer to some comments I've received.  It's a reasonable question, and I like to get comments.  But sometimes I get comments that are not really comments.  Even with my robot-detector in the comments section, I get some crazy stuff.  I suspect it's all in the name of boosting one's "Google juice," creating links to links.  That's why when I get a comment from someone whose URL doesn't work, or who calls themselves "Anonymous," I err on the side of caution and delete it.

Evolution of the mitts.

The mitt madness continues.  Through experimentatinon and error, I am learning. Brioche is funny stuff. 

Mitt construction is also funny stuff.  How many stitches should exist between the thumb and the palm?  More than one, less than seven.  Three or five seems about right. 

It is hard to mass produce.  I have to play with each one.  No pair the same.  Each successive pair a mutation of the one before it.

And then there are the stitch patterns.  I attempt something complex, then I rip, and return to simple.

This one was a challenge; I didn't know how to increase and decrease so many stitches at once to make the pattern, so I fiddled.

Nancy Marchant's Knitting Brioche is meaty, and her stitch dictionary is a ample, but now I want more stitches.  I hope one day a whole book of brioche stitches is made.  Perhaps I'll get to work on some contributions for this imaginary book...