Knitting on Impulse

Boldly Going Places

 

As we wound down the switchbacks of a sweltering southern British Columbia highway this summer, it was the dog that caught our eye, scurrying back and forth in his seat and clearly having the ultimate face-out-the-window experience. While I'm sure there are many reasons why this is technically Not A Good Idea, I am equally confident that almost any dog on earth would gladly trade old age for the chance to ride in a sidecar on the open road.

Speaking of boldly going places, I've gotten it into my head to embark on the educational process towards a new career. Actually, it's more of a parallel career stream to the one I left five years ago, but since their respective channels are carved very deep, there was no way to truly get from one to the other (and I am very very sure that I want to be in one and not the other) without going right back to the beginning. Thus, I'm presently working my way through a selection of senior undergrad psychology courses, preparatory to applying to a Masters program and hoping like heck that 15+ years of hard core experience in a related field will stand me in good stead. (Also that my brain works as well as it did 20 years ago, though based on my first final exam, I think that's reasonably likely.) 

The plan (if all goes well) is to do undergrad and the first phase of grad school entirely by distance learning, to allow me to be present for my kids and (nearly) equally importantly, to continue the yarn business. Summer was challenging, but with the return to school day routines, I think the yarn/university duo is doable. Apart from the financial imperative, one of my prime goals in this endeavour is balance - to hold on tightly to the creative identity that was crushed insensible by the Other Profession. Remember the ridiculously cryptic Athena post? This decision was essentially the point, and I'm holding on tight to Athena's model of womanhood: textile artist, intellectual, warrior, and protector of heroes. It works.

He May Be About a Million Years Old....

But he's not immune to the charms of a plateful of sushi:

 
 

(That would be Rob's belated birthday dinner he's eyeing.)

Recovery

As part of this year's Celebration theme, I had an unspoken intention to be a more cheerful blogger  - look on the bright side, complain less, apologize less, etc.  However, I've been struggling with this weird flu-ish thing for more than two weeks now, and although I've mostly kept up with the basics of work, I haven't felt especially erudite.  I thought I was nearly better this weekend, and then early in the week crashed all over again, and spent most of the last few days sleeping or vegetating.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I still can't quite set aside the compulsive need to apologize, and I am painfully aware that I am a couple of days behind on shipping and more than that on email. I'll be working my way through that pronto, as well as today's update - and just wanted to issue a kind of blanket apology while I get there.

(On the bright side, I lost 5 lbs without even trying, and my jeans fit again. Seriously, it is a genuine pyschological boost to feel ahead of the game on at least one point!)

Halfway to Spring

February 2nd is an auspicious seasonal milestone, being variously titled Imbolc/(St.) Brigid's Day/Candlemas/GroundHog Day, and doubtless many more I failed to discover.  It represents the midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox (at least in the northern hemisphere); in other words, we are halfway to spring. It's a milestone of hope: cold still grips the land, but the days are noticeably longer and we begin to imagine and prepare for the onset of warmer weather. (Actually, as lovely as that sentiment sounds, we here in Whistler would be just fine with a little extra snow and extended spring skiing. Once the mountain closes in April though, we're pretty keen to get on with the melt.)

As for forecasting the exact onset of the thaw: the bears are still hibernating, and since our hearth fire is gas, we won't be inspecting the ashes for signs and portents, though the layer of dust on the mantel might well prove instructive. It was a cloudy day here, so any critters who may have poked out their heads would have seen no shadow, which presumably foretells an early spring.

As for a family celebration - I talked with the kids a bit about the significance of the date, and though my daughter was impressed with Brigid in a girl power sort of way, the children are most keen to focus on the proximity of spring. Typically, they've requested cake to mark the day, my daughter suggesting we ice it in two halves - one white, to represent winter, and one green with flowers, to represent spring.  Since it's a school night and half the family is presently huddled in bed shivering and sniffling, I think we'll postpone that to the weekend, but I promise to show you pictures when it happens!

Bloggers have traditionally participated in a silent poetry reading on this date, in honour of Brigid's association with poetry, and though I have failed most years (the last being 2007), I do think it is a lovely practice (though by the looks of it, that ship has sailed and everyone else appears to have moved on. Never mind.)

My contribution:

She who reconciles the ill-matched threads

of her life, and weaves them gratefully

into a single cloth—

it’s she who drives the loudmouths from the hall

and clears it for a different celebration

 

where the one guest is you.

In the softness of the evening

it’s you she receives.

 

You are the partner of her loneliness,

the unspeaking center of her monologues.

With each disclosure you encompass more

and she stretches beyond what limits her,

to hold you.

Rainer Maria Rilke

What are your thoughts at this time of year - do you mark it in any special way, with cultural or personal traditions?

Star Trekkin'

Thanks to the discriminating taste of our local library, we've been working our way through the original Star Trek series, which I adored as a kid (OK, as an adult, too), and which seems to be equally enthralling for my own children, despite the lack of modern CG effects. 

I did not however, remember this... but thanks to Rob, the kids are hooked and it won't get out of my brain. What else could I do but share?

 

 

The Hustle and Bustle of Whistler

I love all the stories that are coming in - some funny, some profound, all wonderfully personal. If you haven't yet contributed (and hence entered the contest), please do!

The boy and I walked down to the Village for a little gift shopping yesterday. This is as close as we get to malls and holiday crowds up here:

 

 

 

Of course, a snowy excursion like that just had to end at our favorite little coffee shop for hot chocolate:

 

I'll be sending out the newsletter later today, but I might as well mention that I've begun the year-end clean up of my yarn inventory. Seconds, single knot skeins, and leftovers (discontinued colourways, single skeins left in a dyelot, etc.) will all be on sale in the Sales and Seconds category. The clean-up will continue off and on between holiday /family stuff and wind up New Year's Eve. As I've done before, if you want to grab stuff but wait to see what else comes along and combine shipping, just leave me a note to that effect in the order comments - I'll refund duplicate shipping charges once you're done.

Resolution Day... I Forget. Three more to go.

I'm still alive, but this interminable bronchial/sinus bug, whatever it is, has really knocked the stuffing out of me. I'm slowly but steadily improving; however, for the last many evenings my big indulgence has been to fall asleep in lieu of staying up to blog.  There has been knitting, and the Botanical Mitts are published and deserve a proper post.... soon. Really! I just have to hold it together to the end of Friday, and I'll have earned the chance to just hang out with my kids for a couple of weeks. There will still be weekly store updates, including an end of year inventory clean-up sale... but if I can get this week's tasks completed, the updates themselves are all I'll have to do. (Well, besides the last minute Christmas prep, but that's mostly fun stuff.)

Resolution Day 15/26: Odd

The children were taking considerably longer than required to wash up for dinner, so I checked. 

 
Guess I didn't hear wrong after all when they mentioned earlier that they needed my interlocking blocking mats to build a coffin. They were playing so happily and co-operatively at that point, I decided to leave well enough alone (a personal indulgence if ever there was one.)

I'm never entirely certain whether our family is charmingly creative or disturbingly odd.

Resolution Day 14/26: Fuzzy

Drinking sequential mugs of hot liquid, puttering away in small doses at housework and order processing, pondering just how many PSI the average human sinus can withstand before the brain implodes, and feeling a little... unfocused.

 
Fortunately, many things this time of year look just fine that way.

 

Mandarins are one of my favorite indulgences - we go through many many boxes before the season ends.  And a little extra Vitamin C can't hurt.

Resolution Day 8/26

So I got up extra early this morning, to get a jump on processing orders and also begin to catch up on the four thousand emails and other things that have gone by the wayside during Hell Month. Half an hour into it, the internet cut out.  So did the phone and the cable, which may be a potent argument against these convenient and thrifty "bundled" services.  Fortunately we had a cell phone with which to sit on hold and listen to recorded messages assuring us that if we got tired of waiting on the phone (whose service was provided by their rival), we could email them for assistance.  I understand that multiple computers are now a basic necessity of life so that we can fill out online forms on one machine about the other's lack of function, and likewise, a cell phone with a different provider from one's home phone, but apparently we now need separate internet providers so as to have a fool-proof means of  complaining about the one that's down. The outage lasted most of the day,  the emails did not get written, and the orders did not get processed.  They'll go out tomorrow morning instead.

Since most of my To Do list was now off limits, that left shopping. I picked up Advent calendar stuffers, and got a decent start on the kids' Christmas presents. And dyeing. I've got quick and luxurious gift knits on the brain, and small amounts of super-special yarns floating around that I've never properly added to the line-up: pure cashmere in a sport weight, an incredibly soft and lustrous merino/alpaca/silk single. I added some Wooly Moguls for super-quick hats and cowls, Camel Silk for phenomenal scarves, and  Silken Mystic for those lovely, magical knitters for whom a laceweight shawl really is a last minute gift.  I invented a scrumptious shade of ...... wait and see..... just for the occasion, and I'll show you next week.

Indulgence: cheese curds. Proper ones (that hardly ever show up in a grocery store in this part of the country), with which to make proper poutine, which we did.

I don't have a picture of the poutine though, so can you stand to look at more snow?

 

I do love the light on a winter afternoon.