Stasia's Place Of Grace

Monday, October 21, 2002

 

More Things Finished

I have finally gotten around to updating our beekeeping website. The final page of the year has been added. Please click here to see our honey harvest.

Phew! I'm glad it's over!

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This is me in the ruana. I told you it would be short, as I'm pretty tall! (And pudgy, but that's from FMS and steroids! Well, that's my excuse, anyway!) :-)

Jeff told me to wear it when we met our friends, Dave and Di, for Dim Sum, and they said they liked it too, so that made me feel great.

I wore it with my sheep pin from The Fleece Artist as a closure, and it looked neat. (The Fleece Artist has very nice handpainted Wensleydale rovings, by the way!)

I finally got up the courage to wash the ruana today. It didn't fall apart, which was encouraging! It really softened up and is more "drapey". It's very comfortable and not so "old lady" feeling to me as a triangle shawl... though I love how they look, I'm not really a shawl-y kind of person. Wearing them, I mean - I'd love to make one! (Though to be honest, I'm right now wearing my triangle shawl with the glass bead trim from Tall Grass Mohair Farm as I type! It is cold here tonight!)

All in all, I'm happy with the ruana, especially as I made it up on my own. Today I got my copy of "The Ashford Book Of Rigid Heddle Weaving" and wouldn't you know, there is a pattern for a "cloak" in there that is very similar! But I'm grateful that I experienced the process - it gave me a lot of confidence. (As did Linda - thanks for all of your help!)

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Here is a hat which I made yesterday, modeled by Valentine:

I made this up, too, but it's based on hats I'd seen a few years ago in a Vogue Knitting magazine.

Question: the bottom wants to roll up too much. How can I prevent that, in future, while not having any different stiches visible? A few bands of purl stitches? A few bands of ribbing? I tried that, but the ribbing showed when it rolled... suggestions appreciated!

The moral of this experience is that when you see a yarn that speaks to you, even if it is acrylic, and even though you are a handspinner, buy it! I had so much fun working with this yarn that in less than two weeks I'd made all that stuff, and made it up myself. I am never that creative or productive! I'm really grateful I just happened to see this color at Wal-Mart one day!

I have yarn left. I think I now need a tea cosy...

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Today...

• I am keeping a candle lit for my Spindlers friend Mary H., who had gallbladder surgery.

• I sent my He-Man slipper socks off to The Ships Project. I found some black acrylic in my stash, so I may start another pair soon.

• I found myself with nothing on the needles when it was time to go meet our friends for dinner tonight! Emergency! About every three months, Di and I like to knit at the Von Rottenburg Bier Stube, and the guys watch the football game there with us. Well, I looked around, trying to find some yarn and needles to bring. Argh! Nothing appealed to me! I wanted to make another hat, but couldn't find anything appropriate to work with, so ended up with some Regia yarn and some size 0 sock needles as Jeff rushed me out the door so we wouldn't be late.

  Although I have become determined to not have more than one project going at a time (that is, one weaving, one spinning, and one knitting project), I definitely need to always have a pair of mindless socks (or a hat) on the needles for take-along knitting.

  Trying to cast on on size 0s in a dimly lit German beer pub was not relaxing, to say the least! I won't get caught short-needled again!

• Went to bank, Post Office, and food store, all in one day. Major accomplishment for me. Won't be repeated any time soon. I'm tired. But I'm glad the errands are finished for the week.

• Stayed out of a family fracas (Jeff's family). Nothing big, but stressful "junk" that I don't need to deal with. I successfully reminded myself of that - yay, me!

  I will always be there for someone who really needs me, but when people are just idly gossipping or trying to create trouble, I can have the strength to take care to remove myself from the situation.

  I overheard a bit of the "Dr. Phil" show the other day, and he was saying that although there were "loonies" in his family, he didn't avoid seeing them, because of this: he trusted himself to be able to deal with them. That really hit home for me. I realized that that is what I really fear about times with my family or Jeff's, or just with people I don't particularly enjoy... not so much that the other person will be rude or unreasonable, but that I don't trust my own reaction to them!

  Knowing that made me feel empowered... I know, after thinking about it, that I am capable of responding in a controlled manner... that I don't have to break down or get insulted or have my heart hurt by others, no matter what they do. I don't have to blow up, to confront them, or to go home and cry... even if their behavior is awful.

  I never thought about that consciously before, and now I feel better able to handle any stressful situations the holidays may bring.

  I don't have to trust them not to hurt me. I just have to trust myself to be able to deal with it.

  Whether I have to imagine I'm dignified Jane Austen or Audrey Hepburn, or I have to take my knitting along to de-stress myself, or I have to go get a stiff shot at Starbucks afterwards, I know that I can trust myself to react to "unreasonables" in a manner of my own choosing!

  It is a great feeling.

• Speaking of Jane Austen, I am now reading a wonderful book called "Evelina" by Fanny Burney. Written in the late 1770s, it is very similar to Austen in style and content, and utterly enjoyable. Very funny and interesting.

  I was reading a rather strange book about a modern-day Englishman who had decided to replicate the first "grand tour" of Europe ever made (it was in the 1600s). He outfitted himself with a purple velvet suit and a Rolls Royce to do so, and had all these adventures in France and Italy and such.

  But the book was too full of "British-isms," and all the funny parts went way over my head. After weeks of avoiding reading it, I finally abandoned it for the Burney, and I'm so glad I did!

  I often push myself to finish things I'm really not enjoying. I would like to stop doing that, and this was a step in that direction. It is important to persevere in life... but for goodness' sake, not in areas of rest and relaxation!

  It is funny, though, that an eighteenth-century book is more enjoyable, and easier, for me to read than a modern one. Between that and my spinning, weaving, and knitting, I was definitely born in the wrong century!

Have a great Tuesday! Get rid of something that you're not enjoying, and get inspired by something unusual - even if it is acrylic!

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