or are you happy to see me?  If I recall correctly, this variety is called "Purple Passion."  Now I know why (yes, that's a full sized pencil in there for scale).  The huge stalk on the left weighs 3.8 ounces on it's own!

And below is just one week's spears, minus about a dozen smaller spears we ate a few days ago. The total of the group below is just over 3 pounds, all the green spears are from a 10 foot, double row of Mary Washington asparagus we planted in Spring of 2001.  The purple is newer, but it's not as tasty as the green, and was in a poor spot in the back of our perennial border (bad idea), so I moved all but two clumps to Shelter Island this spring, to use them as tests planted outside the deer fence to see if they got eaten or not. So far so good...

These have been slow in starting due to our cold, rainy Spring.  But this week has been quite productive, and I think we can go for another week or more.  Here's the week's haul:

And some of it just got baked into this beautiful "Asparagus Pie", from a recipe I found on www.foowishes.com, one of my new favorite cooking sites.  I substituted brown rice flour for the flour because we are bringing it to a party with friends who need gluten-free food.  It looks great, and I hope it tastes as good:

Showing off with this one.   Here's a simple yet delicious fresh fruit tart that I made from the first recipe I found on-line--a simple tart crust with vanilla custard and fresh fruit.  I used strawberries and kiwi, but it would be great with whatever you have in season.  (If you try it, take note that the directions leave out when to add the vanilla.  I put it in at the end of the custard making process, to avoid letting the alcohol curdle the eggs). 

I made this to take to my Sister's house for Mother's Day dessert.  It was a big hit and I was encouraged to continue experimenting (and delivering experiments to their house for taste-testing).

First fish of the season, caught by Craig on a "legendary" full moon evening, just before dusk, May 9th on Shelter Island.  This Striped Bass was delicious.  Several meals are put away in the freezer for future feasts.  He looks just a bit too happy, doesn't he?  I mean Craig, not the fish, heh.

Just a quick post to show off a bit.  We went to the CT Breeders Festival in Vernon a few weeks ago to shop and have a family weekend, but mostly for these beauties, stuffed into the back of the car on Saturday Afternoon:

On the left, my antique parlor wheel that Dave of the Merlin Tree accepted at NYSWF in October and refurbished for me.  I blogged it, here.  I never thought this former box of parts could look that good.  On the right, my brand new Ashford Country Spinner, also purchased from The Merlin Tree.  Super bonus--he put it together for me, which I never expected--thanks Dave!  I haven't tried the antique wheel yet, but I have already spun over a pound onto that whopper of a bobbin on the Country Spinner, and it's not half full.  I think I have a lot of extra bulky yarns in my future.  I can't wait to finish it and start spinning large, strange stuff into some yarns.

I didn't buy much fiber at the fair, but did pick up a beautiful Icelandic Fleece at the fleece sale, from Hope Hollow Farm.  This is a fiber I haven't worked with before.  It's a double-coated breed, so it should be an interesting experiment.  The fleece is multi-colored (mouflon--dark brown though light tans) and looked great, had long fibers (I swear some was 6" or more) and seemed clean and soft.  I'll try to wash some of it soon to show it off.

I'm sure to post more on my two new wheels as well.  Now I just need to name them.  Suggestions welcome. :)

We were blessed to have a beautiful Easter break at our house on Shelter Island.  It was a busy week filled with work, but also relaxing.  The main focus of our week was our garden.  With high hopes that we'll be able to spend most of this summer on the Island, and knowing how lonely for our own veggies we were last year, we tilled a large area of lawn and fenced it to keep the deer out.  At the end of March, Craig broke out our old faithful rototiller, a leftover from our landscaping business (and maybe a dozen years old or more!), and tilled an area of grass to break it up and get the process going.

After a second round of tilling last weekend, Craig got my Dad's old Bobcat started (that's an antique from Dad's construction business, and at least 35 years old, maybe more).  With the Bobcat, he moved our entire compost pile into the garden.  I think it was maybe 5 yards of compost--several years' worth of fall leaves, weeds from my parents' flower beds, sod we've dug out here and there, kitchen scraps.  He dumped it in piles around the garden, and I raked it out as evenly as I could so he could till it yet again:

After another round of tilling to mix it in, you can see the difference below.  What a change from the pathway soil (on the left) and the improved garden soil on the right.

Next I grabbed an old gate that we swiped from my Sister when she sold her house, and I dug post holes to put in four 4x4 fence posts where we wanted our two gates so we can walk through the garden.  Of course I had to buy a $17 hinge kit to hang the "free" gate, but at least I didn't spend ten hours building it, and it worked well right off the bat!  We bought a few metal fence posts and 100' roll of 7' high deer net, and we borrowed both posts and more net from our winter shrub deer fencing, (which we'll have to replace in the fall), and went around the perimeter.  The second set of wooden posts I dug in just has deer net for now, but we will build a gate for that one later in the season.

So here are the results of our work.  The garden is a haphazard trapezoid shape with 5-ish corners, but I think it's around 30x50 feet.  It brought together a few floating garden areas--on the north edge is a row of old evergreen cedars which we branched up to put the fence along their trunks.  The apple tree is next to them, in the bed we dug up and mulched into an island last year.  It's now enclosed too, with some thornless blackberries I moved there last year, along with a new row of about 20 canes of raspberries from our Baldwin perennial bed.  They have been creeping under the fence from the neighbors, and last year they fruited so we got to taste them.  They're not everbearing, but they were sweet and free, so no complaints!  Along the East edge is my herb/rock garden, which now has a Beach Plum (Prunus maritima), which was a major score, found at Southold Agway!  The herbs have been there a few years, but hopefully the deer won't eat my new plum tree/shrub. I need to replace the lavender and rosemary which aren't showing any signs of life yet after this winter.

Along the South edge (the trench you see above, outside the fence), we transplanted a row of Asparagus that I dug up from Baldwin.  I think it's called "Purple Passion" and we didn't like the flavor as much as the green, so we are taking a chance the critters will leave it alone  and recovering a lot of perennial border at "home" in the transaction.  If I recall correctly, my Sister had asparagus in her SI garden when she lived here, and they didn't eat it, but there were fewer deer then.  Time will tell.  Inside the fence (below) you can see our newly planted beds after their first watering.  I got in about 30' of organic seed potato from Wood Prairie Farm, a bed of yellow onion sets, snap and snow peas, small blocks of lettuce, arrugula, spinach, and some Fukugawa bunching onions (scallions).  Most of the seeds are from Scheepers aka Kitchen Garden Seeds.  I also planted a six pack of flat leaf parsley and a bunch of lettuce seedlings I bought locally, to give us a bit of a head start--barely visible in this photo.

And the final touch.  We needed a bar above the gate, so the deer wouldn't get into the garden there, and when I turned around, Craig had added his beautiful finishing touch.  My Mom says she has a great view of it from her yard.  If you can't read the classy orange spray paint at the top, it says Beware of Zombies.

And then we had to go home.  We'll be back in two weeks.  Hopefully it will rain a bit (it has), things will sprout a bit (they will, if it ever warms up here), and the critters will stay out (fingers crossed!).  Happy Spring!

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I have a loathe-hate kind of relationship with the area where we live.  Nassau County is a suburb of NYC and one of the most densely populated counties in the United States by population.  We have around 1.3 million residents--the 28th highest population/county in the US in 2005, with retail sales of over $14,000 per capita in 2002--so you can imagine what things are like here.  I'll spare you the gory details.  I tend to be somewhat of a hermit within this society, only venturing out when absolutely necessary, avoiding the mainstream because it doesn't fit me.  For some reason, despite the fact that I grew up here and Craig is a transplant from the country, I think he has a better peace with this place than me.

So here is the story as it forms:  I decided to call it 'Recycling the American Dream'.  WARNING--it's long!

Setting/Background:  In the years when millions emigrated from Europe to the US, for many, the areas around NYC were seen as the place to live the American Dream.  Today we reside in this place, transformed into an overpopulated suburb with polluted air, where consumerism is king, credit debt is massive, waste and gluttony are rampant, responsibility is a four letter word.  The children of the immigrants who settled here have ditched their parents' frugal ways of life and forgotten the skills their parents used to build and make a new life here.  They have succumed to a life of entitlement that is even now becoming their downfall.   And yet, a glimmer of hope springs forth in a 12 hour period where I witness and/or participate in 3 miraculous acts:

Miracle I--"The Can Man":  My recycling instinct re-awakened as I was upstairs winding a ball of yarn to work on Audrey's sweater jacket (I swear, photos of progress tomorrow--this story couldn't wait!).  I could hear this metallic rattling sound, only to look out our small attic windows to see the "can man" coming down the street.  There are 2 can men in our neighborhood, each of whom has his own territory on recycling days.  Ours has a shopping cart and the other guy rides a bike, balancing two huge garbage bags on either side of him--amazing!  They go from curb to curb and pick the deposit soda cans and beer bottles out of the recycling tubs.  They are the reason I spare myself the dreaded task of taking our family's handful of 5 cent deposit cans and bottles back to the store.  I can be reassured that someone else is doing it for me, and it's helping his income to boot.  What a relief!

Miracle II--"Curbside Treasure": This morning, Craig is sick, so I walked Audrey to school in the brisk cold air.  On the way home I spotted a really nice piece of furniture waiting for the garbage truck.  It's a sideboard style piece with drawers, on heavy metal casters with a late 50-s to 70's era look, a "Broyhill" original.  Solid wood--no particle or plywood--in great shape.  I rushed home to get the truck to go pick it up.  If none of our family or friends wants it, we'll drag it out to Shelter Island where it will fetch somewhere between $20 and $50 at our yard sale next Memorial Day.  Great find--shown below left, with other treasures:  a rusty organizer that makes a great bean tower in the summer.  A huge plastic play house that my in-laws and I carried from a block away in sub-zero temperatures, the frightening collection of junk in our garage!

In the past, 'curb crawling' was a favorite family pastime and one of the few things that both Craig and I enjoyed doing together.  So much so that I got us matching "dumpster diving team" t-shirts to wear for the sport.  When Audrey was little, we had a recreational bike riding system for warm evenings.  It exactly matched the next day's trash pick up routes, and we would ride, get some exercise and take mental notes on the great curbside finds, later returning with the truck to pick up.   We supplemented our free treasures with inexpensive yard sale, tag sale and flea market finds that we couldn't pass up, and had our own family yard sales once or twice a during the summer, keeping some treasues--this is how we furnished the summer house which we rented out at the time--and selling the rest at a small profit.  This worked wonderfully until our home, garage, and summer home shed began to overflow with the fruits of our labors, the things we couldn't bear to part with.  This is especially easy to do with two collectors in the house.  One is a vintage video game junkie who also tends to like old pottery, books, and anything to do with fishing.  That's Craig. 

My problem is fiber related, of course.  Suffice it to say that if I opened the bags and unfolded all the linens and fabric at once, I might be able to blanket my entire neighborhood with them.  I never can pass up a box or tin of buttons...aahhhhh, buttons...and it pains me to leave those old sewing machines on the curb.  I'm like a pathetic 5 year old with a lost puppy I found on the street: "Oh honey, can't I bring it home?  Please?  I promise I'll take good care of it...."  (Incidentally, my spinning obsession began at a yard sale with a wheel I picked up in a package deal with a portable sewing machine.  The seller wanted $20 each and I bargained her down to $35.  It's worth about $350 used.  Deal of the century, huh?).

Miracle III: "Viral Contamination!":  I can prove it--this curbside thing is contagious, really!  My third miracle is the lady who I saw on my third trip out this morning, the one to take Audrey's forgotten lunch box to school so she could eat.  This trip was urgent, so I drove.  On the way back, I watched a mini van with a  woman about my age, driving from house to house, eyeballing the trash for goodies and pulling over a few times.  While I loathe the competition in my own neighborhood,  I felt like my piece of furniture was even more of a score (hey, I beat her to it!), and know in my heart it's a good thing, especially since we're not the active 'curbside reclamation artists' we used to be.  Every piece of the past that gets re-used instead of going into those garbage trucks is a blessing, and I don't want to be the one to complain about a little competition if it means saving the planet.

Heck, I'm truly an enabler.  My neighbor's back yard is now filled with giant plastic toys that have been "saved"!  She watched us hauling goodies home once too often, and caught the bug.  She often babysits other kids, so the toys are put to great use.  Of course I have a sinking feeling that her husband isn't thrilled....I can tell by the way he looks at me sometimes that he is struggling with my viral 'green' behavior as it slowly seeps across the hedge into their yard, infecting his wife with the desire to recycle old battery powered kid-sized Jeeps, and giant molded plastic see-saws and kitchen sets and slides and bikes, all that were destined for the landfill and now reside on their neat, green lawn.  I also know that he personally fixed up one of the Jeeps to working status, so his heart is gold even if his lawn is green in August :)

Others have been affected too.  I scored a giant plastic doll house for a friend last year.  It was hidden on the curb between two parked cars as I drove home from a playdate at their house.  My 'trash sense' was tingling when I spied it.  On arriving home, I immediately called them with the news and her husband went out to pick it up.  It was the EXACT one she had been searching ebay to purchase, and was immediately put to use after a good scrubbing.  A few months later, the same friends got a small load of firewood because of a sighting I made--beautiful Cherry wood that was all cut up into ready-to-burn pieces.  I know they've gotten other goodies on their own as well...

Of course, I know that saving trash from the landfill isn't a new thing.  Friends of our family built an entire house from building materials salvaged from "the dump" on Shelter Island back in the 1970's.  But it is frightening to think that being frugal and sensible about not needing new things all the time is a mostly forgotten art.  On our travels at the curb we see the other stuff, the proof of consumption out of control:  the garbage, and the empty boxes from all the stuff people buy.  And it is HUGE.  With that in mind I must be honest; we're not saints.  Our family purchased a brand new sectional for our living room in 2008 , and Craig succumed to his need to have a 42" LCD TV a few weeks ago.  However, I am proud to say that the giant TV sits atop a very old, ugly and distressed chest of drawers that I love. 

So I have hope--a glimmer of hope.  With the current economic situation, I expect to see more dumpster divers, curb crawlers and reclaimation experts surfacing to take their piece of The Dream off the curb.  And my furniture find of this morning has stirred my desire to get back in the game in 2009.  I plan to put some of my existing goodies on Etsy and ebay to clear out space for the treasures that are sure to be found, inflate the tires and get the baby seat ready for spring bike rides.  The competition for the good stuff will be stiff, but I'll be ready for them.  Besides, I need the exercise.

Aaaaaaaah.  Can I say that again?  Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

I'm not cured, but I'm better.  What I mean is that I think I'm finally done "going around" (finally being the word to focus on here) or at least on the right track toward figuring out the inner ear thing with the ENT who was (I must say) a total ass for his bedside manner, but who clearly knows what he is doing so I am putting up with him.  So I now feel like I'm finally (did I say finally again?) "coming around" back to the land of the living, or at least I have hope that I will someday soon. 

I am on some brain crushing drugs (*note to a-hole Doctor: WHY would you prescribe an antibiotic with a major side effect of "dizziness" to a person with Vertigo??).  But besides that fact, and that the cost of said drug was outrageously expensive--above and beyond our supposed copays--oh yeah, that's WHY you'd prescribe it, so the pharmaceutical company can send you to the Bahamas for a free vacation!!  Of course...(no big chip on MY shoulder about big Pharma.  Nope. No siree!) Oh yeah there's also  the fact that the same exact drug put my father in the hospital the week before Christmas because of his brilliant MD who forgot to read the warnings "do not mix xyz antibiotic with blood thinners". No, I'm not kidding, but where was I going with this?  Aaaaaah, yes...I think that the Rx is actually working on this persistent sinus infection.  Within hours of taking it I could feel the gunk draining out of my head, and the death grip on the nerve/muscles from my ear down the back of my neck to my shoulder blade loosen and relax in a way that hasn't happened since before Christmas.  Of course, the side effect was that I also felt like the top of my scalp was sliding off my head, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?  Anything is better than another day with the room sideways and spinning while I cower on the couch and randomly puke into a trash can for 14 hours.  Really.  Trust me.

I hope that you all enjoyed that visual :)

Meanwhile on my trip back around, today I found the time, balance, and desire to photograph some of my work that I just got back from my Sister's Gallery which is closed until spring, and I managed to list four items on my etsy, put photos of the same items on flickr, browse a few blogs I've missed looking at, and generally feel inspired about fiber art again.   Here's one sneak peek of something pretty to combat the earlier visual I left you with--a nuno felted scarf/shawl I named Fireworks.  It's silk chiffon that I hand dyed in orange and chartreuse, then I wet felted stripes of a fiery merino wool/silk blend on it for a ruffled effect:

Tomorrow--my current spinning project (yes, I'm spinning again, the RIGHT kind of spinning!), and some peeks at the sweater I'm slowly knitting for little A.

What to do when you're spinning out of control?  Search me.  That's where I am now.  I'd love to be spinning some yarn, and even started to this weekend.  And after a good start, I fell asleep on the couch Sunday night and woke up in a spin...again.  Vertigo.  BAD.  Spent all day monday in vertigo/vomit city and finally gained a semblance of control by yesterday afternoon after a couple of doses of antibiotics and antivert meds.

So where have I been since the fall? Long story short: Dizziness, Doctor, ER, neurologist, hypothyroid, MRI, ER...  so far it all leans toward inner ear problems which have been exacerbated by a lingering sinus infection, and hypothyroid which may or may not be related.  The first 'big spin' sent me to the ER on New Years' Eve day in the ambulance, ugh.  Antibiotics didn't quite get the infection and it came back this weekend.  I was holding off to go to the ENT (please let this guy have answers for me...I'm at the end of my rope) this afternoon.  Glad my midwife wrote me a backup script for another round of antibiotics or I'd have ended up in the ER yet again this weekend when the second spin began.

I always seem to be on the edge of 'out of control' but this sent me over.  I had been making some positive progress, slow and steady...decluttering, sorting, shredding old papers, getting rid of baby clothes, emptying boxes, throwing out old, useless items, donating things.  I had plans of getting some painting and maintenance done on the house this winter, getting a jump on our taxes instead of doing it the last week of March.  Instead I am making at least one doctor visit per week, and now am making a long list of symptoms and issues to give to the ENT, with prayers that he will help me get to the bottom of this thing that's dragging me down.

Cross fingers that I can be spinning yarn again soon, instead of my world whorling around me...

Since that first fateful day I saw Lexi Boeger's web site, pluckyfluff, and spent hours looking at outrageous handspun, I was completely sold on art yarns.  I was hooked like a crack addict, sometimes going back two or three times a day just to see if she had posted a new creation I could gawk at in wide-eyed-wonder.  She opened the door to my fiber obsession, which prompted me to finally try my simple drop spindle.  When I finished my first skein, I immediately moved on to my yard sale "find"-- a wheel--and hit the ground running.   At the time, I approached spinning sideways--I didn't knit.  I knew nothing of gauge or ply or wpi.  I could crochet the basics from what Grandma and Mom taught me as a child, but I really didn't care what to do with these yarns, I just knew I wanted to know how to make them, and had to learn some basics before jumping off the cliff into the relative oblivion.  While I stashed a few, I admit that most of my first creations were sold, and actually USING some of the yarns myself would come later...

It has been a few years since I attended that  first-ever camp pluckyfluff East in October 2005 in rural PA.  For two glorious days we socialized, spun, ate together, watched and learned new techniques from the yarn diva herself, as well as the rest of the great group of spinners, most of whom are still making the fun stuff.  At that time, there were probably under 25 people round the globe who were adventurous enough to make these crazy yarns.  Many traditional spinners frowned on the idea of yarn that wasn't consistent enough to follow a pattern with.  Of course, those people still exist, and I feel sad for them that they can't drop their patterns and just create. Today, one quick browse of Etsy will show you that art yarn has moved into the mainstream.  Scores of gorgeous handspun are just waiting to be turned into something playful and fun if you're willing to take a leap of faith!

All of which, in a roundabout way, brings me back to a great blog post by Bobbi of kittygrrlz and kittygrrlsknits, which inspired me to write this post.  Her yarn is gorgeous, spanning from shiny bamboo singles to fun and playful art yarns with jewel tones to inspire even the most unimaginative knitter.  I have had the joy of using some of her yarn and can only say "yummmmmy".  Her post shows several simple ideas for projects that use a single skein of yarn.  She also features two beautiful neckwarmers knit by the talented spinner, knitter and bead artist Naomi of knottynaomi fame.  So go take a look and drop your patterns already, and just start knitting.  There are plenty of beautiful yarns to be had!!

I'll leave you with a sample of my project--crochet without a pattern, of course--recently uploaded to Etsy, featuring a simple bamoo singles by Kittygrrlz with a matching commercial ribbon yarn carried along alternately:

It's only a week plus after the fact, but better late than never, right? I really wanted to share these photos of our annual trip to NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck.  We had a great weekend.  The weather was brisk and cold, and we were glad to have a hotel room in Fishkill (a bit far, but worthwhile) as friends spent Saturday night camping nearby, and alternating between freezing to death and rude awakening by the train which apparently goes through the campgrounds honking more than once an hour, all night long.  Some of the sheep, freshly shorn from demonstrations,  actually looked cold to me, with an expression on their faces that seemed to say "Where did you put my sweater?  I need it today."

Despite how the cold affected the sheep or our chilly friends, I'm sure it was a good thing for the vendors--I can only imagine it did wonders for yarn and woollen accessory sales which I can say from craft show experience, do NOT sell in hot weather.  All the vendors I asked had no complaints about sales. There was some reporting of "record" attendance, though one vendor was telling us how the fairgrounds would not release the actual attendance numbers.  Early on Saturday morning I was wondering if the economic doom and gloom would affect attendance and sales, since it seemed very quiet and easy to negotiate the barns to me.  Then around lunch time, it was suddenly jammed with wool lovers and loads of casual attendees, looking for something to do on a beautiful fall weekend.

All my photos are from Sunday, as I didn't want to lug the camera around on Saturday, which was my prime shopping day and hanging out with wool loving friends who also make the pilgrimage every year.  So Sunday morning we started our day by heading north of Rhinebeck to Red Hook for some apple pickin (this is the same farm that sells apples at the fair, though I can't recall the name off hand).  Here's Golden Boy picking some Golden Delicious:

This ornery sheep was giving her handler a tough time at competition:

I didn't see who won because I ran off to the fleece show and sale to see if there was anything I couldn't resist. There is still some nice wool left here to buy, but bags and bags are gone by now.  On Saturday shortly after the sale opened, you could barely move in here, and the line to purchase fleece was about 30+ people deep.  I decided I could wait for things to empty out and see if there was anything left.  I actually managed to get a third prize Cotswold fleece, a pretty good catch for Sunday afternoon!

Now for the highlight of my day.  I brought a box of spinning wheel parts with me that I purchased at the Shelter Island Historical Society in the spring for $5.  I had arranged with David Paul of The Merlin Tree to take a look and see if it was salvageable.  Here's what I brought, scary huh?  I left the box with him for a few hours and returned when he had a chance to look things over.

On return, David said that he had just spoken with a gentleman about the wheel.  The man had a picture of nearly the exact same wheel, and they had looked it over together.  He called it a "parlour wheel" (upright and smaller design to take up less room) and said it was most likely of German or Austrian origin.  He was fairly excited because all the parts were there and none in terrible shape, including a rare metal dipping bowl for holding water to dip your fingers in for flax spinning.  In around a half hour, and adding only a few bits of string for drive band and to join the treadle to the footman temporarily, the wheel was turning.  Only one small piece of the flyer needs to be repaired, and the wheel needs an overall balancing, tightening of parts, leather pieces replaced and some TLC.  Who knew that what looked like a box of junk was actually an investment in a little piece of history?  It's amazing!  We left the wheel with him to restore, and will hopefully get it back in the spring.  Thanks Dave! 

Oh yeah, can't forget my stash accumulation (photo notes on my flickr):

And I'll leave you with a picture from the end of the festival.  Craig with our future farmers.  A fun time was had by all.

Ok, so this isn't the only reason I haven't posted in a while, but I lost the charger to my camera, and haven't been able to put anything on my flickr account or post new items that I've been working on for sale, or show off pics of my adorable kids for two weeks now.  It's the price of getting more megapixels, I guess.  Now I know why in the past our family agreed only to buy gadgets that take rechargeable AA batteries.  It cost me $70 and change to get myself a new charger from Canon (not a knock off, which I could have gotten much cheaper), and have it shipped two day so I'd have it before this weekend's annual pilgrimage to NY Sheep and Wool Festival. 

Now at least I know I'll definitely find the original charger in the next few days!

After many months of long hours and meetings and looking at Craig's eyes burning red from looking at computer screens too long and what seem (to me) like about a billion hours of phone and conference calls, Crowd Fusion has launched it's first web property, Obsessable.

Congratulations Craig and Brian, Judith, Steve, Ryan, Randall and everyone else on the team who have worked so hard to make it work.  I don't know you all, but I'm sure I've heard your (very professional sounding) voices echoing from our basement many times.  You guys are proof-positive that a team of independent, results-oriented, telecommuting people can create something great, and you should all be proud of yourselves.  The site looks great, functions beautifully, and I'm sure that it will only improve as the dream continues to evolve. 

Craig, can you quit obsessing for just a few hours this weekend and take me out to dinner?  I miss you!

XOXO

Zhora's Raincoat is a project I've been wanting to work on for some time now.  It's inspired by one of the best science fiction movies of all time--Blade Runner--combined with a great idea for recycling materials into a fabulous yarn. 

Zhora, (played by Joanna Cassidy) is a replicant (non-human) who dances and charms synthetic snakes in the far future.  Replicants are not permitted on Earth, so she and a group of others have returned here, knowing they may face death by doing so.  In a fabulous chase scene, Zhora is wearing her clear raincoat over her bikini/dance costume.  She runs in a haze of  colors and reflected light, through a sea of humanity as she is pursued by Deckard (Harrison Ford)  to her spectacular death; crashing through a series of plate glass windows as he shoots her down:

For this project, I used a damaged zippered clear vinyl bag (the kind new linens come in).  I cut it into long and short strips under an inch wide, and 1-6 feet long.  I used almost the whole bag except a few little scraps.  I then proceeded to sew it together at random on my sewing machine, adding bits of recycled fabric and silk scraps, handspun and commercial yarn bits sewn every which way.  Some are flat, some have loops, twists, etc.  I changed thread frequently, did zig zag and other decorative stitches, left long thread ends dangling, and included both halves of the plastic zipper tape as well as the metal zipper itself.  The design process after the basics was pretty much anything goes as I dug through the scrap box.

Though Zhora is not technically "spun", I think it qualifies as yarn, and I can't wait to see how it inspires someone.  The finished yarn really hit my mark--it's got the clear raincoat, the reflected light, the confusion from the chase scene, and the dark brooding colors mixed with brights, which director Ridley Scott pulls off so beautifully in this movie. 

Zhora is for sale on Etsy as an extremely late challenge for the FAST (Fiber Arts Street Team) challenge of April 'storms' since both the raincoat and the "hail" of bullets fit the storms theme.  If the yarn happens to be sold and you're interested in more, feel free to convo me and I'll be glad to make more to order.  I have a big stash of vinyl bags on hand recycled from friends and family...

This week has been a difficult one for us.  Our good friend Slinky the cat is gone.   She started to slow down at the beginning of the year, and started fading fast  recently.  She was diagnosed with diabetes and we put her on insulin shots and a special diet, which helped for a few weeks, but we could feel her slipping away.  This past weekend out on Shelter Island was her last, as she hobbled over to my parents house several times in a state of dementia, then slunk off into the woods.  I was sure she was looking for a place to lie down for the last time, and we didn't want to lose her that way.  We brought her home, and made the difficult decision to end her suffering.  So we said our goodbyes and yesterday we took her to the vet for her last trip.  It was one of the saddest days of our lives, but it was the right thing to do, and a relief to let her finally rest, despite our deep sadness at our loss.

Slinky was Craig and My first "child" from when we were still in college, before we were married.  She was a faithful companion and friend, a loving cuddly sidekick and a pain in the ass--all things a cat is supposed to be.   We picked her out of a tiny litter of 2 kittens from Craig's parents farm in Cato, NY, before they moved to FL.  She stood out as one of two gray kittens in a herd of inbred calico cats at the farm.  Her mama was a wild smoky gray cat, and Slinky's little white tuxedo left us no doubt that "Mr. Tux"--a hefty bruiser of a farm cat in black and white, tough on the outside but a softie at heart--was her daddy.  She was small, wild, tough and ultimately, cuddly--Craig had to chase her down and catch her so we could take her home that spring.  She never lost that little bit of wild cat mentality until the last few weeks of her life.  She never got close to strangers but she was a constant companion, cuddler and furry friend to our family--even to the point of being really patient with the kids who were not nearly as gentle as they should have been--for the 18 years we were allowed to enjoy with her. 

Slinky was part dog.  If you couldn't find her, all you had to do was whistle and she'd come running.  She loved to play fetch with crumpled up paper  balls and would get so excited you'd think her head would fly off if she heard the sound of paper being crushed up in your hands.  She was a pain in the ass like all cats should be, waking me up at all hours of the night to go out, then come in, peeing in places she shouldn't (on purpose), scratching and biting vet techs (and us) now and then.  She survived being hit by a car at a young age, and ended up with a funny parylized tail that flopped around for the rest of her life.  When we lived in the country, she was a fabulous hunter, leaving us a constant array of mouse and vole heads and innards on our sidewalk as presents.  She even caught a weasel and a bat--quite the trophies!  And of course we'll never forget the time she brought a live mouse inside and let it go.  She never did understand why we didn't appreciate THAT present...

Slinky was a snowbird when we were; traveling with us to Florida every winter for a few years, after which she made a surprisingly easy transition to suburbia and never complained despite having to be a house cat for a few years until we bought our house on a quiet dead end street.  When allowed to go outside again, she stuck close to home, always preferring to be out when we were in the yard and just for an hour or two each summer night to prowl and do what cats do...

We miss her everywhere.  The irony of having a pet is the little things, and the things that were annoying and that I cussed her out about are the places I now miss her most.  Lying in bed I missed the feel of her four paws walking across and weighing heavily on my butt as I try to sleep.  I miss the howling to come inside (and go out again) at 4am.  I miss playing fetch.  I miss her biting my ankles as I walked by.  I miss her meowing for food only to eat one kibble and walk away.  I miss catching her sitting in the bath tub drinking the drips of water (I guess we'll have to fix that leak now), and I am so sad to have to wipe up her last trail of footprints from the bathroom and have not been able to bring myself to do it yet.

Goodbye old friend. It was hard to let you go, but we know it was your time and your spunky spirit needed to move on.  We miss you so much already.  Things will not be the same around here without you.  Say hello to Mr. Tux, and catch a mouse for  us...

If you're in the Rockland County area, please check out the Music Festival at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge this Saturday, May 17th.  I am sharing a booth with Jen of Lillyzoo, and we will be selling our wares this weekend at the craft fair part of the event. 

Jen has been sewing up aprons like a woman possessed (can't wait to see them!) and will also have felted soaps, felt balls, scarves and rattles.  I've got a good stock of  spring and summery knit and felt items, and just made up some gourmet needle felting kits, among other things.   I'll also have a selection of my Dad's hand turned pens on hand, which make great Father's Day and Graduation gifts.

We  will be the women under the white tent full of fibery goodies.   Hopefully we'll have good weather and a fun and profitable day!