Seasonal Focus

With the seasons being so dramatic here in Alaska, I find there’s quite a duality in the way I live.

In the summer I am very eager to be outside, to garden and to have fresh vegetables, to volunteer for labor at friends’ farms and stables, and to generally work towards self-sufficiency and inter-connectivity goals. 

In the winter, I nest like nobody’s business. As the winter progresses, I do less and less socially. I cook, and craft and generally focus on myself and my house and the people and animals living with me.

This is fine, I think much of this is normal human behavior. Moving from summer to winter is gradual and natural feeling for me. The problem comes in the transition from winter to summer. I begin to get the spring itch when there’s still four feet of snow on the ground, and it takes months for the weather to catch up. I am always surprised at how unbalanced I feel when things flip over. I’m always disappointed when, in May, I want to plant a garden, and I haven’t done any of the prep-work required to have a nice garden in this crazy short-but-20-hours-of-light-a-day growing season. I’m always shocked when summer comes and I realize I haven’t spoken to 3/4 of my friends for half a year. I’m always sad when I want to be outside playing, but I haven’t kept in enough physical shape throughout the winter to enjoy dayhikes so I’m exhausted a quarter of the way in.

This year I want things to be different.

Dear Winter…

I CAN HAZ SPRING NAO?

More decisions

I was up all night with my first ever case of anxiety, and I just told my husband I was screamingly scared of how our money situation is and that I am quitting school and looking for a full-time job since my financial aid never materialized. He disagreed with me, said he was hugely disappointed, and thinks I’ve made a bad decision. He wanted me to wait, but midterms are today and dammit, I’m not going to take them just so I can come home and switch the classes to audit.

Unfortunately, my school schedule precludes my being able to keep several of my classes if I get even a part-time job, so I’d rather jump into the search with both feet, rather than limping through the next few months.

Ugh. Just ugh.

Decisions

I’m part of a yarn swap group on Ravelry and what it has taught me is that I have bought a lot of things I won’t ever knit with. Being able to trade away things I do not want has caused me to make a pretty solid list of things I *do* want.

In light of this, I made a very personal decision that I will not be going to the upcoming fiber retreat here in Alaska. I’ve been really excited about it for months, especially since I missed the last one, but money is just really tight and frankly, I want to go so I can fondle fiber and spend money.

Instead of spending my money on the experience and a bunch of impulse buys, I’m going to take half the money and spend it on things I really need, or am planning to use. A higher speed whorl for my spinning wheel. An interchangeable needle set. The rest of the yarn I need to finish my spring cardigan. Some blank yarn and some more equipment for dyeing. Several books on techniques that I’ve been putting off. Magazine subscriptions. A new sewing table. Plus one or two fun things.

Yes, this seems like a lot, but it’s *still* only half of what I had planned to blow on a crazy weekend of fun. The rest will go into savings. If we haven’t needed it by summer, I will buy a drum carder.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be rational about the whole thing. Sure, I’ll miss out on the fun of the weekend, but I won’t end up with a bunch of weird things I won’t use, and I’ll have all those truly useful things.

There is a time for all things

On her blog, Gwen wrote:

When we first made these combs, I couldn’t handle them. I combed some fiber, but just gave up really. Now, two whole years later, I pick them up again and have very little problem. I definitely believe some things just come in time. You need to gain more experience, confidence, etc. before addressing certain things. It’s always a learning process!

I thought it was a great sentiment, as I have both combs and handcards that I haven’t really gotten the hang of.  Her comment sat in the back of my head, and was catalyzed by another post from the lady at  Sock Pr0n, talking about a Yarn Harlot post about drumcarding fiber sideways.  Comments on both blogs were talking about trying the technique on hand cards and why this wouldn’t work well, etc etc.

The whole discussion was so interesting, that I decided by golly I was going to try to figure out this handcarding thing once and for all! And do you know what? Gwen was right.

Can you spot the difference?

The fiber above is a minibatt that came from my previous attempts at carding. Not very inspiring, is it? It wasn’t difficult to spin with–worsted, that is. I could not get a proper rolag or any sort of long-draw to save my soul.

The fiber below is a perfect, airy rolag. It’s so light I can barely feel it when I am holding it.  Can you believe that it’s about 1/3 of the fiber in the top one? I am in love.

Let this be a lesson to future spells of frustration. Sometimes all it takes is a little time.

AUGH

The guy who always phones in and calls me Katharine (every weekend I’ve worked for two years now) has called me an umptybillion times today and keeps asking for transfers. Several of the numbers have been bad, and I mistransfered him once, and he called me back THREE TIMES while I was trying to leave a message on a lady’s machine with a long message, and when he finally got me, he told me that I had given him the wrong number again, and that “all your transfers have been off in space today, Katharine.”

At least he thinks I’m someone else.

Meringue

Miss Teensy herself:

Charmed.

And what was with the fridge escapade?

Let’s… just not talk about it.

FO: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

Pattern: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

Yarn: Artyarn Hand Paint Stripe in Farmhouse

Needles: Size 8 Bamboo

I had completely forgotten about this scarf. I had the last half-triangle to do. That’s it! I stalled out on it, put it in a bag, and forgot about it for at least two months. I’m sure the last time I worked on it was well before Thanksgiving. It was a matter of an hour to finish this up. The yarn is so incredibly squishy, made only squishier by the fact that it’s in garter stitch.  It’s my second time knitting with this yarn, and this project suited it much better.

Would you like pudding with that?

I woke up today to a series of thumps. Never a good thing in a house with four animals. When I looked into the kitchen, three sets of eyes were pointedly staring at the fridge. Typical. No you’re not getting fed, you know you… wait, didn’t I say four animals? Crap. So yeah, I spent the first part of my morning in my kitchen, naked, wrestling with a fridge and trying not to squish Meringue.

Birthday Kitty: Take three!

I have always wondered if those “This animal needs a good home: visit your local animal shelter today” posters really helped animals find homes. Now I know that they do.

When Boomerang’s passing left Batman as the sole cat in the house, we hurried to get a second cat so that he would not get too possessive of the house. We decided that for the general peace of our feline family members, having at least three cats would ensure that (barring any major cat-astrophe) we wouldn’t be left with a single cat again.  We’ve been planning to add for months now, but only very recently have we been thinking about looking.

At the coffee house by my oft-frequented knitting store, there is a bulletin board that always has fliers for one cat and one dog at animal control. I’ve watched them come and go for months, but recently there’s been a sweet grey and cream tortoiseshell kitty face pleading for a visit from me.

The day before my birthday I was out with a friend, and we decided to stop and see the cat we had both been talking about. She was pretty, with a sad history compounded by her strong fear and dislike of children and other cats. She’d been adopted out and returned twice, the poor thing.

Sadly, I had a very stringent list of what would be acceptible to bring home, and known children haters was right out, so I walked on to the other cages. Funnily enough, there were several other cream and gray tortoiseshells, which I haven’t seen in such concentrations before. The last cat I looked at was another one, but fluffy and tiny, and she reached her paw out to touch my nose. Skinny thing, a stray with no history, but completely content to snuggle in and purr and be poked and prodded and aw, to hell with the list.

I called Pat, called the landlord, and within 15 minutes had a brand new kitty. She had to get spayed, so she could not come home until Tuesday. I don’t think I realized how skinny she was until we picked her up post-op from the vet. I would have petitioned for her to wait on the surgery until she had gained a bit of weight, but the vet didn’t seem to be worried about it as she’s otherwise healthy.

She’s been crated to keep her separate from the other cats and so that we can keep track of her while she recovers. The first two or three days was pretty rough. Our house has been very cold, and she hadn’t been eating well. She would shiver within minutes of coming out of her bed to visit. I spent an entire day reading with her snuggled up in my stomach under the covers for warmth.

My boys were curious as could be as to the new arrival. All round eyes and inquisitive looks. The dog has been upset that she’s not allowed to stare, or snuffle all over the new cat, but all in all the residents have been pretty nonchalant about the whole affair. The (obviously still nameless) new cat has been a little intimidated, and hisses and growls  if she’s anywhere near the other animals, but the dog keeps her distance, Batman makes himself as non-threatening as possible, and Tweed couldn’t keep his nose out of things and has been swatted twice and hasn’t wanted to risk a third altercation. They’ve all accepted her as a part of life for now, and their main interest in her is the fact that in addition to the raw offerings she gets the Forbidden Kibble and the Most Reverently Holy Canned Food, which she’ll stay on until she’s put on some weight before we go through the rigamarole of switching her to raw full time.

Pics soon.