Midnight Maven

A good Sunday – - – The Vikings won and the Bears won.  DH and I will be able to talk to each other for another week.  They meet each other much later in the season, so that’s delayed frustration. 

Often it is cool and foggy in the mornings now when I drive to school.  The trees and shrubs are covered in a soft gauzy grayness, and it fades almost invisibly into the distance in layers of blurred mist over the rounded shapes of the trees.  Thankfully the deer stay in their little homes in the woods because I would not see them if the fog was any thicker.  It’s gone by noon though, when the sunlight makes it disappear.

Had our first exam last week – phew!  Thank goodness I wasn’t the top of the heap.  It’s bad enough to be the oldest, and often the quickest with a response or question.  But I did ace it….I have my standards!!  Met with an advisor last week.  He tells me that all my collective college work and life experience and plain perseverance may result in some formal recognition of a sort.  We shall see.

DD sent a lovely photo for my knitting records – this is the FLS, which I finally finished and sent off to her before she returned to Paris.  She does like it, too.

A sunny day in Maine....sans wheelchair

Last night I went to a concert in town given by a Taiko performance troupe from the Twin Cities.  The sound generated from these huge Japanese drums was thunderous.  The precision of the muscular, chanting drummers, some Japanese and some non-Oriental, was stunning.  Their black-clothed figures flashed in and out among the drums, their sticks maintaining the  driving tempo without a break.  I loved it – about as much as I enjoyed watching Stomp, some years ago.

Getting back to the white cable sweater I began last year before Lilly arrived.  I will probably need it in a few months!   Fire in the fireplace tonight….

Last night I wore for the first time the lacy scarf that DD crocheted for me when she visited in June.  As I sat in my seat working on a sock before the concert, I realized that the lovely autumn rust color of the scarf is exactly the same as one of the colors in the variegated socks I was knitting!  Tres formidable!

Learned earlier tonight that a dear friend, David R., passed away in California last month.  Our friendship began more than 50 years ago in Chicago.  We last met in LA a year ago when DH and I visited with him for an evening.  We had planned to see the Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors at a nearby museum, but our train was so late that we missed the exhibit, which was in its last day.  He was a kind, thoughtful man, intelligent and gentle.  I will miss his deep analysis of films of the past 75 years – he was an expert.

I spent a few days last week in and out of clinic and emergency room, for personal attention to my lower leg.  I’ve discovered that I can usually tell a long, boring story in 5 words or phrases – so here goes.  Insect bite.  Infection.  Emergency room.  Antibiotics in IV and Rx.  Elevate leg for some days.  Most annoying experience for me, because I hate to be even a bit immobilized.  This is the second or third time for this particular non-event and hopefully it will be the last. Lucky for me Char the Good was here for a few days, to keep me on the meds as we dashed about a few towns with our knitting needles. And it’s time to think about Christmas knitting…………

The Maven Speaks….

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.  -  Hannah More

What a pleasure to sit in a classroom again.  To listen to a professor who clearly enjoys spreading knowledge. And to begin learning about some forgotten, or ignored,  history of our country.  LA (the professor) has promised to give me a native recipe for mosquito repellent.  What a treat that will be.

Morning shadows

The other day I discovered that our young Minneapolis stock broker – of three or four years – is one-quarter Ojibwe, the very tribe to which I’m being introduced.  He spoke to me in the language – and I was happily shocked – he taught me a few new phrases.  And I thought he was just a good-looking Irishman!

Ordered a small Ojibwe dictionary today.  And received the replacement for a very informative oral history book I’ve owned for a few years, “Native American Testimony.”  I’ve enjoyed it, and loaned it out last spring.  But it looks as if the borrower won’t be returning it.

One of the better things about this return to school for me is the 85% tuition refund I received last week because there is a reduced rate for seniors.  And I’m surely one of those!!  This is thanks to my daughter, who doggedly suggested I inquire about the rate.  The business office, when I stopped to ask, told me that of course there was a refund due me, once they checked.  I hadn’t told them I was a senior, so they didn’t generate it.    Oh.

There's a classroom in there somewhere....

Every day I say a thank you to clothing companies like Just My Size, who are now printing their manufacturer label and size and laundry and content information onto the fabric at the neckline.  The nylon thread used for years to sew labels in clothing is such an irritant to my skin.  I often wear my nightshirts inside out to prevent a rash!

Carrying vanilla socks to school in my backpack, and I work on them in class.  Also returning to a great tunic I began about a year ago for myself, before babies and Cambodian auto accidents sent it to time out.  And trying to get back to the off-white cable cardi that is 80% finished.  With cooler days and nights that will be pleasurable to wear once it’s done.

As usual, the September weather and temperatures are bringing the beginnings of spectacular colors.  The maples are first, brilliant oranges and burnt yellows jumping out of a big forest of green spruce and pine.  It’s always so startling to spot the very first blotch of golden leaves off in the distance – this is what makes the northern climate so wonderful.  I enjoy the southern climes and southwestern expanses, for visits and vacations.  But the seasons of the Great Lakes will always be close to my heart.

September also brings lots of garage sales – including one about 50 miles long on a highway west of us.  That’s a fun day, for sure.  Not as long as the monster sale in the South – hundreds of miles!  A U-Haul and lots of small bills necessary!!

Several – like five – little Lab puppies turned up unexpectedly at DS’s house a week or two ago.  Unexpected because their own black Lab was thought to be past that sort of thing.  What a surprise!!  Four black, one yellow.  No, no pix – I don’t trust myself.

Watched a truly disgusting piece on Night Line last night – a story about an investigation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  The 2-year investigation was called Twisted Traveler, and took place very recently.  Officials – both Cambodian and international agents – arrest an American pedophile/sex offender/child molester (Harvey Johnson, about 60) who sells children for sex, along with porn videos of them.  Places involved in the city include Martini’s night club, a notorious place for contacts with men, mostly American tourists or ex-pats.  There is a big well-known neighborhood where children are available and sold for sex.  The man’s house was surrounded by Cambodian police and agents from Apple (sp?) and ICE (?) – international NGOs – who have been taping him in his house for months.

He’s arrested and the police haul him in the back of an open pickup truck to the station to question him.  He says “I’m shocked!  I’m a teacher!  Of course children go in and out of my house!!”  They have him on tape saying things about a little girl that I can’t even type here.  He says it’s all lies to the ABC reporter who’s been filming the whole preparation for the raid for six days, as they prepared to actually execute the raid.  The Cambodian police and these agents were all around the house, incognito, as they all rushed into the house…….

Many Cambodian parents are complicit in the crimes, and usually won’t testify against the criminals.  They offer or marry their little daughters off to these mostly American men and then shun the girls when they are caught because they have offended the family………the film crew shows a woman offering her little daughter to the reporter as a wife – questions are translated…….”No men before me?  Can I take her to hospital to make sure??”  — interviews a few girls (in English) who have been rescued to shelters from their sex slave abusers…..

Some American pedophiles are currently being brought back to the US for trial by US authorities.   Many organizations are working in Cambodia to end this disastrous business – in Cambodia most of the time even the Americans who are arrested are quickly back in business because no families (who are “offended”) or children will testify.  The case falls apart…..

It’s frightening to think that DD lived in this area for months – and it is difficult to accept the sickening side of evil in this world.

The maven speaks………“The enemy has a thousand faces – it isn’t easy to discover behind which face he is hiding.”  -  Anon.

I need to share this, written by Margaret Mead to her daughter who was off on adventures all the time.  We moms need a few thousand courses in how to let go of our babes.

That I be not a restless ghost
Who haunts your footsteps as they pass
Beyond the point where you have left
Me standing in the newsprung grass,
You must be free to take a path
Whose end I feel no need to know,
No irking fever to be sure
You went where I would have you go.
Those who would fence the future in
Between two walls of well-laid stones
But lay a ghost walk for themselves
A dreary walk for dusty bones.
So you can go without regret
Away from this familiar land,
Leaving your kiss upon my hair
And all the future in your hands.     -Margaret Mead, 1947

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I wish I’d said that!

Think of all those thousands of kids who would rather die than go back to school – what can they be thinking?   Why, I was so excited the other day about my first day of school, and so anxious to get there really early, that my haste alerted a state trooper, who just happened to be passing by.  And he believed my story – and why not?  It’s too bizarre to be fiction.  As I told him, my (new grandfather) son is back in college, my daughter is just a few kirs short of her doctorate…….my turn!  “Well”, he said, handing over a warning, “just stop trying to keep up with them.  Take it a little slower…..”.   And off I went to learn a little Ojibway, on my first day.  It seeps in from the language class this instructor also teaches, as a part of an intensive 2-year course of study.

The instructor does agree with my concern about “Indian Studies” vs. “Native American Studies.”  He prefers “indigenous” but the catalog gurus at school don’t hold with his choice.  So Indian it remains.  One of the required source books is “Maya Cosmos”, so it’s fair to say we’ll be investigating other cultures as well – or “indigenous”.

Did you know that chewing some parts of the bloodroot plant can provide a painkiller stronger than anything available?  And with no danger of addiction?  Neither did I.  Good thing I’m married to a Master Gardener.  And we have lots of garden room!

I was distressed to realize, as I sat within a very large group of lounging students, that this class is what we used to call a “snap”.  Taken for an easy A.  Sure-thing elective.  Not sure what it’s called in the 21st century.  Well, I’m planning to learn in spite of that!

What can compare with a new subject to study and leaves falling at your feet in the coolness of the morning as you stride pridefully around the campus?  And football (Go, Bears!) just days away?  This is truly heaven.  September was made for me.  I think my parents lied about my June birthday…

Today I finished the last chapter of an engrossing book – “House of Stairs” by Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine.  Wow.  Lots of her many, many books are fairly predictable, rather easy-going as mysteries can be.  But the Vine books give you quite a bit more to think about, and are a slower read as a result.  They dig much more deeply into our motives and secrets that can be so destructive in their seeming innocence.  Quite a story.  But Rendell is always total perfection when she moves temporarily from Inspector Wexford and into the human mind.  Read it.  Rather old – 20 years or so. Hard to find, too.  But read it.

The only other knitting dealer in our antique mall has come up with still another surprising idea.  She is making mittens from old jeans.  Each is cut from the area around the side pocket, including that tiny pocket, lined with fleece, and sewn up. What a stunning idea!  And they are really warm.  And will probably last for 10 or 15 years!!

The usual late August goings-on here at the Ridge….

oh, not me!  That’s DH at work.  I’m usually in the computer Cave……er, knitting room……er, den……….I just like to eat ‘em!

Memory is not a continuum………..it’s a highlight film.

Oh, I know it isn’t yet September.  But every September since I was a little girl I have been lured as by the sirens to return to school.  And for quite a few years, here and there, it’s happened.  Lots of years it didn’t.  I know – most think me quite mad.  And I probably am!  But I care less and less about the slings and arrows of outraged others.

But this year is a winner!  Registered today, totally unexpectedly, for a class at the area junior college – Intro to Indian (I can’t say that word YET – to me it’s the PC “Native American”) Studies.  The class was full at 40 last night online when I last looked.  I stopped in today, very dejectedly, to see if the Alliss grant I received 7 years ago could be used again next fall for the class.  It’s been the requisite 7 years out of school, but seems like it’s a one-time only thing.  So as I was leaving, the clerk checked the class again for me – and there was an opening!  I filled out the paperwork so fast my hand was shaking.  Paid my monies and got the book and – class on Friday morning!  And a bunch of Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays until right before Christmas!  And when I bought the book the bookstore clerk said “I didn’t see you there this morning….”.  She’s taking the class too, and no assignments or syllabi until Friday.  Can you say “meant to be?”  I’m pumped….

Here’s the socks I finished (and wore) last week – to the fair, actually. They are yet another UFO off the rolls.  One of my favorite patterns -

Jaywalkers in Kroy, colorway Vista de Mer.  Finishing the seams on a UFO Baby Surprise Jacket and meanwhile cast on some superb green sock yarn – lost the ball band, but it will turn up shortly.

Took that first sock to the county fair while DH was working the Master Gardener booth, with abject apologies to the Yarn Harlot here – (socks are so easy to carry…)

(Gotta figure out how she gets the sock in focus too.  I probably held it too close…..)

The music you hear is the Ecuadoran man playing those unusual pan pipes in the booth beyond – amidst purses and bags and all sorts of little tchotchkes – all made in Ecuador.  No yarn there though….too bad!  But the yarn diet continues…..perforce, after paying tuition!  At least some of it will be a tax deduction for this year.

Ran into another nice young tax client from the past yesterday.  She also was told I’d retired two years ago.  She’ll be a returning client for me next spring.

Semi-annual antique dealers’ meeting tomorrow.  Our new venue in the restored railroad depot has really worked out well.  None of us is making a fortune there, but It’s enough to keep us having a good time anyway.

“You’re only given one little spark of madness.  You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams

Ah.  Now we have it.  The sort of weather I fled Chicago to escape.  Really warm and really humid and hurry up and go away!  The corn has tasseled, tomatoes are growing just fine, and there’s no need to linger.

When it cools off a bit and autumn is tippy-toeing in, I will go down to the screened pavilion that was built in the woods last year.  Now it has a table and chairs in it, a birthday present when Bonnie was here 2 months ago.  It’s a quiet, lovely place, for some plein air watercolor work, or knitting, or just thinking.  I know sleeping there would be heaven, too.

It’s too hot to knit much, except for socks, and it’s a good thing the February Lady Sweater was finished a few weeks ago.It arrived safely in Vermont, and – thank goodness! – meets with the approval of the giftee!  Hopefully it will keep her warm on some chilly NE and Parisian evenings.  Posted it to Ravelry, with lots of notes, where it joins 6,000+ just like it around the world.  Different color, sometimes different yarn, and even sometimes with a collar and longer sleeves.  But definitely an FLS all the same.  A  few months back the Yarn Harlot pictured one she had just finished, and when Bonnie saw that, I suspected the inevitability of it all.  Of course the Harlot had spun that wool, and spun that wool, until she got it just exactly how she wanted it!!

The buttons were chosen by Bonnie at Borealis LYS in St. Paul.  They are antler or bone or – we are not sure what!!  No two the same, obviously.  I expect a picture with a live body in it presently.  The proof of the pudding, so to speak.  As I type Bonnie is driving to Maine – wheelchair and scooter and walker and crutches and all!  Who knew??  She must be feeling fine.

Sometime when I have my head back together again I’ll begin an FLS for myself, in some pale, dusky green or blue. We’ll see!  But that’s a few UFOs from now!!

Still I keep encountering the most charming – and challenging – patterns for socks lately. And wonderful new handpainted yarns. And really unique designs.  Especially Cloud Socks in Knit Picks’ Felici, calling my name.

…..Housework was invented to give non-knitters something to do.  Who said that?

At my LYS there is a project to do the complete American Aran Afghan in white, one difficult square at a time.  I have the pattern and the special instructions from the LYSO, but not the yarn.  Be still, my heart….less than five months to go.

Found a few more old, old Ruth Rendell mysteries in Duluth yesterday to scratch off my list.  Some are not even available in libraries any more – in fact one of the books I found last winter WAS a library copy….

Still lots of flowers to enjoy, the rich colors are everywhere in the garden, and mosquitoes seem to be lessening.  Of course I haven’t been walking in the woods lately, either.                                  

Unlike usual dog days.  Cool and not always sunny – it’s September, sneaking in like a thief that is stealing the hot and steamy days of August, even up here just a few big boulders’ throw from Canada.  I love it!  But flowers are inexorable, thank goodness……

A gremlin of unknown intent is sneaking around my blog.  There’s a new update available, it seems, but an error message has been advising some cautious steps before I do that.  I’ve waited a bit to post to see if it will cause a problem but it probably isn’t anything to be really concerned about.  My clever administrator is out of contact until sometime after the 15th.  Grrrr…….but I can wait.

A long project came to an end the other day……..can’t really talk about it, because the givee might read this and be not surprised in a few days…..

…..and that would be truly unfortunate.  A great deal of sweat and tears – well, almost tears – saw this baby to completion. And I promise there’s a more informative picture waiting somewhere.

Sock Summit going on in Portland as I type.  Am I there?  Wah!!  Hellos to all my sock friends out there.

But now it’s time to return to a handful or so or more of UFOs – lurking, complaining, whining, stored away for the moment in baskets to muffle the cacaphony.  I’m coming, I’m coming…..

Blue/green Kroy socks are 4 inches from completion.  Had to frog the second one back a bit because I forgot the reinforcing yarn in the heel.

Pretty first sock in Hill Country Periwinkle and a sweet lacy pattern is a few hours from the Frog Pond unless I decide to finish them and give them a fast bath in hot water.  It’s 100% merino wool, after all.

And a Baby Surprise Jacket ( also in blues – do I detect some sort of rut here?) wants a seam or two.  A tiny multi-colored (Phew!) purse in Koigu wants a few seams as well, and then a hot bath.

An Aran afghan – of substantial proportions and technique – is waiting rather impatiently in the line.  Socks are so much simpler to deal with in the summer, though.

And what little great-granddaughter same-named as the flowers above can’t always use a pretty sweater?

Cubbies are making me very nervous – they’d better not let the St. Louis Cardinals take the division.

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The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek. – Chinese proverb

I thought summer had finally arrived about 10 days ago, but now I find I’ve slept through it.  Time to start Christmas shopping, I guess.  We woke up the fireplace last night – temps in the Forties and the cold rain was just ready to freeze on the windshield as I drove home from the Friday knitters.  The flowers and vegetables must be in shock.  Am I complaining?  No, sirree.  I really love the coolness and even the rain.  But I am strange, and as DH reminds me, I’ll have no tomatoes next month either.  THAT would be a true deprivation.

A week ago we had tremendous winds – I came home from somewhere in the afternoon, with a bunch of full grocery bags in the car, and couldn’t get much past the front gate – a large tree was lying across the driveway.  Walked up the long driveway to the house and Bob came back with the chain saw to rescue supper and heavy knitting bags.  A few irises (iri?) that were drooping with broken stalks from the wind came inside to a big vase.  Never realized that they had such strong aromas!!

Here’s one of those “oh, really?” or “so what?” notes.  Students qualify for both software and hardware discounts. Savings can be substantial, and colleges often have computer stores on campus. There are deeply discounted products there. Online stores also sell products with academic discounts. The most important piece of software is likely to be Microsoft Office. It’s used by schools and businesses the world over.  This is a costly package, but can be purchased for $60, as a student. That’s 90% off!  Find details if this is something that interests you.

The coveted FLS is one-half sleeve away from going into the U.S. mail to Vermont/Maine.  And not a moment too soon.  Too many other things to finish begin!  So many gorgeous patterns and probably far from enough time.

The Tuesday/Friday LYSO is such a wizard – when she received a shipment of new heavier sock yarn the other day, she immediately called the company to ask for patterns for the socks pictured in their brochure.  Of course all her customers would want a pattern when they bought this terrific yarn.  Company said the socks were made on a machine, and no patterns would be forthcoming.

Not easily put off, Madame LYSO tediously counted rows and stitches in the picture (!!) and made a sock from those numbers, in one evening!  The sock, done on a #4 circ, fits me perfectly, so the pattern will be great.  And it will be available for only $2 when she nicely types up the pencil scribbles and makes neat copies.  I’ll grab one pretty quickly, because she used new techniques for the heel and toe – ones that I’ve yet to learn.  And of course the yarn is wonderful – 500+ yards, multi-striping and patterning in great colors, probably enough in a skein for 2 pairs, and just perfect for winter.  Not to mention that it contains the much-loved aloe vera and jojoba oil, so softening and kind to both hands and feet.  Will this yarn purchase cancel my stash-diet?  I think not – sock yarn never counts.  Does it?  I mean, really?

Inventoried some recent (pre-stash promise) yarn purchases the other day, and developed the Q book.  That is, a notebook to contain patterns in the queue – or waiting list – or wants to be knitted NEXT! – stuff.  The notebook contains a clear sheet protector with the pattern (or a copy thereof) and my 3×5 inventory card showing the yarn details, with sample, and the location within the stash.  I know – some have called me Type A…….as in Anal-retentive.

I heard a lady describe the other day a basement room that her DH had vacated, taking all his tools to another part of their domain.  He then built shelves on 3 walls, floor to ceiling, and a big table in the center, with computer and radio and TV……..she cleverly won’t tell us where she lives, or what his name is.

Reading my way through more of Ruth Rendell’s engrossing, psychological books.  Just finished “The Water’s Lovely”.  Her characters are always so real and weird and normal and devious and air-headed and malicious and sweet.  Not all at the same time, of course, but sometimes a shadow falls……wait.  Just because I didn’t hear the phone ringing the other day at the antique mall when I was working doesn’t mean that I’m easily side-tracked.

Left-over (frozen) Loc Lac (Elephant Walks) Cambodian Beef with Lime for supper tonight.  That would be right after the hot tomato soup and tea, with rhubarb sauce for dessert.

Remember – - – “A day without sunshine is, like, night”.  -  Ms. Anon

The quick brown fox jumped……..and a good thing it did.  There were no lazy dogs to be seen, but the little reddish-brown fox kit, with big pointy ears akimbo, took one look at me over its shoulder, bearing down on it with my 4-wheeled vehicle this afternoon, and did a pretty rapid scamper across the narrow gravel road beyond our driveway.  Just got out of my way in time, disappearing into the tall grasses and woods.

Actually it probably saved my life at that.  Slowed me down about 10 seconds, which was enough.  The gravel road through the woods and out to the blacktop is 1.5 lanes at its widest, and just as I arrived into a sharp left turn about 100 yards further, I came face-to-face………..er, almost bumper-to-bumper….. with a big construction truck, bearing down on ME.  This turn is NOT a wide spot in the road.  We had about 30 feet to make up our minds.  I blinked first and turned madly to the right, skimming the shallow ditch, and we passed safely, both holding our breaths, I suspect.  Beyond the truck was a huge sandstorm from his wheels (we really need rain these days), and I got through all of that with no damage done, either.  My heart did lots of push-ups.

Sorry, no picture.

Too nice today to sit in front of a screen for long.  Finally summer…….and sunshine.  And the Cubs won……..and shrimp for supper……what more is necessary?

For all my socker friends………watch the Sock Museum grow!  Someone worked really hard for this great site.  Going after those sock UFOs as soon as I hang up!!