A sad day in knitting podcast land

We lost KnitPurlGurl. We lost her wonderful podcast, and we lost her kindness, warmth, wit, and generosity.

Karrie supported the RAP or Random Acts of Pattern: you gift a pattern to a pal on Ravelry, especially on Tuesdays. Just because. Let us not lose that.

Thanks, Karrie. Job well done! May you have peace and experience how much happiness you have given all the rest of us.

Literally, you are mourned by thousands of us. Not bad, for a life so tragically brief. But you certainly made a difference for the rest of us and for the better.

Job well done. Rest in peace.

At last...Christmas!

My son looked up at me one day in October and said, "Merry Christmas?"

I replied, "No, Honey, Halloween comes first."

He awoke the morning after trick-or-treating, and said, "Merry Christmas?"

I answered, "No. Now we have Thanksgiving."

This morning, he looked up hopefully and said, "Christmas?"

And I said, "Actually, we could put up the tree..."

And here it is. The second it was up, he grinned broadly and announced, "Presents."

Not yet, kid.

I AM THE DOCTOR!

I finished my first evaluation report in six years. I feel somewhere between awesome and astonished.

I had forgotten how much I love doing these.

Bring on the chocolate!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The boys and I celebrated with a 2- hour hike into (& out of) Vasquez Canyon.

Then the boys made a pie from the apples I prepped this morning.

And, meanwhile, I zoomed right along on the crocheted Calm Cowl because I need something to match a few of my tops for work.

I hope everyone has had a great day!

In the Blood

In the 1930's, my father and his brothers laid tracks for the train lines in the northeast corridor of the US. Today, my son helped drive a small train on a local rail museum's grounds. He loved it.

As my paternal grandmother would say with a shake of her head: "He can't help it, Honey. Trains are in his blood."

Episode 146 Show Notes at Last!

Yep, I finally got my chance to spin on a Babe wheel.

Celebrating our listeners who have joined the CogKnitive 25 – , 50 –, and 75 – Bear Clubs for MBP. You can see who they all are right here. Great work!

Have YOU completed 25, 50, or 75 bears for Mother Bear Project? Send me your snail and a link to your Ravelry projects page, and CogKnitive will send you a special wristband to celebrate with you.

Add yourself to our CogKNITive Listeners Map.

We have a website at http://www.cogknitive.com/. You can find older episodes there.

You can now subscribe to the BLOG on your Kindle or Kindle app.

What's On My Hook/Needles/Spindle:

Finished:

Traveling Woman is done!



Still in Progress:

My Hitchin' a Ride Shawl in crochet, not worked on this week.

13 Bears in 2012 bear feet for Mother Bear Project. Ten pairs of feet are done...

RKS Mom on Etsy

Dizzy Blondes:

I finished the Jacob wool as a 3-ply. Love it. It taught me to be comfy with my Jensen Minerva.

I am wildly spinning the singles from a cinnamon alpaca.



Fiber in BFL/Tussah from Red Fish Dye Works:



Strategy:
Hypersensitivity: Accept your place in the 16% with pride. You are who you are. Now you have to cope.

Understanding the bell curve.

Something I Really Like: Seasonal foods at drive-throughs. Yes, I confess: I am a sucker for peppermint syrup in any warm drink. But take time to enjoy also the little pleasures that accompany the changes of the seasons.

Put A  Lid On It: Time to start using those jars as hostess gifts in the holiday season! Also, keep the unsweetened white grape juice to stretch your juice to the amount needed for jelly. And food coloring is also a great thing to have around to make the jellies look the way the recipient expects. BTW, you can get juice from the fruit you defrost for jam. Use the juice for jelly! Twice the bargain. And get going on the fruit butters and the applesauce, apple pie filling, and apple butters.

Warm the unsweetened apple sauce and add it to cereal with almond milk, in place of cow's milk.

And try making some easy sorbets from your juices. Splends to sugar: slightly under one half to one.

The Perfect Scoop in ebook format.

Freeze fresh herbs in olive oil in ice cube trays. Perfect for frying later.

Blather: Torrance again! The Southern CA Handweavers' Guild Show never fails to please. It's like CFR, Part 2, as so many attendees go to this also.

Alpenglow Yarns sold me this gorgeous skein!



Baah! Yarns

Farm day!

Morning on the farm: cleaned kitchen, made brekkers for son from homemade jelly and toast and PB plus tea from home-dried herbs.
Plied alpaca wool from my own herd (see the pic).
Brushed Newfie.
Made stew and put in crockpot.
Spun BFL dyed by my local friends at Red Fish Dye Works.
Still only 10:30 AM!

Episode 146 and then some

I have posted episode 146, no notes yet. I have been working on the Tehachapi Project shawl by Michelle Miller, and it was absorbing my attention as I edited and processed and uploaded the episode.

The upshot: I have finished Chart A and the first run of Chart B. With 3 rows to go on B, the color neatly shifted from royal purple to inky blue.

On to Chart C! Notes for the episode will follow soon, I expect. Meanwhile, the yarn I am using from Desert Vista Dyeworks--CFR2012 color way in SW Merino-- is lovely. Slightly splitty, but a simply gorgeous hand.

Episode 146

Please see the show notes at the group on Ravelry or at www.cogknitivepodcast.blogspot.com.

Check out this episode!

New Shawl In Progress

Today I started working on the Tehachapi Project Shawl, the shawl designed for the 2012 CogKnitive Fiber Retreat. It was created to take advantage of the yarn color way, CFR2012, dyed by Desert Vista Dyeworks. The shawl was by Michelle Miller, alias FickleKnitter.

I am only on the first color of the gradient--a clear purple with a minor undertone of indigo. Knitting this project feels heavenly: a shawl I commissioned in a color way I commissioned for the retreat I create each year...it just feels really special and amazing. And my retreat buddies are all knitting too!

I keep telling people who ask: My friend Michelle designed this for my fiber retreat. My friend Susan dyed it in my favorite colors. Isn't it gorgeous?

I love being part of the fiber community. My participation just keep creating friendships and new sources of joy.

Episode 145

Please see the shownotes on our group on Ravelry or at www.cogknitivepodcast.blogspot.com.

Check out this episode!

Episode 145

Halloween is over, and the Mommy Shawl is my son's last outfit for the evening. Nothing beats a good Mommy Shawl; my son has loved on mine and been wrapped in it since his birth.

Celebrating our listeners who have joined the CogKnitive 25 – , 50 –, and 75 – Bear Clubs for MBP. You can see who they all are right here. Great work!

Have YOU completed 25, 50, or 75 bears for Mother Bear Project? Send me your snail and a link to your Ravelry projects page, and CogKnitive will send you a special wristband to celebrate with you.

Add yourself to our CogKNITive Listeners Map.

We have a website at http://www.cogknitive.com/. You can find older episodes there.

You can now subscribe to the BLOG on your Kindle or Kindle app.

What's On My Hook/Needles/Spindle:

Finished:

The Pivot Shawl by FickleKnitter (Michelle Miller). It still needs blocking.

Don't miss Michelle's newest pattern in honor of our retreat: The Tehachapi Project Shawl.



The Holly Holiday Stocking for my twin:



Still in Progress:

My Hitchin' a Ride Shawl in crochet, not worked on this week.

Traveling Woman --on the last knitted row!

13 Bears in 2012 bear feet for Mother Bear Project.



Dizzy Blondes:

Some plied jacob wool from Minerva the Jensen, triple-plied.:




Strategy:
Declare a "Free Yourself from Useless Clutter" Day, with the help of dark, heavy trashbags and a good dumpster.

Something I Really Like: Canning jars for crafts and canning.

Put A  Lid On It: Empty the freezer and make apple/fruit sauces. Apple-fruit sauces in the crock pot overnight. Use apples, pears, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums.--anything frozen over the summer. In any combination. Recipe below.

Crock pot, 1 Tablsp cinnamon, 1 tsp. clove, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, lots of fruit. One slice lemon or fresh orange, or 1/4 cup of either. Cook overnight and into sterilized, hot jars. Eat on cereal or oatmeal with milk/almond milk.

Blather:

CFR 2013 news--vaguely. Love to everyone surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Operation: freedom from!

I am freeing myself today from 7 garbage bags + of broken, old, or unused stuff! And you cannot even see the difference in my cluttered world...

13 Bears in 2013 kicks off--literally

Project "13 Bears in 2013" for Mother Bear Project has begun! The first 7 sets of feet for the 13 bears I am crocheting in 2013 for my pet charity are awaiting legs. Mother Bear Project sends these bears, made by crocheters and knitters, to kids in 3rd-world countries who have been impacted by AIDS/HIV. I am hoping to complete my own bears number 27-39 in 2013.