50 weeks.

Today was a fabulous day, and now that the reality of the weekend ending has begun to set in, I'm finding myself wanting to do something, anything, to hold onto parts of it. How can I keep the joy that comes with paddling a canoe on a beautiful lake and watching the sun set (like a golden orb) from the shore? I want to keep the taste of grilled salmon and fresh rubarb compote on my tounge, and replay the sound of happy, purring cats over and over and over again.

Things that have felt up in the air and out of control weren't at the front of my mind this weekend, and now that questions and concerns are starting to eep back into my thoughts, I find myself feeling ungrounded and frustrated. This will pass, I know that, and I'll use this as a chance to work on holding onto the good stuff and remembering that there will be a house (that needs sitting on) near a lake again in the future. This week is a big week in terms of what happens next in one aspect of my life; there will be more answers soon.

Last weekend was the Fiber Frolic, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.



I'd like you to meet Robin. She's a Gil Gonsalves wheel and I love her. (warning: the main site has music playing) The whole story starts in November of last year, when Kellee posted that she had tried one of his wheels. I wanted one then, but it seemed a little drastic to put myself on his 2 year wait-list when I wasn't even sure if I'd like spinning.

I can say, with absolute certainty, that I love to spin. Sitting down with Lyle the Louet has been almost magical, and spinning on Robin is simply a dream come true. I was in the right place at the right time and got a deal on a used wheel that came without the waitlist wait and I can't be happier about the whole thing. (no, Robin isn't going to go with me around the northeast next year; Lyle will go with me.)

I might not be able to hold onto the sunset of this evening, or recall what a purring happy cat sounds like in a split second, but I can sit down to spin and feel the wonder creep in to replace the doubts and questions. The right place and the right time are only as far away as my closest wheel. And for that I am grateful.

51 weeks.

a weekend in picture form....

Saturday was the Maine Fiber Frolic.....


this sheep was one of the more friendly in the bunch....



the bleeting from this pen was almost too cute to bear...



this note accompanied....

these sheep (the seven weekers)

and the three weekers.



cashmere goats with amazing horns!

Things were purchased but they need to wait for another day. After the frolic I shifted gears and spent time with my family for a "pre-graduation" dinner; my youngest brother graduated from high school today.

Sunday, in photo form....


a wonderful end to a great day of celebration.



happy garden gnomes,

excited because the rain stopped! (my other brother's college graduation was in Boston the weekend of the NH fiber festival; all that rain? it was falling in Boston too....)


and the cats I'm watching still (at midnight) haven't come in. I hope they're enjoying a moonlight hunt and I'll seen them in the AM for food and a day of napping. Life is good. Very, very good.

(this is my last! week! of! my! surgery! rotation! Family practice is due to start next week...)

Lyle it is.

what started as a bit of a joke has become reality. Lyle Louet is a hardworking, no'frills sort of standard, much like Lyle Lovett's music. (I do not like country music - his most recent albums have been great combinations of bluesy folk music with great storytelling lyrics. No twang. Only a few lost girls. Sofar as I know, no dying dogs.)


spindle vs. wheel (thin and fairly consistent on the spindle, uneven but faster on the wheel)



a bit blurry, but a better idea of the colors. The brown "yarn" is from a beautiful jacob roving that has been fun to play with.

I was warned that wheel spinning would be intially frustrating, and that I should resist the urge to pitch it out the window. Good advice, but it isn't helping my want to be good at spinning - something that I know will come with time. I need to do some reading about what things like "ratios" mean, and how to best "read" the wheel and my spinning. Plying is something I will tackle only after I do some series research, or find someone who can help me with the process.

I am behind in just about everything right now (in life as well as school and other aspects of goingson) and sitting behind* the wheel, as frustrating as it was to have to join fiber over and over again, was a nice break. I think it's the start of a great relationship...

(* irony not lost on me.)

ta-da!

look what was waiting for me when I got home today...

a neatly packed box....

...soon turned into "what a lot of pieces that all need to be put together in an organized fashion."

two of the pieces needed gluing together; they were set up in a wood vice by my dad, and rescued by me after the prescribed 20 minutes. (the best part of running down to the basement to free this piece was returning to the upstairs to find my dad putting together bobbins...and then being so intrigued that he helped me put the rest of it together. (I was grateful; give my current (tired) state, I'm fairly certain I'd have given up and put it all back in the box for the night.))

a horrible no'natural'light picture of my new love. Still nameless (though Lyle is in the running...). I tredled and then found myself saying "now what?!?" I'm headed to bed for the night and will tackle that question tomorrow....

52 Weeks

My time on surgery is now 2/3 over and at this point in time it looks like the six weeks after that will be spent on a family practice rotation. This past week was memorable because one of the surgeons starts his one-day-a-week in the OR with ABBA; there is NOTHING like having "Mama Mia" stuck in my head all day long.

I have been knitting and thought it best to provide photographic evidence for those wondering when the last time I picked up the needles was:



Socks are my current best friends, being that they are pick-up’put-down’able enough to keep my company while on my surgery rotation. The pink one is a finished trekking sock (waiting for a mate to be started and for the toe to be k'd), and the one on the left is regia sock yarn that I love but the heel doesn’t quite fit right so they’ll be for my narrow-footed mom. The greyish one actually has flecks of reds and blues and has been worked on for far too long. (It was with me the last time I saw Stephanie Harlot speak and the heel still isn’t turned….) The dark pink previously-frogged yarn on the far right has been started three times. I just can’t tell what kind of a sock it wants to grow up to be.



The “square” (haaahaaaaahaaaa) is an attempt at using kitchen cotton yarn. I tried to make a mitered square but it was a disaster and ripped twice before starting a log-cabin’esque type of thing. The eventual goal was for a double sided oven mitt thing, but now I’m not sure it’s worth continuing. It wasn’t a total loss because knitting it kept me busy during breakfast this morning and I’ve learned from this whole experience.

in the “doesn’t (knit) along well with others” aspect of my life, I’m overdue with an Amazing Lace update. I haven’t knit lace (not counting the things that I have unintentionally put holes in) and trying to find the perfect first project has been harder then I thought it’d be. I put in an order for a few lace patterns and once they arrive (this week?) I’ll pick one and dig in. The yarn has already been acquired and I’ll warn you that it isn’t lace weight. I need to start with something that has a little instant gratification, and sock wt/sport wt is the way to go. (or the way I’m going to go…) Being a week (or more) behind isn’t new for me, but I do hope to catch up and stay on top of it this summer.

The wheel (yet to be named… I really want to call it Lyle (Louet) but I think that verges on cheezy. I don’t really like cheeze.) should/will be here this week (pending UPS’ behavior). I am excited. Very, very excited. The Maine Fiber Frolic this coming weekend seems to have timed itself perfectly with this purchase and I do believe that some fiber will come home with me….

My recent house switch-around-getting-ready-to-catsit-for-another-set-of-cats has me wanting to create a sign of sorts that reads “Home is where the Yarn is.” This reminder could go with me as I move around for the next year while in rotations. Right now I’ve got things in three houses and haven’t emptied out my old car (I bought a new’to’me car) so my yarn is spread out far and wide. This weekend, when I spend time in the new (4th) house, my goal is to gather everything up and put it all in one place. I won’t remove everything from student housing (house #2), by my white car is parked there and it’s a treasure trove of odds and ends. And the trunk is full of sock yarn and my Mason-Dixon Book – both things I need to spend some serious time with. I also need to empty the car before donating it to charity and now’s a good a time as ever….

(I am not looking forward to that packing/moving everything adventure but I can’t wait to see all of my yarn again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and my yarn and I are overdue with a reunion.)

A year from yesterday I’ll be graduating from medical school…let the countdown begin.