Twists of Fate

Going through a transitional phase at the mo. Feeling just draggy, sad and just freakin’ WEEPY all the time, which is very disconcerting. I know it’s all a part of the destressing period after 20 months of crap, but it is not what I had planned for my week.

I had planned to get many fibery things done. However, the space for my fiber studio is still in flux (thanks landlady), and I have no idea when I’ll be able to get in there. I am hoping that most of it will be wrapped up later this weekend and I’ll be able to start my plans. Until then, I’m struggling with disappointment (wanted to make beeswax candles on Litha but no way no how), and exhaustion, and sickness and, above all things, a weird clinging sense of sadness.

I also had camnesia and forgot to take a pic of the one tiny FO I’ve managed to do in recent weeks. A square for Ryan’s afghan, but I can see it made it safely to the Feral Knitter in her last post. This pleases me.

All in all, still a rough ride lately, but for now? There is coffee. Everything perks up when there’s coffee. Heh.

I feel like heaving a huge honkin’ sigh of relief. It is Ostara, the Spring Equinox, and I finally feel like I made it through another grey season intact.

Now, to me, we’re halfway through Spring rather than it beginning today. We do transition into Aries though, and believe me all the fiery energy is kicking my bum already at work. It’s a little easier to take now that it’s nice enough outside to go and take a deep breath and smell growth and renewal rather than just…wet. Still not fun, but better.

My ritual habits are very simple. Usually a small bit of food to reflect the season.

Apologies for the poor pic, but it’s still pretty low light here today. I don’t know if you can see the “trees” in this, but I picked this up at that shop in Port Townsend and immediately felt the energy buzzing up my arm. It was the offering bowl I didn’t know I was looking for. It’s perfect and gorgeous and I love it.

Again a poor pic, but this one looks like the ripples and streams of a slow moving stream are captured within the grain of the wood.

I have a very small vase that matches the bowls that I’ll use for a flower as an additional offering, but of course I forgot to take a picture of this! I think Fire and Air will be represented by the incense and candle I’ll burn during ritual.

All are hand crafted from California redwood. Holding them brings to mind a small, secret clearing nestled among the towering elders, where shafts of sunlight pierce the morning fog and brilliantly illuminate the loamy forest floor. In my minds eye I can hear the calls of the birds and animals that live within the forest, and hear the trickle of the stream as it winds it’s way through the area. It is very peaceful, and perfect, and even though it’s in my mind’s eye only, it’s a refuge and a sacred space that I am grateful to visit.

This new year, beginning with Ostara, I hope to use these tools to celebrate the turning of the wheel of the year, and give thanks for all I’ve learned, have and will become.

May your year be bountiful and amazing, and filled with joy, love and laughter!

NCIS is very addicting. I stayed up far too late early Sunday morning, and got out of bed in the early Sunday afternoon. Knitted just a smidge, resisted the temptation to buy any more yarn via destash forums (BAD BAD habit!), and watched more TV via my computer. Good times.

Hope the week ahead is stress free and easy. Tomorrow is only a three meeting day, which is a shocker. Of course, no one is yet at the office and that’s likely to fill up quickly, so who knows.

I do know that the New Moon is very early in the morning my time on 8 January, and I will spend the next day or so brainstorming intentions for the coming moon cycle. I like chunking things down that way. It doesn’t seem so overwhelming to try to make goals if it’s just 28.5 days or so to plan for.

Hope this week and moon is good for everyone else as well!

After a truly awful day at work, I take a moment to breathe and in lieu of doing ritual to honor the day, welcome the dark season with a sigh of relief. The veil is thin, those who have gone before are close tonight, and I’m hoping they’ll share whatever wisdom they feel can help me regain my balance and direction.

Is there anything funnier than a foal who’s just discovering what his legs can do? Is it a universal thing with all baaaaaaaaby animals that they discover the things they stand on can go BOUNCE and BACK and UP? The colt is bouncing around his mother like he has pogo sticks for legs, and it’s hysterically funny. He’s also not liking the halter much, and rubbed his little head against my arm and gave me the sweetest eyelash fluttering look. I told him I wouldn’t take it off, and he bopped me with his nose and wheeled off to go carooming off mom for a bit.

I’m glad I gook the trash out and got to see them out of their paddock. I’ve been hesitant to go into the barn much, mostly because I don’t know what I’m doing out there, I’m not really sure I’m allowed, and I’d be tempted to bring all the animals a big fat treat every single time. Probably not healthy, you know? Getting love blinks from a stallion when giving cheek rubs though…well, that’s a nice warm glo in the old heart right there.

Oh, you want to hear about sheepy things, and not horses that aren’t mine? Well. Not a lot to update there. I had Spinderellas process the merinoX fleece I got from Jean Near into roving. I did ask that they save about 8oz for me to work with hand cards, so I could get used to hand carding again. I can’t find most of my spindles - I have a Jenkins Turkish that I don’t know how to use, and a very light one whose maker I cannot remember…they were in one of the boxes labeled “spinning supplies”. But I haven’t worked with either very much, and I’m really not sure how to use the Turkish. What I really need to do is get off my ass, find a screwdriver, and turn the maidens on the Traveller. It occurred to me, after I took a class at the Spring Fair, that the maidens are all backasswards on the Traveller and have been since I got it. I didn’t know! So I need to find a Phillips head and switch those around, shorten and re-sew the drive band, and maybe then I’ll get out on the lawn and do some spinning.

I’m not really sure I’m a big fan of merino. There, I said it. The feel of it just isn’t comfortable for me right now. I *love* the job Spinderella’s did on the fleece/roving, and I agree that the straight merino is a bit tender and has some neps (features, not bugs), but the silk blend is awesome. I’m glad I paid just a little bit extra to have half of this fleece carded up that way. The roving is awesome, and I want to take the big bag out to my “yard” (it’s looking kind of jungle like right now…I wonder if I should ask the landlady to mow it or just let the mare take care of it) and spin. Maybe Sunday. I can spring for a screwdriver, I found a needle and thread, and I think I found most of the bobbins for the Ashford.

I’m still afraid of the Schacht, which is a shame. It’s so beautiful…I don’t want to mess it up. I know, I know. WTF? But I can’t help it. I want to learn more about spinning before using my superfantastico wheel. It doesn’t make much sense, but it is how I feel.

Unfortunately,ran around Friday afternoon/evening and on Saturday for much of the day. Sunday? I was a total lazy ass and read up on the Potterdamerung and read and read and read lots of intarwebs based fiction. And worked on my Mirabilia in progress. On the other hand, I also got a lot of work done on the teeny cotton beanie for SisSpawn #1, and I finished it this evening. I wish I could a) find the camera and b) hook up my home tower so I can download the pics from the camera to edit and upload. That would be awesome.

Alas, I shall have to settle for a dinner of string cheese and Chardonnay (I don’t think I’m really a fan of Chardonnay), and an early night. I’m such a rebel.

Anyone have any plans for Lammas/Lughnasadh? I’m tempted to make candles again, but would have to dig through boxes to find all the stuff.

Last but not least - random picture of cuteness! Sent to me by a friend. Ahhh!

I had this running post going since the first of the year, and I’d come back and update it when I had a moment or two. Now all the info in there is sadly outdated, and some of it just sad, so I think we’ll scrap that and just start anew.

I rarely make resolutions right at the new year, as I tend to do some New Moon Wishing every month instead. I find taking twenty minutes or so out of my day on the new moon to really think about what I want out of that next moon cycle is a much better way for me to define and refine what I want.

I did list “more knitting time” in my last cycle, as I find it really helps me shed the stress of the day and get into a good space before bedtime. Unfortunately, my projects are not cooperating.

I can’t believe it, but I managed to screw up the second sleeve of the Chicknits Cami I am doing for my sister. It’s about four inches longer than the first. Buh? I know I’ve been far too tired to really do it justice, but c’mon. It’s a stockinette sleeve with super easy increases. So that’s a bit of a disheartening way to start off the year.

We have another “snow” storm coming in tonight, so I think I’ll let the sleeve marinate in a time out and turn my attention to a project for myself. I also managed to screw up the fingerless mitts for sister mine (she got plenty for the holidays though, and I’m not feeling guilty), so I’m going to put those in time out too, and work on a pair for me. I’d like to be able to do this without a cable needle. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also using Cash Iroha in a wine-like color for this pair. For me. Because it’s time I made something for me.

I got my first sock club shipment from Posh Yarn yesterday as well! I’m not sure the colors are for me, but the yarn itself is amazing. It’s their Lucia yarn, which is 30% cashmere/70% merino. This was one of my big gifts to myself this year, and if I don’t use it for socks, I may use it to make something from Victorian Lace Today. I’ve been pimping searching out lace books for a friend who is newly interested in knitting, and lace in particular. I got that book recently and really like the look of a lot of the items in there. I’m not sure 360 yards is enough to make anything in that book, but I look forward to finding out.

I may get a promotion at work soon, which could mean even less knitting time, as I’d be doing both jobs for a while. Until they backfill my position, anyway. I need to pack up an Emergency Knitting kit and stash it in the laptop bag. I think a basic everyday sock would be good.

When I get my camera back (sister borrowed it for “a day” about three weeks ago), I’m going to re-start the stash documentation project. I think it would be good to really examine what I have, and at least leave myself notes with the yarn about the project I had planned to use it for. Visual documentation would be good too. Some day, some day.

Geez, for someone who doesn’t make big ass resolutions at the first of the year, I have a few things on the burner. *snorts*

I hope y’all have had a wonderful start to 2007!

The veil is thin, and the dead are near. The harvest is done, and we enter the dark time of the year.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m actually looking forwrad to it for once. I could use some time to reflect and think about all the changes from this year.

Happy Samhain for those who celebrate!

——-

This new job is sucking all my time like a big fat…timesuckingthingy. I was able to break the gravitational pull long enough to escape to Vancouver for the weekend though! And it was lovely.

Dude! My new RLBFF (real life best friend forever) Erynn and I went up to Vancouver on Saturday for the Halloween Haunt thing there at Bridge Studios. And while I’ll get to that more in a moment, really, the highlight of the entire trip was getting to hang out with new friends Bruce and Heather at their apartment in Vancouver for about eight hours. Bruce is a fairly recognizable face, and my inner fangirl was all asquee.

But I played it cool. He and his wife are terribly lovely people. I think we all got on like a house on fire. She does lovely handcrafted jewelry with semi-precious stones (if you’re in the Vancouver area and reading this, drop me an email and I’ll try to hook you up with either shop names or will forward your info if you’re interested in meeting her for custom work), and we spent a good 30 min or so going over her work. I was most appreciative - she does a lot of different things than I’ve seen with other people’s work (Cherry Blossom Designs and Stone Lotus Creations are my main points of reference), and they tend toward bold and very colorful. I apparently was super appreciative, because she gave me a cute pair of earrings. YAY!

I’m sure Bruce (I get to call him Bruce…weeeeeeird!) wasn’t quite sure what to expect, though Erynn told me that of course they would hope that anyone she brought with her to meet them would be cool and not freaky. He’s an interesting guy - very mellow, very likeable…just a regular guy who works at a funky job for a living. They have a gingery cat with a half-tail. I can’t remember his name, but he’s a rescue and apparently hides whenever someone new is in the apartment. But he came out to greet me, and both his mom and dad were quite impressed by that. :D

Now, the Halloween Haunt! We said goodbye to B&M and headed to the Accent Inn, which is right across the street from Bridge Studios. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed during the tour, and I didn’t get a pic of the MGM sign outside that has SG1, Atlantis and something else
on the Marquee. But it was a neat experience - we got there about 15 min early after snagging a piece of pie at the diner attached to the Inn (very reasonable, I thought - $100/night for a queen double, and it was neat and clean and tidy and right across the street) we walked
over to get in line.

They had a puddle jumper there in the “lobby” of the building where everyone was lining up. I bought a single raffle ticket ($5 each!), because mama needs a new Crackberry (one of the prizes). Anyway, they were doing pictures in the puddle jumper, also for $5, so I ponied up the fiver so Erynn and I could see the main part of the craft. If you didn’t pay for a picture, you could just look at the cargo area with all the webbing and stuff. BTW, for fic type purposes, you could totally fit like 25 people in there. Standing room only, but you could squish. *G*

The tour itself was kinda lame - our main tour guide was a total dork, though cheerful enough. Our group number was 42 (we are the answer to the universe!), so you know they must just be annoyed at having to do this by now. There was one younger girl there with Downs Syndrome who was really askeered by it all, but she got through it with smiles and by clinging to the hands of her parents all the way through. Her reactions were great! It was neat to watch someone not so jaded go through the whole thing. I was usually the first through the door after the guide (I hate being boxed in like sheeps), and tried to examine all the SGA stuff as closely as possible w/out touching anything.

They wouldn’t let us w/in about 10 feet of the actual Stargate, which was sadmaking. They had put a shit ton of spider-webbing in the middle of it though, which was cute. Part of the reason no pics was that some of the sets are “live”, even though SGA is on a filming hiatus right now. They didn’t want spoiler stuff leaking to the ‘net, or so the guide said. WhatEVAH!

While not scary, the effects, makeup, set dressing and the stunts were fantastic. The whole thing is a volunteer effort, and all the money goes to the BC Childrens’ Hospital. There were about 30-35 people per group, and they still had three days to go. Not a whole shit ton of money generated from the tour itself, considering how long it must have taken to actually do up the whole thing, but still a great thing to do for a charity. And fun!

I was really dragging by the end of the tour though. I feel like I walked over half of Vancouver that weekend! We met with another FOE (Friend of Erynn) who used to be the extras wrangler for SG1, but is now making his own films. He was a great guy, and was enthusiastic about his new project - a film about the last night of Eryol Flynn’s life. He died in Vancouver, and…well, it was interesting. We were supposed to meet with another friend of hers who was also a part of SG1 at one point in time, but he was working on the set of Fantastic Four 2 and was unable to meet us. Something about shooting the helicopter scenes?

We did meet a lovely woman who had nothing to do with the entertainment business that Erynn has known for years. She’s a writer, and a pagan, and we went to a remarkable park in Burnaby:
http://www.city.burnaby.bc.ca/cityhall/departments/departments_parks/prksrc_prksan/prksrc_prksan_brnbym.html

The totems are really awesome, and it was a crystal clear day to be up that high. I have pics and will post them later. It was just super cool. We had breakfast, and a cup of tea and a nibble after the park, and by then both Erynn and I were drooping, so we dropped The Lovely Lady off at her apartment (she had three fuzzies!) and headed home.

It was a great weekend, I would totally go back to the haunted house next year, because it was cool, and hopefully meet up with the lovely lovely peoples again for a bite to eat and a chat.

And now I’m back with my nose to the grindstone, and should be getting offline to head to a meeting. Whee! Pics soon, once I extract them from the camera.

Can you believe I was in a whole ‘nother country for nearly two entire days and didn’t once think about visiting a yarn store? *gapes* I just realized that. I must be ill. Good lord!