Concateknit

Hi!

It's been a little while, hasn't it?

The stupid thing is that I've had all kinds of things to chat with you about - nothing super major, but just lots of little things that I keep thinking I should share with the blog and then...I don't. But see, that's just stupid, so let's fix it, shall we?

I went to Stitches West last month and Mike and I took the puppers and made a little vacation out of it. I think I took exactly...0 pictures, but believe me, we had fun. We ate dinner outdoors, we went to our favorite taqueria in the universe, we had fun walks, Allie & Zorro were admired by all (even by the San Jose Police, which is saying something), we had coffee and bagels at one of my favorite coffee shops, and like I said, we had fun. Allie & Zorro are really great travelers (Allie is actually better than Zorro is, which is surprising) and I love introducing them to new places. So. Much. Fun.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but while I'm not on a stash enhancement diet or anything like that, I am trying to make sensible decisions about what I buy. To that end, I've instituted an "I can only buy half as much as what I use" rule. Which means that between January 1 and Stitches, I knit approximately 1,200 yards of FOs and spun approximately 24 oz of fiber into finished yarn. At Stitches, I was able to purchase 600 yards of yarn and 12 oz of fiber. The thing that ended up being really cool about that decision was that I really love the stuff I purchased and I spent all day deciding what yarn/fiber was special enough to purchase. I ended up buying:

Tactile Fiber Naturally Dyed Superwash BFL.
2 skeins in colorway Pomegranate, 2 ounces each
1 skein in Lichen, 2 ounces.

Abstract Fiber
Hand Dyed 70% Alpaca/30% Silk
Colorway: Rainbow
4 ounces.
Purchased at Abstract Fiber at Stitches West 2009.

Miss Babs 80% Merino Wool/20% Tussah Silk Top.
2 Ounces
Colorway: Chocolate Roses

timiQuipa 100% Baby Alpaca
164 yards
Fingering weight.
Colorway: 74995

Miss Babs Yummy Hand-Painted Sock & Baby 2 Ply Superwash Merino Wool
Approximately 400 yards
Colorway: Chocolate Roses

Now, the goal of this new rule of mine isn't as much about not spending money as much as it is about being deliberate with the money I do spend. I have a tendency to lose my brain and just buy, buy, buy at these shows, and most often I end up buying yarn or fiber that aren't quite right for me for various reasons. The happy by-product of my new rule for stash enhancement is that at the end of the year I will have less than I started with, but the quality of what I have will be better.

I'll also have a heck of a lot more to show for my knitting, but that's a subject for another post.

And you? How are you doing?

Sold!

Thank You

Well, your jokes must have included some good wishes because it has been an exciting week here at Casa Concateknit.

The long weekend started pretty crappily, as you know, but quickly took an upturn. Saturday morning, we went to look at some houses with our friends Sue and Randy (whose opinions we value very highly, especially when it comes to big-time grown up decisions) and we fell in love with one particular house. Saturday evening we went to a great dinner at Five in Fresno with friends to pre-celebrate Mike's 40th birthday and our friend A's 38th.

On Monday, we submitted an offer on the house we loved.

Yesterday we received their counter offer, with very minor counters.

This morning we meet with our loan officer and sign off on the counter offer, and then this afternoon we are heading off to San Francisco for a week's vacation with the doggers to celebrate Mike's 40th birthday, which is this Saturday. We have friends coming into SF to spend the weekend with us at the flat we've rented, and the temperatures, which are supposed to be in the mid- to upper-60s will be a lovely relief from the 100+ degree temperatures we've had in Fresno this week. I might even get to knit and spin a bit.

And right now? Well, right now I am sitting on my couch with Allie asleep on my lap and Zorro asleep cuddled next to me. I'm enjoying a cup of coffee before I start packing and getting ready for the day, and my house is clean, and I'm looking forward to the first real vacation I've had since Mike and I were married in 2006.  Good times, people. Good times.

Camping is Just Playing for Grown-Ups

When I was a kid, playing equaled action: being outdoors, building forts, choreographing dance routines for myself and all the neighborhood kids, trying to make perfume from the flowers in the backyard, playing Chinese jump rope for hours upon hours, making and beating the neighborhood record for most consecutive jumps on a pogo stick without stepping off, digging holes to China. Playing meant doing something, anything, all day long, and being rewarded at the end of the day with a good night's sleep and a sense of accomplishment. I loved to play and by the end of each school day or school week I would be eager, yearning for the time when I would get outdoors and get to the serious business of playing.

 

That's how I feel about camping, too. From the moment I start to plan, to the moment I pick the best spot for my tent, I am playing. Granted, my playing often involves less action than it did when I was a child, but still - it's play. Cooking becomes play, cleaning becomes play, going to the bathroom even becomes play (hey - anytime I get to wear a headlamp = playing), all the things that are chores at home become play when I'm camping. And so really, who wouldn't want that?

 

This is all to say that the camping trip was fine, and the dogs added an element of fun to the trip that I really couldn't have imagined. They were excellent companions and terrific campers.

 

We ate well:

We explored the campgrounds and none of us could get enough walking. We walked, we explored, we talked to people (well, I talked to people. Ambassador Zorro just softened them up for me first, with his cute tail wagging and wiggle butting), we hung out, we napped, and then we walked some more. The dogs were truly excellent little travelers, and I'm so excited for the summer now that I know that we can go for trips, go camping, explore this ridiculously beautiful state together. I've already decided on our next two camping trips and a summer vacation that we'll take to celebrate a milestone birthday for Mike. I can't wait.

I feel like a kid again. All I want to do is play.

 

And We're Off!

The dog's stuff is all packed, the kitchen stuff is packed, my clothes are packed, and we'll be hitting the road in just about an hour. The weather looks to be just about perfect, and I am absolutely ready to get this vacation started!

I hope that you have a great weekend, and I'll talk to you soon!

Fake Saturdays are for Lists

In my company, we get a "Spring Holiday" and today's it. While most of the rest of the world is at work, I'm home, still in my pjs, and drinking coffee.

I've been thinking a lot about stuff like consumerism, how where I spend my dollars reflects on who I am as an individual, my short and long term goals and how to attain them, retirement and what do we need to do if we want to retire before 67 and aren't counting on Social Security still existing by then, and what, truly, is important in life.

But all those things are still percolating in my brain, and aren't ready for public consumption, so today, on Fake Saturday, I'll give you a list. Random? Probably? Interesting? You be the judge.

• On a not Fake Saturday, right about now I'd be leaving for work. Right now? Allie and Zorro are curled up on either side of me, settling in for their first of many daily naps. I'd like their life, please.
• Last night, I was napping on the couch when Allie, drenched from being outside (she finds a puddle better/faster than any other dog I know) came in and literally flopped on my head.
• Sue and I try to have a weekly craft night. The holidays made this a little difficult, but it is something that we both truly enjoy, and we're glad to be able to get back to it. Other obligations kept us from meeting on Monday, when we usually meet, so today, on Fake Saturday, we will meet to work out and then have an outside craft morning.
• Have I mentioned that our temps are now in the 70s? I think I'm bringing my spinning wheel to outside craft morning.
• Allie shows no signs of losing her "winter coat", which leads me to believe that the crazy foofiness is here to stay. Witness the foof:

• I'm doing something so super duper crazy exciting today that I can hardly stand it. You want to know what it is? I'm meeting with a realtor and going to look at houses this afternoon. Having grown up in apartments and a couple of rented houses, the idea that I might actually be able to Own My Own Home almost makes me want to cry. And then giggle. And then maybe weep a little. And then do a happy dance. Please think good house vibes for me.
• My Tiny Paintings arrived and they are even BETTER than I thought they would be. They are, in fact, simply perfect. Would you like to see them?

If you are interested in your own Tiny Paintings, you can visit nrlois's Etsy shop here.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a Happy Easter, if you celebrate. Me? I'll be crafting with Sue, looking at houses, getting my hair did, walking my puppers, hanging out with my husband, and eating a lovely Easter meal surrounded by dear friends.

And it'll be in the 70s. I'm not rubbing it in, though.

So...Rhinebeck

When I started blogging in August of 2004, I was still recovering from my divorce. Mike and I were very happy and living together by then, but if you’ve ever been divorced, then you know how the pangs and pains resonate long after the ink on the divorce paper has dried. If you’ve ever been divorced, you know how the pain of Being Divorced continues to hurt long after the pain of ending a failed relationship disappears. 

When I left my ex-husband, I left most of our friends as well. In some cases, they left me, but if I am honest, it was difficult for me to figure out how to re-relate to people who had only known me as part of that couple, and it was equally difficult for those people to learn to re-relate to me as part of a different couple.

In part, I started knitting as a way to deal with the grief of losing so much of myself and so many of the people I thought I would know for life. I also began knitting because my G’pa was very ill, and I needed something to do that would occupy my hands while allowing my heart the opportunity to heal.

Not long after I started knitting I found knitblogs, and the idea that there was a community of knitters out there that I might be able to connect with was immeasurably appealing. With this new community, I could forego the awkwardness of teaching a friend how to spell my maiden name.

I hadn’t been blogging for long when something miraculous happened – I made friends. I met other knitbloggers and I felt an instant rapport. As I got to know them better and as my “knitting” friends became simply “friends”, I realized that knitting might have been the thing that drew us together initially, but there were fundamental similarities that bound us together.

As my local knitblogging community grew, so did the number of acquaintances I made, and through fiber festivals, I was able to turn a number of acquaintances into real life friends – people who came to my house, people I emailed on a regular basis, people I cared about deeply.

I count people I met via knitblogging and the knitblogging community as my closest friends, and when Mike and I decided to move to California, it was with no little amount of sadness that I left the safe haven of that community. I know that we said that the fact that we all had blogs would make it easier to stay in touch, but that is only a half truth. There are moments when I feel my heart will break from being so far away from so many people I love so much, and nothing, not the ability to email, or IM, or call, or comment, lessens that feeling of loss.

I’m happy I’m in California, and it was the right decision for us to make to move here, but that does not make the pain I feel being so far removed from those I love any less.

And this brings me to Rhinebeck (come on – you’ve known that I’m a wordy b*tch for a long time…).

I flew to Rhinebeck this year, and was able to spend some amazing quality time with my girls. When Mrs. P. and I rolled into town Friday evening, we were able to hook up with Debbie, and slowly, the rest of our crew filtered in. Friday night ended up being quality time and quiet, which I think I needed, because that quality time allowed me to feel energized and be open to the madness that was Rhinebeck. Without that time on Friday night spent connecting with my girls, I know I would have felt extremely out of sorts for the rest of the weekend.

Rhinebeck is exhausting. I’m not the first, or the most eloquent, to say it, and I won’t be the last. Yet I think it is exhausting because there are simply too many people I want to connect with and too little time to do it. There is only so much time in the weekend that I have to spend with those I love, and the urge to see everyone, hug everyone, have a meaningful catch-up with everyone is intense, especially now that I know there will be no last minute get-togethers and lazy football Sundays at Wendy and Rob’s house, no hotpot and cocktails with Kellee and Rick, no spur of the moment Chinese food and Blue Hawaiians at the Tahiti with Jackie and Eric. Knowing that the in-person time I get with my friends is so limited, so concentrated, makes it seem all the more urgent, and the urgency is wearing and makes me tired in body and soul.

When Wendy and Rob and Sophia left for home before we all went to the Ravelry party, I cried. I cried like I hadn’t cried when they moved to Rochester, because somehow I was able to pretend that they hadn’t really left Boston, that nothing was really different.

But I knew, this time, that everything was different. Every goodbye I said to every person hurt. My heart hurt because there were so many people I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to.

Yet what I know is this: I am lucky to have been at the right place and time to have had this community become such a part of my life in so many meaningful and elemental ways. If Rhinebeck is exhausting, it is because I spend the weekend filled to bursting with love and affection for so many darling, wonderful people.

But the leaving, and the being far away…it hurts sometimes, y’know?

Oh, and yes, I did actually buy stuff at Rhinebeck...but we'll talk about that some other time.

Some of you have intimated to me that perhaps Zorro doesn't get the blog time he deserves. I think a picture will explain as well as anything can just why you don't see photos of Boy Dog (Allie, of course, is Girl Dog) on the blog:
Virtually every single time I try to take a picture of him, he turns away, and I end up with a picture of the back of his head.

Now, Allie on the other hand, was made to be photographed. Don't believe me? I snapped this one in the midst of an attempted Boy Dog photo shoot. Do you see how her legs are all at weird angles? Yep, that has to do with her bad knee condition, and it's the reason she takes glucosomine every day. She sits like that so that she can take pressure off her bad knees. Poor little broke photogenic Girl Dog.

However, sometimes miracles happen, like this past weekend, when Mike was able to snap a picture of both Allie and Zorro laying on my lap. We call this pose "covered in puppies". Doesn't Zorro look a little put out to be captured on camera? Hee...
In non-puppers news, my first week of work is going fine. I really like the people I work with and it's a new industry for me so there is definitely lots to learn.

In knitting and spinning news, well, there is none. I haven't spin since before I left Boston (I KNOW - it's CRAZY). I knit a little bit, but most of my free time is spent either covered in puppies or playing with puppies.  I am hoping that Rhinebeck will be exactly what I need to help me get back into the fibery swing of things.

In the meantime, I'll be on the couch, covered in puppies (as I type this, Zorro is laying on my lap and has just laid his head down between my hands on my keyboard. Good times).

Today I finally had time to go to Ancient Pathways, a wonderful yarn/fiber store in Fresno that I've visited once before while visiting Kim and Sue.

And it was even better than I remember.

First of all, it's a nice space in a great little neighborhood.

Second, I happened to show up on their late night, which coincides with one of their knit nights, and within five minutes of arriving, I was having a lovely conversation about spinning, knitting, fiber festivals (and the lack thereof in California, go figure), and how I should come out for their knit nights and their upcoming spin ins.

It was love at first sight, I tell you.

If the lovely conversation (and the spinning wheels that were for sale) wasn't enough, the conversation I had with the owner when I was making my purchases was:

She: Oh, you picked my favorite color of this fiber (picture below).
Me: I really love it, and I love to see shops that carry fiber from independent dyers.
She: Well, that's what I look for and want to sell. You can get the regular stuff anywhere.

Needless to say, I'll be going down for a little knitting and hanging out next week. I cannot wait!

From left to right: Merino/Tencel blend from True Love Fibers, Merino Sock Yarn, also from True Love Fibers, and one of Ancient Pathways cool little project bags. What an awesome, awesome store.

Thank you for all of your advice on the puppers. Last week was beyond stressful as we all tried to figure each other out (we're still working it out). I'm working on getting them all the vaccinations they need so we can do some obedience training at the local kennel/obedience school. Allie's having a rough time of it right now: we just found out she has bad knees and kennel cough (at the very least) so she's on a bunch of meds and will have a full blood workup done before she gets fixed in a few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for her, okay? She's a sad little sick pupper.

Someone who's not sad though (and is currently playing catch with me) is Zorro. He IS awfully tiny, though. :)

Sad

Last night I had a few moments of quiet between the whirlwind of finishing up my last week of work and the whirlwind of finishing up the packing here at home. As I sat, futzing around on the computer,  making more mental to-do lists, I realized something.

I felt sad.

And really? I still feel sad.

I knew that this was coming. Everything in my life is changing - Mike will be away from home probably 4 or 5 nights a week, and I'll be putting our life together in an area that I've visited on vacation, but is essentially unfamiliar to me.

Like I said - I knew this was coming, and none of this is surprising, but it's hard, this leaving is really, really hard.

Tonight is Mike's last night in Boston - tomorrow he flies from Boston to San Francisco for interviews, and on Monday he begins a new consulting job.  I'll be driving across country with Kim (Smokey and the Bandit style) and this time next week, I'll be very close to my final destination in California.

And Boston will no longer be my home. I'll be a Californian actually living in California once more.

I'm excited.

And I'm sad.

See below for some pictures of my house, T - 3 days and counting...