brownie in AK

lucky

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:41:00 +0000

this is where i sit most days, alternating between sleeping baby and eating baby. if you've talked to me on the phone in the last month, i was likely sitting right here.

motherhood (and cute sleeping babies) takes a toll on getting out and about.

especially at -20F when even inter-species differences are erased in favor of a wood burning stove...

lucky for baby galen, people come here to visit. at 3 weeks, his Bimpy (maternal grandma), who came all the way from the east coast to oogle over him:

then, his auntie Malia, who taught him to smile:

and his Apa, who takes naps with him.

so lucky, this boy.

14 friends, 16 blocks of love

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:41:00 +0000

yesterday, kat asked me and Cob to meet her for lunch. there was a small group of folks who wanted to give us "something." i wasn't allowed to know what it was, or even who constituted the group. i dutifully showed up, snarfed down a pizza while knitter after knitter joined our group and Kat leaned casually against a large-ish box. all of these women are good friends of mine and had apparently been conspiring since May (since MAY, people!) to produce what has to be the most beautiful baby blanket ever made.

14 friends, 16 blocks of love. all individually knitted by women of amazing skill by themselves, much less joined in force to produce Baby's first blanket.

there is no way i could detail every square, but here is a sample of their collective handiwork.

by Maria, felted slipper knitter extraordinaire:

by Dorte Dissing, who's been knitting since she was a kid and (gasp!) can do it without a pattern:

by Kat, who i think i taught to knit about 8 years ago, and whom i now call when i have questions:

by Hope, who taught ME to knit 12 or 13 years ago (and whose method of teaching i still use when i teach now):

and the whole thing -- already doing its job keeping Baby warm and wrapped in stitched love.

a huge purple thanks to Cara, Dorte, Barton, Dea, Kat, Nicole, Maria, Theresa, Ruth, Normie, Charms, Kalin, Hope, and Lynn. i would say that such a project means more than i can say, but i'm guessing that each and every one of you know just EXACTLY what this means to me.

thank you.

here comes the sun

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:15:00 +0000

every year, i try to grow an experimental crop in the garden to see what i can nuture into this world. usually these experiments fail. Cob never misses an opportunity to remind me of the Okra Year, when i told myself that i could convince a plant that has never felt a cool dry summer to produce in sub-arctic Fairbanks. i admit that i fell short of my visions of cases upon cases of pickled okra, one of my favorite things in the world, but i consider it a success that my little plants produced one, very perfect okra. it was good.

this year, you might say i'm trying two experimentals - my sunflowers and you can figure the other one out from this picture.

but check out that sunflower! i'm 5'7" for reference - this thing is a behemoth and its siblings are no slouches either. here's the close-up:

can you imagine a thing of more beauty? it delights me to no end that this was a simple seed in my hand last April. now it greets me out the kitchen window every morning. oh, and the bumble bees like it too. growing sunflowers made me realize why bumblebees are colored the way they are.

some might say that growing sunflowers in the land of the midnight sun is hardly experimental, but it is for me. i don't think the point is to introduce an exotic (like okra?) so much as to do something new, even if it's only new to you.

fingers crossed that my other experimental turns out just as lovely, just as wondrous, just as surprising (but maybe a little less tall and attractive to bees)...

the other white meat

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:01:00 +0000

it's that time of year again...early summer in Fairbanks when the wild roses bloom,

...and the irises unfurl their delicate, ephemeral petals...

...and the pig gets roasted!

The Hollingsworths and friends host an annual pig roast in honor of Jamie's birthday (that's him on the left and that's his pig roaster in action) every mid-June to the delight of a fairly motley group, including me and Cob.

this is Teresa, nothing motley about her - oh no! wife of said birthday boy and hellcat extraordinaire. this belt buckle was actually made for her by one of her grad students - what kind of advisor do you have to be to get THIS as a gift???

the annual pig roast is a true Alaskan event with all the expected trimmings: large quantities of meat, potluck fare, outside with the mosquitoes, lots of kids, and of course, a blue tarp.

me and the birthday boy - with his new flaming suspenders. The Big Guy (what we like to call him) has more suspenders than you can shake a stick at - he even offered me some for when my pants start falling down in a few months! what a guy!

masterpieces

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:12:00 +0000

sometimes, you just have a good week, and no matter what else drags you down, stresses you out, or what have you. 3 excellent things came into my life this week, only one of which did i have anything to do with. regardless of what else is happening, it's important to stop and give these things their due. they are, after all, what makes life worth while.

first, i give you the most excellent pizza pie ever created by a 5 year old boy, my friend Owen. he and his mom, Theresa, came over for pizza the other night, and he showed us how it's done. a little pesto, a little red sauce, a circle of pepperoni, a smaller circle of black olives, finished with a mushroom in the middle.

second, a baby sweater for a friend who gave birth a few months ago. i was woefully behind on this...

...but i think it turned out ok. it is, after all, purple. a nice retro, off-center closure, sure to look dashing on the strawberry blond babe it's headed for.

and finally, after much waiting, my new niece, Marin. she came a little early but not without much fanfare and excitement. welcome, little thing - can't wait to meet you!

masterpieces, i think, all 3.

purling on the porch

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:27:00 +0000

spring has been slow to come to the north land and as most of you know, i'm somewhat loathe to tempt the gods of warm weather when they first show their sunny faces. they seem like ground hogs sometimes, hiding again if you make too big a deal over their early appearances.

so it takes more than a few warm days around here to get me talking about spring. but today, i heard my first sandhill cranes and we hit about 50F at the height of the day, so i'm sure we can't turn back now.

to celebrate, Dea and i spent a chunk of the afternoon purling on the porch, enjoying the warm sun and melting snow.

who cares if the rest of the country has green grass and cheery flowers by now? we work hard for our spring in these parts and sitting on the deck knitting, while watching the snow recede from the yard as cranes fly overhead might just be the best way to spend an afternoon.

masterpiece

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:13:00 +0000

it starts like this:

Scharfenberger chocolate and butter mixed with eggs, sugar, pecan flour, and vanilla. that's it.

after that's all baked and cooled, you pour a spreadable ganache (this time Scharfenberger chocolate, cream, and butter) over the cake to make a glaze.

a few chopped pecans pressed into the sides, a garnish of white chocolate designed with a toothpick, and a ring of fresh raspberries...

and you have a birthday cake! Happy Birthday Cara, and many, many more...

recovery

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:54:00 +0000

I've been down for a week now with a nasty chest cold that has kept me on the couch with Kleenex and cough drops. but today, armored with a bit more energy and inspired by freshly falling snow, i ventured out for a short walk with Nuchie who has been patiently waiting for my recovery.

we started out on a foot trail near our house. I like these little trails where i don't have to worry about snow machines or 4-wheelers and where Nuch and i can romp without ruining ski tracks.

it was slow going. 5 solid days of hacking has left me feeling like someone was squeezing the bottom 2/3 of my lungs, leaving me with little breathing capacity for a hilly trail that really required snowshoes.

but going slow provides other opportunities. stopping to gasp gave me time to look around and see the trail i might have otherwise looked past.

a peeling birch. i mean, how cool is this tree? pretty and good fire starter, not to mention its importance to Athabascan cultures in making birch bark baskets.

the promise of summer in frozen high bush cranberries leftover from last year. these little guys grace many Fairbanks tables in the form of syrup, jelly, and wine every fall. they are part of the bounty we try to keep up with during our short summer months.

i finally made it back home, thanks to the unflagging support of Nuchie, my trusty bad dog. even though it was a short walk, it was good to get outside again and see some of the world's details.

99 bottles of beer on the counter

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:08:00 +0000

i live with a beer brewer. he'd be the first person to say that he's not a "real" brewer (whatever that means), but then he'll break out the 'original gravity' and 'protein break'. if you're not a real brewer, you won't know what those things are. but i digress.

beer has been brewing in my house for the last 11 days. it's happened before and though i get the basics of yeast and grains from my bread-baking days, i don't get beer. it's a mystery to me.

so, for the uninitiated, i watched the process carefully and came up with these easy steps for making homebrew.

1. drink beer. (apparently, brewing begins with drinking. it seems like we're getting a little close to a chicken and egg dilemma, but this is what they did...oh! and you have to look reflective while you're doing this step. very important.)

2. next comes the malt. (I think some grains slipped into that pot while i wasn't looking, but no matter. malt provides the 'body of the beer' - still not sure what this means, but that's what they said...and food for the yeast to make alcohol. this is an important step.)

3. more malt. (because of the importance of this step, i got involved to make sure alcohol happened. you can't leave these things to chance, you know.)

4. drink more. (this actually happened a lot more than portrayed here, but i'm trying to keep these guys looking respectable.)

5. get hoppy. (hops are actually a flower that account for the aromatic bitterness of beer and help prevent it from spoiling. at one point, Cob exclaimed, '14.2% alpha acids, my ass!' which has something to do with the bitterness index of these particular hops. either way, i refer back to my point about not being a "real" brewer.)

6. fermentation in the carboy (notice the vodka bottle...brewing beer requires some obsessive sterilization procedures to avoid creating off-tastes in the beer. this is one that i think may just be to continue with the whole drinking theme. Here, Cob is "sterilizing" his mouth before creating a suction in the tube to the carboy.)

7. [10 days later] bottling. (this is the only part i really understand. beer goes in bottle. cap goes on bottle. clean up kitchen.)

8. naming the beer.

i give you Cold Snap Ale, an IPY IPA (for the non-Arctic types: International Polar Year India Pale Ale).

triple word score

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:44:00 +0000

can you tell we're excited about Tuesday around here?

teaser

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:51:00 +0000

knitters like to share their stuff. get a bunch of knitters in a room and people start pulling out their projects in various stages of completion, even projects that require a guided tour by the maker. knitters can take this leap of creative faith; they are used to things unfinished. imagining the finished product sometimes requires as much creativity of mind as nimbleness of fingers.

the frustration comes when you want to share widely and can't. you create a thing of cabled beauty, glorious even in its incompleteness, and it must remain hidden in the shadows lest its recipient see it.

this is my solution. just a glimpse, a brief and incomplete snap-shot, a fleeting tableau:

this is, by the way, a return to my cabled roots after a long hiatus in the crisp, precise land of scandinavian two-color knitting. let me just point out that it is reversible and the other side is just as pretty.

whew. i feel better now.

Day 11

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:14:00 +0000

cold snap.

warm soup.

Day 11 of this frigid, face-aching, square-tire misery, countered only by a good husband who fixes corn hominy chowder and serves it up with red wine.

Dea rocks the lace

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:34:00 +0000

apparently, lace has nothing on Dea.

less than a year ago, Dea picked up knitting needles for the first time and hasn't looked back since. in all my time teaching, i've noticed that most knitters will fall into one of two camps: those who hesitate to knit a stitch without someone to help them looking over their shoulder and those who throw caution to the wind and knit with wild abandon, no matter the outcome. both paths will produce competent, independent knitters, but Dea definitely falls into the latter category.

it's a pattern in her life, i think:

during her last trip to the Mayo for her continued dialysis treatment, she picked up a lace scarf pattern at the local knitting shoppe. i like adventurous knitting choices and lace is nothing to sneeze at - especially if it's only your 3rd or 4th project.

there were a few bumps and fixes along the way, a few expletives, but Dea always picked the needles back up and climbed back on the proverbial horse.

she was rewarded with this:

dang! what couldn't you do in this world with a scarf like that wrapped around your neck?

new years, lost and found

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:20:00 +0000

New Year's has never been my favorite holiday to celebrate. the expectation, braving the roads full of crazy people, the need to stay up way past my bedtime. ugh. this year, we decided to go gently into that new year celebrating with a few friends, a nice potluck dinner, and some fireworks in our driveway.

it was cold on wednesday night, about -30F in the hills. we're in the middle of a cold snap and it had been cold all week with no end in sight yet.

that's why when a neighbor showed up at our door at 1 am looking for a relative visiting from the south that had been missing for an hour already, we were concerned. being outside for any length of time at those temps requires some preparation and lots of fur - things this woman surely did not have after a night of reveling.

the search continued until about 4 am and eventually involved the police and a canine unit, which was able to track her to the exact spot where she got into a car - an unknown car.

she is fine. some excellent police work revealed that she was disoriented and unable to direct the driver to where she lived, so s/he took her to a local hotel and paid for her room so that she would have a warm, safe place to be for the night.

so, on the first day of this brand new year, i was confronted with the best of humanity. people who care enough to stop and help someone, even if it's not convenient. people who mean no harm and only good. people who will make sure their neighbors are taken care of, even at cost to themselves.

someone i admire recently wrote that she always harbored a funny little belief that the way we transition into the new year sets the stage for how that year will go. i thought i was lucky to have spent a quiet, relaxing evening with a few friends, eating good food, which i was. but i was far luckier to witness real humanity from strangers, as one year passed into memory and a new one unfolded before us.

i will go into this new year remembering that there are far more good people in this world than bad people and that our capacity to care and to be human far exceeds the bad stuff going on around us, though that stuff is surely easier to focus on.

happy new year, all.

stash control

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:08:00 +0000

knitters everywhere share at least one problem: stash control, or how and where to put all that yarn? despite my husband's beliefs, my stash problem is pretty minor as far as they go, due largely to the fact that i haven't been knitting my whole life (just a 1/3 of it), and the fact that we have a deal: the prerequisite of every new yarn purchase is that i have to knit something from the stash.

for me, the stash is not just a thing, it's a place. my stash lives (mostly) in the upstairs guest closet (though it spills into the not 1, but 3 knitting baskets in the living room). when i need inspiration to get through a particularly difficult or boring pattern, the stash is always there for me. sitting among the skeins and hanks can even turn the tide of hard day at work.

nonetheless, i was still losing track of what i had...and where. these brand new cubbies became the answer.

let me tell you, this is a type-A personality's dream. a place for everything and everything in its place. most of this yarn has purpose, or at least i have a faint idea of what i might use it for. some have even cycled through several purposes...though i doubt that would count in my husband's narrow, realistic world.

really, what the stash is -- and why it's so important -- is a big, fat, squishy, warm pile of dreams. dreams of cozy sweaters and blankets that i can wrap friends' babies in...and a purple sweater for me.

dreams of a sweater for Cobbie. dreams of beautiful, ornate (or just plain) socks:

so, if you ever get anything from me, now you know where it came from: my favorite place on earth (except maybe Tangle Lakes - and not just because i can take knitting there).

and because i actually DO do more than just knit...here's a picture of Cobbie skiing in front of me on teh way to P&C's for our usual Wednesday night dinner (the faint lights to the left is their house).

kniterly update

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:39:00 +0000

i spent last night in the most kniterly of ways.

last night, i hung with a wonderful collection of women, all amazing in their own right, good yarn, and a knitting husband.

of course, one must eat first (chicken-saffron soup, bread pudding, pumpkin cheesecake, and cookies for dessert)...

...in order to knit.

yes, this is the famous and talented Subarctic mama. crazy fast that woman is at picking up knitting. it's like she just gets it. kind of like her writing.

now, on to the parade of efforts currently in the queue. yesterday, Cobbie asked me how many projects i had going right now. i couldn't answer right off, so here's my attempt. may i say first, in my defense, that the holidays are near?

socks for the sock-maker. these fabulous feet belong to Theresa and she is THE uber sock-maker. therefore, she needs socks made for her, yes?

spinning a bit for a present that must yet remain unnamed, as its recipient is still in the dark. people, the wheel is next for me, i can just feel it. lord help us all (or at least Cob) if a spinning wheel takes up residence in our living room.

a baby hat - done. believe it or not, this has no owner, it was just a way to kill an extra skein of yarn that was hanging around looking lonely and unproductive. the pattern is one of Debbie Bliss' baby cashmerino wonders.

Nuchie, modeling with the pure sunshine and blue sky of Louet chunky yarn. this yarn is destined for big things - in this case, two alphabet blankets in T and G for my oldest friend Jackie's two little boys.

Thayer's blanket underway (it's now 5" - this picture's a day old!)

Brownie's "special green" skiing socks, as named by Cob - a christmas present for another unnamed recipient. this is worsted weight wool knit on size 2 needles. yes, i am crazy.

and if you didn't believe me that i'm crazy, the beginnings of a Dale of Norway sweater: this one goes veeeeeerrrrryyyyy slowly - my goal is 1 row a day. yep, 1 row a day. i try to get it done over morning coffee while i'm listening to the news and then the rest of the day just doesn't seem so hard. my friend, Cathi, and I are knitting the same sweater at the same time in different colourways. crazy. just crazy.

and then there's the perrenial Estonian "Goat's-eye" socks that i'm knitting with Norma (hers are blue and red). i'm just trying to stay one step ahead of her to help her with the pattern. this is another one of those DK-light worsted weight knit on size 1 needles. freakish.

and finally, the first of a matching pair of toddler socks that will eventually be part of this world, made from Crystal Palace bamboo-cotton-nylon yarn. if you ever get the chance to knit with this yarn, do it. it's good stuff. and baby socks are so stinkin' cute.

first ski

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:30:00 +0000

after a long week traveling, i finally returned home, took the afternoon off, and went out for my first ski of the season. it wasn't anything big or strenuous, just a little jaunt with Nuchie in our neighborhood trails.

i usually have these trails to myself and yesterday was no exception. that is, except Nuchie - together we're learning our way around them but we still don't have them all figured out.

fresh snow always give you a chance to see if it's a good bunny year, which it seems to be. if you look closely, hopefully you can see the bunny trails - very distinctive marks those little guys make.

it was about -10F - too cold to skate ski, but perfect for my classic skis. and enough for a frosty eyelash or two.

and we topped off the night with Dea and Ben with enchiladas and little knitting...

6 hours, 39 minutes of possible daylight

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:16:00 +0000

as we move further into winter up here in the northland, many of you have asked about our weather. is it cold yet? (yes.) is it freezing? (yes.) do you have snow? (YES!)

Is it dark yet? well, this is looking out over my deck at 3:30 pm.

and this is the same deck at 4:00 pm

nice sunset, don't you think?

sunrise happened around 9:15 this morning and we lost 6 minutes and 36 seconds of possible daylight from yesterday.

home sweet home

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:38:00 +0000

Cob and i spent last week in Whitehorse, Canada. Cob was being a "kept man" while i worked, attending a scientific working group for Yukon River salmon that is jointly staffed by American and Canadian scientists. this working group supports the international treaty between the US and Canada that allocates the salmon that swim over 3,000 miles from the Bering Sea to the spawning grounds in Canada. Brandy (of cranberry picking fame from last year) and i were busy working while our respective partners played (and as it turns out, Ross bought a diamond with which to make Brandy an honest woman! i'm not spoiling any surprises here, she's already wearing it...)

though it's just two hours by plane, we decided to take the scenic route home over about 600 miles and 12 hours that started with a BIG breakfast in Haines Junction.

the scenery and company were top-rate. this is Kluane Lake, on the Canadian side, home to Burwash Landing people and many, many Dall sheep. those who live where i do will see beautiful, yet familiar scenery in the picture below. it just really is this beautiful up here, no joke. ok, so maybe we don't have these mountains up close in Fairbanks, but we have our own version of it in snow-capped domes with untouched trails, sparkling snow across a frozen lake, and a skyline of black spruce that rivals any big cityscape.

we got to the border by about 2 pm with 6 hours left to go, but we had to stop and take this picture. as i tromped over the snow making my way to this sign, i recalled the same moment, 11 years ago in 1997 when i moved up here and my life changed. i was wearing a grey fleece with red trim, jeans, and sneakers, and the marvel of the landscape unfolding before me left me captivated. 11 years later, i have no idea where that fleece went to, but i still look around myself in marvel at the land, and the people, and the world that i live in. it just never gets old. if you ever get this far north, stop by this sign and remember where you are. as they say in the Yukon, your soul's in here.

one word

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:47:00 +0000

WOO-HOO!!!!!

(and i don't even care if that's not a real word - it is tonight!)

a long week

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:57:00 +0000

perhaps you've figured out by now that i've not had too many minutes to myself over the last two weeks. while i realize that my silence on this blog doesn't really qualify as a tragedy of epic proportions, it does sometimes mark that i'm running low on down time, and that's never a good thing.

but, it's Friday and as everyone knows, Friday night is date-night at Ivory Jack's, the closest we get to a local pub. i use the word 'local' since we WERE local to it when we lived in the waterless cabin in Goldstream Valley. now that we're on the hill, Ivory Jack's isn't so local. but you know what they say -- you can take the girl out of the Goldstream, but you can't take the Goldstream out of the girl...or soemthing like that.

anyhoo, this is the perfect way to spend Halloween - dressed up like Goldstreamers with tasty beers as our costume props.

Cob is pretty satisfied with his beer stain on the Ivory Jack's placemat which features the famous Ode to an Oosik (on the second page - read on, oh faithful reader).

oh, and some knitting, too (child's socks in purple bamboo yarn - Christmas is coming, you know).

last week-end catch up

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:21:00 +0000

before we get to Thursday, i'm taking a few minutes to remember last week-end, which was particularly fun, largely due to the awesomeness of my friends, who have been a HUGE relief through the last many working week-ends for me...

Friday night, we gathered at the Pub to celebrate Mia's 25th (or something like that) birthday. Cara, Lynne, Jim, Cob, Stevie, Mia, Theresa, Liz and I ate carrot cake cupcakes and danced to the Thneeds.

Saturday morning (and afternoon) found me on the couch on a cold day, knitting, but really just being a Mieze-pillow.

Saturday night, Dea and Ben came over with a pizza. i pushed Mieze off the couch about a hundred times to make room for Dea, who has been dazzling me with her knitting commitment and quickly growing skill! First scarves, then hats - now that girl's knitting lace!

I think i worked a little on Sunday morning, and then after an afternoon knitting and playing Scrabble with Sapphire (my BBBS little sister), i went to Kristen's for a bowl of chili...

...and a little Baby Boo love.

it was a good week-end. it's snowing right now (4" and counting...), so maybe i'll break out the skis or snowshoes come Saturday!

spinning out of control

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:31:00 +0000

i got a new wrinkle on my brain today.

for a while now, i've toyed with the idea of learning to spin (yarn that is, not a stationary bike to a remixed beat), but i've never gotten around to it. not so today. i found my way to A Weaver's Yarn, where the owner helped me figure out how to get my mind around turning beautiful batts of fiber into plied yarn with the help of an equally lovely piece of wood. i mean, what could be better than hand knitting a sweater for someone you love, other than spinning the yarn to make a hand-knitted sweater for someone you love? a no-brainer, really.

ok, this is what i learned.

that thing is spinning, even if you can't tell. i'm drafting fibers and spinning them into yarn - a chunky, home-spunny looking yarn, but yarn nonetheless! and my teacher reminded me that some people pay a lot of $$ for homespun yarn (just like my crazy curly, mind-of-its-own hair, i thought - some people actually pay $$ to make their hair fall in ringlets while all i've ever dreamed of is shiny straight locks...but i digress)

here's what i learned: every fiber has a staple, the natural length of the fibers that make up the roving, which is the big cottony thing that you spin into yarn. i also learned that you have to keep an eye on the hook at the top of the spindle, which likes to let go of your newly made yarn when you're not looking. you can spin the spindle in either direction - you just have to be consistent. however, as with everything yarn related, old wives' tales reign. apparently, counter-clockwise spinning can lead you to inadvertedly cast spells, which can make people suspect you to be a witch and get to thinking about burning stakes. i happen to spin clockwise it turns out, but my teacher spins counter-clockwise, so she says that she just remembers to think happy thoughts while spinning so that if any spells fling out unexpectedly, they'll be good ones. i think that's an excellent plan.

you know, i've knit many, many yards of yarn without really spending much time thinking about how this yarn was spun or plied. spinning only a few yards, as i did today, and trying to make it look even is HARD. really hard. i'm not sure i'll ever escape really appreciating this aspect of my yarn again!

i'm also sure that i'll eventually get to a place where i can think happy thoughts while spinning along, instead of the current $&%#* thoughts that zing around my brain as the spindle hook lets my yarn go and i try to convince my fingers that they're really ARE fingers and not the 8 thumbs they're acting like.

thank goodness i spin clockwise...

good-bye fall, hello winter

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:25:00 +0000

fall is probably my favorite time of year. the yellow aspen and birch leaves against a blue sky. crisp clear days, the first whiffs of wood smoke in the air. the changing high bush cranberry foliage that paints the woods behind my house in an earthy red. but perhaps i love fall most for another reason - its length. A Fairbanks autumn is short, 2 or 3 weeks maybe, where colors change quickly and leaves drop overnight.

this morning we woke to this:

our first snow. it's not much, and it's wet. it won't stick or last, but it is an undeniable sign of what is to come. we won't get the cold temps or really dark days or even a lot more snow for a while yet. but last night, winter crept in silently and with the exception of a few fits and starts perhaps, is here until April.

i gotta say, i love winter too.

simple pleasures

noreply@blogger.com (brown) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:03:00 +0000

sometimes in this complicated world, it's good to be reminded of life's simpler pleasures. kids have a way of focusing you in on these things. Anna and i spent some time together yesterday afternoon after work while her mom was working late. i was stressed, tired, feeling WAY behind, yet Anna managed to convince me that sitting in front of the stove watching cookies bake was an extremely valuable use of time.

she was right.