All Hallow’s Eve

I modified the look for the holiday

 

The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse

Round about the couldron go:
In the poisones entrails throw.
Toad,that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweated venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charmed pot.
Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing.
For charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and couldron bubble.

 

Scale of dragon,tooth of wolf,
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d in the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat; andslips of yew
silver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by the drab,-
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For ingrediants of our cauldron.
Double,double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

The Witches Chant from MacBeth

William Shakespeare

Samhain (sow-en) is the day when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is the thinnest. It’s the beginning of the new year as the seasons of the wheel turns. This is the time we celebrate the harvest, and prepare for the long sleep of winter.

As I prepare for a long and predicted snowy winter, my thoughts begin to turn to my yarn stash. Am I truly prepared for any knitting emergency that might come up? What if I am snowed in for weeks at a time? What if my favorite din break? What if the electricity goes out? What if I lost my pattern for mittens? Hey a girl needs to plan ahead right. I mean what if I have to knit a blanket to cover my house to keep the pipes from freezing? You just never know.

OTN? Socks, more socks, I don’t even need to look at patterns anymore to turn heels

UPDATE:

On the bathroom front…  the walls are spackled and the holes all patched and sanded.  The trim has the first coat of stain/poly on, and I painted the ceiling.  Still no word from the tilers.  Tonight I’m priming the walls and if I can just pick a color I’ll paint the walls tomorrow and then call the plumber to put the last fixtures in…  then all the needs to complete this is the grout, a shower curtain rod, a new shower head (I don’t like the default one), a new shower curtain and bathroom rugs, a curtain for the window, and one for the closet door, a mirror for over the sink, and I’m sure there is more…

It was a dark and stormy night….

The drive to Sidney, NY started at 6:30AM.  I met my sister at the Mobil station with the Dunkin Donuts for obvious reasons.  It had already started raining, but it wasn’t too bad out yet.

We made it Sidney by 11:15AM and before heading over to Toodies to meet with the cousins and second cousins for lunch, we took a quick spin around town.  The tenements apartments where my grandparents, Bess and Harold lived for so long had finally burned to the ground and only a vacant lot stood there now.  Hale’s, the place we used to walk to get Harold’s paper and our comic books and penny candy is still there.   You could still see lots of damage from the floods this past spring when the Susquehanna rose up over it’s banks.

We had a lovely lunch with Tom, Judy, Kristen (and her new baby Amelia Mae), Lauren, and Jared.  Then we  headed over to Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church were I had been more than a few times to Christmas Eve services.  Tom reminded us of the time, my mom and his mom (Auntie Gladys) had had a few too many whiskey sours one Christmas Eve and they had left he and Judy at the church after the midnight services and driven home without them.  They had made it half way up Main Street when apparently our Moms’ had figured out they were missing a few kids and circled back to get them.

The pictures they had chosen to memorialize my Uncle Frank were perfect, especially the one of him sitting with his long legs in a lawn chair, reading a book with one hand and idly petting Ozzie his chocolate Lab with the other.  This is how I will always remember him. Uncle Frank was one of the kindest and finest gentle man I have ever known.

After the services we all had coffee and donuts and it soon became time for Cindy and I to head back home.

The drive home was horrible - torrential rains, big wind gusts.  But it wasn’t the first time I had driven these horrible conditions through the Catskills and Berkshires.  I had driven the same conditions once in a little Red VW bug and the rain had taken the paint right off the hood of the car as if it had been sand blasted.  When we finally hit Springfield the sky was downright ominous.  I had Cindy scanning the sky looking for funnel clouds, it looked that bad.

I think we checked in with DD at that point, who had stayed home, and she informed us that it was snowing at the house and the wind was very scary.  Fortunately she never lost power.

By the time we got home I was totally exhausted and headed to bed, grateful for that extra hour as we go off Daylight Savings Time.

Bah Bah Black Sheep

A special thanks to Scott Nutting, who came to our Spinning gathering to share his knowledge and love of Wensleydale sheep, and even a bigger thanks for sharing some fleece from his sheep.

Now look at this breed!

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in your life? Their fleece is so soft and looks like long spiral ringlets. His sheep are black, apparently Wensleydales come in white and black. I cannot wait to comb some as I think the staple is over 6 inches and might be a bit too long to card. I’ll post pictures of the fleece soon.

One Vote

I ‘ve been wearing my “one” bracelet for about a year or more now, and every so often I check their site www.one.org for any updates on the movement.

For those of you who don’t know One, is Bono’s organization that is working to globally eliminate AIDS and poverty.  Lofty goals, but it can be done, one person, one dollar at a time, thus the name “One”.  It’s apolitical so even if you don’t agree with my radical anarchist leaning politics, you might consider that getting rid of AIDS and poverty is a good thing.

So anyway One.org  has launched a new commercial, that says it all.  “One Vote“- check it out.  There are no excuses accepted, no BS will get you off.  If you aren’t registered by now, SHAME ON YOU!  If you are registered, then take the time to exercise one of your remaining rights and VOTE!   It’s not only your right, it’s your civic duty to participate in the democracy.  Remember the preamble.  “for the people, by the people…”  that means YOU!  Otherwise we keep getting the bottom of the  group of the ‘no kid left behind’ that this country has to offer, and we will continue to lose chunks of our constitution… like Habeas Corpus.  What the hell? You weren’t using that right were you?

Anyway, it’s important that you make the time to know the candidates, know the questions, know what’s going on in your little piece of the world.  Because what you do or don’t do, does affect us all.

No Rhinebeck for me :(

Although I’ve now planned to go the past two years, again something always seems to come up this time of year that thwarts my pilgrimage to the mecca of fiber.

This year it’s the bathroom… yes the tile installers came with the right tiles late Thursday afternoon, but instead of laying the tiles and coming back the next day to grout, they worked straight through saying they were using a special mastic cement to set the tiles faster…. OK what do I know about laying tile? Besides, isn’t this why I pay for your expertise? Well, now I know a lot more about tiles and grout than I really wanted to.

After they left late Thursday night I was told that we couldn’t walk on it until noon on Friday. No problem, I closed the bathroom door and it stayed closed until we got home sometime after 6pm on Friday night. Not even the cats had entered. So you can only imagine my dismay when I opened the door to check it out, only to find huge blemishes, cracks and air holes in the grout. I wanted to sit there and cry. In retrospect it was probably a good thing I had the weekend to cool off before calling HD and the American Tile Installing Company (who btw I refuse to deal with now). At least HD is trying to accommodate me and do the right thing. The American Tile Installation is, well, let me just say I’m going to be writing a lot of nasty letters once this whole thing is done.

I finally get someone to come out on Tuesday (yesterday) to come to look at it and give me an idea of what they need to do to make it right.

These are little 2″ x 2″ tiles and to me it looks like it would be easier to rip out the floor than it’s going to be to scrape out all the grout between the tiles and re-grout. But apparently that is what they are proposing. They will get back to me… any guesses as to how long this is going to take?

There is however, a bit of good news to come out of this. When I picked out the tiles, I picked white tiles. I also picked white grout. After seeing it down, I wished I had gone with a dove grey or darker colored grout to show off the tiles more. Well as luck would have it, I get to change the grout color when they re-grout the floor. I’m also asking for an extended warranty on the floor from HD.

On the knitting front…

I think my stress is showing in my knitting - I almost finished the socks I’m knitting with Lisa Souza’s Merino in Shade Garden, but I keep having to rip them out, and since I don’t want to totally ruin this beautiful yarn, I put them down for now, and knit up some baby socks for Eleanor out of the left over from my dye-o-rama pal’s beautiful yarn. I hope they fit, if not, I’ll put a hook on them and hang them on the Yule tree this year. Hmmm, I may make little socks out of all my left over bits, and hang them all from the yule tree. So, not being one to not have socks to knit I started the ‘fly-fishing’ ones  for my Brother-in-law.

Oh and if you are so inclined to dress up for Halloween or Samhain, as I refer to it, I might suggest that you get your costume on and go up to Ewe’ll Love It in Nashua… they will give you 31% off on yarn this weekend!  If you do go up, look for the Gypsy on Sunday, that will be me.

I unfortunately will not be making the costume party on Saturday this year either, as I have to drive down to upstate NY and back for my Uncle Frank’s memorial service.  He was a couple weeks shy of 90, but had deteriorated with dementia over the past few years.  He lived a long life, filled with love and lots of laughter.  His beloved Gladys (my Aunt Glady) had pre-deseased him by about 10 years.  So they will finally be together again, and this is a good thing.

But I will be at the SnB meetup tonight at the Java Room, I’ll be running a little late, as I have to pick up DD from practice and then drop her off.  Practice for what? you might ask.  There is a talent show at school Friday night and the drama guild is doing the Tango to Roxanne from Moulan Rouge.  I cannot wait to see this!

On the Spinning front…

Thursday evening (7:00pm) there is a gathering of spinners in Westford at the Westford Museum and as an added bonus, we are having a speaker tonight.

Scott Nutting who, owns Wesleydale sheep. This is his first year of shearing.  He would like to come to the meeting to talk to the spinners about Wesleydale sheep and their fiber.  He is also looking for some comments from spinners regarding
their thoughts of his fleece.

I hope he brings samples.

As promised

 

Don’t you just love it?  And yes, she’s plucked out all her eyebrows and paints them on with BLUE pencil…. What is a mother to do?   I know! Post photos on a blog for posterity! LOL!

Here a picture of how the installers left my bathroom

The good news is that they finally came back late yesterday afternoon and it’s almost done!  I love the tile I picked out… I’ll post photos when it’s completely finished.

Knitting news…

I ordered some Posh Cashmere Silk Sock Yarn  and it’s winging it’s way to my house as I type!  This should be yummy!

I also ordered the Knit Picks DPNs and some sock yarn in the colorway “Fly Fishing”.  This is for my Brother-in-law’s Christmas socks.  See, he is a huge fishing fan.  I mean major, like he would go fishing every day, all day if he could.  For years I’ve been getting him fishing themed presents for Christmas.  I thought I was going to have to find a fish motif to knit into a sock this year, but this was even better.

I’m currently knitting the second sock from Lisa Souza’s Merino in the Shade Garden colorway - just lovely!  Since I wanted to try out my new Knit Picks DPNs and I’ve been wondering what to do with all my left over bits of sock yarn, I started a pair of teeny socks for Eleanor.  I cannot tell you how much I love Knit Picks needles!

You want what?

I get a call this afternoon from my DD who says: “Mom! you have to stop at Joann Fabrics on the way home and get me,

Two White Feather Boas, and sheets of orange, black and white foam, oh! and some googly eyes!”

My response was… “and this is for what?????”
Ok, I’m sure some of you remember this

Apparently DD has some silly awards thing for her drama guild and needs to dress like Bjork. I promise pictures will follow.

Meme du jour

1. FIRST NAME? Lynne

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Auntie Lynn

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? The other evening when I was watching the movie “Stand By Me”

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Rare and Seasoned Roast Beef, or Salami

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Definitely

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Just my blog

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Actually I never had tonsils to begin with, don’t have wisdom teeth either.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not at this stage, maybe when I was younger.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Bare Naked Fruit and Nut Granola with vanilla yogurt and fresh raspberries.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope - I only wear clogs and birks

Home Depot Hell

Yes, I am in Home Depot Hell. I should have known when I first went up to pick out tiles for the bathroom floor and the ones I picked weren’t in stock, so they said they would order them and once they were in they would have the installers contact me, and they would pick up the tiles.

So after waiting two weeks I finally heard from the installers, and we settled on the date and time they would come. They would call the day before to confirm. So, I got a call on Sunday, that the tilers would arrive sometime between 9AM and 1PM. At 11:30AM I get a call asking if the tile installers are there, no… Fifteen minutes later she calls back and explains that they tile wasn’t in the original store that I had purchased them from so they had to go to another one to pick up the tiles and they would be 45 minutes late. Finally at 2PM they arrive and start taking out the toilet, and putting down the cement floor board, etc.

I was busy working from home with a client, so at some point I asked my daughter to go up and check to see how the tiling was going. She comes down and states, that she doesn’t like the tiles, they are too big and make the bathroom look small. WHAT???!!!! TOO BIG!!??? I ordered 2″ X 2″ octagonal white tiles, so I flew up the stairs to see 1/3 of the floor is now tiled with 16″ X 16″ Ivory tiles! WTF!!! Stop the presses, THAT’S NOT WHAT I ORDERED!!!

The workmen, stop and go out to their truck to call their boss, I’m on the phone with Home Depot. It’s now 4:05PM and of course the person I need to speak to has already left for the day! Eventually I get everyone, HD, and the Installers boss on a conference call. Somebody screwed up and nobody is fessing up. At one point the Installer Boss Lady suggested I go out to find the tile at another store or pick something else out and bring it back. I suggest she start shitting white 2 x 2 octagonals out. So I ask that the installers, remove the wrong tiles and put the toilet back. HD promises to have the person who comes in at 7AM call me first thing in the morning. By the time I get off the phone, the installers have removed the wrong tiles and are pulling out of the driveway. But they failed to put the toilet back… great, just great.

7:30AM I’m calling Home Depot again to speak to the expediter, Leslie. She is very nice and very apologetic and admits that Home Depot screwed up and pulled the wrong tile for the installers. Yes, the can get the tile from another store, yes, they are sure it’s the correct tile. BUT WAIT! the installers can’t come back until WHEN!!!??? Next Tuesday! But wait, they were already scheduled to come today to grout, why can’t they come to tile instead? No good answer and more bitchin on my part, gets her to promise they will be at my house on Thursday to tile and Friday to grout. And yes, the HD I am working at will go and fetch the correct tile and have it at the store for the installers to pick up.

Now, there is one more thing… the installers? Upon close inspection I want to know, why they didn’t remove the wood trim before putting down the cement floor board? If this isn’t done correctly, and promptly I’m going to have them pull it all out, get my money back and go to Lowe’s. Are you listening Home Depot???

More to come I am sure.

On the knitting front. Another pair of Socktober Fest socks in Sockotta are completed, and I’ve cast on another pair in Lisa’s Souza’s gorgeous sock yarn.

In search of…

Cylindrical Metal Stitch Keepers.  I first saw these really cool stitch keepers I think at SPA last year, and they I saw them again recently either on someone’s blog or on one of the many on-line knitter mags.  They are a metal cylinder that holds dpns so that you don’t drop any stitches.

And of course now that I’ve decided I must have them, I cannot find them :(  So if anyone knows what the heck I am talking about - please email me.  THANK YOU!

The Full Moon and Socks

Full Moon from the old Diana worship

Full moon shining bright
Midnight on the water
Oh Aradia, Diana’s silver daughter

Lady of the Moon
Lunar Goddess
Puller of seas
We greet your celestial jewel at the waxing of its powers
with a rite in your honor
Lady, you are known by many names
Aphrodite, Kerridwen, Diana, Isis and many more.

With your lord by your side, we give you due honor
and invite you to join with us on this your special night.

We will hear the words of the Great Mother:
I am She who watches over thee
Mother of you all
I am at the beginning of life and at its end
Maiden, Mother and Crone
Wherever you may be , if you seek me know that I am always here
For I abide deep within you.
Look then, within yourself if you would seek me.
I am Life and I am Love.
Find me and rejoice, for love is my music and laughter is my song
Love is the law and Love is the Bond
So Mote it Be.

She was beautiful the last few nights.

Knitting - I have pictures! Finally

Yarn: Knit Picks Memories

Color: Cape Cod
Fiber Content: 100% Merino
Pattern: Garter Stitch Rib

 

Yarn: Sockotta

Fiber Content: 45% cotton/40% wool/15% nylon

Pattern: From Vogue Knitting Fall 2006

Yarn: Hand-painted from my Dye-O-Rama buddy, Eliza

Color: Turquoise, green, aubergine - just gorgeous

Fiber Content: I think it’s 100% Merino - I don’t think it’s superwash.

Pattern: River Rapids from the Sock Bug

Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Yarn

Color: Symphony

Fiber Content: 75% Washable Wool and 25% Nylon

Pattern: From Vogue Socks Two

I have another pair of socks in the making, and I finally succumbed to the sock siren call and got 4 skeins of hand painted sock yarn from Lisa Souza! I LOVE HER YARNS!!! Check out www.lisaknit.com and check out her yarns, and other fibery goodness.

Oh and one of the above pair of socks is winging it’s way to a birthday girl (I’m not saying who) but if it’s your birthday soon, keep an eye on the mailbox.

UPDATE:  I forgot to mention that I knit all four pairs on 4 dpns, top down and I finally learned the Kitchener Stitch!  Thank you Jena!!!!