Merry Harvest Moon!

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Go outside and look up already!!!

Bad Vegan!!!

Being a vegan isn't as hard as one might think. On most days. Here is my sordid confession of my downfall.

It all happened at Irish Fest. I was happily enjoying a plain baked potato. No butter, no sour cream for this staunch vegan. I was walking across the lawn to join Nature Boy who was eating lots of different animals in a bowl. And then I saw it.

My clan's tie. Hanging on a display in the back of a vendor booth. It called my name, I swear it.

I walked closer, fingered the fabric and shuddered. I knew it but had to look. Damn it was wool! I swear my ancestors whispered in my ear, get this, wear this, be proud of this. And so I faltered, purchasing this tie of wool. I tell myself, I will wear it and pass it down and if my sisters don't have kids, I'll ask them to tie it 'round my neck for the wake.

And you thought I ate a steak or something, didn't you? Pshaw!!!

So here is the new McPherson clan tie, in the dress tartan. I could not bring myself to don the hunting tartan, you see. Also hanging with it is my latest sewing project, a long shirt. In the background, note the newest addition to our family, a happy fern I call Reilly. She hangs too high up for evil Madison Penelope to destroy her. She did try for some time to get to her, then ran off to forge some other evil plan of destruction.


Here is Sock #1 in the Pair O'Sox, stretched over the kittens' Oral Hygiene Solution bottle so you can see the pattern a little better. It's from a former Interweave Knits pattern.


On the knitting topic, I seem to knit things from Interweave Knits all the time. The other publication I subscribe to, Vogue Knitting, usually doesn't inspire me so much. Sadly, I can't not re-subscribe and just did so this week...I think I need more strength to resist here. Anyone else have this problem? I really think Vogue Knitting sucks but can't let it go.

I leave you with some of my last flowers and some shots from the garden, highlighting the heirloom tomatos we grow from seed each year. Nature Boy and I are off for more camping this weekend and I hope we don't spend the whole time a soggy tent while it pours out there...

Recap

So here I write as I wait for NKOTB to appear on the Today show.

Where have I been, you ask?

Everywhere!

First, we went here:




Old Home's Day with Nature Boy's Family. I had a great time, despite preparing myself for agony. A long weekend with all of his clan in a tiny home where you can't flush the toilet because you have to conserve the well water does not ordinarily make for the best of conditions. However, it was fun and I think I might even go back next year! Oh, I won a flower arrangement and a plastic shelving unit too.

Next, we went to the woods! Camping! I seem to have lost these pictures during the Great Computer Crash of 2008. We missed the blueberries by a week or two, I'd say. We hiked through the forest and saw many different birds. I startled a deer and he startled me with a loud noise, like a grunty-huffy noise, before he ran. We also got to hear and see a bajillion bullfrogs on the lake at night while a gorgeous full moon floated above in the sky with all the stars. We made yummy food over the campfire and stayed up late soaking in the night around us.

Lastly, we came here:




Back to the beach. It was good, it was bad. It was enlightening. The ocean was beautiful and on the last day, we dove down under the water with Nature's Boys Dollar Store facemask (which works suprisingly well) and peered face to face with many diffent fish, blue crabs and skates. I came back feeling closer to someone I'd felt estranged from, but newly estranged from one I have always had a bond with. We are very glad we went and got to spend a week on the shore and fling ourselves into the waves again!

So what have I been up to since my return to Knitsburgh? I've been sewing a bit, sadly, not knitting very much though. I guess I'm in a knitting slump. I'm still on Sock #1 from the Pair O'Sox. I will post some pics of my sewing perhaps tomorrow. I'm working on laundry, then shower, then grocery shopping before I go to work at noon. I am not sleeping well of late and have a bit of a cold so I am exhausted right now.

Oh, special thanks to our fantastical neighbor for spending hours fixing our old, tired computer!!! We cannot express our thanks enough (although I still yearn for that sweet little blue wireless laptop...).

I Can't Sleep!!!

Ok, since I'm awake I will update you on all the happenings in the Knitsburgh area. Especially for those out-of-towners who rely on this publication to keep track of things. I know it's hard to keep up with all of the hullabaloo here.

First off: Vegas, baby!

A great time was had, though Ms. Knitsburgh did not become any wealthier. Ms. Knitsburgh did come home with a sweet lil' fridge magnet, an exciting thimble and one hell of a tan as proof of her long jourey. Let's also add that it really is not fun to fly, ever. And people should not be walking down the street with a stroller and a baby at 2AM no matter how many neon lights are blinking. Nature Boy learned he should use sunscreen or pay the price. Also, mojitos poolside are always a good idea, but don't go down the waterslide with it, ok?

The Fourth was of course very exciting, as usual, with Kay's Birthday, the country's birthday and the greatly anticipated annual Westoreland Arts and Heritage Festival. The fireworks were grand, the beer was cold and the crafts were smokin' and not necessarily in that order. Not to mention the yumm-tacular food. I had a pita wrap, corn on the cob, spiral cut fries and watermelon. Delicious!

On to the Project Corner. Or shall we say, Finished (finally) Project Corner:
That's the Green Chemise. In all her green glory. Finished and seamed on the plane rides (that's right, had a dreaded stopover in Charlotte)back from Vegas. Took me almost two freakin' weeks to finish the 73 inch I-cord! Do you know how much I loathe I-cord now? Almost as much as sleeves---yeah, that's serious!!
Here is Nature Boy's radiator cover for the Knitsburgh dining area:
I made the cushion. It's for the cats to sit upon as they gaze out across the estate grounds. It's also to hide the radiator from sight. Except the cars do not like it and even though three of them have been forced upon it, they would not stay, not even for a full minute. They just run away and come back later and sit on the hard window sill. Ingrates!!!

Ammended entry:

Ok, so Madison Penelope likes it. On HER terms, of course!!!

Low

Tonight is rainy and quiet and I just want to lock myself in the house and not come out for a while. I want to find a deep dark cave, crawl in there and sleep for a spell. I don't know how to stop all the stuff in my head from tumbling.

The yard sale at Bill and Kay's was ok. Until Sunday. I'm in the kitchen with Kay, doing some dishes while she sits. We are having a silly conversation. I then ask about her latest doctor visits and that's when the floor drops out from underneath me. She's been told she has about 4-5 years to live. I guess I should have known this but to hear the time frame out loud... To put it up to maybe 5 more Thanksgiving dinners, 5 more birthday cakes, 5 more Mother's Days.

The day before, Nature Boy and I hid things in our car. We haven't told them we are thinking about the possibility of a child. Someday. My head went right to that, the time clock starts ticking louder, I feel trapped. We stole a set of embroidered wall hangings for a nursery. We hid the toys, the ones for the bathtub and the little Humpty Dumpty lamp in the back of the cubbyhole. So they wouldn't sell them or give them away, so if we were lucky and when the time came, if we found out we would have a little one...

I called my sisters yesterday to tell them. One sister was crushed and although she comes home 5-6 times a year anyhow she is planning to come home right away. My other sister hasn't been home for about 5 years now. Kay hopes every Christmas that she will be suprised. She makes excuses as to why her daughter can't come and see her. She's too busy; she has a lot of work. My sister explains she doesn't want to have to waste her vacation time coming home to see her family, she has other plans, she is going to the Keys for Christmas. She explains Kay and Bill should come to see her, of course. Sister questioned whether Kay was telling the truth about what the doctor said. Sister said she doesn't know, but when she herself goes to the doctor and the doctor tells her she needs a cortisone shot she declines it and maybe Kay should do the same, ask more questions instead of just going on oxygen. I tell my sister, as I bite my tongue firmly, that I just needed to tell her what Kay told me, that I did not want to talk about this right now, and my sister curtly said goodbye and hung up.

My sisters are twins.

My childhood rages between my ears. I see it all over the tarps and tables on the lawn, in movies playing in my head. It all goes so fucking fast.

Trunk Show

So ever go into a yarn shoppe and find they have a "trunk show?" The kind where they have no trunks, just some knitted garments on display for you to look at? Well, I have a trunk show of my own tonight.

Behold the Knitsburgh Trunk Show.


Ok, so it's in a pic-a-nic basket, Boo Boo! Not so much a trunk. And the garment isn't really finished. It's the best we could do here and it has a postcard too.

So here is another entry in My Weird Life. That's a journal I should probably start to keep. Here is the recap over the last week.

1. Receive a "postcard" in the mail. It's really a blank index card with my last name and Nature Boy's last name, our address and a stamp on one side. No return address, but then again, none is needed. Could be sent by only one person on this earth. The flip side? A comic strip that is "laminated" with tape. Here is a close up of flip side:
I know, your'e dying to know who sent it. It's from Nature Boy's pop.

2. Come home from work to find Nature Boy with a cat tooth in his hand. Said he found it on the stairs. It's one of the big ones, the canine one. I spend time chasing down each of the 5 furry bearheads and get to the last one, the shyest and youngest of them all, the Lulu Bea. Yep, she's missing the left one! I took her to the doctor tonight and now have a round of antibiotics, some new OxyFresh Pet Hygiene Oral Rinse to put in the kids' water fountain and need to schedule a dental cleaning for her. Poor Lu! None of my other babies has lost a tooth yet and some are way older! Oh and she is not morbidly obese after all, just obese, per the doctor. YAY!!!

3. I had nothing to eat for breakfast this AM so I made some vegan chocolate pudding. I had some for lunch and dinner too.

That's about it for me. My pic-a-nic basket was found at a local flea market Saturday morning for $3. Nature Boy won the challenge though; he found 2 useful things and spent only half as much, a whopping $1.50. His is so very clever and thrifty, that one!

Tension

It's awful. You sit there on pins and needles, your throat is dry. Please, please, please you plead inside your head. Please, please, please.

The room is quiet, maybe too quiet. But not the relaxing kind of quiet. It's the hear-every-little-movement quiet. You-hear-your-heart-beating quiet. The light shifts as you bend over, squinting in concentration and your hands start to shake a little.

Your foot stretches out as you place the fabric under the presser foot. You position it carefully, lining it up as straight as can be. The fear is welling up inside you as you breathe in, then out. Your foot hits the pedal and you're off.

The machine clangs a bit and then you hear it; the dreaded noise, the barely audible noise you know too well, the noise from your worst nightmare. You scream, realizing it's happened again, like Charlie Brown when he hits the ground as the football is pulled out from under his foot. The freaking thread. Again. Broken again!

You sigh and in desperation, frantically grab the one thing you have never grabbed in this moment before. The Holy Grail. No, not the wine. The Singer Sewing Machine Manual. You flip through the illustrated pages of how to thread bobbins and realize you are looking at the Spanish version. More flipping. The pages hum as you look for the right one. Troubleshooting. Thread breaking = tension too tight.

The tension has apparently been too tight for years, since I was first gifted this machine by Nature Boy. One turn of a knob and freedom! The thread glides through seams four layers thick! I finish the bag in less than an hour. This is what sewing can really be like! Who knew?

Here is my new Vegas Va-cay Messenger Bag.

In the last pic, you can also see the radiator cover Nature Boy finished. Well almost. We are going to draw a pattern and punch holes in the metal panels to one, decorate and two, let out the heat. He also wants to paint it and I of course will be sewing a nice cushion for the top for the kitty-kins to relax in regal ways upon while gazing upon the fowl cavorting on the estate. (Translation: salivate over pigeons).

So the bag. It's made of a discounted sheet I bought for $5 in a cheapo outlet store (was once a pricey Urban Outfitters sheet meant for some dorm-living-hipster). The lining is made from a shirt I bought at a thrift store. It's got white oak leaves and acorns on red print. I made an outer pocket and two inner pockets. I hope to make a matching wallet--look out Chel!!!

I have a large gigantopithicus amount of the blue and white fabric left, so don't be suprised if my next sewing projects all incorporate it in some way.

What have I learned? Here's the short of it:
1. Read the instruction manual if you can't make something work right.
2. Sewing is almost fun!
3. Don't cut fabric that is too short for something.
4. Don't sew crap and then discover it's upside-down. Pin it and flip it first!
5. Stuff you make can still be cute if it's upside-down or lopsided.
6. Cats aren't always scared of sewing machines.



7. Nature Boy will not notice something sitting there unless you direct him too. Like your new bag. That you made all by yourself, design and all.

The knit continues slowly. I am on the front of the Green Chemise, the upper lace insert. I hope to finish it by Sunday night but we shall see. Yes, kids we shall see.

Tension. Stupid tension!