Equinimity Found

These are certainly no trying times by any means, but moving life in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia to downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota is a change. It is like leaving a quiet suburb to the hustle and bustle of a city with the sound of traffic, sirens and life. It has taken a week for me to find my rhymn, but today I feel as if contentment is here. (Funny, about 20 years ago a friend and I joked about finding contentment at a time that was troubling for both of us. I know I have found it; wonder if that now distant friend has found it too.)

I have also found equinimity with the Blue Ashton shawl. We seemed to be struggling in BC so I tucked it away because the person I am making it for said she didn't need it until mid-June. There is no "fun" if being creative is a struggle. Blue was picked up this week and we continued to be at odds with one another. So I pulled out 13 rows of roughly 350 stitches/row (you can do the math) or about 4 hours of knitting. It took about 10 minutes to accomplish, but what it did was eliminate a mistake that was causing all the problems between us. We seem to be in sync now. I suspect this is how it works for writers or dancers or craftsmen, anyone being creative, either the work flows out of you freely, with little to no effort OR the work is a task, a responsibility requiring full attention and effort. Blue and I are experiencing the former.

Putting Blue on a gray hassack really makes it look gray! A contented gray.

I have also found contentment within my condo. There was a good deal of putting away to do since I had ordered several items, sent three boxes of stuff and came with another 50 pounds (22.5 kg) with me. Everything is now appropriately placed plus the deck chairs and BBQ have been brought up from storage. We are ready for company and visitors.

Photos and pictures have also been hung. My Mom, bless her, helped me out with this. Measuring and accurately placing anchors or nails in a wall does not play to my strengths. Mom said: "Well, just use paper the size of what you are hanging. Measure on it where the hanger is and then mark the place on the paper where you want the nail to be." This worked beautifully (why hadn't I thought of this before). I had two 31-inch square pictures to place on a 97 inch wall. The paper allowed me to properly decide how high and how far apart to place them. It is so much easier to move paper than nails.~~Thanks, Mom.~~Now one of them is expertly covering a fuse box I looked at each time I sat down. Orchids are much more soothing.

Using the paper trick

My orchids, ones that will survive when I'm gone.

Last weekend I went to a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert; the last of her spring tour. If you are of a certain age and demographic you probably know her. Although she's been marketed as a country singer, I find her lyrics and musical style more like that of a folk singer. The stories her songs tell touch me deeply. Chapin Carpenter sang all the songs I wanted to hear and more as she was on stage nearly two full hours. At any rate, her storytelling, relaxing songs have been playing in my head and through my speakers since then. If they don't help bring peace nothing will.

Contentment, equinimity, calmness, routine, whatever it should be called, I have now found it as I transition to this different place.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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