Sweet home Alabama

My cousin and I took a road trip and went back to the farm where we all wish we grew up. Lisa calls it Laurel's farm,

and it is paradise. Lisa spent many happy years here and it is beautiful. Just beautiful. Enjoy some pictures.

Beautiful day..That's Laurel. Her farm. They make it all happen. Pecans, blueberries and grapes, sunflowers-different things to pick as they ripen. This is the Americana that mr Lauren tried to distill. Nice try, but I prefer the real thing.

Untitled

This jukebox at the Waffle House plays 78's. Way cool...check out the selection.
The house is the former Florida Hotel where my great grandmother was the manager..

Pensacola

Suzy's porch

12 th avenue oak tree canopy.

I am here in Pensacola, where I began. Is it redundant to say it is hot in Florida in the summer? I am glad to be here.

I am totally knitting this!

Wool People

I am totally in love with this object du wool, designed by Anne Hanson for  Shelter wool.  I think it would look stunning in the Faded Quilt (blue) color way. Yes? I think yes. Do go have a look.

There are other many patterns there to tempt and delight and you can buy one! or buy all -instantaneously with the speed of lightening or at least the internet-- whichever works better for you.

But the blanket will be perfect to take to the beach and wrap around us while we watch the sun come up. yes it will.

Summer Lunch

Lazy Sunday morning

Random picture from the city. It is so hot here. 90 degrees f in long beach and it is not yet 11 in the morning. I have been reading and writing some. Not expending too much energy. I may try to find a bookshelf in local tag sales. Maybe go out to lunch with my sweetie. Do some financial updates ( pay bills) and hope to see one or more of my children today.
O- and make some defiled eggs. hahaah deviled eggs ..

I am saddened by the mass murders in Oslo and all such despicable acts of violence against innocent people. I add my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all of the victims. I will light a candle tonight in their memory.
I am also saddened by the untimely death of the talented Amy Winehouse, a victim of the disease of drug addiction. Another painfully and often fatally misunderstood affliction.
And, as I continue to live, I will practice love and kindness wherever my path leads me today, For it is these things that I wish to grow in the world. This is the life I will choose to live for as long as I am able.

Mike and Poppet snoozing on the couch

I am trapped under a cat!

Happy mailbox

I love receiving gifts in the mail. Even if I order them myself. Both items from knitpicks.com

Siggie quilt

One of the bonuses of the Dear Jane group has been the siggie (signature blocks) swaps that take place over the years. This quilt is a collection of three years of swapping with quilters all over the world..

It has yet to be quilted and I think this is the next one to be sent to the long arm quilter.
I am getting the hang of this blogsy app...I may have to get a new iPad when three comes out .. I could learn to love it.

Blogsy test

This will be a test post to blogger using the app "Blogsy "

Blogging from iPad.
Today is my day off. May have to find an adventure..I look forward to days off for knitting and sewing but then when the day arrives I want to be out and about. So far I am sipping coffee and playing with this new app..
May go to the Astoria graffiti and sculpture garden wit Dave and Frank. That could be a plan.
So far there is steep learning curve to this app. I want it to be less digging for how to and more posting. Now let's see how it posts .. Ready set go

cutting the herd

I am thinking of selling some of my small herd of antique  sewing vehicles. I have a couple of nice ones in cabinets and a 221 that I love but are just taking up space. I do not want to hold on to things any more. Maybe I am having belated spring cleaning syndrome.

Alex singing

Summertime has arrived

word of the day, from a personal series of observations

june 30, 2011

word of the day is measure

there are many things to count 

and weigh and sort and tally

units of measure can be drafted and drawn and drifted on a chart

visualized and color coded and valued and redrawn and reframed 

and marginalized and massed

you can count up things and count on things and recount things and even counter things 

and there is an underlying belief that all things can be enumerated and weighted and bartered and assigned

valued and deflated and scatter charted and indicated and collected and hoarded and saved and preserved and allocated and divided and added and projected 

however

there are somethings that defy standard methods of measure. beyond scope, counter to widely held notions, they are immeasurable. 

and they shall and should remain so.

one cannot measure chance, weigh prevention, contain happiness or sorrow. 

while you may measure the velocity of water against skin as your fingers trace a path in the water  as they dangle from a white painted row boat on a brilliant still summer day on a deep blue lake, 

you cannot count or capture the ergs of bliss that it brings.

Busted!

Podcasts for commuting

As I drive to work, (an hour and twenty minutes each way, forty nine miles one way. yes that is a lot of driving) I often listen to podcasts.
Many students at my job, where I teach lessons in how to use Apple computers, do not know what a podcast is. I tell them it is like a recording (pod) of a radio broadcast (cast) that you can listen to whenever you wish.
There are thousands of podcasts on the itunes site and the majority are free! You can listen to one episode or you can subscribe. You can listen on your ipod, ipad, iphone or computer.
Free.
My all time favorite is Garrison Keillor's A prairie Home Companion, Tales from Lake Wobegone, from National Public Radio. I also listen to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. And the Moth Podcast. And the Etsy Podcast. Whatever your interests are, there is a podcast for you.  Check it out and let me know what you find~

Bought myself some shoes

and had lunch at nordstroms with my date.

Stitch markers

First tomatoes

Perusing Barbara Walker's knitting treasuries

Not a bad way to pass the time on a hot summer day.

it is already in the high eighties nineties here and the plan may change to sitting under an umbrella somewhere, sipping ice water and knitting on my shawl-which shawl is now in need of an alternate border plan. I am not enthralled with the one that came with the pattern ( or maybe I just cannot execute it properly but I have unknit it at least two times and it is bugging me that I cannot get it right sooooo)  and I am barely good enough to create my own, so I have been scouring my lace books and thinking about it. A tough job, but someone has to do it.

Breakfast

signs

When older children are home, you are likely to see signs of their presence in the house
before you have an actual appearance.

stoupe

images from my stoup
\

Where do you sit in the summer? in a yard? on a beach? in a park? on a stoup?
I think I will be sitting here for a while. there is a nice breeze and my bones are barking after hitting the boardwalk with my body when my bike took off without me. Actually I stopped to take a picture and lost my balance as I tried to stop. I can't really remember how it happened but I landed on my backside and at first i was afraid I had broken my tailbone or at least my head which I also banged. I am glad I landed just west of aforementioned tailbone and nothing feels more than slightly bruised.
Fortunately I am a very well rounded person. and there was no blood or gore. Scads of people stopped to help me gather my camera and gear which had been riding in my basket( i love my basket!) and they applauded when I decided to get up. I bowed.

Lunch

KAL update

What I learned from knitting

5/16

what I learned from knitting

if something is going to bother you every time you look at it, then you would be wiser to unknit and fix it. that in the end, it is worth it.

and that you can fix things in your knitting

it is very forgiving, it can be undone,

unlike unkind words or actions. or omission.

and the smell of wool can be transporting

and the wonder of its fiber is an amazing gift, almost as if it were designed to be spun into fiber and linked into shapes

unlike wood or glass constructions, you can undo your stitches, 

you can reknit a sweater or a shawl or sock or mitten 

without solder or nails, or scars.

And there is always more to learn and fill your mind with wonder and amazement

to follow the maze and learn the sequence and find the prize

of beauty and grace and elegance.

and of utility of 

the humble twist

and sometimes love ~

a glimpse of the expansion of creation laid out right here on your lap

And the grace of good tools, the wisdom not to waste my precious time and energy  on inadequate or even inelegant tools. Beauty of tools is worth attaining. It adds dignity to the process.

and membership

fellowship with the sailors on moonlit nights knitting knots and nets and realizing they were more than useful

they were also beautiful and

crones and tantes gathered round the stove dreaming of the next delicate lace they would knit as soon they darned another sock,

membership.

and shepherds in the fields where they lay-

belonging is what wars are fought about

kingdoms countries realms

places to belong.

when you knit you belong to a greater society

and that one stitch after another after another

and patience and marriage to persistence and perfection 

can yield great monuments of cloth 

and cloth 

gives shelter

and cloth gives beauty 

and these things,

not war and poverty and oppression, 

are the foundation of civilization

the hallmarks of our race

the human race

to which all of us already belong.




©marthabilski 2011

KAL

Nuther one. From knitting like crazy. A mystery knit along. I am using green mountain spinnery wool cotton blend in silver. I added some yarn overs on the wings.

Beginning a new ...

Shawl. Pattern is 'Rock Island' by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed. Fiber is 'Helen' in Grand Street Ink, by Lornas Laces. All I can say is, divine. This yarn is Divine. I have unknotted so many times while "swatching" and it does not lose its beauty. I have joined the knit along on Lornaslaces rav page. Come along!

Drawing

april showers bring roof leaks

traffic over the bridge on a rainy day

 Long Beach looks like a true coastal town when it is raining.

lesson in procrastination

I will begin by writing for ten minutes. I will set a timer. If I can commit to ten minutes, it will be a beginning. It will break the logjam of procrastination. I read this in a book on procrastination, (The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination, by Leo Babauta) and how not to.

Found here on Etsy

First I think I will need a timer- the perfect timer. Not the one I have on my phone, or my stove or the t.v. Perhaps I can locate the timer on Etsy. Preferably a vintage-possibly mid 20th century, bakelite. Not red, for that would be too distracting.
Once the timer has arrived, I will set it upon my writing table just as soon as the room is a comfortable temperature. It must be daylight so no disruptive shadows fall across my page, and then, I will set the timer. I will not procrastinate.
Of course, I must needs find the right pen, and a journal whose pages are clean and uncluttered, whose size is not too constrained ( one's creative flow will not therefore be likewise constrained) and which page is not so big as to be morally daunting, and then I will begin, just as soon as I can make the page lie flat.
If I can just make the damn thing lie flat.

out walking

documenting beginnings

Chart b row 14 of 44 with life lines and markers

backing beginnings

these are the active projects. still in the beginning stages both. I like beginnings. still motivating, still fun.
I am taking a break in my creative endeavors to take a walk with Violet and Alex.

Ravelry project page notes.. Juneberry..

on chart B:-using lots of markers-

restarted chart 2 jan 30 -still using lots of markers. I am a beginner but I am persistent.

 recommend reading: Eunny Jang's "majoring in lace".

restarted again on April 8. did I mention that I am also a perfectionist? I finished first chart in one night. This is encouraging. Maybe I am getting knitting chops. Maybe I am just lace chart junkie with a huge habit and the monkey on my back is Brooklyntweed!

BTW I am going to join the KAL in Lorna's Laces rav group page for Jared's new shawl, 'rock island'.

p.s. I am marthab on ravelry.
Some of you will know what this means. For the rest of you... take heed!

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

the city - birthday trip

    It was a beautiful day to  take the Long Island Railroad into the city. Temperatures were in the forties and sunny-perfect for walking!

   We bought matinee tickets on line for the Broadway show "the Addams Family" and hopped on the train a couple of hours early so we could walk around a bit. We actually left the house minutes before the scheduled departure, and drove as close to the station as we could find parking (it is only half a mile from the house) and RAN!!! to the catch the train, arriving on the platform with seconds to spare. We had assembled a picnic breakfast ( cadbury eggs and scones made earlier in the morning-from at tube- and a shared egg sandwich, bought when Mike had gone out earlier to the atm), and happily munched as we congratulated ourselves on having made the train! ( me running-now that's a story for another day- note the cadbury eggs included in the breakfast menu.)
   We did walk from the Penn Station to Broadway and stopped at a button and trim store in the garment district along the way. No purchase, just gazing, or gawking, upon row after aisle of shiny things. I was tempted by some velvet rick rack trim and some handbag handles, but did not buy them because I did not want to be hauling them all over the city. Oh, and I have no immediate use for them for (but there is always the future) and there were the zippers and buttons and rhinestones and I don't even like rhinestones. and there was a tiara.....

     There was a time when I liked clothes and being in the city awakens that affinity. Passing window after window of glamourous overpriced undersized fashion inventory, makes me think about once again wearing nice clothes. Alas, I do not have to think about clothes anymore. My job requires jeans and a t-shirt (and no hats). That is about the extent of the dress code. Over the years I have not paid any attention to my wardrobe and what is left of it is not wearable for any number of reasons(note the above ref..cadbury etc). I could probably just chuck the whole of it out the window and start anew. I once enjoyed sewing clothes.....but lets not go there! I do not have room in my house for another do list!

    The play was a funny witty musical and I am not a critic so I will not attempt a critique, but we enjoyed it and our expectations were exceeded. I would recommend it if you are in the mood for a fun afternoon in the city! We left the theatre and it was raining. Even so we walked to Grand Central Station and perused the most excellent market and found a pen store where Michael got his Birthday Pen. We walked back to Penn Station in a light rain and if it did not mess up my glasses, it would have been refreshing! It was not cold and we arrived at  the train station with a minute to spare. It was a lucky train day. By the time we got home we were rested enough for dinner at a local establishment and were too tired for dessert. A Hammish MacBeth dvd was the finale` ~ and there you have another birthday passed into history~

On my commute I see the forsythias in riotous bloom.


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Northern state parkway

Funny posting from the road on my iPad. I may add some more blocks to this quilt. It is an unsung hero. Today I am supposed to account for my time hour by hour. Hour one. Get ready for work. Hour two drive there. Hour three through eleven work. Hour eleven through fourteen meeting. Hour fifteen drive home. Hour sixteen plotz. Hour seventeen. Well I guess that will be all. I am ambitious enough to bring my knitting, so some knitting may take place.
***no knitting ocurred***


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:From the highway of my life.

One thread

Comfy?

one or three threads on Pindigo before work