answers and updates

First, here's a couple of answers to comments left on my last post (or delivered via telephone for you dinosaurs afraid to post a comment via the InterWebz):

1. My essential oil warmer came from Body Shop. I have several. That particular one is my favourite. I like oil warmers because I can control the amount of "stink". Plus I really like candles.

2. Some of us ladies, obviously myself included, PREFER underwires in our bras. Unless you male types are REALLY in touch with your feminine side, just sit back and enjoy the results instead of puzzling over the physics, okay? Nuff said.

3. I'm guessing the wood thing you are curious about is my YARN SWIFT ... I suppose not everybody has one of these ...It's called an UMBRELLA YARN SWIFT 'cuz it works something like an umbrella. More on that in a moment. A yarn swift comes in very handy when knitting with wool that comes in skeins like this:REAL wool often comes this way. Skeins like this are NOT ready to knit from. Synthetic yarns tend to come in tidy little balls and all you have to do is find one end and start knitting. As y'all know, I prefer working with natural fibres, as in real sheep's wool. When you try to find one end of the wool in one of these skeins, you will end up with this ...... a giant apparently endless circle of wool. In the OLD DAYS, knitters had to find family members, partners, and friends to "volunteer" to hold the circle of wool while you wind it into a ball, like this patient young lad:Eventually, family members, partners and even very good friends learn to RUN AWAY when they spot UNWOUND SKEINS of wool on the horizon. When that happens, the knitter either has to clone themselves and have their clone hold the circle of wool, or use a yarn swift. I haven't mastered cloning me (and believe me, there are days when I could REALLY use a cloned me!), so I carefully untie the knots holding my wool in this circle ...

... and then put my unwound wool on the extendable ribs of my yarn swift, like so:Then I tighten the ribs ...... just like popping open an umbrella. A quick twist of this knob ensures my swift stays open and the circle of wool is held taut, like so:Then I wind one end of the wool around my fingers ...... and keep on winding ...... and winding. The "umbrella" twirls as I wind.It helps to put on some good music, or catch up on Coronation Street for the week while you wind. Eventually, you end up with a nice tidy compact ball of wool, all ready for knitting. Coronation Street was particularly good, and I was really ON A ROLL so I wound up all THESE balls of wool ...They're for my gurnsey cardigan.

And here's the update on my FEBRUARY FEVER:

• gurnsey cardigan: 1 1/2 sleeves to go (Thought I had a photo, but apparently not).


• pink and purple socks: one sock done, second sock started (yes, this is an extra-long sock ... I want to wear them inside boots).
• long-arm cross stitch project: one half done, second half started.
• guitar practise: has been happening ... okay, not EVERY day, but more frequently!

It's March, but we're still up to our belly buttons in frozen snow banks, so I'm still in the throws of February Fever. Stay tuned!

November 21st

Friday night. Another work week done. And what a week! Long hours, stressful, but positive. Anyway, y'all don't want to hear about my work week. I've posted a couple of times this month about my new obsession with RED in my living room, so I thought tonight I'd share a little update on that topic.

Here's the RED moose from the Jysk store that started this whole thing.HIS name is Marge the Moose. Apparently HE has gender issues as no respectable bull moose would be caught dead in a fancy bow like that. Or so I've been told. Whatever the moose's issues are, I think he makes a right fine addition to the fireplace area!

Here's my sofa and all those lovely new RED cushion covers I sewed last weekend. Oh, and a snuggly knit blanket I found at "StuffMart" for $12. You would never know under all those cushions and blankets that my sofa is 1970s LIME GREEN!

I found this RED vase at "StuffMart" too.It cost $10. That's my aboriginal talking stick in it. My talking stick was a gift and it's very special to me. Oh, and one of my guitars to the left. I have a bad habit of sticking music sheets under the strings. One of these days I need to buy myself a music stand. Do you think music stands come in RED?

Here's the worn out old chair that sits beside my sofa, covered up with a blanket and made more comfy with a couple of RED cushions. The small cushion is the one that reminds me of my friend Sally.Did you notice the little stool in front of my chair? It's an old wood milk stool that I found at a junk store last summer. Looks right spiffy with its new coat of RED paint, doesn't it?

This is about to be an important part of my Friday evening ...... a glass of RED wine! I'm going to get cozy and read a book ... Clive Cussler's The Chase ... and unwind from my work week. Happy Friday evening!

music music music

Well! What a surprise! Here's how it happened.

First, the background of this story: I have a lovely 12-string guitar (with a checkered past but nice mellow sound), but said 12-string and I haven't lived under the same roof since I moved up north. When I came up north, I thought I would only be here for a couple of years at most while finishing my degree, and while here should remain temporarily unshackled by "things". However, I didn't completely get rid of all my material possessions. I left my most treasured "things" -- including my 12-string guitar -- in the care and keeping of good friends. I thought I would complete my studies, move back down south. However, life happened. I'm still here. My 12-string guitar isn't.

A couple of weeks ago, my buddy "L" and I were talking about music. We have similar, but not identical, tastes in music and occasionally have fun arguing about it. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that sometimes I miss my guitar.

“Why?” L asked.

Cuz it’s currently residing in down south, I said.

“Why?” L asked.

Cuz I w as travelling light when I came here, and I still haven’t fetched it up here.

“Why?” L asked.

Cuz it never felt right to fetch it up here.

“Why?” L asked.

Cuz this wasn’t home, and wasn’t going to be permanent, so far as I knew.

“Why?” L asked. (If you’re thinking this character sounds like a broken record, yes ... sometimes that’s true! L could ask “Why?” for hours on end ... but never gets to because yours truly gets frustrated and walks away!)

Anyway, a few more whys, and yours truly changed the subject and forgot all about the whole conversation.

And now the actual story: This past Thursday, L called me at work a few minutes before I was due to leave and instructed me to a location around the corner from my office. I figured we were going out for dinner, but was a little puzzled by the comment “I just got it today” at the end of the phone call. Alright-ee then. I pictured a new truck, or some thing-a-ma-bob for a truck because I did recall a distant conversation along those lines.


“IT” was a brand new acoustic guitar (the exact model as above)! For me! I’ve NEVER owned a brand new musical instrument ... even my very first guitar when I was 13 or 14 was second hand, and I saved baby-sitting money for months to pay for it. I was SO shocked! So this weekend I'm busy getting to know my new guitar/friend. Musical instruments are like friends and lovers ... you have to get to know them, build a relationship with them. And build some callouses ...

So my new guitar got me to thinking about my first guitar and my first violin, and music that I played when I started learning to play them both. Have YOU ever taken music lessons? If so, you might agree that the music you had to learn and the "real" music happening in the world around you were NOT the same. I couldn't for the life of me understand the logic of learning to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or whatever beginner's crap it was) when I wanted to learn to play

While pondering that particular childhood frustration this past week, I tried to remember the first "real" song that caught my attention. L recalls Happy Birthday and Frosty the Snowman. I know I heard Happy Birthday and Frosty the Snowman while growing up, but I don't consider either "real". "Real" songs are something quite different to me. My cousin Lance used to sing 2 songs that REALLY caught my attention ... my imagination ... my heart when I was 5 or 6 years old. He was a grown-up university student at the time, and I totally looked up to him ... except when he tickled me. One song was (although 30 years later he denied ever singing it):(I was delighted to find this clip on the Internet, as I could only remember the tune and the single line I'm freezing but I'm burning for the girl in Saskatoon! The second one was:I still love both songs today.

What was it that made songs like these special? Catchy melodies, for one. Pipe bands around the world love Green Hills of Tyrol, or The Scottish Soldier, because a parade never happens without that one! Lyrics that spoke to my romantic heart and over-active imagination, for another. I would sing The Scottish Solder, and sing the last verse v e r y s l o w l y ... in my mind, I WAS a stately lone piper piping his brave soldier home at last, or I WAS the brave but dead soldier being piped back to the hills I'd missed so very much while away soldiering. Sometimes I'd get so into it that I'd end up crying! (The Scottish Soldier still brings a tear to my eye, especially when I see swirling kilts.) Somehow, songs like these SPOKE to me.

So ... question: what was the earliest song that SPOKE TO YOU? (Cuz I'm thinking I'm not alone on this one!)