the mad hatter's holiday hoopla...

Some people bake cookies.  Some people decorate.  Some people shop like crazy.  I knit.  It would not be Christmas for me with out a mad rush to knit something for everyone on my gift list.  Its not a long list (thank God) but enough to create a bit of storm before the calm.

  Christmas 2009 was the season of the hat.  The nieces and nephews got matching millinery.  Each a different colorway -- they looked great sporting them Oma & Opa's chesterfield (that one's for you Els).  I always wonder how these homemade gifts will be received, after all its not related to the DS, or Wii.  You dont plug them in, charge them up or find any buttons for perpetually pushing.  And yet every year, the knit goods are genuinely well received...this year to the point of not being able to get a couple of them to remove them for eating dessert!

  Opa has discovered Marley, as in Bob...he is practicing the bass parts on all the songs in his free time.  He is talking about the music he will hear on an upcoming cruise.   Well, his Enkelin decided that he needed to sport a new look for his new music genre infatuation, so we collaborated on a project.  I hear this headgear is being packed for said cruise!

  Again, Crazy Auntie V has found pleasure in giving the simple gifts, with the children's genuine happiness in the receiving of practical presents...

...back on the blog!

'tis true.  I'm back to bloggin'.  Although most know me as a person who usually has too much to say, I have not felt the inclination to tell it to the world, so to speak.  Perhaps it is hibernation mode -- its that time of the year that the woodburner is going 24/7 and I am in front of it most of that time! 

  Although I do not enjoy being cold inside my house, I love winter.  I just love a fresh blanket of snow.  To walk in that first good layer is a most wonderful thing.  If you get up early enough following an overnight storm, there is nothing more peaceful than being outside, nothing moving; so still, so clean.  Got yet another chance to experience it this week with 10 inches dumped on us on Tuesday night.

  Usually after our first snow, there comes the deep freeze.  This week was no exception.  It was so cold, you could smell the chill on your clothes when you came inside.  That's right -- smell cold.  Weird.  I always find it a personal challenge to be the "master" over winter.  I dont want it to get the better of me, it somehow seems like I'm more hardy than anyone who doesnt have to deal with such weather conditions...and these below zero (really way below zero) days give me the chance to bring out the survivor side of my being.

  So we have made it through Christmas, a very rainy Christmas (previous to the rain was 3-4 inches of heavy, wet snow)...but even though we had enough precipitaion to cause over 2 feet of snow if it had been cold enough, it was not enough to melt all that snow we got a couple of weeks ago!  It didnt dampen the spirits of the hardy germans of St. Michaelis though.  The family decided to go to german church with me for Christmas Eve services.  It meets at a local college chapel...so picture this...a campus shut down for break, a miscommunication for the service to unlock doors for Gottesdienst, drive, lots and sidewalks not cleared and 20 little old germans trying to get to church!  Oh my, when things don't run smoothly... 

  We finally got in, and attended one of the nicest christmas services we have ever been to.  Even my non-german speaking husband listed as one of the best parts of Christmas.  I have a long but sporatic 15 year history with these wonderful people.  They have become a very important part to my life recently.  It started as an effort to work on my dwindling language skills.  I had no idea how mingling, with this little, dedicated group would affect me in so many other ways.  Yes, my german is getting better -- understanding is really good, speaking is slowly coming back -- they have shown to be very patient with my stumbling tongue!

  Maybe in the spirit of the new year I can be more disciplined with my language practice, my blogging time, eating healthier, losing a few pounds, being a nicer person, etc...

Lack of a camera...

...and too many jobs (well, down to two now...not counting "mom") make for seriously infrequent blog posts...

you will be missed, Uncle Dan...

Gone too soon...at least that is what we will be thinking this side of eternity when we talk about Uncle Dan's death this week.  It was such a shocking message when my mum called to tell me.  She was just this side of hysterics and hard to understand.  At first, I thought it was DAD, not DAN she had said, and I really had to collect myself.  Then a calmer mum restated, Uncle Dan had died of a heart attack only an hour or so before.  And yet realizing who it was she was talking about had just as much sting as if I had heard it as I first thought. 
We are a close family, especially on my mum's side.  We often got together just to be together -- Oktoberfest last weekend was a good example.  Somethings are just hard to understand in this life.  Good happens and so does the bad.  It is just hard to settle in on the bad when one is surrounded by so much good.  I suppose I will just have to make that effort to keep looking for happy among the sad bits that we are going through this week...
My prayers and thoughts are of you auntie...

clutter busting...

I just cannot seem to get a handle on the clutter in my home.  I've tried baby steps, and all summer I had taken car loads and truck loads to the local Goodwill store as donations.  I swear I restocked the shelves at that store!  And yet, there is still clutter in my home. 
I have always been a pack rat.  I inherited that from my mum and she in turn from hers.  I suffer from that "there has to be a use for that" syndrome.  Thing is, we live in a world where if we need something that badly, it is readily available, so why keep loads of junk around.  Perhaps someone else is looking for that very item because they were smart enough not to keep it from an earlier time?
The clutter in my home is getting in the way of my creativity as well.  I keep thinking there is no way I can spend time making stuff while there is so much to do to get rid of all the crap that surrounds me.  I should get my home and life organized before I do something as indulgent as making something.  Instead of having that block most people have with a blank canvas before them, I have the clutter canvas before me that wont let me get at the creativity that desperately wants release. 
I honestly try not to bring more stuff home.  I am really not a shopper anymore.  I'm not really a clothes hound.  I dont feel the need to decorate with the latest home fashions.  So realisticly, the clutter should diminish in my home as I contiune to get rid of stuff, right?  Perhaps I just have so much that I have not begun to make a dent yet...
My goal is to get another bit done this weekend.  Maybe take another load to the Goodwill on Tuesday.  I have a pile started already.  I'll add to it and see what I get accomplished.  In the mean time, I will try to actually finish knitting/felting project that has been before me for some time.  Perhaps it is more than physical clutter...

Knitting, weaving, beading -- the tradition...

This is going to be the first of many (I hope) posts about an idea that is brewing in my head.   I am always amazed, and very drawn to traditional, practical textiles.  I am stunned at the talent these women have.  Be it a beaded medicine bag like this one made by plains indiginous peoples, or the Orenburg lace shawls that Galina brought to a class I went to years ago, I marvel at how they took the time to make something they would use every day look so beautiful!   These are things that were not just thrown together.  They took great amounts of time.  Where did we lose this?  We run in our cars to the closest discount store to buy cheap bags made by impoverished people making pennies per hour.  And we dont just buy one that might be needed.  We buy in quantity.  A bag to go with every outfit, to match every pair of shoes (you know, the cheap flip-flops in aisle 10 of that same discount store...).  Now yes, I admit I have fallen into this trap over my short 40 some years of living, but I have been giving this alot of thought.  It usually happens with a visit to the local museums or investigaing and searching for just the right pattern to spend time working on.  Some of my favorite hand made items are ones that took great pains to make.  You spend time with them.  You get to "know" them in a very personal way.  If they are intended for gifting, they are hard to part with.  The person that is on the receiving end is almost certainly a special person. 

The average person is always amazed that you would spend so much time on one item and the conversation always ends in "I wish I had time (or the patience) to do stuff like that..."

I did not always have that patience.  I rushed through projects, pounded stuff out to give away like I was stamping out car parts.  Sure, some of it was kind of cool looking.  But most of it was just like the cheep crap you buy in dollar stores -- nasty fibers, hastily drafted patterns and all the love & care of taking out the trash or cleaning toilets. 

Now I am knitting/weaving/creating with a different frame of mind...trying to connect with these people in the past and some cultures in the present.  It is much more enjoyable for me this way...It is so much more than just producing an object...

Yeah Autumn...think WOOL...

Just got back from WI Sheep and Wool Festival.  It was a very nice show.  I was there early on.  The first day never seems to be the best day to attend for activities during a weekend show, but I swear that's when the best merchandise is there -- not yet picked over, an overwhelming amount to choose from.  Major overload... 

I have been away from the fiber thing for too long.  Really, I never left it totally behind me while I attended to my mom duties, but I used to be immersed in it.  Every waking moment was taken up with something fibery.  Then came kids. 

At that time, I really just knit little bits here and there, mostly for gifts to give.  Once a year I would go crazy finishing some project or two to enter in the state fair.  That is when things got nuts.  Those are the fiber moments my hubby would remember.  They weren't pretty...

When I went into that all or nothing mode, lots of stuff I should have been doing, didn't get done.  My priority was wool, what ever I was working on, not my "job".  But that was then...

I think I have matured (duh!  I'm going on 17 years doing the "mom" thing, if that doesn't cause you to mature...).  I am better at prioritizing.  I haven't perfected it, but I am getting better.  My big problem is remembering that my "hobbies" are just that.  I have many things that need to get done in order to keep my home in order, but I DO have loads of time to do my fibery stuff, I just have to stop wasting time in front of the t.v. and on the computer.  Better organization skills would help too.  Did I say, I'm working on that????

So back to the wool fest.  I always see so many things to inspire at these shows.  Have you ever had so many ideas swimmng around in your head you just dont know where to start?  That is where I am right now.  Sensory overload in the worst way.  I always cave at this point.  So much floating around in my brain, no clear place to start, so why try...nothing gets done; all talk/thought, no action.  Well, that's going to change...

I bought a couple of things today...a small drop spindle, a felting stone, and three llama finger puppets.  Oh, I WANTED more wool, more equipment, blah, blah, blah...but I KNOW I have a stash of stuff waiting for me in my closet.  Its been waiting for just this time in my life...I have to use my new found discipline to act on all those ideas that are racing around in my head....now is the time.  Maybe I just need a little shepherd dog to rein them all in...