Not all about knitting

Hello from the beautiful Methow Valley! If you are receiving this e-mail and your not sure how to get into the rest of my blog, just scroll down the page and you will see Knitting in the Methow in blue. Just click on that and it will take you there. Check it out, I have some pictures and some ramblings.
Well we had a great week-end, on friday morning we left here to go to the coast. We where going to the retirement party for a friend who worked with Lonny at the bus garage. It was great for Lonny to visit with some of the people he worked with for so many years. We stayed at his Moms for the night. Then the next morning Lonny's sister took us all out for breakfast. Lonny got to visit Gary at breakfast, talking about cars etc. We went to the Marysville golf course, the food was great. So shortly after that we left and headed to Jens place to visit him and Samantha. It's always great to see them. We got home around four in the afternoon.
So then on Monday it was cold and overcast, but we still have things to do. One of the things to do was to take Jr. to the vets to catch up on shots and a general check up. The vet says Jr. needs to lose eight pounds, join the club Jr. So the pictures are of Lonny and his Mom and Jr. at the vets.
Hope you all take care of your selves. Knits Plenty(Diana)

Being subversive is'nt allways bad

One of the members of the Methow Spinners and Weavers guild brought an article from a magazine she gets. I'm not sure of the name of the magazine but it was written by a Molly Marsh. This article is written about knitting and it's new revival in the world. She writes;Knitting is hip. Subversive even.She later writes,The meditative and spiritual qualities of knitting can also yield inward revolutions. It can be healing to stitch in a corner by yourself or in a group, working with your hands to create something beautiful out of a ball of string. For one thing, you can't rush. You have to slow down and focus on what's directly in front of you-a salve for the over processed, over analytical mind.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits comes in stitching with others. Knitting circles are places for connection, for sharing the, the bad, and the ugly. After all, most of us don't knit because we need to make our own clothes (buying the sweater is actually cheaper); we knit because we need each other.

Well said!

So I'm soon to be leaving to go to the Catholic church to our little knitting group to be subversive and to share knitting and what ever else comes to mind. Knit On! Diana

January the slow month!

Boy this month has been so slow. It just stays cold,I don't think it's gotten above 25 for what seems like such a long time.
But here in a place place like the Methow Valley there's no excuse for being bored.For me going to my Spinners and Weavers guild is a great change in my attitude being with people that have the same interest and excitement for the same things is invigorating.Here we have winter sports that are fun such as snow shoeing. My friend Katie and I went snow shoeing Saturday. We traveled up Valley, almost to the end of the road were they close the gate on hwy 20 over the north Cascades.I need to go back to the start,this is an organized hike and starts at the Freestone Inn. There were five other hikers and two guides.This took about two hours and was just beautiful.We also spotted the tracks of different wild life and identified trees. Boy what a workout. I thought I was going to be sore the next day,I wasn't! So then that evening we got a call from ours friends Moon And Diana. They asked us if we would like to meet them in Twisp for a concert put on by the organization Cascadia,this organization supports local talent in the area. So we went and had a great time. So many talented people here.
So the picture is proof that I do go out in the cold and enjoy it.So it's off to my studio to do some weaving today, then do some boring everyday stuff like go to the post office etc. So fine something you love to do and take the time and Do It! Diana

Dear Katie

I'm so sorry I forgot to mention that you were also at the Monday spinners group at my house.
Katie had the most beautiful bat of miscellaneous luxury fibers. The colors were so great but when spun lost it a little, but I'm sure there's a way to spin it and keep the colors from disappearing.
Well I'm off to knit at the tuesday afternoon knitting at the Catholic church. It's a great day to stay inside and knit, It's cold. Burrrrrr

We never get enough!

Hello from the beautiful Methow Valley! Well it's been a week since I've posted and I have so much to tell, but I'm a little afraid that I won't remember what I wanted to say.Makes no sense.
The last time I talked about Rock Day. So I'll start here, the following Monday was spinners day at my house which is the second Monday of the month. This is also the day that the group I use to meet with on the west side meets at Dorothy's house. It's a fun day to spend catching up with friends that are spinners. We all bring our spinning wheels or maybe not and share, visit ,eat, spin and generally solve the world problems.We had a very good turn out, Jan stopped by but she had a harp lesson and couldn't stay.Diana was there finishing up some unknown wool that she was sick of ( we've all been there).Our friends from the spinning guild over the hill in Omak came, that would be Ingrid and Sandra. Ingrid is finishing the same wool that I'm finishing, which is a Targee/ Merino.Deb came with her brand new Lendrum wheel and is spinning some local Icelandic wool, she was so excited and loves her new wheel. Sara who is a very busy business owner has committed to spinning and knitting this year, right on Sara. She is knitting for some soon to be here grad kids.Sara spins on a Betty Jo Roberts wheels, who's is a well known wheel maker from Orroville.
Tuesday is the knitting day the knitting group meets at the Catholic church and some of them are starting a new project knitting a lace scarf. Speaking of lace scarves my is coming along but I've had to pull some of it out, oh well that's the way the knitting rips.
So just yesterday Diana and I took a trip over the Mt. to Omak to Ingrids house for the meeting of the guild there. This is a great group and allot of fun. This happened to be the meeting that is called the soup pot meeting. So if your coming to that one you bring things for the pot of soup or what ever you want to bring or nothing at all, it's very relaxed.So it was nice to catch up with the group
So It hasn't been getting above 10 degrees here and drops to well below 0. But it has been sunny, that helps. This morning it was snowing at 8 below.
Well I help all is well with you and yours. Talk to you soon. Diana
P. S. Picture # 1 My Targee Merino ( turned out pretty groovy, #2 the guild at Omak and ) and # 3 Our host Ingrid, Thanks again Ingrid.

Celebrating Rock Day

Well here it is already the seventh of Jan. Yesterday was rock day, and Jan, Kaitie and I celebrated by spinning all day. We had a great time visiting and one of the questions on our mines was what in the heck is Rock Day. Most spinners I know celebrate it, so I looked it up and found out it's a real thing not just an excuse for spinners to gather ( not that we need any excuses). Well to make a very long story short It's the day,which was also know as rock day( referring to another name for either the distaff or the spindle) indicated that this was the end of the Christmas festivities and the return to the normality of spinning whenever there was a spare moment.As Anthony Fitzherbert, wrote in his book'Boke Husbandry' (1523) it's stoppeth a gap...it saveth a woman from being idle, and the product was needful'.
Oh my gosh! Am I glad I can spin when ever I want. Spell check doesn't even recognize stoppeth or saveth. Well in the end it's always a great way to start the New Year for us spinners. Spin on spinners!

Well we're waiting

We're waiting for the next storm. The weather report is thirty mile an hour winds and five inches of snow for us and of course more farther up valley. I just talked to Jens and he said there already getting the wind on the coast.Well it's 8:30 pm.Friday night so we'll just wait to see.
The plans for rock day are changed. Instead of going to Omak I'll be staying here in the valley, as a matter of fact I'll only have to drive a mile to Katie's house. The group in Omak aren't meeting till next Sat.That's good something else to look forward to.
Well I think I finally recuperated from the holidays, so I've started one of the knitting projects I talked about earlier. That's the lace shawl I've been wanting to do for years. This is an Evelyn A. Clark design for Fiber Trends called the sheep shawl. For five years I have been selling my friend Diana Mullins Cashmere yarn that she produces from her heard of cashmere goats.She has paid me with skeins of yarn of cashmere .So my goal has been to make this beautiful shawl. So here's the start of it.

Weather the dictator~~~~~

As it does sometimes seem like the weather is the dictator of the day. Yesterday I was looking forward to the first time of the year that the knitting group would meet, but it decided to rain ice. by the time I left here and got to Twisp the road had gotten very icy and the ice built up on my windshield,so I turned around and came home because I thought it was the smart thing to do and that was the right decision.
So this morning I thought because it seemed to be warming up nicely I would make a trip to Omak. When I left home it was sunny, by the time I got to Twisp it was snowing. So I decided to shop in town and go home. I don't usually let the weather bother me, but this year has been so unpredictable.
This Saturday is St. Distaffs Day. I'm hopping to Make it to Omak to spin and celebrate with spinners there. I'll miss my friends that I would go with on the west side and will be thinking of them a lot. So Diana, Katie and I are looking forward to Sat.

One Day Down

Well here we are back to reality with the holidays behind us. I got a real reality check when I weighed in at T.O.P.S. this morning.So now is the time to think about the rest of this year and what our goals are. So on that note I've been thinking about knitting, weaving and other projects I want to do. I figure I have five months before gardening season. So today I'll be going to my knitting group at the Catholic church and start the lace shawl I've been going to do for several years now. /then it's back to the loom to finish some scarfs that I was going to have done for the guild sale but ran out of time. I'll put those away for next year. Yesterday I spun most of the day trying to finish some fiber that I started last year, then on to the next fiber.Saturday I'm going to Omak to a spinning meeting so I'll start the next thing then. Oops I've got to finish something that I started before this last time. No one does that it's just me right. Well my life is never boring that's for sure. I hope all your goals are fun ones like mine. Diana