dog walking, friends near and far and yarn gifts

today was incredibly windy (a typical march-like day) so milly and i stayed in the neighborhood -

and visited kiana, the owner of our local yarn store, to say hello and show her the novice sweater which i'm knitting with yarn bought at her shop (and to confirm that thursday night's get together is still on).

afterwards, some friends came to visit . . 

aurélien is just bursting at the seams. he's curious about everything and knows how to work our cd player (turning it on was one of the first things he did) and though i brought out plenty of interesting blocks and figures, he soon left them on the rug to browse everything on the shelves: the books, crystals, coins, jars, plants, nature table figures, cat toys, computer and keyboard, camera, etc . . and he was very good when told not to touch certain things. one cannot put everything away from curious hands! i remember when my own children were this age . . i wanted to live in a padded room with gymnastics equipment only . . two to three years old they seem to always be bouncing off the walls. i do remember taking korrina to a gymnastics class when she was three and four (right after morgana was born).

 

and morgan sent photos from paris as it's time to help victoria get settled in with the furniture, files and books sent over from nyc (i think it came by boat?).
 

victoria and her dog, rebel.

also, my yarn gift from the beret of light knit-along arrived today (denise bayron): two skeins of mohair and a skein of nightshades which i've been wishing to work with for several years now. i hope to cast on soon for another beret.

books, letters and yarn (and some pasta)

 

 after church service on sunday, i joined a discussion about victor frankl's book, man's search for meaning. it was a small group of about twelve people, and it felt good to hear from others about the stories and thoughts of the book that spoke most strongly to them. it's my own book so i was able to mark paragraphs and pages that i'd like to read again. i'm also reading elizabeth lesser's book cassandra speaks with my homeschooling friends twice a molnth. we meet again (on zoom, of course) this coming saturday. this is also a wonderful book and i appreciate her reiterating important points about dismantling our dependency on the toxic war mongering aspects of our society, not only in terms of actions but also in our language and our stories. 

"new thinking leaders would be bold and decisive but would regard violence as the tactic of cowards, and war as a lack of imagination. they would seek to understand and guide, as opposed to dominate and punish. they would lead toward inclusion, and not want others to fear them . . "

 

"what i'm suggesting is becoming aware of the words we use, choosing them deliberately, and noticing how that changes our perspective. for example, imagine if we talked about scientists working in the kitchen of cancer research as opposed to them working on the front lines. no longer are the scientists in a battle with cancer, or in mortal competition with other scientists, but instead they are in the kitchen, cooking up recipes that nourish and heal. there's no reason why 'kitchen' isn't as legitimate a metaphor as a regiment's 'front line,' since more people spend more time at home in their kitchen than at war on a battlefield." 

 

(maybe then we would all think about eating more healthfully as a way of healing, rather than just pumping ourselves full of chemicals or taking pills.) 

 

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tuesday night's dinner was einkorn pasta with ricotta and parmesan cheese and parsley.

 

writing more letters to encourage voter registration . .

mailing the letters wednesday morning.

 

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pom pom magazine held a lottery to raise funds to aid residents of austin, texas in need of the power outages they had. unbelievably i won and the box arrived monday. i opened it with chanda today.

 

enclosed were many skeins of yarn, the spring 2021 issue of pom pom magazine and a book of raglan sweater designs.

such bounty!

 

when pluto manages to swipe yarn, he likes to run with it into the kitchen where he drops it by his bowl. he has us trained very well as (i'm sorry to say) we then trade him a treat for the stolen skein.

 such . . woolly gems.

 

(the first words that came to mind were booty, plunder and treasure . . woolly gems is actually more poetic i think.)

thursday morning

 

i was out the door at 8:30 this morning to watch aurélien while kendall moved her car for the street cleaner.

 

i think those little teeth of his are starting to work their way in.

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later today a package came in the mail from armenuhi. she had sent two skeins of her alpaca/corriedale blend that she had dyed with indigo, as a thank you for helping with her auction for artsakh, armenia. i'm considering knitting joji locatelli's terra shawl with them.

books and yarn

 watching akhnaten inspired me to reread one of my favorite books from my childhood: the lost queen of egypt by lucile morrison.

 i originally found this book years and years ago, when i was about ten or twelve, on my hometown's library shelf, and excitedly checked it out to read at home.

 i bought the copy pictured above several years ago from alibris . . it was a pretty penny as the book is out of print.

it needs to be held carefully as the spine is a little loose.

 it's historical fiction, and tells the story of what the author thinks happened to tutankhamen and his queen, ankhesenamun . . from ankhesenamun's perspective of growing up in akhetaten (tell-el-armana) with her father and mother, akhnaten and nefertiti.

the yarn is from ginny sheller . . she was selling pre-mordanted single ply, and i hope to dye it with avocadoes that i currently have in the freezer.

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p.s.

i got caught in the rain again today, when returning from an errand to the health food store . . 

birthday tea

 i met korrina for a cup of tea before she went into work this morning.

 there's a green market a block from her work now. this is different from the fresh produce box that we used to get, which was a set price for a bag of vegetables, but it's great to have local farms selling fruit and veggies so near her work.

 birthday gifts . . a cat spoon, like chanda's . . 

 and two skeins of cartref yarn's new color from jennie and zoe, independent yarn suppliers in wales.

it was nice to sit and chat before her work day began . . 

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another day in florida . . 

breakfast with chanda and grandma boo's box

 it was so nice to have breakfast with chanda again: a blood orange from spain that she brought back with her, fried eggs, applegate chicken sausage, and lemon curd and oatcakes.

 korrina's gifts from london and paris: a camera museum bag from morgana, lemon curd from fortnum and mason, a kitty cat magnet from paris, and yarn and a project bag from la bien aimée (a favorite parisian yarn store).

 greg's cousin michael sent a big box of great great grandma's knitting, crochet and needlepoint crafts. chanda is named after musa iona piper, grandma boo, whose items these were. they chose some yarn, crochet hooks and needlepoint kits to keep. the rest we'll see about giving to salvation army.

 two of grandma boo's afghans.

at the ballet and the rhinebeck travelers return

at the new york state theatre . . 

we saw four beautiful dance pieces, all by new twenty first century choreographers.

my favorite of the evening was lauren lovette's for clara. a lyrical ensemble piece danced to robert schumann's concert-allegro opus 134. you can see a short movie about creating the costumes for it on the new york city ballet web page here. 

a tiny dancer dancing on the promenade.

elie nadelman's sculpture "circus women." the theatre was built in the early sixties and the two nadelman sculptures sat outside waiting construction to be finished so they could be brought in. cofounder of nycb, lincoln kerstein overheard several workmen talking about the "naked goils" and thought it prudent to bring the statues in sooner, before the fourth and final wall was closed up and before the lincoln center leadership board could order their removal; which they did, but by then it was too late. the wall was in, the construction was finished and the statues got to stay. for the longest time i never really liked them . . i guess i found them too big and boxy, but my tastes have changed and i really love them now. they're like two old friends.

after the performance morgana and i walked chanda through the park to her patrelle nutcracker rehearsal.

chanda and i are always happy to see children climbing on the alice statue.

dusty hydrangeas in a fifth avenue garden . . 

my friend kendall's door. morgana and i stopped by on our way home . . 

to see minerva as kendall is away.

chanda and i waited up until 10 pm to see korrina and brian, returning from their rhinebeck excursion. they had a really fun day with a falafel picnic, alpaca sightings and pettings, and lots of yarn to ogle over. korrina had finished her sweater during the car ride to the fair and happily wore it all day. the pattern is called "wolf river," and the yarn is purl soho's merino script which she bought on sale about a year ago. it's incredibly soft and comfortable.

she was very good and only bought two skeins of yarn for herself. she picked up four skeins of prado de lana's lincoln merino longwool for me. this yarn is from a particular sheep named leona whose fleece is a beautiful smoky grey. when i get my camera back from the repair shop, i'll take a better picture it. i hope to make a cardigan, but have to choose the pattern.