Yippee! It is done.

Remember this <----? It is finally finished and is now this ------>
Holden shawlette by Mindy Wilkes. 5058 ravelers have made this oh, make that 5059 ravelers have made this pattern making it one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry. Me, I made it four, maybe six times, if you count all that ripping out and re-knitting. I may even make a second one now that I know how to knit.

Fibre-related acronyms

I started to create a list of fibre acronyms, things like UFO (unfinished object) and WIP (works in progress) but I couldn't find some definitions and so, had no idea of what WIM meant (work in mind). And then I found this list from the Spindlers yahoo group and there are even more acronyms than I could ever have imagined. Here's my favorite: WHACO: Wool Housing And Containment Overflow. Very apt.

BIGHI: But I Gotta Have It
BF: Boy/ Best Friend
BFL: Blue Faced Leicester - a sheep breed
BFN: Bye For Now
BRB: Be Right Back
BTW: By The Way
BUFO: Boring UnFinished Object
CAD: Compulsive Acquisition Disorder
CREMA: Computer Reading E-Mail Addiction
CVM: California Varigated Mutant - a sheep breed
CYA: See Ya
DD: Dear Daughter
DH: Dear Husband, Darling Husband or D(word of your choice) Husband
DIL: Daughter In Law
FIL: Father In Law
FO: Finished Object
Frog Stitch: To take out stitches (e.g. Rip it, rip it, rip it)
FYI: For Your Information
GC - Gift Certificate, preferably from a fiber vendor!
GCNI: Gulf Coast Native Improved - a sheep breed
GF: Girl Friend
HALFPINT: Have a Lovely Fantasy Project, I've No Time
HOTP: Hot Off The Press
HTH: Hope This Helps
IAGW: In A Good Way
IYKWIM: If You Know What I Mean
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO: In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO: In My Opinion
IOW: In Other Words
ISO: In Search Of
JIC: Just In Case
KM: K-Mart
L8R G8R: Later Gator
LFS: Local Fiber Store/Source
LFSO: Local Fiber Store Owner
LOL: Laugh Out Loud
LP: Life Partner
LYS: Local Yarn Store/Source
LYSO: Local Yarn Store Owner
MIL: Mother In Law
MAS: Magazine Acquisition Syndrome: The habit of collecting magazines
MVBFITWWW: My Very Best Friend in the Whole Wide World
NA: Not Affiliated
NAYYY: No Affiliation Yadda Yadda Yadda
NIPS: Spin, backwards; when you have to unspin something you messed up, or to use the fiber with something else.
NOSTEPINDE/NOSTEPINNE: See next...
NOSTY: A nostepinde or nostepinne - a carved stick used to wind a center-pull ball of yarn.
OFC: Obligatory Fiber Content*
OIC: Oh, I see
ORF or ORFIE: Orifice (on a spinning wheel)
ORF or ORFIE HOOK: a tool used to pull fiber thru said orifice
OSC: Obligatory Spinning Content
OT: Off Topic
OTOH: On The Other Hand
ROFL: Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO: Rolling on Floor Laughing My @$$ Off
ROFLMBO: Rolling on Floor Laughing My Butt Off
SABLE: Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
STASH: Our caches of fibers and yarn
sig: signature lines at end of email telling who you are, etc.
SIL: Sister/Son In Law
SIP: Spinning in Public (and you're encouraged to do it!)
SO: Significant Other ~or~ Spin Off depending on the context in which used
ThUD: The Usual Disclaimer
TIA: Thanks In Advance
TINK: to KNIT backwards, for when you must work a mistake backwards
one stitch at a time (see FROG above also.)
TMS: Too Much Stash
TPI: Twists Per Inch (Not to be confused with WPI, below.)
TTFN: Ta Ta For Now
TTYL: Talk To You Later
TY: Thank You
UDO: Un-Designed Objects
UFO: Un-Finished Object
UPGS: Unfinished Project Guilt Syndrome
USO: Un-Started Object
VM: Veggie Matter; commonly refers to all the crud in an unprocessed
fleece. Can include raw veggie matter or veggie matter that has already
been... through the sheep.
WHACO: Wool Housing And Containment Overflow
WIP: Work In Progress
WIM: Work In Mind
WM: Wal-Mart
WPI: Wraps Per Inch (not to be confused with TPI above)
YKWIM: You Know What I Mean
YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary
YW: You're Welcome

Another story - life after death

[Photo: Protection Island lighthouse]

We met John this summer. Late fifties, early retiree. He anchored his 40' live-a-board sailboat just off Lasquiti Island. In the heat of the day we sat admiring it from shore with him. He had purchased it last year from a widow whose husband had spend over $200,000 getting it ready to sail around the world, just before the husband died. The boat sat for six years before John found it. When he retired from 32 years working in Alberta, he was desperate to live on a boat. Any boat. A hulk would do. He didn't care if it had a motor, he just wanted to live on the water. But he found a dream boat instead.  
He wasn't sure if he was up to sailing across deep seas, so he set sail with two friends, a retired FBI agent and a Navy Seal, two guys ready for any emergency, from Puget sound headed for the Baja. Off the Washington Coast they had engine troubles but John managed to jury rig some parts and they headed in to Astoria to make permanent repairs.
That was the last thing he remembered before waking up in the Portland hospital. He had been dead for 3 hours. His heart had stopped and paramedics had managed to keep him breathing. He arrived at the emergency operating room DOA and the doctor asked what the hell was he supposed to do with him. Someone said 'do what you can.' And the doctor did. John is alive 9 months later due to a series of little miracles: engine breaking down when/where it did, paramedics being so close by, the doctor doing what he could.
I asked if his friends had first aid training and had kept him breathing until the paramedics had arrived. He said they were both trained but neither had administered first aid for fear of being held liable. 
I didn't ask if they were still friends.

Judith MacKenzie - Spinner Extroidinaire

Judith MacKenzie, is the reason: I have a passion (some would call it an illness); a guest bedroom unfit for guests; and a potentially lethal bomb in the form of vacuum packed fibres and fleece and, as my husband often worries 'if just one of them pops, just one, it will have a domino effect; each bag exploding into the next until the whole house will explode outwards, with fibre bulging at every seam'.
Judith taught me to spin, and weave, and dye. She didn't just teach the techniques, she inspired with her knowledge. She taught me 30 years ago and I spun, knit and wove up a storm for a few years before my career took over and I put my loom and spinning wheel aside only to take them out again a few years ago.
Thirty years later, Judith is internationally renown. She has many articles in Spin-Off, books and DVDs (see below).  

[Photo:From Judith's textile stash - African fabric]

Two years ago, I met up with Judith on the Olympic Peninsula when I took her Tribal Textiles workshop (see the blog post here). Judith now lives in Forks, Washington, the centre of vampire Twilight country (ask any female teenager) and set up her teaching studio in an old historic building used by the local theatre group and arts groups. That building burnt down last week and Judith lost all her wheels, looms and OMG, her stash!
I know, I am guilty of wishing for a fire every now and then to clean out my guestroom but it is only a fleeting idea and it feels like such a sick thing to even think even if it is internal lighthearted humour to avoid the actual act of de-stashing. My stash isn't that exciting. It is merely a stash made by not being able to resist any fibre while I had unclaimed cash in my pocket. But consider Judith, who knows her fibres so well and has been collecting only the best, the unusual, the interesting. When at the Tribal workshop, Judith mentioned Texas mohair, I asked her what it was and she replied 'only the very best , the softest, the finest, mohair'. That night she dug into her stash and the next day presented me with a bag of it.  That's Judith. Not only does she know exactly what you need to do to improve your spinning, but she is so kind and thoughtful.
Franklyn Habit (that hilariously funny and slightly outrageous male knitter...you MUST read his blog) posted the news on his Facebook page, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who also keeps us in stitches, blogged on her Yarn Harlot blog
about the tragedy. Her fan club 'Daughter's of Judith, in Ravelry have a discussion thread on it too. Friends have rallied and have created a web page 'Rebuild Judith's Studio' and have a Paypal link if you wish to donate: http://www.rebuildjudithsstudio.com/index.html#continue
I've put an amazon list of her books and videos below, but you can also purchase them from Interweave.

Never-ending Project - UFO to NEO/NEK

[Photo: My UFO weaving]

I have discovered fibre people have their own language. Their use of weird words (e.g. nep, noils, niddy-noddy, nostepenne and that is just the n's) and acronyms (KAL aka knit-a-long, VGM aka vegetable matter) can leave you confused and/or mystified. Knowing that once you understand what on earth they are talking about, you will have arrived. You can announce to the world 'Yes, world. I AM a knitter. - insert weaver, spinner, tapestry weaver, tatter, spranger, etc. Side note: And yes, I know, those last two are tough ones as only tatters and sprangers know who they are. Which means they have already arrived. In other words sprangers and tatters are born not made.
In any event I was curious to know what UFO's were and was not surprised to find that I had lots of those UnFinished Objects. Take my weaving on the 24" loom.  It just sits there waiting for me to be once again, inspired.  I am working up to it, now that I have a couple of weaving workshops under my belt this year. But I am very embarrassed to admit that in January 2010 my blog complained about it being unfinished.  My Gowd, that is almost 3 years of complaining!  

[Photo:My Never Ending Knitting (NEK)
 It just keeps repeating.
 Undo.  Redo.  Undo, Redo,
Unravel, knit, unravel, knit...]

Related to this but by no means the same, is a new acronymn, and maybe every knows this but I have a feeling I may be one of the few who knows and has this--NEO or to be more specific NEK. Never Ending Object (note NEProject or NEP has already been taken)or Never Ending Knitting. NEO or NEK is a type of UFO but the worst type. It is the project that is active and never ending. It does not sit around waiting, wishing for attention. No. It is that dastardly project that you have to work on, rip out, redo, rip out, redo, repeat. Yes, dear readers you have met my NEK, that colourful Holden shawl, the one that is so easy to do. The one on me needles for, oh, say, 10 or is it 12 months. The one where I learned about life lines. Yes, I find myself unraveling yet another row. Again. It had been living the life of a UFO for so long that I had forgotten on which needle side the un-knitted yarn should come from. And so, I knit backward instead of forward making half the shawl longer than the other half. Sigh.
On the other hand, thank god for those life lines and, I now have a WIP (Work In Progress) and not another UFO.

Blog interuptus

[Photo: Memorial in Washington DC]

Apologies for not posting. My Netbook died! Luckily I did do a backup a week before so I don't think I have lost all my newest photos from the Washington DC trip, nor my notes which for the most part were up 'in the cloud' somewhere safe. But I haven't replaced the Netbook yet so I haven't gotten all my files and myself organized.  
I am borrowing a laptop. Well, not exactly borrowing as in I have total use of...but more like I am sharing a borrowed computer. In other words I am limited in using the laptop as the rightful owner has a prior claim to it. In the meantime, I am watching the technology news as over 100 tablets are about to be released to the world. What do you recommend I buy??? In the meantime, I hope to post at least more than I have lately.

Textiles Day 3

First impressions of Washington: People are very helpful. I noticed this earlier having received emails from staff at the Smithsonian but, well, it can be easy to convey kindness, thoughtfulness, friendliness and helpfulness from emails. More importantly, I found it to be true in person. Doormen, security guards, hotel clerks, curators. They are all friendly, relaxed and helpful. Even in the National Museum of the American Indian cafeteria where there was a lineup of people desperate for coffee and food, a potentially stressful situation for the workers, but no, they took it all in stride. The were relaxed and just kept producing and serving all the while with a calm smile on their faces. This was also true of the corner Starbucks downtown, where the lineup went out the door. People seemed happy.
Second impression. Washington DC is a professional, urban city. Lots happening, lots of culture, lots of government buildings, lots of suits and ties, lots of slim working women and a ton of tourists who just may learn something from the locals.

[Photo: National Museum of the
American Indian]

I rented a bike from one of those bike stations scattered about the city. This is the way to see Washington! Although, I also saw groups of people both young and old, scooting around on Segways, those two wheeled stand-up vertical scooters.
I biked over to the National Museum of the American Indian which is a stunning building. Designed by the same architect that designed the Canadian Museum of Civilization. See my blog post about that building here.  
Built into the wall of the atriums' 4 story high lobby are prisms aligned perfectly to cast their rainbows into the bulls-eye centre of the floor at summer and winter solstice.

[Photo:Salish spindle whorls]

While there, a drummer sang and beat his drum in the centre of the atrium. It was a powerful performance with the beat of the drum going right through your being.

And it was wonderful to see, right in the entrance of the atrium, four Salish spindle whorls from home, three old ones, and a new modern glass one 'Sacred Circle' by Susan Point. One of the wooden whorls is from Snuneymuxw (top right)1840-1900, the others are from Cowichan one whorl with salmon and raven carved onto it and the other with a double-headed serpent design both from 1800-1860.