New Knitting for a New Year

I haven't been without my knitting on this trip! Before we left, I picked up some yarn that I had processed at a new mill in our area, Flaggy Meadow Fiber Works. Sean and Lori are new suri alpaca breeders that recently moved their farm and mill from Maine to Kentucky, and I wanted to give them a try.I have to say I am VERY pleased with the quality of their work, and I enjoyed a tour they gave me of their mill as well. I will definitely be sending them much more fiber very soon, and you can watch for more details of my visit on my other blog.Above is some of the yarn I had spun that I couldn't wait to put in the dye pot. It is amazing how much the quality of the fiber translates into how well it takes dye- this yarn just glows and is as silky and lofty as any I have worked with! Although of course I have umpteen other projects going, I wanted to make something that combines the bright colors I dyed, and thumbing through one of my favorite knitting books, Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters' Guide: Stories, Patterns, Advice, Opinions, Questions, Answers, Jokes, and Pictures, I remembered this project, the Nina Shawl, that I have been wanting to knit! I love the color combination shown in the book, but here and here and here are some others! The bright colors I'm working with reflect my optimism for a positive 2009. Happy New Year, friends, family, and fellow knitters!

Relaxation....

This break has been so good for us- I have never seen Robert and Mirian get along so well, and they have been really fun the entire time! Both of them are such characters with great imagination, and its nice to take more time to really listen to their stories and watch their antics. It has truly made me realize that THEY need a vacation or change of scenery as much as we do sometimes, as each has their own type of stress to deal with at school.

Above, they're working on Robert's "escape hole" that he dug while we were at Naples Beach. If I'm ever stuck in the desert and need a way to get out of the sun, I sure hope that I have Robert around!We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with my great friend Donna and her family. Here we are at Naples pier, and I'm throwing in a photo of us taken several years ago at Cannon's Beach in Oregon. We have truly had some travels and adventures from coast to coast, and we were together on my first trip to Peru as well. We always have the best laughs and conversations, and of course enjoy many of the same wines!

Snowmen

These were the only snowmen I saw today. Boy, the weather is rough down here in Florida!

Some Christmases...

Every year, or at least those since I've reached my 40's, I say "no stress this year, we'll keep the emphasis on the reason for the season and won't get caught up in lots of the other stuff." Some years we hit the mark better than others.... like the times we've served food at the homeless shelter, taken meals to a lonely neighbor, etc.This year, for whatever reason, it just seems like there were too many "have to's" to enjoy Christmas properly. We did have a lovely time with my stepson Jason and his fiancee, Crystal, and I could feel myself relaxing a bit. But, I found myself being very short-tempered with the kids and super impatient. I didn't find time to contribute in ways I would have liked. I'm sure that having our hands full with a bottle cria and other farm needs have contributed to this, which is just part of having animals and pretty unavoidable.
I wrote the above portions BEFORE heading off to Ohio for my parent's Christmas Eve celebration.... what a difference a day or two makes!My parents always find great ways to make our holiday so memorable... this year as with many we started off with a reading of the Christmas story, with our kids and neices and nephews reading from the family Bible my parents were given when they married nearly 59 years ago.
My brother Andy, always eager to contribute something creative, read a beautiful Wendell Berry poem and my brother Greg actually asked him to repeat it, he liked it so much! I didn't catch the title, but the gist of it was... "all we need is right here." We shared silly stories and memories, discussed how weird we all are (or at least some of us), the guys all wrestled, we ate tons of great food, and nobody wanted to leave. We all discussed how we feel the spirit of my brother, Mike, when we are all together (and sometimes other times as well), and of course we missed Lauren, JP, Crystal and Melody.
I'm truly looking forward to some relaxation during the rest of our holiday season, and I hope that you are able to as well. Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite days!

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the official first day of winter. Although we certainly have more daylight than many places, it is typically a gloomy time. The past few days have brought extremely variable weather (it hit nearly 70 on Friday, and is in the low 20's right now and headed for the teens!) Why is it one of my favorite days? Because the days start getting longer again.

Today the sun is shining brightly, which definitely makes me feel better! I have talked to so many people lately that are feeling down, and I know that I struggle sometimes when I don't get enough sunlight. I hope that wherever you are (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere), that you remember that after today, we can put the shortest day behind us.I'm now writing the rest of this on Monday morning, and it's only 5 degrees outside-crazy! I am so grateful for my warm alpaca garments as we continue to make very frequent trips to the barn for cria checks and bottle feeding.
With all that I have on my plate the next few days, I have to concede that my Christmas knitting is completed! (At least all that is going to get done!) Above is a pair of Maine Morning Mitts that I made from a worsted-weight alpaca/wool blend that I overdyed over rose grey- I liked the way the colors turned out. I hope the recipients enjoy their handknits!

Mimi's "Forever" Carmels

I am feeling much better today- how could I not be? Mirian got through her performance with flying colors (the fruit didn't fall off the bandana on her head or anything else that may have scarred her for life, and she "faked it" like the best of them on the recorder!). I got all of the Christmas presents wrapped, AND we had a beautiful female cria yesterday, SSF Silver Belle (you can check out her story here). I am a bit sleep-deprived, but this close to Christmas the parental adrenaline starts kicking in.

Thank you so much for all of your kind comments in response to yesterday's post, both here and privately. This blog is not just your traditional happy knitting or cooking blog, and as much as I do have so many blessings, it does us all good to share the rough spots at times, if just to learn that we're not alone. My faith, friends, and family truly sustain me and I hope that you are finding support from these as well.



Here's the recipe as promised. Be prepared to spend some time by the stove stirring "forever", I had knitting at hand when I made the last batch, and I don't think I ended up with any fiber in them! The recipe calls for nuts; they're good both with and without (we're already nutty enough around here... sorry, just had to say it). Since we're on that topic, I'll share my Dad's favorite quote (he is the original author)...



"There are more nuts in this world than there are squirrels."

- Bob Millat

"Forever" Caramels by Mom

4 cups white sugar 2 cups white syrup 1 pint cream

1 quart whole milk 2 cups pecans dash of salt

Combine cream and milk in large bowl.

In large cooking pan put sugar, syrup, salt & 1 pint of milk cream mixture.

Cook & stir constantly until soft ball stage. Add 1 pint milk cream mixture.

Cook to firm ball stage. Add remaining milk cream.

Cook to hard ball stage. Add nuts. Stir. Pour into buttered pan.

Set in cool place. When cold & hard, cut & wrap in wax paper.

Hide in a very secret place until ready to eat.

Not a dog's life....

As I opened up the blog to add the carmel recipe, Mirian's sweet, contented picture from the other night was looking back at me so ironically. Ironic, considering just how miserable she is this morning and how hard she has tried and succeeded in making me feel really rotten, too. We put on a brave front most of the time, but the truth is that we have many rough days... days when there is a lot of pain that comes out in very mean and hurtful ways. Pain that is expressed when there is a bit of stress.... like concern about whether or not you will look like everyone else while performing in the Christmas play at school, or if the whole world will know that you don't really know the song that the entire class will be playing on their recorders (earth-shattering stress when you're 13).

There are so many times that I try to just swallow it up and give my concerns over to God, and I constantly encourage Mirian to do so, too. This does usually give me enough peace to get through to the next incident, and it's a habit we're trying to build in Mirian when she's unable to talk to one of us. It's a challenge, though, for people as emotional as both Mirian and I. Sometimes, I get really overwhelmed with lots of second-guessing, regrets, and what-ifs. Was it really the right thing to bring this child out of her birth-culture in order to have a family? Will these issues amplify as time goes on? What is the future? I'm suddenly hearing my Dad's voice (which Father is it?) remind me of the Prayer of Serenity:

God, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
and the Wisdom
to know the difference.

Today is the last full day of school until January 5th- wish us luck! I'm putting up a picture of one of our happy-go-lucky dogs, Yoda, to remind me that having animals was never enough for me.... I really did feel called to be a mom. I guess I'll just concentrate on getting through today and Mirian's school program tonight, IF we can get her there.