Knitting for Therapy

    One thing I am finding as I deal with my mother-in-law's death is that I have a very hard time sitting still when upset.  I have scrubbed the mildew off of the shower ceiling, dusted the fins of the ceiling fan, vacuumed the baseboards, and washed every piece of laundry I can find. 
    I have also been knitting.  I am working on a lace shawl,  a bulky weight tunic that I started two years ago and put aside,  and a sock weight cowl.  I seem to find the mindless repetition of knitting soothing.  This mourning may actually be a productive time.  I am obsessively downloading patterns from the internet, planning all the possible projects to come.  Unfortunately, I should be focusing on Batboy: The Musical for which I am designing the costumes.  I know what I want it to look like but I am having a devil of a time concentrating on drawing the designs.
    I have to find a project for some lovely hand dyed banana/silk yarn in a turquoise,blue and brown colour pathway. I had started a shell for my mother-in-law...sigh.

    

Expect the unexpected

     The lack of posts is due to a bit of soul - icing news.  My dear mother-in-law, Betsy Kahl, passed away last weekend.  It was completely unexpected - she was reading in bed and apparently just fell back and her neighbors found her after a day and a half.  This was during the first big snowstorm in Feb.in the mid-Atlantic, and after having seen her once Saturday afternoon, no one saw her for a day and she did not answer her calls.  This would not have been so odd if there had not been 3 feet of now on the ground.
    We are all still coming to grips with this great loss. I keep thinking about little things I will miss - sitting around the breakfast table with all the adults reading different sections of the paper, or talking far into the night about theatre, politics or other things - rarely gossip or small things.  She was very well read - as  a matter of fact, she was reading the copy of Eat, Pray, Love we'd given her for Christmas when she passed away.
    I was very lucky to have had her in my life for over twenty years.  I have heard so many women talk about the neutral or negative relationships they have with their mothers-in-law.  I was blessed not only to have gotten along with my mother-in-law, but to have her as a close friend.  I will miss her dearly.
     Thanks to everyone who has been so considerate and helpful during this time of sadness. Every prayer and kind word means a great deal to us.
      Treasure your loved ones and don't forget to call your mother.

  

The Eagles Have Landed

   Yesterday my daughter was curious as to why a lady had parked her truck in front of our house and seemed to be taking pictures of our neighbor's lawn. Soon, more and more cars started pulling off the road and folks were getting out and staring - so out we went, clad in pajamas, winter coats and snow boots.  Our neighbor across the street has a several acre wide front "lawn" and on it were two bald eagles standing on the ground eating carrion. I had seen at least one eagle flying over the river in the autumn, but had never seen the two together until this viewing.  They are magnificent - and they calmly posed for all the photos and stayed put for nearly twenty minutes before flying off to the trees. A special treat for everyone.

How much do I love the film Out of Africa?

     10:45 last night, my husband was channel surfing and saw that Out of Africa was on.  This is my favorite film - truly Sidney Pollack's masterpiece. Gorgeous cinematography, great locations, and the acting -Klaus Maria Brandauer,  Robert Redford - both turning in wonderful performances, and Michael Kitchen - superb. Then, there is Meryl Streep in what I believe to be her finest role.  As the film progressed, I felt myself drifting towards sleep and my quotable quote was, "If I fall asleep, pinch me. I love this movie more than sleep."  Twice he did have to prod me awake, but since I can quote most of the movie along with the actors, I wasn't too put out with myself.
     Did I mention how gorgeous the costumes are?  And the animal work? Sheer beauty.

Enough. I still have costumes for the opera to finish. Good night.

Starting another project

         Oh boy, here I am starting another project.  I am a perpetual project starter and only an occasional project completer. Living with autism in your family means that time is never a sure thing.  The three hours you set by to work on something may disintegrate as you calm down a child having a melt down - or time may disappear as you appreciate the fact that today is a "good day" and your son wants to be around his siblings, and you, and there is laughter, smiling, and no hitting.  I think days like that are worth a few unfinished projects, don't you?

Current list of projects:

• *Costume design for the opera Street Scene - we open in two weeks and I suppose I should be madly working on that, but I needed a sanity break. There are forty actors in this show.
• *Designing costumes for BATBOY:The Musical
• * knitting a sweater for myself with bulky weight wool  - not a fashion statement sweater, more of a "I feel crappy and want comfort food and chocolate" kind of sweater
• *must make a matching hat for the bright red wool scarf my youngest son wanted.  Why it HAD to be red I do not know -  his coat is orange and grey.
• * sweater for the hubby
• * Finishing a woolen patchwork memory quilt for my sister.  This was her 2009 Christmas present which I hope to complete before the winter ends and it needs to be put away for the summer. I am not a quilter - there are people who are true quilting artists, I do not think I am one of them. I am not sure I have the patience for that - I am certain I do not have the time.  I started using woolen pants and skirts bought from the thrift store.  The cost of new woolen fabric was running about 24.99 per yard, so I used fabric I had in my stash at home, and for a lot less than new, got woolen fabric from skirts and pants.  Really lovely cloth for accents. The overall colour scheme is grey, navy, dark green,, black and tan. There are a few accents pieces of bright red and cream. On several squares I have felted images or word from my sister's life - her wedding date, her children's names, silhouettes of her dogs and cats, and other things which make up her daily life.
• Teaching myself to spin using a drop spindle.
• keeping bees - which I will grant you, doesn't require a lot of effort during the winter, just  some prep for the coming spring and some worry about whether they will make it through the  frigid upstate NY weather.
• Two project for which I got grant money through the SUNY Creative Activities grant. Faces of the Goddess is a series of masks representing women in the three classical stages - young maiden, fertile mother, and wise crone. I am using various mediums as well as some characters from theatre. The following are some shots of the creation of a Juliet mask made with felt and paper.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Juliet's mother  - friendly plastic

         So rather than prolonging the procrastination, I leave you with this thought: Do not forget the need in Haiti, even as it slips from the headline. Help if you can.